The Yao people are one of the members of the Chinese nation, with a population of 2,137,033 (1990). They mainly live in more than 140 counties and cities in 6 provinces (regions) in southern my country. Their residential area is very vast, starting from Jiangxi in the east. The whole south of the country extends to Mengla, Yunnan in the west, Fangcheng in Guangxi in the south, and Chenxi in Hunan in the north. Most of them are distributed in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with more than 1.32 million people, accounting for 66% of the country's Yao population. Most of them live in the six Yao autonomous counties of Jinxiu, Bama, Du'an, Dahua, Fuchuan and Gongcheng, while others are scattered in the mountains, lanes or hilly areas of the 63 counties and cities in the region. There are nearly 300,000 Yao people distributed in Hunan Province. They mainly live in Yuehua Yao Autonomous County, and the rest are scattered in more than 30 counties (autonomous counties) such as Lanshan, Yizhang, Ningyuan, Luhui, Dongkou, Shupu, Chenxi, and Changning. The steep slopes of the foothills and hilly valley areas. There are 160,000 Yao people living in Yunnan Province. Except for the four major Yao residential areas in Hekou Yao Autonomous County and Jinping, Funing and Mengla, the rest are scattered in the mountainous areas on the borders of China-Vietnam, China-Laos and China-Myanmar and 17 counties in central and southern Yunnan. or forested areas. There are 100,000 Yao people distributed in Guangdong Province. They mainly live in the mountainous areas of Shaoguan and Zhaoqing in Aobei and 11 counties (autonomous counties) in Qingyuan City, including Liannan, Ruyuan, Lianshan, Yangshan and Dongchang. There are nearly 20,000 Yao people living in Guizhou Province. In addition to living in Libo and Rongjiang counties, the Yao people live scattered in mountainous areas or alleys in 17 counties in southeastern Guizhou. There are only about 200 Yao people in Jiangxi Province, and they live scattered in the mountainous or forest areas of the "Three South" in southern Jiangxi.

The method of the Yao people relying on large-scale dispersion and movement to preserve their national survival was first recorded in historical records. During the Eastern Han Dynasty in the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD, the Yao people moved from the mountain canyons around Dongting Lake in central China where they lived. area, slowly moving southward. In the long years of 1,700 to 800 years, the Yao people have been divided into dispersed groups, ranging from Zhejiang and Fujian in the north to Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan in the south, and then crossed the border and spread sporadically to Vietnam and Laos. , Thailand, and Myanmar, a vast space area. Except for some groups that have introduced rice and achieved settlement, they generally do not have fixed land, and they do not even have an internal political organization composed of dozens of villages. This is different from the ethnic groups in the border areas. It shows the unique adaptive form of the Yao people. The Yao people are such a mobile people, but they are not a group of refugees living in the mountains.

The Yao people began to have the "Guoshan Yao" (or "Shallow Mountain Yao", "Pingdi Yao") and "Shenshan Yao" (or "Gaoshan Yao") a long time ago. statement. "Shenshan Yao" generally live in deep mountains, so they are called "Shenshan Yao". In contrast, "Guoshan Yao" generally live on the mountainside or at the foot of the mountain, so they are also called "Qianshan Yao" or "Banshan Yao". Among the Yao people distributed in Guangdong and Hunan, two types have been identified: the highly mobile "Guoshan Yao" and the "Shenshan Yao" with obvious settlement.

It is precisely because of the nomadic farming ecosystem established by the Yao people in history that they developed the mountains and rivers in southern my country, making the vast mountainous areas where the Yao people live become important suppliers of mountain and forest resources in southern my country. Among the crops grown by the Yao people are upland rice, sweet potatoes and corn. Miscellaneous grains, etc. are used for home consumption. Other products are primarily intended to be exchanged for money and other daily necessities. The main trading items produced by the Yao people are: fir, pine, rosin, tung oil, raw tea, camellia oil, mushrooms, fungus, brown rope, brown bark, charcoal, plant spices (star anise, spiritual herb, cinnamon, etc.), herbal medicine, Honey, beeswax and other natural resources and game animals. Among the Yao agriculture, it is worth special mentioning the palm cultivation originating from China. Palms are not only suitable for slash-and-burn farming, but can also be widely planted in canyon areas that are not suitable for farming. Seven or eight years after planting saplings, palms will grow. Brown whisker fiber is the raw material of brown rope, and the demand in plain areas is huge. Therefore, the price of brown leather is very expensive and the output is also high. Palm tree roots can also be used for medicinal purposes. There is a proverb of the Yao people: "Thousands of trees and palms will last forever." Therefore, brown bark has become a representative specialty of the Yao people. At the same time, work related to these products has become an occupation for the Yao people.

Since the Yao people live in the mountainous areas of southern my country, the dense plants in the primeval forests provide a very vast environment for the Yao people to identify the properties of various vegetation and use the branches, roots, bark, leaves and flowers of the vegetation to treat diseases. the basis of. For a long time, the Yao people have mainly relied on traditional herbal medicine to relieve their pain when they encounter injuries from diseases. Due to generations of exploration and accumulation, it has slowly formed its own set of ethnic medicine, and has been exchanging herbal medicine with the outside world for a long time. Su Song's "Illustrations and Materia Medica" of the Song Dynasty states that Amomum villosum "can only be found in the mountains and swamps of Lingnan today". It can be seen that it was already a specialty of the Lingnan Mountains at that time. Yaoshan medicinal materials are very rich. In 1934, Pang Xinmin's "Survey of Yaoshan Mountains in Guangdong and Guangxi" recorded: including effective rice, Phellodendron cypress, Guishen, coptis, Polygonatum odoratum, Uncaria, Fangfeng, Fangji, pollen, horse fetus, Codonopsis barbarum, Lingxiang , Luo Han Guo, cinnamon, cassia bark, cinnamon twig, star anise, gallnut, golden fork, ephedra, octagonal lotus, seven-toed lotus, monopodia, big dragon umbrella, small dragon umbrella, two-sided acupuncture, a pack of needles, carved bamboo (can stop snake venom) , although the bite of the extremely poisonous green snake can be cured), platycodon (very many), double cypress, eucommia, weijing and so on. There are also some specialty medicinal materials in the Yao mountainous areas. It can be seen from the names that they are mainly produced in the Yao area, such as "Ten Contributions of Yao Mountain" ("Chinese Plant Photo Collection"), "Dayao Mountain Spider Eggs" ("Guangxi "Compendium of Ethnic Chiefs"), "Yaoshan Golden Earrings" ("Journal of Botanical Taxonomy"), some names, although not named Yaoshan, are mainly produced by Yaoshan, or are Yaoshan's unique medicinal materials. , such as: Vanilla, also called vanilla, tonka, and cymbidium, is a perennial herb with a strong aroma. It is used as medicine to dispel wind and cold, promote blood circulation and relieve pain, and treat colds, headaches, toothaches, etc. It has been a famous specialty of Yaoshan as early as the Song Dynasty. It usually only grows in the cool humus soil of deep mountains and old forests. The highest annual output in history is more than 70,000 kilograms. It is still a specialty of Dayao Mountain and is exported abroad.

"Stone fungus is produced on the cliffs in the mountains and is one of the products of Yaoshan. Because it can cure cough diseases, it is quite expensive. The use of stone fungus is Ban Yao's special skill." ( Pang Xinmin's "Investigation of Yaoshan in Guangdong and Guangxi" in 1934). Stephanotis grass is also called Horseweed Stephanotis. Because it grows slowly and most of it is parasitic on tall ancient branches, it is extremely difficult to find and collect, so it is expensive. Stephanotis is bitter and poisonous. Eating too much can cause people to fall into coma. Yao doctors mixed it with wine and drank it to treat bruises. Orally sucking it could cure toothache. Stewing a small amount of stephanotis with pig's feet could be used as a tonic. If a pregnant woman has dystocia, it is tied to the abdomen and has the effect of stimulating labor. Nowadays, because many ancient trees in Yaoshan Mountain have been cut down, it is difficult to collect the golden grass. Trichosanthes trichosanthes is obtained by grinding the roots of Trichosanthes trichosanthes into powder and washing it with clean water. It usually takes 5 years after planting for harvesting. After the Yao people have cultivated food crops in slash-and-burn mountainous areas for several years, the soil is about to be exhausted. Planting when they are ready to be abandoned is a farming method that makes rational use of mountainous areas. Luo Han Guo has a large output every year. Yao doctors have known for a long time that Luo Han Guo can be boiled in water or stewed with pork to treat long-standing coughs. As early as the 28th or 9th year of Guangxu's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1902-1903), the annual output of Jinxiu Si Village in Dayao Mountain had reached 1,000 kilograms. Cinnamon, which is abundant in Yaoshan, is famous for its excellent quality, so it is also called "Yaogui" or "Yaoshangui". The "Livelihood of the Yao People" in "Guiping County Chronicles" records: "The land is made of osmanthus trees. When outsiders come to buy it, they will call their flocks, kill pigs and chew them up, and give them some silver, peeling off the osmanthus." Among other things, cinnamon bark is the best, because it is deep in the mountains and densely forested, weathered by wind and frost, and has a mellow smell. "Most of the Yaoshan osmanthus trees are transplanted from seedlings. After transplantation, it takes 15 or 20 years for the tree to grow to a height of about one foot to five feet and a diameter at breast height. It can be peeled only after about four inches. The top quality ones are those with thin skin and oily texture, fresh fragrance and not dryness.

As can be seen from the above, Yaoshan’s unique medicinal materials are well-known and highly effective. The Yao people made use of the rich natural resources in the mountainous areas. In the process of collection and use, they expanded the varieties for sale, and gradually combined them with treatment, forming Yao medicine that both diagnoses diseases and sells medicine. There are records in many old local chronicles and historical books, such as: "Although the Yao people have men and women living in the house, they often move around but not often... they are good at herbal medicine and can use it to treat people's diseases, which is always effective.", "The Yao people cultivate it. In his spare time, he went into the mountains to collect medicine and practiced medicine along the village.

In the past four years, Yao medicines have been investigated many times in Jianghua, Jiangyong, Lanshan, Ningyuan and other places in Hunan. At the annual Dragon Boat Festival medicine market, Yao people sell medicines with an unprecedented flourish. Only Jianghua’s There are about a thousand large and small medicine stalls, covering several miles of the county town, with active business and thousands of people.

It is in this way that the Yao people use the rich mountain and forest resources to exchange products with the surrounding Han people and other ethnic groups, forming a society based on material transactions with the Han people in the plains. *** relationship.

In terms of farmland water conservancy, the Yao people take advantage of the natural conditions in the mountainous areas to use bamboo poles to divert water, and every household is accustomed to using this method. It is economical and convenient to divert water through bamboo rafts, which saves a lot of labor for people to carry water. When bathing, the Yao people are accustomed to using large wooden buckets with a capacity of three or four loads of water. The bather can sit in the bucket and have a good bath. In addition to the drinking water for people and animals, the water consumption is very large. Even people living in relatively flat mountain villages are happy to use bamboo poles to divert water. Break the bamboo into two halves to make a sieve. In some areas, you can leave the entire bamboo knot wall unbroken and make a sieve through it. When erecting bamboo mats, it depends on the terrain. Some have to be erected against the mountain, some have to be suspended high in the air, and some have to bury closed bamboo mats underground to facilitate passage through the sidewalk. Some have to use a "U" water diversion method. Bamboo basins divert water from water sources to users' homes, at various distances. Some are more than ten meters, some are tens of meters, some are hundreds of meters, and some are thousands of meters long. Some bamboo rafts have to wind through the col and fly over several mountain tops. Although the flow of water diverted by the bamboo rafts is small, the water flows day and night. Continuously, the clear mountain water can fill the large wooden barrel specially used for collecting water. Precisely because the Yao people have had the custom of using bamboo poles to divert water since ancient times, when they build a house, their first priority is to find a water source to see if it is conducive to diverting water through bamboo poles.

A series of material and spiritual culture such as clothing, food, housing, transportation and religious beliefs of Guoshan Yao are all adapted to the ecosystem of nomadic farming and non-settlement. The clothes they wear are mostly black and dark blue, suitable for their slash-and-burn farming and domestic work. They wear leg irons and gloves, which are not only convenient but also prevent bites from insects and snakes.

Their staple food is dry land crops, such as dry grass and corn. They do not have vegetable gardens to grow vegetables, so they pick a variety of wild vegetables, bamboo shoots, and fungi for vegetables. Their meat is mostly hunted wild animals and captured mountains. Rats, caught river fish. For the convenience of migration, they do not pickle sauerkraut. This is different from many other ethnic groups.

They live in houses with bamboo walls and bamboo roofs (and fir bark roofs as well) built with local materials. A bamboo house can usually be lived in for four or five years before decaying, which coincides with the time of their migration. In order to facilitate frequent movement, they lay around the fire pond. The stove was made of three stones to facilitate frequent migration. They climbed mountains and ridges barefoot and did not use oxen or horses for transportation.

In terms of religious belief, the settled Yao people all built temples. However, due to the uncertain migration of the Guoshan Yao people, there were no temples, so they erected a few stones as idols to facilitate their migration.

It can be seen that everything Guoshan Yao chose is consistent with the ecosystem they chose.

In addition to Guoshan Yao and Shenshan Yao, there are also "Blue Indigo Yao" and "Hongtou Yao". "Lindigo Yao" is named after the production of indigo as a special technology. Indigo occupies a special position among the plants of the Yao people. Indigo is an important dye. The Yao people use it to dye cloth, so growing indigo is highly profitable. "Hongtou Yao" is named after the custom left over from the past when both men and women wrapped their heads with red cloth.

Historically, many groups of the Yao people have been like this. In different ecological environments, in terms of making a living, they each chose different ways of survival to adapt themselves to the ecological system in which they live and create opportunities for the development of the group. Conditions, thus forming sub-races that use ecological systems to distinguish various Yao groups. It is these sub-races with different ecosystems that obtain the basic materials for the survival of the nation in various ways, and strive to cultivate and perpetuate their own race, making the Yao people a nation with perseverance and vitality.

These rich and colorful life customs of the Yao people are an important part of the Yao culture. They are the key to the Yao people’s living conditions, living environment, historical experiences, sanitary conditions, lifestyle, production and development level, religious beliefs and The reflection of aesthetic taste is the norms and norms for the Yao people's common life and thoughts and behaviors.

The Yao people are hospitable and like to make friends. When they meet like-minded people, they often think they are of the same age and become "Lao Geng". "Tong Nian", "Lao Geng" or others came to Yao's house as guests and received warm hospitality. The forms of hospitality were various and unique, and the human touch was rich, making people forget to leave.

The Yao people have nearly 30 kinds of festivals, large and small, that they enjoy themselves. Among them, the most solemn ones are the Panwang Festival, which is called the "Mian" branch, the Zhuzhu Festival, which is called the "Bushi" branch, and the "Lajia" festival, which is called the "Bushi" branch. The festival of merit.

Yao men and women are free to fall in love and court each other through antiphonal singing in the singing hall and in the wild. The Yao people who call themselves "Lajia" and "Naogelao" (white pants Yao) adopt unique methods of "climbing stairs" and "talking about marriage words" in courtship. There are differences in the way of marriage among different branches of the Yao people. For example, the weddings of the "Mian" branch are usually greeted and escorted by blowing and beating, and a "marriage visit" and worship ceremony are held; the Baikuyao wedding of the "Bunu" branch involves the elders of the groom's relatives and the bride's uncle reciting wedding words to each other. The ceremony is completed by eating skewers of meat to identify relatives, looking at chicken eyes as a marriage certificate, and looking at eggs to tell good luck. The simplest is the "Midnight Marriage" of the "Lajia" branch. The bride is taken to the groom's house in the middle of the night, and has a reunion dinner with her family to complete the marriage. No guests are invited or gifts are given. The dowry brought by the bride is usually production tools such as hoes and sickles. There are three main forms of marriage among the Yao people: raising a man, "going both ways" and marrying a wife. Carrying a man (also known as door-to-door service) is very common in many areas. A man who "marries" a woman's family as a man is also respected.

The funeral customs of the Yao people vary by region and branch. Fishing and hunting play a certain role in the production and life of the Yao people. And created a variety of simple, effective and admirable fishing and hunting methods. Among them, there are about 20 ways to catch animals and fish.

The Yao people are the same as the Han people. For each person, the primary basic relationship that determines his or her social status is his or her position on the family tree. This symbol is the first and last name. Both men and women of the Yao people have surnames. In principle, the surname decided during lifetime remains unchanged throughout life (even after death). Like the Han people, a woman retains her maiden name even after marriage. However, there are important differences between the surname system of the Yao people and that of the Han people. That is to say, each surname of the Yao people has branches. The Japanese scholar Takemura Takuji calls it "subsurname", which is called "lub" in Yao language and "old" in Chinese. Each "old" is actually a clan, which functions as a unit for ancestor worship and exogamy system. Therefore, the surname of the Yao people is closely related to etiquette, beliefs, marriage and population. According to Panhu legend, Panyao has twelve surnames: Pan, Bao, Huang, Li, Deng, Zhou, Zhao, Hu, Tang, Lei, Feng and Shen. The surname Shen died while crossing the ocean. From then on, there was no surname Shen, only the surname Eleven. Call yourself a person with the twelve surnames.

The sub-surname organization formed by the Yao people plays a role in rules and restrictions in the ritual activities of worshiping ancestors. The unique sacrificial forms of each sub-surname are, no matter what, combined with the tradition of worshiping their ancestors. People belonging to the same sub-surname all know that they have different ancestral symbols from other sub-surnames, and they all abide by various taboos to maintain clan connections.

The surname of the Yao people is also related to marriage. According to the research materials of Comrade Wang Tonghui in 1935, it can be seen that when Huayao moved to Guangxi in the early Ming Dynasty, he abided by the no-marriage system for people with the same surname. During the immigration, in order to unite clans with the same surname, villages with one surname and one village were formed in various places in Yaoshan. Moreover, the distance between villages was far apart, making intermarriage inconvenient. As a result, in order to make marriage within the village possible, surnames were divided into clans, and intermarriage was prohibited within the clans. Even outside the clan, even if they have the same surname, marriage is allowed. Therefore, the surname of the Yao people can sometimes become a unit of ethnic exogamy, but sometimes it cannot become a unit of ethnic exogamy. To a large extent, this is restricted by the social conditions and ecological environment of each Yao ethnic group. Therefore, this is not a question that can be inferred simply by the degree of Chineseness.

The surname system of the Yao people is not only related to religious etiquette, but the surnames of the Yao people also have a dual nature. Firstly, the ethnic origin of the Yao people can be determined based on the surname. Secondly, based on the sub-surname, a de facto exogamous group can be formed. This is fundamentally different from the Han Chinese's unitary structure of "the same surname means the same clan". It would be appropriate to regard these characteristics as the product of adapting to the unique cultural ecological environment in the process of small-scale unit groups dispersed and migrating across a wide space. The above discussion shows that the sub-surname (clan) organization of the Yao people has a deep relationship with the development of sacrifice, marriage and population.