Geography of the Sui region

12 2 Historical and Cultural Background Pan Xingwen, Wei Shifang, Lu Chun, Shi Guomeng

2.1 Origins of the Sui people and their migratory history

According to Li Pingfan and Yan 2011:435ff., the Sui ancestors originated in the Luogushui 骆 谷水 region of Shaanxi province, living in the Sui River 睢水 basin. 1 They migrated south and became one of the Baiyue ethnic groups. 2 It was not until the Tang dynasty that the character Shui 水 began to be used in Chinese history books to refer to the ethnic group. 3 After the capitulation of the Yin and Shang dynasties, the Sui ancestors migrated south across Hubei and Hunan, arriving in the Guangxi region and assimilating into the Baiyue ethnic groups of ancient southern China. After the unification of China by the Qin, the imperial government sent troops to attack the southern regions. The Sui ancestors then migrated upstream, northwards, in what became the second great migration in their history. They finally settled in the upper reaches of the Longjiang and Duliujiang rivers in the border regions of present-day Guangxi and Guizhou. Gradually they acquired the identity of a single ethnic group, developing from a branch of the “Luo Yue 骆越 ”, a group which came from the Baiyue SCAEG 2007:9. The Sui autonym comes from the Sui river which provided sustenance for the Sui ancestors. The first volume of Treatise on Rivers and Canals of the Ming History 《明史•河渠志上》 says, “Water from the Yellow River is directed into the Bian 汴 river, the Bian into the Sui 睢 , the Sui into the Si 泗 , the Si into the Huai 淮 , and thence into the sea.” Historically, the Sui and other non-Han ethnic groups were referred to collectively as “Baiyue”, “Liao 僚 ”, “Miao 苗 ” or “Man 蛮 ”, among others. During the Tang dynasty, Fushui prefecture 抚水州 was created in the Sui region. Crimson Elegance 《赤雅》 , written by the famous Ming poet Kuang Lu, records that “the Shui 水 people are a type of Liao 僚 ”. 4 After the middle of the Qing dynasty, the Sui began to be known as “Shuijia Miao 水家苗 ” literally “Miao from the Shui clan” or “Shuijia 水家 ” the “Shui clan”. Post-liberation, after consulting the Sui people themselves, the State Council officially designated them “Shuizu 水族 Shui Minority” SCAEG 2007.

2.2 Geography of the Sui region

The Sui live primarily in the south of China, in the border regions of Hunan province, Guizhou province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. They live on the edge of the Miao Ling mountain chain 苗岭 山脉 on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, mostly in the areas surrounding Moon Mountain Yueliang Shan 月亮山 . The terrain is rugged, as the mountains transition to foothills. It is a beautiful area of dense forests with poor transportation links. Because of this, Sui customs have been preserved very well. The majority of the Sui people live in Qiannan and Qiandongnan prefectures of Guizhou province. Small numbers of Sui also live in Guangxi and Yunnan, as well as in major cities such as Guiyang, Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming and Nanning. At the end of 2011, there were around 430,000 ethnic Sui in the whole of China. Around 240,000 of these were living in Sandu Sui Autonomous County Sandu County Statistics Bureau 2012. 1 This claim is partly based on the fact that the Mandarin pronunciation of the character 睢 or 濉 Sui [sw ɛi⁵⁵], is very similar to the Sui’s own autonym, [ sui³³] Pan and Wei, 2004. See Liang 2008 and chapter 5, section 5.2.6.5 of this work for an alternative view. 2 The Chinese term “Baiyue 百越 ” literally ‘Myriad Yue’, refers to the ethnic groups who lived in southern China in ancient times. 3 This Chinese character means ‘water’. It is also used to refer to the Sui people in Chinese. 4 Kuang Lu 1604-1650 wrote this while travelling the minority areas of present-day Guangxi. Sandu is the only Sui autonomous county in China. It is situated in the southeast of Qiannan Bouyei- Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou Province, between Moon Mountain and Thunder God Mountain Lei Gong Shan 雷公山 , spanning the area from 107°40E to 108°14E and 25°30N to 26°10N. Sandu county is 56 km east-west at its widest point and 73 km north-south at its longest point. Over 50 of the total Sui population in China live in Sandu county. Sandu has a total area of around 2,400 km 2 . There are 21 districts and townships, and 242 administrative villages. 5 At the end of 2011, ethnic minority people accounted for 96.9 of the total population of Sandu. The Sui accounted for 65.8 of the total population of Sandu county Sandu County Statistics Bureau 2012. Sandu is informally known as “the place whose beauty is like the feathers of the phoenix”. The Sui minority live in the following places: • Sandong, Zhouqin, Jiuqian, Yanggong, Hengfeng, Tingpai, Tangzhou, Shuilong, Zhonghe, Sanhe, Lalan, Dayu, Yangfu, Wubu, Bajie, Dujiang, Jiaoli, Pu’an, Fengle, Dahe and Hejiang, 21 districts and townships in Sandu county, Guizhou province; • Jiarong, Shuiyao, Yongkang and Shuili districts and townships in Libo county, Guizhou province; • Benzhai, Jiading, Wengtai and Shuiyan districts and townships in Dushan county, Guizhou province; • Jichang, Fenghe and Yanghe districts in Duyun municipality, Guizhou province; • Fuquan city and Huishui county in Guizhou province; • Shuiwei, Xinghua, Dingwei, Sanjiang and Renli districts and Tashi Yao Sui minority district in Rongjiang county, Guizhou province; • Longquan township, Yangwu district and Yahui district in Danzhai county, Guizhou province; • Yongle township and Dadi Sui township in Leishan county, Guizhou province; • Congjiang and Jianhe counties in Guizhou province; • Huanjiang and Rongshui counties in the north of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; • and Gugan Sui district, Fuyuan county in Yunnan province.

2.3 Information on the primary data points