A Brief Account of China's Yi Villages

Notes on the Yi Villages in China—Inspection Report on Guoditang Content summary: The Yi ethnic group is the sixth largest ethnic minority in China, mainly distributed in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and other places. The current population of the Yi ethnic group in China is more than 980,000. Mr. Qian Junhua, a sociologist from Shanghai, went to Weixi County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province in October 2022, and conducted fieldwork in Guoditang, a Yi village. The Yi villagers in Guoditang have a long history and rich culture, especially their unique genealogy culture. In interviews with the chiefs and villagers of the Yi people in Guoditang, the author learned about the rich history and culture of the Yi people as well as the current living conditions of the Yi people. This book uses prose writing to record the genealogy culture, folk customs, marriage and family of the Yi people for more than two thousand years. During the formation of the history of the Yi people, different levels emerged, including chieftain, black Yi, white Yi, and slaves. Among them, the white Yi had the largest number. The Bai Yi are free people among the Yi people. In order to get rid of the oppression from the upper class, they keep migrating. During the continuous migration of the Bai Yi, many wonderful stories happened. This book records their history. Guoditang is a pure Yi village with a total of 110 Yi families. In order to protect the blood of their own ethnic group, they practice intermarriage within the Yi ethnic group and do not intermarry with other ethnic groups such as the Han ethnic group. In terms of family marriage, many interesting phenomena have emerged. Men get married as soon as they reach their age, and women get married as soon as they reach their age. There are no leftover men or women. This book analyzes their marriage system.