M. Vial has also some interesting notes on a Kuei-chou tribe called the Chung-chia-tzŭ.[304] Their own tradition, he says, declares that they came from the province of Kiangsi more than eight hundred years ago, and conquered the Ke-lao. These latter are, perhaps, Marco Polo's Koloman or Toloman, who Yule thought might have been a tribe of Lolos.[305] The Chung-chia-tzŭ are different from any of the hill-tribes round them, and are apparently related neither to Lolos nor to Miao-tzŭ. According to Terrien de Lacouperie, they speak a dialect "much resembling the Siamese, of whom they are undoubtedly the elder brothers."[306] If that is so, the Chung-chia-tzŭ must be related to the Shans, for both Shans and Siamese belong to the widely-spread T'ai family. Mr Warry, it should be noticed, identifies the Chung-chia-tzŭ with the Miao-tzŭ,[307] yet from M. Vial we learn that they differ in manners, customs and language.[308]
MIAO-TZŬ, MO-SO AND LI-SO
Mr F. S. A. Bourne, a first-rate authority, classes the Miao-tzŭ by themselves, for he believes that exclusive of the Tibetans (embracing Hsi Fan, Ku-tsung and others) there are three great non-Chinese races in south China: Lolo, Shan and Miao-tzŭ. Whatever their origin may be, the Miao-tzŭ have succeeded in planting representatives of their race in various widely-separated localities. We have seen traces of them in Muli-land, west of the Yalung,[309] and they are also to be found as far south as the Lao states and as far east as Kuang-tung. They call themselves Mung, Hmung or Hmêng, and it has been suggested that they are an Indo-Chinese race connected with the Môns, Peguans or Talaings.[310] M. Vial says that the Miao-tzŭ of Kuei-chou believe that they came "from the East," which is vague. In all probability no surviving race has been settled in southern China for a longer period than the Miao-tzŭ, and no attempt to connect them with the surrounding races has yet been successful.
As regards the Mo-so and Li-so, the people of those tribes whom I met between Yung-ning and Li-chiang denied there was any connection between them, and both were strenuously opposed to the idea that they were in any way related to the Lolos. Such denials, however, do not go for much, especially in the case of people who are totally lacking in any historical sense. The Mo-so of Yung-ning told me that they were an immigrant race and originally came from Mongolia, but this may be the result of confused reminiscences of their relations with the Mongol armies between six and seven hundred years ago. It is a well-ascertained fact that the Mo-so once occupied a large portion of south-western Tibet, and indeed there is a kind of national epic celebrating their wars with the Tibetans. At Li-chiang, as stated above,[311] they founded a capital which was the centre of a powerful principality, and they still have a prince near the Mekong river, south of Tse-ku. At times under weak rulers they were subject to the suzerainty of the great Shan kingdom of Nan Chao, the capital of which was generally at Tali-fu or not far from it; but at other times they were practically independent of any external control. It was not till Kúblái brought his Mongol troops to Yunnan in order to break up the Nan Chao kingdom as a preliminary to the overthrow of the Sung dynasty in south China that the political power of the Mo-so was laid low. Kúblái, in order to avert the possibility of being taken in the rear by hostile tribes, turned aside from his direct march to Tali-fu in order to reduce the Mo-so. He captured Li-chiang and broke up the Mo-so power about the year 1253. He subsequently besieged and took Tali-fu. The pacification of the newly-conquered province was entrusted by Kúblái to his great Mongol general Uriangkadai, and was successfully accomplished. The Mo-so, Lolos and Shans were never again able, with any hope of success, to defy the power of the emperor of China.
MO-SO
The origin of the word Mo-so is unknown.[312] They call themselves Lashi or Nashi (the l and n being interchangeable), and the Tibetans call them Djiung.[313] Perhaps they are the descendants of the Jung tribes which, as stated above,[314] are mentioned in the Chinese classics as having frequently menaced the western frontier of China; though it seems more probable that the Jung were the ancestors of the Hiung-nu. In a recent geographical work on China[315] the Mo-so are not referred to with much appreciation. They are described as deceitful and shifty, and a proverbial saying is quoted to the effect that three Chinese are necessary to deceive one Tibetan, and three Tibetans to deceive one Mo-so. Most of the eastern Mo-so speak Chinese as well as their own language, which bears various resemblances to Lolo. When I pointed out to some Yung-ning Mo-so that many common words in their language were identical with Lolo words conveying the same meaning, they admitted the fact but vehemently denied that it betokened any racial affinity. This attitude may be due to the fact that the Mo-so, once a warlike race, have settled down quietly under Chinese rule as peaceful tillers of the ground, while the Lolos have earned the reputation of being lawless freebooters. The Mo-so resents being taken for a Lolo, just as a sturdy Dumfriesshire farmer—whose ancestor may have been an expert cattle-lifter—would resent being described as the scion of a race of highway robbers.
The Yung-ning district, as we have seen, still enjoys a measure of independence under a native prince on whom the Chinese long ago conferred the hereditary rank of prefect.[316] The Li-chiang district is now more directly under Chinese rule, but even there a Mo-so official or noble acts as a kind of assessor to the local Chinese mandarins, who are still regarded as the representatives of a foreign power. The Tibetan name for Li-chiang is Sa-T'am,[317] by which it is also known to the Mo-so.
LI-SO
The Mo-so under their different appellations (including Lashi or Nashi[318] and Djiung) are still a very numerous though not a homogeneous race, and perhaps deserve a more careful study than they have hitherto received. I am strongly inclined to think that it is this race which constitutes the predominant element in the population of Muli-land or Huang Lama. We have seen above[319] that the people of that region call themselves Njong, and I conjecture that this is simply a thinly-disguised form of Djiung. The nasal prefix is a quite frequent linguistic peculiarity in Chinese Tibet, and occurs in many Tibetan words. The ordinary word dro, "to walk," for instance, is almost invariably pronounced ndro.[320] It may be allowed, however, that the people of Muli have identified themselves more closely than their brethren of Yunnan with the predominant Tibetan race, and have come more directly under Tibetan influences in respect of language and religion. For the people of Muli-land are, as we have seen, Buddhists of the Tibetan type, whereas with the Mo-so of Yunnan Lamaism is only a veneer that covers an even more uncouth system of witchcraft and sorcery, founded on the pre-Buddhistic Bon-pa.[321]
The Li-so,[322] judging from their language only, would appear to be rather closer to the Burmese than to the Mo-so. In the Yung-ning district, however, Li-so and Mo-so live together on amicable terms, and both express contempt or hatred for the Lolos. The Li-so are quite as widely scattered as the Mo-so, and may be found, apparently, in the Shan States and the Kachin highlands as well as in Yunnan and Ssuch'uan. They appear to be very closely related to the La'hu of the British Shan States, and they evidently regard themselves as racially distinct from the Shans, for they refuse to ally themselves in marriage with that people.[323] The Li-so language was examined by Prince Henry of Orleans, who found it like that of the La'hu or Muh-sö and that of the Lolos. He records a tradition among the Li-so that they came originally from Nanking, on the lower Yangtse, "which accorded with a similar tradition among the Lolos."[324] The Li-so of Yung-ning, when questioned by me, gave themselves the name of Lu-su.