Author: CHUNG Yoon-Ngan
Date: 12-15-03 16:14
They called themselves Han Ren
¥L̦ۺٺ~¤H
In 221BC, Ying Zheng (¾Æ¬F), the King of the State of Qin (¯³°ê) subjugated all the States in the land. He established a big empire called the Qin Dynasty (¯³´Â 221BC to 207BC) and proclaimed himself the First Emperor of Qin (¯³©l¬Ó«Ò). He divided his empire into 41 Prefectures (°p). There would be no more fedual States like the preceding Dynasties. He centralized his empire and he alone controlled all the administrations in the empire.
At that time the population in the southeast coast and Ning Nan (À«n) were the people of Yue Ren (¶V¤H). As there were so many different tribes among the Yue Ren they were being called Bai Yue Ren (¦Ê¶V¤H). They lived in the Prefectures of Nan Hai («n®ü°p present day Guangzhou ¼s¦{), Xiang Jun (¶H°p present day Vietnam Hanoi ¶V«nªe¤º), Gui Lin (®ÛªL°p present day Guangxi province in Gui Lin county ¼s¦è®ÛªL¿¤) and Min Zhong (»Ô¤¤°p present day Fuzhou in Fujian province ºÖ«ØºÖ¦{).
In order to consolidate his empire, in 214BC the First Emperor dispatched an army of 500,000 men, under the command of Tu Sui (±O¸F), to the south. The troops were divided into five army corps of 100,000 each.
(1) One army was sent to Fan Yu (µf¬ë in present day south of Guangzhou city ¼s¦{¥« Guangdong province ¼sªF¬Ù);
(2) one to Tan Cheng (ôì«° in present near Gui Lin city ®ÛªL¥« in Guangxi province ¼s¦è¬Ù),
(3) one to the present day northern part of Vietnam, which was then called Xiang Prefecture (¶H°p),
(4) one to the present day Nan Chang city in Jiangxi province («n©÷¥«, ¦¿¦è¬Ù)
(5) and one to Yu Gan (¾l¤z) near the Po Yang Hu (¾I¶§´ò) in the north of Jiangxi. province.
Before he died in 210BC the First Emperor banished convicts, army deserters, and corrupt officials to the present day provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi to live with the Bai Yue people. The First Emperor also encouraged spinsters, newly married couples and businessmen to settle in the south. The offspring of many of these newcomers were what we now call Qin Ren (¯³¤H).
Ying Hu Hai (¾ÆJ¥è) became the second Emperor of Qin (¯³¤G¬Ó«Ò). In 208BC, during the reign of the Second Emperor of Qin, the governor of Nan Hai Prefecture («n®ü°p in present day Guangzhou ¼s¦{ city in Guangdong province ¼sªF¬Ù), Ren Xiao (¥ôÄÛ), died of illness. Zhao Tuo (»¯¦ï), the officer in charge of Long Chuan (Às¤t in Guangdong province), succeeded Ren Xiao as the new governor of Nan Hai Prefecture.
The Qin Empire collapsed in 207BC. A civil war broke out between Liu Bang (¼B¨¹) and Xinag Yu (¶µ¦Ð). During the period of the civil war between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, Zhao Tuo invaded and absorbed the Prefectures of Gui Lin (®ÛªL°p in present day Gui Lin county in Guangxi province ¼s¦è¬Ù) and Xiang (¶H°p present day Honai city ªe¤º¥« in Vietnam). Zhao Tuo unilaterally proclaimed the formation of the Nan Yue Kingdom («n¶V°ê). He declared himself the King of Nan Yue Kingdom («n¶V°ê¤ý). (NOTE: in1998 the Chinese archaeologists excavated his palace in Guangzhou city in Guangdong province). Zhao Tuo was from Zhen Ding in Hebei province (ªe¥_¯u©w¤H).
In 202BC, Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu in the civil war. He established the Han Dynasty (º~´Â 207BC to 220AD) and he was crowned as Emperor Gao Zu (°ª¯ª) In 196BC Liu Bang sent an official Lu Gu (³°¸ë) as ambassador to the Kingdom of Nan Yue. Since Zhao Tuo did not want in antagonize with such a mighty empire as the Han Empire, he accepted Lu Gu gracefully as the representative of Liu Bang. Liu Bang bestowed upon Zhao Tuo the title of King of the Nan Yue Kingdom and in return Zhao Tuo agreed to accept that his Kingdom was under the jurisdiction of the Han Empire.
Liu Bang died in April 195BC and was succeeded by his son Liu Ying (¼B¬Õ). After the death of Liu Bang, Liu Bang's wife Empress Gao (°ª¦Z) advised the Han Court to stop selling iron to Zhao Tuo. When the Han Court complied with her idea Zhao Tuo was furious. Zhao Tuo suspected that the plan for not selling him the iron was devised by the Prince of Chang Sha (ªø¨F¤ý Chang Sha is the present day capital of Hunan province ´ò«n¬Ù).
In 183BC Zhao Tuo declared that he was Emperor Wu Di of Nan Yue («n¶VªZ«Ò) and he sent troops to attack Chang Sha. The Han Court dispatched an army under the command of General Lu Lu Hou (³°¿c«J) to counter Zhao Tuo, but the Han troops failed to stop Zhao Tuo, who then occupied a large portion of the Han territory. However, when Empress Gao died in 180BC Zhao Tu abolished his title of Emperor of Nan Yue Kingdom and reverted to his original title of King of Nan Yue Kingdom.
After Zhao Tuo's death he was succeeded by his grandson Zhao Hu (»¯J). In 112BC, Zhao Xing (»¯¿³), the son of Zhao Hu, was the King of Nan Yue and was requested by the Han Court ambassador, An Guo Shao Ji (¦w°ê¤Ö©u), to visit the Han Emperor Wu Di (º~ªZ«Ò) who then agreed to lift the ban of on selling iron to Nan Yue Kingdom. However, Lu Jia (§f¹Å), the Prime Minister of Nan Yue sabotged the plan by creating a rioting by the soldiers. The Han Emperor Wu Di was angry and he dispatched a large punitive force of 100,000 men, under the command of Lu Bo-de (¸ô³Õ¼w and Yang Po (·¨¹²) to attack the Kingdom of Nan Yue. The 100,000 troops marched into the present day provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and North Vietnam by five different routes. Within a year the Kingdom of Nan Yue was crushed by the Han forces.
The three Prefectures of Nan Hai, Xiang and Gui Lin were subdivided into nine Prefectures which were Dan Er (äî¦Õ°p), Zhu Ya (¯]±V°p), Nan Hai («n®ü°p), Cang Wu (»a±ï°p), Yu Lin (§ªL°p), He Pu (¦X®ú°p) Jiao Zhi (¥æ³k°p), Jiu Zhen (¤E¯u°p) and Ri Nan (¤é«n°p).
The soldiers of this large punitive force did not return to their homelands in the north. Instead they sent for their families from the north. Knowing that the land in the south was much fertile many northerners emigrated to the south. Thus new seeds were added to the south from these soldiers and the new settlers who began to call themselves Han Ren (º~¤H).
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (¾G¥Ã¤¸)
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Yoon-Ngan
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