YAO

various Bantu-speaking peoples inhabiting southernmost Tanzania, the region between the Rovuma and Lugenda rivers in Mozambique, and the southern part of Malawi. By 1800 the Yao had become known as traders plying between the inland tribes and the Arabs on the east coast. Much of this trade was in slaves, which led eventually to clashes with European powers who were establishing control over former Yao territory in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Yao were never united but lived as small groups ruled by chiefs who were predominantly military and commercial leaders; by 1900 all Yao chiefdoms had come under German, Portuguese, or British rule. The Yao are an agricultural people using slash-and-burn techniques to cultivate their staples, corn (maize) and sorghum. Fish provide protein in areas near lakes or larger rivers. In Malawi they cultivate tobacco as an important cash crop. The Yao live in compact villages of 75 to 100 persons under traditional headmen. These headmen, like the chiefs, succeed matrilineally, the office usually going to the eldest sister's firstborn son. On marriage the man leaves his village to live in that of his wife, so that villages are composed basically of groups of women related through the female line, together with their spouses. Yao social life features annual initiation ceremonies involving circumcision for boys. Originally, these ceremonies were closely connected with the worship of ancestor spirits, but through Arab contact most Yao are Muslims, and the rites incorporate Islamic elements. mountain-dwelling peoples of southern China and Southeast Asia. In the late 20th century there were estimated to be 1,400,000 in China, 360,000 in Vietnam and Laos, and 30,000 in northern Thailand. Most Yao in China live in the Kwangsi Chuang autonomous region, with smaller numbers in Hunan, Yunnan, Kweichow, and Kwangtung provinces. Although they speak closely related Sino-Tibetan dialects, the widely dispersed groups of the Yao have developed in different directions, adjusting their ways to the environments in which they live. In the Chinese province of Kwangtung, some Yao are wet-rice cultivators in the lowlands, but elsewhere they have kept to the mountains, where they engage in a migratory slash-and-burn agriculture. The Yao groups are animists who believe in various classes of spirits. Those of the Ling-nan area of China (Kwangtung-Kiangsi Chuang) revere their ancestors in Chinese fashion and also believe in ghosts and spirits who must be placated. An important cult is that of the dog-god P'an Ku; according to legend he delivered the head of an enemy to a monarch and was awarded a princess for a wife, and the Yao descended from this union. The Yao of Indochina, who are called Man by the Vietnamese, revere their ancestors, believe in spirits associated with natural elements (e.g., thunder, clouds, rivers, and mountains), and practice a form of witchcraft directed at their enemies. The Yao are village peoples, and their indigenous political structure does not extend above the village chief. Some villages in Kwangtung have several clans, and the clan chiefs act jointly in matters that concern the entire village. The Yao carry on trade with the peoples of the lowland, obtaining manufactured goods and some food in exchange for the products of the hills. formally (Wade-Giles romanization) T'ang Ti Yao in Chinese mythology, a legendary emperor (c. 24th century BC) of the golden age of antiquity, exalted by Confucius as an inspiration and perennial model of virtue, righteousness, and unselfish devotion. His name is inseparable from that of Shun, his successor, to whom Yao gave his two daughters in marriage. Legends recount that after 70 years of Yao's rule, the sun and moon were as resplendent as jewels, the five planets shone like strung pearls, phoenixes nested in the palace courtyards, crystal springs flowed from the hills, pearl grass covered the countryside, rice crops were plentiful, two unicorns (omens of prosperity) appeared in the capital at P'ing-yang, and the wondrous calendar bean made its appearance, producing one pod each day for half a month before the 15 pods withered one by one on successive days. Two remarkable events marked Yao's reign: a rampaging flood was controlled by Ta Y; and Hou I, the Lord Archer, saved the world from destruction by shooting down 9 of the 10 suns burning up the Earth. Like Fu Hsi, Shen Nung, and Huang Ti before him, Yao had special temples dedicated in his honour. He is said to have offered sacrifices and to have practiced divination. In choosing a successor, Yao bypassed his own less worthy son in favour of Shun and served as counselor to the new emperor. city, Osaka fu (urban prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Nagase River. The city is situated on mountain slopes and a plain in Kongo-Ikoma Quasi-national Park. The central part of the city was a commercial centre during the Tokugawa period (16031867). Yao is now an industrial and residential suburb of the OsakaKobe Metropolitan Area, with large-scale machinery, chemical, and textile plants along the river. The railway to Osaka was opened in 1925. Pop. (1988 est.) 276,591.