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The cattle-keeping Bai of Yunnan

Language Log 2022-01-18

The province of Yunnan in the far south is home to more ethnic minorities and languages than any other part of China (25 out of 56 recognized groups, 38% of the population).  The Bai are one of the more unusual groups among them.

Bai children—in Yunnan, China

From S. Robert Ramsey:

In the 13th century, Chinggis Khan’s grandson Khubilai led his Mongol armies past misty southern Sichuan and entered what Chinese called Yúnnán—the land “South of the Clouds.” This entire region was geologically a high shelf extending to the southeast off the end of the Himalayas. Ribbing the top of this shelf were rugged mountains cut by narrow river valleys that broadened out into inhabitable lake plateaus. Few Chinese had ever lived there. Instead, the power was a Tai kingdom, where a few elite families ruled over a diverse mixture of peoples.

But Khubilai’s forces were unstoppable. His Mongols quickly overran the Tai capital, and the ruling families fled south into what is present-day Thailand. Khubilai then consolidated his conquests and made the land “South of the Clouds” a province of the Chinese Empire. As a result of this Mongol conquest, Yunnan became a permanent part of China.

The Bai had long been the most important people in that Tai kingdom. Bai farmers formed a large, well-established population that cultivated rice the same way the Han Chinese did, and they produced the wealth that had sustained the region’s economy. And since economic considerations were more important to the Chinese than ethnic ones, these hard-working peasants were allowed to remain on their farms.

The Bai soon became known to the Chinese for something besides rice, though. At the bases of the mountains the Bai have enough space to graze cattle, which they milk in order to make cheese. Many Chinese outside the province consider such milk products disgusting, but among the Chinese of Yunnan, Bai “milk cake” has become a delicacy. Like the Bai children posing in the above photograph, Bai cheese has become a Yunnan tourist attraction.

But who, after all, are the Bai? They are among the oldest inhabitants of Yunnan, but we do not know where they came from. Some think the Bai language has ancient ties to Han Chinese, but that is also an idea far from being proved. For now at least, the origin of these intriguing people remains a mystery.

VHM notes:

Language

The Bai language (Bai: Baip‧ngvp‧zix; simplified Chinese: 白语; traditional Chinese: 白語; pinyin: Báiyǔ) is a language spoken in China, primarily in Yunnan Province, by the Bai people. The language has over a million speakers and is divided into three or four main dialects. Bai syllables are always open, with a rich set of vowels and eight tones. The tones are divided into two groups with modal and non-modal (tense, harsh or breathy) phonation. There is a small amount of traditional literature written with Chinese characters, Bowen (僰文), as well as a number of recent publications printed with a recently standardized system of romanisation using the Latin alphabet.

The origins of Bai have been obscured by intensive Chinese influence of an extended period [VHM:  more than two millennia, with most etyma in the lexicon related to Sinitic]. Different scholars have proposed that it is an early offshoot or sister language of Chinese, part of the Loloish branch or a separate group within the Sino-Tibetan family.

(source; see also "Greater Bai languages")

People and name

The Bai people hold the colour white in high esteem and call themselves "Baipzix" (pɛ˦˨ tsi˧, Baizi, 白子), "Bai'ho" (pɛ˦˨ xo˦, Baihuo, 白伙), "Bai yinl" (pɛ˦˨ ji˨˩, Baini, 白尼) or "Miep jiax". Bai literally means "white" in Chinese. In 1956, the Chinese authorities named them the Bai nationality according to their preference.

Historically, the Bai had also been called Minjia (民家) by the Chinese from the 14th century to 1949.

The origin of the name Bai is not clear, but scholars believe that it has a strong connection to the first state Bai people built in roughly the 3rd century AD. This state, called Baizi Guo (白子國, State of Bai), was not documented in Chinese orthodox history but was frequently mentioned in the oral history of Yunnan Province. It was believed to be built by the first king, Longyouna (龍佑那), who was given the family name "Zhang" (張) by Zhuge Liang, the chancellor of the state of Shu Han (221–263 CE). Zhuge Liang conquered the Dali region at that time and picked up Longyouna and assisted him in building the State of Bai. The State of Bai was located in present-day Midu County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province.

(source)

It's curious that, according to Liu Mau-Tsai 劉茂才, a Chinese scholar who studied in Germany, the Tocharian (here, here, here) royal surname at Kucha, Bó 白, also meant "white" (source).

Other names

The name of Kucha in Tocharian B was Kuśi, with adjectival form kuśiññe. The word may be derived from Proto-Indo-European *keuk "shining, white". The Tocharian B word akeññe may have referred to people of Agni, with a derivation meaning "borderers, marchers". One of the Tocharian A texts has ārśi-käntwā as a name for their own language, so that ārśi may have meant "Agnean", though "monk" is also possible.

(source)

Agneans / Arseans (Ārśiññe) / Aspacares (mentioned by Ptolemy based on an Iranian exonym) – in Agni Oasis, (Ārśi may have been the native name) (i.e. Chinese Yanqi; modern Karasahr) (According to Douglas Q. Adams the name Ārśiññe was not the native name for the Agneans as the name Ārśi was not a designation for Tocharian A as has occasionally been supposed or for modern Karasahr Oasis; it meant "ordained beggar monk" as a noun and "Aryan" – Iranian or Indo-Aryan, as an adjective, it was a borrowing from Prakrit through some Iranian language. However, this explanation is contested by Zhivko Voynikov who states that the name Ārśi meant "Bright" or "White", and was the ancient name for modern Karasahr Oasis and was also the basis of a real self ethnonym for the people of this region).

(source)

Since ancient times, the Bai have lived in the mountainous, subtropical region around Dali, Yunnan.  This is not a natural climate for raising cattle, yet the Bai have found a niche for rearing cattle and have become proficient at certain types of dairy production.  The association between humans and cattle in this region goes back to the time of the Dian Kingdom (279 BC-109 BC).  Miniature figures on the lids of bronze vessels created by this culture (whose origins date back to a period earlier than that of the kingdom per se) depict scenes of daily life, war, and other activities, with cattle prominently featured and human beings — many of them wearing Scythian (steppe) clothing and armor mounted on horses (also not native to the region).  For a good account and visual, archeological evidence, see this Wikipedia article and these Google images.

Selected readings