The Kelao nationality is one of the 55 ethnic minorities in China.There were around 550,746 Kelao people living in Mainland China in 2010. Wuchuan country in Guizhou Province is known as the cradle of Kelao. Currently, the Kelao population is mainly distributed in Wuchuan County and Daozhen County in Guizhou Province. The rest of them live in Guiyang, Liupanshui, Zunyi, Tongren, Bijie, Anshun, etc. Only a small number of them live in Yunnan Province, Guangxi Province and Vietnam. Those living in Guizhou take up more than 97% of the total. 

As one of the earliest explorers of the Guizhou Plateau, the Kelao people has a long history. There is a saying going around the Guizhou people, “Kelao are barbarians, they opened up wasteland.” The Kelao people can trace their origin to the Pu people in ancient China. Even to this date, “Kelao” is referred to as “Pu” in the Yi language of northwest Guizhou. Moreover, places where Kelao’s ancestors once lived are named after “Pu”. For example, the Beipan River is known as “Pu Tu Zhu Yi”, meaning “a river dug by the Pu people”; Anshun is called “Pu Li”, meaning “a place resided by the Pu people”. The Pu people is an ethnic group with a vast distribution. In the pre-Qin dynasty, they were active in today’s Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi and Hubei. Because of the large number of Pu’s branches, the Pu people were also known as “Bai Pu”, which means one hundred kinds of Pu people. In the late Shang dynasty (1600 to 1046 B.C), the Pu people fought in the war against the King Zhou of Shang under the leadership of King Wu of Zhou. After the founding of the Zhou dynasty (1045 BC to 256 BC), the Pu people became its subordinates. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the society of the Pu people already entered the stage of tribal alliance. During the Spring and Autumn Period (771 to 476 BCE), the Pu people fought with the Chu State, which resulted in the narrowing of their activity scope, leading to its union with other people. Part of them were forced to migrate to west Hunan and the Guizhou Plateau, whose residents became the main residents of today’s Guizhou. In the long process of the existence and procreation, the Kelao people has developed and enriched the history and culture of the Guizhou Plateau together with other peoples, which includes rich cinnabar myth. This paper attempts to come to grips with a set of widely ranging but connected problems concerning cinnabar myths: their relation to the history; their validity and scope; the range of possible mythical functions in contemporary times.

Kelao’s Cinnabar 

MythCinnabar constitutes the main mineral ingredient to extract mercury. According to research of Professor Fang.

Hui from Shandong University, the cinnabar culture of the Chinese nation can be traced back to the Yiducheng Beixi Site in Hubei. Almost around the same time, residents of Yuyao Hemudu Site in Yuyao already used cinnabar as pigments to make colorful paintings. During the Yangshao Cultural Period, cinnabar found its applications in rituals. In tombs of the Yin and Shang dynasties, cinnabar was found to cover the bodies. 

The Classic of Mountains and Sea, also known as Shan Hai Jing, is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. It is largely a fabulous geographical and cultural account of pre-Qin China as well as a collection of Chinese mythology. In this book, records of cinnabar appear more than once. For example, “Gui mountain has Danli.” “South mountain has Danli.” “Niaowei mountain has Danli.” “Yuyang mountain has Danli.” As explained by Guo Pu, a geographer of the Jin dynasty, “Danli” is a kind of cinnabar with finer particles [1]. 

Shu Wen Jie Zi, the first Chinese dictionary that analyses the forms and origins of words, defines “cinnabar” as “a kind of red stores in southwest regions”. As rare resources in North China, cinnabar is distributed concentratedly in Southwest China. The Kelao people were the earliest in the world to discover and use cinnabar. Ancestors of the Kelao people collected cinnabar to make mercury. Back to the Taiwu King of Shang, Kelao could already extract mercury. In the Zhou dynasty, cinnabar was made into a tribute to the King of Zhou. The Kelao people were experienced in mining cinnabar. They were capable of adjusting their digging and mining technology by the generation status of veins. The mining tools include caps, hammers, drills, oil lamps, pack baskets, etc. Wuchuan was the earliest origin of cinnabar in the world, which started mass production even from the Shang and Xia dynasties. Many Taoists of the Qin dynasty came here to make elixirs. Hnece, Kelao left behind a wealth of myths about cinnabar. 

How Did Kelao Ancestors Find Cinnabar in the Neolithic and Paleolithic Era

Around the Neolithic and Paleolithic era, a youth named “Wu Xin” in Daping Town, Wuchuan County went out hunting together with several companions. They attempted to hunt down a beast, but the beast fought back. Wu Xin dropped into a red puddle while running away. After standing on his feet, Wu Xin’s face was red, which scared the beast away. The beast dropped down from the rocks in a panic. This inspired Wu Xin and his companions to frighten beasts by smearing their face red using the water. Each time, when beasts saw the red face, they would stop there, not daring to make any movements and becoming humans’ food. This is an early legend about how cinnabar was discovered. 

Princess Consort Set Up the Memorial Tablet for Cinnabar for Cinnabar Saved Her Life

Xia Jie, the last king of Xia, was profligate and devoid of principles. Many vassal states and the Da Yuan State founded by the Pu people refused to pay respects to him. Therefore, Xia Jie raised an army to attack Pu but suffered a serious defeat instead. Then, Xia Jie turned to attack Shishi Clan, the latter of which was no match of the former and had to marry Meixi, the beauty of the clan, to Xia Jie. Xia Jia liked Meixi a lot. He was indulged in having fun with Mei Xi all day long. People blamed Meixi for the disaster of the country. A person named Guoqing had a plan to let Meixi leave the palace. The moment Meixi left the palace, she was chased after by killers. Meixi’s guards sacrificed their lives to protect her. At this moment, Guoqing shouted loudly, “The female with a black mole on her forehead is Meixi. Whoever kills her can get handsome rewards.” Hearing this, Meixi’s maid changed the clothes with Meixi, the latter of whom drew a black mole on her forehead, while Meixi covered her black mole using cinnabar with her. The faked Meixi was hacked to death, but the real Meixi escaped and went back to the palace. The King of Xia was deeply attracted by the mole between Meixi’s eyebrows and named it “Beauty’s Mole”. This marked the start of the tradition of creating the “Beauty’s Mole” using cinnabar in China. Meixi thought that it was cinnabar that saved her life, so she set up a memorial tablet for cinnabar. Cinnabar was evolved into an auspicious symbol and entered the life of the ruling class. 

The Pu People from Wuchuan Offered Cinnabar to the King Wu of Zhou as a Tribute

Back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Pu people, ancestors of the Kelao people, became the dominant people of the Ye Lang State and created the earliest King Bao myth of Kelao. It was said that King Bao was the head of the Kelao tribe, who was made a king for giving cinnabar to King Cheng of Zhou as a tribute. “The Pu people, ancestors of Kelao, happened to discover sand grains (cinnabar) flickering with a bloody luster. They gave these as a tribute to King Wu of Zhou. King Wu of Zhou regarded it as the most valuable treasure and conferred the head of the Pu people as ‘King Bao’. After the death of “King Bao”, the “King Bao Temple” was set up in Sankeng, Banchang, Jinqianshan, Jinjishan and other places of Wuchuan that were abundant in cinnabar and mercury. Inside the temple, there was the statue of “King Bao”. The local Kelao people placed their hope on “King Bao Buddha” for their successful mining and avoidance of disasters. To worship the “King Bao Buddha” has been a custom in the aforesaid places carried forward to this date. 

The Pu People Invented The “Elixir of Life”

King Zhou, the last king of the Shang dynasty, believed what his beloved concubine, Da Ji, said – the Pu people had the “Elixir of Life”. So, he sent men to ask for the “Elixir of Life” from the King of Pu. King of Pu could not provide the so-called “Elixir of Life” for King Zhou, the latter of whom captured the Pu people as hostage to force the King of Pu to give him the “Elixir of Life” as an exchange. It is said that one hostage was named Qiu Kai. In order to save his people, he told Da Ji, “I am the son of the witcher. I can make the ‘Elixir of Life’. I can teach you how to make it, but you should set all Pu hostages free.” Hearing what Qiu Kai said, Da Ji did what was required by Qiu Kai. Immediately, Qiu Kai taught Da Ji how to make the “Elixir of Life”, which was actually the technique about how to make the mercury. 

After that, emperors of successive dynasties regarded cinnabar as a fetish, attempting to refine the elixir of life from cinnabar. Records of the kind can be found voluminously in traditional Chinese classics and Taoist classics. 

Evolution And Inheritance of Kelao Cinnabar Myth in Modern Times 

In the Kaiyang County of Guizhou Province, there is a cinnabar temple named “King Bao Temple” with a history of more than 400 years. There is also a “King Bao Temple” in Jinjishan, Kelao Sankeng Village, Wuchuan, where a ballad for the sacrifice is prevailing, “If blessed by the King Bao Buddha, you will live each day as New Year.”

The myth about the Pu people from Wuchuan offered cinnabar to King Wu of Zhou can find its bases from historical records. It can be seen that cinnabar mining and trading could be traced back to the West Zhou dynasty and that it promoted the economic development of the Kelao region and strengthened the economic and cultural exchange between Kelao and the central dynasty. Following the Pu people’s offering of cinnabar as a tribute, King Cheng of Zhou appointed the head of the Pu people as “King Bao” to manage the Kelao region, which created the earliest cinnabar god of Kelao. Mining of cinnabar in the Kaiyang belt started from the Tang dynasty. The King Bao Palace that enshrines and worships the Cinnabar God has witnessed the thousand-year long history of cinnabar mining in Kaiyang. 

The Kaiyang King Bao Temple is also known as the King Bao Palace. Erected in the Ming dynasty, it was rebuilt in 1782 under the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. From 1848 to 1857 under the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor, Kaiyang embraced another flourishing period of cinnabar mining, which also led to the reconstruction of the King Bao Temple. The King Bao Temple is located at Xiniudong, Liangshuijing Village, Shuangliu Town, Kaiyang County, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province. It has been celebrated as the cinnabar temple, the only one of its kind in the world. Because of the close connection between cinnabar and the Taoist tradition of alchemy, King Bao has been long known as one of the Taoist gods. In the Ming dynasty, the King Bao Temple was built to enshrine and worship the King Bao, God of Zhu. Upon two reconstructions of the King Bao Temple under the reign of Qian Long Emperor and Xian Feng Emperor, respectively, the Guan Yin Temple and the Guan Gong Temple were set up as well. Guan Yin and Guan Yu are two household names, one in Buddhism and the other in Confucianism. Therefore, the King Bao Temple is actually a temple that worships Bao King, Guan Yin and Guan Gong all together, which is a historical testimony of the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. 

In terms of religious belief, Kelao worshiped the King Bao who led the Kelao people to mine cinnabar as a national leader and God to bring safety, longevity and happiness to the Kelao people. Upon funerals, the Kelao people had the tradition of such as drawing the eight diagrams using cinnabar. At the same time, the cinnabar culture was more comprehensively deeply integrated into the production, life, clothing, dining, transport and accommodation of the local people to get internalized as part of the folk culture. Even to this date, in some Guizhou villages where the Kelao gather, remains of the cinnabar culture can still be found. There is no doubt that the cinnabar myth has been evolved into an intangible cultural heritage that has been passed down from generation to generation and closely connected with people’s life. 

According to the Compilation of Ancient Books and Literatures about the History of Wuchuan published in 2007, “In the face of some natural disasters, the Wuchuan Kelao ancestors always attributed them to the troubles caused by evil spirits. So Kelao ancestors tried to keep away from ghosts and believed in witches. Consequently, Wuchuan developed the tradition of grinding cinnabar, blending it with oil or glue into a red pigment and applying it to living utensils such as musical instruments in a Buddhist or Taoist mass, hunting equipment and gate post as weapons to drive away evils and also to increase their courage. Particularly, the front side of a house was usually decorated red. This is also the same in today’s China. In some regions where the Hongdu River flows across, such as Daping, Hongsi, Baicun, Jiaoba and Maotian, people are still accustomed to addressing the food during weddings and funerals as ‘red rice’. In the past, when a person died, some cinnabar was put in the tomb. Later, cinnabar was in short supply. Then, a red cloth was paved under the coffin to follow the custom. In rural areas, when the Spring Festival came, villagers would add a little ‘red rice’ on the top of the cone-shaped rice cake. At the center of the rice cake are several small red spots. The same decoration can be found with the other pastry that is made up of sticky rice. The sesame cakes and the handmade rice noodles always dye part of them red and mix the red inside” [2]. 

Development Path for Cultural Industry Related to Cinnabar Myth 

The acceleration of modernization and urbanization, the contradiction between the traditional culture and modern civilization has dealt a heavy blow to the traditional myth system and posed a threat to the traditional culture on whether it can be passed down. It has been a thought-provoking issue on how to carry forward the cultural traditions of Kelao ancestors and seek reasonable and effective development of the related cultural industries. In 2018, the Kelao female writer, Xiao Zhuan, wrote one proposal entitled, strengthening protection and promotion of the Kelao cinnabar culture and driving comprehensive economic and social development of national regions. Xiao thought that efforts should be made to immediately protect cinnabar, a symbol of kelao spiritual culture. Otherwise, Kelao’s cinnabar culture will be gradually diffused. Combining the status research, Xiao suggested that Guizhou, a place where Kelao ancestors lived, should pay more attention to the future development directions of the Kelao culture and cinnabar culture and focus on national and cultural protection and creation of Kelao culture, particularly Kelao’s cinnabar culture. As a symbol of Kelao’s spiritual culture, cinnabar should be displayed more from the perspective of culture and art. Cinnabar is also the cultural symbol that can best distinguish Kelao from the other 55 ethnic minorities in China. So Kelao’s cinnabar culture should by no means fall into oblivion. Driven by the call of Xiao Qing, Guizhou has gathered forces at the official and folk level to advertise Guizhou’s cinnabar myth and create a batch of creative boutiques via the local cultural industries. Achievements of these efforts include not only textual descriptions, but also stage performances, festive celebrations, tourism development, etc.

Rewriting of Cinnabar Myth Via Modern Literature 

In February 2016, the ethnic writer, Tian Yonghong, from Sinan County, Tongren City, Guizhou Province had her full-length novel entitled King of Cinnabar published by the Unity Press. Made up of 24 chapters and containing around 350,000 words, King of Cinnabar is set against the background that two national minority hereditary headmen, Sizhou and Sinan, in the late Ming dynasty fought for the Dawanshan Cinnabar Mine Field, thus intensifying the national contradiction and the Ming dynasty’s reform of “bureaucratization of native officers”. Based on the real historical figures, this book presents a fantastic story with complex plots, which brings readers back to the central area of Guizhou in the lower and middle reaches of the Wu River around 600 years ago, witnessing how the specialty, cinnabar, waged a thrilling turbulence lasting for around half a century. The book also depicts the colorful social scenarios and the living status of the local masses under the cinnabar cultural content. 

Xiao Qin (1976 -), a Kelao female writer born in the 1970s, is also an outstanding representative that depicts the inheritance of the traditional culture. Through literary means, she presents the cinnabar culture to readers by digging the time-honored legends in history based on her real experience in the countryside and her rich art imagination. 

Back to 2009 years, Xiao Qin published an essay entitled Memories of Cinnabar on the magazine, which writes about the origin of her nation with deep emotions. She writes, “This is a nation that worships cinnabar. Cinnabar has created the tragedy, happiness and myth for this nation. Around 2,000 years ago, the Kelao people who made a living by collecting cinnabar excavated sand to make mercury on the land where they lived, which was in the depth of the Yungui Plateau. This marked the start of the nation’s long history. At that time, cinnabar constituted their spiritual faith and a panacea to relieve their pains and had nothing to do with fortune. However, the myth of reincarnation and immortality based on the mercury that comes out from cinnabar and can be reduced into cinnabar was pursued for more than 2,000 years. The crystal-clear mercury became the elixir of life for emperors of different dynasties. Since then, people had been seeking mercury. The tranquility of the mountainous area where the Kelao people lived was broken by the hustle and bustle of the merchants”.

Later, Xiao wrote a middle-length novel entitled Taste of Cinnabar. This novel is written from a child’s perspective and narrated from the end using the first person. It focuses on telling the story of “my grandma”, the daughter of a mine owner, a Kelao woman who has received new education and has the courage to seek true love and fight against the feudal ethics, but she dies with regret for not being buried with cinnabar by her national tradition. With deep love for her hometown, Xiaoqin writes about the vicissitudes of the Kelao people’s life as well as their pleasure, anger, sorrow and joy via deep description of culture and the cinnabar myth as the main line. The Taste of Cinnabar, right after its publication, gained considerable attention. More than one famous Chinese scholar spoke highly of it. This work also won the “National Ethnic Minority Literature Junma Award for Medium-and Short-Length Novels” and was listed in the Collection of Selected Literary Works for the 21st Century in 2011. 

Display of the Cinnabar Myth on the Stage and Screen 

At the night of April 14, 2016, the large-scale song and dance drama, Cinnabar Love, was put on in the International Conference Center of Guizhou, as one of performances for the First Colorful Guizhou Culture and Art Festival. The whole show consists of five parts, including the preface, Part 1 (Mining Cinnabar), Part 2 (Offering Cinnabar), Part 3 (Loving Cinnabar) and ending. With the sad and beautiful love story as its main low, the show integrates the charming national song and dance with the cinnabar myth to present an aesthetic and touching feast to eyes. After years of adaption, Cinnabar Love has been developed into a national cultural tourism brand.

On August 23, 2019, the first film themed on the Kelao people, Blood and Cinnabar, starred by the famous performers – Liu Zi, Liu Changde and so on and with Xiao Qin as the art director and scriptwriter was put on screen formally. This film tells the story about how the First Emperor of Qin collected cinnabar from the Mayang Tribe of the Pu people in Yelang State so as to remain immortal. Unexpectedly, however, cinnabar was robbed during transport. The First Emperor of Qin believed in the slanderous talk of the Prime Minister Zhao Gao, the latter of whom said that, as long as cinnabar could be found, one could maintain immortal. So, the First Emperor of Qin sent his capable man, Qin Tian and the widow, Ba Qing, to find cinnabar. On the way of looking for cinnabar, the two developed a deep friendship with Bai Yan and Hong Sha, detergents of Bao King and a touching legendary story related to cinnabar happens among them. Combining the cinnabar culture with the real historical background and imaginary love story, a fantastic film about the cinnabar culture is presented on the screen from a unique perspective. 

Combination With the Tourism Industry 

The Wanshan Mercury Mine Site is located at Tuping Village, Wanshan Town, Wanshan Special Zone, Tongren City, Guizhou Province. Wanshan is long celebrated as the “Capital of Mercury” in China, which has a history of more than 1,300 years. The “Guangming Cinnabar” produced thereby was celebrated as a tribute to the royal family. Wanshan’s cinnabar smelting started from the Tang dynasty, which had already shaped a large scale by the Yuan dynasty and became the largest base for cinnabar mining and mercury collecting and gathering in China and even the world at large. From the founding of the New China to the early 1990s, Wanshan was once the largest mercury industrial production base in China. The mercury produced thereby took up 80% of the total output in China and more than 50% of the total export. It is apt to say that Wanshan was an important historical witness of the cinnabar culture in its late development period in China and even the world, particularly the cinnabar mercury refining culture [3]. 

Affiliated to Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, Kaiyang County is located at the hinterland of central Guizhou. According to the research work of He Xianlong, Curator of the Kaiyang County Culture Museum, the Kaiyang Cinnabar Mercury Site has more than 403 cinnabar caves, the cinnabar temple, King Bao Temple, mercury smelting site and ancient tombs related to cinnabar. In addition to the cinnabar temple, King Bao Temple and so on, there have been some new discoveries, including the Cinnabar Martyr Tomb, Army Mercury Smelting Site, etc. 

In June 2018, the First China Cinnabar Cultural Industry Creativity Competition Launch Ceremony with “turning cinnabar into a cultural springboard for Guizhou to get integrated into the ‘One Belt and One Road’” as the slogan was held in the Cinnabar Ancient Town Scenic Area Tourists’ Center in Wanshan District, Tongren City, Guizhou Province. This competition was jointly sponsored by Jiyang Tourism Development Co., Ltd. in Tongren, Guizhou and Yangtze Normal University in Chongqing. Around 200 representatives of the governments, academic circles and enterprises from Chongqing, Hunan, Guizhou and so on attended it. Via the “Online + Offline” comprehensive advertising channel, this competition collected and selected excellent cultural and creative designs from designers either at home and abroad and provide comprehensive services, including exhibitions, industrialization and entrepreneurship of the award-winning works. Meanwhile, this competition was committed to gathering excellent designers from China and abroad, digging new original design forces, shortening the distance between cultural and creative design and the public life, dinning cinnabar cultural resources for creative design, combining the traditional culture with the modern technology, art value and practical functions so as to provide cultural products, which are both practical and artistic for the masses and construct a cultural and creative industrial chain with the competition at its core. This competition significantly promoted the creative transformation and innovative development of the cinnabar cultural and creative products [3].

To sum up, inheritance of the Kelao cinnabar myth in modern times has benefited from the diverse means for the cultural industrial development. Not only have these diverse development means created multidimensional inheritance channels for the cinnabar myth, but they have also enriched the leisure and cultural life of people. 

Moreover, these development means have got rid of the regional barriers to attract a large number of tourists in China and abroad to visit cinnabar sites, learn the cinnabar myth and write about the cinnabar. These literary writings of the cinnabar have been converted into actual economic benefits of the cinnabar. In the Cinnabar Ancient Town (Wanshan National Mine Park) and the Wanshan Mercury Mine Industrial Site Museum in Tongren, tourists from different places are attracted here to feel the charm of the Cinnabar Kingdom, profound cinnabar cultural atmosphere and beautiful natural landscape. So far, the Wanshan Mercury Mine Site has been included into the reserved list of China’s world cultural heritage and approved as a key cultural relic protection unit of the national level. Besides, the Site is under further development and protection, the anthropological communication school thinks that communication is a main factor of cultural development. One of the most important and urgent tasks for the traditional cultural inheritance in different countries is to endeavor to construct a professional market system. Based on the basic role of the professional market system, the traditional cultural resources and intangible cultural heritage can be integrated into the complete industrial chain of cultural production and consumption. Only in this way can enduring driving force be provided for the cultural inheritance [4]. 

Funding

This work was supported by the general scientific research project 2020 of The Mythology Research Institute of Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences (Project No. 2020SHYB11), “Study on the Cinnabar Myth and the Kelao Nationality's Belief in the King of Bao” [5].

1. Birrell, Anne, ed. “The classic of mountains and seas”. Penguin, 1999.

2. Hong-ru, W. A. N. G. "Historical anthropology and the yelang kingdom [J]." Journal of Guizhou University for Nationalities 1 (2005).

3. Lihui, Yuan. "Analysis of the cultural connotation of the kelao memorial in Wuchuan." Journal of Anshun University (2013): 03.

4. Oakes, Timothy S. " Ethnic tourism in rural guizhou: sense of place and the commerce of authenticity." Tourism, Ethnicity and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies. University of Hawaii Press, 1997. 35-70.

5. Kirk, Geoffrey S. Myth. University of California Press, 1970.