Yao Manuscripts in the Asian Division Collection

The Asian Division of the Library of Congress has purchased in recent years a sizable number of manuscripts of the Yao (a transnational minority, with the majority living in China). These documents represent a wide spectrum of subjects and genres, consisting of official documents, family and clan genealogy, stone inscriptions, religious texts and ritual observances, songbooks, prescriptions of herbal medicines and exhortative health tips, familial and clan contracts and accounts. Some are in song form; others are written for praying and chanting. Most of them are texts, but there are a few richly illustrated scrolls with texts – two among them long, particularly valuable and rare -- on Yao legends.

The Division has been fortunate in finding and securing the assistance of Professor He Hongyi of South-Central University for Minorities, Wuhan, China, who is currently residing in the United States and has done the initial processing of these materials. They have been sorted, collated, and analyzed. Prof. He Hongyi is well qualified to undertake such a task, as her field is Chinese minority studies. She is also a folk artist, especially skilled in paper cuts, an ancient and popular folk craft. Prior to her work at the Asian Division she had traveled to Da Yao Shan, the Great Yao Mountain, in Jinxiu, Guangxi Province, and visited several settlements in Nandan inhabited by the “White- Trouser Yao,” one of the subgroups, where she was able to assemble extensive valuable materials, documenting and recording the life and social customs of the Yao people, including live music.

In October 2007 Professor He Hongyi gave a power-point lecture with color illustrations at the Asian Division, which was very well received by the audience. Even though a large number of the Yao manuscripts need conservation and preservation due to their poor condition, and at present viewing the original documents will not be possible, the Division wishes to make the information on these materials available to our researchers by providing a shortened form of Prof. He’s power point lecture with rich illustrations so that the public can gain a general overview of the collection.

The Yao documents in the Asian Division have been organized into the following 6 categories:

Jing Shu 經書 Religious and Ritual Texts
Wen Shu 文書 Documents
Ge Shu 歌書 Songbooks
Han Wen Qi Meng Jiao Ke Shu 漢文啟蒙教科書 Children’s Primers in Chinese
Li Shu, Hun Shu, Zhan Shu 曆書，婚書，占書 Calendar, Marriage, and Divination Books
Wu Ti 無題 Untitled

The 241 documents have been placed in 22 boxes. Each box has been given a label. The following is the list of the labels:

AA001-AA013 道教經典
AB001-AB015 清醮
AC001-AC007 清醮秘語
AD001-AD010 百解秘語
AD011-AD017 百解秘語
AD018-AD025 百解秘語
AE001-AE010 喪常用經書 (喃靈科)
AE011-AE020 喪常用經書 (喃靈科)
AE021-AE024 喪常用經書 (喃靈科)
AF001-AF017 安龍科，度戒科，謝景科
AG001-AG010 經書科類十種
AH001-AH018 經書雑科類
AH019-AH030 經書雑科類
AH031-AH047 經書雑科類
AI001-AI007 過鬼書，過神書，痲瘋秘語
B001-B007 文書
C001-C012 歌書
D001-D013 漢文啟蒙教科書
E001-E005 曆書，婚書，占書
F001-F012 無題
F013-F021 無題
F022-F039無題

Below in PDF format is Prof. He Hongyi’s lecture, revised and abridged by her and Lily Kecskes, formerly the team coordinator of the Chinese/Mongolian Team of the Division (now retired) who also provided the English text. Professor He and Lily Kecskes are also working on an annotated catalogue of the 241 Yao manuscripts in the Asian Division collection. You must have the Adobe Acrobat Viewer in order to view the file. You can determine if you have Adobe Acrobat Viewer by searching your files/folders for "Adobe Acrobat Reader". If you don't have this application, download and install it now.

• Prof. He Hongyi’s lecture (PDF version, 9 MB)

Alternatively, you can download the PowerPoint version of the lecture but beware that the PowerPoint version is very large and that you will need to have either the Microsoft PowerPoint software or the Microsoft PowerPoint viewer installed.

• Prof. He Hongyi’s lecture (PPT version, 80 MB)