Qiannan Prefecture
– The Land That Time Forgot

The Shui have their own written language. The pronunciation of the spoken tongue is very different from modern Chinese, but in some ways resembles ancient Chinese. Shui Language and the Origin of the Shui Ethnic Group, a monograph by renowned sociologist Professor Cen Jiawu, mentions, “The written language of the Shui is the product of an ancient area, quite possibly the Shang Dynasty (circa 1600-1100 BC). It bears close resemblance to oracle bone characters and inscriptions on ancient bronze objects.”

Indeed, the surviving 200 Shui characters are mostly pictographic, much like the oracle bone script, bronze ware inscriptions and other ancient Chinese characters. Distinguished scholar Mo Youzhi believes the Shui characters represent a language of the pre-Qin period (2100– 221 BC). In his research on the language, he found an important clue in a line that read “copying writings from bamboo slips,” which indicates that the earliest version of Shui books were written in a form common in ancient China. The finding is also in accordance with records from Shangshu, or Book of Documents, an ancient tome about the history of the pre-Qin eras, which noted that only people of the Shang Dynasty had documents and books.

In the year 221 BC, when the Qin monarchy conquered large swathes of the territory of China, the emperor sent a contingent of 500,000 soldiers to Lingnan, an area covering the whole of today’s Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and part of neighboring provinces. The troops were led by a general named Wei Tu Sui. In the Qin period, there was no standard way to record people’s names, and a citizen was usually called after his or her demeanor or achievements. “Wei Tu Sui” literally means “Slaughterer of the Sui”; could this Sui be the “Shui” of modern times?

This history was recorded on a stone relief found in Shibanzhai Village of Sanshuiqian Town. The carvings are fluid and delicate, representing the style of the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). The figures depicted in the relief wear either long robes or armor.

In the center stand three people. The central figure wears an official’s hat and shows kindness on his face; on the right stands an elderly man with a long beard who is holding a stick in his left hand and, with his right, is handing fruit to a child. The child is held by a woman, standing on the left, who wears a striking headband. The three are guarded by a phalanx of soldiers who hold flags that feature a dragon. Their flag-waving has startled a flock of geese, who have soared up into the sky.

The stone relief vividly depicts a scene of migration. After Qin conquered Lingnan, the ancestor of Shui presumably went upstream along the Duliu River to a place between modern-day Guizhou and Guangxi, and settled there. In the inland, however, small ethnic groups soon assimilated into the more populous Han people. Many of their cultures disappeared. The Shui written language presumably survived thanks to the group’s mountainous homeland.

Despite the Shui’s official recognition, most people today still know relatively little about the ethnic group’s customs and culture. For instance, the Duan Festival of the Shui, which celebrates the New Year, lasts about 49 days, making it the longest annual festival in the world. Come summertime, the Shui celebrate the Mao Festival, the world’s oldest festival for lovers. The grand Jingxia Festival has a history of over 1,000 years. It involves worship of the Shui’s rain god and takes place once every 60 years. The Horsetail Broidery technique of the Shui is a living fossil: as its name suggests, hairs on the horsetail make part of the threads used. It was among the first cultural heritages to be officially recognized – and protected – in China.

Arriving in Sandu, we heard about reward of RMB 500,000 for the person who could solve the mystery of Chandan(Egg Laying) Cliff, which, as mentioned, is said to “lay stone eggs.” Located just nine kilometers away from the county town, the cliff is located in a typical Shui village where residents still live in stilt houses and wear traditional costumes. Once every 30 years, several stones the size of dinosaur eggs are found at the foot of the cliff. No one knows where they come from. They aren’t pieces that have crumbled off the cliff, nor are there any such rocks on top of the cliff. Needless to say, we didn’t solve the mystery.

Pingtang County

Pingtang County has karst mountain and river views to rival any other scenic spot in the autonomous prefecture. In China Pingtang has already gained a reputation as a geological marvel. It has over 100 recognized sites of sightseeing interest, including Pingzhou River, the Jiacha Scenic Area and the Longtang Scenic Area. In 2009 Pingtang was elected as one of China’s 10 most beautiful small cities.

Oddly enough, Pingtang’s renown as a spot of peculiar natural beauty is somewhat overshadowed by its reputation as a future hub for scientific research. News broke recently that an enormous radio telescope, measuring 500 meters in diameter, will be built in Dawohan, a natural basin in Pingtang. Since the mid-1990s, Chinese astronomers and their colleagues from other countries have visited the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau on many occasions to search for an ideal location for their huge telescope. They finally chose Dawohan, and the whole area is set to benefit from the influx of scientists.

The Dawohan area is home to karst landforms with natural hollows scattered among the verdant mountains. The hollows are like naturally formed shelters, which, scientists say, provide perfect conditions for the construction of the world’s largest and most sensitive single-aperture radio telescope.

Karst sinkholes by the Dadai River in Pingtang County. Dai Chuanfu