彝族是中国境内古老的少数民族之一,主要分布在川、滇、黔、桂四省。关于何时开始用“彝”称呼彝族这一问题,学界主要有两种观点:第一,认为用“彝”称呼彝族最早见于清嘉庆年间王谟所编《汉唐地理书钞》(1);第二,用“彝”取代“夷”是解放后所创(2)。那么,如何认识上述两种观点?本文以清代档案为中心,拟对此问题进行考论,以求教于方家。一元、明及清初文献所见彝族称谓 Yi is one of the ancient ethnic minorities in China, mainly distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces. As for the question of when Yi started to refer to Yi as “Yi”, there are mainly two kinds of views in the academic circle: First, it is considered that Yi people were first described as “Yi and Han” “(1); secondly, replacing” Yi “with” Yi "was created after liberation (2). So, how to understand the above two points of view? This paper, the Qing Dynasty archives as the center, intends to conduct a textual research on this issue, in order to teach in the square. Yi Yuan, Ming and early Qing literature seen Yi title