Sui

The Sui are a Kam–Sui people of the Kra–Dai language family, concentrated in the valleys of southern Guizhou, with smaller communities in Guangxi and Yunnan. They trace their descent from the Baiyue peoples of southern China before the Han dynasty.

The name Sui, meaning water in Chinese, was fixed under the Ming dynasty of 1368 to 1644. Their villages were organized around single-surname clans in ganlan stilted houses, and their lunar calendar began in the ninth month, with the Duan festival its greatest occasion.

Sui religion centred on ancestors, ghosts and gods served by shamans, who alone mastered the Sui script, or Shuishu. This writing system was reserved for divination and geomancy and traditionally ascribed to the sage Lu Duogong.