2 - Who created the 'Bai people'?: Records of the Bai people and Bo-ren on the Epitaphs in the Dali region during the Ming-Qing Period

The study aims to reveal whether the ancestors of the Bai people (Baizu) had an ethnic identity by analyzing genealogies and epitaphs of Dali local elite families during the Ming-Qing period. The conventional view of Chinese academics premises that the ruling groups of the Nanzhao Kingdom and the Dali Kingdom are ancestors of the Bai people. During the Ming-Qing period, they became influential residents of the Dali region and laid the foundation of the Bai community. Others argue that to counter the Ming empire's suppression and the policy of assimilation strengthened as a consequence, the Bai-ren elites of the Dali area created a new historical narrative like Baiguo Yinyou (The Cause of Bai State), which retells the legend of 'Bai-Zi state' as 'Bai state' and serve as a genealogical history of 'Bai state.' They insist that the Bai-ren elites formed their ethnic identity through this historical narrative, which has shaped the views on the origin of the Bai people to the present. 
This paper intends to challenge the conventional claim by Chinese scholars who generally assume the Dali elites are the ancestors of today's Bai People. The question is to what extent the historical perception shown by Baiguo Yinyou was shared and supported by the people in the Dali region during the Ming-Qing period. By analyzing the genealogies and epitaphs, this paper elaborates on how the state-centered view on the origin of the Bai people has created a history that speaks to other realities and needs.