Shuangbai County History
Shuangbai County (双柏县) is located in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China.Shuangbai County is the heartland of Yunnan province, the east of Ailao Mountain and lies on the south of the divide between the Jinsha River and the Red River. It is close to Yimen County, E’shan County and Xinping County of Yuxi district in the southeast.It connect with Lufeng County in the north,adjoining with Jingdong County and Zhenyuan County of Simao district in the west. Multiple minorities promote the colorful and long-standing history of Shuangbai county.
The History of Jinsha River
The Jinsha River (Chinese: 金沙江, p Jīnshājiāng, “Gold Dust River”) is the Chinese name for the upper stretches of the Yangtze River. It flows through the provinces ofQinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan in western China. The river passes through Tiger Leaping Gorge.It is sometimes grouped together with the Lancang (upper Mekong) and Nu (upper Salween) as the Sanjiang (“Three Rivers”) area,part of which makes up the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas.
The river was first recorded as the Hei (黑水, Hēishuǐ,lit. “Blackwater”) in the Warring States’ “Tribute of Yu”. It was described as the Sheng (t 繩水, s 绳水, Shéngshuǐ, “Rope River”) in the Han-era Classic of Mountains and Seas. During the Three Kingdoms, it was known as the Lu (t 瀘水, s 泸水,Lúshuǐ). The present name was adopted in during the Song dynasty.
Owing to earlier romanization systems, the river has been known as the Chin-sha Chiang and Kinsha Kiang (when it was not simply described as the Yangtze) in English sources for the last three centuries. The most common present name,Jinsha is the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the same Chinese characters as the other two.
Although the name is generally over-literally translated as the “Gold Sand” or “Golden-Sanded River”, the name is not poetic or descriptive of the color of the river’s banks. Instead, 金沙 described actual placer gold, alluvial gold powder sometimes still panned from the river’s waters.The Jinsha culture in prehistoric China derives its name from a road near its type site and not from the river directly.
The History of Yi Ethnic Group
Some scholars believe that the Yi are descended from the ancientQiang people of today’s western China, who are also said to be the ancestors of the Tibetan, Naxi and Qiang peoples. They migrated from southeastern Tibet through Sichuan and into the YunnanProvince, where their largest populations can be found today.
They practice a form of animism, led by a shaman priest known as the Bimaw. They still retain a few ancient religious texts written in their unique pictographic script. Their religion also contains many elements of Daoism and Buddhism.
Many of the Yi in Liangshan and northwestern Yunnan practiced a complicated form of slavery. People were split into the nuohuo or Black Yi (nobles), qunuo or White Yi (commoners), and slaves. White Yi were free and could own property and slaves but were in a way tied to a lord. Other ethnic groups were held as slaves.
