| The research object of this article is focus on Xifan(Hsifan) ethnic group in Northwestern Yunnan from the Yuan dynasty to the Qing dynasty. As an ethnic entity, Xifan is one of the descendant of Di and Qiang nationality which originated in Hehuang valley in Qinghai Province and spread over the Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan Province after the Tang and Song dynasty. Xifan ethnic group has complicated internal branches and was affected easily by the around ethnic groups especially the stronger one. And as an ethnic appellation, Xifan has multiple references in Chinese historical documents which referred to Tibetan, Xiqiang, Guzong, Baju and other ancient ethnic groups. Xifan in this article is mainly refers to Pumi ethnic groups which living in Yunnan Province today.Xifan migrated from Western Sichuan Plateau to Northwestern Yunnan in the Yuan dynasty with the Mongolian army which conquering Dali at that time. Then Xifan living together with the indigenous population and interacting with them. After hundreds of years of "localization", Xifan’s living method, customs and religious culture are different from the past and presents the trend of obvious cultural change and the characteristics of diversified development.In this paper, the author mainly used the literature analysis and comparative research method. The contents of this article involved the following aspects: discriminating the ethnic appellation of Xifan, introducing the geographic distributions and basic situations of Xifan, discussing the effects of ethnic interaction of Xifan, and the trend of obvious cultural change and the characteristics of diversified development of Xifan.Because of long time belongs to the "enclaves", there are few historical documents of Northwestern Yunnan and Xifan ethnic group. Limit to such objective conditions, there are few people doing researches with Xifan in this area especially the research of The history of Chinese Minority Nationalities, and this study would be a supplement. |
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