They have an epic styled Djiung-Ling
(Moso Division) recounting the invasion of part of Tibet by the Moso. The
Moso were submitted during the 8th century, by the King of Nan-Chao. They
have a special hieroglyphic scrip, a specimen of which has been given by
Deveria. (Frontiere, p. 166.) A manuscript was secured by Captain Gill,
on the frontier east of Li-t'ang, and presented by him to the British
Museum (Add SS. Or. 2162); T. de Lacouperie gave a facsimile of it.
(Plates I., II. of Beginnings of Writing.) Prince Henri d'Orleans and M.
Bonin both brought home a Moso manuscript with a Chinese explanation.
Dr. Anderson (Exped. to Yunnan, Calcutta, p. 136) says the Li-sus, or
Lissaus are "a small hill-people, with fair, round, flat faces, high
cheek bones, and some little obliquity of the eye." These Li-su or Li-sie,
are scattered throughout the Yunnanese prefectures of Yao-ngan, Li-kiang,
Ta-li and Yung-ch'ang; they were already in Yun-Nan in the 4th century
when the Chinese general Ch'u Chouang-kiao entered the country. (Deveria,
Front., p. 164.)
The Pa-y or P'o-y formed under the Han Dynasty the principality of
P'o-tsiu and under the T'ang Dynasty the tribes of Pu-hiung and of Si-ngo,
which were among the thirty-seven tribes dependent on the ancient state of
Nan-Chao and occupied the territory of the sub-prefectures of Kiang-Chuen
(Ch'eng-kiang fu) and of Si-ngo (Lin-ngan fu). They submitted to China at
the beginning of the Yuen Dynasty; their country bordered upon Burma
(Mien-tien) and Ch'e-li or Kiang-Hung (Xieng-Hung), in Yun-Nan, on the
right bank of the Mekong River.
