Scheme of the history Yao

Yao thinks that Panhu is his ancestor. A mythical figure placed in the center of the most important myths of this people, that for proper Yao has had real existence. Most of the modern students agree with this traditional conception of the history, nevertheless while some think that Panhu lived in the epoch of king Ping of the dynasty Zhou of the West (VIIIth century B.C.), others think that his existence is very later, dating it of the first years of our age.

Possibly belong to the group of peoples named Shan Yue (Yue of the mountains) who were living to the south of the river Yangtze before the unification of China for the emperor Qinshihuang in 221 B.C. It seems that those years they were in the north of the province of Hunan, although one does not discard that they had emigrated to this region from areas nearer to the coast.

Towards the beginning of the IIIrd century, the end of the dynasty They Have in China it led to the division of the country in three independent kingdoms. The political instability in the north provoked a Chinese's important migration the basin of the river Yangtze. Simultaneously the systems established in the south, turned out to be forced to expand towards the grounds inhabited by not Chinese peoples, beginning a process of colonization of indigenous grounds that will last up to the present. Some of the indigenous inhabitants will mix with the Chinese newly arrived persons melting soon in the big tide of the Chinese people. Others, like Yao, will support his independence, turning out to be forced to leave the most fertile grounds, to emigrate on the south or to more and more abrupt and less productive areas. It is in these years when the contacts are intensified with the Chinese, the ancestors of Yao, perfectly separated from other peoples, it is named Moyao in the sources of the Chinese history.

About the VIIIth century they are already located to the south of Hunan, and to the north of Guangxi and Guangdong, since the chronicles of the dynasty Tang mention them in these regions. It is the result of the slow migrations of the previous centuries. The contacts with the Chinese are intensified, with them the first iron hardware comes to hands of Yao, what supposes a progress in his agriculture and craft. Although some of his tribes remain inside the forests supporting his traditional stock. The contacts with the Chinese increase during the following centuries. In fact the dynasty Song tries to them to integrate of marginal form in the administration of the state by means of the establishment of the system of the "Tuguan" between them. By means of that their own local leaders govern them on behalf of the emperor.

This system brings big benefits for the leaders, who see his supremacy recognized by the big emperor, and for the Chinese; but for the common people he supposes a regression, since they turn out to be forced to realize works and services for his "tuguan", transforming the ethnic solidarity of last times into a solidarity of class that only benefits the powerful ones.

The traditional democratic systems disappear for the Chinese influence. It is for it that many communities yao do not accept the system of "Tuguan", and move away from the Chinese returning to the abrupt areas, it recovers a simpler economic life based on the agriculture; that in many cases they support until the middle of the XXth century.

This alienation not always is pacific. It is possible to be said that the history of Yao is infested with attempts of dominating them on the part of the Chinese answered by numerous rebellions. Between the most important it is of the year 1043 in Guiyang (Hunan); that of the year 1327 in which it affected to the whole province of Guangxi and part of Hunan. The biggest of the rebellions perhaps is the one that began in Guangxi in 1371, like answer to the "migration to the tropics" and to the development of the tropical wood promoted during the dynasty Ming. It lasted more than 100 years.

In the XIXth century, the corruption of the Chinese officials of the dynasty Qing led to numerous rebellions, which although they were neither so violent nor multitudinous like those of the Miao, show that the situation of the minorities was deteriorating for all the regions. That's why the same. the deterioration of the economic situation of China after the defeat in the War of the Opium, which was not late in affecting to all the sectors of the population, supposed an impoverishment for Yao, which was evident in numerous riots and rebellions, these did not stop with the establishment of the Republic China, as they show the riots happened in the year 1926, 1929, 1933 and 1934.

From the foundation of the people's republic China Yao has begun enjoying autonomy in the regions that they inhabit. What on one hand it has taken them to a progress in his living conditions, prevents them to move away definitely, as they have done in the past, from the big current of the Chinese people. The distinctive elements of his culture and religion suffered the furious attacks of the Red Guards during the Cultural revolution. From the end of the same one there has happened an important resurgence of his culture and traditions, threats for the monetarización of the modern life and the temptation of turning his culture and traditions into object of tourist exchange.

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