Miao

By Norma Diamond

Bai Miao (White), Cowrie Shell Miao, Hei Miao (Black), Hmong, Hua Miao (Flowery), Hung Miao (Red), Magpie Miao, Qing Miao (Blue/Green)

The various Miao groups are for the most part an unstratified agricultural people found in the uplands of several provinces of China and related to the Hmong of Southeast Asia. They are distinguished by language, dress, historical traditions, and cultural practice from neighboring ethnic groups and the dominant Han Chinese. They are not culturally homogeneous and the differences between local Miao cultures are often as great as between Miao and non-Miao neighbors. The term "Miao" is Chinese, and means "weeds" or "sprouts." Chinese minority policies since the 1950s treat these diverse groups as a single nationality and associate them with the San Miao Kingdom of central China mentioned in histories of the Han dynasty (200 BC-AD 200).

About half of China's Miao are located in Guizhou Province. Another 34 percent are evenly divided between Yunnan Province and western Hunan Province. The remainder are mainly found in Sichuan and Guangxi, with a small number in Guangdong and Hainan. Some of the latter may have been resettled there during the Qing dynasty. The wide dispersion makes it difficult to generalize about ecological settings. Miao settlements are found anywhere from a few hundred meters above sea level to elevations of 1,400 meters or more. The largest number are uplands people, often living at elevations over 1,200 meters and located at some distance from urban centers or the lowlands and river valleys where the Han are concentrated. Often, these upland villages and hamlets are interspersed with those of other minorities such as Yao, Dong, Zhuang, Yi, Hui, and Bouyei. Most live in the fourteen autonomous prefectures and counties designated as Miao or part-Miao. Among the largest of these are the Qiandongnan Miao-Dong Autonomous Prefecture and Qiannan Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture established in Guizhou in 1956, the Wenshan Zhuang-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan established in 1958, and the Chengbu Miao Autonomous Country in Hunan organized in 1956. In addition, there are Miao present in at least ten other autonomous units where they are a minority among the minorities. Some Miao villages are within minzuxiang (minority townships), in areas that have a high concentration of minority peoples but not autonomous status, as is the case in Zhaotong Prefecture in northeastern Yunnan.

The 1990 census reports a population of 7,398,677 Miao. This is an increase of almost 47 percent over the 1982 census figure of 5,036,377. Some of the growth is due to natural increase (as of 1990 the Miao were not limited to one or two children) and some to the recognition of additional population as Miao and better census procedures.

According to Chinese language classification, the Miao languages belong to the Miao-Yao Branch of Sino-Tibetan. Officially, these languages are termed fangyin (dialects) although they are not mutually intelligible. There are at least three main languages, further divisible into distinct and separate sublanguages or dialects of varying degrees of closeness. The Miao languages are tonal. Xiangxi, spoken in western Hunan by close to one million speakers, is associated with the Red Miao. It is comprised of two sublanguages. The larger of the two has been taken as standard and given a romanization for school texts and other local publications. The Qiandong language of central and eastern Guizhou is associated with the Black Miao. It has three major subdivisions. The most widespread of the three has well over a million speakers, and is taken as the official standard. The others, with a half million speakers each, are regarded as dialects and, as of this writing, have no official recognition. The Chuanqiandian languages are spoken by White, Flowery, and Blue Miao. There are at least seven major subdivisions, each further divided into a number of local dialects. As of 1994, only Chuanqiandianci (White Miao) and Diandongbei (Hua Miao) are officially recognized. Both of these formerly used a phonetic script, introduced by missionaries at the turn of the century. The script has been supplanted by a government-introduced romanization. In addition there are some eight additional fangyin, with several thousand speakers each, which do not fit into any of the major categories. Most of the Miao in Hainan are Yao speakers, and some Miao elsewhere speak only Dong or Chinese.

Chinese scholarship links the present-day Miao to tribal confederations that moved southward some 2,000 years ago from the plain between the Yellow River and the Yangtze toward the Dongting Lake area. These became the San Miao mentioned in Han dynasty texts. Over the next thousand years, between the Han and the Song dynasties, these presumed ancestors of the Miao continued to migrate westward and southward, under pressure from expanding Han populations and the imperial armies. Chinese texts and Miao oral history establish that over those years the ancestors settled in western Hunan and Guizhou, with some moving south into Guangxi or west along the Wu River to southeastern Sichuan and into Yunnan. The period was marked by a number of uprisings and battles between Miao and the Han or local indigenous groups, recalled in the oral histories of local groups. Though the term "Miao" was sometimes used in Tang and Song histories, the more usual term was "Man," meaning "barbarians." Migration continued through the Yuan, Ming, and early Qing, with some groups moving into mainland Southeast Asia. The retreat from Han control brought some into territories controlled by the Yi in northeast Yunnan/northwest Guizhou. The various migrations can also be seen as "vertical" migrations into the undeveloped hillside and mountain areas that were of lesser interest to Han. Depending on the terrain, the settled farming cited in Miao historical myths gave way to shifting slash-and-burn agriculture, facilitated by the introduction of the Irish potato and maize in the sixteenth century, and the adoption of high-altitude/cool-weather crops like barley, buckwheat, and oats. Farming was supplemented by forest hunting, fishing, gathering, and pastoralism. During the Qing, uprisings and military encounters escalated. There were major disturbances in western Hunan (1795-1806) and a continuous series of rebellions in Guizhou (1854-1872). Chinese policies toward the Miao shifted among assimilation, containment in "stockaded villages," dispersal, removal, and extermination. The frequent threat of "Miao rebellion" caused considerable anxiety to the state; in actuality, many of these uprisings included Bouyei, Dong, Hui, and other ethnic groups, including Han settlers and demobilized soldiers. At issue were heavy taxation, rising landlordism, rivalries over local resources, and official corruption. One of the last Miao uprisings occurred in 1936 in western Hunan in opposition to Guomindang (Republican) continuation of the tuntian system, which forced the peasants to open up new lands and grow crops for the state.

From Song on, in periods of relative peace, government control was exercised through the tusi system of indirect rule by appointed native headmen who collected taxes, organized corvée, and kept the peace. Miao filled this role in Hunan and eastern Guizhou, but farther west the rulers were often drawn from a hereditary Yi nobility, a system that lasted into the twentieth century. In Guizhou, some tusi claimed Han ancestry, but were probably drawn from the ranks of assimilated Bouyei, Dong, and Miao. Government documents refer to the "Sheng Miao" (raw Miao), meaning those living in areas beyond government control and not paying taxes or labor service to the state. In the sixteenth century, in the more pacified areas, the implementation of the policy of gaitu guiliu began the replacement of native rulers with regular civilian and military officials, a few of whom were drawn from assimilated minority families. Land became a commodity, creating both landlords and some freeholding peasants in the areas affected. In the Yunnan-Guizhou border area, the tusi system continued and Miao purchase of land and participation in local markets was restricted by law until the Republican period (1911-1949).

Throughout the Republican period, the government favored a policy of assimilation for the Miao and strongly discouraged expressions of ethnicity. Southwestern China came under Communist government control by 1951, and Miao participated in land reform, collectivization, and the various national political campaigns. In the autonomous areas created beginning in 1952, the Miao were encouraged to revive and elaborate their costumes, music, and dance, while shedding "superstitious" or "harmful" customs. Some new technology and scientific knowledge was introduced, along with modern medicine and schooling. The Miao suffered considerably during the Cultural Revolution years, when expressions of ethnicity were again discouraged, but since 1979 the Miao have been promoted in the media and the government has encouraged tourism to the Miao areas of eastern and central Guizhou.

At higher elevations, as on the plateau straddling Guizhou and Yunnan, settlements are rarely larger than twenty households. An average village in central Guizhou might have 35 or 40 households, while in Qiandongnan villages of 80 to 130 families are common, and a few settlements have close to 1,000 households. Villages are compact, with some cleared space in front of the houses, and footpaths. In some areas houses are of wood, raised off the ground, and with an additional sleeping and storage loft under a thatched or tiled roof. Elsewhere they are single-story buildings made of tamped earth or stone depending on local conditions. Windows are a recent introduction. Animals are now kept in outbuildings; in the past they were sheltered under the raised house or kept inside. Many settlements are marked by a grove of trees, where religious ceremonies are held.

Economic strategies vary. The Hua Miao were shifting-swidden agriculturalists, growing buckwheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and hemp, and using a simple wooden hand plow or hoe. Sheep and goats were fed on nearby pasture land. Additionally the Hua Miao hunted with crossbow and poisoned arrows and gathered foodstuffs in the forests. In parts of Guizhou, the Miao more closely resembled their Han neighbors in their economic strategies as well as in their technology (the bullock-drawn plow, harrowing, use of animal and human wastes as fertilizer). The Cowrie Shell Miao in central Guizhou were settled farmers growing rice in flooded fields, and also raising millet, wheat, beans, vegetables, and tobacco. Their livestock was limited to barnyard pigs and poultry, with hunting and gathering playing a very minor role. Some of the Black Miao in southeast Guizhou combine intensive irrigated terrace farming of rice with dry-field upland cropping.

Women continue to spin and weave cotton, hemp, ramie, and wool for home use, and to produce garments with elaborate batik and embroidered designs that vary by area and dialect and serve as subethnic markers. Complex silver necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and headdresses are a well-developed craft specialty for men and again are closely associated with ethnicity. They are not usually sold outside the local Miao community. Carpenters, basket makers and blacksmiths can be found among some Miao groups.

No Miao communities are self-sufficient. All depend on the market for pottery, salt, processed foods, and various daily necessities. In Guizhou there is great demand for silver for making jewelry. What the Miao have to sell varies greatly by area. The Hua Miao market wool, hides, sheep and goats, wild game, firewood, and a variety of forest products. The Cowrie Shell Miao market agricultural produce, poultry and pigs, bamboo shoots, and home-crafted grass raincoats and sandals. Different areas have their specialties, such as cattle, horses, bamboo baskets, and herbal medicines. Before 1949, some Miao sold opium, but more often poppy growing and production of raw opium was the required rent for cropland and the profits went to the landlord and middlemen. Very few Miao were full-time merchants or traders.

Both sexes engage in agriculture, care of livestock, and fishing, and men contribute some labor to domestic chores like cooking, gathering firewood, and child care. Men are expected to do the heaviest work, including plowing. Women sometimes participated on short hunting trips, but trips of several days or several weeks were undertaken by groups of men; hunting trips are now illegal. Labor exchange and cooperation between households was common even before collectivization.

Prior to the 1950s land reform, some Miao were smallholders. Many, if not most, were tenants on lands owned by Han, Yi, Hui, and others. Few were true landlords, and most who rented out land were likely to work part of their holdings themselves with family labor. All land is now owned by the state, including undeveloped mountain and forest lands, thus limiting any expansion beyond lands officially assigned to an individual or village. In the process, pastoralism and forest hunting/gathering have been reduced. Before land reform, some Miao areas followed the practice of lineage or hamlet ownership of mountain and hillside lands even where some private holdings existed. People could open new lands for farming and settlement, share village pastures, or hunt away from their home area.

Generally, Miao have been pressured to take Chinese surnames, which are transmitted patrilineally. Descent is said to be patrilineal, and in some places the Han patrilineage form has been adopted. However, matrilineal kin are important in some areas. In practice, there is strong evidence that the system is bilateral.

No serious comparative study of kin terms and lineage organization is yet available, and some of the writings on the subject suggest Miao politeness in telling Han investigators what they want to hear.

Marriages generally require parental consent but are based on mutual attraction and choice. In the past, many communities had "youth houses" where unmarried young people could gather. Groups of young men traveled around to court girls in other villages. In the absence of parental consent, elopement was an alternative. Festivals and trips to periodic markets still provide an opportunity for young people to meet, engage in antiphonal singing and dancing, and establish new friendships. Since the 1950s, travel restrictions and state disapproval of premarital sexual behavior has increased the parental role in marriage arrangement. Marriages are monogamous. Marriage outside the dialect or language group is rare. Divorce and remarriages are permitted. Postmarital residence is usually in the man's home village but only the youngest son lives with his parents after his marriage, and in instances where there are no sons a family may bring in a son-in-law or an aged widow or widower might join her married daughter's household. In some areas, there is delayed transfer of the bride until after the birth of her first child, or the practice of starting out with residence with the bride's family.

The two-generation nuclear family is statistically the most common. Relations between spouses, and between parents and children, are more egalitarian than among the Han. Economic, social, and ritual ties are retained with natal kin. Visiting kinsfolk are welcome guests, and may come for extended visits.

At marriage, sons and daughters receive property and assistance in building a new house. Marriage portions previously included livestock as well as household goods, tools, jewelry, and cloth. The youngest son and his descendants inherit the parental house and remaining wealth. A couple without sons will live with a daughter, who stands as heir.

Both parents are involved in child rearing. Verbal skills and work skills are valued. Children are expected to assist with work tasks from an early age. Some tasks, such as gathering firewood or caring for livestock, are not gender-linked, and both sexes are encouraged to take responsibility and act independently. Mothers teach their daughters to spin and weave and to do batik and embroidery, and sons learn hunting skills from their fathers. Since the 1950s, most boys and some girls attend primary school. Relatively few continue on to middle school since this usually involves boarding schools far from their home communities.

Given the long period of Chinese rule, it is not possible to reconstruct precontact organization, though some areas still retain older lineage and clan names. Owing to dispersion, population decimation, and frequent migration, the multisurname settlement seems to be the most common. There was little class differentiation in the villages, and no formal political structure. Villages do not seem to have been formally linked by any kind of tribal organization and there was no formal political structure within villages.

Respected knowledgeable elders, heads of family groups, and religious experts of both genders served as informal leaders. Among the more Sinicized, landlords and those who had some literacy in Chinese exercised power in the community. Under the present system, those who are members of the Communist party stand as the official leaders of the community.

Religious beliefs and activities vary by locale and subethnic identity. The situation is further complicated by partial adoption of elements of folk Daoism and Buddhism, or by conversion to Christianity (as among segments of the White and Flowery Miao). Traditional religious beliefs concern powerful suprahuman forces associated with sacred groves, stones, caves, and other natural phenomena, as well as with bridges and wells. Other protective spirits guard the household and hamlet. The latter are sometimes thought of as dragons. It is believed that at death, the soul divides into three parts, one of which returns to protect the household as an ancestral spirit. There is also concern with evil spirits and with ghosts of those who died bad deaths and who may cause illness and misfortune. Religious beliefs are supported by a complex series of sung or chanted poetic myths, which treat the creation of the universe, the doings of divine beings and culture heroes, and early Miao history.

Most religious ritual is performed or guided by various part-time specialists who act as priests, diviners, or shamans for the local community or for kin groups. Most of them are males. They engage in ordinary work, and only the most important religious activities require them to don special items of dress and decoration to mark them from others. There are no written texts for learning the chants, songs, dances, and rituals: they are memorized. If called by a family, specialists receive a small payment (often in foodstuffs) for their assistance. Shamans play a key role at funerals and postburial rites. They are also involved in analysis and healing of illness: some are skilled in herbal medicine as well as ritual procedures. Shamans also provide explanations of the possible causes of misfortune and can provide protective amulets. Ceremonies on behalf of the village community or a gathering of kin from several villages are conducted by skilled male elders who function as priests, following ritual procedures, administering the necessary animal and food sacrifices, and chanting the songs and myths without going into trance or communicating directly with the supernaturals and spirits. Some ceremonies are led by the male head of household on behalf of his immediate family.

The calendrical year holds a number of set ceremonies that vary from group to group in content, purpose, and timing. For example, as of the 1990s some groups celebrated the lunar New Year along with their Han neighbors, whereas others celebrated the year's start in the tenth lunar month, following the harvest, and marked it with bullfights and cattle sacrifices. Others marked the New Year with cockfights or sacrifice of pigs and chickens, or intervillage assemblages enlivened by antiphonal singing, dancing, and the playing of the lusheng. Among the important festivals found in many (not all) Miao communities are the Dragon Boat Festival, which is synchronic with the Han festivities to a large extent, and the Mountain Flower festivals, which were an important institution for bringing together marriageable young people from different hamlets. The Drum Society festivals are held by dispersed kin groups to honor their ancestors every seven, ten, or twelve years, and are not strictly tied to the calendar. Most festivals involve the lavish offering of animal sacrifices, and for this reason the state has discouraged them.

The Miao are well known for the complexity, sophistication, and variety of their weaving, embroidery, and brocade and batik work, though little of it is commodified. Their elaborate silver jewelry is also famous. There is a rich heritage of oral literature (myths, history, tales, and songs). The ability to play the lusheng or other instruments and to sing and improvise songs is highly prized. Generally the Miao do not have graphic arts: the absence of god figures or painting of supernatural beings is a deliberate internal marker that differentiates them from Han and some neighboring groups.

Aside from the shaman's extensive knowledge, ordinary persons also have some knowledge of plants and other materials that have healing properties. The Chinese invert this by claiming that Miao women engage in magical poisoning gu, but all evidence suggests this is a Han myth rather than Miao practice. Divination and exorcism of ghosts and evil spirits are also a part of healing.

The human soul is comprised of three parts. After death, one resides at the grave; another must be led safely through the journey to the other world where it rejoins the ancestors, and the third must be led safely back home where it serves as a protective ancestral spirit to the living. Thus, burial and postmortuary rituals require the skills and knowledge of a shaman to lead the mourners in ritual and perform the necessary sequence of ceremonies.

Bai Ziran, ed., 1988. A Happy People: The Miaos. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

Fan Yumei, et al., eds., 1987. Zhongguo shaoshu minzu fengqinglu (Customs of China's national minorities). Chengdu: Sichuan Nationalities Press.

Mickey, Margaret P., 1947. The Cowrie Shell Miao of Kweichow. Peabody Museum Papers, vol. 32, no. 1. Cambridge, Mass.

National Minorities Commission, Guizhou Provincial Editorial Group, ed., 1986-1987. Miaozu shehui lishi diaocha (Research on the society and history of the Miao). 3 vols. Guiyang: Guizhou Peoples Press.

National Minorities Commission, Yunnan Provincial Editorial Group, and Li Zhaolun, eds., 1982. Yunnan Miaozu Yaozu shehui lishi diaocha (Research on the society and history of the Yunnan Miao and Yao). Kunming: Yunnan Nationalities Press.

Schein, Louisa, 1989. "The Dynamics of Cultural Revival among the Miao in Guizhou." In Ethnicity and Ethnic Groups in China, edited by Chiao Chien and Nicholas Tapp. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

Wu Xinfu, 1990. "Lun Miaozu lishishang de sici de da qianxi" (On the four great migrations in Miao history). Minzu Yanjiu 6:103-111.

This culture summary is based on the article, "Miao" by Norma Diamond, in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 6, Russia and Eurasia/China, Paul Friedrich and Norma Diamond, 1994. HRAF is grateful to Norma Diamond for her bibliographic suggestions.