From the Thirteenth Century

SECTION IX FROM THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY THE TAl BEFORE THE TI-ITRTEENTH CENTURY A Perspective from Chinese Records LESHANTAN CORNELL UNIVERSITY The term "Tai" is used to refer to a number of ethnic groups who some affinities between the present-day Tai and the ancient speak a Tai language, share a common culture and probably ethnic groups who shared certain cultural traits with the Tai and have a certain genetic linkage among them. The Tai peoples inhabited the same region. today are widely spread from Hainan Island in China in the east The Yueh, although a small portion of them may have been to Assam in northeast India in the west, and from twenty-eight the ancestors of the present-day Vietnamese, are firmly consid degrees north latitude in the Chinese province of Hunan in the ered by Chinese scholars today to be the ancestors of the north to the middle of the Malay Peninsula in the south. present-day Tai. As far back as the Shang and Zhou (Chou, As Southeast Asia is generally considered to be divided into 1100-475 B.C.E.) Dynasties, the term "Yueh" was mentioned in two main cultural areas, one influenced by Indian culture and Chinese literature, e.g., the Yi Zhou Shu and Zhu Shu Ji Nian. The the other by Chinese culture, similarly the Tai can be divided term Yueh, occasionally "Bai Yueh" ("the hundred kings of into two groups: one more influenced by Chinese culture, Yueh"), is a generic name used to refer to numerous ethnic consisting mainly of those groups officially recognized by the groups sharing cultural characteristics and widely distributed Chinese government as the Dong, Shui, Buyi, Maonan, Mulao, throughout southern China. The "Geographical Record" of the Li and Zhuang (Chuang)* in southern China, as well as the small Han History (written by Ban Gu, 32-92 c.E.) points out, "From clusters of Tai speakers such as the Tho and Nung in northern Jiao-zhi [Chiao-chih in northern Vietnam] to Hui-Ji [Hui-chi, Vietnam; and a second, more influenced by Indian culture (or present-day Hangzhou in the southern Lower Yangtze], there Theravada Buddhist culture), consisting of the Ahom, Shan, is a seven or eight thousand li [li =half km] distance in which the Thai, Lao and the Dai in the Chinese province of Yunnan. This Bai Yueh are interspersed yet separately named" (Han Shu Dili paper will focus on the second group. Zhi). There exist various names for the Bai Yueh, i.e., the Dong The purpose of this paper is to sketch aspects of the latter Yueh, Ming Yueh, Xi-ou Yueh, etc., mentioned in Chinese group of the Tai before the thirteenth century in the border areas records before and after the Han Dynasty. It is possible that one between upper Southeast Asia and Yunnan, based on the analy of the various names may actually refer to several ethnic groups, sis and assessment of Chinese source materials. and that one group may be referred to by several names. The ancient Chinese called most of the peripheral non Chinese peoples in southern China "Man" ("barbarian") or "Yi" THE YUEH: THE ANCESTORS OF ("foreigner"). However, it is significant and remarkable that THE TAl-SPEAKING PEOPLES when the Chinese referred to certain southern ethnic groups by using the term "Bai Yueh," thereby distinguishing them from In China, since the Xia (Hsia, circa 2000-1600 B.C.E.) and Shang the Man and Yi, there must have been some particular cultural (circa 1600-1100 s.c.E.) dynasties, many historical documents aspects differentiating these groups from the Man and Yi, who have been accumulated in which thousands of ethnic groups were considered to be more backward by contemporaneous were recorded. However, dependable data dealing with the Tai Chinese. According to Chinese records, the cultural character emerge only in the Yuan Dynasty in the thirteenth century. istics of the Bai Yueh can be summed up thus: 1) they were Before the Yuan Dynasty, it is merely suggested that there are inhabitants of the valleys and lowlands and had many customs connected with water or rivers; 2) they were cultivators of wet rice; 3) they lived in houses raised on piles above the ground; * The names of people, places, and works are in accordance with the Chinese Pinyin spelling system except for well-known terms which 4) the men, and sometimes the women, used to tattoo their body; are cited as in conventional practice. Following some terms, an 5) they used bronze drums in rituals or on important occasions; English equivalent or a alternate spelling is offered in brackets. and 6) they spoke a Yueh dialect. Evidently the characteristics of 167 Journal of the Siam Society Vol. 82, No.2 (1994) 168 LESHANTAN the Bai Yueh link them with the present-day Tai. Perhaps the Han Dynasties, then the portion of the Yueh in the central most convincing evidence is the linguistic relation between the Yunnan plateau received an impact from the north similar to Yueh and Tai languages. In the Shuo Yuan (written by Lu Xiang, that received by the other portion in the southeastern area of 77-6 B.C.E.) and Yue Jue Shu (written by Yuan Kan during the China. The penetration of Zhuang Qiao (a general of the Chu Eastern Han Dynasty), the lyrics of a Yueh song and other Yueh Kingdom) with his troops into the central Yunnan plateau vocabulary were recorded with Chinese phonetic symbols. These during the period of the Warring Kingdoms and the construc indicate not only a phonological and semantic but also a syntac tion of the "Wu Chi Dao'' ("five-foot-wide road") through the tic similarity between Yueh and Tai, especially with one of the stony mountains leading from Sichuan (Szechuan) into Yunnan Tai dialects, the Zhuang language (Jiang Ying-liang 1983, 75-80; during the Qin Dynasty initiated the process of Chinese politi LiGan-fen et al. 1980, 6). A portion of the Zhuang people still call cal, military, and economic involvement in the affairs of this themselves "Bu Yueh" ("Yueh people" in the Zhuang dialect). part of the Yueh, named "Dian" ("Tien"). This process, however, In the sixth century B.C.E. the Yu Yueh, a kind ofYueh people becamemorenoticeableaftertheestablishmentofacommandery living in the Lower Yangtze nearest to the central Chinese in Yunnan during the Han Dynasty. region, established two kingdoms, Yueh and Wu Yueh. Both of The earliest description associated with the ethnic groups in these kingdoms were involved in wars among the Chinese the southwestern region of China appears in the Shi Ji ("Histori states during the Spring and Autumn (770-476 B.C.E.) and War cal Record") written by the great historian Sima Qian (Ssu-ma ring Kingdoms (475-221 B.C.E.) periods. Simultaneously the Chien, 146-86 B.C.E.). Sima Qian stated: Yueh and Wu were also engaged in a long conflict. In 493 B.C.E. Gou Jian, king of the Yueh, was taken prisoner while in battle There are tens of chiefs of the southwestern foreigners; with the Wu. Later, Gou Jian, once released, led his troops to the Ye Lang [tribe] is the greatest one. To the west [of the erase his previous disgrace and destroyed the Kingdom of Wu Ye Lang], there are tens of kings of the Fei Mo [tribe], of in 473 B.C.E. In 334 B.C.E., the Yueh Kingdom was engulfed by which the Dian is the greatest; to the northeast [of the Chu, another, stronger state. Finally, the Chu Kingdom also Dian], there are tens of chiefs, of which the Qiong Du could not succeed in escaping the same destiny and was an [tribe] is the greatest. All of them knot their hair, plough nexed by the Qin (Chin) Kingdom in 223 B.C.E. the fields, and live in villages. In addition, from the east After unifying China in 221 B.C.E., Chin Shih-huang-ti, the side of Tong Shi [present-day Bao Shan in the west of Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, sent an expedition said to have Yunnan], northward to Ye Yi [present-day Da Li, or Ta been composed of five hundred thousand men to the Yueh li] there are the people named Shun Kun Ming, all of region and set up the three commanderies of Nan-hai, Kuei-lin, whom plait their hair, migrate following cattle, have no and Hsiang. In 207 B.C.E., as the Han Dynasty began to replace steady residence, have no chiefs, and can be spread over the Qin, Governor Chao To of the Nan-hai commandery, a Han a distance of thousands of li. Chinese born in Zhengdin, Hebei province, assumed the title of king of the Nan Yueh Kingdom. In order to consolidate his rule From other Chinese records the Ye Lang is known as one of the in the Yueh area, Chao To pursued a series of policies urging Yueh groups, loosely associated with today's Tai speakers in intermarriage between the Chinese and Yueh people and the Guizhou province and northwestern Guangxi; the Qiong Du dissemination of advanced Chinese skills and technology. In and ShunKun Ming are known as a part of the Di Qiang groups, 112 B.C.E. Han Wu-ti, the third emperor of the Han Dynasty, who are Tibeto-Burman speakers. As for the Dian, they may conquered the Nan Yueh Kingdom. Along with the establish have had a close relationship with the Yueh as indicated by the ment of nine commanderies in the Yueh region, numerous evidence from archaeological excavations unearthed in Yunnan Chinese migrated into the region from northern China.

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