Mianning County ( zh, s=冕宁县, , ) is a county of
Sichuan Province
Sichuan is a Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capita ...
, China. It is under the administration of the
Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture
Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture (Nuosu language, Northern Yi: /nɛ˨˩ʂa˧/) is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the southern extremity of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China. Its seat is Xichang. Liangshan covers an area o ...
.
History
Mianning County has a long history of being a multi-ethnic region. ''The Annals of Mianning County'' ( zh, s=冕宁县志, label=no), published during the reign of the
Xianfeng Emperor
The Xianfeng Emperor (17 July 1831 – 22 August 1861), also known by his temple name Emperor Wenzong of Qing, personal name Yizhu, was the eighth emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper. During his re ...
(1850-1861), listed a number of major ethnic groups in the region, including the
Tosu,
Lizu,
Yi, and the
Namuzi peoples.
Climate
Administrative divisions
Mianning County administers 1
subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district.
Equivalents
* Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language
* Kelurahan, in Indonesia
* Mukim, a township in Brunei, Ind ...
, 15
towns
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
, 2
townships, and 1
ethnic township.
Ethnic groups
A large number of the Tosu ethnic group, which comprises about 2,000 people, live throughout Mianning County.
Sizable clusters of Tosu people are located within Gaoyang Subdistrict, the former
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
of
Houshan (后山镇, now part of
Shilong),
Fuxing,
Hui'an, the former
township
A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
of
Haha (哈哈乡, now part of
Gaoyang Subdistrict and
Ruoshui), the former township of
Linli (林里乡, now part of Fuxing), and the former town of
Shaba (沙坝镇, now part of
Manshuiwan).
Languages
Two of the three
Ersuic languages, the
critically endangered
An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...
Tosu language, and the
Lizu language
Lizu (; Western Ersu) is a Qiangic languages, Qiangic language spoken in Western Sichuan, China. There are 4,000 speakers according to Sun (1982) and 7,000 speakers according to Chirkova (2008). Muli, where Lizu is spoken, is a multi-ethnic and ...
, are spoken within Mianning County.
A 2013 survey found nine partial speakers of the Tosu language, all of whom lived in Mianning County, and were proficient in
Southwestern Mandarin
Southwestern Mandarin (), also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin (), is a Mandarin Chinese dialect spoken in much of Southwestern China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the nor ...
, which they used for daily life.
References
{{authority control
Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture
Amdo
County-level divisions of Sichuan