A book about the Red Yao

A book about the Red Yao 

Maybe the first comprehensive study completely dedicated to the Red Yao, the book is published with the clear purpose of cover all the aspects of The Red Yao life and culture. In the classical descriptive style common to most of the Chinese books about the nationalities and ethnic groups, this book follows a narrative that leads the reader from the simplest facts, as are their names, population, and distribution to the complex structures of their religious thought and from the history in remote times of the ancestors of the Red Yao to some characteristics of their contemporary society.

In the middle lies the whole culture and life of the Red Yao, arranged in chapters dealing with their geographical environment and natural resources (chapter 1), their origin and migrations (chapter 2), their historical development (chapter 3), their society in the socialist period (chapter 4), their cultural life (chapter 5), their marriage and family life (chapter 6), their art and literature (chapter 7), their religion (chapter 8), their festival culture (chapter 9) and their education and technology (chapter 10).

The chapter about their religion is divided into some sections describing their original religion, including nature cults (earth, thunder, water, stone, trees, rat, cow, tiger, and dog cults), ancestor cults; their Taoist shamans, their cult to King Pan, their divination and shamanist practices and their taboos.

The short paragraph about the tiger, ten lines of text, informs us that the cult of the tiger among the Red Yao was born from the fear and veneration they feel for the king of the beasts. In the back of the Red Yao women’s traditional dress, there are two marks representing the paws of the tiger. These marks must be present in all the traditional clothes of the Red Yao women. They symbolize the valor of people that can defeat the tiger, and as such receive a courteous treatment.

Su Weihong. Hong Yao lishi yu wenhua (Red Yao history and culture). Nationalities Press. Beijing, 2008

Back to Yao main page

To cite this post: Ceinos-Arcones, Pedro, "A book about the Red Yao," in Ethnic China, 3 marzo 2021, https://ethnic-china.com/a-book-about-the-red-yao/.
jinuo book

Last posts

Portrait of a Mandarin in 1800
Portrait of a Mandarin in 1800

Portrait of a Mandarin in 1800 This was the year in which a very interesting book was published, which through 60 portraits, tried to show some aspects of life in China to the western public. A book now in the public domain, from which we adapted "A Mandarin of...

The art of laying out gardens among the Chinese
The art of laying out gardens among the Chinese

The art of laying out gardens among the Chinese In the 1740s, William Chambers travelled on three trading voyages to China with the Swedish East India Company. He was the first European to study Chinese architecture methodically. In a book published in 1757, Designs...

The secret treasure of ancient Chinese art
The secret treasure of ancient Chinese art

The secret treasure of ancient Chinese art China has a fabulous artistic treasure hidden from the eyes of the public and specialists. It is her best kept treasure, because given the dispersion of its location, the difficulty of conservation and even evaluation and...

Pin It on Pinterest