Tujia people

The Tujia (Northern Tujia: Bifjixkhar / Bifzixkar, IPA:, Southern Tujia: Mongrzzir, ; ) are an ethnic group and, with a total population of over 8 million, the eighth-largest officially recognized ethnic minority in the People's Republic of China. They live in the Wuling Mountains, straddling the common borders of Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou Provinces and Chongqing Municipality.

The endonym Bizika means "native dwellers". In Chinese, Tujia literally means "local families", in contrast to the Hakka, whose name literally means "guest families" and implies migration.

Origins
Although there are different accounts of their origins, the Tujia may trace their history back over twelve centuries and possibly beyond, to the ancient Ba people who occupied the area around modern-day Chongqing some 2,500 years ago. The Ba Kingdom reached the zenith of its power between 600 BC and 400 BC but was destroyed by the Qin in 316 BC.

After being referred to by a long succession of different names in ancient documents, the Tujia appeared in historical records from about 14th century onwards.

Ming and Qing dynasties
The Tujia tusi chieftains reached the zenith of their power under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when they were accorded comparatively high status by the imperial court. They achieved this through their reputation as providers of fierce, highly disciplined fighting men, who were employed by the emperor to suppress revolts by other minorities. On numerous occasions, they helped defend China against outside invaders, such as the wokou ("Japanese" pirates) who ravaged the coast during the 16th century.

The Manchus invaded and conquered the Ming in 1644 and established the Great Qing Empire, known in China as the Qing dynasty. Ever suspicious of local rulers, the Qing emperors always tried to replace Han officials with Manchu officials wherever they could. In the early 18th century, the Qing court finally felt secure enough to establish direct control over minority areas as well. This process, known as gaituguiliu (literally 'replace the local [ruler], return to mainstream [central rule]'), was carried out throughout South-West China gradually and, in general, peacefully. The court adopted a carrot and stick approach of lavish pensions for compliant chieftains, coupled with a huge show of military force on the borders of their territories.

Most of the Tujia areas returned to central control during the period 1728–1735. While the rule of the Qing government was more orderly compared to the rule of chieftains, many in the Tujia peasantry came to resent the attempts of the Qing court to impose national culture and customs on them. With the weakening of central Qing rule, numerous large-scale uprisings occurred, culminating in the violent Taiping Rebellion.

Recent history


Following the collapse of the Qing, the Tujia found themselves caught between various competing warlords. More and more land was given over to the cultivation of high-earning opium at the insistence of wealthy landlords and banditry was rife. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Tujia areas came under communist control and banditry was rapidly eradicated. The Great Leap Forward led to mass famine in Tujia communities.

The Tujia were officially recognized as one of the 55 ethnic minorities in January 1957 and a number of autonomous prefectures and counties were subsequently established.

State Councillor Dai Bingguo, one of China's top officials on foreign policy, is the most prominent Tujia in the Chinese government.

Culture
Today, traditional Tujia customs can only be found in the most remote areas.

The Tujia are renowned for their singing and song composing abilities and for their tradition of the Baishou dance (摆手舞), a 500-year-old collective dance which uses 70 ritual gestures to represent war, farming, hunting, courtship and other aspects of traditional life. They are also famous for their richly patterned brocade, known as xilankapu, a product that in earlier days regularly figured in their tribute payments to the Chinese court. For their spring festival they prepare handmade glutinous rice cakes called ciba cake. They gather round the fire to sing folk songs and eat grilled ciba.

Regarding religion, most of the Tujia worship a white tiger totem, although some Tujia in western Hunan worship a turtle totem.

Language
Tujia is a Sino-Tibetan language and is usually considered an isolate within this group. It has some grammatical and phonological similarities with Nuosu, though its vocabulary is very different.

Today there are at most 70,000 native speakers of the Tujia language, most of whom live in the northern parts Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in North-Western Hunan Province.

The vast majority of the Tujia use varieties of Chinese, mainly Southwestern Mandarin; a few speak Hmongic languages. Few monolingual Tujia speakers remain; nearly all are bilingual in some dialect of Chinese. Children now learn Chinese from childhood and many young Tujia prefer to use Chinese when communicating among themselves. Among fluent Tujia speakers, Chinese borrowings and even sentence structures, are more common.

By province
The Fifth National Population Census of 2000 recorded 8,028,133 Tujia in China.
 * Provincial Distribution of the Tujia:

In Chongqing, Tujia make up 4.67% of the total population; in Hunan, 4.17%; in Guizhou, 4.06%; in Hubei, 3.66%; and in Guangdong, 0.16%.

By county





 * County-level distributions of the Tujia

(Only includes counties or county-equivalents containing >0.5% of China's Tujia population.)

Famous Tujia

 * Zhuodiao Kuang, Biostatistian
 * He Long
 * Dai Bingguo
 * Lan Xiya, actress
 * Leo Li
 * Liao Guoxun
 * Ren Zhenhe, Governor of Gansu
 * Shang Chunsong
 * Shen Mengchen
 * Tian Tao, Olympic weightlifter
 * Zhou Xianwang, Mayor of Wuhan
 * Zhou Yiwei, actor
 * Zhang Ju, musician
 * Huang Yongyu, painter
 * Xiang Xuan