Comparative Study of the She, Yao, and Miao Ethnic Groups

Author: Wu Yongzhang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-06-01
Features: The author of Comparative Study of She, Yao, and Miao argues for two reasons: first, "the brutal ethnic policies of feudal rulers throughout history," and second, the "‘nomadic cultivation’ production methods" of She, Yao, and Miao, meaning the gradual decline of nomadic agricultural civilization under the pressure of external dominant military forces and progressive civilizations. Samuel Huntington attributes the conflicts in the modern world to the clash of several civilizations in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. When discussing Chinese civilization, he states: "Historically, China has considered itself inclusive: a ‘Chinese sphere’ includes Korea, Vietnam, the Ryukyu Islands, and sometimes Japan; a non-Han ‘Inner Asian belt’ includes Manchus, Mongols, Uyghurs, Turks, and Tibetans, who must be controlled for security reasons; and there is also a barbarian ‘outer belt,’ who only need to pay tribute and acknowledge China’s superiority."
Mr. Huntington acknowledges that Chinese civilization is a civilization circle tied together by Confucian culture, which is the core of Chinese civilization. "Contemporary Chinese civilization is being constructed in a similar way: centered around Han China, including distant provinces under Chinese jurisdiction but with considerable autonomy; provinces legally part of China but with a large population of non-Han ethnicities (Tibet and Xinjiang); Chinese societies centered around Beijing that may become or could become part of China under certain conditions (Hong Kong and Taiwan); a nation with a majority of ethnic Chinese, increasingly inclined toward Beijing (Singapore); significant Chinese communities with influence in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines; and non-Han societies greatly influenced by Chinese Confucian culture (North and South Korea, Vietnam)."
Traditional Confucian civilization originated from the agricultural civilization of the Yellow River Basin. It can be said that agriculture or land is the carrier of Confucian civilization. Some scholars argue that this agriculture-based, introspective, and lackadaisical agricultural civilization was at a clear disadvantage when facing the challenge of a maritime-based, outwardly expanding, and dynamic commercial civilization in modern times. Here, Confucian civilization became the scapegoat for modern China’s disadvantage in international competition. Of course, this is off-topic. However, when examining the expansion of Confucian civilization, we find that this agriculture-based civilization often held an advantage over the southern "Jingman" civilizations (which we may temporarily name) based on nomadic cultivation. Thus, while the expansion of Confucian civilization in southern China was also long and bloody, it ultimately took root in the south, replacing those "Jingman" civilizations and establishing dominance, and even spreading to some Southeast Asian countries that were also agriculture-based.
However, when Confucian civilization encountered the northern nomadic civilization, it suffered a comprehensive defeat. Like maritime civilization, nomadic civilization is outwardly expanding and dynamic, but it expands into grassland plains and remains tied to the land, lacking mobility. Confucian civilization, which is rooted in the land and lacks mobility, could not adapt to these nomadic civilizations that roamed the vast grasslands, thus failing to truly drive out Tibetan Buddhism, Shamanism, and expand its influence to Mongolia, Tibet, and Northeast China. Nor did it assimilate Turks, Xiongnu, Jurchens, or Khitan. The military conflicts between the Central Plains Han Chinese regimes and the northern nomadic tribes have always been a metaphor for the clash and conquest between these two civilizations, with Confucian civilization and nomadic civilization remaining in a tense relationship of war and peace.
Interestingly, two nomadic tribes that once ruled China—one clinging to the vices of nomadic life but was defeated by Confucian civilization within a few decades and shamefully returned to the grasslands to herd sheep—while the other, recognizing the times, was nurtured by Confucian civilization to build an unprecedentedly powerful Chinese empire. Therefore, if viewed through the lens of a historical long-range telescope, the development of Chinese civilization in Huntington’s world civilization circles should be seen as a long process of struggle and counter-struggle, conquest and counter-conquest between agricultural civilization, nomadic civilization, and nomadic-cultivation civilization.
Nomadic civilization "follows the water and grass," nomadic-cultivation civilization "lives by the mountains," and agricultural civilization "lives by the land." Where there is land, agricultural ethnic groups are drawn to it. The southern and northern expansion of Confucian civilization, which is based on agriculture or land, is largely due to the following reasons:
First, the political ambitions and the desire for glory of monarchs and emperors. Expanding territory and maximizing the realm of governance are the political ambitions of every feudal ruler. For example, Han emperors repeatedly sent troops to "suppress" the "Wuling Man" and even lost the life of the famous Han general Ma Yuan.
Second, large-scale migration movements caused by historical turmoil in China. China has experienced periods of peace and chaos, with several large-scale population movements that impacted northern nomadic tribes and southern nomadic-cultivation peoples.
Third, the vulnerability of agricultural civilization. Agriculture is based on land, and before the machine age, agricultural operations valued large populations, and the sharp increase in population put immense pressure on land supply, leading to an uncontrolled pursuit of land. Agriculture gradually expanded into mountains and grasslands, with the number of terraced fields and pastures increasing, quietly encroaching on the living space of nomadic and nomadic-cultivation peoples.
From a subjective motivation, we cannot say that these reasons are like the American Westward Movement, which was purposeful and deliberate in driving out, controlling, or assimilating nomadic and nomadic-cultivation peoples. However, from an objective perspective, these reasons all contributed to the gradual decline and decline of nomadic and nomadic-cultivation peoples and their civilizations.
"Eat one mountain and move to another" [2], "slash and burn, eat one mountain and move to another" [3], "This year on this mountain, next year on another ridge" [4], these are the basic characteristics of nomadic-cultivation civilization. Clearly, this "slash and burn" civilization is at a relatively primitive and lower level of ancient civilization.
Today, the She, Yao, and Miao people have indeed moved beyond the crude manipulation of nature in this ancient civilization that relies on mountains for survival, gradually shifting toward agriculture. However, for thousands of years, She, Yao, and Miao peoples have relied on nomadic cultivation for survival, and in this way, they have inevitably developed their own civilization.
Therefore, whether defined by Marx’s definition of civilization or Huntington’s division of civilizations, the three ethnic groups share common origins and can form a small civilization within the larger Chinese civilization centered on Confucian culture. This small civilization may be temporarily named "Jingman" civilization. In fact, Chinese civilization is a process of continuous absorption, reference, and integration of countless small civilizations like the "Jingman" civilization with Confucian civilization. For example, "Tao Kan of the Jin Dynasty was originally from the Xi tribe, but his descendant Tao Yuanming became the ancestor of Han Chinese pastoral poetry; the royal family of the Northern Wei, the Tuoba clan, changed their surname to Yuan after relocating their capital to Luoyang and by the Tang Dynasty, Yuan Zhen had already become a famous Han Chinese minister and the representative of the Yuanhe poetic style; the famous poets Li Bai, Bai Juyi, and Liu Yuxi, when traced back, were descendants of Western nomads, the nine surnames of the Western Regions, and the Xiongnu." [5] Therefore, saying that Chinese civilization was jointly created by fifty-six ethnic groups is relatively accurate and historically sound.
Now, these ethnic groups may be minorities, and their civilizations may be small civilizations within the larger Chinese civilization. However, a hundred or a thousand years ago, they were once the masters of the land. At that time, compared to the Han Chinese and Confucian civilization, they were not "minority" ethnic groups, and their ancient civilizations were not small civilizations.
At the end of this article, returning to the topic mentioned at the beginning by Mr. Meng about the over 400,000 Yao and Miao people in the United States. From the Hubei and Hunan regions to the New World, the long and arduous journey of Yao and Miao people is "long and arduous," and their population has reached more than one-fifth of the Native American population in North America (according to the 2000 U.S. population statistics). This is a thought-provoking reality. Most Hmong people living abroad today arrived in their respective countries after the 1975 Lao civil war, under the arrangement of the United Nations Refugee Agency, seeking political and war refuge.
In 1975, the Lao government army began to encircle and suppress the Hmong armed forces led by the young officer Wang Ba, supported by the United States, causing significant casualties among the Hmong (both armed forces and civilians). Fleeing abroad, Wang Ba claimed: "Between 1975 and 1978, 50,000 Hmong people died from chemical weapons used by the People’s Liberation Army, and another 45,000 perished from hunger, disease, or were shot while trying to flee to Thailand."
According to estimates in 1990, over 90,000 Hmong refugees had fled to the United States, with 6,000 in France, 3,000 in Canada, Australia, Argentina, and French Guiana." [6] By 1999, the number of Hmong in the U.S. had reached 36,000.
Today, the Hmong and Yao people settled in the United States have formed their own ethnic communities, including the Hmong Association of America. However, due to educational limitations and differences in values, their social status in the U.S. is relatively low, and they have not been able to integrate into mainstream American society. Many of them are still struggling to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Every year, many overseas Hmong and Yao people return to the mainland to visit their ancestral homeland and participate in the Pan Wang celebration activities. This is partly to trace their roots but also, after living in different civilizations for a long time and experiencing clashes and friction with various civilizations, to reconnect with their own civilization.
Some insightful scholars have recognized that Huntington’s "Clash of Civilizations" theory is actually rooted in the context of globalization, where with the intensification of global population mobility, some American racists believe that the "racial superiority" of WASPs (Anglo-Saxon White People) is being "eroded" by people from all over the world. Protestantism will gradually lose its "advantage" relative to Confucianism, Islam, and Buddhism (in reality, this is what Max Weber called the "Protestant Ethic" that played a role in the rise of the capitalist spirit).
Therefore, Huntington’s proposal of the "Clash of Civilizations" is actually driven by a "deep sense of anxiety" about the future of Christian civilization.
Thus, the Hmong and Yao people, who are different in both racial lineage and religious belief from the mainstream in the U.S., living in the Christian civilization of American mainstream society, are inevitably subjected to the impact and challenges of American mainstream civilization.
Although the U.S. is a democratic society, it is also an aristocratic society, a society with strong racial consciousness, and a society that believes only Jesus can save the world. While Christian believers practice tolerance and love in their dealings, they are gradually spreading Christian doctrines and urging others to "convert to my Lord." This is precisely the concern of the second-generation Hmong and Yao immigrants.
Like the second-generation Tibetan immigrants in the U.S., the second-generation Hmong and Yao immigrants can still maintain their ethnic characteristics, but they already sense that American civilization is gradually infiltrating their descendants and that their descendants are becoming disdainful and negligent of their own ethnic identity.
According to some elderly Hmong in the U.S., young Hmong people are now beginning to adopt American lifestyles, and the older generation is very worried that they will eventually lose their ethnic cultural traditions. They are actively seeking ways to preserve their traditional culture.
Let us learn from Huntington’s "sense of anxiety" and, for these Hmong and Yao people living abroad and for the fate of their small civilization in the midst of other civilizations, also harbor a "deep sense of anxiety."