Of these are told
such loose tales as Polo tells of Tebet and Caindu.
[In the Topography of the Yun-nan Province (edition of 1836) there is a
catalogue of 141 classes of aborigines, each with a separate name and
illustration, without any attempt to arrive at a broader classification.
Mr. Bourne has been led to the conviction that exclusive of the Tibetans
(including Si-fan and Ku-tsung), there are but three great non-Chinese
races in Southern China: the Lolo, the Shan, and the Miao-tzu. (Report,
China, No. 1, 1888, p. 87.) This classification is adopted by Dr.
Deblenne. (Mission Lyonnaise.)
Man-tzu, Man, is a general name for "barbarian" (see my note in Odoric
de Pordenone, p. 248 seqq.); it is applied as well to the Lolo as to
the Si-fan.
Mr. Parker remarks (China Review, XX. p. 345) that the epithet of
Man-tzu, or "barbarians," dates from the time when the Shans, Annamese,
Miao-tzu, etc., occupied nearly all South China, for it is essentially to
the Indo-Chinese that the term Man-tzu belongs.
Mr. Hosie writes (Three years in W. China, 122): "At the time when Marco
Polo passed through Caindu, this country was in the possession of the
Si-fans.... At the present day, they occupy the country to the west, and
are known under the generic name of Man-tzu."
"It has already been remarked that Si-fan, convertible with Man-tzu, is
a loose Chinese expression of no ethnological value, meaning nothing more
than Western barbarians; but in a more restricted sense it is used to
designate a people (or peoples) which inhabits the valley of the Yalung
and the upper T'ung, with contiguous valleys and ranges, from about the
twenty-seventh parallel to the borders of Koko-nor. This people is
sub-divided into eighteen tribes." (Baber, p. 81.)
Si-fan or Pa-tsiu is the name by which the Chinese call the Tibetan tribes
which occupy part of Western China. (Deveria, p. 167.)
Dr. Bretschneider writes (Med. Res. II. p. 24): "The north-eastern part
of Tibet was sometimes designated by the Chinese name Si-fan, and Hyacinth
[Bitchurin] is of opinion that in ancient times this name was even applied
to the whole of Tibet. Si-fan means, 'Western Barbarians.' The biographer
of Hiuen-Tsang reports that when this traveller, in 629, visited Liang-chau
(in the province of Kan-Suh), this city was the entrepot for merchants from
Si-fan and the countries east of the Ts'ung-ling mountains. In the
history of the Hia and Tangut Empire (in the Sung-shi) we read, s.a.
1003, that the founder of this Empire invaded Si-fan and then proceeded
to Si-liang (Liang-chau). The Yuen-shi reports, s.a. 1268: 'The
(Mongol) Emperor ordered Meng-gu-dai to invade Si-fan with 6000 men.'
The name Si-fan appears also in ch. ccii., biography of Dan-ba." It is
stated in the Ming-shi, "that the name Si-fan is applied to the
territory situated beyond the frontiers of the Chinese provinces of Shen-si
(then including the eastern part of present Kan-Suh) and Sze-ch'wan, and
inhabited by various tribes of Tangut race, anciently known in Chinese
history under the name of Si Kiang.... The Kuang yu ki notices that
Si-fan comprises the territory of the south-west of Shen-si, west of
Sze-ch'wan and north-west of Yun-nan.... The tribute presented by the
Si-fan tribes to the Emperor used to be carried to the court at Peking by
way of Ya-chau in Sze-ch'wan." (Bretschneider, 203.) The Tangutans of
Prjevalsky, north-east of Tibet, in the country of Ku-ku nor, correspond to
the Si-fan.
"The Ta-tu River may be looked upon as the southern limit of the region
inhabited by Sifan tribes, and the northern boundary of the Lolo country
which stretches southwards to the Yang-tzu and east from the valley of
Kien-ch'ang towards the right bank of the Min." (Hosie, p. 102.)
[Illustration: Black Lolo.]
To Mr. E.C. Baber we owe the most valuable information regarding the Lolo
people:
"'Lolo' is itself a word of insult, of unknown Chinese origin, which
should not be used in their presence, although they excuse it and will
even sometimes employ it in the case of ignorant strangers. In the report
of Governor-General Lo Ping-chang, above quoted, they are called 'I,' the
term applied by Chinese to Europeans. They themselves have no objection to
being styled 'I-chia' (I families), but that word is not their native
name. Near Ma-pien they call themselves 'Lo-su'; in the neighbourhood of
Lui-po T'ing their name is 'No-su' or 'Ngo-su' (possibly a mere variant of
'Lo-su'); near Hui-li-chou the term is 'Le-su' - the syllable Le being
pronounced as in French. The subject tribes on the T'ung River, near Mount
Wa, also name themselves 'Ngo-su.' I have found the latter people speak
very disrespectfully of the Le-su, which argues an internal distinction;
but there can be no doubt that they are the same race, and speak the same
language, though with minor differences of dialect." (Baber, Travels,
66-67.)
"With very rare exceptions the male Lolo, rich or poor, free or subject,
may be instantly known by his horn. All his hair is gathered into a knot
over his forehead and there twisted up in a cotton cloth so as to resemble
the horn of a unicorn.
