I am not completely familiar with Hmong culture and religion. However, some elements are similar to that of Chinese culture.

Hmong people, and indeed Chinese people in old time, are closely linked together by family ties. Family, in oriental culture, is a big concept. It extends to all relatives under the same surname. Old people usually have more authority on family issues. It may surprise many American that your relatives can decide your private life. But in Hmong and Chinese culture, that is true (or at least used to be). In many rural China, family members and relatives lived very close to each other. There once were all kinds of annual meetings to determine family issue and resolve any dsipute within family.

During the first Chinese census, Chinese government tried to distinguish different Hmong groups, which ended up with tens of ethnic groups. Later, scholars determined that most of those people who had common religions, similar legends and lifestyles were indeed the same group, even though their language were different. One of key components is the musical instrument–Shen (a type of flute with many tubes sticked together). It should note that Shen is also used in Chinese Han. This further confirmed that Hmong is related to Chinese Han culture.

The Hmong religion has deep root of shaman, or witch culture. It dates back to 5000 year’s ago. This type of idea are also very popular in Chinese Han, espcially in southern people. In the shaman religion, shaman live in the community and can connect to the god or spirit. This is totally different from Christianity. In Christian culture, no one is supposed to talk to God. It’s been done by Jesus. In addition, Hmong people believe that all ancestors live with them (in an invisible way). They are watching and protecting us every day. There is no Heaven or Hell.

Furthermore, spirit, or ghost, is a very important concept in this shaman religion. In addition to ancestors, spirits of water, mountains, and evils serve different purposes in daily life. It is very common in Hmong, and also in many Chinese communities, to worship all sorts of spirits in specific days. Whenever you were hit by an evil spirit and became ill, you should pay something to let him go away from you. Shaman are ususally available to perform that service.

Anyway, the Hmong religion and culture is very similar to that of southern rural Chinese community, and is old but nevertheless healthy superstition.

It is evident that Chinese ethnic group Han are descendents of Yan and Huang groups—called Hua-Xia tribe. However, recent theories also added Ci-You and other tribes as Chinese Han’s ancestors. The Hmong history suggested that most of old Hmong people were either enslaved, or forced to convert to Hua-Xia (in terms of life style, language, and religion). Anyway, all of them have very similar physical appearance, thus probably mixing pretty well. 

Back to history. After the bloody war between Ci-You and Yan-Huang, old Hmong people fled and settled down along the Yangzi River (Chang Jiang River, the longest river in China), places we now called Three Gorges in Yangzi River. The land was still excellent for planting rice (indeed it is still the major rice base in China now). Hundreds years were past; the old Hmong people were called San-Miao (three feathers, in old time, Miao=Mao, feathers). The name was thought to be derived from the fact that old Hmong people might have three feathers on their hats.

Old Hmong people were again had pretty good time in new place and grew into a big country. It was also thought that San-Miao country was more advanced in agriculture. It was privatelized and had some elements of modern social structure like hierarchy. On the other hand, the Yan-Huang group, now Hua-Xia tribe, was in the hand of Yao, a saint emperor. When Yao was stepping down, he didn’t hand the country to his son, instead, he gave it to Sun, another saint emperor. Legend said that Yao’s son (Dan Zhu) fled to San-Miao and persuaded San-Miao to attack Hua-Xia country. Another war began, and San-Miao was defeated again. It may be conceivable that San-Miao and Hua-Xia would fight anyway because they were neighbors and both of them wanted opponent’s land.

This time, the war ended a little bit differently. Sun, the Hua-Xia emperor, ordered all San-Miao surrenders changed their lifestyle, language, and religion to become Hua-Xia people. Some of them were even relocated to the north-western part of China. They were the ancestors of modern south-western Hmong people in China.

There were some Hmong people fled (again) south into mountains. These people are said to be ancestors of modern southern Hmong people.

Time goes by. Hua-Xia people, now Han ethnic group, kept pushing on. Hmong people kept retreating till all of them were living in high mountains, thus being isolated.

It is somewhat surprising that once an advanced group ended up a primitive group. There are probably several reasons:

First, after being pushed into mountains, great physical barriers not only hindered Han, the invaders, but also made it difficult to interact within themselves. Hmong people were separated into small groups, and gradually lost contact to each other. There are now many Hmong groups living in China and part of Southeast Asia. Their lifestyle and language are different. They can’t understand each other. There is no written Hmong language until 100 years ago.

Second, because Hmong lived in higher altitude than indigenous people, they were hard to see and earned a name “hill dwelling people”. Furthermore, since Hmong people refused to surrender to Han people, they were essentially blocked by Han people. Efforts (mostly brutal) had been tried to “civilize” them but all failed. Therefore, they somewhat lose “opportunity” to catch up with the rest of world.

Finally, even though some Hmong groups settle down in some remote mountain areas and formed a Miao country, it was weak, and frequently defeated by Han people. The life of Hmong people was unstable. They always struggled for basic needs such as food and shelters. Any more advanced developments were impossible.

Nevertheless, it is generally agreed that modern Hmong people are derived from old Miao people. They shared many culture with Chinese Han people, even though they fled from middle land and refused to merge with Chinese Han. They are brave people by all means.

The recent tragedy in Wiscosin makes many people think: is there some cultural confliction in this incidence?

I am a Chinese, not a Hmong. But history has told me that Hmong is closely related to Chinese and Chinese blood has some Hmong blood (but probably not vice versa). Nevertheless, I plan to write some history of Hmong from a common Chinese point of view. A little warning: I was trained in China and my history knowledge is biased (surely towards Chinese). Chinese history literature always used humilating words when discribing Hmong. And indeed Chinese called Hmong Miao, a probably insulting word historically, and was also probably derived from the pronunciation of how Hmong called themselves.

About 5~6000 years ago, Hmong, then called Jiu Li (nine rice eating groups), were living happily in one of the best soil in China– the downstream of Yellow River and close to the Yellow sea, i.e., places like He Nan and Shan Dong provinces. They were arguably the first people using iron or bronze in cultivation. They were led by a giant called Ci You (who was pictured as monster like human being in ancient Chinese literature). The good life of Hmong were envied by other Chinese tribes, espcially those living in the upstream of yellow river, called Emperor Huang. Later joined by Emperor Yan from south who was also a rice eating tribe, they formed a strategic ally and invaded Hmong area. After over ten year’s fight, Yan and Huang finally conquered Hmong area. Please note, when I talk about tribe, they are actually tribe groups, more or less like earlier version of country. In addition, there were several groups and all of them were fighting each other. Finally Huang won by conquering or merging with other groups.

As all of us can imagine, life in old time was brutal and bloody. All Hmong people were killed if they refused to surrender, and those who surrended were slaved, or absorbed into Yan and Huang tribes (to say it nicely). This war is the start of grand Han tribe, and arguably the start of Chinese history. The war is thought a real war and even a place called Zhu Lu in He Bei province is associated with it. A side note, Chinese in the middle land had to wait till about 4000 years later to officially call themselves Han people. At that time, all different Chinse countries were unified into one big country.

One more word about Ci You. He was viewed as the ancestor of Hmong, and was once the ” military god” in China during old time. It was Confucius that thought Ci You was a rebellion and treated him low.

However, there were some brave Hmong people fled from their birth area, thus starting a harsh journey which lasted till today.

to be continued….