Hmong In China I
Lotus of America
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Chinese Odyssey:
Summer Program offers Students rare opportunity to learn Hmong history in
China.
By: Yuepheng L. XIONG
St. Paul. Minn.
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For approximately the last six generations, an estimated 300,000 Hmong have
come to call Laos home. Most Hmong know their forefathers emigrated from China
but that's been the extend of their historical knowledge. Few know of such
legendary figures as Chiyou, Tao Tien and Ba yue Wu. Due to limited written
documentation, migration and sometimes forced assimilation, Hmong history is
seemingly lost and remains relatively obscure.
But relearning and interpreting Hmong roots recently began at China's Xiangtan
University in Hunan province where a handful of U.S. Hmong students attended a
two-month summer program in ancient Hmong history and culture. The program
included a month of intensive (6-hour days, six day weeks) classroom lectures
and a month of field research to Hmong villages in southwestern China. The
summer program was initiated by Xiangtan philosophy professor, An-ping Lei.
According to Professor Lei, the idea was born in the United States. As a
participant in the 1995 International Symposium on Hmong People, Professor Lei
discovered that Hmong in the States were particularly interested in learning
more about their history in China. Upon returning to China, Lei and a group of
Hmong-Chinese professors and research scholars founded a summer program at
Xiangtan to share what they know of Hmong history.
Five students - Txianeng Vang, Cy Thao, Cziasarh Neng Yang (all from St. Paul,
Minn.), Charles L. Fang of San Diego, Calif. and I - attended this past
summer's program. According to the president of Xiangtan, we were their very
first foreign students.
Professor Xin-fu Wu lectured on ancient Hmong history and reminded us that
although Hmong history is richly unique, it will be rather difficult, perhaps
near impossible, to put together all the scattered parts into one coherent
piece. He acknowledged that this enormous challenge of uncovering the Hmong
people's history is the duty and priority of Hmong scholars in years to come.
Professor Tong-jiang Yang, a 33 year-old Hmong-Chinese historian and author or
co-author of more than 20 titles, took us as far back as half a million years,
associating Hmong origination with the Peking man (Homo erectus pekinensis)
whose remains were discovered not far from Beijing in the 1920s. However,
Professor Yang agreed that Hmong history beyond 5000 years remains obscure and
speculative. The term 'Miao" appeared in the Chinese Classics and early
historical records such as the 'Zhanguo ce' ("Intrigues of the Warring States")
and the "Shiji' ("Records of the Historians). After the Han Dynasty in 220
A.D., "Miao" disappeared from historical records until the Song Dynasty (A.D.
947-1279). The reason for the mysterious disappearance remains unclear.
Scholars seem to agree that the Hmong had gone through numerous dreadful
periods in history in which the term 'Miao" also underwent some changes: from
"Miao" to "Miao-Man" or "Man-Miao", "Wuling Man," 'Wuxi Man," or simply "Man,"
and then eventually back to "Miao". Whether the ancient Miao are today's Miao
is debatable among scholars.
How did the term "Miao' or 'Hmong" come into being? Although the term 'Miao"
appeared in Chinese historical records, the term 'Hmong' never did. What did
they call themselves back then, "Hmong or 'Miao?'. The answer to this question
varied from region to region. For example, the western Hunan Hmong call
themselves "Guo-xiong". Those in eastern Guizhou call themselves "Amaot" or
"Mo'. And those in Yunnan and southeastern Sichuan call themselves 'Meng" or
"Hmong". They may indeed have called themselves "Hmong" as many assumed, but
"Miao' is probably a name given to them by the Chinese, at least in writing. In
his "Insurgency and Social Disorder in Guizhou: The "Miao" Rebellion,
1854-1873," Robert Jenks wrote, "The most convincing explanation of the origin
of the term 'Miao' is that it represented an effort on the part of the Chinese
to recreate the sound of the word (pronounced 'Mong' or 'Mu,' as the 'H' is
unaspirated) used by members of the ethnic group to refer to themselves."
Despite its obscurity one thing about Hmong history was clear to J. Mottin, the
author of "History of the Hmong." "Of their pre-history only one thing is
certain, that is that the Miao were in China before the Chinese, for it is the
latter themselves who indicate the presence of the Miao in the land, which
they, the Chinese, were gradually infiltrating, and which was to become their
own country, " Mottin wrote.
Between five and six thousand years ago, the Hmong people lived in today's
Hebei province, said Professors Wu and Yang. Their leader at the time was the
legendary Chiyou, and his people were known as the Jiuli tribes. The ancestors
of the Han Chinese, ruled by leaders Huang Di and Yan Di, lived to the
northwest of the Jiuli Kingdom. As Chinese population grew, they expanded
southward into Hmong territory. A major war broke out between the two sides on
the northwestern part of modern-day Beijing. Professors Wu and Yang cited that
according to legends and folk songs, "the Hmong won nine battles but lost on
the tenth."
After their defeat, the Hmong emigrated southward into the lower reaches of the
Yellow River where they re-established a new kingdom approximately four
thousand years ago. The San-Miao Kingdom and its people were led by Tao Tie and
Huan Tuo. Unfortunately, history repeated itself; the Han Chinese expanded,
encroaching and taking over on what had become Hmong land. In the ensuing war
the San-Miao Kingdom was defeated and "largely exterminated" by Yu the Great at
about 2200 B. C., wrote Jenks. The Hmong then became disintegrated and lived
dispersely in China's south and southwest corners. "After San-Miao," Professor
Wu said, "the Hmong people could never be united again, and be strong as a
nation."
After the destruction of San-Miao, the Hmong continued to migrate southward
into today's Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. Much was talked about their
living in the Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake areas, where the Chu Kingdom during
the Eastern Zhou and Qin Dynasties encompassed. Many scholars, both Hmong and
non-Hmong, argue that the state of Chu was a Hmong kingdom. If it was not
Hmong, it certainly was not Chinese. Conrad Schirokauer, a published scholar of
Chinese history, referred to the Chu state as a "semi-Chinese." Many
researchers, including our Xiangtan professors, argue that the intact female
corpse (died and buried during the Chu Kingdom and excavated from a highly
elaborate tomb in 1972 in Changsa, Hunan) was Hmong because the drawings on her
caskets and on the piece of silk covering her coffin are designs unique to the
Hmong.
Based on the seal unearthed, this female corpse was named Xin Zhui, the wife of
Li Cang who was the Marquis of Dai. Even after more than two thousand years,
her body was well preserved and protected from decay by a set of four coffins
carefully arranged inside one another.
Along with her body, over 1,400 cultural and funerary objects were buried
inside the tomb, ranging from agricultural seeds, combs, mittens, stockings,
shoes, gowns, wooden dolls, food and wine containers to zither-like stringed
and reed-pipe instruments.
On top of the innermost coffin, there laid a splendid and exquisite T-shaped
painting on silk. The painting details a person's three souls - one which
remains to watch over the body, the second which goes in search of the
ancestors and the third which just wanders. This belief in three separate souls
and their duties upon death exist today. Having published a paper on this
unique piece of painting, Professor Yang believes this old pictorial lends even
greater evidence to the claim that the corpse and the Chu Kingdom could be
Hmong. He argued that except for a few minor illustrations on the top left, the
rest of the intricate illustrations coincided with legends and folk stories of
the Hmong. Pointing to the wooden dolls, a tour guide of the museum mentioned
that many visiting scholars argue that they are dressed in Hmong-style
clothing.
Throughout history, if the Hmong people found any kind of peace, it never
lasted long. They have been forced to emigrate from northeastern China into the
country's southwestern corner. During the Qing Dynasty, several major wars
further pushed hundreds of thousands of Hmong into Southeast Asian countries of
Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Thailand.
The first major war during the Qing Dynasty erupted in 1735 in southeastern
Guizhou province as a result of Chinese southward expansion and forced
assimilation. Eight counties and 1,224 villages were said to be involved in
this war. When the Hmong were suppressed in 1738, Professor Wu said 17,670
Hmong had been killed in combat, 11,130 were captured and executed and another
13,600 were forced into slavery. Half of the Hmong population were affected by
the war.
The second war (1795-1806) was started in three provinces - southeast of
Sichuan, east of Guizhou and west of Hunan. The Hmong were led by Ba-yue Wu,
Liu-deng Shi, San-bao Shi and Tian-ban Shi. As in the past, this war was
launched to resist the Chinese and the Qing government from taking over their
land. The popular slogan at the time was, "Get back our fields. Drive the Han
people and he Manchus out off our fields."
The last war was the biggest and longest of the three. As a result of the
Taiping Rebellion, the Qing government demanded more taxes and labor from the
Hmong. The Hmong, led by Xiu-mei Zhang and other leaders, revolted in
southeastern Guizhou in 1854 and fought until 1873. In excess of one million
people were involved in this war, which spread to cover hundreds of cities and
counties. According to Professor Wu, only 30 percent of the Hmong survived the
war. Seventy percent of them were either killed or ran away. Zhang, a native of
Taijiang, Guizhou, was captured and taken to Changsa, Hunan where his life r
ended under cruel tortures.
While a major portion of the Hmong emigrated to Southeast Asia during periods
of the last two wars, hundreds of thousands of Hmong were left behind in China.
According to the 1990 Chinese census, there are still 7,398,035 Hmong scattered
in Chinas southwestern provinces - approximately 3,686,900 in Guizhou province;
1,557,073 in Hunan; 896,712 in Yunnan, 535,923 in Sichuan, 425,137 in Guangxi,
200,702 in Hupei, 52,044 in Hainan Island; and 43,544 in other provinces.
Because of the many years of warfare and assimilation, the Hmong in China have
been divided into five main branches - Hong (Red), Hei (Black), Bai (White),
Hua (Flowery) and Qing (Green) Hmong. They have also been separated
linguistically into three main dialects - eastern, central and western. One
group cannot understand the other two's dialects. Fortunately, all three groups
pay respect to the same ancestry, the legendary Chiyou. Legends, folk tales and
folk songs are similar in many ways between the three groups. All of the
different groups of the Hmong - in and out of China-have continued to practice
the so-called showing the way or qhuab ke in Hmong, a funeral song sung to the
deceased. Qhuab ke precisely guides the deceased individuals soul from his
present location to the original homeland of his ancestors, tracing backward
the migration route from village to village, city to city northeast towards the
Beijing area. Besides written materials, Hmong scholars have recently used
qhuab ke as a major source to help them relearn and interpret Hmong history.
Although their culture and tradition are similar in many ways, a few major
cultural practices are different between those in China and those outside
China. Unlike the Hmong in and from Southeast Asia, those in China standardize
how a person is called. According to our professors and the Hmong-Chinese
community, the Hmong traditionally call each other and oneself by the given
name first, followed by the family or last name. Unless one is talking to
Chinese people (who go by last name followed by first name), or putting down
his name on official document, he would never go by the family name first. In
short, inside the Hmong-Chinese community, one is always called by the given
name first. On the contrary, a minority but growing percentage of Hmong from
Southeast Asia prefer to be called by their last name first,
Moreover, we also learned that the Hmong in China don't toss cloth balls during
new year's celebration. Our professors concluded that the Hmong in and from
Southeast Asia may have adopted this practice from the Zhuang or other
nationalities in southwest China before entering Southeast Asia.
Our field research to Hmong villages in southwest China was an informative but
a physically demanding one. Roads ended in the cities or nearby villages so we
walked for miles crossing over mountains and valleys before reaching Hmong
villages. There, we were shock to see how they managed to survive living in
poverty in mountainous locales.
Experiencing only the natural spring water in Laos and filtered tap water from
the kitchen sink in the United States, I could not believe how terrible their
drinking water was. The water color wasn't clear but dark yellow. Young boys
fished in it. Pigs and chickens are within its vicinity. People and animals
take turn drinking from the same pond. That's how it is in many Hmong villages
in the remote countrysides. They purify their water by placing limestone (zeb
qaub in Hmong) into the bucket of water to separate the dirt from the water.
Educational opportunities are lacking in Hmong villages. For as long as it has
come into existence, Hei Shan village, for example, has not produced a single
junior high graduate. High school and college education are beyond their
dreams. Most of these children drop out before or after fourth grade for
various reasons ranging from financial inability to lack incentives.
Economically, the Hmong-Chinese remain undeveloped and backward. This is
especially true for those in Yunnan province. Shortage of land for cultivation
is their initial problem. Having no money to buy fertilizer to enrich the
exhausted soil is another. According to village leaders, they are always hungry
six months of every year. They said that if they have fertilizer, they would be
in a much better condition.
The barren surroundings where most Hmong live accelerated our concern for their
well-being. Most of them seem to give up on everything, even their dreams. A
few have just began to develop and enrich Hmong society. A one-year-old
committee of Hmong scholars and leaders was organized and is in the process of
trying to erect a statue of Chiyou in Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou. If
this happens, this single statue may become a symbol of national pride,
identity, unity and commonality for the Hmong people, regardless of where we're
all living on the surface of this world.
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Copyright 1997, INK: Hmong Magazine.
INK, Vol 1, No 1, Prmier Issue, Spring 1997. Reproduced here with the kind
permission from INK.
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Dedicated to dear Mai & those on bikes, the kids are alright! Don't know, if
this is the article about the Ming dynasty. Somewhere I read on a Hmong
dynasty? True or not?
klmok
wrote:
>However, Professor Yang agreed that Hmong history beyond 5000 years remains obscure and
>speculative. The term 'Miao" appeared in the Chinese Classics and early
>historical records such as the 'Zhanguo ce' ("Intrigues of the Warring States")
>and the "Shiji' ("Records of the Historians). After the Han Dynasty in 220
>A.D., "Miao" disappeared from historical records until the Song Dynasty (A.D.
>947-1279). The reason for the mysterious disappearance remains unclear.
As interesting as the Hmong origins are this Prof Yang destroys his
own credibility when he overstates his case. Chinese history and
archaelogy from "The Warring States" era is imprecise. Not that much
is known about Chinese states of the period other than what is written
in Chinese history although those turn out to be remarkably consistent
with archaelogical artifacts as they are unbearth. In any case the
centers of Chinese civilization during those times were quite a few
hundred miles from and did not encroach on traditional Hmong territory
as described. To interpret the Hmong as a major group with state
organization on par with a Chinese warring state, and to attribute
the Hmong with enough kingdom level organization that would have
required a Chinese kingdom to deal with and therefore record their
exploits just isn't supported by any fact.
The Hmong were aboriginal tribes then as they are now. While the
expansion of Han Chinese settlements did drive the Hmong from their
traditional homes in China this was because the Hmong did not
assimmilate into Chinese ways and could not resist encroachment. To
this day they have retained their minority "aboriginal"
characteristics and survived because they live in areas not considered
by han Chinese for habitation. This is quite an achievement for the
Hmong to have retained the essence of their cultural identity through
the ages in the face of an overwhelming presence of han Chinese. This
is the story worth studying. But to reinterpret the Hmong as a group
the Chinese had to deal with on equal grounds, or even have to take
into consideration? C'mon.