History

The Yao consider China to be their homeland. According to a legend the Yao believe that they were found by a dog who saved the life of a Chinese emperors daughter and was rewarded with the privilege to marry her. 

 

The Yao have struggled for over 2,000 years because of nasty landlords and their existence can be traced back to 221 to 207 BC during the Qing dynasty. Many of the landlords were not part of the Yao culture and created high taxes. When a unified multinational system was created in China by Emperor Quinshihuang in 221BC a new policy began of banishing criminals to minority inhabited border areas. Because of this many of the Han people from central China were sent to today's Changsha and Wuling regions. At this time the Yao were called the "savage Wuling Tribes".  During the time of both the Western Han and the Eastern Han dynasties the minorities in Wuling had to pay high taxes to the government.  This led to the ancestors of the Yao in the Wuling area to fight against the government in the Eastern Han Dynasty.  

 

The Yao were able to inhabit many different areas in China during the Southern and Northern Song Dynasty that consisted of, today's Shou County of Anhui Province in the east to Shang County of Shanxi Province in the west, the Wuling area until the eastern part of todays Henan Province and the Northwest region of today's Anhui Province. This opened up a lot of communication between the Yao and the Han people and they grew strong ties between one another. 

 

In the Tang Dynasty (618 AD-907AD) lived in the provinces of Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong and being called Moyao at this time. The name Yao was not adopted until after the founding of the People's Republic. During the Song Dynasty (960 AD-1234 AD) the government treated minorities that lived in the Yao areas with autonomous status.

 

The Yuan Dynasty (1271 AD-1368 AD) was one of the most important migrations in the history of the Yao. Officials from the local government came to the Yao to collect taxes. The Yao treated them so greatly they the officials forgot to go back to the government office with the paid taxes. The officials leader mistakenly thought that they had been killed by the Yao and sent troops to the Yao areas to slaughter them. Because of this the Yao were forced to leave their homes and their land and migrate to different places. Before their departure they divided an ox horn into twelve parts, one part for each of the twelve families vowing that all of them would return to their homeland one thousand years later. 

 

During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the Yao were living in Guangxi, Guangdong, southwest Hunan, Yunnan and some mountainous areas in Guizhou. Living in many different places caused their social economies to differ causing them to be off balance with each other. In some areas in resulted in economies that rivaled the Han. The Yao that lived in the mountainous areas lived in groups around creeks, rivers and valleys and were not able to farm. Without farming they hunted animals living in the mountains for food. After more slaughters from feudal rulers the Yao had to migrate to the borders of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Some of the Yao that lived in these countries later immigrated to the United States, France and Canada. 

 

Before the founding of the People's Republic the Yao economy could be divided into three types. The first and most common had agriculture at its base and forestry and other occupations, and was concentrated in places blessed with fine natural conditions and the greatest influence of the Han people. The farming methods and social relations resembled the Han and Zhuang groups.

 

The second type was centered around forestry but agriculture was on the sidelines. Some landlords monopolized all the forests and hillside fields, leaving the foresters and farmers to pay taxes and rent even if they did not go ploughing, hunting, fishing, built houses, buried their dead, collected wild fruits and herbs, drank from mountain streams or even walked on the mountains. To pay the landlords rent they would plant saplings between their crops, once the saplings grew into trees they were paid to the landlords. Doing this caused the Yao to wander from place to place.

 

The last and third type was a tiny percentage of the Yao population and was the primitive "slash and burn" cultivation. Even though most landlords were Han and Zhuang, the Yao were able to own some of their own land. The lands belonged to ancient communes formed by less then 20 families. The families worked together and shared products equally. 

 

The Yao fought feudal oppression as early as the Han dynasty. In the Tang and Song dynasties the Yao waged rebellions against there Han rulers. The Yao launched more then 40 uprisings between 1316 and 1331. Their largest revolt frightened Ming emperors and  they had to send three huge armies to conquer the rebels. The Yao joined the Taiping army to help fight against the Qing feudal bureaucrats during the famous Taiping Rebellion.

 

The Yao also played an active role on China's new democratic  revolution which led to the founding of the People's Republic. The Yao Autonomous County of Bama in Guangxi used to be the base of the 7th Red Army. There were democratic reforms carried out after 1949 to the three types of Yao economies. These reforms helped to abolish feudal exploitation systems and enhance the progress of agriculture, forestry and other forms of production.

 

There were autonomous localities being formed for the Yao, the first one was formed in 1951, when a central government delegation visited Guangxi and helped the local government set up Longsheng Autonomous County. Eight autonomous counties were developed during 1952-1963 while 200 autonomous townships covered smaller Yao communities. These autonomous regions allowed the Yao to be finally be their own masters which led to the end of the long history of discrimination. The local governments have helped the Yao regions prosper and improve their lives.

 

Before the found of the People's Republic in 1949 the Yao only had a few handicraft workshops and now they have many medium and small sized power plants and factories making farm machines, processing timber and making chemical cement. In the early 1950's many Yao had no education but now there are schools in every village. All children get elementary and secondary educations and the elite students even go on to attend college. Not only do they have education now but they also have hospitals and the government has trained many Yao so that  they can be doctors and nurses and help the sick. They have clinics in every county, township and village and have been able to eliminate smallpox and cholera. The Yao are now able to keep themselves healthy and the population has been able to double since the founding of the People's Republic.

 

Without the found of the People's Republic the Yao culture may have died out a long time ago. Instead the Yao have been able to prosper and make there lives much better for themselves and their families. Their future is a lot brighter then their dark past filled with rebellions and war.