CHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE
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type shifting-cultivation of mountain slopes. Food supplies were restricted and commissary problems for military or administrative organizations here were large. The inducements to Han conquest were small, whereas the costs of conquest and military occupation were relatively large. The Han were in the main content to set up or permit local chieftains to operate with little interference except when Han interests were too much affected or when uprisings against Han oppression required pacification. The system of local rule described by the term "T'u-ssu" institution evolved into a system of petty hereditary kings holding commissions or warrants from the imperial government, or the central government in republican times, to rule their areas. In general, these areas have today become the nuclei of the so-called "autonomous regions" or "autonomous districts" of the Chinese Communists. However, there is much less autonomy in these areas than in the pre-Communist period.
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What are some of the ethnic characteristics that set off one group from another among the chief non-Han peoples discussed in the preceding paragraphs? The Miao and Yao both share the semi-nomadic fire-field type of mountain agriculture except where their Sinicization has caused them to become entirely sedentary in the Han type of farming. Both engage in hunting, gathering and some lumbering to supplement their livelihood. The Miao are more likely than the Yao to do some herding of goats or cattle on the poor grasses of south China. Their crops are upland (dry-land) rice, maize, wheat and buckwheat.
In social organization, neither Yao nor Miao have strong tribal organizations traditionally, and there are no ruling classes. Both are patriarchal systems, with the Miao having a strong ancestral cult. Both share the dog and tiger cult. Among the Yao, at the end of the year there are ceremonies with masked participants for driving out evil spirits from the home and settlement localities. The Miao may or may not bury their dead in coffins, the Yao generally do. Freedom in sex and love between girls and boys prevails until their marriage, which is of their own choosing rather than through middlemen or marriage arrangers. Marriage among the Yao takes place after the first child is born. Among
* Yu Yi-tse, Chung-kuo t'u-ssu chih-tu (China's T'u-ssu system), Chung-king, 1944,