When people think of Mosuo (摩梭) culture, most think of Walking Marriage, matrilineal extended families and pig-trough boats. Few know that a chieftain family once ruled the Lugu Lake area for centuries — not Mosuo commoners, but the aristocratic class of Mosuo society.
What was the tusi (土司) system? What was its relationship to the Mosuo matrilineal system? This article sets it out clearly.
What Was a Mosuo Chieftain
The Mosuo chieftain was a local ruler invested by the central government of the Yuan dynasty. From the Yuan period the line continued until the democratic reforms of 1956, passing through more than twenty generations and ruling the Lugu Lake area for nearly 700 years.
In the Mosuo language a chieftain was called "sipei" (司沛), meaning "official." The chieftain family was the highest rank in Mosuo society and ruled the Yongning region — the Yongning plain to the northwest of today's Lugu Lake — generation after generation.
How great was a chieftain's power? He administered civil affairs, justice, taxation and the military. All the land, forests and rivers of the Yongning region belonged, in theory, to the chieftain. The land commoners farmed owed him rent; hunting in the hills owed him tax; even such matters as marriage and Walking Marriage were within his right to oversee.
The Chieftain's Family Did Not Practise Walking Marriage
This is the most striking point: Mosuo commoners walked together, but the chieftain's family did not.
The chieftain practised polygyny — he had a principal wife and many concubines. The women of the chieftain's household, whether principal wife or concubine, were forbidden from Walking Marriage. This is the exact opposite of the commoner principle that "a man does not take a wife, a woman does not marry out."
Why? Because the chieftain had to pass on his line and keep the bloodline pure. A child born of Walking Marriage never knew who its biological father was, so there was no guarantee the chieftain's throne would pass to his own son. The chieftain therefore had to marry and have a clear heir.
But men of the chieftain's household, beyond the principal wife, could still take axia lovers (阿注). This was no contradiction in Mosuo society — commoners walked together, chieftains married; the two systems coexisted without interference.
The Rank Privileges of the Chieftains
The chieftain family enjoyed many privileges in Mosuo society:
Economically, the chieftain owned vast tracts of land and large herds. The best land of the Yongning plain all belonged to the chieftain's family, and commoners farming it paid rent.
Socially, chieftains did not intermarry with commoners. For a chieftain's daughter to marry a commoner was to marry down; for a commoner's daughter to marry a chieftain was to marry up. But few actually did either — the hierarchy was strict, and few dared break it.
Legally, the chieftain could judge commoners. When commoners broke the law, the chieftain judged them. He could impose whatever penalty he saw fit, with no need for formal judicial procedure.
Culturally, the chieftain was the greatest patron of Tibetan Buddhism. Yongning's Zhami Monastery (扎美寺) was built with the chieftain family's money. If a chieftain's household had sons, one was usually sent off to become a lama — a mark of status.
The Last Chieftain and the Last Princess
The last chieftain of Lugu Lake was Luosang Yishi, and his wife was the famous "Mosuo Princess," Xiao Shuming (肖淑明). (Note: some sources record the last chieftain's name as Labao Chen (喇宝臣); accounts differ, so this detail is marked as uncertain.)
Xiao Shuming was not Mosuo. She was from Chengdu. In 1943 she married the Mosuo chieftain Luosang Yishi, then only 16 years old, and travelled from Chengdu to Lugu Lake. She herself was just 16, leaving a great city for the remote shores of Lugu Lake, and never went home again for the rest of her life.
Xiao Shuming lived at Lugu Lake for more than sixty years, learned the Mosuo language and the Mosuo way of life, and became a true Mosuo princess. She later told her own story in the book The Mosuo Princess by Lugu Lake.
When the Chieftain System Ended
In 1956, during the democratic reforms in the Lijiang area, the tusi system was formally abolished.
The chieftain's land was distributed to the commoners, and his privileges were removed. The last chieftain, Luosang Yishi, later became an official of the Lijiang area Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and spent his later years in peace. Xiao Shuming, too, changed from chieftain's wife to an ordinary resident.
But the influence of the tusi system did not vanish entirely. In some old villages of the Yongning region, the old title "sipei" survives — these are the descendants of the former chieftain family. They have no privileges now, but they are still respected locally.
The Tusi System and Mosuo Culture
Many people think Mosuo culture is only the matrilineal extended family, Walking Marriage and the fire hearth. In fact the tusi system is part of Mosuo culture too.
Precisely because there were chieftains, the Lugu Lake region kept relative stability for centuries. The chieftain was invested by the central government and charged with governing the locality and keeping order. Without chieftain rule, the Mosuo matrilineal system might long ago have been swept away by the outside world.
The chieftains also gave strong support to Tibetan Buddhism. Yongning's Zhami Monastery, one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in northwest Yunnan, was built by the chieftain family. Tibetan Buddhism and the Mosuo's indigenous Daba religion coexisted for centuries within Mosuo society, influencing and interpenetrating each other.
Today, travelling to Lugu Lake, you can still see the traces the tusi system left behind: Yongning's Zhami Monastery, the ruins of the chieftain's yamen, the old chieftain's mansion. These, like Walking Marriage and the matrilineal family, are an inseparable part of Mosuo culture.