Foreword An ancient poem said: When the dragon came to the source of the Yellow River, its journey was slow for several autumn. Up to now, the oldest and most mature script found in China is Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which is the representative script of Shang Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, there is only one word about the appellation of nationality (still existing) or clan or tribe, namely "Qiang", which is the earliest human race numbering record in China. Undoubtedly, from here, we can clearly see that the Qiang nationality is a very ancient and long-standing nation in the history of our country. Generally speaking, Qiang people should be in the vast northwest of Qinghai, Gansu, because China people have been familiar with Wang Zhihuan's Liangzhou Ci since childhood, saying: Why should Qiang flute blame Liu? Spring breeze is not enough. From the "Qiang land" and "Yumenguan" here, we can know that the ancient Qiang people lived mainly in the west of Yumenguan today. But in fact, today's Qiang people are not in the vast northwest region dominated by Gansu and Qinghai, but mainly live in the upper reaches of Minjiang River in northwest Sichuan. Today, the Qiang people mainly live in Maoxian, Wenchuan, Lixian in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province and Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County in Mianyang City. The rest are scattered in Songpan, Heishui, Jiuzhaigou, Mianyang Pingwu, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Danba and other places, and some areas in Guizhou are also scattered. At present, the Qiang population is about 320,000. Among them, Beichuan Qiang population is about 9 1 10,000, and Maoxian Qiang population is about 96,000. The Qiang population in the two counties accounts for about 60% of the national Qiang population. In Gansu, Qinghai and even the whole northwest region, where the Qiang people live in concentrated communities in history, almost no Qiang people live here. Then, we can't help asking: Why are the Qiang people in Sichuan today instead of Gansu and Qinghai? How did Qiang people disappear from the vast northwest, and how did they survive in the upper reaches of Minjiang River today? Are the Qiang people today the so-called Qiang people in ancient times? What is their relationship? This is the main problem to be discussed and solved in this paper. In order to study a nation, it is necessary for us to briefly review its position in history. Qiang nationality is one of the oldest nationalities in China and an inseparable part of the Chinese nation. It is widely distributed. Due to various conditions and reasons, several branches of the old Qiang nationality gradually developed into Sino-Tibetan language groups. At present, many ethnic minorities live in the southwest and northwest of China, such as Tibetans, Yi, Bai, Hani, Dulong, Achang and Tujia. Qiang nationality occupies a very important position in the history of China. First of all, the Qiang nationality has a long history in China. The records of ancient Oracle Bone Inscriptions in China show that as early as Shang Dynasty, Qiang people were very active on the historical stage at that time, and there are a lot of records about Qiang people in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Since then, Qiang people have appeared in various historical records many times. By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Qiang people living in areas close to the Han nationality, such as Qin and Long, were gradually merged into the Han Dynasty, and the Hehuang area near the Yarlung Zangbo River was gradually merged into Tibet, but some tribes still lived in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River in northwest Sichuan and continued to this day. Latimer, a famous American sinologist, believes that the primitive Han nationality and the primitive ethnic minorities (including the Qiang nationality) were originally the same race in the same environment, but they gradually split due to the topographic differences and evolution of plains, mountains and grasslands. Therefore, it can be said that the history of the Qiang nationality is the only one that can be compared with the Han nationality. His history with the Han nationality is the same as it is now. Moreover, the active areas of the ancient Qiang nationality are rare among the ancient nationalities in China. The ancient Qiang people have traveled all over the northwest, southwest and central parts of China. It starts from Henan in the east and reaches Pamir Plateau in Xinjiang in the west. Mongolia is in the north, and Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou are in the south. It can be said that the land of the Central Plains, the Mongolian grassland in the north, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the southwest and the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains in the northwest all left the footprints of the Qiang people. Second, no developed country is a pure country. In the long-term historical development, the ancient Qiang people in China have changed constantly, and a large part of them had close contact with the Han people during the migration process, and finally merged into the Han people, which had a positive impact on the social and historical development of the Han people; Some of them moved westward to the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, where they assimilated with the local indigenous people and became part of the modern Uygur ancestors. Some of them moved to the southwest of China and became part of today's Yi ancestors, while others stayed in Qinghai and evolved into today's Tu people. A considerable part of them migrated to the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and developed into later Tibetans. As Mr. Xiao Fei pointed out in the article "The Multi-integration Pattern of the Chinese Nation": "The role of the Qiang nationality in the formation of the Chinese nation seems to be just the opposite to that of the Han nationality. The Han nationality mainly accepts and grows day by day; The Qiang people are mainly supply-oriented and have strengthened other ethnic groups. " Although, in the process of migration, some Han people and people of other nationalities also merged into the Qiang people. But this is a minority after all, and the number of Qiang people's "imports" is far behind his "exports". So many people compare the Qiang people to a "free hematopoietic factory", "export country" and "blood transfusion center". Thirdly, the Qiang people are hardworking, brave and wise, and the early Qiang people once created a splendid civilization. A large number of archaeological discoveries provide vivid data for us to study the social life of the ancient Qiang people. About 5000 to 3700 years ago, the early Qiang people mainly lived in the Weihe River Basin in Gansu and Shaanxi. (We can't call him a Qiang here, but we will discuss it in the second chapter. Let's call him early Qiang people or generalized Qiang people or primitive Qiang people for the time being here. ) They live on platforms on both sides of the river. On the platform, they build houses and live a stable life. Their economic activity is mainly agriculture, and the main crop is millet. The harvested grain is stored in a cave near the house. In the early Qiang people, there was a division of labor between men and women, with men mainly engaged in agriculture and women engaged in housework, and women dominated the society at that time. There are two valuable books; 1. Unparalleled painted pottery, with its large quantity, changeable shapes, complicated decorative patterns and exquisite structure, is hard to find second place in the history of painted pottery art development in China. In a large number of painted pottery, there are hundreds of patterns and symbols painted on the surface of painted pottery. These symbols are symbols representing clans or families, or they represent an ancient script. It has not been verified so far. The other is; As early as 3600 years ago, the early Qiang people had mastered the technology of smelting and casting bronzes. These bronzes, including copper, lead bronze and tin bronze of the same period, will go down in history as the earliest people who smelted and used bronzes in China. Fourth, Qiang people domesticate wild animals. In ancient times, the greatest achievement of Qiang people in production was to domesticate wild animals and domesticate them into domestic animals. The professor even thinks that Qiang people domesticate cattle and sheep. Dogs, early in Ma Chenggong, far surpassed any other nation in the world. (1), for the domestication of sheep, the word "Qiang" in ancient Chinese consists of two words: sheep and human, which are called "sheep people involved" and "sheep people" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Xu Shen interpreted the word "Qiang" as "Qiang, a shepherd in Xirong, also from sheep. Among them, the proportion of herding sheep is the largest. The sheep trained by Qiang people are Tibetan sheep and goats. Tibetan sheep is the most successful domestic animal domesticated by Qiang people. The ancestor of Tibetan sheep was a kind of "argali" who lived on the plateau grassland in ancient times, and its feet were curly and curved. Qiang people began to capture a large number of sheep very early, kept them in captivity and domesticated them for a long time, and eventually became Tibetan sheep today. For goats, the Qiang nationality domesticated later than Tibetan sheep. Because goats live in caves, they are difficult to catch, very strong and difficult to domesticate. In addition, its value is not very high, and its function to the Qiang people is only to supplement food. So the domestication of goats is not so early. Even after taming Tibetan sheep, Qiang people are still the first people to domesticate goats. (2) Domestication of bison. Yak, called "Ya Niu" in Tibetan, was originally a bison living in Qiangtang area, which has been the "motherland" of Qiang people since ancient times. Bison became yak after being domesticated by Qiang people. Because this bison is big, powerful and fierce, it poses a threat to the life safety of Qiang people to some extent. In addition, the yak's tail hair is very long and plays a great role. It can be used in decoration, cotton and wool textile industry, and its meat is delicious, which is a very good commodity. So it is necessary for Qiang people to domesticate it. Fifthly, in the history of China, the Qiang people also established some regimes. During the Sixteen Kingdoms Period in Wuhu, after the former Qin Dynasty, Yao was a regime with the title of Qin Wei, which was called the later Qin Dynasty in history (Park 384-4 17). Its existence is very short, only a few decades. Nevertheless, the post-Qin regime still played a great role in the history of China. In the chaotic environment of the Sixteen Countries, the integration of northern nationalities was greatly accelerated, and the links between northwest China and the mainland were strengthened. Another influential regime established by the Qiang people-Xixia Dynasty (A.D. 1038- 1227) was in a confrontation with the Song Dynasty. It constantly imitated the system of the Tang and Song Dynasties and carried out reforms, which accelerated the feudal process of the Qiang people and other ethnic minorities and made great progress in politics, economy and culture. The diversity of nationalities living in Xixia and the difference of social foundation make Xixia culture present diversity, and various cultures influence, interweave and penetrate each other. Form a mixed state in which you have me and I have you, create a special multi-culture and add rich content to the motherland's culture.