At the same time as the Han were establishing themselves as Emperors, Zhao Tuo, a former commander in the army of the First Emperor, created the independent state of Nanyue in 204 BC. Its capital Panyu is modern-day Guangzhou (Canton) and was then, as now, a busy commercial port and perhaps an eastern terminus of the ancient maritime Silk Route.
In 196 BC Emperor Gaozu, founder of the Han Dynasty, sent an envoy demanding that Nanyue’s founding king, Zhao Tuo, submit to his authority. Zhao Tuo agreed and Nanyue was granted formal status as a vassal state of the Han Empire. Yet only a year later, having gained the allegiance of two neighbouring states, Zhao Tuo declared himself Emperor. After two years of conflict, Zhao Tuo once more ‘submitted’ to the Han ruler, though both he and his successors continued to style themselves ‘Emperor’ at home, using the lesser title of ‘King’ only in their dealings with the Han court.
The Search for Immortality compares the tomb of Zhao Mo, Zhao Tuo’s grandson and successor from the Southern Nanyue kingdom, with the astonishing finds from the northern Han tombs of the Kings of Chu, a branch of the imperial family that had been granted this kingdom by the Emperor. Continue reading Here
http://www.tombtreasuresofhanchina.org/the-exhibition/contested-power/imperial-pretender/
 | ||
| An underground structure was discovered 16 years ago in the city proper of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, which later proved to be the tomb of Zhao Mei, the second ruler of the Kingdom of Southern Yue. Its discovery revealed the secret of the ancient kingdom.
The Kingdom of Southern Yue was established about 2,000 years ago in the area where southern China's Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region meet. It lasted for 93 years, and had five kings. Zhao Tuo, a general of the Qin Dynasty, unified the Lingnan area at the time China's first Emperor, Qin Shihuang, died. In 204 B.C., the Kingdom of Southern Yue was established, and Zhao Tuo made himself King Wu of that kingdom, choosing Guangzhou as his capital. In 111 B.C., the small kingdom was destroyed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Three out of the five rulers had tombs built for themselves, but nobody knew there they were located before the discovery of the Guangzhou tomb. During the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), Sun Quan, the ruler of the State of Wu, heard that there was a lot of treasure in the tombs, so he ordered his troops to search all the mountain slopes in the area of the extinguished kingdom. They found nothing, and the whereabouts of the tombs remained a mystery.
On the tomb's 12-meter-high outside walls are carved designs of a man, the Sun and Moon gods have a gigantic serpent beneath their feet, symbolizing that they are capable of dispelling evil spirits. The tomb has been turned into a museum, illustrating the history of the kingdom.
An exhibition hall has been constructed in front of the tomb, consisting of several rooms, spread over three floors. The tomb was built on a slope on Xianggang Ridge. The layout is modeled on a palace of the time, consisting of four chambers and two halls.
One passed through a huge stone gate before entering the coffin chamber. A jade suit sewn with silken threads worn by the tomb's owner and decorated with gold, silver and jade objects around the hem, were found intact when the tomb was opened. Also found in the tomb were nine seals, one being made of gold with a knob in the shape of a coiled dragon. This gold seal enabled archaeologists to identify the tomb as that of the second ruler, Zhao Mei.
The jade suit is particularly valuable because it is the oldest of its kind found so far. It consists of more than 1,000 pieces of jade, each having holes in all four corners. The silk fabrics decayed long ago. In addition, ten iron swords were found, each inlaid with gold and jade. The biggest is 1.46 m long, making it the longest iron sword dating from the time of the Han Dynasty (206B.C.-A.D.22O).
Numerous valuable burial objects were discovered in the side chambers. They include ivory, gold, silver, bronze, iron, pottery, glass, bamboo, jade and lacquer wares, demonstrating that workmanship in Guangdong had already reached high artistic level 2,000 years ago. In addition, they also show that the Southern Yue Kingdom and the Central Plains had close ties.
|
http://www.lifeofguangzhou.com/node_10/node_35/node_112/node_263/2007/05/25/118007747320460.shtml
Drama "King of Nanyue Kingdom"南越王 |
| Updated May 25 2007 15:17:53 Beijing Time |
Venue: Huang Hua Gang TheaterTime: 2007-06-09~12 19:30
Tickets: ￥380,180,120,80
Tel: 8386 5690, 8384 6330
This drama is about the story of Zhao Tuo, a Chinese Commanding General of the Qin Dynasty, and later the founder of Nanyue Kingdom.
During the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Tuo was sent south (the site of today's Guangzhou) by Emperor Qin. He built up his power and territory, partially through alliances with native Yue nobility and chieftains. After the Qin Dynasty died out, he declared himself the King of Nanyue (Southern Yue) and set up his capital at Panyu.
The largest threat came from the Han Dynasty who coveted the Nanyue state. At an early stage, Emperor Gao Zu (Liu Bang) put an army in Changsha state, to watch over the movements of Nanyue kingdom, which made Zhao Tuo worried. Zhao Tuo took the opportunity to trade and imported things in large amounts from the Central Plains, and Zhao Tuo also gave tribute to central authority. After Gao Zu died, Emperor Hui (Liu Ying) succeeded. The new emperor respected the treaty made by his father, and Zhao Tuo also kept to this treaty.
After 7 years of Emperor Hui's reign, Empress Dowager Lü came to power. In the beginning everything went on as usual. But in 183 BC, she suddenly declared trade restrictions between the Han and others. This included useful products such as iron tools and horses to Nanyue territory.
Tickets: ￥380,180,120,80
Tel: 8386 5690, 8384 6330
This drama is about the story of Zhao Tuo, a Chinese Commanding General of the Qin Dynasty, and later the founder of Nanyue Kingdom.
During the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Tuo was sent south (the site of today's Guangzhou) by Emperor Qin. He built up his power and territory, partially through alliances with native Yue nobility and chieftains. After the Qin Dynasty died out, he declared himself the King of Nanyue (Southern Yue) and set up his capital at Panyu.
The largest threat came from the Han Dynasty who coveted the Nanyue state. At an early stage, Emperor Gao Zu (Liu Bang) put an army in Changsha state, to watch over the movements of Nanyue kingdom, which made Zhao Tuo worried. Zhao Tuo took the opportunity to trade and imported things in large amounts from the Central Plains, and Zhao Tuo also gave tribute to central authority. After Gao Zu died, Emperor Hui (Liu Ying) succeeded. The new emperor respected the treaty made by his father, and Zhao Tuo also kept to this treaty.
After 7 years of Emperor Hui's reign, Empress Dowager Lü came to power. In the beginning everything went on as usual. But in 183 BC, she suddenly declared trade restrictions between the Han and others. This included useful products such as iron tools and horses to Nanyue territory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiyue
The Baiyue or Hundred Yue (Chinese: 百越; pinyin: Bǎiyuè) or Yue (越) is a loose term denoting various partly or un-Sinicized peoples who inhabited southern China and northern Vietnam between the first millennium BC and the first millennium AD.[1][2] In the Warring States period, the word "Yue" referred to the State of Yue in Zhejiang. The later kingdoms of Minyue in Fujian and Nanyue inGuangdong are both considered Baiyue states. Although people of Yue had a knowledge of agriculture and technology of shipbuilding, Chinese writers depicted the Yue as barbarians who had tattoos, lived in primitive conditions, and lacked such technology as bows, arrows, horses and chariots.
The Yue were assimilated or displaced as Chinese civilization expanded into southern China in the first half of the first millennium AD. Variations of the name are still used in both the name of Vietnam (Chinese: 越; Vietnamese: Việt) and the abbreviation for Guangdong (Chinese: 粤; Jyutping: jyut6).
After the unification of China by Qin Shi Huang, the former Wu and Yue states became incorporated into the Chinese empire. The Qin armies also advanced south along the Xiang River to modern Guangdong and set up commanderies along the main communication routes. "In the south he seized the land of the hundred tribes of the Yue and made of it Guilin and Xiang provinces, and the lords of the hundred Yue bowed their heads, hung halters from their necks, and pleaded for their lives with the lowest officials of the Qin," wrote Sima Qian.[10]
The "Treatise of Geography" in the Han Shu (completed 111 AD) describes the Yue lands as stretching from Kuaiji (in modern Zhejiang) to Jiaozhi (modern northern Vietnam).[8]Throughout the Han Dynasty period two groups of Yue were identified, that of the Nanyue in the far south, who lived mainly in the area of what is now Guangdong, Guangxi, andVietnam; and that of the Minyue to the southeast, centred on the Min River in modernFujian. The kings of Minyue claimed to be descended from Yu the Great of the Chinese Xia dynasty.[9]
The kingdom of Nanyue was founded at the collapse of the Qin Dynasty in 204 BC by the local Qin commander Zhao Tuo. At its height, Nanyue was the strongest of the Baiyue states, with Zhao Tuo declaring himself emperor and receiving the allegiance of neighbouring kings.[11] The dominant ethnicities of this kingdom were the Han and Yue, who held all the most important positions in the kingdom.[12] Intermarriage was encouraged and was very common among the commoners, and it happened even in the royal family of Nanyue, the last king was descendant of Han and Yue.[citation needed] The kingdom of Nanyue was destroyed in 111 BC by an army of Emperor Wu of Han.
Sinification of these peoples was brought about by a combination of imperial military power, regular settlement and Chinese refugees. According to one Chinese immigrant of the second century BC, the Baiyue "cut their hair short, tattooed their body, live in bamboo groves with neither towns nor villages, possessing neither bows or arrows, nor horses or chariots."[13] The difficulty of logistics and the malarial climate in the south made the displacement and eventual sinification of the Yue peoples a slow process.
As Chinese migrants gradually increased, the Yue were gradually forced into poorer land on the hills and in the mountains. Unlike the nomadic peoples of Central Asia, such as the Xiongnu or the Xianbei, however, the Yue peoples never posed any serious threat to Chinese expansion or control. Sometimes they staged small-scale raids or attacks on Chinese settlements – termed "rebellions" by traditional historians.
Most Yue peoples were eventually sinicized, and continue to live in Zhejiang and Guangdong,[14][15] the Kam–Tai (Tai–Kadai): Zhuang, Buyi, Dai,Sui (Shui), Kam (Dong), Hlai (Li), Mulam, Maonan, Ong-Be (Lingao), Vietnamese (Kinh), Thai, Lao, and Shan people retained their ethnic identities.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, the two states, now called Wu and Yue, were becoming increasingly involved in Chinese politics. In 512 BC, Wu launched a large expedition against the large state of Chu, based in the Middle Yangtze River. A similar campaign in 506 succeeded in sacking the Chu capital Ying. Also in that year, war broke out between Wu and Yue and continued with breaks for the next three decades. In 473 BC, the Yue king Goujian finally conquered Wu and was acknowledged by the northern states of Qi and Jin. In 333 BC, Yue was in turn conquered by Chu.[8] After the fall of State of Yue, the ruling family moved south to what is now Fujian and established the Minyue kingdom.
The kings of the state of Yue, and therefore its successor state Minyue, claimed to be descended from Yu the Great of the Chinese Xia dynasty.[9]
Xia Dynasty
The first king of Xia-Dynasty:King Yu the Great (reign from 2205 B.C. to 2197 B.C.)
http://folk.uio.no/huut/xia.html
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/xia/
The first king of Xia-Dynasty:King Yu the Great (reign from 2205 B.C. to 2197 B.C.)
http://folk.uio.no/huut/xia.html
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/xia/
http://folk.uio.no/huut/xia.html
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/xia/
Legacy
The fall of the Han Dynasty and the succeeding period of division sped up the process of sinicization. Periods of instability and war in northern China, such as the Northern and Southern Dynasties and during the Song Dynasty led to mass migrations of Chinese.[22] Intermarriage and cross-cultural dialogue has led to a mixture of Chinese and non-Chinese peoples in the south.[citation needed] By the Tang Dynasty (618–907), the term "Yue" had largely become a regional designation rather than a cultural one. A state in modern Zhejiang province during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, for example, called itself "Wu-Yue". Likewise, the "Viet" in "Vietnam" (literally, "Viet South") is a cognate of the "Yue".
The Baiyue have been compared to the lost tribes of Israel, with a great deal of speculation among Chinese historians concerning who they were and what happened to them.[23] Connecting them to existing peoples in South China led to questions concerning the Chinese character of the South, while connecting them to the Vietnamese might validate nationalistic Vietnamese views.[23] Many of the ethnic groups now inhabiting southern China and northern Vietnam are thought to be descendants of the Baiyue or have some connection to the ancient Baiyue.[23][24]
The impact of Yue culture on Chinese culture has not been determined authoritatively but it is clear that it is significant. The languages of the ancient states of Wu and Yue had significant influence on the modern Wu language and to some extent of the Min languages of Fujian.[citation needed] Linguistic anthropologists have also determined that a number of Chinese words can be traced to ancient Yue words, such as the word jiāng (river) mentioned above. To some extent, some remnants of the Yue peoples and their culture can also be seen in someminority groups of China and in Vietnam.
No comments:
Post a Comment