History of the Six Ancestors in Yi Script

Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Jiaqing period (1796–1820), dated 1814

Manuscript copied by Shu Gejiao, ink on paper; 7 columns per page, read from right to left, with varying numbers of characters per column; some pages of text missing or partially missing; 12 illustrations appended at end of text

Wuding, Yunnan Province

Overall dimensions of volume: 26.7 x 18.8 cm; stitchbound on right edge

Inventory number: 452

The Yi people, also known as the Lolo, are one of the largest national minority groups in China.  Primarily farmers, they now number around 6.5 million and live mostly in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou as well as in Guangxi.  Yi is a Tibeto-Burman language with an indigenous logographic script, in which every letter represents a syllable that is also a morpheme.  Traditional Yi script is now obsolescent, having been replaced by a fairly recently invented mode of writing.

The History of the Six Ancestors is an invaluable genealogical work that contains both matrilineal and patrilineal records.  This manuscript copy was made in 1814 and is written in vertical columns from right to left.  Five-character verses are predominant, with a number of long and short phrases interspersed throughout.  The text tells the story of the founding Yi ancestor, Dumu, who went to Mount Luoni seeking refuge from a flood and ended up marrying the daughters of three important clans.  Six sons—Mu'aqie, Mu'aku, Mu'are, Mu'awo, Mu'ake, and Mu'aqi—issued from these unions; they went on to establish the six principal lineages of the Yi people, the Wu, Zha, Ni, Heng, Bu, and Mo, respectively.  Although the text is historical, it is written with great literary flourish and is executed in a fine calligraphic style.