Western Hunan locals living amid Huaxia Chinese during Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) had already been assimilated to Huaxia in all aspects of life. Yet those inhabiting the vales and mountains kept their own languages, distinct customs and communities
[127]. After Tang Dynasty, the range of ‘Descendents of Pan Hu’ in the mind of mainstream Huaxia gradually expanded to include indigenous populations of more southern and south-eastern regions.
In the above historical documentations we can see that before the 10th century, 'the Hmong in classical Chinese archives designates either one or several southern ethnic groups known as ‘the descendants of Panhu These mountain tribes were not assimilated into Confucian culture, or to put it the other way, not being under direct control of the sovereignty of Chinese dynasties. It is not until the 14th century that the military expansion of the central government demanded direct political control of the South-western area including today’s West Hunan.
In the next section I am going to summarise the historical narratives in regard to the Hmong from the 14th to the 19th century. To my mind, this is the period when the ethnic identity was gradually constructed:
In many areas of China where local people formed considerable resistance against the spread of the power of the central government, a certain degree of autonomy remained while the local governing heads paid allegiance to the central government. It is called the Tusi Institution (Tusi zhidu 土司制度, lit. native chieftain institution). The local chieftainship was similar to the feudal lordship in Medieval Western Europe. Since the Tusi institution was established in West Hunan, the people under Tusi administration were thus indirectly governed by the central government, but the majority of the Hmong remained Taw barbarians’ outside the dynasty’s jurisdiction. Since the 14th century, Hmong people had appeared as a threatening local power. In the periods when the Han or the other ruling ethnic groups had evident economic development and population boom, or had to migrate and expand their settlements as dictated by the development policies of the central government, their confrontation with Hmong people usually led to fierce warfare. The military blockade line which was intended for the whole Hmong territory gradually advanced into the Hmong heartland during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), and finally formed a military defence line against the Hmong in the Wanli period (1573–1620). Later, the famous Hmong Frontier Wall (Miao jiang bianqiang 苗疆边墙, currently known as The South Great Wall) was built along this defence line
[128]. The construction of the South Great Wall took over four centuries, through the process of which the central imperial government ideologically claimed that Raw Hmong beyond the wall to be an ungovernable population unworthy of including into the local autonomy governance connected to the central bureaucratic system. However, Tusi also had subtle but solid relationships with Raw Hmong, especially in economic and military communications. Some local chieftains developed military skills and improved their weapon manufactory through learning from Raw Hmong
[129]. West Hunan had the longest surviving local chieftainship in Chinese history. In the mean time, the Nation in the mind of the Hmong was almost identical to the Tusi administration. Tusi were allowed by the central government to have their own army, which were not part of the imperial army and had no military obligation towards the government except on occasions of foreign invasion, when they should follow the central government's commandments. The Tusi army was civilian at time of peace but enlisted when wars broke out. Some Hmong people joined the Tusi army and fought against invasions under central commandership as well, such as in the battles against the Japanese pirates (wokou 倭寇) who plundered the coastline of South-eastern China during the 14th to 16th century.
West Hunan entered the central government’s consideration only during Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). The first formal government set up here was the Guardianship (shoubei 守备) established in 1513. Afterwards, as the geographic and strategic importance of this place increased, accompanied by the more frequent riots and conflicts between different ethnic groups, the level of administrative institution became ever higher accordingly. The Tusi institution was abolished in 1707, and the government of Fenghuang Ting, which belonged to the hierarchy of centralised administration, was established two years later. In the early 18th century Qing rulers used two different policies and strategies to construct imperial rule in West Hunan, applying to different communities recognized with separate identities. To the communities which were under the control of Tusi (Cooked Hmong), the state political and juridical institutions of Qing were applied and replaced the native chieftainship. To the communities living outside the control of Tusi, who were mainly Hmong communities beyond the South Great Wall (Raw Hmong), certain specific census registers, conventional regulations, land policies and tax policies were applied alongside the state institutions
[130]. These specific policies implied that the Qing Empire recognized the region as the frontier rather than part of the nation.
At this stage, the Hmong representatives and lower officials played an important role in forming the perception of the culture of these communities as accepted by central government, and in mediating the relationship between Qing central government and local communities. The Qing administration of Southern Xiangxi in this period, especially the land policies, led to the tragic confrontation between Hmong people and Qing State. In forming the truce agreements and other similar official negotiations, local communities gradually formed a self-recognition of a collected identity. Thisprocess also included very complicated interactions among difference local forces, and among different communities who were collectively referred to as the Hmong. As a result, the Hmong identity was officially constructed from the nation's perspective and selfconsciously constructed by local communities in West Hunan.
These archives suggest that from the 14th to the 19th century the Hmong identity was specified and officially recorded mainly due to the military and political confrontations between the central government and the local forces in West Hunan.
