Controversy of Nanzhao

Controversy of Nanzhao is an issue regarding the ethnicity or cultural affiliation of the rulers of the Nanzhao kingdom (738-902) in what is now Yunnan, southwestern China.

Background

British Clergy David proposed that the Kingdom of Nanzhao was founded by Thai, who fled to the south as a result of Mongolian Invasion in mid-14th century. The Thai's early history documents were destroyed during wars with Burma, therefore this theory was quickly taken by Thai people and the World.

Chinese scholars refuted this theory, but they did not take much efforts to clarify the exact ethnicity of the people who ruled the Kingdom.

Some scholars did not agree and they believed that the royal family were of Yi people.

Hypotheses

Tai

The Englishman David proposed that Nanzhao was established by Tai peoples and moved southward to escape invading Mongolian Armies.

The main evidence was that David collected many Bai language vocabularies and compared them with other languages. He found that there were six of them apparently related to the Mon-Khmer languages, to which the Thai language belongs. He thus drew a conclusion that Nanzhao was previously a Tai kingdom.

The clothing, gesture and architecture depicted in old Nanzhao scroll paintings (南诏画卷) are distinctively Thai.

Yi

Some Chinese scholars believed that Nanzhao was founded by the Meng family who were Yi people. Evidence was mainly based on the book Manshu (蛮书) written by Fan Chuo in 863. The central evidence of the Yi theory is that Manshu indirectly mentioned that the royal family was of Wu Man ("the wu barbarians"), and Wu Man ("the wu barbarians") were tentatively identified as Yi people.

The main flaws of this theory are:

• Nanzhao family and the entirely Kingdom were Buddhist, whereas modern Yi people are not typically Buddhist.
• Nanzhao was a sinophilic Kingdom, which actively learned and emulated the Chinese system, whereas Yi people were culturally conservative and resisted Chinese Culture.
• Nanzhao used Chinese heavily. No Yi script has been found in Nanzhao documents and relics. Yi people use the Yi script.

Bai

It has been traditionally believed and is increasingly re-believed by many that Nanzhao was founded and made up as mainstream the Bai people. According to a number of historical documents, Nanzhao was of Bai nature and certainly the ruling class were Bai, too.

Evidence:

• Nanzhao was a Buddhist country. Bai people were well-known to be the only Buddhists over a long period of time in history. Even now Buddhists are rare amongst Yi people.
• Many names about cities, towns and culture from Nanzhao were obviously Bai language.
• History books written in Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasty agreed that the royal family were Bai people, which was also supported by Tibetan and Arabic materials generated at same period.