Introduction
The Sui people live mainly in south-eastern Guizhou province in China. They are the one of the descendants of the ancient Bai-Yue tribes and is part of the Kra-Dai people. This article explores their origin and their ancient written script.Homeland
The homeland of the Sui people is along the river basin around Guangzhou city and they are the natives in central Guangdong province.
During the Tang dynasty (618 AD-907 AD), there was a mass migration of Han Chinese into Guangzhou. This event pressured the Sui people to migrate to Duliu (都柳) River basin in Guizhou province by moving along the Pearl River basin as in the map below.
Nowadays, the Sui people are concentrated in Sandu (三都) autonomous county in Qiannan (黔南) and other places in Qiandongnan (黔東南) prefectures in Guizhou province as depicted below.
The Sui people's most important festival is their new year festival called Duan Festival which often starts in September after the harvest of grains. A unique feature of the festival involves horse riding competition.
The Sui River is an ancient river name that originated from eastern Henan province and ends in Huai-An city in Jiangsu province. Most probably the ancestors of Sui people used to live in the lower reaches of this river basin in northern Jiangsu province.
From the article on 'Origin of Wu language' in this blog, there existed an ancient Chinese state called Wu State in Jiangsu province where the natives are found to be proto-Kra-Dai people so they are most probably the ancestors of the Sui people. This can also be attested by the origin of the Sui script which will be discussed in the next section.
This tribe is the most northerly tribe of any Kra-Dai tribes researched so far.
Due to the closeness of their language with the Southern Kam, it is most likely that they followed the same route as the Southern Kam to Guangdong via Jiangxi province as shown in the map below.
By the Qin dynasty, they were already the natives along the Pearl River basin around Guangzhou city.
The Sui people have their own written language since ancient times unlike most other Kra-Dai tribes in China. The ancient characters of Sui language are recorded in the Sui Books. The photo below shows the Sui script compared with the Han Chinese script.
The Sui script is a mystery but it is at least as old as the ancient Chinese script used during the Shang dynasty (1600 BC-1046 BC). This script has more than 400 characters and many characters are based on pictograph just like the ancient Chinese script. What is even more shocking is that some characters of the Sui script were also found in the Erlitou archaeological site which is related to Xia dynasty.
This writing was most probably the remnants of the Chinese writing used in the Chinese Wu State during the Zhou dynasty; judging by its similarities with ancient Chinese characters and also the Sui people were the natives in Wu State before their migration downwards. However, the rulers of Wu State and a portion of the population were Han Chinese.
During the Tang dynasty (618 AD-907 AD), there was a mass migration of Han Chinese into Guangzhou. This event pressured the Sui people to migrate to Duliu (都柳) River basin in Guizhou province by moving along the Pearl River basin as in the map below.
Original homeland
The Sui history books state that the ancestors of the Sui people originated from Sui River basin and their tribe name Sui (水) actually came from the name of this Sui (睢) River. Their tribe name is a transformation to a simplified form of the original character 睢, both being homophones in the Sui language.The Sui River is an ancient river name that originated from eastern Henan province and ends in Huai-An city in Jiangsu province. Most probably the ancestors of Sui people used to live in the lower reaches of this river basin in northern Jiangsu province.
From the article on 'Origin of Wu language' in this blog, there existed an ancient Chinese state called Wu State in Jiangsu province where the natives are found to be proto-Kra-Dai people so they are most probably the ancestors of the Sui people. This can also be attested by the origin of the Sui script which will be discussed in the next section.
This tribe is the most northerly tribe of any Kra-Dai tribes researched so far.
Migration to Guangdong
They started to migrate southward to Guangdong province due to wars in northern China during the end of the Shang dynasty around 3000 years ago.Due to the closeness of their language with the Southern Kam, it is most likely that they followed the same route as the Southern Kam to Guangdong via Jiangxi province as shown in the map below.
By the Qin dynasty, they were already the natives along the Pearl River basin around Guangzhou city.
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| Migration path to Guangdong |
Language
The Sui language belongs to the Kam-Sui branch of Kra-Dai languages.The Sui people have their own written language since ancient times unlike most other Kra-Dai tribes in China. The ancient characters of Sui language are recorded in the Sui Books. The photo below shows the Sui script compared with the Han Chinese script.
 |
| Sui script compared with ancient Chinese script |
The Sui script is a mystery but it is at least as old as the ancient Chinese script used during the Shang dynasty (1600 BC-1046 BC). This script has more than 400 characters and many characters are based on pictograph just like the ancient Chinese script. What is even more shocking is that some characters of the Sui script were also found in the Erlitou archaeological site which is related to Xia dynasty.
This writing was most probably the remnants of the Chinese writing used in the Chinese Wu State during the Zhou dynasty; judging by its similarities with ancient Chinese characters and also the Sui people were the natives in Wu State before their migration downwards. However, the rulers of Wu State and a portion of the population were Han Chinese.
The present Chinese characters were based on the unification of the Chinese characters by the Qin State when the Qin dynasty unified China. The variant characters in the other Chinese states did not survive except for these ancient Wu characters.
The documentary video (水族水書) below narrates the Sui script in more detail.
Sub-groups
The Maonan (毛南) tribe is descended from the same direct ancestor as the Sui tribe and should be considered as a sub-group of the Sui ethnic group. They live very close to the Sui tribe in southern Guizhou province and also northern Guangxi province bordering Guizhou. |
| Maonan people and religious dance |
The Mak (莫) and Ai-Cham (錦) tribes are actually Bouyei aka Buyi (布依) tribes who have adopted a language closely related to the Sui language due to them living close together with the Sui people for at least a thousand years. In other words, they are actually Northern Tai people and not part of the Sui sub-groups.
Closest ethnic relative
The closest ethnic relative to the Sui people are the Kam aka Dong people. There is a separate article on their origin in this blog.
Conclusion
The Sui and related tribes are the natives of central Guangdong around the Pearl River basin before Qin dynasty first conquered that region around 214 BC and the natives were gradually displaced by the predominant Han Chinese.
Related links
Origin of Wu languagehttp://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/2018/10/origin-of-wu-language.html
Ethnic origin of Kam
http://eastasiaorigin.blogspot.com/2020/02/ethnic-origin-of-kam.html
Sources
- https://kknews.cc/culture/b2vx53o.html
- http://special.qnz.com.cn/smss/4002.html
- https://kknews.cc/zh-hk/culture/gqbz25m.html
Last updated: 22 Aug 2022
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