Aborigines, each with a separate name and
illustration, without any attempt to arrive at a broader classification.
Mr. Bourne has been led to the conviction that exclusive of the Tibetans
(including Si-fan and Ku-tsung), there are but three great non-Chinese
races in Southern China: the Lolo, the Shan, and the Miao-tzu. (Report,
China, No. 1, 1888, p. 87.) This classification is adopted by Dr.
Deblenne. (Mission Lyonnaise.)
Man-tzu, Man, is a general name for "barbarian" (see my note in Odoric
de Pordenone, p. 248 seqq.); it is applied as well to the Lolo as to
the Si-fan.
Mr. Parker remarks (China Review, XX. p. 345) that the epithet of
Man-tzu, or "barbarians," dates from the time when the Shans, Annamese,
Miao-tzu, etc., occupied nearly all South China, for it is essentially to
the Indo-Chinese that the term Man-tzu belongs.
Mr. Hosie writes (Three years in W. China, 122): "At the time when Marco
Polo passed through Caindu, this country was in the possession of the
Si-fans.... At the present day, they occupy the country to the west, and
are known under the generic name of Man-tzu."
"It has already been remarked that Si-fan, convertible with Man-tzu, is
a loose Chinese expression of no ethnological value, meaning nothing more
than Western barbarians; but in a more restricted sense it is used to
designate a people (or peoples) which inhabits the valley of the Yalung
and the upper T'ung, with contiguous valleys and ranges, from about the
twenty-seventh parallel to the borders of Koko-nor. This people is
sub-divided into eighteen tribes." (Baber, p. 81.)
Si-fan or Pa-tsiu is the name by which the Chinese call the Tibetan tribes
which occupy part of Western China. (Deveria, p. 167.)
Dr. Bretschneider writes (Med. Res. II. p. 24): "The north-eastern part
of Tibet was sometimes designated by the Chinese name Si-fan, and Hyacinth
[Bitchurin] is of opinion that in ancient times this name was even applied
to the whole of Tibet. Si-fan means, 'Western Barbarians.' The biographer
of Hiuen-Tsang reports that when this traveller, in 629, visited Liang-chau
(in the province of Kan-Suh), this city was the entrepot for merchants from
Si-fan and the countries east of the Ts'ung-ling mountains. In the
history of the Hia and Tangut Empire (in the Sung-shi) we read, s.a.
1003, that the founder of this Empire invaded Si-fan and then proceeded
to Si-liang (Liang-chau). The Yuen-shi reports, s.a. 1268: 'The
(Mongol) Emperor ordered Meng-gu-dai to invade Si-fan with 6000 men.'
The name Si-fan appears also in ch. ccii., biography of Dan-ba." It is
stated in the Ming-shi, "that the name Si-fan is applied to the
territory situated beyond the frontiers of the Chinese provinces of Shen-si
(then including the eastern part of present Kan-Suh) and Sze-ch'wan, and
inhabited by various tribes of Tangut race, anciently known in Chinese
history under the name of Si Kiang.... The Kuang yu ki notices that
Si-fan comprises the territory of the south-west of Shen-si, west of
Sze-ch'wan and north-west of Yun-nan.... The tribute presented by the
Si-fan tribes to the Emperor used to be carried to the court at Peking by
way of Ya-chau in Sze-ch'wan." (Bretschneider, 203.) The Tangutans of
Prjevalsky, north-east of Tibet, in the country of Ku-ku nor, correspond to
the Si-fan.
