Qin's campaign against the Yue tribes | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Qin empire | Yue tribes | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Wang Jian Meng Wu Tu Sui † | Chieftains of Yue tribes | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Estimated over 500,000 | Unknown |
As trade was an important source of wealth for the Baiyue peoples of coastal southern China, the region south of the Yangtze River attracted the attention of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, and he undertook a series of military campaigns to conquer it. Lured by its temperate climate, fertile fields, maritime trade routes, relative security from warring factions to the west and northwest, and access to luxury tropical products from Southeast Asia, the emperor sent armies to conquer the Yue kingdoms in 221 BC. [1] [2] Military expeditions against the region were dispatched between 221 and 214 BC. [3] [4] [5] [6] It would take five successive military excursions before the Qin finally defeated the Yue in 214 BC. [7]
After Qin Shi Huang defeated the state of Chu in 223 BC, the nascent Qin dynasty in 221 BC undertook a military campaign against the Baiyue in Lingnan to conquer the territories of what is now southern China and northern Vietnam. [3] The emperor ordered his armies of five hundred thousand men to advance southward in the five columns to conquer and annex the Yue territories into the Qin empire. [8] [9] On another account, one hundred thousand people in armies were the maximum including those transporting provisions and maintaining road pavement as parts of combat service support. As the population of Lingnan were in an earlier Bronze Age civilization, the population would have been reasonably sparse. At the time of the Qin campaign, the population in Lingnan numbered one hundred thousand at the maximum. [10]
The region's vast geographical topography coupled with its rich natural endowment of valuable exotic products motivated Emperor Qin Shi Huang's desire to secure his geopolitical boundaries to the north with a fraction of the Qin army, while devoting a large majority of it towards the south to seize the land and profit from it and concurrently attempting to subdue the Yue tribes of the southern provinces. [2] [3] [7] [11] [12] [13] The Ouyue in southern Zhejiang and the Minyue in the Fujian province soon became vassals of the Qin empire. [8] The Qin armies would unfortunately face fierce resistance from the Nanyue in Guangdong and Guangxi. [8] At that time, southern China was known for its vast fertile land, rich in rice cultivation, elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns, kingfisher feathers, ivory, pearls, jade production, and maritime trade routes with Southeast Asia. [2] [7] [14] [15] [16] Prior to the events leading to Qin dominance over what is now modern Southern China, the Baiyue had gained possession of much of Sichuan to the southwest. The Qin army was unfamiliar with the jungle terrain, and was defeated and nearly annihilated by the southern Yue tribes' guerrilla tactics, suffering casualties of over 10,000 men in addition to the death of a Qin commander. [2] [8] [9] [12] Despite these initial military setbacks, the central imperial government would begin to promote a series of policies for assimilating the Yue tribes through sinicization. [13]
The Qin empire managed to construct the Lingqu Canal to the south, which they used heavily to supply, garrison, rally, and reinforce their troops during its second attempt to besiege to the south. [16] The Linqu canal connected the headwaters of the Xiang River in the Yangzi basin with the Li River flowing into the West River basin. The Qin had extended the construction of canals towards the southern coast in order to profit from international maritime trade coming from Nanhai and the Indian Ocean. [17] Nanhai was a site of strategic attraction for the Qin as it provided an outstanding opening for maritime trade with Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Near East, and the European Roman Mediterranean. [17] The canal would facilitate the transportation of military supplies to the Qin troops and prisoners to the Lingnan region for securing and expanding the Qin's borders. [18] [19] With the Qin's superior armament and disciplined military organization of the Qin army, the Qin forces would ultimately prevail over the Yue tribes. [8] By 214 BC, Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam were subjugated and annexed into the Qin empire. [8] Building on these territorial gains, the Qin armies conquered the coastal lands surrounding Guangzhou and took areas of Fuzhou and Guilin. The annexed territories were partitioned and administered into new three prefectures of the Qin empire, Nanhai, Guilin, and Xiang. [9] [16] Partitioned into four territories, each with its own governor and military garrison, these coastal territories became the business epicenter of Chinese maritime activity and international foreign trade. [7] During this time, Guangdong was a vastly underdeveloped and primitive semitropical frontier region of forests, jungles, and swamps inhabited by elephants and crocodiles. [8] The cessation of war of the Yue in Lingnan, Qin Shi Huang began his efforts to sinicize the original inhabitants. Half a million people were moved from northern China to the south to facilitate colonial control and undergo assimilation. [16] He used civilians and convicted felons as colonial tools to the Yue territories by setting up various agricultural communities as colonial outposts. He imposed sinification by importing Han Chinese settlers to drive out, displace, weaken, and ultimately eliminate the indigenous Yue culture and sense of Yue ethnic consciousness to prevent nationalism that could potentially lead to the desire of independent states. [20] In addition to promoting immigration, Qin Shi Huang imposed the use of the Han Chinese written script as new language and writing system. Liang Tingwang theorises that there was a proto-Zhuang script which was curbed but later developed into Old Zhuang script or Sawndip. [20] However, most scholars believe that this script originated much later. [21] [22] [23] To exercise even greater control to sinicize and displace the indigenous Yue tribes, Qin Shi Huang forced the settlement of thousands of Han Chinese immigrants, many of which were convicted felons and exiles to move from northern China to settle in the newly annexed Qin domains. [8] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] Though the Qin emperor emerged victorious against the Yue kingdoms, Chinese domination was brief and the collapse of the Qin dynasty led the Yue tribes to regain their independence. [5]
Following the collapse of the Qin dynasty, Zhao Tuo took control of Guangzhou and extended his territory south of the Red River as one of the primary targets of the Qin dynasty was to secure important coastal seaports for trade. [30] In 208 BC, the Qin Chinese renegade general Zhao Tuo had reached Cổ Loa Citadel, capital of the state of Âu Lạc. [31] There, he defeated An Dương Vương and established the Nanyue kingdom during the same year. [32] [33] [34] Following Zhao's capture of Au Lac, Zhao partitioned it into two prefectures Jiaozhi and Jiuzhen. [30] [35] By the end of the Qin dynasty, many peasant rebellions led Zhao Tuo to claim independence from the imperial government and declared himself the emperor of Nanyue in 207 BC. Zhao led the peasants to rise up against the much despised Qinshi Emperor. [36] With dynastic changes, geopolitical upheavals, famines, wars, and foreign invasions, Han Chinese living within the confines of Northern and Central China were forced to venture out and expand into the unknown regions of the south. Prior to the Qin conquest, what is now modern Southern China encompassed territories beyond the Northern Han Chinese heartland, which were inhabited by diverse non-Han tribal groups that included the vast conglomerations Baiyue whom were regarded by the inbound Northern and Central Han Chinese immigrants as foreign and barbarian. For a long time, what are now designated as the southern parts of contemporary China and Northern Vietnam were considered barbarian, as it was populated by numerous non-Han minorities unaccustomed to Chinese peculiarities that were regarded by the Han migrants as alien and unfamiliar. [37] [38] [39] Zhao opened up Guangxi and southern China to the immigration of hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese and the kingdom of Nanyue was established after the collapse of the Qin dynasty in 204 BC. [2] Zhao established his capital at Panyu (modern-day Guangzhou) and divided his empire into seven provinces, which were administered by a mix of Han Chinese and Yue feudal lords. [2] At its height, Nanyue was the strongest of the Yue states, with Zhao declaring himself emperor and receiving allegiance from the neighboring kings. [36] During Han Wudi's reign in 111 BC, a militarily powerful Han dynasty launched an expedition to conquer and annex Nanyue. Five armies led by the Han general Lu Bode were met by two Nanyue legates at the Giao Chi border; with the two men offering Nanyue's acceptance of the Han dynasty annexation and provided the invading army with 100 cattle, 1000 measures of wine, and other tokens of submission to be absorbed into the Han empire. [30] [35]
The Qin dynasty was the first dynasty of Imperial China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, which was a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty which had endured for over five centuries—until 221 BC, when it assumed an imperial prerogative following its complete conquest of its rival states, a state of affairs that lasted until its collapse in 206 BC. It was formally established after the conquests in 221 BC, when Ying Zheng, who had become king of the Qin state in 246, declared himself to be "Shi Huangdi", the first emperor.
Year 209 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Verrucosus and Flaccus. The denomination 209 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Qin Shi Huang was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he assumed the invented title of "emperor", which would see continuous use by monarchs in China for the next two millennia.
The Baiyue, Hundred Yue, or simply Yue, were various ethnic groups who inhabited the regions of Southern China and Northern Vietnam during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. They were known for their short hair, body tattoos, fine swords, and naval prowess.
Yue, also known as Yuyue (于越), was a state in ancient China which existed during the first millennium BC – the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of China's Zhou dynasty – in the modern provinces of Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangsu. Its original capital was Kuaiji ; after its conquest of Wu, Yue relocated its court north to the city of Wu. Yue was conquered by Chu in 306 BC.
Zhao Tuo (Chinese: 趙佗; pinyin: Zhào Tuó; Cantonese Jyutping: Ziu6 To4; Wade–Giles: Chao4 T‘o2) or Triệu Đà in Vietnamese, was a Qin dynasty Chinese general and first emperor of Nanyue. He participated in the conquest of the Baiyue peoples of Guangdong, Guangxi and Northern Vietnam. After the fall of the Qin, he established the independent kingdom of Nanyue with its capital in Panyu (now Guangzhou) in 204 BCE. Some traditional Vietnamese history scholars considered him an emperor of Vietnam and the founder of the Triệu dynasty while some contemporary historians contest that he was a foreign invader.
Nanyue, or Nam Việt in Vietnamese was an ancient kingdom founded by the Chinese general Zhao Tuo, whose family continued to rule until 111 BC. Nanyue's geographical expanse covered the modern Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau, southern Fujian and central to northern Vietnam. Zhao Tuo, then Commander of Nanhai Commandery of the Qin dynasty, established Nanyue in 204 BC after the collapse of the Qin dynasty. At first, it consisted of the commanderies of Nanhai, Guilin, and Xiang.
Zhao Mo was the grandson and successor of Zhao Tuo and the second ruler of Nanyue, a kingdom encompassing parts of modern-day southern China and northern Vietnam. His rule began in 137 BC and ended with his death in 124 BC.
The Triệu dynasty or Zhao dynasty ruled the kingdom of Nanyue, which consisted of parts of southern China as well as northern Vietnam. Its capital was Panyu, in modern Guangzhou. The founder of the dynasty, Zhao Tuo, was a Chinese general from Hebei and originally served as a military governor under the Qin dynasty. He asserted the state's independence in 207 BC as the Qin dynasty was collapsing. The ruling elite included both native Yue and immigrant Han peoples. Zhao Tuo conquered the Vietnamese state of Âu Lạc and led a coalition of Yuè states in a war against the Han dynasty, which had been expanding southward. Subsequent rulers were less successful in asserting their independence and the Han dynasty finally conquered the kingdom in 111 BC.
The First Era of Northern Domination refers to the period of Vietnamese history during which present-day northern Vietnam was under the rule of the Han dynasty and the Xin dynasty. It is considered the first of four periods of Chinese rule over Vietnam, and the first of the three in which were almost continuous and was referred to as Bắc thuộc.
Minyue was an ancient kingdom in what is now the Fujian province in southern China. It was a contemporary of the Han dynasty, and was later annexed by the Han empire as the dynasty expanded southward. The kingdom existed approximately from 306 BC to 110 BC.
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The Âu Việt or Ouyue were an ancient conglomeration of Baiyue tribes living in what is today the mountainous regions of northernmost Vietnam, western Guangdong, and northern Guangxi, China, since at least the third century BCE. They were believed to have belonged to the Tai-Kadai language group. In eastern China, the Ouyue established the Dong'ou or Eastern Ou kingdom. The Western Ou were other Baiyue tribes, with short hair and tattoos, who blackened their teeth and are the ancestors of the modern upland Tai-speaking minority groups in Vietnam such as the Nùng and Tay, as well as the closely related Zhuang people of Guangxi.
Zhao Yingqi was the son of Zhao Mo and the third ruler of the kingdom of Nanyue. His rule began in 122 BC and ended with his death in 115 BC.
The Han conquest of Nanyue was a military conflict between the Han Empire and the Nanyue kingdom in modern Guangdong, Guangxi, and Northern Vietnam. During the reign of Emperor Wu, Imperial Han military forces formally launched a punitive campaign against Nanyue and successfully conquered it in 111 BC.
The southward expansion of the Han dynasty was a series of Chinese military campaigns and expeditions in what is now modern Southern China and Northern Vietnam. Military expansion to the south began under the previous Qin dynasty and continued during the Han era. Campaigns were dispatched to conquer the Yue tribes, leading to the annexation of Minyue by the Han in 135 BC and 111 BC, Nanyue in 111 BC, and Dian in 109 BC.
The Han campaigns against Minyue were a series of three Han military campaigns dispatched against the Minyue state. The first campaign was in response to Minyue's invasion of Eastern Ou in 138 BC. In 135 BC, a second campaign was sent to intervene in a war between Minyue and Nanyue. After the campaign, Minyue was partitioned into Minyue, ruled by a Han proxy king named Zou Yushan, and Dongyue. During the concluding months of 111 BC, after the unsuccessful uprising led by Zou Yushan in thwarting General Yang Pu's conspiratorial intentions to undermine him, the aspiration for autonomous rule in Dongyue gradually waned. The rebellion instigated by Zou was suppressed, prompting the Han dynasty's complete annexation of Dongyue into its dominion and the conquest of the residual territories that constituted the former Minyue, effectively consolidating the permanent integration of both domains into the Han empire indefinitely.
The Han conquest of Dian was a series of military campaigns and expeditions by the Western Han dynasty recorded in contemporary textual sources against the Dian Kingdom in modern-day Yunnan. Dian was placed under Western Han rule in 109 BC, after Emperor Wu of Han dispatched an army against the kingdom as the empire expanded southward.
Kuaiji Commandery, formerly romanized as K'uai-chi Commandery, was a former commandery of China in the area of Hangzhou Bay. When first established, its capital was at Wu, which became known as "Kuaiji" from this role. The initial territory ran from the south bank of the Yangtze through most of modern Zhejiang to an indeterminate border among the free people of Minyue. Wu and Wuxing commanderies were later formed between the Yangtze and the north shore of Hangzhou Bay; the administration of the remainder of Kuaiji Commandery was then removed to the site of the former Yue capital in modern Shaoxing's Yuecheng District, which also became known as Kuaiji from this role. By the Tang, Hangzhou was also separated and Kuaiji ran from a little north of the Zhe River in the west to Ningbo in the east.
The Changsha Kingdom was a kingdom within the Han Empire of China, located in present-day Hunan and some surrounding areas. The kingdom was founded when Emperor Gaozu granted the territory to his follower Wu Rui in 203 or 202 BC, around the same time as the establishment of the Han dynasty. Wu Rui and his descendants held the kingdom for five generations until Wu Zhu died without an heir in 157 BC. In 155 BC, the kingdom was reestablished for a member of the imperial family. However, the creation of this second kingdom coincided with the Rebellion of the Seven States and the subsequent reforms under Emperor Jing, and Changsha under the imperial family saw its autonomy greatly diminished. The kingdom was dissolved during Wang Mang's usurpation, briefly restored after the founding of the Eastern Han, and finally abolished in AD 33 and converted to a commandery under the imperial government.