can only speak a very rudimentary sort of Chinese. The affinities of the Minchia have yet to be studied, but they do not appear to be connected with any Thibetan or Shan stock, though the Shans once reigned at Ta Li. Near Hsia Kuan to this day is shown a "wan jen tui," or tumulus of the 10,000 which is popularly supposed to be the grave of the warriors who fell in a great battle when a Chinese attempt to get possession of the country was defeated with heavy loss.
The Minchia are remarkable as being the only non-Chinese tribe in Yünnan which has mingled with the Chinese on something like equal terms; they have retained their lands and their language, but they have adopted the literature, the religious ideas, and, at least in the case of the men, the dress of the Chinese. A literatus of Ta Li who would be inclined to draw but little distinction between Kachins, Miao, Lisaw, and other wild tribes puts the Minchia on a higher level. "They read books," i.e., the classics. It is to be feared that it would be a work of great difficulty to unearth Minchia ideas, which are covered by a superstructure of Chinese beliefs; merely as a guess, I suggest that they may be connected with the Man Tzu of Szechuan. The Minchia are peasants, and nothing more; the shop-keepers at markets such as Hsi Chon, 40 li north of Ta Li, or at Chiang Wei, at the north head of the lake, are Chinese. The Minchia villages and farmhouses are exceedingly well built, and I am inclined to think that the top storey, which is found in nearly all Yunnan country houses, but is so contrary to Chinese ideas, was derived from the Minchia. In the Ta Li plain, where wood is scarce, the Minchia house is a substantial stone structure built with the limestone and conglomerate which is littered about under the Tsang Shan; but the best type of Minchia dwelling is to be found in the Hoching Valley. It is commonly built round three sides of a square, the fourth side being closed with a wall in which there is a porch. The lower storey is of mud or sun-baked brick on a stone foundation, and sometimes with stone pillars, but the top storey is of wood, the architecture resembling that of a Swiss chalet. The section opposite the porch is usually the dwelling-house, while one of the sides is given up to the cattle, with a straw-loft over them, and the other side is used as a grain store. Comfort and cleanliness these houses are far superior to the Chinese, as I can testify after having enjoyed many days of Minchia hospitality, which is readily given in places where there are no inns.
The pure Minchia type resembles that of the Romany or gipsy, save that it is lighter in complexion; the Minchia women have natural feet, manage boats, carry loads, do masons' and bricklayers' work, and in the La Shi salt district I have even seen them acting as muleteers.
Wholesale commerce has quite deserted Ta Li, but there is a busy market every five days, and in the third moon occurs the annual fair, or "yueh kai," a commercial event of some importance. It is held outside the West Gate, and lasts for five days, after which a good deal of business is done in the city itself for fourteen days before the merchants disperse. The number of persons attending the fair is given at various figures, but it is usually stated to be only one-third of the old days before the rebellion. The official Proclamations state that for the "yueh kai" "myriads of merchants from the four quarters of the globe collect together dense as the clouds;" but Chinese Proclamations have to be taken in a Pickwickian sense, and I believe that the present attendance is not over 5,000. Thibetans and representatives of all the tribes in West Yünnan come in some force, while besides Yünnanese there are, of course, Cantonese and Szechuanese; I am not aware that any natives of India attend. Drugs, including China-root, rhubarb, and musk, mules and ponies, Thibetan wools, tea and brown sugar in small cakes, cottons and cloths, are the chief objects of exchange, and I believe that the fair is still of sufficient importance to be worth the attention of British or Indian merchants desirous of opening up new lines.
Among other minor products of Ta Li I may mention pigs' bristles, which are of good quality, but not, perhaps, easy to collect in sufficient quantity, and straw braid used for the native sun-hats. The plaiting leaves to be desired at present, but this might be improved for foreign buyers, and the straw itself is of excellent quality.
The traveller who has passed through the rich fields and flourishing villages of the Ta Li Plain, and has enjoyed the double view of hill and lake ("tsang esh esh kuan") is interested to learn how this happy valley first came into existence. The curious folklorist may discern traditions of the early struggles of the first Chinese settlers in the legend of the advent of Buddhism, and perhaps of some geological cataclysm. In the ancient days the waters of the lake lapped the foot of the Tsang Shan, and there was no plain. The caverns in the hills were inhabited by a "yao kwei," or monstrous being, who used to sally forth, and for his food tear out and devour the eyes of the Chinese in the neighbourhood. Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, pitying the sorrows of the black-haired people, appeared upon the scene disguised as a venerable Buddhist nun in her "ka sha," or yellow robe and accompanied by a lame dog. Addressing the monster, she promised to supply him with the food which he liked on condition that he would give her a patch of dry land under the hills. "How much dry land?" asked the monster. "The breadth," replied the goddess, "of my yellow robe and the length of three leaps of my lame dog." After some haggling a contract on these terms was reduced to writing. But when the aged nun spread out the robe it covered a space of 15 li, and such was the uncommon agility of the lame dog that in three leaps he cleared a space of 100 li. For his food the goddess captured shell-fish, and gave the eye-like contents to the "yao kwei"; the voracious but unwary monster seems to have thought that he had been swindled, and became obstreperous; whereupon the goddess seized him and interned him in a hole or cavern in the earth near Hsi Chou, where there was only a small open slit through which he could breathe. In his struggles, his fiery breath issuing from the slit burned up the waters of the lake. But the goddess had cast a spell on the monster; so long as Chinese assemble at the West Gate of Ta Li during the third moon so long must the monster remain in durance vile; wherefore to this day, at the commencement of the great spring fair, the General comes out in state and fires off all his artillery, so that the dragon may know that the time of his release is not yet.
In case this bald narrative fails to convince the sceptical western, I may point out that the length of the Ta Li Plain from the upper to the lower pass is, in fact, 100 li, and its breadth 15 li. Is not the shore of the lake littered with empty shells, the contents of which have been devoured by the "yao kwei"? Is not there at Hsi Chou a long narrow strip of land stretching into the lake from which the water was blown by the struggling prisoner? Was not the contract between him and the goddess reduced to writing and engraved on stone that all might see? and finally, is it not a fact that to this day an annual crowd has assembled outside the West Gate for the third-moon fair, and that the "yao kwei" has never once emerged from his prison?
From Ta Li city to the Shang Kuan (upper pass) is an easy march of 16 miles in a northerly direction across the level plain, between the lake on the right and the Tsang Shan on the left. The main caravan route is at the foot of the mountains, but the lower road which leads by the shores of the lake is much more agreeable, as it gives an opportunity of observing the lake villages which cluster on the stone bunds fringing the shore, and in the morning, of shooting some wild geese and duck as they fly back to the lake after their night feed in the fallow fields. Shang Kuan is a small tumble-down village with a li-kin and Prefect's tax station, at each of which about 1,000 taels are collected annually on goods going north. Travellers for Lichiang usually pass Shang Kuan to the head of the lake, and leaving the bridge of boats and the series of marshes through which flows the principal feeder of the lake, slightly to the east, enter the plain of Teng Chuan at the tiny city of that name. This plain is about ... miles by ... miles, and is well supplied with water from several large lagoons in which heavy crops of rushes are grown for fuel.
At Yui So, ... miles, there is a market where Chinese and Minchia exchange grain, opium, sugar, salt, cloth, pigs, mules, and cattle; and at miles ... the river is crossed at Chung So. It is here 25 yards broad, shallow, and flows for some miles between high artificial embankments, the safety of which are of prime importance to local agriculture.
At 15 miles the road and river leave the Teng Chuan Valley by a gorge. The road then leads through broken ground along the foot-hills of the east side of the Lang Kung Valley, past the hamlet of Ying Shan P'u, and through fertile country to Nui Kai, an important market of about 150 houses, and so to the north-east corner of the fertile Lang Kung Valley. At Kuan Yin Shan the road enters the hills and splits into two tracks, the one going a little west of north to Chien Chuan Chou (one long stage), and the other which I followed leading over an important pass into the Yang tsze basin. After leaving Kuan Yin Shan we commenced an ascent up a gorge by a fair road, and spent the night in a log hut on an open terrace in the hills (San Chiu Tang), whence there was a fine view. The next day we ascended the silent and frost-bound pass of Kwa La, past rhododendron scrub and frozen marshes, varied with patches of forest. At the village of Kwa La, which consists of a few wattle huts, we observed the plaited bamboo basket industry, which is of some local importance, and so descended to the guard station of the Hei Nui (the Black Ox), situated in a gorge by a rushing stream; here a salt road from Chien Chuan joined our route, and there is considerable passing traffic. At 13 miles beyond Hei Nui a road branches off east to Sung Kwei, which is an important market near the Yang-tsze. It is an entrepôt of the salt, sugar, and tobacco trade, and also a pony and mule market.
Page 9
At ...
248