History of Xishuangbanna
In the Dai language, "Xi" means ten, "shuang" two, "Ban" one thousand, and "Na" paddy fields.
Xishuangbanna therefore means "Twelve districts of one thousand mu of paddy fields each".
It is the general name given to twelve administrative bodies under twelve chieftains in the old days. Yunjinghong is a term in the Dai language, meaning "The Daybreak City". The Dai calendar started from 638 AD.
Far back in the Western Han Dynasty, Xishuangbanna was already a part of Yizhoujun Prefecture. In the 12th year of the Yongping era of the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 69) it was incorporated into Yongchangjun. During the Tang and Song Dynasties it was under the jurisdiction of Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms respectively. After the conquest of Dali Kingdom by the Yuan Emperor, Yunnan was made a province, and a system of governing the border areas by the local chieftains was instituted, and the hereditary chieftains were given comparatively greater authoritative power. In the 15th year of the Hongwu era of the Ming dynasty (1382), the ninth-generation Great Chieftain, or zhaopianling in the Dai language, called Zhao Kanmeng (literal translation of the Dai language meaning the highest feudal lord of xishuangbanna) pledged allegiance to the Ming Royal Court. In the 4th year of the Longqing era of the Ming Dynasty, the Pacification Commissioner divided the domain of the feudal lord into twelve "Bannas", and from then on this place has been called xishuangbanna. The Qing emperors inherited the Ming system without any change. Early in the Yuan Dynasty, the Great Local Chieftain with the family name Dao was appointed "the Pacification Commissioner of Cheli" (the old name of Yunjingbong) by the Yuan royal court, who thus became the hereditary supreme feudal lord and ruler of xishuangbanna, and whose descendants had inherited the title for 4 generations through the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was not until the liberation of Xishuangbanna in February 1950 that peoples of the various nationalities had really become the masters of this beautiful and affluent land.
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