Inside And Outside The She People:The Social Identities Of Mountain People In Southeast China

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty,Panhu stories began to attract the attention of Chinese literature writers.In the popular version at that time,Panhu had the dual identity of Huaxia hero and ancestor of "barbarian",which may actually reflect the relationship between the people who lived on the edge of the "Huaxia" order and the dynasty-state in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River since the pre-Qin period.During the Wei,Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties,the northern and southern regimes fought for each other in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River for a long time,and the influence of local strongmen was highlighted.Panhu stories were often quoted by regimes and their proxies as a way to distinguish between rival local powers and their subgroups.After the 6th century,as these people gradually turned into the "family and people" under the dynastic state,the records about the "barbarians" in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River gradually faded out of the mainstream literature.However,the "non-Chinese" groups associated with the stories of Panhu continued to emerge in southern China,and the abundant literature accumulated during the Han and Tang Dynasties made the stories of Panhu continue to be regarded by later generations as an important clue to trace the origin of the "non-Chinese" groups in southern China.In the 13 th century,a population who was known as "She" existed along the border of Fujian and Guangdong as rivals of the Southern Song Dynasty In the subsequent Song and Yuan wars,"She Army" became an important force against the Mongolian and Yuan armies,and its footprints once spread from the north of the Zhejiang-Anhui-Jiangxi border,south to the vast area of the South China Sea.In spite of the attempts made by the dynastic states to include them in the local books from the end of the Southern Song Dynasty,"She" was still active in the border areas of Fujian,Guangdong and Jiangxi until the 16 th century,challenging the dominance of the dynastic states there During the reign of Zhengde,the Ming government launched a large-scale military campaign against the "She" in the southern border of Fujian,Guangdong and Jiangxi.It strengthened the control of the community at the primary level by setting up new counties,installing inspection departments and implementing the "Shijia Pai".In the middle and late Ming Dynasty,some of the "She" members were transformed into "new people" in the state.Others continued to flow in the rapid development of the commodity economy at that time.During the Song and Ming dynasties,some of the "She" leaders used to call themselves "the descendants of Panhu" or "the descendants of Panwang" in order to unite the tribes in order to compete against the imperial state.However,the authenticity of the Panhu story was determined by the imperial state and its agents After the 16 th century,as the imperial state gradually occupied the advantage in the southeast,the idea of "She" as a descendant of Panhu began to be popular in the local Chronicles of Fujian and Guangdong and other geography.These documents describe the "She" as those who lived in the mountains,made their main livelihood out of hunting and farming and practiced intra-marital surnames.During the Ming and Qing dynasties,"She" was also referred to as the main disruptor of the local order in southern Zhejiang and eastern Fujian.To this end,local officials specially set up "She protection",elected "She old","She total" and so on to manage it.At the same time,local people with the names of Lan,Lei and Zhong also recognized the identity of "She-min".These people to the "She" contact Panhu story as the basis,to the local government to apply for free,get local officials support.Thus,the "She" of "non-Chinese" attributes gradually became a consensus in the border area between Zhejiang and Fujian.During the reign of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing,some She people at the border of Zhejiang and Fujian began to seek to enhance their social status through the imperial examination,but the "non-Chinese" attribute brought by Panhu story became the main obstacle for them to obtain the imperial examination qualification.However,in the Qing dynasty,non-Huaxia people were relatively open to participating in the imperial examinations,and thanks to strong support from local officials,the rights of the she-people in the imperial examinations were finally basically guaranteed.With the increasing competition between the She people and their neighbors,the need for organization became more and more urgent,and the story of Panhu was one of the main organizational resources that they could use.After the 18 th century,Panhu stories spread widely among the She people through ancestral maps,genealogy,ballads and oral stories,thus consolidating the ethnic identity and ethnic boundaries of "she".In the late Qing dynasty,the stratification of the She-people became more and more serious,and their demands were different.A few She elites on the ethnic stage tried to dilute or even erase the "She" of "non-Chinese" color,as to integrate into the mainstream political and cultural system at that time.Most of the She people still rely on Panhu stories to strengthen their kinema-like organizations in order to maintain their competitiveness in local society.Until the beginning of the 20th century,the ethnic She people in southern Zhejiang and eastern Fujian were still quite different from their neighbors in language,costumes,customs,and beliefs.With the introduction of the theory of "ethnic group" into China in modern times,these characteristics became the basis for scholars and politicians to identify "She ethnic group",hence the emergence of contemporary She ethnic group.