Preface
Thousands of years ago, there lived in the vast areas south to the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River a multitude of tribes, who were termed the “Yues” in the Xia Dynasty (appr. 2100-1600 BC), the “Uncivilized Yues” or “Southern Yues” in the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), the “Jin Yues” or the “Yang Yues” in the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), and the “Multitude of Yues” during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). The expression “The Multitude of Yues”, which is still in use today, may refer to those ancient tribesmen, or to the areas they lived in, which should have included the present-day Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, a coverage running from Kuaiji of today’s Zhejiang to the north of the present Vietnam.” (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 63) Just as Chenzan (of the Jin Dynasty) says, “In the areas totaling around seven to eight thousand square li, running from Jiaozhi to Kuaiji, there lived a multitude of races called the Yues,” which is quoted by Yan Shigu (581-645) in a note to The Geographical Sketches of The Book of the Han Dynasty. The races were known as the Eastern Yue, the Ouren, the Yuyue, the Yangyue, the Gumei, the Haiyang, the Sunzi, the Jiujun, the Yuechang, the Luoyue, the Ouyue, the Ou’ai, the Qie’ou, the Weastern Ou, the Gongren, the Mushen, the Cuifu, the Qinren, the Cangwu, the Yue’ou, the Guiguo, the Chanli, the Haigui, the Jiyu, the Beidai, the Puju, the Ouwu, etc. in accordance with historical records.
The Yues, “sharing the physical distinctions of the Southern Mongolian Race, had the same cultural features.” (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 64) They tended to be tattooed and have their hair cut; they mostly dwelled in rugged mountainous regions, moved about by boats, loved sea food, and were swift in action and adept in warfares on water; and they were good at manufacturing bronze ware, such as bronze swords and bronze bells. Facts and archaeological findings show that the regions of Wu and Yue had been the home of bronze swords during the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), which speaks for the fact that Mount Mogan has derived its name from the famous swords Ganjiang and Moye; when it annexed the Yangyue, the State of Chu employed the Yues in bronze sword manufacturing; and unearthed respectively in 1965 and 1973 were Goujian’s Zhouju’s sabers. Ou Yezi, a renowned expert of Chu in sword manufacturing, had his sword manufacturing centers in Longquan of Zhejiang and Fuzhou of Fujian.
The adhesive-type language of the ancient Yues is quite different from the ancient Chinese spoken by the northerners. The researches of linguists have verified that today’s dialects of Wu (吴, approximately the present Jiangsu), Min (闽, i.e. the present Fujian) and Yue (粤, i.e. the present Guangdong) have a close relation with the language of the ancient Yues.
There is a joke in Zhuangzi 5 telling that a northerner transported some hats to the region of Yue for sale, and that consequently his goods didn’t sell, for the Yues never wore hats. From that we can see the Yues had had cultural ties with the north long long before. Trade contacts and cultural intercourses began “as early as the Shang Dynasty”. (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 89) The Yues had come under the jurisdiction of Chu, and the administration center the Court of Chu (built approximately in the fourth century BC by Chu’s prime minister Gao Gu), situated in what is today’s Guangzhou, may serve as a piece of evidence.
The Multitude of Yues boasts of a long history. Around fifty thousand years before, the primitive “Jiande Men” had lived in the present Zhejiang. The neolithic relics unearthed at Hemudu, such as unhusked rice, bone spades and bone flutes, have manifested that the Multitude of Yues is one of the first races in raising pigs, and the areas they lived in is one of the sources of rice culture. In 2000, an American scholar found out through testing that such relics as hand axes discovered in Bose of Guangxi are at least of 803,000 years old in geological time, which, just as an American paleoanthropologist points out, has prompted the archaeological circle to re-assess the beginning of Asian civilization. In 1958, the fossil of a skull of the Maba Hominid, a protolithic human race living 129,000 years ago, was excavated in Shaoguan of Guangdong. In 1972, some 5000-year-old neolithic relics were unearthed. Such archaeological findings as shell mounds, at Puning and Chao’an of Guangdong, as well as those at Pingtan of Fujian, have pointed to the fact that “a belt of cultural flow, extending from the present-day Southern Fujian (including Zhangzhou, Zhangpu and Dongshan) to Nan’ao of Guangdong, had existed 9,000 to 13,000 years before.” (Feng Mingyang, 2006: 196) Pre-historical shell mounds and other relics, such as the one excavated in Chenxi, Hunan, have been unearthed in the other southern provinces.
Stars are revolving, and constellations are in constant changes. In the course of cultural exchanges and historical developments, the Yue culture has converged with the Central Plain culture (中原文化), the Jing-Chu culture (荆楚文化), the Dongyi culture (东夷文化) and the Northern culture (北方文化),and thus become a component part of the profound and magnificent Chinese culture.
The heroic people of the south, from the great sages and philosophers to the rank and file, have lent incomparable charm and glory to their homeland. Notwithstanding that, the evaluation of the south has more or less been affected by the orthodox ideas, which bear the gene of affiliation, as well as by the pride and prejudice of the northern dynasties. A simple archaeological survey through language and literature would shed light on the point. Such expressions as “the savage south” and “the savage Chu” evidently had a connotation of discrimination when they were first put to use; The Verse of Chu, an immortal classic, was rebuked for its “transgression of the Principle of the Mean” and “failure in abiding by the doctrines advocated by the Duke of Zhou and Confucius.” The history of Chu may also verify the case. As regards that point, to catch a glimpse of Chu’s growth is not bringing owls to Athens.
Driven by the Shang Dynasty, the tribesmen with the family name of Mi, as descendants of Emperor Gaoyang (高阳) and one of the eight branches of Zhurong’s offspring (祝融氏后裔八姓之一), moved southward from one place to another and finally settled down in Jingshan (荆山) of the present Hubei. As they had supported the State of Zhou in overthrowing the Shang rulers and in founding the Zhou Dynasty, their chieftain Yuxiong (鬻熊) became the Minister of Fire. Owing to the fact that affiliation played a part much more important than that of contributions in the enfeoffment, Yuxiong’s great grandson Xiong Yi (熊绎) was only endowed the title of viscount and the scant fief of fifty li (about 20 square kilometers). He went in the capacity of head of the state to join in the Alliance Meeting of Qiyang (岐阳之搜) in high spirits, only to be snubbed by the royalty and the other noblemen because of his low rank, about which not a few of his successors could not help feeling indignant. King Wu (?-690BC), seeing that there was no hope of recognition and accept-ance by the Zhou Dynasty, overstepped the confinement of his authority to confer the titles of prince on his sons.
