A Brief History of the Tujia — Ethnic Origins (Part 2)
II. Theories on Tujia Origins. Since the founding of New China, historians have conducted extensive research on the question of Tujia origins, yielding several main theories. The Ba People Theory holds that the Tujia are descendants of part of the ancient Ba people. This was proposed by the late Professor Pan Guangdan of Minzu University of China in "The 'Tujia' of Northwestern Hunan and the Ancient Ba People"...
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II. Various Theories on the Ethnic Origin of the Tujia
Regarding the question of the origin of the Tujia, since the founding of New China, Chinese historians have conducted a great deal of research, mainly with the following different theories.
The Ba People Theory holds that the Tujia are descendants of part of the ancient Ba people. This was proposed by the late Professor Pan Guangdan of Minzu University of China in his article "The 'Tujia' of Northwestern Hunan and the Ancient Ba People." He believed that some place names, personal names, and ethnic names within the activity area of the ancient Ba people are homophones or sound shifts of the Tujia self-designation "Bizi"; that the Ba people's worship of the white tiger is the same as that of the Tujia; that the main surnames of the Ba people have a relationship of inheritance with certain major surnames of the Tujia; and that individual Ba language vocabulary is still preserved in today's Tujia language. The Ba People Theory holds that Wuluo Zhongli Mountain in present-day Changyang County, Hubei, is the birthplace of the ancient Ba people, and therefore the Changyang Qing River basin is also the birthplace of the Tujia. The Ba People Theory is the mainstream view among the various theories on Tujia ethnic origin.
The Indigenous Theory holds that the Tujia of Xiangxi were formed by the fusion of the ancient indigenous inhabitants of Xiangxi with the Ba people and Han people who entered later, with the indigenous people being the main body in the formation of the Tujia. This view points out: the 7 Paleolithic sites discovered in the Youshui basin, and the Neolithic cultural sites discovered at Liye in Longshan County, Pushi in Luxi County, and Gurenti in Zhangjiajie, are the dwelling places of the earliest indigenous ancestors of Xiangxi. The Tujia call themselves "Bizika," meaning local people, and are native to the soil. The Tujia-language place name "Mocha" means opening heaven, and "Liye" means separating earth, meaning that these places were first opened up by the indigenous inhabitants. In the divine songs of the "Tima" (the Tujia-language term for shamans), the ethnic migration place names mentioned reach as far as "Shibi" Road and "Shipai" Dong (cave), but do not cross the confluence of the Yuan River and the Youshui. The Ba people who flowed into the Five Streams after Chu destroyed Ba, and the Jiangxi Peng clan who entered and ruled Xiangxi during the Five Dynasties, fused with the earliest local indigenous inhabitants to become the Tujia.
The Wuman Theory holds that the Tujia came from the eastward migration of the Wuman of the Yunnan-Guizhou area during the Tang dynasty. Its basis as recorded in the Fuxi Zhou Tongzhu Ji:"It is said that Qunke borders the region, and the legacy of Panhu persists; the six sons separated and lived apart, entering the Five Streams and forming clans."It is believed that the Tujia people came from Guizhou. Within Guizhou, there have always been"Bizi"ethnic group,"Biji"is the name of the White Lolo; Bijin and Biji are immediately Bizi, exactly the same as the self-designation of the Tujia. After the mid-Tang dynasty, the Yuexi area"Wuman"once invaded Guizhou,"Troops were dispatched repeatedly, invading thousands of li of territory", Part of the local indigenous people were conquered by them and became"Bai Luoluo"; Some of them struggled against them for a long time and were finally forced to move into western Hunan. The Wuman were the ancestors of today's Yi people, and the Tujia language is relatively close to the Yi language. Based on the above materials, as well as the fact that the Tujia and a branch of the Yunnan Yi share similarities or identical features in beliefs, burial customs, songs and dances, and taboos, and further corroborated by relevant documentary records, some people believe that the Tujia were formed by a branch of the Wuman who migrated eastward and merged with the indigenous people of the Wuling mountain area and the Ba people.
The Pluralistic Theory is worth mentioning: with the further deepening of Tujia studies, the pluralistic theory is gaining the agreement of more and more scholars. The so-called pluralistic theory means acknowledging both the leading position of the Ba people in the formation of the Tujia and also the corresponding position and role of the indigenous tribes, Han people, and other ethnic minorities in the Tujia region in the formation of the Tujia, holding that the Tujia gradually developed and formed through the Ba people's fusion with the local indigenous people and other ethnic groups. For example, some scholars have pointed out that "a branch of the ancient Ba people, as the main body, gradually fused with the surrounding other ethnic groups, and in the long river of history formed the Tujia." "The Tujia, as a stable ethnic community, also in the long course of historical development, with the indigenous Ba tribes living in the western Hunan-Hubei region as the main body, fused with certain clans and tribes of other ethnic groups such as the Han, Dan, and Wuman, and took mixed-blood form during the Tang and Song periods."
The main basis of the Pu People Theory is that the early human remains discovered archaeologically in the Tujia region differ from the archaeological Ba culture; from their cultural characteristics, they should be the culture of the southwestern Pu people. Therefore, the Pu people should be the earliest inhabitants of the Tujia region before the arrival of the Ba people, and the Pu people are the indigenous ethnic group of the Tujia region. Later, with the migration of the Ba people, the Pu and Ba fused, and only then gradually developed into the later Tujia. The Pu people's dwelling customs, weaving fine cloth, and obtaining cinnabar and other cultures are all manifested in Tujia culture.
In addition, regarding the ethnic origin of the Tujia, there are also the Jiangxi Theory, the Man Dan Theory, the Qiang People Theory, and others. The above theories on the ethnic origin of the Tujia all have value for continued exploration.
Based on historical documents, archaeological materials, and social and historical survey materials, we believe: the Tujia originated from the Ba people who, after Chu and Qin destroyed Ba, settled in the contiguous region of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou. However, before the records of Ba people's activities, there was already ancient human activity here; this region is one of the birthplaces of early human activity in China.