Yáo

The Yao, largest branch Iu Mien, are southern China highlanders speaking Mienic languages of the Hmong–Mien family. Their traditions trace them to Dongting Lake and Changsha in Hunan, venerating Panhu, legendary dog-ancestor, as their clans' forefather. Between 200 BCE and 900 CE they drifted south of the Yangtze into Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong hills, clearing slopes by slash-and-burn farming; under the Tang they appear as the Mo Yao, highlanders excused from forced labor.

From the tenth to thirteenth centuries imperial rule reached them through the loose jimi and tusi systems, tribute paid through hereditary headmen. In 1337 Yao communities were thickest around Guangxi's Guilin hills and northern Guangdong's Lianzhou.

Ming and Qing tightened control, replacing headmen with tax officials, and the Yao rose with the Miao in 1370s and 1449 rebellions; each defeat pushing communities deeper into the mountains or south, by about 1700 first Mien migrants had crossed into northern Laos, others settling in Vietnam and Thailand.