Qin campaign against the Baiyue

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(Redirected from
Qin campaign against the Yue tribes
)
Qin's campaign against the Yue tribes
Date221–214 BC
Location
South China and Northern Vietnam (disputed)
Result Qin victory
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

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]

Background

Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty dispatched military forces against the Baiyue in 214 BC.

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

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]

Post Qin

Main article: Vietnam under Chinese rule

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.

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]

See also

References

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  22. ^ Zhāng, Yuánshēng 张元生 (1984), "Zhuàngzú rénmín de wénhuà yíchǎn – fāngkuài Zhuàngzì 壮族人民的文化遗产——方块壮字" [The cultural legacy of the Zhuang nationality: the Zhuang square characters], Zhōngguó mínzú gǔ wénzì yánjiū 中国民族古文字研究 [Research on the ancient scripts of China's nationalities], Beijing: Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué chūbǎnshè 中国社会科学出版社, pp. 455–521.
  23. ^ 李乐毅 Li Leyi, "方块壮字与喃字比较研究","Comparative Research into Sawndip and Chu Nom" in "民族语文 Minority Languages of China" (1987) Vol. 4
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  38. ^ Zhang, Baohui (2015). Revolutions as Organizational Change: The Communist Party and Peasant Communities in South China, 1926–1934. p. 75.
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