Yi people

Most Yi believe they have the same ancestor, ꀉꁌꅋꃅ or ꀉꁌꐧꃅ (Axpu Ddutmu or Axpu Jjutmu). It is said that Apu Dumu married three wives and had six sons: each of the wives bore two sons. In the legend, the oldest two sons leading their tribes conquered other aborigines of Yunnan and began to reside in most of the territories of Yunnan. The youngest two sons led their tribes eastwards and were defeated by Han, before finally making western Guizhou their home and creating the largest quantity of Yi script documents. The other two sons led their tribes across the Jinsha River and dwelled in Liangshan. This group had close intermarriage with the local ꁍ (Pup).

Most Yi live in Liangshan, Chuxiong, and Honghe. At the Lizhou archaeological site (礼州遗址) near Xichang of Liangshan, dating to 3,000 years ago, many artifacts of the Neolithic Age have been discovered. Although no evidence proves that these ancient cultures of the Stone Age have a direct connection with modern Yi people, their descendants, a local bronze culture, may have had some influence on Yi people, as the ancestors of Yi people had frequent contact and intermarriage with local tribes, such as Dian (滇), Qiong (邛) and Zuo (笮), during their southwards migration from the north eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Today, the Yi people still call the city of Xichang as ꀒꎂ (Op Rro). In spite of the affix “or-”, the root “dro” is believed by some scholars to be related to the tribe Qiong (邛), as the pronunciation is quite close to the ancient pronunciation of the Chinese character "邛."

During the Han dynasty, the central sovereign of China conquered the valley of Anning River, which is a tributary of Yalong River, and founded a county there named Qiongdu ('Qiong capital'). The site is Xichang of present-day and from that time onwards, Xichang has become the bridge of Chengdu and Kunming across Yi area. Since Han dynasty, Yi people have been involved in the history of China. In the north dialect of modern Yi language, Chinese Han is still called ꉌꈲ (Hxie mgat), which is related to the Chinese word "汉家 (Hànjiā), which means household of Han.

After the Han dynasty, the Shu of the Three Kingdoms conducted several wars against the ancestors of Yi under the lead of Zhuge Liang. They defeated the king of Yi, ꂽꉼ (Mot Hop; 孟获) and expanded their conquered territory in Yi area. After that, the Jin Dynasty succeed Shu as the suzerainty of Yi area but with weak control.

After the Jin dynasty, central China entered the era of the Southern and Northern Dynasties with frequent wars against the invading nomads from the north and lost its control of Yi and Yi area.

In the 4th century, the Nasu Yi kingdom of Mu'ege was formed in present day Guizhou. According to Nasu Yi legend, they are descended from Dumuwu, whose three wives bore him six sons. These six sons migrated southwest and created the Wu, Zha, Nuo, Heng, Bu, and Mo clans. These clans migrated and settled in a large area from Sichuan to the north, Guizhou to the east and Yunnan to the south and were the progenitors of several medieval Yi Kingdoms such as Luodian or Ziqi.

Although the Sui dynasty reunited China, it did not retrieve control of Yi but had close communications with Han residential spots scattered within Yi area (most along Anning River). After the Sui dynasty's mere 37 years, the situation continued in Tang dynasty. During Sui and Tang dynasty, the local aborigines of present-day Yunnan and Liangshan were distinguished by Chinese Han as Wuman (乌蛮; 'black barbarian') and Baiman (白蛮; 'white barbarian'). Some scholars believe that Wuman is the ancestor of modern Yi while Baiman is the ancestor of modern Bai people (白族) of Yunnan.

The Wuman and Baiman people founded six independent cities on Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The cities were known as zhao (Chinese: 诏) in Chinese texts, meaning 'lordship' (see Chao Pha). In 649, King Xinuluo (细奴逻) of the Mengshe zhao (蒙舍诏) extended his city's territory into a kingdom that assumed the name Great Meng Kingdom (大蒙国). Great Meng was near Erhai Lake. Yi people believe the capital of the Great Meng was located in the area of nowaday Weishan county. In 737 with the support of the Tang dynasty of China, King Piluoge (皮罗阁) of the Great Meng united the six cities (zhao) in succession, establishing a new kingdom. As the Great Meng was the most southern of the six, the Tang dynasty recorded the united Great Meng as Nanzhao (南诏), which means the southern city. Although academic arguments exist (see Controversy of Nanzhao), there is a popular view that the royal family of Nanzhao were Yi people and ministers were Bai people. In the Weishan county of today, the saga of King Piluoge is still widely told.

Tibet also noted the spring of Nanzhao, which in Tibetan is called Jang. Although Tibet had maintained suzerainty over Nanzhao for decades, Nanzhao finally turned to the Tang dynasty. At the era of King Geluofeng (阁罗凤), who was the son of King Piluoge, the Tang dynasty performed three expeditions against Nanzhao to conquer it, but all failed.

Nanzhao existed for 165 years until A.D. 902. After 35 years of tangled warfare, Duan Siping (段思平) of the Bai birth founded the Kingdom of Dali, succeeding the territory of Nanzhao. Most Yi of that time were under the ruling of Dali. Dali's sovereign existed for 316 years coterminous with the Song dynasty of central China, until it was conquered by Kublai Khan. During the era of Dali, Yi people lived in the territory of Dali but had little communication with the royalty of Dali.

Kublai Khan included Dali in his domain, grouping it with Tibet. The Yuan emperors remained firmly in control of the Yi people and the area they inhabited as part of Kublai Khan's Yunnan Xingsheng (云南行省) at current Yunnan, Guizhou and part of Sichuan. In order to enhance its sovereign over the area, the Yuan dynasty set up a dominion for Yi, Luoluo Xuanweisi (罗罗宣慰司), the name of which means local appeasement government for Lolos. Although technically under the rule of the Yuan emperor, the Yi still had autonomy during the Yuan dynasty. The gulf between aristocrats and the common people increased during this time.

Beginning with the Ming dynasty the Chinese empire expedited its cultural assimilation policy in southwestern China, spreading the policy of gaitu guiliu (改土归流; 'replacing tusi') [local chieftains] with ′normal′ officials"[13]). The governing power of many Yi feudal lords had previously been expropriated by the successors of officials assigned by the central government. With the progress of gaitu guiliu, the Yi area was dismembered into many communities both large and small, and it was difficult for the communities to communicate with each other as there were often Han-ruled areas between them.

The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty defeated Wu Sangui and took over the land of Yunnan and established a provincial government there. When Ortai became the Viceroy of Yunnan and Guizhou during the era of Yongzheng Emperor, the policy of gaitu guiliu and cultural assimilation against Yi were strengthened. Under these policies, Yi who lived near Kunming were forced to abandon their convention of traditional cremation and adopt burial, a policy which triggered rebellions among the Yi. The Qing dynasty suppressed these rebellions.

After the Second Opium War (1856–1860), many Christian missionaries from France and Great Britain visited the area in which the Yi lived. Although some missionaries believed that Yi of some areas such as Liangshan were not under the ruling of Qing dynasty and should be independent, most aristocrats insisted that Yi was a part of China despite their resentment against Qing rule.

1891 map showing a "Lolo" enclave in modern Liangshan, Sichuan

Long Yun, a Yi, was the military governor of Yunnan, during the Republic of China rule on mainland China.

The Fourth Front Army of the CCP encountered the Yi people during the Long March, and many Yi joined the communist forces.[14]

After the establishment of the PRC, several Yi autonomous administrative districts of prefecture or county level were set up in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. With the development of automotive traffic and telecommunications, the communications among different Yi areas have been increasing sharply.

• Cuanmans
• Mu'ege Kingdom (circa 300-1279), afterwards known as the Chiefdom of Shuixi from 1279 to 1698
• Nanzhao Empire (738-937)
• Luodian Kingdom (羅甸國) of the Bole clan in present-day Luodian County, Yunnan
• Badedian Kingdom of the Mangbu Azhe clan in present day Zhenxiong[15]
• Luowei Kingdom (羅鬼國) (10th century-1278) in Guizhou
• Ziqi Kingdom (Yushi) (自杞國) (1100-1260) of the Awangren clan in present-day Xingyi, Guizhou
• Kingdom of Shu (1621-1629), a short-lived state during the She-An Rebellion

County-level distribution of the Yi 2000 census in China.

Yi population by counties

(Only includes counties or county-equivalents containing >1% of county population.)

Bimoism is the ethnic religion of the Yi. Shaman-priests of this faith are known as bimo, which means 'master of scriptures'. Bimo officiate at births, funerals, weddings and holidays. They are often seen along the street consulting ancient scripts. The Yi worship deified ancestors similarly to the Chinese traditional religion practitioners, besides gods of local nature: fire, hills, trees, rocks, water, earth, sky, wind, and forests.

Ritual performances play a major role in daily life through healing, exorcism, asking for rain, cursing enemies, blessing, divination and analysis of one's relationship with the gods. They believe dragons protect villages against bad spirits, and demons cause diseases. However, the Yi dragon is neither similar to dragon in Western culture nor the same as that in Han culture. After someone dies they sacrifice a pig or sheep at the doorway to maintain relationship with the deceased spirit. The Yi believe that bad spirits cause illness, poor harvests and other misfortunes and inhabit all material things. The Yi also believe in multiple souls. At death, one soul remains to watch the grave while the other is eventually reincarnated into some living form.

The Nosu form of Bimoism (the religion of the Nosu or Nuosu subgroup of the Yi) distinguishes two sorts of shamans: the bimo and the suni, respectively hereditary and ordained priests. One can become bimo by patrilineal descent after a time of apprenticeship or formally acknowledging an old bimo as the teacher, a suni must be elected. Bimo are the most revered, to the point that the Nosu religion is also called "bimo religion". Bimo can read Yi scripts while suni cannot. Both can perform rituals, but only bimo can perform rituals linked to death. For most cases, suni only perform some exorcism to cure diseases. Generally, suni can only be from humble civil birth while bimo can be of both aristocratic and humble families.

In recent decades the Bimoist faith has undergone a revival, with large temples built in the early-2010s.[21][22][23]

In Yunnan, some of the Yi have adopted Buddhism as a result of exchanges with other predominantly Buddhist ethnic groups present in Yunnan, such as the Dai and the Tibetans. The most important god of Yi Buddhism is Mahākāla, a wrathful deity found in Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhism. In the 20th century, some Yi people in China converted to Christianity, after the arrival of Gladstone Porteous in 1904 and, later, medical missionaries such as Alfred James Broomhall, Janet Broomhall, Ruth Dix and Joan Wales of the China Inland Mission. According to missionary organization OMF International, the exact number of Yi Christians is not known. In 1991 it was reported that there were as many as 1,500,000 Yi Christians in Yunnan Province, especially in Luquan County where there are more than 20 churches.[24]