The ancient history of China is told almost
exclusively from the perspective of the Han
Chinese people, whose high culture dominated
the middle Kingdom’s early dynastic history.
However, this land has always been culturally
diverse, especially in the subtropical lands
south of the Yangtze.
Long before the arrival of Chinese civilization,
this megaregion was inhabited by a forgotten
spectrum of non-Chinese seafarers, painted
warriors, and jungle-dwelling animists.
It is their story we will tell today.
Welcome to our video on the Nanman and Hundred
Yue, the forgotten natives of Southern China.
Today’s video is sponsored by our friends
at Creative Assembly, who asked us to talk
about the Nanman culture.
Their award-winning Total War: THREE KINGDOMS
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Furious Wild adds 4 new playable factions
each with their own unique mechanics, with
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The Nanman will get a unique tech-tree tied
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character progression style, with feats used
to unlock traits.
Visit the jungles around Southern China and
with it, the fearsome tribes of the Nanman!
Will you unite the tribes of the south?
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Chinese culture began in the fertile basin
of the Yellow River with the early dynasties
of the Shang and Zhou - the originators of
many pillars of Chinese culture.
During this time, anyone who lived outside
this cultural sphere was considered a barbarian.
The Zhou designated four main groups: The
Dongyi were the Eastern Barbarians who lived
around the Korean Peninsula.
The Xirong were the Western Barbarians who
lived around modern day Gansu Province and
Tibet.
The Beidi were the Northern Barbarians, predecessors
of the nomads with whom China would do battle
with for millenia.
Finally, south of the Yangtze river, in lands
we now consider the heartland of modern China,
dwelt the Nanman, literally: “Southern Barbarians”.
In time, they would also be called “Baiyue”,
meaning the “Hundred Tribes of Yue”.
Inhabiting a vast territory stretching between
modern day Shanghai and central Vietnam, these
so-called ‘hundred tribes’ of the south
had languages, customs and religions considered
utterly foreign to the Chinese of the central
plain.
The Archaeological record shows that as early
as the 5th millennium BC, the ancestors of
the Baiyue peoples had already formed sedentary
communities along the Yangtze and Pearl river
deltas.
They cultivated wet rice, raised water buffalo,
and lived in distinctive houses balanced off
the swampy ground on high stilt posts.
Around 4500 years later, during the Spring
and Autumn period of Chinese history, the
so-called southern barbarians had developed
two powerful Kingdoms, known to the Chinese
as Wu and Yue.
These two Kingdoms were bitter rivals, but
the Chinese states to their north considered
them equally foreign, and culturally indistinguishable.
In 482BC, the state of Yue launched a successful
military campaign against Wu, conquering its
long time rival and consolidating itself into
a huge Kingdom that marked the political zenith
of “southern Barbarian” power.
Meanwhile, other powerful confederations of
Yue tribes existed outside of this realm,
such as the Luoyue and Ouyue, known also as
the Au Viet, and Lac Viet.
In case you’re wondering, no, the title
“Viet” is not a coincidence, and we will
get to that in a moment.
For now, let us try to present a coherent
picture of the Baiyue culture and lifestyle.
Granted, this is an inherently problematic
endeavor.
This is because there are little to no records
written by the peoples in question which survive
to this day.
This makes us reliant on the outside perspective
of ancient Chinese chroniclers, who used the
exonym “Hundred Yue” to group together
many different southern tribes with differing
languages and customs.
Therefore, bear in mind that as we move forward,
we are at best describing broad commonalities
between a spectrum of peoples with much internal
diversity among them.
According to the Zhan Gou Ce, the ancient
Baiyue peoples kept their hair short, tattooed
their face and bodies, blackened their teeth,
and wore hats made out of fish skin.
This is corroborated by Sima Qian, who also
described the Yue as short haired and tattooed,
further adding that they wore clothing made
out of plant fibre and tree bark, and lived
in small communities amidst bamboo groves.
These details were likely highlighted to emphasize
the Yue’s supposed barbarisms compared to
the Chinese, who considered their long bound
up hair, unblemished skin, silk robes, and
urbanized lifestyle to be the hallmark of
civilization.
Indeed, later Han sources claimed the Yue
peoples had a language that was like “animal
shrieking”, and bore a culture that lacked
all forms of basic morals and modesty.
Surviving fragments of Yue religion seem to
suggest that they practiced animism.
Sima Qian implies that they had prophets that
read divinations from chicken bones.
Snakes appeared to have some form of spiritual
importance.
Archaeological records show serpentine patterns
appearing on ancient pottery, bronze drums,
swords, and tools across ancestral Yue territory.
The dragon also appeared to be very important
in religious and cultural contexts, and was
a sign of power and nobility.
One thing common to many of the Hundred Yue
was seafaring, as the coastal peoples of the
south were renowned ship-builders.
Their naval prowess made them the envy of
the Chinese Kings of the warring states period.
In the Chinese literature of this time, Yue
peoples are mentioned whenever the story involves
a skillful sailor, or cunning swimmer.
The southern barbarians were synonymous with
the sea.
This made the Yue prominent merchants, as
their ocean-going vessels established trade
networks across much of southeast Asia, peddling
luxury goods .
The most notable aspect of Yue culture was
their metallurgy.
Blades made by Yue smiths were extremely valued
in the royal courts of the Chinese warring
states, and were said to be imbued with the
talismanic powers of dragons and other mythical
aquatic spirits.
The most famous of these is the Sword of King
Goujian, a 2500 year old blade which even
today remains remarkably sharp, a testament
to Baiyue craftsmanship.
Perhaps the most interesting but controversial
aspect of the Baiyue peoples are the ancestral
ties that they may have had with many modern
populations in South-East Asia.
The most prominent of these connections lie
in the country of Vietnam.
Vietnamese literary tradition asserts that
the origin of their nation is somewhat tied
to the Yue.
A 14th century anthology, the Lĩnh Nam chích
quái, tells the following tale: Sometime
around the 3rd millennium BC, there lived
a great King known as Lạc Long Quân, who
descended from a mighty sea dragon.
He fell in love with a mystical fairy Princess
known as Âu Cơ, who bore him an egg sac
that spawned 100 children.
These hundred children became the forebears
of the Hundred Yue peoples, a branch of which,
the aforementioned Luoyue, or Lac Viet, are
the ones considered to be the direct ancestors
of the Vietnamese people.
The word Viet, infact, is derived from the
old chinese pronunciation of “Yue”.
Vietnam is not the only country with a claim
on the Baiyue legacy.
Linguistic evidence suggests that some of
the ancient Yue had spoken tongues ancestrally
related to modern Thai.
The strongest testament to this is the presence
of the modern Zhuang people.
Natives to Guangxi province, and speakers
of northern Tai languages, they may well be
a remnant of a once larger, indigneous Tai
presence.
Linguistic evidence further suggests that
archaic versions of Tibeto-Burman and Hmong-mien
languages may also have been spoken among
the ancient Yue, which corroborates with the
fact that those language families are still
spoken by pockets of minority peoples across
Southern China to this day.
Meanwhile, the Yue tribes who lived in modern-day
Fujian were most likely speakers of proto-Austronesian
languages.
Archaeological evidence suggests that around
4000BC, they crossed the narrow strait and
settled Taiwan, and then migrated out across
a huge swath of the Pacific, diverging into
the ancestors of the Malay and Indonesian
peoples, as well as the voyageuring Polynesians.
Therefore, we can look at people as far flung
as the Maori of New Zealand or the natives
of Hawai’i, and wonder if their seafaring
lifestyle and iconic polynesian tattoos are
in some way an echo of ancient ancestors separated
by thousands of years and an ocean.
As one might have guessed, the latter half
of Baiyue history is defined by a centuries-long
march of conquest and cultural assimilation
that resulted in the overwhelmingly Han Chinese
south we know today.
This began in earnest with Qin Shihuang, who
engaged in a conquest of ancestral Yue lands
on his path to creating what historians consider
the first united Imperial Dynasty of China.
The Qin Emperor kept order in his realm with
an iron fist.
To subdue the unruly barbarians he organized
the southwards immigration of 500,000 northern
Chinese settlers, many of whom were convicted
felons and exiles.
However, the Qin dynasty soon buckled under
its own tyranny, collapsing immediately after
the death of its only Emperor.
From its ruins emerged the dynamic Han Dynasty,
which managed to reunite most of the Qin’s
former territory.
During this time, the Yue peoples re-established
their independence in the form of two states:
In modern day Fujian was the Kingdom of Minyue,
ruled by a royal line descended from the original
Yue Kingdom.
Spanning from Guangdong to central Vietnam
was the Kingdom of Nanyue, which was ruled
by Zhao Tou, a Chinese general from the Qin
Dynasty who had styled himself as “Emperor
of the Southern Yue”, and adopted the culture
& customs of the locals.
Nanyues’ cultural legacy is significant,
due to its control over much of modern-day
Vietnam, it is considered by some scholars
to be history’s first Vietnamese state.
Originally these states were cordial with
the Han Emperors, but this changed with the
ascension of Han Wudi, whose expansionist
ambitions saw the Han Dynasty absorb them
through conquest.
Wudi proved to be as despotic to the Yue as
Emperor Qin had been.
His draconian edict mandated the deportation
of the peoples of Minyue, forcing them from
their homes and resettling them between the
Changjiang and Huai Rivers, leaving their
country completely depopulated.
Han rule saw an influx of Han Chinese merchants,
scholars, bureaucrats, and soldiers into Yue
lands, putting increasing pressure on the
native peoples to assimilate into the culture
of the new elite.
That is not to say they accepted their fate
meekly.
In 43BC, the legendary Trưng sisters led
a fierce uprising that briefly pushed the
Chinese out of their homeland of northern
Vietnam, but were eventually put down by a
Han counteroffensive.
The saga of these two female warriors is indicative
of one of the main differences between Chinese
and Baiyue culture.
Where Han China ran on the rigidly patriarchal
precepts of Confucian teachings, the peoples
they called southern barbarians comparatively
allowed great freedom to their women, who
fought as warriors and leaders.
The mighty Han soon fell into decline and
power fell into the hands of local warlords.
By 220AD, the illusion of Imperial Han unity
had collapsed, and the middle Kingdom was
officially divided into three warring states:
Cao Wei, Eastern Wu, and Shu Han.
Each state was ruled according to High Chinese
culture, but in the southern Kingdoms of Wu
and Shu Han, there still existed major pockets
of Nanman, who had not yet assimilated into
Chinese society.
It is unknown if these indigenous tribes were
related to the Baiyue peoples, but it seems
likely, as they appeared to have shared some
broad cultural affinities.
With China now divided, they would rise up
again in an attempt to retake control of their
homeland.
The first of these uprisings came in 221,
when the chieftain Shamoke rallied the tribes
living in the valley gorges of the Hunan to
enter open revolt against the Eastern Wu by
joining forces with their main rival, the
legendary warlord Liu Bei and the armies of
Shu Han.
However, this insurgency was short, for the
Shu Han alliance was defeated by Wu forces
at the battle of Xiaoting a year later, and
Shamoke was killed in the fighting.
The defeat of the Shu Han at Xiaoting made
the Kingdom look weak in the eyes of the indigenous
tribes who lived under their rule.
This feeling was exacerbated when the seasoned
warlord Liu Bei died, and his uninitiated
young son ascended to the Shu Han throne.
Seeing their opportunity, Nanman tribes in
the region of Nanzhong entered into open rebellion.
The war that followed is retold in the form
of a fantastical legend, detailed in the 14th
century chronicle: Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
According to the Romance, the Nanzhong rebellion
was spearheaded by a great tribal King known
to the Chinese as Menghou.
Born and raised in the jungle, his men rode
war elephants into battle, and developed a
special armour made of palmwood, which supposedly
was able to deflect even the sharpest blades
and arrows.
Menghou had two key allies in his campaign.
The first was his wife, the Lady Zhurong,
titularly named after the Chinese fire god
Zhurong, whom she was descended from.
Notably, she is the only woman in the entire
Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel who actively
fights in battle, perhaps a testament to the
aforementioned egalitarian culture of the
Baiyue peoples.
The second of these allies was King Mulu,
the lord of Bana Cave.
The Romance depicts this man as a wielder
of magical powers, claiming that he had control
of wild beasts, directing armies of feral
tigers upon his foe, while he looked on atop
his Elephant.
Initially, the Shu Han Kingdom was ill-prepared
to deal with the insurgency, but they had
better leadership.
In the wake of King Liu Bei’s death, control
of Shu Han had passed down to Zhuge Liang,
who served as regent of the realm on behalf
of the young King Liu Shan.
Liang was without flaws; according to the
Romance: an incorruptible statesman, benevolent
ruler, and cunning general.
After putting his affairs in order in his
capital of Chengdu, he marched south to put
down the rebellion.
In the end, the determination of the southern
barbarians was no match for Zhuge Liang’s
cunning.
King Mulu scored some initial victories against
the Shu forces with the aid of his magical
beast horde, but lost when his animals were
scared away by Zhuge Liang's “flame-spewing
wooden beasts”, which were probably some
form of anachronistic gunpowder based siege
weapon.
During his retreat, Mulu’s elephant threw
him off and trampled him to death.
Menghou, meanwhile, met Zhuge Liang in battle
seven times, and was defeated each time.
After every loss, the tribal chieftain was
captured, only to be treated with kindness
and set free.
The idea was that by showing mercy, Menghou
would give up his rebellious aspirations and
become loyal to Shu Han once more.
Nevertheless, the King of the Nanman was stubborn:
each time he was set loose, he would rally
his army and fight Zhuge Liang once more.
Only upon the seventh capture did Menghou
give up his struggle, ending the rebellion.
He swore complete loyalty to the Shu Han Kingdom.
According to the romance, the Nanman peoples
never rebelled again.
The historical validity of Menghou’s rebellion
is highly questionable.
Many scholars rightfully question the fantastical
elements of the tale, and point out how absurd
it was that the leader of an insurgency could
be captured seven times and be let go each
time.
Nevertheless, it is one of the last times
that Chinese records mention any sort of major
uprising amongst the indigenous peoples of
the South.
By the 7th century AD, it had become predominantly
Chinese-speaking, resulting in the modern
populations of Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi,
and Yunnan we see today.
With that said, not all the descendants of
the indigenous south disappeared: Vietnam
is home to a vibrant culture whose heritage,
in many ways, traces back to the ancient Hundred
Yue.
The same can be said for many of the modern
peoples of Thailand and Myanmar, as well as
the aborigines of Taiwan, who hold out strong
in the western mountains of their island to
this day.
In China itself, echoes of ancient Yue languages
can be found in the form of loanwords in modern
southern Chinese languages like Hokkien, Hakka
& Cantonese.
Furthermore, aspects of their culture lived
on long after the peoples themselves faded
into memory.
As late as 1368, some peoples in Shandong
province were recorded to have kept their
hair short and tattooed themselves with markings
of the dragon and snake.
As a result of historical intermixing between
southerners and Chinese, a huge chunk of the
modern southern Chinese population has Baiyue
blood.
Beyond that, minority peoples in China like
the Zhuang, Yi, Miao, and Tanka boat people
still exist in pockets throughout southern
China, with languages, customs and traditions
that stand apart from the modern Han Chinese.
These peoples are all likely the descendants
of tribes the Imperial Chinese once called
“Nanman”, meaning that while their history
has largely been forgotten, their successors
live on to this day.
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