Tujia | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The Tujia are the eighth-largest ethnic group in China; numbering 5.7 million, they are more numerous than the better-known Mongols and Tibetans. Settlements of the Tujia are distributed over western Hunan and western Hubei provinces, as well as in several autonomous counties under the jurisdiction of Chongqing municipality.

Some linguists consider the Tujia language to be part of the Yi language branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. According to others, however, although the Tujia language shares some characteristics with the Yi languages, those characteristics are not enough to make the Tujia a member of that branch. Nonetheless, it is beyond question that the language, like those in the Yi branch and some others, belongs to the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family. The language has no written form.

Chinese is the dominant language used by the Tujia; many Tujia speak nothing but Chinese. Some are bilingual, speaking both Chinese and Tujia. A number also speak the language of the Miao (known outside of China as the Hmong), one of their immediate neighbors. Less than 200,000 Tujia still rely on the Tujia language as their major means of communication.

In their own language, the Tujia call themselves Bidzih-ka. In history, they were called various names by their neighbors, based on perceived ethnic markers or distinguishing signs, such as their totem (the white tiger, at one time the totem of their chief), or names of rivers or places where they lived. The name "Tujia" came into being in the late seventeenth century when a large number of Han Chinese (the Chinese ethnic majority people) migrated into the Tujia area. The term, which means "aboriginal families" in Chinese, was coined to distinguish the natives from the immigrants. This name did not become official until October 1956, when the Tujia were granted the status of "unitary ethnic group" (danyi minzu) by the Chinese government.

The early history of the Tujia is a matter of dispute. Based on clues in Chinese historical literature, some scholars believe that the Tujia are descendents of the Ba, a tribe extinguished by the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE). Based on linguistic characteristics and some customs that are close to the Yi in Yunnan, on the other hand, some scholars think that the ancestors of the Tujia are the wuman or "black barbarians," who lived in southwestern China. The fact that in the 1970s two significant Neolithic sites were found in Tujia area suggests that those regions were inhabited as early as the prehistoric period.

The picture since the Later Han dynasty (25–220 CE) is much less uncertain. Located close to the great historical powers, the Tujia have a longer history of involvement in China's national politics than many other Chinese minorities. As early as the tenth century, so-called bridled and tethered prefectures (jimi fuzhou), or native tributary administrations, were established in the area. The establishments were converted into a system of native chieftains (tusi zhidu) in the thirteenth century. Under this system, minority areas in the Chinese empire were ruled by families of native chieftains instead of officials appointed by the central government. This system lasted in the Tujia area until 1723.

Conflict was the keynote of the recorded early history of interactions between the ancestors of the Tujia and Chinese society. With the establishment of the tributary system and the subsequent system of native chieftains, the Tujia became increasingly sinicized. During the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties, a considerable number of Tujia soldiers, called different names at different times, were sent to coastal areas to fight against the Japanese and British invaders.

In the meantime, many upper-class Tujia received a Confucian education and entered the gentry-scholar rank. Some accomplished poets and scholars of the Tujia gained national reputations. When the nativechieftain system was abolished in the eighteenth century, some Tujia customs and conventions were condemned as "corrupted" or "ugly" and were reformed by force. As a result, the Tujia were further assimilated, and many of their ethnic characteristics were lost.

Love-based marriage was a tradition among the Tujia. In recent centuries until the early 1950s, however, parental approval had become a norm, and wealth and social status became decisive factors. Cross-cousin marriage (a preferential rule requiring marriage between cross-cousins—mother's father's brother or father's sister's daughter if such a person is available) and levirate (the custom whereby a man marries the widow of his deceased brother) are commonly practiced among the Tujia. In some areas, maternal parallel-cousin marriage (a convention in which one marries an opposite-sex child of one's mother's sister) is also practiced.

Seniority of age is highly venerated by the Tujia. Elderly men and women are respected and treated well while alive, and elaborate funerals are held at their death. Mortuary ritual is also held for people who die at a younger age, but with less care and expense. No ceremony is held for the death of a child.

There is no organized religion among the Tujia. Their faith, a mixture of animism, ancester worship, and worship of deified deceased chiefs and heroes, has apparently been influenced by the folk religion of the neighboring Han Chinese.

The Tujia have a long tradition of sophisticated folk arts. Over seventy prescribed movements are available for dancers of the popular bai shou wu ("hand waving dance") to depict such things as hunting, agricultural activities, battling, and feasting. Legends tell about the genesis and migration of their ancestors as well as their aspirations for and fantasies about the ideal life. Almost every Tujia is an accomplished singer of improvised or traditional ballads, which cover all aspects of daily life and feeling.

The traditional Tujia economy is diversified. Agriculture in narrow strips of terraced fields is complemented by logging, hunting, fishing, and growing or working on cash crops. The Tujia are also known for their traditional weaving, knitting, and embroidery. A variety of light and heavy industries have been developed in the Tujia area, and Jishou University was established there in 1958. In the past two decades, over 95 percent of Tujia children received at least primary education.

Zhou, Minglang. (1998) "Majority Language Spread versus Minority Language Loss in China—A Case Study of Tujia." In Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives on Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages, edited by Tom Ammerlaan, et al. Münster, Germany: Waxman.

Wu Yongzhang. (1988) Zhongguo tusi zhidu yuanyuan yu fazhan shi (History of the Origin and Development of the Chinese Native Chieftain System). Chengdu, China: Sichuan minzu chubanshe.

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