CHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE
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men among these people shape their hair into a single forward-pointing horn has not changed since the time of the Later Chou (A.D. 951-960), an amazing adherence to a cultural trait that must have had a deep-seated significance now possibly lost in the mist of antiquity. According to Eric von Eickstedt, the Lolo legends, their sphere of economy and their language and culture point unquestionably to the northeastern part of the Tibetan high plateaus as their early habitat. This would be the area of eastern Chinghai Province.
Instead of moving eastward as the Miao did, the Yi moved southward to their stronghold region of the Ta-liang mountains in the southwest of Szechwan. From here they appear to have spread eastward along the Ta-liang mountains and the western part of the Nan-ling mountains into Kweichow, as well as southward into the Yunnan plateau. Although the earliest habitats of the Yi are shrouded in mystery, their European-type features and pastoral traditions point to at least a Central Asiatic origin. Fiercely warlike, they have created a much larger Yi cultural sphere by capture and enslavement and ultimate absorption of numerous other peoples, Han and non-Han, to their language and way of life. Strongly caste-conscious, the noble clans have maintained a racial purity distinguished from the lower castes of assimilated or enslaved people. The former are known as Black-bone Yi, the latter White-bone Yi. At least until 1950 the Black-bone Yi in their Ta-liang mountain strongholds continued to exercise virtually exclusive control over their own affairs.*
In contrast to the Miao, Yao and Yi, all of whom are fond of the cooler climates of the high mountains, the T'ai ethnic groups all are addicted to lowland, streamside valley locations. Since they occupied a much more productive type of land, they were able to develop a superior type of economy and a stronger type of political organization. Thus, we find that the T'ai have historically been great state-builders, from the period when they occupied the entire Yangtze valley to their present seat of power in Thailand. They are no doubt among the earliest occupants
* Eric von Eickstedt, Rassendynamik von Ostasien (Race dynamics of Eastern Asia), Berlin, 1944, 175-176.
* Lin Yuch-hua, Liang-shan Yi-chia (The Yi people of the Liang mountains), Commercial Press, Shanghai, 3-5, 9, 13.