A History of Daoism and the Yao People of South China By Eli Alb ...

Chapter One

Genealogy of a Label:
Center and Periphery

Introduction

This chapter documents the evolution of official categorization and characterization of peripheral peoples referred to as yao, who lived in the border areas just beyond the administrative units established by government troops and bureaucrats, at the limits of state control. Since the early Song Dynasty (960-1276) until the beginning of the twentieth century, the term yao was applied in official sources to certain people(s) inhabiting the region extending from modern day Hunan southward into northern Vietnam, and beyond. Was yao a label or an autonym?⁵⁸ Evidence in official sources suggests that it was initially an administrative and territorial category, and only later did it become an ethnic marker.

To date, Richard Cushman’s dissertation, “Rebel Haunts and Lotus Huts,”⁵⁹ has been the most comprehensive work on Yao ethnohistory,