Ancient China and the Yue

Perceptions and Identities on the Southern Frontier, c.400 BCE–50 CE

Erica Fox Brindley

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781107084780
• eBook ISBN: 9781316355282
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

In this innovative study, Erica Fox Brindley examines how, during the period 400 BCE–50 CE, Chinese states and an embryonic Chinese empire interacted with peoples referred to as the Yue/Viet along its southern frontier. Brindley provides an overview of current theories in archaeology and linguistics concerning the peoples of the ancient southern frontier of China, the closest relations on the mainland to certain later Southeast Asian and Polynesian peoples. Through analysis of warring states and early Han textual sources, she shows how representations of Chinese and Yue identity invariably fed upon, and often grew out of, a two-way process of centering the self while de-centering the other. Examining rebellions, pivotal ruling figures from various Yue states, and key moments of Yue agency, Brindley demonstrates the complexities involved in identity formation and cultural hybridization in the ancient world, and highlights the ancestry of cultures now associated with southern China and Vietnam.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Figures, maps, and tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Note on the text
• Part I Orientations: definitions and disciplinary discussions
• Part II Timelines and political histories of the Yue state and Han period Yue kingdoms, c.500–110 BCE
• Part III Performing Hua„-xia,„ inscribing Yue: rhetoric, rites, and tags
• Part IV Performing Yue: political drama, intrigue, and armed resistance
• Select bibliography
• Index