1.1 Kunming People and Ancestors of the Bai Ethnic Group

Ethnic Group is the most cultural label in the historical development of the human race,and also the most complex cultural phenomenon in the history of human beings. Because of thousands of years of historical changes and ethnic integration,it is impossible for us to identify the ancestors of the Bai Ethnic Group as any specific group in ancient historical records. However,the migration and integration of ethnic groups are based on unchanged geographical regions. The ethnic culture is also deeply rooted like a gene in a certain group of people. Therefore,it's relatively objective to regard the ancient ethnic groups that once lived in the area of the Bai Ethnic Group as the ancestors thereof. Being a special ethnic group which discovered and developed salt springs,and then used salt to interact with other ethnic groups,the Bai Ethnic Group is a further proof that the formation of ethnic groups is an inevitable historical result of human opposition and integration,and dispersion and cohesion. Due to the impact of the social and economic development and the tribal confrontations,the tribes gradually gave rise to a unified organization,then to an entity and then to a unity—the Bai Ethnic Group. It indicates that the Bai Ethnic Group is the integration of various ethnic groups.

"Kunming people"who once lived in the ancient Erhai region was one of the ancient ethnic groups in Southwest China. Among existing ancient literature in China,the records of the distribution and living conditions of various tribes and ethnic groups in Southwest China were first found in "Biographies of Southwest Non-Han States"in Records of the Grand Historians . It says"in Southern(Southwestern)non-Han area,there are dozens of kings,with Yelang as the largest state. To its west,Mimo has dozens of tributary states,with Dian as the largest. To the north of Dian,there are dozens of kings,with Qiongdu as the largest. There are people with hair buns,farmlands and circling city residences. To its west,the area to the east of Tongshi and reaching Dieyu in its north is known as Junkunming. With braided hair,they migrate with livestock. They have no habitual place nor monarch, covering thousands of miles. Beyond the northeast of Jun there're dozens of kings,with Xi and Zuo capitals as the largest. Beyond the northeast of Zuo,there're dozens of Kings,with Ran and Long as the largest. As per their customs,they are either living in certain fixed places or moving to the west of Shu (present-day Sichuan). Beyond the northeast of Ran and Long,there're dozens of kings,with Baima as the largest. All of them are of the Di Ethnic Group. All of them are non-Han people beyond the southwest of Sichuan".

With just over one hundred words,author Sima Qian divided eight clans with"dozens of tribes"of the non-Han people in the Southwest into eight regions with three different cultures. In each region he listed one or two most famous tribes. The three regions represented by Yelang,Dian and Qiong are those that have entered the agricultural society and have established their local ethnic regimes. They were collectively called "Nanyi",meaning non-Han people in the south. Jun and Kunming,on the other hand,represent a primitive society with a nomadic economy. It was a wasteland that the culture of the Han Ethnic Group had not yet reached. This area was vast,with a span of thousands of Chinese miles.

"Kunming people"in ancient times were distributed in a vast region. In the Pre-Qin period,they mainly lived in the present-day Nujiang River,Lancang River Valley and Erhai region in the way of"moving about without staying in a place for long". Since Qin and Han Dynasties,a large number of Kunming people lived in the south of Jinsha River and west of Dianchi region. In the late Western Han Dynasty,there were"Kunming people"in Northeast Yunnan,West Guizhou and Southern Yunnan.

"Records of Nanzhong"from Records of Huayang Kingdom says that "the major population of the non-Han people (in Nanzhong)are called Kun while the minor population Shou. All of them have Qutou,Mu'er,Huantie and Guojie". Archaeological materials confirmed that Qutou,Mu'er,Huantie and Guojie were special ornaments and hairstyles worn by Kunming people. Qutou is a copper ornament commonly used by ancient Kunming people. It was also known as"a head hoop"or"a hair hoop". The item is formed by bending thin copper sheets with nails,patterns of birds and beasts and others. At both ends are holes,making it easy to fasten with a tassel. Its size is the same with a human head circumference. Four pieces of this object,three to four centimeters wide and 20 centimeters in diameter,were unearthed from the mausoleum at the foot of Aofeng Mountain,Shaxi,Jianchuan. When they were unearthed,most of them were found on the heads of the deceased. The"hair hoop"aforementioned is also seen in the modelling of a "tribute"shellfish-shaped storage device at No. 13 Tomb of Shizhai Mountain,Jinning. In the image,there are seven different ethnic groups approaching and offering tributes to the King of Yunnan. In the fourth group are two persons. The former one has combed hair,with a head loop. On his ears are large earrings reaching his shoulders. His woolen clothes reach his kneel,with a belt around his waist and wrappers around his shins. He is bare-footed. The latter one wears clothes and a hair style like the one before him,yet without wrappers around his shins or big earrings. Behind the person is a broad-tailed ox with drooping horns,which seems to be a yak. This group of characters are obviously the"braided"Kunming people in Western Yunnan.

Mu'er(wooden ears),which are large earrings worn by Kunming people,were originally made of wood. From this it was named. These are the wooden earrings. From an ancient tomb in Huangtu Mountain,Chenggong,there were found several broken pieces,each with a width of around one centimeter and a diameter of about four centimeters. Probably because wooden earrings are commonly used for decorating Kunming people,Kunming was also known as"Mu'er non-Han people"("Non-Han people with wooden ears")in ancient books. In"Notes of Wenshui River"of Commentary on Waterways Classic ,it is said that"In Wenshui River-side Jingwei County(presentday Qujing),the water is surrounded by high mountains. Between the water and mountains are the dwellings of Mu'er non-Han people."

Huantie refers to iron. From an ancient tomb in Yunjian Village in Xiangyun of Dali prefecture were found two wares with shapes similar to bronze bracelets with narrow widths commonly seen in Erhai region. It is obvious that they evolved from bronze bracelets.

In the late Neolithic period,Kunming People were mainly distributed in Nujiang River and Lancang River valleys. In the Neolithic sites in these areas were only found axes with shoulders. Around the 12th century BC,a large number of Kunming people entered the Erhai region along the tributary of the Lancang River. At that time,the Kunming people living in the mountains were still nomadic. Some of those living in the dam areas had begun to engage in agricultural production. In addition to the bronze axes with shoulders peculiar to Kunming people,there are also agricultural tools such as copper hoes and housing models with "dry hurdles"found in the tombs in Dabona in Xiangyun and Elu Mountain in Dali .

"Tributes of Yu"in The Book of Documents records that"(In Yongzhou,)with the people of the weaved leather-offering Kunlun,Xizhi and Qusou,the Xirong Ethnic Group became orderly". Experts and scholars agree that after the three tribes of Xirong offering weaved leathers were pacified,all the other Xirong tribes were in peace. Qizhi,known as Cizhi in "Biography of Western Qiang"in The History of the Later Han Dynasty ,refers to the present-day Guoluo Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province. Qusou,known as a county under the jurisdiction of Shuofang Commandery,refers to the name of a tribe in Hetao Grassland. Kunlun was the tribe of the ancestors of Kunming people.

In Shanhai Jing ( Classics of Mountains and Seas ),Huainanzi( Master Huainan ) and other palaeogeographic books,Kunlun is regarded as the name of a mountain. It is also written as Kunlun("昆嵛"). According to the textual research of Ren Naiqiang,a famous historian,Kun refers to a snowy mountain in the ancient Qiang language,written as Gangs with the international phonetic symbols. Lun is the ancient character of"囵"or"囷". As there were no such special builds as barns in ancient times,the grains would be stored in columns,with spike-like tops."仓"(barn)is the pictograph of the structure. The Gangdise Mountains in Houzang (Rear Tibet)is in such a shape. Standing alone on the grassland,it has always been the sacred mountains of the Qiang people. Hindu monks also worship this divine mountain,believing that it is the"Sumeru Mountain"in Buddhist scriptures. Every year,hundreds of thousands of people go to worship the mountain. It takes three days to walk around the mountain. Its round cliffs were like having been cut,making it impossible to climb. Every summer,the foot of the mountain becomes a thriving market in which rare commodities from different sources are traded. According to legend,Tantra made by masters of Tantric Buddhism(Black Sect),is here. King Mu of Zhou marched to the kingdom of the Queen's Mother of the West and learned about this mountain. This historical material is recorded in Biography of King Mu as Son of Heaven . The reason for calling this mountain Kunlun was that necromancers or merchants from the Zhou Dynasty came here and named it Kunlun for the shape of the mountain. According to Tributes to Yu ,Kunlun should be to the west of Qizhi. Its distance to Qizhi cannot be longer than that to Gangdis Mountains. Therefore,with the trade with the Han Ethnic Group,"Xirong"was in order.

Kunlun Mountain,also known as"Kunshan"or"Kungang"in ancient Chinese books,is a place name inseparable from jade stones ^[1] . The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau dwelled by the ancient Qiang people has snowy mountains and jade stones(white quartz). As early as the primitive society,the merchants there traded with the Han Ethnic Group with their sheepskin,oxtail hair and jade wares. Kunlun means the tribes of the Qiang people living on snowy mountains. There were wars between the Qiang people in the snowy mountains and the Han Ethnic Group. The Qiang people were known as"non-Han people of Hun"and "non-Han people of Gun" ^[2] . Kun ("昆"),Gun ("辊"),Hun("混")and Gun("绲")were homonyms used interchangeably in ancient times. All of them were evolved from the Gangs sound in the language of the Qiang Ethnic Group.

The nouns of the Qiang Ethnic Group and the Han Ethnic Group in ancient times are supposed to have a similar sound. After entering the agricultural society,the written and oral language use polyphyletic words,monosyllables no longer used for place names. As a result,such words as Kunlun,Kunshan,Kunming,Kunmi,Gunyi and Hunyi came into being. In addition,the snow mountains with the Qiang people are called "Kunlun",thus with Kunlun in Longxi,Hexi,Heyuan,and Kunlun and Black Kunlun in Monan,Xinjiang,because they are all snow mountains producing jade stones.

The Kunlun Mountain in Heyuan has its earliest record found in "Biography of Da Yuan"in The Historical Records of the Grand Historian and"Biography of Zhang Jian"in The History of the Han Dynasty ^[3] . It is still called Kunlun Mountain today. It is a snowy mountain stradding across the boundary between Haixi and Yushu prefectures in Qinghai Province. Today's Qinghai-Tibet Highway passes through a mountain pass between these snowy peaks. Hundreds of square miles north and south of these snowy mountains are all grasslands about four kilometers above the sea level. They have always been ethnic tribes with flourishing animal husbandry. The notion that it is Kunlun tribe mentioned in Tributes to Yu is proper whether from geographical conditions or language materials.

The Qiang language refers to humans as mi(pronounced like"弥"or"米"). This sound and meaning are still preserved by Tibetans in Longxi, Qinghai and Xikang. Therefore,people in Nanzhao wrote Kunming as Kunmi ^[4] . Ming("明"),Min("民")and Mi("弥")have the same ancient pronunciation. So,it can be assumed that Kunlun mentioned in Tributes to Yu refers to the nomadic tribes in the Kunlu Mountains of Heyuan. They are Tibetan herdsmen on the two grasslands of Chaidamu and Tongtianhe. In the Tang Dynasty,it was Duomi Kingdom. Duomi was the name given after the Tubo conquered them. Tubo called plain and spacious grasslands as mD("多"). So far,Tibetans still call Qinghai grassland Anduo. The name of Kunlun tribe was changed to Duomi in the Sui and Tang dynasties. So as early as before the Sui and Tang Dynasties,people from the tribes of Kunlun called themselves"Kunmi"instead of"mD mi". Sima Qian translated them as"Kunming" .

Nanzhao was a multi-ethnic local regime in the Tang Dynasty,with Erhai as its central area. Nanzhao annexed Langqiongzhao,Dengdanzhao and Shilangzhao of the five zhaos. Known as"Sanlang",the areas were dwelled by ethnic groups who called themselves as"the Lang people". Their living areas are present-day"two-river basin"consisting of Bijiang River(including Heihui River)and Bishui River,two tributaries of Lancang River, including Jianchuan, Eryuan, Yunlong, Lanping and other counties. It was the original place of Kunming people in the Han Dynasty. They all have the customs of having joined names between father and son and honoring white. These are very similar to the Kungming people of the Qiang Ethnic Group . The Bai ethnic group living in this area still retain the totem worship custom of golden roosters and white stones. After the Tang and Song dynasties,Buddhism was introduced into these areas. As a result,many Buddhized golden rooster temples and divine stones appeared in these areas,such as Golden Rooster Temple and Golden Rooster Divine Stone in Lanping,Bijiang River Basin. The Laji Salt Well in Langping first discovered by the Rooster Ethnic Group has roosters as its totem. This custom can also be traced back to the golden horse and green rooster worshipped by the Kunming people in the Han Dynasty. The legend of the golden horse and the green rooster first appeared in presentday Ziqiu Mountain in Dayao County,that is, Tongshan Mountain in the Han Dynasty. In BC 57,Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty dispatched Wang Bao,a native of Sichuan and an admonition and arbitration official to pay sacrifices to the Golden Horse and Blue Rooster God here in Yizhou Prefecture. Later,he followed the Kunming people who discovered and developed Anning salt springs to move to the vicinity of Dianchi Lake. The non-Han Kunming people were the ancestors of the Bai Ethnic group . With non-Han Kunming people's constant pursuit of salt profit and their integration with various ethnic groups,the term"Kunming"evolved from an ethnic appellation to a geographical name,that is,an appellation for a certain region.

[1] The old sayings that"jades are produced from Kungang"and that"A fire burnt Kungang,incinerating both jades and stones"come from Biography of King Mu as Son of Heaven and Classic of Mountains and Seas which says Kunlun Mountain is rich in jades. In fact,it reflects that white quartz is abundant in areas of snowy mountains.

[2] "Daya"of The Book of Poetry says that"non-Han people of Hun are brave". "Chapter of King Hui of Liang"of Mencius says that"King Wen noticed the matters of the Non-Han people of Kun",but it is绲夷(non-Han people of Gun)in stone inscriptions.

[3] In "Biography of Da Yuan"of The Historical Records of the Grand Historian ,Zhang Jian said that,"Salt marshes sneak underground and surface in Heyuan in the south. As a land abundant in jade stones,it has rivers flowing to the land of the Han Ethnic Group. Also,the Grand Historian said that"in the book of Records of Zhuben ,it says rivers come from Kunlun. Kunlun,with a height of 2, 500 miles,blocks the light of the sun and the moon.""Biography of Zhang Jian"of The History of the Han Dynasty says that,famous rivers on the books on the desk of the emperor come from Kunlun Mountain."

[4] Dieyu Marsh,present-day Erhai in Dali,is also known as Western Erhe River. It was where the Kunming People lived in the early Han Dynasty. Du You's General Book says that"the Western Erhe River is also known as Kunmi River."Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty copied its shape and built a pool for drills for water battles(referring to Kunming Pool in Chang'an). It was not Dianchi Lake. In ancient times,there was Kunmi State,which was also named after it. The term"Kunmi"aforementioned probably refers to the Kunlun in Tributes to Yu . BeKCWsauKoHmzoegQzdqMP1OReMS/AGBGvqQIjMtVJBonjUdsNpuul4Grscj7HP0