"Tibetan-Yi Corridor" is a concept of ethnic regions proposed by Mr. Fei Xiaotong, which mainly refers to the alpine and canyon regions of Sichuan, western Yunnan and the Hengduan Mountains in eastern Tibet.

Because there are six major rivers, Nu River, Lancang River, Jinsha River, Yalong River, Dadu River and Min River, flowing from north to south, forming a number of natural river valley passages running from north to south. , It is also an important channel to communicate with the Northwest and Southwest ethnic groups.

In addition, the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is the main stage of Tibeto-Burman ethnic activities. There are many kinds of ethnic groups and complex branches. It also has outstanding diversity and complexity and is a uniquely valuable ethnic region.

Origin: Geographical Pattern of "Northern Tibet" and "Southern Yi"

　　Fei Xiaotong called it the "Tibetan-Yi Corridor" because the distribution of ethnic groups in this area is mainly in the pattern of "Northern Tibetan" and "Southern Yi".

The regional concept of "Tibetan-Yi Corridor" has a big background, that is, at the beginning of the reform and opening up around 1980, when all walks of life in Chinese society were waiting for prosperity and flourishing, Fei Xiaotong, who had gained a second academic life, was thinking about a problem ——How to carry on the past and open up the future of ethnic studies in our country?

Any continuation of the past is inseparable from the reflection and summary of the past, and people always find the way to the future in the "past".

In his reflection, he found that the previous ethnic studies had two major drawbacks. One was to conduct ethnic studies according to administrative divisions, and the other was to conduct ethnic studies according to a single ethnic unit.

In view of this, Fei Xiaotong put forward two basic ideas for opening up a new situation of ethnic studies in China, one is to carry out ethnic studies in accordance with "historically formed ethnic regions", and the other is to carry out ethnic studies from the perspective of the entire region of the Chinese nation.

The proposal of the "Tibetan-Yi Corridor" as a separate ethnic region is precisely the result of Fei Xiaotong's view of it as a "historically formed ethnic region".

Therefore, the regional concept of the "Tibetan-Yi Corridor" came into being at an important turning point in Chinese ethnic studies, and it marked two major shifts in Chinese ethnic studies: one is the shift from administrative divisions to "historically formed ethnic areas" The second is to shift from the study of a single ethnic group to pay more attention to the communication and integration between ethnic groups.

At that time, Fei Xiaotong initially divided the entire region of the Chinese nation into "six major plates" and "three corridors". The "six major plates" refer to the grassland area in the north, the alpine forest area in the northeast, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the southwest, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and the coastal areas. , the Central Plains region; the "three corridors" are the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, the Nanling Corridor and the Hexi Corridor.

Therefore, the proposal of the regional concept of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is a sign of a new stage of Chinese ethnic studies from the perspective of the overall geographical pattern and the region where the Chinese nation is located, and it is also a beginning of a new situation in Chinese ethnic studies from the perspective of the ethnic corridor.

　　Once the regional concept of "Tibetan-Yi Corridor" was put forward, it received enthusiastic responses from the ethnological circles.

In 1981, the Southwest China Society for Ethnic Studies held its inaugural meeting in Kunming. At the meeting, under the advocacy of senior scholars such as Ma Wei, Li Shaoming, Tong Enzheng, He Yaohua, Yu Hongmu, etc., it was decided to respond to Fei Xiaotong's call and carry out the "Six River Basin Ethnic Comprehensive This is the first large-scale comprehensive investigation of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor area, which not only achieved gratifying results, but also strongly promoted the transformation of ethnic studies in my country.

In the 1990s, the Tibetan-Yi Corridor has gradually become a hot spot in ethnic studies in my country.

In 1992, Fei Xiaotong wrote a congratulatory letter to the first national conference on the Tibetan-Yi Corridor "Tibetan-Yi Corridor: A Symposium on History and Culture" held in Chengdu. Scholars, anthropologists, and ethnic historians can see the history of cultural exchanges between ethnic groups and the crystallization of this history. Thus, they can have a more vivid understanding of the "pattern of pluralistic unity of the Chinese nation." This is the Tibetan-Yi Corridor in An objective and accurate summary of status and value in Chinese ethnic studies.

In this sense, the study of the value of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is by no means a matter of fact, let alone a "corridor" in terms of the "Tibetan-Yi Corridor". Through the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, we can understand "the history of cultural exchanges between ethnic groups and the crystallization of this history. Thus, we can have a more vivid understanding of the 'pattern of pluralistic unity of the Chinese nation'".

Therefore, for the significance and value of the study on the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, we need to understand and understand it from the perspective of the pluralistic unity of the Chinese nation and from the overall region of the Chinese nation.

Since the reform and opening up, the research on the Tibetan-Yi Corridor has continued to heat up. The fundamental reason is that the research on the Tibetan-Yi Corridor has created a new paradigm and new pattern of Chinese ethnic studies.

Echo: Grasp the "Tibetan-Yi Corridor" from a larger perspective

　　If we look at the Tibetan-Yi Corridor in a larger perspective, the geographical pattern of China and even the entire region of the Chinese nation, what can we see?

This is an important perspective to understand the significance and value of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor.

　　First of all, the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is a large ethnic connection zone between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and the Sichuan Basin.

The area of ​​the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau accounts for about a quarter of China's land area. The terrain of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau slopes from northwest to southeast and gradually declines.

Such a topographical structure has brought about a result: it has reduced the altitude of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor area step by step, becoming a geographical transition and connection zone between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and the Sichuan Basin.

Due to the gradual decrease in altitude, this area has become an area suitable for the life of many ethnic groups in the Southwest.

Therefore, in history, many ethnic groups distributed in Sichuan and Yunnan have continuously migrated, moved, and infiltrated this area, making it an area where many ethnic groups meet and intermingle, and it also becomes an area where Tibetans and Southwest ethnic groups meet and connect.

Fei Xiaotong believes that in the Tibetan-Yi Corridor we can see the epitome of the exchanges and integration of the Chinese nation, precisely in this sense.

　　Secondly, from a north-south perspective, the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is an important historical area for communication and contact between the northern and southern ethnic groups in China.

The main ethnic group in the Tibet-Yi Corridor is the Tibeto-Burman language group, which mainly includes the Tibetan, Yi and Qiang language groups. The origin of the Tibeto-Burman language group is the present-day Ganqing-Hehuang area, and the Neolithic age diverged from the Chinese language group and the Tibeto-Burman language group. Since then, the ancestors of the Tibeto-Burman language group migrated southward along the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, and gradually spread in the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, Vietnam, Myanmar and other Southeast Asian regions.

Today, Yunnan is known as "China's National Museum" because of its large number of ethnic groups. The reason is that Yunnan is a region where two major ethnic systems in China meet. One is the Baiyue ethnic system that flows from east to west, and the other is the ethnic system that flows from north to south The Tibeto-Burman language ethnic system, the two major ethnic systems converged in Yunnan, and many ethnic groups were derived and differentiated.

　　If we look at it from a larger perspective, from the perspective of China’s historical evolution and geographical space, there is another important reason for the formation of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor multi-ethnic intersection pattern—it is located at the southern end of the half-moon cultural transmission belt from northeast to southwest in China.

"Half-moon cultural transmission belt from northeast to southwest" is an important cultural phenomenon discovered and proposed by Tong Enzheng. There are many commonalities in terms of rainfall and agricultural-pastoral economic types.

Therefore, the half-moon-shaped cultural transmission belt has also become a frequent migration area for northern ethnic groups in history.

Many northern ethnic groups often moved westward along this zone after their power grew. For example, the Khitan who established the Liao Dynasty and the Mongolian who established the Yuan Dynasty all entered the Tibetan-Yi Corridor area along the half-moon-shaped cultural transmission belt.

In addition, many northern ethnic groups also entered Yunnan along the valley channel of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, the most typical being the Mongolian and Hui.

Since the Central Plains often had powerful regimes, it was almost impossible to cross these regimes and migrate from north to south.

The Tibetan-Yi Corridor is a region with relatively weak political forces.

Therefore, many northern ethnic groups entered the south through the Tibetan-Yi corridor in history.

For example, at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, in order to encircle the regime of the Southern Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan led the Mongolian army from the Liupan Mountains in the northwest to cross the Tibetan-Yi Corridor and go south to Yunnan to destroy the Dali regime, forming a trend of encircling the Southern Song Dynasty.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Hui people also traveled from the northwest to Yunnan through the Tibetan-Yi corridor, leading to Hui uprisings and the establishment of political power.

Many cultural elements from the north were also introduced to the south through the Tibetan-Yi corridor.

The Red Army's Long March also went north through the Tibetan-Yi Corridor and entered the northwest.

Therefore, the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is an important area and channel for the communication and connection between the ethnic groups and cultures in the north and south of China, and it is also an important historical area for observing and studying the exchanges and contacts between the northern and southern ethnic groups.

　　Finally, in the east-west direction, the Tibetan-Yi Corridor is also a channel and a bridge for the connection between the farming area and the plateau ethnic group and culture.

Although it is located in the Hengduan Mountains and the mountains and rivers run north-south, the terrain with barriers between east and west has not blocked the horizontal communication of ethnic groups and cultures.

Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the Sichuan-Tibet Road, which crosses the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, has become the main passage for the Central Dynasty to manage Tibet. The ethnic and cultural exchanges on the east and west sides of the Tibetan-Yi Corridor have been significantly improved. Immigrants also poured in in large numbers along the Sichuan-Tibet Road, which promoted the large-scale exchanges and integration of the Han-Tibetan people in the Tibet-Yi Corridor area during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. It was formed on the basis of large-scale blending and integration between the Han and Tibetan nationalities.

Therefore, some scholars also refer to the Tibetan-Yi Corridor as the "Han-Tibetan Corridor".

In addition, another important exchange in the Tibetan-Yi Corridor area that has lasted for more than a thousand years is the tea-horse trade and the ancient tea-horse road between Han and Tibet.

Historically, the tea sold to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was mainly produced in Ya'an, Sichuan, and Dali and Pu'er, Yunnan. The tea from both places was transported to various parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau through the Tibetan-Yi Corridor.

Because tea is indispensable to the daily life of Tibetans, Tibet calls the tea transportation route through the Tibetan-Yi Corridor the "Golden Passage" or "Golden Bridge".

It can be seen that in the east-west direction, the Tibetan-Yi corridor area also plays an important role in connecting the Han-Tibetan people and cultural exchanges between the two places.

Intersection: Long-term Exploration as a Typical Area of ​​Interaction of Ethnic Groups

　　The Tibetan-Yi Corridor is an area with many ethnic groups, complex branches, and outstanding ethnic cultural diversity. Its value and significance in China's geography and ethnic pattern are also reflected in its being a typical area where multiple ethnic groups meet, live together, and blend cultures.

　　China is a multi-ethnic country with a long history. As an area with many ethnic groups and outstanding cultural diversity, the Tibetan-Yi Corridor has accumulated rich experience and wisdom in ethnic contacts, harmonious coexistence, and harmonious cohabitation. Most of these experiences and wisdom are scattered in The folks are like a treasure.

　　For example, among more than ten ethnic groups in northwestern Yunnan in the south of the Tibetan-Yi corridor, the legend of "brothers and ancestors" is widely popular.

The basic pattern of the legend is that at the beginning of the Genesis, there was only a pair of brothers and sisters, they married and gave birth to several sons, and when they grew up, the eldest, second and third sons multiplied and developed several adjacent different ethnic groups.

The combination of ethnic groups is different. Generally speaking, it includes not only the own ethnic group and neighboring ethnic groups, but also the Han, Tibetan and other large ethnic groups.

This kind of legend that uses "brothers" or "blood ties" to explain ethnic relations, although it is a subjective construction, its function and objective effects cannot be underestimated. objective effect.

Another example is that in the multi-ethnic area of ​​the Tibetan-Yi Corridor, people mainly follow the principles of "seeking common ground" and "seeking peace" in their daily life, subjectively downplaying and blurring ethnic divisions and boundaries, and culturally open and inclusive. Learn from each other, "I am in you, and you are in me", and harmonious and friendly ethnic relations are built between ethnic groups through cultural sharing.

　　All of the above are the long-term exploration and accumulated experience and superb wisdom of multi-ethnic exchanges and contacts in the Tibetan-Yi Corridor.

These experiences and folk wisdom in dealing with ethnic relations can provide valuable reference for strengthening the consciousness of the Chinese nation community and promoting the exchanges and integration of various ethnic groups.

In this sense, the multi-ethnic intersection and close contact area of ​​the Tibetan-Yi Corridor contains many folk wisdom and mysteries for building a harmonious relationship between ethnic groups and realizing national unity in a multi-ethnic country in China. The meaning and value in the national pattern.

　　Guangming Daily (Author: Shi Shuo, Chief Expert of the National Social Science Fund Major Project "History of Kangzang" and 2019 "National Philosophy and Social Science Achievement Library" Selected)