| Chapter 1: | Setting the Stage |
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suggest a common identity, the Baiyue people was differentiated enough for the names of various tribes within the larger group to have survived into early imperial times; these include the Minyue (also used as a term of reference to the people of Fujian), the Nanyue, and the Dongyue.5 The tongue spoken by the tribes in the north is thought to be the forerunner of the Wu dialect, now commonly spoken in the Zhejiang region, and the area’s distinctive script is known as the “bird and worm script” for its addition of apparently decorative bird motifs to the basic ideogram.6
The records from the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BC) speak of the states of Wu (in present-day southern Jiangsu) and Yue (in present-day northern Zhejiang), which had both been exposed to increasing Chinese influence from the north from the ninth century BC. Frequent warfare between the two states led to highly developed techniques of bronze casting as well as advanced shipbuilding and river warfare technology.7 In 473 BC, the state of Yue proved victorious in the rivalry, but it was conquered by the state of Chu (based in present-day Hubei) in 333 BC. The region was subsequently incorporated into the Chinese empire with the unification of China under the state of Qin in 221 BC.
Despite the extension of Han Chinese authority through the establishment of the Yangzhou Region and Kuaiji commandery by the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 8), the region remained largely a frontier area on the edge of Sinicized China. Tribal chiefs continued to rule the Yue people, who cultivated their paddy fields in the fecund delta areas. The Yue also made the most of their advanced maritime technology and expertise, mapping trade routes not only along the eastern coast of China but also from there to parts of Southeast Asia.8 Their customs of “cutting their hair and tattooing their bodies” would have made them seem barbarous and exotic to the Han Chinese.9 As described in the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), the magnum opus Sima Qian wrote between 109 BC and 91 BC,