Yao nationality is one of the oldest ethnic groups in China. The ethnic languages belong to the Yao language branch of the Miao Yao language family of the Sino Tibetan language family, the Miao language branch of the Miao Yao language family of the Sino Tibetan language family, and the Dongshui language branch of the Zhuang Dong language family of the Sino Tibetan language family.
Yao nationality is one of the ancient oriental “Jiuli”. It is the most widely distributed ethnic minority in South China and one of the oldest ethnic groups in China. It is said that Yao nationality is the descendant of three princesses, the daughter of Panhu and DIHE.
Yao people are widely distributed in Asia, Europe, the United States, Australia, and other continents. The main ethnic group is in China, and they are distributed in more than 130 counties in Guangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Jiangxi provinces (regions), of which Guangxi is the most.
Yao doctor
Yao people live in a deep mountain and dense forest, with a changeable climate and full of miasma. They often fight against beasts, poisons, and various plague diseases. They have accumulated rich experience and technology in treating bone fracture, insect claw injury, and prevention and control of various diseases, forming a unique Yao medicine.
For example, the medicine bath from Jiangpan Yao is more famous. The medicine bath medicine water is made up of dozens of herbs on the Yao mountain. There is a whole set of techniques for the digging and brewing of herbal medicines, which requires mastering the growth direction of herbs, the season of digging, the temperature of the hot weather, the duration of boiling and bathing, etc. It can dispel fatigue, relax meridians and activate collaterals, prevent cold and wind, treat skin diseases, boils, and tumors, rheumatism, arthritis, gynecology diseases, etc. Yao folk herbal medicine, mostly with a single, test, a single treatment of one or more diseases. Most of the technology is ancestral, father to child, child to child, and mostly single-handed down, some of them are not to be passed on to daughter-in-law.
In history, Yao people have no own words. The way of Yao medicine is all handed down by mouth, medicine, and finger disease. In the practice of drug collection and treatment, Yao people gradually master the names, forms, and functions of various herbs, and learn various secret prescriptions, test methods, and usage methods.
Diet
Yao people mainly eat corn and rice.
Lingnan is warm in all seasons and suitable for vegetable growth. The garden is evergreen in winter and summer. People can eat fresh and tender vegetables all year round, such as mustard, cabbage, radish, pepper, eggplant, etc.; melon and beans, such as pumpkin, cucumber, wax gourd, beans, soybeans, rice beans, etc.; meat, such as pork, chicken, duck, beef, mutton, etc; There are lard, peanut oil, tea oil, sesame oil, sunflower seed oil and so on.
In northern Guangxi, rape is popular among some Yao people, that is to say, the tea is fried with oil and then fried into a thick soup, seasoned with salt, and then used to brew fried rice flowers and soybeans. Some of them have a special flavor and take the place of lunch. Eating “meat mountain” is a special way for Yao people in Jinxiu of Guangxi to entertain guests when they make “Three Dynasties” for their children. Meat mountain is generally composed of nine layers of dishes, the bottom layer is composed of bamboo shoots, mushrooms, vegetables, pig intestines, pork, etc.; the second and fourth layers are lean meat, pig liver, pig belly, etc., each piece is as big as a palm; the third and fifth layers are fat meat slices; the top layer is covered with a piece of fat meat weighing about two Jin. The whole “meat mountain” weighs more than 20 jin. It is installed in a dustpan. Guests sit around the “meat mountain” and take what they need.
Most of the Yao people have the habit of avoiding eating dog meat, even if cooking, it must be done outside the house.
Clothes & Accessories
Yao people like to have long hair. In ancient books, there are records of Yao people’s men and women storing their hair and curling their heads, which is called “Ji Ji”. According to the Chinese historical records, as early as in the book of the later Han Dynasty, there is a record of Yao’s ancestors’ “good five color clothes”. Later historical records also contain that the Yao people have “bare feet and colorful clothes”.