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The Miao, known as Hmong in the West, is one
of the minority groups of China. Originally the Miao came from the North
Plain of China, north of the Yellow River. Legend says that after the defeat
of Jioli, a tribal group who fought against Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, the
Miao started to migrate south. They crossed the Yellow River to Jiang Wei
Jing Zou region. There they established a kingdom called "San Miao" or "Vaj
Peb Hmoob" as called by the Miao/Hmong. Now this region consists of Hubei,
Hunan and Jiangsu provinces. During the era of Yao, Shun, and Yu, the
founder of the Xia Dynasty, the Xia government, known as the Han people and
the San Miao fought each other to control the beautiful land of the region.
Finally, the San Miao were defeated and migrated westward to what we know
today as the provinces of Guizhou,
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Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Guangxi. Later on some of these people also migrated
to the Island of Hainan and to Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia
these people are known as "Hmong". Due to wars, econimic problems and the
pressure of other larger groups the Miao were forced to live in marginal
regions usually mountainous areas where transportation and communication
were difficult. Being separate geographically their languages developed into
many dialects and subdialects, but today we find that there are three main
regional dialects: Eastern, Central and Western. The Eastern dialect is
referred to the Hunan Miao located in Hunan and northeastern Guizhou; the
Central dialect is known as the Qiandongnan Miao located in southeastern
Guizhou; the Western dialect is reconized as the Yunnan Miao and spoken by
the Southeast Asian Hmong.
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