Origin and characteristics of the Liangshan Yi surname

The Liangshan Yi [1] surname produced much later than the Han surname, but it is still relatively early and mature than many ethnic groups at home and abroad that have not yet produced a surname. It is mainly manifested in a mature patriarchal society, a perfect marriage and wedding system, a strict system of non-marriage and foreign marriage with the same surname, a family tree system, and a strict family branch system. It is said that some experts deny that the Yi people only have father and son names and no surnames. Oh, my God! How can there be a father-son name without a surname? This is simply nonsense. Father-son joint name is only used to carry the family tree, usually only those famous figures are eligible for father-son joint name, generally which is eligible for father-son joint name. The father and son of the Yi people have names that are somewhat similar to those of the Han people.

(Photo: Flowers Bloom at That Time Author: Li Nan)

Surnames arose in the late patriarchal period, and no surnames existed in matriarchal societies. It is said that the surname of the Han people originated in the matrilineal era, so the surname of the surname has a female character next to it. However, from the history of the development of our Yi surnames, there is no legend of the existence of surnames in the matrilineal era, and only after the patrilineal line does the surname culture arise, or there is an immature and perfect existence. Therefore, the development of human society into a patriarchal society will generally produce the product of surname culture. Thus, patrilineal societies marked the beginning of a new civilization for humanity.

The Liangshan Yi have taken a big step in social change, such as other ethnic groups and other branches of the Yi have long entered the feudal serfdom or feudal landlord society, while the big and small Liangshan (referring to the Yi people around Xiaoliangshan and Liangshan in Yunnan) are still in the first class society of human society - slave society. However, the slave society of the Liangshan Yi people did not restrain the development and progress of the marriage of the Liangshan Yi people, on the contrary, she still kept pace with the times, such as the development history of seven major marriages from the primitive group marriage to the ancestral group marriage to the ancestral group, the marriage of the same ethnic group, the marriage of the same ethnic group, the polygamy system, the polygamy system, the polygamy system, the monogamy system, and other seven major marriage development history, and went through several major marriage stages. In summary, from matriarchy to patrilinealism. At present, although some nationalities at home and abroad have developed their social development to the feudal society before liberation, their marriage system is still in the primitive matrilineal marriage stage, and its main manifestation is that they only have a name but no surname, know their mother but do not know their father; the polygamous system prevails; and there is no perfect marriage ceremony. Some men marry women, rather than women marry men, etc. The above-mentioned primitive matrilineal and semi-matrilineal remnants of marriage customs are no longer visible in the Liangshan Yi marriage customs.

Let's return to the topic of the article title, and talk about the origin of the surname of the Liangshan Yi people in what forms are stated later.

Liangshan Yi surnames, like the surnames of other ethnic groups, are gradually formed from the upper to the middle and then to the lower levels, and the surnames of the Liangshan Yi people are gradually formed from the upper toast to the middle black Yi, to the lower white Yi, and finally to the slave dolls. Therefore, among the genealogies of all classes of the Liangshan Yi people, the genealogy history of Tusi is the longest, the longest is 50-60 generations, and the longest black Yi family tree is second only to Tusi, with nearly 60 generations[2], at least more than 30 generations. The White Yi (herein referring to yigen baiyi) has nearly 25 generations at its longest, and the fewer are around 15 generations. The so-called Hangen White Yi is actually not all han chinese, but the same people and foreigners captured by various other ethnic groups, including the Han people, in the foreign ethnic or wronged battles of the Yi people, have become the "Hangen White Yi" of the Liangshan Yi people. After liberation, most of them found their original surnames of the Yi people, and the non-Yi people who did not want to return also followed the surname of the original master, stayed, and assimilated into the Yi people.

Now let's talk directly about the origin of the surname of the Liangshan Yi people, and there are mainly several situations.

The origin of the surnames of Toast and Black Yi, because the author was not born in Toast or Black Yi, is not well understood, so it has to be briefly summarized from the surname of Bai Yi.

The population of Bai Yi accounts for more than 90% of the total population, about 3 million, plus about 4 million people of Black Yi and Tusi. It is more common for Bai Yi's surname to change from personal name (mainly nickname) to surname, and the number of surnames with multiple surnames is too numerous to mention, according to preliminary statistics, as many as 3,000 surnames [3]. The author has to state what he knows, summarize the following five sources, and introduce them one by one below.

The first source: occupation evolved into a surname. Anyone who engaged in cremation (the Liangshan Yi still prevailed cremation culture) later became the surname of "Qumo" (Yi for "cremation expert"). Because there are cremation experts everywhere, there are as many as 30 kinds of surnames with different ancestors with the same surname. In order to distinguish between the same surname and different ancestors, so as not to recognize the wrong family and not to open the wrong relatives. The professional surname of "Qumo" is preceded by the names of their respective ancestors, such as Molo Qumo, Aso Qumo, Geni Qumo, Washer Qumo, Nima Qumo, Lama Qumo, Shaze Qumo, etc. as I know it. Where the additional parts are different, they all belong to the same surname and different ancestors, all are foreign surnames, they can be opened, and all the additional parts are the same family door, and cannot be opened.

Second source: nickname evolved into a surname. The Yi people have the theory of changing the name to the surname, but it should be pointed out that it is not the name taken by the parents to change the surname, but the nickname changes the surname, such as the "Bajiu" surname, because its ancestors spoke directly and directly, a sentence through the buttocks, like a bamboo pole, so the nickname "Bajiu", later evolved into the surname of the descendants. After the descendants of the Bajiu surname have many branches and are widely distributed, some of their descendants will make their nicknames as surnames, forming a new surname, so there are Heibi, Heizhe, Aru, Abo, Ji'er, etc., plus Bajiu has a total of 6 kinds of families with different surnames and ancestors. Nicknames evolved into surnames, as exemplified, such as how old a person was because of his fat belly, so people gave him a nickname "Hai Lai"[4], and then this nickname became the surname of his descendants. It should be pointed out here that this is not the only two cases mentioned above, but only these two cases are represented due to space limitations.

The third source: the name of the father evolved into a surname. For example, the WengGu surname of the author's surname, after fleeing to the Black Yi Zhuer tribe for what crime the ancestor committed, hid in the forest, was found by a hunting Black Yi Zhuer surname, asked what his name was, and replied to "Li Guo", which means "rebel". Black Yi's back heard "Wenggu", he had to say yes, so he took him home, stayed as a helper to help Black Yi, became a family, "Wenggu" naturally became a name, also became the surname of his descendants, and also became one of the people with the surname of Black Yi Zhu'er. Later, another defector came to the same person with the same surname as the above-mentioned Black Yi Zhu'er, asked for his name, and replied that "Aku", also because of the back of his ear, he heard "Afu", and the man also said "Yes, it is called Afu", and from then on he was called "Afu", and he also became the helper of this black Yi, stayed, and later became one of the major people of this black Yi tribe, and "Afu" also became the surname of his descendants.

Fourth source: place names evolved into surnames. It is generally the evolution of surnames into place names, and there are cases where individual place names evolve into surnames. If a person looking for a place to live came from Ganluo (present-day Ganluo County, Liangshan Prefecture) to Xide (Xide County, Liangshan Prefecture, the author's hometown) near Xichang (Liangshan Prefecture Capital) in Donghe Township, the locals asked him where he came from, and he replied: "From Ganluo." Since then, the place name of Ganluo has become his new surname, and his original surname is ShazeQumo, and he has changed his surname, so he has become a new surname with the compound surname "Ganluo Qumo".

Fifth source: The surname of Toast evolved into the surname of Bai Yi. Some White Yi people made mistakes in the Tusi jurisdiction, fled the non-Tusi jurisdiction to find another place to live, and when they came to a place where they were not familiar with the place of life, they asked where they came from, and answered that from Ah Huo Jinyang, people knew that Ah Huo Jinyang belonged to the jurisdiction of Shama Tusi, so they all called him "Sha Ma", his original surname was "Qubi", so that later his surname became a compound surname with the word "Sha Ma Qubi". However, the Yi compound surname is different from the Han surname, the Han compound surname such as Ouyang surname as an example, Ou and Yang are his surnames, is a juxtaposition relationship, can not be separated. The compound surname of the Yi people, such as "Shama Qubi", is the surname of The Tusi, and Qubi is his own original surname. Usually only say one surname, you need to understand when you will use it, this situation, there are many formations. Those who come from the jurisdiction of Shama Tusi, such as the surname of Shamashyi, the surname of Shama Aku, and the surname of Wugu of Shama; those who come from the jurisdiction of Ama Tusi, such as the surname of Azagas, the surname of Achabuyo; the surname of Maheiji, the surname of Mahegaba, and the surname of Mahebo from the jurisdiction of Mahai Tumu, such as the surname of Moseji, the surname of Mose Aso, and the surname of Mose Omu. The situation is the same as the above-mentioned Shamaqubi surname, etc., so there is no need to repeat them all, and it can be understood by looking closely at the above, and so on.

Here are a few details that are relevant to this article:

1. How does the Liangshan Yi people know the surnames of different ancestors with the same surname and the surnames of the same surname: The difference between the different ancestors of the same surname in the Han nationality is distinguished by the text, such as the yáng surname as an example, when registering the name, the author does not know which yáng, the owner will tell that it is Muyi Yang or horned sheep. Different words are used, then the ancestors are different, and different surnames are also. Among the Yi surnames, the non-compound surname is obviously easy to understand, only those with compound surnames, such as Shama surname, Ma hei surname, A said surname, Mose surname, Qu Mo surname, Ergu surname and other surnames are due to different ancestors, when it is necessary to understand, it is necessary to ask what kind of Shama surname, what kind of Ma Hei surname, what kind of A said surname, what kind of Qu Mo surname, what Kind of Mo se surname, what Kind of Ergu surname, others can recognize their family or relatives from it.

2. On the issue of changing people's names to surnames: most of them evolve into surnames by nicknames, which are due to long-distance migration or defection, otherwise this is rarely the case, but over time, several brothers will evolve into several surnames. This situation exists not only for the Yi, but also for the Han. For example, the surname Sun comes from the surname of Ji, and uncle Kang's ninth grandson is called Huisun, so Wu Zhong, a descendant of Huisun, takes Sun as his surname.

3. There are phenomena of the same surname and the same ancestor in the Yi and Han surnames: for example, in the Han surnames, the Mongolian surname is the same ancestor [5], the Shi surname is Shuai and the same ancestor [6], the Zhuang surname Yan is surnamed Nian Tongzu [7]; the Zhang surname Zhang surname is yizu, the Cheng surname is a different ancestor, the Jiang surname Jiang is a different ancestor, and the Yang surname Yang is a different ancestor. Several of the Yi surnames of Shama, Qumo, Ergu, Mose, Mahei, and Azai are all of the same surname and ancestor; while the Bajiu surname, Heibi surname, Heiri surname, and Abo surname are the same ancestors, the Awu surname and the Jiyou surname are the same ancestor, the Ayu surname and the Arani surname are the same ancestor, and the number is innumerable.

exegesis:

[1] The "Liangshan Yi" referred to here does not actually refer to Liangshan Prefecture alone, but to all the Northern dialect-speaking "Nosu" Yi people outside Liangshan, with a population of about 4 million (including the Yi people in northeast Yunnan and northwestern Yunnan and all the prefectures and counties around Liangshan in Sichuan).

[2] The family tree of the Longyun family is as long as 60 generations, which is as old as the toshi surname. The Yi family tree is also called the father-son joint name system, such as the wood fire Yangtu - Yangtu Yangge - Yangge Shubu, always the name of the previous generation is connected to the name of the next generation, and so on.

[3] The large number of Yi surnames is not overpopulated, but there are too many duplicate surnames, that is, too many people with the same surname. As far as the author knows, there are 13 different names for the Gibb surname alone, which is the chaos caused by the change of personal name to surname, the Han nationality is 1.4 billion, there are only more than 500 surnames, and the Yi population is more than the Han?

[4] The Yi word for "sea" means big belly, and in today's terms it means "beer belly".

[5] [6] [7] Because after the two sons of the royal family divided the two lands into Two Domains, the fiefs were used as surnames. Zhuang, Yan, and Nian were originally Zhuang surnames, but the three surnames that were different due to avoidance were the same ancestors. The two surnames of Shi and Shuai were originally the same surname of Shi, but because of avoidance, they changed their surnames to two different surnames.

Author: Onguzino