It is an ethnic minority with a long history and culture in the southwestern frontier of my country.

Mainly distributed in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province, Lijiang, Bijiang, Baoshan, Nanhua, Yuanjiang, Kunming, Anning and other places, as well as Bijie of Guizhou, Liangshan of Sichuan, Sangzhi County of Hunan and other places.

According to the fifth national census in 2000, the Bai population was 1,858,063.

The Bai language is spoken and belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

The vast majority of residents speak their own language, and Chinese is commonly spoken.

During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, "burning text" (baiwen) was used, which was the so-called "white reading of Chinese characters".

The ancestors of the Bai people were known as "Dianfen", "Sou", "Cuandi", "Baiman", "White Man", "Minjia", etc. in history.

The Naxi people call it "Nama" and the Lisu people call it "Lemo".

This tribe calls itself "Fenzi", "Fenzi", "Bai Ni" and "Bai Huo", which means burning people or white people.

As early as the Neolithic Age, residents in the Erhai area had lived and multiplied and lived a semi-cave life.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Erhai area had increasingly close relations with the mainland. In 109 BC, the Western Han Dynasty immigrated a large number of Han people here and transferred the advanced production technology of the Han people here.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Yongchang County.

The Tang Dynasty established the Yaozhou Governor's Office here.

Later, the Nanzhao slavery regime was established, which was based on the ancestors of the Yi and Bai people.

In 907, the "Dali State" was established with the Duan family of the Bai ethnic group as the main body, and it lived with the Song Dynasty in a vassal relationship.

In 1253, the Yuan Dynasty established a province in Yunnan and set up Dali Road and Heqing Road in the Dali area.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was changed to Dali Prefecture and Heqing Prefecture, and the policy of returning the land to the locals was implemented.

The Qing Dynasty continued this policy of the Ming Dynasty, but appointed a group of native officials and chieftains in remote mountainous areas.

Social and economic development Before the founding of New China, the social and economic development in Bai areas was uneven.

Generally speaking, the feudal landlord economy had an absolute advantage and the capitalist economy had certain development.

In some mountainous areas, especially high mountain areas, remnants of feudal lordships, slavery and even primitive communes are still maintained.

Agriculture is the main economic sector of Bai society. In feudal landlord economic areas, landlords and rich peasants, who account for less than 10% of the rural population, occupy about 60% to 80% of the land, while farmers, who account for more than 90 9/6 of the population, only have 20% to 20%.

40% land.

More than 70% of rural households have become poor farm laborers.

Land rent exploitation generally accounts for 50 to 60% of the harvest, and as much as 70 to 80%; loan sharking and labor exploitation are also serious.

Commercial capital is relatively developed, and there have been some trading houses that import foreign yarn and goods and export stone sulfur, yellow silk, bristle, and tea.

Bai commercial capital was developed on the basis of landlord economy. Capitalists converted commercial capital into land capital and concentrated large amounts of land.

After the founding of New China, the Bai people, under the leadership of China, successively completed reforms and socialist transformation.

In the central area of ??Dali, where the Bai people mainly live, the reform was completed in 1953 in the same way as the Han areas, and the socialist transformation was basically completed in 1956.

Bai areas ruled by chieftains such as Hushui and Liuku, where feudal lordships still existed, adopted peaceful negotiation to complete reforms.

In Bijiang, Fugong and other Bai areas where the population is small and class differentiation is not obvious, reform is not carried out as a movement. Instead, economic and cultural development is combined with socialist transformation to gradually complete certain aspects of the reform tasks.

In November 1956, the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture was established.

Over the past 40 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the state's industrial and agricultural production has developed rapidly.

Xiaguan City, the capital of the autonomous prefecture, has developed from a consumer city before the founding of the People's Republic of China into an important industrial city in western Yunnan; industrial sectors such as electric power, machinery, automobile repair and maintenance, chemicals, papermaking, textiles, leather, and leather manufacturing have been established throughout the prefecture.

In 1990, the total industrial and agricultural output value of the state reached 3,345.31 million yuan, of which the total industrial output value was 1,433.69 million yuan and the total agricultural output value was 1,911.62 million yuan; the per capita total industrial and agricultural output value of the state was 1,111.4 yuan, and the per capita net income of farmers was 576 yuan.

All towns and villages across the state are connected to automobiles.

Education, medical and health services have also made great progress.

The Bai people already have a considerable number of professors, writers, doctors and various scientific researchers.

Schistosomiasis, which was widespread before the founding of the People's Republic of China, has been basically controlled.

Nowadays, the Bai area has seen a prosperous scene in which production is getting better year by year and people's lives are improving year by year.

Culture and Art In the long-term historical development process, the Bai people have created a splendid culture and contributed to the civilization of the motherland.

Traces of ditches have been found in the Cang'er Neolithic site.

At the Jianchuanhaimenkou copper-stone site, it was found that the residents had been engaged in raising livestock and farming.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, bronze culture appeared in the Erhai area.

During the Shu Han Dynasty, the Erhai area had developed to the point where "the land had rice fields and livestock husbandry."

The ancestors of the Bai people in the Tang Dynasty were able to build the Cangshan "Gaohe" water conservancy project and irrigate tens of thousands of hectares of farmland; they repaired high mountain terraces and created the Dengchuan Luoshi River Flood Diversion Project.

Nanzhao has its own calendar. The Ming Dynasty Bai scholar Zhou Silian's "Taihe Genglu Zhongxing Table" and Li Xingwei's "Qixianfangshu" are both representative works summarizing ancient astronomy and medicine.

The Bai people are unique in art, and their architecture, sculpture, and painting arts are famous at home and abroad.

The three pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali were built in the Tang Dynasty. The main pagoda is nearly 60 meters high and divided into sixteen levels. It is exquisitely crafted and similar to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an.

The Shibaoshan Grottoes in Jianchuan are technically sophisticated and the figures are lifelike.