CHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE
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minor groupings in south China. In the southwest were the Ch'iang, the Fan (properly read Po), the Wu-man14 (who include the Yi, Lolo, Norsu, etcetera), and a fourth group of poorly differentiated tribes. In the south were the Austronesian Tai or Thai, the Yao and TanE, and the Liao#. The six subsidiary groups he considered derived from intermixtures and cultural overlays. These include the Miao (descendants of the Fan or Po), the Ch'i-lao or K'e-lao2 of the southwest plateau lands, the Pae of Szechwan, the Pai-man of the Ta-li✯ plain in west Yunnan, the Li of Hainan Island, and the Yueh centered on the Canton delta in early times.
Although, in general, the historical movement of the non-Han people of central and south China has been southward in the face of the constantly expanding pressures of the Han from the north, the migratory paths of some of the chief ethnic groups within south China are interesting to note. Four of these groups of present importance are the Miao, the Yao, the Yi or Wu-man, and the Tai.
Since the Miao are high mountain dwellers, their migration routes generally have followed mountain ranges where they could practice their fire-field or forest-burning, shifting type of cultivation and semi-nomadic pastoral herding. The Miao, apparently derived from the Fan or Po of the west Szechwan mountain lands, migrated slowly eastward along the Ta-pae and Ch'in-ling ranges and down into the Tung-t'ing lake region after traversing the Wu mountains of the Yangtze Gorges. Here they must have established themselves for a long time and acquired the name Ching Man# or the Barbarians of the Ching (Tung-t'ing Lake) region.
The Miao then spread southward in several directions, but especially into the west Hunan and east Kweichow regions among the tributaries of the Yuan river from which they acquired the name Wu-ch'i* (Five Streams) Barbarians. They became further dispersed during various dynastic struggles among the Han and especially during the Sung and Mongol struggles. The Manchu and their Han Chinese forces during the Ch'ing dynasty dispersed them further in many bloody battles with the Miao. Today the Miao have sought refuge not only in the more