Abstract: There is an interesting mode of thinking in the Bai people's understanding of time and history, that is, there are two
parallel time lines: one is the grand "historical line" which they consider as relatively objective and linear, mainly including the grand
national history; the other is parallel to the national history, which only applies to the community history of Dali Bazi in this particular
space and carries people's collective memory in a mythical way. The two histories together mark the time coordinates of the Bai people.
The former is clear and the latter is vague, but they harmonize and unify the dialectical relations between the state and the local place,
the external and internal, the myth and the reality, the individual and the universe without contradiction. Realistic construction of the
belief system of the Bai people's water gods in Erhai basin is a typical example. And by means of multiple cascades, it reflects the Bai
ancestors' strong ability to absorb and reproduce other cultures.

Key words: cognition of time, cognition of history, the Bai people, belief system of water gods, realistic construction