History of Yunnan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Western Han dynasty (202 BC – 9 AD), Yunnan Provincial Museum, Kunming; cowrie shells were used as an early form of money in this region of China and were kept in elaborately decorated bronze containers such as this one, surmounted by a freestanding gilded horseman
who is encircled by four oxen, that are approached in turn by two tigers climbing up on opposite sides of the container.

This article describes the history of Yunnan (

People's Republic of China
.

Prehistory

Notable prehistoric finds include the Yuanmou Man, a Homo erectus fossil unearthed by railway engineers in the 1960s and determined to be the oldest known hominid fossil in China.

Neolithic

By the Neolithic period, human settlements existed in the area of

Lake Dian, close to modern-day Kunming
, Yunnan's capital. The inhabitants used stone tools and constructed simple wooden structures.

The Kingdom of Dian

Bronze sculpture of the Dian Kingdom, 3rd century BCE.Yunnan, China.
Main articles:
Han campaigns against Dian

The Dian culture was distributed around the

Lake Dian area and dated, though controversial, between the 6th century BC and the 1st century AD. The culture is divided into an early and a late phase. Under Emperor Wu, a series of military campaigns were dispatched against the Dian during the southward expansion of the Han dynasty. In 109 BC, the kingdom officially became a vassal state of the Han empire.[1]

Map of the Chinese Han dynasty, showing some influence on Yunnan's Dian Kingdom, which was situated near modern-day Kunming.[citation needed]

Han dynasty

Main article: Southward expansion of the Han dynasty

In 109 BC,

Jinning). To expand the burgeoning trade with Burma and India, Emperor Wu also sent Tang Meng (唐蒙) to maintain and expand the Five Foot Way, renaming it "Southwest Barbarian Circuit" (西南夷道).[citation needed] By this time, agricultural technology in Yunnan had markedly improved. The local people used bronze tools, plows and kept a variety of livestock, including cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and dogs. They lived in tribal congregations, sometimes led by exile Chinese.[citation needed
]

In the Records of the Grand Historian, Zhang Qian (d. 113 BC) and Sima Qian (145-90 BC) make references to "Sendhuk", which may have been referring to an Indianised community taking the name from the Indus Valley (the Sindh province in modern Pakistan), originally known as "Sindhu" in Sanskrit. When Yunnan was annexed by the Han dynasty, Chinese authorities also reported a Sendhuk" (Indianised) community living in the area.[3]

In 109 AD, the Han court established Yunnan county, a part of Yizhou (益州) commandery. Because the county seat was south of Mount Yun (云山), the county was named "Yunnan" – literally "south of Yun".

Jin dynasty and the Northern and Southern dynasties period

Chinese dynasties of Jin, Liu Song, Southern Qi and Northern Zhou maintain their rules around the commandery in the Kunming area. Southwest Yunnan and the eastern rugged, mountainous areas were still enjoying relative independence, ruled by tribal kings and chieftains with little Chinese influence.

Nanzhao Kingdom

Main article:
Kingdom of Nanzhao

In 649 AD the chieftain of the

Lake Erhai. In the year AD 737, Piluoge
(皮羅閣) united the six zhaos in succession, establishing a new kingdom called Nanzhao.

In 750, Nanzhao invaded the Tang dynasty. In retaliation, the Tang sent an army against Nanzhao in 751, but this army was soundly defeated at Xiaguan. In 754, another army was sent, this time from the north, but it too was defeated. Bolstered by these successes, Nanzhao expanded rapidly, first into Burma, then into the rest of Yunnan, down into northern Laos and Thailand, and finally, north into Sichuan. In 829, Chengdu was taken; it was a great prize, as it enabled Nanzhao to lay claim to the whole of Sichuan province, with its rich paddy fields.

The Tang dynasty retaliated and by 873, Nanzhao had been expelled from Sichuan, and retreated back to Yunnan. Taking Chengdu marked the high point of the Nanzhao kingdom, and it was a watershed: from then on, the Nanzhao Kingdom slowly declined. n 902, the Nanzhao dynasty was overthrown, and it was followed by three other dynasties in quick succession, until Duan Siping seized power in 937 to establish the Kingdom of Dali.

Dali Kingdom

Main article:
Kingdom of Dali

Dali was a Buddhist

Dali
. In 1274 the Province of Yunnan was created, and the region has since been incorporated within China.

Yuan dynasty

The

Great Khan. The Yuan provincial authorities conferred various titles on many native chieftains, who were obliged to pay taxes. When the Mongols were expelled from China proper
in 1368, Yunnan was thrown into chaos and anarchy for a number of years. The Ming dynasty defeated the last of the Yuan loyalists in 1381.

Ming dynasty

The newly proclaimed

Zhu Yuanzhang
, to set up a hereditary feudatory system in the province. Throughout the Ming, the Mu family developed tremendous influence in Yunnan.

From the end of the 15th century, the

Toungoo Dynasty in Myanmar began encroaching on Yunnan. In the 16th century Chen Yongbin
, the governor of Yunnan, held back a Myanmar invasion. After the war, he built eight passes along the border in Tengyue subprefecture to mark the demarcation between the two countries.

Qing dynasty

A western drawn 1655 map of Yunnan.
'Front of Tibet' Map Painted by Wu Run-De in the 'Ding Wei' year after 1901, which would have been 1907. Political regions shown clockwise from top are Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Xianluo (Thailand), Miandian (Burma), Budan (Bhutan), Yindu (India), Nebo'er (Nepal), and so-called 'Houzang' ('back of Tibet'). Note that Thailand, or Tai regions, are shown between Yunnan and Burma, on Yunnan's historically typically ill-defined western border.

After the fall of the Ming in northern China, Yunnan became the last Southern Ming regime headed by Zhu Youlang. Supported by rebel loyalists, he persisted in resistance against the Qing conquest even after the Qing capture of Kunming in 1659. Zhu and his men then fled into Myanmar to seek refuge in Ava, but were treated as prisoners. Zhu's armed followers savaged Upper Myanmar in an attempt to rescue him. General Wu Sangui, then still loyal to the Qing, invaded Myanmar in 1662 with a sizable army, and demanded Zhu's surrender. Although he hesitated, King Pye finally decided to hand Zhu over to avoid hostility. Wu Sangui later turned against the Manchus but died in 1678. Yunnan finally fell to the Qing army in 1681.

Pingnan Sultanate

Main article: Panthay Rebellion

Waves of conflict between the Muslim Hui people in Yunnan and the Qing government escalated into an all out rebellion in 1856. The rebels in western Yunnan under the leadership of Du Wenxiu became the major military and political center of opposition to the Qing government. They turned their fury on the local mandarins and ended up challenging the central government in Beijing. The rebellion successfully captured the city of Dali, which became the base for the rebels' operations, and they declared themselves a separate political entity from China. The rebels identified their nation as Pingnan Guo (平南国; 'Pacified Southern Kingdom') and Du Wenxiu was styled Qa´id Jami al-Muslimin ('Leader of the Community of Muslims'), but is usually referred to in foreign sources as Sultan, and ruled 1856 – 26 December 1872. The sultanate reached the high-water mark of their power and glory in 1860.

The Sultanate's power declined after 1868. The Chinese Imperial Government had succeeded in reinvigorating itself. By 1871, it was directing a campaign for the annihilation of the obdurate Hui Muslims of Yunnan. Though largely forgotten, the bloody rebellion caused the deaths of up to a million people in Yunnan. Many adherents to the Yunnanese Muslim cause were persecuted by the imperial Manchus. Wholesale massacres of Yunnanese Muslims followed.

For a period of perhaps ten to fifteen years following the collapse of the Panthay Rebellion, the province's Hui minority was widely discriminated against by the victorious Qing, especially in the western frontier districts contiguous with Burma. During these years the refugee Hui settled across the frontier within Burma gradually established themselves in their traditional callings – as merchants, caravaneers, miners, restaurateurs and (for those who chose or were forced to live beyond the law) as smugglers and mercenaries and became known in Burma as the

Panthay
.

Republican China

Main article: Yunnan clique
See also: Yunnan Province, Republic of China
THE GATE OF CHOU-CHOU All of the first and second class cities in Yunnan are surrounded by high walls, and are entered through four or more picturesque gates.

Following the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Yunnan came under the control of local warlords, who had more than the usual degree of autonomy due to Yunnan's remoteness. They financed their regime through opium harvesting and traffic.

In

Nobel laureates in physics studied at Lianda.[citation needed
]

People's Republic of China

A British 1909 map of British India and Burma showing Yunnan's typically ill-defined south and western borders.

The establishment of the PRC brought gradual but definite consolidation to China's southwestern borders, solidifying what were previously murky claims to various regions.

For example,

Yunnan–Burma Railway
, but failed to complete it prior to the outbreak of war, with the project ultimately abandoned.

The PRC also saw a bitter Sino-Vietnamese War fought along Yunnan's south eastern border, which was properly demarcated only on 23 February 2009,[5] with renewed agreements taking effect as late as 14 July 2010.[6]

In the southern region of

Simao was in town and, whilst they were happy to allow him to stay on the south of the Mekong river, he was not to be lent assistance in crossing over. He had no trouble crossing with the aid of a local, regardless.[7]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-521-12433-1
    .
  2. OCLC 965039831. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  3. ^ Tan Chung (1998). A Sino-Indian Perspective for India-China Understanding. Archived 6 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ John Man Kublai Khan, p.80
  5. ^ "China-Vietnam border demarcation finished". Xinhua News Agency. 23 February 2009. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  6. ^ "China-Vietnam land border demarcation agreements take effect Wednesday". Xinhua News Agency. 14 July 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  7. ISBN 974-7534-74-6
    .

Further reading

  • Giersch, Charles Patterson (2006): Asian borderlands. The transformation of Qing China's Yunnan frontier. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univ. Press.
  • Yang, Bin (2009): Between winds and clouds. The making of Yunnan (second century BCE to twentieth century CE). New York, Chichester: Columbia University Press.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Yunnan&oldid=1214626843"