土家族具有悠久的历史,但由于历史上土家族没有自己的文字,故而对其古代生活的情况没有任何记录。汉文献虽有记载,但散乱零星,很不系统,且多失实。先秦汉文献中,对于土家族先民的称谓较多,被称为“廪君种”、“板蛮”等。此后,又多以地域命族,被称为“酉酉蛮”、“嵝中蛮”、“巴建蛮”、“信州蛮”、“酉阳蛮”等。直到宋代和宋代以后的史书,才把居住在今湘鄂川黔接壤地带的土家族先民称做“土人”、“土丁”、“土蛮”、“土民”等,使之成为这个地区有别于其他族类的民族。正是由于史书记载的混乱, Tujia has a long history, but due to the fact that Tujia people did not have their own words in history, they did not record anything about their ancient life. Although the Chinese literature records, but scattered sporadic, very systematic, and more false. In the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, there were many appellations for the Tujia ancestors, which were called “Jun-Jun” and “Ban Man”. Since then, they have been called “the unitary West Man”, “the barbarians”, “Bar-Man Man”, “Shinshu Man” and “Youyang Man-Man” because of their geographical order. Until the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty after the history books, only to live in the border area of ​​Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou Tujia ancestors called “natives”, “Tudin”, “Tu Man”, “natives” and so on, making it This area is different from other ethnic groups. It is precisely because of historical records of confusion,