History of the Hani People
The Earliest Written Records of the Hani People
The earliest written records of the Hani people date back to around 2500 years ago. In the Shangshu Yugong (尚书 禹贡), which was written around 483-475 B.C., there is a reference to the Hani's forefathers, the “Heyi”, who settled in the “Noma Ami” area of the pre-Qin Liangzhou (see the red arrow on the left) [1]. The “Noma Ami” area in Liangzhou (see the red arrow on the left) in the pre-Qin period [1]. In the name “Heyi”, "He" means “mountain” or “mid-mountain”, and “yi” means minority, so “Heyi” means “minority living halfway up the mountain”. The record of the region the the Heyi live, “Noma Amei”, meaning “the plains surrounded by the mother river”, is the alluvial plain between the Yalong River and the Anning River (two bodies of water called the “mother river” together) .
Although there is still controversy to whether “He Yi” refers to the ancestors of the Hani ethnic group alone, the word “He Yi” as recorded in the Yugong is close to the pronunciation of the contemporary Hani language, and the terraced agricultural production methods of the He Yi as recorded in the Shangshu Yugong (尚书 禹贡) are consistent with the Hani terraces that have been handed down to the present day. Therefore, the word “Heyi” in the Yugong can be said to be the earliest record of the Hani ancestors. But even in this earliest record (483-475 B.C.), “He Yi” is described as a people who had already successfully developed the territory of “Noma Ami”. From this, it can be concluded that the Hani ancestors had already been active in Noma Ami and had begun to develop the land before the 5th century BC. This further shows that the origin of the Hani history goes beyond the written records in the Yugong, and goes back more than 2,500 years.
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The Origins of the Hani People through Epics
Although the earliest written history of the Hani people stops at the time of the “Noma Ami”, the Heyi themselves never had a real written language, so the more ancient local records of the Woi were passed down orally from generation to generation in the form of epics. One of the most complete (5,600 lines) and ancient Hani migration epic is “Hani Apei Congpopo” (“Apei” means ancestor, “Congpopo” means relocation, fleeing), which has been circulated in the region of the Ailao Mountains [2]. According to the epic, the Heyi traveled all the way from the north and crossed into the “Noma Ami” region in July through a river that was mentioned.
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Combining epic and geographic reasoning, Shi (2001)[1] concludes that it is most likely that the Heyi traveled south across the Dadu River, thus arriving at Noma Ami. This reasoning also explains the origin of the name “Heyi”, because in the northern part of the Dadu River, where the “Heyi” used to live (at the confluence of the Western Sichuan Plateau and the Sichuan Basin), there were high mountains, which explains why the Heyi would be named “the minority living halfway up a mountain”, as discussed prior. At the same time, the incident of the Heyi crossing the Dadu River southward also brought a new name for the Dadu river- “Heshui”. However, this had brought confusion to the translation of the name "Heyi" to many scholars, including the Southern Song Dynasty Mao Huang and the Northern Song Dynasty Su Dongpo, mistakenly believing that the name "Heyi" was named after the Dadu river ("Heshui"), yet it is exactly the opposite- the "Heshui" was named after the "He" in the name of the "Heyi" after their crossing.
The Complete Migration Route of the Hani people
(I have personally compiled it with reference to the descriptions in Hani epics. it shows the name of the region in Hani language transliteration)
- 1
“Hu-Ni-Hu-Na”
In the epic, the earliest Hani people (a branch of the ancient Qiang people) inhabited a nomadic land in the north (most likely the Tibetan Plateau) known as “Hu-Ni-Hu-Na” (meaning the place where red and black stones intermingle). As the Ancient Hani people's population grew, the nomadic land could no longer accommodate them.
2“Shen-Sui Lake”&“Ga-Lu-Ga-Ze”
As a result, they were forced to move southward en masse to forested areas such as “Shishang Lake” and “Garu-Gazhe”. However, due to natural disasters, forest fires, and conflicts with the “Atsi”, the indigenous people, they left the area and continued to migrate southward.
3“Re-Luo-Pu-Chu”
Continuing their journey, the Hani ancestors came to “Re-Luo-Pu-Chu”, a warm and wet river valley. “Re-Luo-Pu-Chu” was the place where the Sichuan Plateau and the Sichuan Basin meet on the north side of the Dadu River, as mentioned earlier. Here, the Hani ancestors learned to cultivate terraced rice paddies, and became the ethnic minority living halfway up the mountain described earlier, earning the name “Heyi”. Here, the Heyi also established close ties with other ethnic groups, such as the Atsi and the Puni, who had previously been in conflict. However, just as the Heyi began to develop, a plague swept through the area, killing a large number of people.
4“Noma Ami”
So, the Heyi were forced to move south again, to the plain where they were first recorded by text in the Shangshu Yugong (尚书 禹贡), “Noma Ami”, by crossing the Dadu River in July when the water level was at its highest. In “Noma Ami”, the Heyi lived and worked in peace and contentment, and their agricultural capabilities developed rapidly. Just as the Heyi prospered, a people called “Rabo”, who were jealous of the wealth and land of the Heyi, started a war. The Heyi lost the war and once again left their homeland and moved south.
5“Se-E-Zuo-Niang”&
“Gu-Ha-Mi-Cha”
This time they went to a land by the sea, “Se-E-Zuo-Niang”, and then moved east to “Gu-Ha-Mi-Cha” to avoid war. They were given the permission of the local aboriginal people, “Puni” to stay. Once again, the population of Heyi multiplied and agriculture flourished. However, the aboriginal people, the Puni, were afraid of the Heyi, and war broke out again. This time, the war was more violent than any other war that the Heyi had experienced, and it almost led to the end of the Heyi ethnicity.
6Crossing the Honghe River
Therefore, after losing the battle with the Puni, they moved south again and crossed the Red River after passing through “Na-tuo” and “Shi-Qi”, entering the Ailao mountains and settling in the area where the Hani ethnic group lives in Yunnan today.
After the Great Migration Period
Population Distribution
It is important to note that the Hani migration did not end at the crossing of the Red River. Some Hani remained in the middle of the Red River and the Lancang River (the area with the largest Hani population, about 700,000 people in 2021), but others migrated to Simao District (population of about 400,000 people in 2021), Xishuangbanna (population of about 120,000 people in 2021), and the Yuxi District (population of about 100,000 people in 2021) [3]. These Hani people became the present-day Yunnan Hani people. Some Hani people moved further south, eventually spreading to the northern mountainous regions of Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.
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The Formation of Cultural Sub-branches
With the gradual dispersal of the Hani ethnic group to various regions, many Hani groups were separated from the original larger group, and thus more than 30 sub-branches have been created within the Hani ethnic group [4]. Since these Hani sub-branches all ended up settling in very different environments, the cultural practices among the Hani sub-branches are all different, even if they are all roughly under one Hani cultural system. It can be said that geography profoundly influences the culture of each Hani sub-clan (environmental determinism), from the style of clothing to festivals. Exemplifying this, even if the same festival is celebrated, some clans celebrate it in December, while others in mid-January, because of the different times of spring plowing in different regions. This is also why we do not give a specific date to when they celebrate a certain festiva in the homepage of our website.
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History of the Hani people after the Great Migration
1Contact with Chinese Feudal Society
Between the 4th and 8th centuries AD, the Hani ancestors migrated westward, and thus the Hani people began to be recorded by the Tang Dynasty [2]. The Tang Dynasty called the Hani ancestors “He Barbarians”, and the “He Barbarians” became vassals of the Tang Dynasty, paying tribute to the Tang Dynasty. Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty established the Nanzhao (南诏) and Dali (大理) local authorities in Yunnan to govern the region, and established a deep connection with the Hani ethnic group around the Red River.
Around the 10th century A.D., the Hani gradually entered into a feudal lordship society.
2Under the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties
Yuan Dynasty: In the following centuries, the Yuan Dynasty conquered the “Dali” regime and strengthened its rule over Yunnan's ethnic minorities, as well as the Hani tribe;
Ming Dynasty: the system of Tusi (hereditary rule by feudalized local officials) was established in Yunnan, and Hani tribal leaders were given the title of Tusi.
Qing Dynasty: replaced the Tusi system in Yunnan with the Liu-Guan system (officials had to be qualified to take office, not hereditary). However, in practice, this failed to make any real change to the local Tusi rule.
3Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)
Around 1853, Yunnan's ethnic minorities, including the Hani, were influenced by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement to join the rebel army and fight the Qing. These minorities wanted to return land ownership to the cultivators and to reduce land taxes. The rebels were crushed after standing their ground in the Ailao mountains for twenty years.
4Struggling against French imperialism
In 1895, the Qing government was forced to cede the southern part of the Ailao Mountains to France. The Hani ethnic group and various ethnic minorities were dissatisfied with this and burned down the facilities established by France in 1900. As a result, the French army invaded the Ailao Mountains, but was met with fierce resistance from the Hani and other minorities, eventually retreating.
In 1925 and 1935 respectively, the French army repeatedly invaded Honghe, Luchun, Jinping and Jiangcheng. The Hani ethnic group as well as various ethnic minorities continued to resist.
5Dosha Abo and the Uprising Against the Tusi
In 1917, the Hani, Miao, Yi, and Dai ethnic groups united in an uprising in hopes of overthrowing the Tusi system that had been oppressing them for centuries, with the slogan, “Kill the White Tusi, and everyone will have food.”
The leader of the rebellion was a poor Hani peasant woman, Lu Meibei, who was only nineteen years old. She led the peasants in a bitter two-year battle against the Tusi, in the course of which they captured the Tusi's granary and distributed the grains to the poor peasants. But in the end, the rebels were outnumbered and were suppressed by the Yunnan warlords and the Tusi. After the suppression, the warlords and Tusi retaliated against the Hani tribe, and the Hani people hid Lu Meibei and the rebels.
Although the uprising failed, the story of Lu Meibei and the rebels spread throughout the Ailao Mountains. The the Hani people honored Lu Meibei by calling her “Dosha Abo”, which roughly means “The tough hero of Dosha Village”. With Lu Meibei's incognito, a rumor grew around the Ailao Mountains area: “Dosha Abo broke through the Tusi blockade, wielding a long sword and rode a white horse to the sky ......”[2].
After the founding of the PRC, Dosha Abo resurfaced and traveled to Beijing in 1961 to participate in the National Day activities, where she was received by Chairman Mao and a group of national leaders. Dosha Abo passed away in around 1978.
The Long-term oppression of the Hani people
Before 1949, the founding of the PRC, the Tusi in the Red River area had more than 100 machine guns and more than 4,000 rifles [2]. In addition to this, the Tusi also had a series of torture methods, such as hanging, barring wooden shackles, sitting on soft benches, and being thrown into holes. Thus, the rule of the Tusi was maintained by force and fear, subjecting the Hani ethnic group to a long period of oppression.
Under the rule of the highest feudal lord of the Dai, the Hani and other ethnic minorities around Xishuangbanna and Lancang were divided into the “Kasi Twin Ring of Fire” (the 12 Slave Areas). One “Ring of Fire” generally consisted of a dozen villages governed by a “Daba” directly appointed by the highest feudal lord [2]. In addition to collecting cotton, peanuts, soybeans, and other goods, these “dabas” would also collect “hospitality fees”, “gateway money”, and other unreasonable fees. In addition to this, the highest feudal lords also gave privileges to the Hani chiefs, so that the Hani chiefs could force the Hani farmers into coerced labor and pay tribute, causing a lot of suffering to the Hani people.
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After the establishment of the People's Republic of China
11949
The Tusi system was completely abolished
21951
Establishment of the “Mengzi Prefecture National Democratic Coalition Government” and the “Yuanyang County National Democratic Coalition Government”.
31952
Bandits in the area where the Hani live were eliminated, and democratic reforms were initiated. The “People's Government of Honghe Hani Autonomous County”, the “People's Government of Taihe Hani and Yi Dai Joint Autonomous Region of Yuanyang County”, and the “People's Government of Malizhai Hani Autonomous Township of Yuanyang County” were established.
41953
Xishuangbanna “Gelang and Hani Autonomous Region” Established
51954
“Honghe Hani Autonomous Region” established.
61957
The “Honghe Hani Autonomous Region” merged with the “Mengzi Prefecture”, and the “Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture” was established.
References:
[1] 史军超. 论“和夷”－兼及哈尼族历史文化渊源[J]. Journal of Yunnan University of the Nationalities, 2002, 19(5): 49-53[2024-12-06].
[2]NATIONAL ETHNIC AFFAIRS COMMISSION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. 哈尼族-历史沿革[R/OL]//Neac.gov.cn. (2024)[2024-12-06]. https://www.neac.gov.cn/seac/ztzl/hnz/gk.shtml.
[3]RONGXING GUO. China Ethnic Statistical Yearbook 2020.[M]. S.L.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
[4]哈尼族各支系的名称 - 百度文库[EB/OL]//Baidu.com. (2022)[2024-12-10]. https://wenku.baidu.com/view/a0cd9937cf1755270722192e453610661ed95a35.html?_wkts_=1733839062933&needWelcomeRecommand=1.
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