F I V E
"The Customs of Various Barbarians"
by Li Jing (12.51-?)
Translated by Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein
T R A N S L A T O R ' S P R E F A C E
I first encountered this text while carrying out research for my dissertation
on Sayyid 'Ajall Shams al-Din ( i 2 i o ? - i z 7 9 ; Ch. Saidianchi), a Muslim official
who served the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Although numerous official
documents describe his policies towards the indigenous peoples of Yunnan
and the various institutions he created to improve their lives, descriptions
of the people themselves have proved difficult to find. This dearth of information
on local "barbarians" was not surprising, given the priorities of
court record-keepers, but it was frustrating. I finally located this text, which
although written shortly after Sayyid 'Ajall's death, is close enough in time
to give us some idea of the peoples he encountered and worked with closely
during his governance in Yunnan.
I translated this text while living in Yunnan, and one of the most interesting
aspects of working on it there was the extent to which I could recognize
in the present-day population of that region of southwest China
the descendants of many of the groups described in the text. As a consequence,
when it came to translating some of the more derogatory descriptions
of these peoples, I found myself wanting to use less offensive synonyms.
My impulse here was clearly misguided, as one of the goals of
translation is to convey the attitudes and meanings intended by the author.
Another aspect of the text that I found intriguing was its similarity to the
account of the indigenous peoples of Yunnan attributed to Marco Polo, who
traveled through this region at the same time as the author of this text,
Li Jing. Marco Polo, like his Han Chinese counterpart, seems to have focused
on the sexual practices, clothing or lack thereof, as well as the eating
habits of these peoples. Apparently, at least in this case, a Han Chinese
86. / Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein
Confucian official and an Italian Catholic shared common views of the
"other."
I N T R O D U C T I O N
What is now known as Yunnan province in southwest China was once a
fiercely independent region inhabited by a variety of indigenous peoples
ruled by several autonomous kingdoms. For centuries Chinese emperors
sought to conquer and subjugate this area in order to colonize it and exploit
its extensive natural resources. Ironically, it was during the rule of the "barbarian"
Mongols in China that this territory was finally conquered and
incorporated into China proper. The Mongols arrived in Yunnan in 1 2 5 3 ,
and during the first twenty years of their rule military strategies predominated.
In 1 2 7 4 , however, the emperor Qubilai decided to change the nature
of his Yunnan administration and to that end appointed Sayyid 'Ajall Shams
al-Din, one of his most experienced civilian administrators, to be Director
of Political Affairs of the Regional Secretarial Council of Yunnan. The arrival
of Sayyid 'Ajall signified the end of military rule and the beginning of
what can best be described as a "civilizing project."1
Unlike all other colonizing/civilizing
projects in China, however, this one was led by a Muslim
from Central Asia.
Whereas earlier Chinese officials had used force, violence, and even terror
to subjugate indigenous peoples,2
Sayyid 'Ajall's approach to governing depended
on diplomacy and on convincing the local population of the benefits
of being members of the state. In addition to introducing agricultural technology
from the heartland, Sayyid 'Ajall also set about introducing traditional
Chinese values and customs. Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian temples
were built, and schools were established on the grounds of the Confucian
temples. While the writings of some Han Chinese officials reveal that many
viewed the state's efforts to "civilize" the local people as a means to "humanize"
them, the historical records that survive portray Sayyid 'Ajall as a
man who sought to improve the quality of life of the indigenous peoples
and who treated them with consideration and respect. According to He
Hongzuo, the contemporary Superintendent of Confucian Studies for all the
counties of Yunnan, when the peoples of Yunnan were convinced of the
sincerity of Sayyid 'Ajall, they set off to welcome him:
From the edges of the world people came, climbing over mountains and sailing
over seas, and through a myriad of languages, they offered tribute and paid their
respects [to Sayyid 'Ajall]. At this time he established temple schools and invited
teachers. The exteriors of the temple schools were elaborately decorated, and
inside there were images of the great sages, so that the local people could behold
them and pay their respects. During the spring and autumn they performed the
rituals and music to honor the memory of the sages of old.3
And thus the orang-
"Customs of Various Barbarians" by Li Jing / 87
utans and butcherbirds were transformed into unicorns and phoenixes, and their
felts and furs were exchanged for gowns and caps.4
The choice of the orangutan and butcherbird is highly evocative and
reflects common literary and popular perceptions of the time. From earliest
recorded history in China, apes and monkeys have been depicted as both
magical and diabolical5
— o n the one hand admired for their anthropomorphic
qualities, but also used as a trope to dehumanize the non-Han peoples
encountered by the Han Chinese. The choice of butcherbird (jue), although
a less common image, may nevertheless be a more powerful one, as it denotes
a species of bird renowned for its clamorous calls and its brutal ra-
pacity.6
The imagery of transforming the local people of Yunnan into unicorns
and phoenixes—creatures that symbolized all that was precious and
rare—dramatized the impact of the civilizing process for readers of this text.
In addition to using the imagery of the animal kingdom, the Han Chinese
also used a scale based on gradations from " r a w " to "cooked" to denote
the status of "barbarians." Those whose customs were most different from
what was considered "civilized" were labeled " r a w " (sheng) and were often
compared to animals, whereas those who had adopted some of the customs
and outward appearances of the Han Chinese, were considered " c o o k e d "
(shu) and well on their way to becoming civilized/human.
The Yunnan zhiliie, written by Li Jing (style name Jingshan) at the beginning
of the fourteenth century, has survived as a fairly comprehensive
description of the peoples of Yunnan during this period. This text reveals a
great deal not only about its subject but also about its author and the values
of his culture and society. As the first gazetteer written after the establishment
of Yunnan as a province of China, the Yunnan zhiliie formed the basis
of all later gazetteers written in the Ming and Qing periods. It also represents
the earliest as well as the most comprehensive and reliable description of
the indigenous peoples of Yunnan and has been the foundation for much of
the later research on the history of the different ethnic groups of Yunnan.
Li Jing, a native of Hebei, was appointed Deputy Pacification Commissioner
of Wusa and Wumeng (the far northeast corner of Yunnan and the
northwest corner of Guizhou) in 1 3 0 1 . According to his own introduction,
Li Jing arrived in Yunnan in the midst of the Mongol campaign in Burma.
His responsibilities included traveling throughout the province in search of
supplies and funding for the military campaign. Yunnan zhiliie is believed
to have been originally written in 1 3 0 3 in the form of a report of the author's
findings during his two years of travel. It was edited and revised in 1 3 3 1 .
In his introduction Li Jing explains that he decided to compile information
about Yunnan because so little had been written about that region, and what
had been written was not accurate: "Early on I discovered that what had
been written before was full of mistakes—for you can hear all sorts of fanciful
tales along the road—and that what had been written about were not
things the writers had experienced themselves. And because of all that I have
seen, I have interviewed many people and have compiled Yunnan zhiliie in
four juan,"7
In the chapter from Yunnan zhiiie translated here, Li Jing begins with a
description of the Bai people, whom he clearly believes are the most
"cooked" and to whom he devotes the most comprehensive description, and
ends with a rather cursory account of the Pu Barbarians. The Bai, who are
the only ones honored with the appellation "people" (ren), are described in
detail and with respect.8
His descriptions of the Bai introduce to the reader
what it was about these "others" that the Han Chinese found most intriguing
and noteworthy.9
As one proceeds down his list toward the rawest of
the raw, characteristics associated with violence receive more emphasis. This
may in part be the result of progressively less evidence and thus more reliance
on hearsay.
Li's preoccupation with the sexual practices of the peoples he describes
borders on obsession.10
Apparently, from the point of view of the Han Chinese,
sexual practices served as a measure of civilization or barbarism.11
Clothing (or lack thereof) and hairstyles are also emphasized in his account,
as are courting, marriage, and burial rituals; these, according to James Watson,
are the means by which Han Chinese defined themselves and differentiated
themselves from others.12
In the translation that follows, present-day equivalents, or the closest
approximation thereof, of place names and ethnic group identifications are
noted in square brackets.
4 H O R I G I N A L T E X T 1 3
|#>
The Bai People
The Bai people have both surnames and clan names. Han Wudi opened the
Bo Road, going through the Southwest Barbarian Road in today's Xuzhou
county. As a result, Zhongqing [Kunming], Weichu [Chuxiong], Dali, and
Yongchang [Baoshan], formerly all Bo areas, have now become Bai areas.
During the Tang reign period of Taihe [827-836], the Meng clan captured
the three prefects of Qiong, Rong, and Sui [all in present-day Sichuan] and
then entered Chengdu. They captured children, women, and craftsmen numbering
several tens of thousands and brought them back south. From that
time onward Yunnan started producing embroidered silk. In Bai language,
the phrase for "donning clothes" is "garbing." The term for eating a meal,
which in Chinese would refer to eating rice, is "drink soup-and-vegetable."
The phrase for "gathering fuel" in Chinese is "collecting grasses," whereas
"Customs of Various Barbarians" by Li Jing / 89
in Bai language they speak of "cutting tinder." They call silk "coverlets"
and refer to liquor by the name of the vessel, "goblet." Their term for "saddle"
is "fear of mud," and all walls in Bai language are "brick battlements."
There are countless similar examples. Such linguistic similarities make it
plain that the Bai people were formerly Bo people.14
Both men and women wear hats [cigong], which are similar to the bamboo
hats worn by the fishermen of the heartland, except that they are bigger.
They weave bamboo to make them and then cover them with black felt.
When relatives and old friends see each other, even after a long separation,
they do not kowtow; they only take off their hats in greeting. Men wear felt
and put their hair up. The women do not wear any makeup. They put a
type of oily substance in their hair; then they take blue threads and braid
them into the hair, then wrap it up around the head making a coil, then
gather it in under a black turban. They wear gold earrings and ivory bracelets.
Their clothes are embroidered with squares of cloth, and they use a fine
felt to cover the upper body. Unmarried girls and widows can come and go
as they please without restraint; the young men, who are known as "splendid
ones" [miaozi], roam about at night, either playing their multi-reed pipes
or singing ballads, the harmonies of which express their affections. When
their affection is mutual, they then go off in pairs to have sex, and only
afterwards do they get married. The roof beams in their rooms are curved
eaves, like those found in temples and palaces. Food is preferred raw; for
example, pork, beef, chicken, and fish are all minced raw, mixed with garlic
paste, and then eaten.
Every year on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month, they offer
sacrifices to their ancestors, like the "going to the grave mound" ceremony
in the heartland.15
On the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, throughout
the night, they lift up on poles blazing torches that light up the sky. All the
children play with the burning pine torches. This is known as the "sacrifice
to drive away evil spirits."16
Buddhism is flourishing greatly among them, and those who have a spirit
of strict discipline are known as the ones of the "virtuous path." Laypeople
greatly respect them. The monks who are married are known as teacher
monks [shiseng] and are responsible for teaching the children. They mainly
read Buddhist texts, but few know the Six Classics. After the Duan clan
came to power, they selected officials from among these monks. According
to local tradition every household, regardless if it is poor or rich, has a
Buddhist altar; every morning and evening families strike the drum and
come together to pray, and both the young and old never let go of their
90. / Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein
prayer beads. Every year they fast [refrain from meat and certain other
foods] almost half the year.
All the other barbarians are pig-headed and even enjoy killing. When a
slight disagreement arises among close relatives, they always use knives
against each other. They do not know how to serve the Buddhist spirit; they
are like the unfilial "mother-eating owl and father-eating muntjac tiger."
Only the Bai deeply revere the Buddha, and few have the stomach for murder.
It can thus be concluded that the establishment of Buddhism has had a
beneficial effect on some of the most bizarre customs.
Their refined gentlemen are quite good at calligraphy, and they follow
the style of the Jin period. Their own history states,17
"During the reign of
Baohe,18
the king of Nanzhao sent Zhang Zhicheng [a Bai scholar or official]
to study at the Tang imperial court." For this reason the people of Yunnan
respect Wang Xizhi19
even though they do not even know to respect Confucius
or Mencius. After our [Yuan] dynasty conquered this area, it [Yunnan]
was divided up into administrative units, and Confucian temples were
ordered built in every county. The local barbarians regarded Confucius and
Mencius as Buddhas of the Han Chinese.
The marketplace is called "the street." It is packed until noon, and everyone
leaves by dusk. Cowry shells are used as currency in trading. They are
commonly called ba: one ba makes a zhuang, four zhuang make a shou,
four sbou make a miao, and five miao make a suo.
When a person dies, the body is washed and bound up in a sitting position.
The coffin is shaped like a square wooden chest. They beat a copper
drum to start the funeral and cut off their hair as a sign of filial piety in
mourning. When they cry, it sounds more like singing than wailing. They
then burn the corpse and save the bones to inter.
In winter and summer it is neither too cold nor too hot, and in all four
seasons there are flowers and trees in bloom. There are many paddies, and
they call five mou [of land] a shuang. The landscape is beautiful, but still
inferior to that of Jiangnan. Their hemp, wheat, vegetables, and fruit are
much like that of the heartland.
Their king is known as the piaoxin and the heir apparent is called the
tanchuo. The princes are called xinju, the premier is the buxie, and the
literate among those who govern are known as the Pure and Peaceful Officials.
Their noblemen wear clothes that are similar to those of the Han
Chinese of recent years, and their other customs are also similar.
"Customs of Various Barbarians" by Li Jing / 91
The Luoluo
The Luoluo [Yi] are also known as the Wu Man, or Black Barbarians.
The men put their hair up in a coil and pluck their facial hair, or shave
their heads. They carry two knives, one at each side, and enjoy fighting and
killing. When a disagreement arises among fathers and sons and among
brothers, they are known to attack each other with military weapons. Killing
is taken lightly, and they consider it a sign of valor. They prize horses with
cropped tails, their saddles have no trappings, and their stirrups are carved
from wood in the shape of a fish's mouth to accommodate the toes.
Tfie women wear their hair down and wear cotton clothing, and the
wealthy wear jewelry and embroidered clothes; the humble are garbed in
sheepskin. They ride horses side-saddle. Unmarried girls wear large earrings
and cut their hair level with their eyebrows, and their skirts do not even
cover their knees. Men and women, rich and poor, all wear felt wraps and
go barefoot, and they can go as long as one year without washing face or
handl.
It is the custom of husbands and wives not to see each other during the
day, but only to sleep together at night. Children as old as ten sui most likely
have never seen their father. Wives and concubines are not jealous of each
other. Even the well-to-do do not use padding on their beds, but just spread
pine needles on the ground with only a layer of felt and mat. Marriages are
arranged with the maternal uncle's family, but if a suitable partner cannot
be found they can look elsewhere for a match. When someone falls ill they
do not use medicine, but instead call in a male shaman, who is known as
the daxipo. He uses chicken bones to divine good and evil fortunes. The
tribal leader always has the shaman at his side, and he must consult the
shaman to make a final decision in all matters great and small.
A woman who is about to get married must first have relations with the
shaman, and then "dance" with all the groom's brothers. This custom is
known as "making harmony." Only after that can she be married to her
husband. If any one of the brothers refuses to go along with this custom,
he will be regarded as unrighteous and everyone will be disgusted with
him.20
The first wife is known as the naide, and it is only her children who can
inherit their father's position. If the naide has a son who dies before marrying,
she will go ahead and arrange a wife for him anyway. Anyone can
then have relations with the deceased son's wife, and any child born is considered
the child of the deceased. If the tribal leader does not leave a male
92. / Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein
heir, his wife's [the naide's] daughter then becomes the leader. However, she
then has no female attendants—only ten or more young male attendants,
with whom she can have relations.21
When the tribal leader dies, they wrap his body in a leopard skin, cremate
him, and then bury his bones on a mountain at a location known only to
his closest relatives. After the burial they take images of the Seven Precious
Things22
and place them on a high platform. They then go steal the head of
a neighboring nobleman and offer it as a sacrifice. If they are not able to
obtain one, they cannot make the sacrifice. At the time of the sacrificial
ceremony all the relatives arrive, and they sacrifice more than a thousand
cattle and sheep, or at least several hundred. Every year when they celebrate
the spring festival during the twelfth month, they take a long vertical pole
and a horizontal piece of wood, [and arranging a seesaw] with one person
on each side, they go up and down together playing.
They support many soldiers, who are called juke, and they generously
provide for them. When they go off to battle they view death as "returning
home." They expertly craft armor and swords that are worth dozens of
horses. On their javelins and crossbow arrow tips they put a poison that
kills instantly.
They are found in Shunyuan [near Guiyang, Guizhou], Qujing, Wumeng
[Zhaotong], Wusa [near Weining, Guizhou], and Yuexi [north of Xichang,
Sichuan].
The Gilded-Teeth "Bai" Barbarians
The Gilded-Teeth "Bai" Barbarians [Jinchi Baiyi (a Dai people)] do not use
characters to keep records, but instead use carved pieces of wood as con-
tracts.
When their tribal leader dies, if someone who is not his son or grandson
tries to usurp the position, everyone will attack him.
Men are tattooed, and all their facial hair [mustache, beard, hair on temples,
eyebrows, and eyelashes] is removed. They put red or white makeup
on their faces, tie up their hair with pieces of colored silk, wear red and
black clothes and embroidered shoes, carry a mirror, say a ye wei when they
are hurt, and look just like actors from the heartland. They look askance at
farm work and stay home to look after the children. During the Tianbao
reign period [742-756], they sent someone with [the Nanzhao ruler] King
Cuan Gui io the Tang imperial court, and our present-day drama called
cuan nong23
originates from this time.
"Customs of Various Barbarians" by Li Jing / 93
The women pluck their eyebrows and eyelashes, do not wear makeup,
put their hair up in two coils, and wear embroidered clothes, which they
adorn by sewing on small shells. They work very hard at farming, never
even stopping to take a break. Right up until delivering a baby they hardly
ever rest. When they give birth, they immediately take the baby up in their
arms, wash it in the river, and then hand it over to the care of the father
and return to work as usual.24
Their chickens do the same: after the hen lays
the eggs, the rooster then incubates them.
The topography is such that at lower levels it is very humid and at higher
levels it is very hot, so most people put up bamboo houses [on stilts]. They
live by the banks of the river and every day bathe up to ten times. Mothers
and fathers, older and younger brothers, everyone bathes together without
any embarrassment.25
When they are sick they do not take medicine; they
only put a mixture of ginger and salt in the nose. Betel palm, powdered
clam, and China root leaves are offered to guests.26
Their horses are few,
but sheep are many.
They have too many leaders and consequently no absolute authority or
discipline, so whenever a minor feud erupts, they fight each other violently.
When they defeat an enemy, they behead him and put the head at the bottom
of a platform. Their military leaders then gather together, and when they
have finished fighting, with great bravado they stick the tail feathers of
ringed pheasants in their hair coils, grasp their spears, and dance around
their captives. They also sacrifice a chicken and have the shaman invoke its
spirit saying, "Oh tribal chieftain [of the enemy], you and your people
should quickly come surrender to me." When the sacrifice is finished, they
recount what happened in battle, mete out rewards and punishments, and
then drink wine, make music, and disperse. When they attack a town or
destroy a fortified palisade, they do not kill its ruler, but cast out his entire
family. Or else, they imprison them until they die.
In marriage they do not make distinctions between close relatives [i.e.,
they are allowed to marry close relatives]. There is not much importance
attached to virginity, and they are as profligate as dogs and swine. Young
women wear red headdresses and let their hair down. If a woman dies before
marrying, all the men who had relations with her must hold up a banner to
see her off, and if the banners number a hundred it is considered the most
beautiful. Her parents cry and lament: " H o w could we have known that a
woman with so many lovers could have died so young!"
They gather together to trade oncc every five days; in the morning the
women go, and in the middle of the day the men go to barter for felt, cloth,
94. / Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein
tea, and salt. This land has many mulberry trees and orange trees, and they
raise silkworms year-round.
The ones who cover their two front teeth with gold are known as the
Gilded-Teeth Barbarians, the ones who stain their teeth are known as
the Stained-Teeth Barbarians, the ones who tattoo their faces are known
as the Embroidered-Face Barbarians, the ones who tattoo their feet are
known as the Flowery-Feet Barbarians, and the ones who put pieces of colored
silk in their hair are known as the Flowery-Topknot Barbarians. Of
the barbarians of the southwest, the Gilded-Teeth "Bai" Barbarians are the
most powerful. To the north they border Tibet [Tufan], and in the south
they reach Cochin-China [Jiaochi], and their customs are probably mostly
the same.27
The Moxie Barbarians
The Moxie Barbarians [Moxie Man, or Mosuo/Naxi] live north of Dali,
near the border with Tibet [Tufan], along the Jinsha River. This region is
cold, and there are many sheep, horses, and musk oxen, as well as the famous
iron. They live along the river in places that are strategically located
and difficult to access. Their villages are scattered like stars in the sky and
are independent of one another.
The men are expert fighters, enjoy hunting, carry daggers, and adorn
themselves with pieces of giant clam. When there is any dissatisfaction, they
strike a gong, and the men who are a party to it attack each other. The
women from the two families must then get in between them to pull them
apart, whereupon they disperse. The women wear felt wraps, black clothes,
go barefoot, and put their hair up. Women cut their hair level with their
eyebrows, wear wool yarn as a skirt, and are otherwise_practically naked
without being ashamed. After they marry they change their style of dress
and have no prohibitions regarding licentious behavior. They do not worship
Buddha or other spirits, but only ascend the mountain on the fifteenth
day of the first month to offer sacrifices to heaven. This is a very serious and
grand affair in which more than a hundred men and women take part.
Everyone holds hands, and they dance in a circle and have a wonderful time.
Their customs are very frugal, and the food they eat is coarse and of poor
quality. A year's worth of food might half consist of turnips. The poor families
know no other seasoning but salt. The men, who are especially strong,
respect their leader. Every year in the eleventh month they slaughter cows
and sheep and then compete with each other in inviting guests. They host
"Customs of Various Barbarians" by Li Jing / 95
banquets every single day, and if even one guest does not attend, it is considered
a great insult.
When someone dies, they carry the body up the mountainside wrapped
in a bamboo mat. There is no outer or inner coffin, and everyone is cremated
at the same place regardless of their status. They do not save the bones. A
person who dies from unnatural causes is cremated separately. Except for
this, their other customs are similar to those of the Wu Man [Black Barbarians,
or Yizu].
The Tulao Barbarians
The Tulao Barbarians [Tulao Man, or Zhuang] are found throughout the
region extending from the south of Xuzhou [Yibin, Sichuan] to the north of
Wumeng [Zhaotong],
At the age of fourteen or fifteen boys have their two front teeth knocked
out,28
and then they get married, living with their pigs and sheep in the same
room. They do not use spoons or chopsticks, but instead roll their food up
into balls and eat it with their hands. They walk on stilts, going up and
down the hillsides like deer running away. Women go barefoot, wear their
hair in a high bun, use birch bark as a head covering, and wear large earrings,
black cotton clothing, and a lock-like amulet around the neck. As they
go in and out of the forest, from a distance they look like gibbons.29
When
someone dies, the body is placed in a wooden coffin, which is then perched
on a ledge built into an eight-thousand-foot cliff. The first to fall is considered
blessed.
The hillside land is limited and of very poor quality. They use the slashand-burn
method of agriculture. All the grain they harvest is hung up in a
bamboo shed, and then they grind it as needed day to day. They often gather
litchis and supplement their living by trading in tea.
The Savages
The Savages [Ye Man, or Jingpo] are located to the west of Xunchuan,
scattered among the valleys. They do not wear clothes but instead use bark
to cover their bodies, and they are repulsive in appearance. The men are few
and the women many, so every man has more than ten wives. They arm
themselves with wooden arrows for protection from invasion and attack.
They do not farm, but rather enter the mountains and forests to collect
plants, trees, and animals to eat. They do not have any utensils and wrap
their food in banana leaves.
96. / Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein
The Woni Barbarians
The Woni Barbarians [Woni M a n , or Hani] are located five hundred li to
the southwest of Lin'an [north of Tonghai] and dwell in the mountains and
forests. They live very frugal lives, but hoard cowry shells in their homes,
burying them underground in caches of 120. When someone is about to die,
they entreat their children: "I have buried a certain amount; you can take
some of it, but do not touch the rest, for I will use it when I am reborn."
Such is the extent of their stupidity.
The Pu Barbarians
The Pu Barbarians [Pu Man], also known as the Puzi M a n , are located to
the west of the Lancang River. They are brave and strong, are expert robbers
and thieves, and can ride horses bareback. They go barefoot and wear short
armor, which leaves their knees and shins exposed. They are masters of the
spear and crossbow. They stick ringed pheasant tail feathers on their heads,
and when they ride they can fly like the wind.
N O T E S
I would like to thank Professor Fang Hui of Yunnan University and her father, Fang
Linggui, Professor Emeritus of Yunnan Normal University, for their extensive assistance
in the translation of this text. I would also like to thank Stevan Harrell for
reviewing the final draft. I alone am responsible for errors that remain.
1. I use this term as defined in the following manner: "A civilizing project... is
a kind of interaction between peoples, in which one group, the civilizing center,
interacts with other groups (the peripheral peoples) in terms of a particular kind of
inequality . . . [and it] draws its ideological rationale from the belief that the process
of domination is one of helping the dominated to attain or at least approach the
superior cultural, religious, and moral qualities characteristic of the center itself"
(Harrell, "Introduction: Civilizing Projects and the Reaction to Them," 4).
1. Von Glahn, The Country of Streams and Grottoes: Expansion, Settlement,
and the Civilizing of the Sichuan Frontier in Song Times. See also an account of
subsequent Ming campaigns in this region in the biography of the early Ming general
Fu Youde (d. 1394) in Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-
1644, 1:468-69.
3. During the second month of spring (the second month in the Chinese lunar
calendar) and the second month of autumn (the eighth month of the lunar calendar)
special offerings were made to honor Confucius and the sages.
4. He Hongzuo, "Zhongqinglu xue liyueji," a stele composed in 1341.
5. The earliest reference to apes and monkeys can he found in the Shang (sixteenth
to eleventh centuries, B.C.E.) oracle bone inscriptions. For a comprehensive
"Customs of Various Barbarians" by Li Jing / 97
description of the etymology of the major characters used to denote monkeys and
apes, see Van Gulik, The Gibbon in China: An Essay in Chinese Animal Lore, 1 8 -
43. This classic work by the great Sinologist includes extensive descriptions of both
literary and pictorial depictions of monkeys, gibbons, and other apes over three thousand
years of Chinese cultural history.
6. "Butcherbird" is the popular name given to shrikes, "known throughout the
world on account of their merciless habits in destruction of life, and their methods
of impaling insects and small rodents upon thorn and barbed wire," according to
ornithologists Harry R. Caldwell and John C. Caldwell (South China Birds, 175).
The other unusual trait of the butcherbird is its highly varied warbling song, which
is especially evident in duets. This characteristic could explain the Chinese term
jueshe (butcherbird tongue), which dates back to the second century B.C.E. and refers
to the incomprehensible "languages of the barbarians."
7. Wang Shuwu, Dali xingji [ jiaozhu]; Yunnan zhiliie [ jijiao], 66.
8. The imperial Chinese practice of describing and documenting the appearance,
cultures, and geographic spaces of the "barbarians" encountered and often subjugated
by imperial authorities resembles practices common in the British Empire during
its period of colonial expansion. In his work on the British Raj, Bernard Cohn
observes: "A large colonial bureaucracy occupied itself, especially from the 1860s,
with classifying people and their attributes, with censuses, surveys, and ethnographies,
with recording transactions, marking space, establishing routines, and standardizing
practices. The total effect exceeded the sum of each appropriation of information:
colonial regimes were trying to define the constituents of a certain civil
society, even as they hid the act of creation beneath the idea that society was a natural
occurrence and the state a neutral observer and regulator" (cited in Cooper and
Stoler, "Tensions of Empire: Colonial Control and Visions of Rule," 61 x). On the
invention of an Oriental "other" by scholars and the subsequent historical consequences
when these inventions are taken as facts and incorporated into political
policies, see Edward Said, Orientalism.
9. As mentioned in the translator's preface, one of the most interesting aspects
of working on this text while living in Yunnan was the opportunity to see the presentday
social conditions of the descendants of many of these indigenous peoples. To
this day the Bai are held in high regard by the Han Chinese as the most "civilized"
of the minorities, whereas the adjective most commonly used to describe the other
minorities is luohou (backward). Not surprisingly, after centuries of the dominant
culture defining what it means to be civilized, many of the minority groups in Yunnan
today describe themselves as "backward." By the same token, today many Bai
proudly announce that they are the "most civilized of the minorities."
10. Marco Polo, who visited this region at the same time, was equally obsessed
with the sexual habits of the indigenous peoples. However, unlike Li Jing, his preoccupations
reflected the values of the Catholic church. For a startlingly similar view
of this region, see the account in The Travels of Marco Polo: The Complete YuleCordier
Edition, 2:44-123. A detailed comparison of the two accounts appears in
Armijo-Hussein, "Sayyid 'Ajall Shams al-Din: A Muslim from Central Asia, Serving
the Mongols in China, and Bringing 'Civilization' to Yunnan."
1 1 . For centuries Yunnan, more than any other place in China, has represented
to the Han Chinese majority a place of exotic, promiscuous women and an imagined
sexual licentiousness not found elsewhere. Local entrepreneurs are currently taking
full advantage of these misconceptions, recruiting poor minority women from the
98. / Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein
countryside and offering them jobs in the cities, where they are sold into brothels.
Another way in which the exoticization of minority women is capitalized upon is a
ruse perpetuated by some of the sex workers themselves. In Xishuangbanna, a Dai
region of Yunnan, there are many Han Chinese women from other parts of China
who have migrated there to work in the sex industry. Many of them, in order to
attract their overwhelmingly Han Chinese customers, dress in the distinctive traditional
clothing of the Dai minority group. For an analysis of the social consequences
of these essentialized views, see Armijo-Hussein, "Young People and Social Change
in China: A Survey on Risk Factors for HIV/AIDS in Yunnan Province." Other scholars
who have examined the popular perception of ethnic minority women throughout
China include Stevan Harrell ("Introduction: Civilizing Projects and the Reaction to
Them"), Dru Gladney ("Representing Nationality in China: Refiguring Majority/
Minority Identities"), and Rey Chow ("Ethnic Minorities in Chinese Films: Cinema
and the Exotic"). On contemporary sex tourism, see Hyde, "Sex Tourism Practices
on the Periphery: Eroticizing Ethnicity on the Lancang." See also Schein, Minority
Rules: The Miao and the Feminine in China's Cultural Politics.
12. See Watson, "The Structure of Chinese Funerary Rites: Elementary Forms,
Ritual Sequence, and the Primacy of Performance."
13. Source: Wang Shuwu, Dali xingji [jiaozhu]; Yunnan zhilue [jijiaol, 86-96.
14. Here the author of the text seems to be illustrating a linguistic affinity between
the Bai and the Bo. To illustrate the terms from Bai language he must transliterate
Bai sounds using Chinese characters. Therefore it is worth noting that the
characters he selects call attention to the ecological and cultural differences between
the Han Chinese and the Bai. For instance, the term he uses to translate "eating a
meal" drops the Han Chinese reference to cooked rice, and the phrase for gathering
fuel connotes the ready availability of wood for kindling.
15. Probably refers to the Qingming Festival and the early spring "sweeping of
the graves."
16. This practice refers to the Torch Festival, an annual celebration held every
year down to this day throughout Yunnan province by several indigenous peoples.
For more detailed information on the history of this ritual, see Deng Qiyao and
Zhang Liu, The Festivals in the Mysterious Land of Yunnan, 167.
17. The title of this text is unknown, but presumably refers to a very early work
written in Bai.
18. Baohe is a reign period of the Nanzhao Kingdom ruler Quan Fengyou
(824-?).
19. Wang Xizhi (321-371) (style name Yishao) is widely regarded as the greatest
artist in the history of Chinese calligraphy.
20. This custom of guaranteeing that a new bride is not a virgin when she first
sleeps with her husband was apparently widespread throughout what is now southern
China. Needless to say, it runs counter to more traditional Chinese values regarding
chastity, the paternity of the first child, and the custom of primogeniture. In
The Local Cultures of South and East China, Wolfram Eberhard identifies a series
of "chains" that are in essence cultural traditions found among different groups of
peoples in south and eastern China. His description of one of these chains offers a
potential explanation for the above mentioned custom: "This chain showed the existence
of beliefs and customs characteristic of a folktale type which is based on the
idea that a girl to-be-married should not be a virgin because virgins carry a poison
and contaminate the first lover" (139).
21. And her children will be considered the rightful heirs.
"Customs of Various Barbarians" by Li Jing / 99
22. This list was originally Buddhist but evolved over time. There are several
different versions of what these seven precious things are, but the most common
version includes gold, silver, colored glaze, the giant clam, agate, pearl, and rose
quartz.
23. Regarding the genre of drama called cuan nong, see West, "Mongol Influence
on the Development of Northern Drama," 450-51.
24. For a fascinating and extensive discussion of this practice, which is known
as couvade, in societies in many different parts of the world, see the scholarly commentary
in The Travels of Marco Polo, 2:91-95 n. 4, and 596.
25. On a research trip to Xishuangbanna in 1997,1 joined a tour group organized
specifically for local tourists and made up primarily of Han Chinese from other parts
of China. At one stop a local entrepreneur boarded the bus and handed out leaflets
advertising his special tour to hidden sites along the riverbank to watch the local Dai
women bathing.
26. The use of betel nut in this region has continued down to this day. Eberhard
has the following to say about the practice: "All Southerners chew betel. They have
silver or tin boxes with three compartments, containing the nut, the necessary lime,
and the leaves for wrapping . . . The lime is a shell lime or ordinary lime, which is
wrapped in the leaf together with the betel" (Eberhard, The Local Cultures of South
and East China, 288).
27. The Universal History (Kitab Jami' al-Tawarikh) by Rashid al-Din also includes
a brief description of these people. Written at the same time as both the Chinese
and Italian accounts, his descriptions are similar to theirs. Nineteenth-century
scholar Colonel Henry Yule noted: "There is another passage of Rashid among Elliot's
extracts in which this people is mentioned . . . 'Beyond that is the country of
Katban, then Uman [Wuman], then Zardandan, so called because the people have
gold in their teeth. They puncture their hands and color them with indigo. They
eradicate their beards so that they have not a sign of hair on their faces. They are all
subject to the Kaan. Thence you arrive at the borders of Tibet, where they eat raw
meat and worship images, and have no shame respecting their wives. The air is so
impure that if they ate their dinner after noon they would all die. They boil tea and
eat winnowed barley'" (Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of
Medieval Notices of China, 2:274-75, n. 1).
28. This practice is also discussed by Eberhard, who offers the following explanation:
"Knocking out teeth is customary among the Liao peoples, mostly as a form
of initiation rite. Usually one upper molar and one incisor are knocked out. The
reason usually given is that it is an embellishment. The better reason, more rarely
given, is that it is intended to prevent a transformation into an evil creature that can
bite" (The Local Cultures of South and East China, 451).
29. As mentioned earlier, when describing "barbarians," Chinese would often
make comparisons with monkeys and apes. The gibbon was an especially favorite
example, due to its popularity as a subject of Chinese poets: "The graceful movements
of the gibbon and his saddening calls are referred to by nearly every poet who
wrote from the 3d to the 7th century," notes Van Gulik (The Gibbon in China, 51).
The following excerpt from an essay written by Fu Xuan (217-278 C.E.) reflects both
the common comparisons made between monkeys, apes, and "barbarians," and several
of the captivating attributes of the gibbon and the other primate common in
China, the macaque: "When I am merry with wine, and my happy face has not yet
been composed, I play with my macaques and let my gibbons have their way. Their
admirable features are really staggering. I give them scarlet turbans for hats, and red
16. / Jacqueline M. Armijo-Hussein
cloth for leggings. First they make faces, with their cinnabar lips, lifting their eyebrows
and creasing their foreheads. Now they look sad, then they glare angrily.
Others just look ahead restraining themselves, others again start bawling and wrangling.
Others, assuming a dignified air seem to hesitate what to do, others wail sadly
and moan and sigh. Thus they now resemble an elderly gentleman, then a barbarian
dancing girl. Now they look down and groom their fur, then they clap their hands
and jump about in confusion" (Van Gulik, The Gibbon in China, 27).
The tendency to liken non-Han peoples to nonhuman primates was so common
that not only were "barbarians" compared with monkeys, but monkeys were also
compared with "barbarians." For example, the macaque was known by the appellation
husun or "grandson of a barbarian" (Van Gulik, The Gibbon in China, 35).
These types of analogies have remained popular down to this day in China. In his
work The Discourse of Race in Modern China, Frank Dikotter documents both early
Chinese descriptions, dating back to the eighth century C.E., comparing Europeans
with macaques (13-14), as well as more recent ones. In an interesting conflation of
Darwinian theories of evolution and Chinese concepts of racial nationalism, a popular
zoology textbook printed in Shanghai in 1916 made the following assertion
regarding racial origins: "The 'black slave' was classified in the gorilla branch, and
the Malays were descendants of the orangu-tan" (quoted in Dikotter, The Discourse
of Race in Modern China, 147). Another Chinese scholar even offered a theory of
de-evolution when he stated, "People who are indolent in the use of their intelligence
will waste away and become macaques and long-tailed monkeys" (Zhang Binglin
[1869-1936], quoted in Dikotter, The Discourse of Race in Modern China, 122.).