33 Facts About Nanyue

Nanyue was established by Zhao Tuo, then Commander of Nanhai of the Qin Empire, in 204 BC after the collapse of the Qin dynasty.

In 196 BC, Zhao Tuo paid obeisance to the Emperor Gaozu of Han, and Nanyue was referred to by the Han dynasty as a "foreign servant", i e a vassal state.

In 179 BC, relations between the Han and Nanyue improved, and Zhao Tuo made submission, this time to Emperor Wen of Han as a subject state.

The submission was somewhat superficial, as Nanyue retained autonomy from the Han, and Zhao Tuo was referred to as "Emperor" throughout Nanyue until his death.

Existence of Nanyue allowed the Lingnan region to avoid chaos surrounding the collapse of the Qin dynasty.

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Nanyue rulers promoted a policy of "Harmonizing and Gathering the Hundred Yue tribes", and encouraged ethnic Han to immigrate from the Yellow River region to the south.

Nanyue rulers were then not against the assimilation of Yue and Han cultures.

Detailed history of Nanyue was written in Records of the Grand Historian by Han dynasty historian Sima Qian.

Nanyue drafted a decree instating Zhao Tuo as the new Lieutenant of Nanhai, and died soon afterward.

Nanyue executed Qin officials still stationed in Nanhai and replaced them with his own trusted friends.

Nanyue further threatened to kill Zhao's kinsmen in China proper and destroying their ancestral graveyards, as well as coercing the Yue into deposing Zhao himself.

In revenge, he then declared himself the emperor of Nanyue and attacked the principality of Changsha and captured some neighboring towns under Han domain.

Nanyue reversed many of the previous policies of Empress Lu and took a conciliatory attitude toward Zhao Tuo and the Kingdom of Nanyue.

Nanyue ordered officials to revisit Zhending, garrison the town, and make offerings to Zhao Tuo's ancestors regularly.

Nanyue abolished the penal tattooing and nose-removal criminal punishments that were practiced among the Yue and instituted Han legal statutes.

Emissaries that had been sent to Nanyue were instructed to remain there to ensure the stability of Han control.

Nanyue's family was the preeminent Yue family in Nanyue and was thoroughly intermarried with the Zhao royal family.

Nanyue vehemently opposed Nanyue's submission to the Han dynasty and criticized Zhao Xing on numerous occasions, though his outcries were ignored.

Sima Qian recorded a story that the Queen Dowager and the Zhao Xing invited Lu to a banquet with several Han emissaries where they hoped to find a chance to kill Lu: during the banquet, the Queen Dowager mentioned that Prime Minister Lu was against Nanyue submitting to the Han dynasty, with the hope that the Han emissaries would become enraged and kill Lu.

When news of Nanyue's defeat reached Emperor Wu, he was staying in Zuoyi County in Shanxi Province while travelling to perform imperial inspections, and promptly created the new county of Wenxi, meaning "Hearing of Glad News".

Nanyue originally comprised the Qin commanderies of Nanhai, Guilin, and Xiang.

Nanyue left Nanhai Commandery and Guilin Commandery intact, then divided Xiang Commandery into the Jiaozhi and Jiuzhen Commanderies.

Nanyue lived in north, east, and central Guangdong, as well as a small group in east Guangxi.

Kingdom of Nanyue was established by Zhao Tuo, a Chinese general of the Qin dynasty, Nanyue's political and bureaucratic systems were, at first, essentially just continuations of those of the Qin Empire itself.

Nanyue was a monarchy, and its head of state generally held the title of "king", though its first two rulers Zhao Tuo and Zhao Mo were referred to as "Emperor" within Nanyue's borders.

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Nanyue's bureaucracy was, like the famed bureaucracy of the Qin dynasty, divided into central and regional governments.

Nanyue enacted several other policies that reflected Chinese dominance, such as the household registration system, as well as the promulgation of the use of Chinese characters among the Hundred Yue population and the use of Chinese weights and measures.

Nanyue's army was largely composed of the several hundred thousand Qin Chinese troops that invaded during the Qin dynasty and their descendants.

Nanyue paid tribute in rarities from the south, and the Han court bestowed gifts of iron tools, horses, and cattle upon Nanyue.

The Han China-Nanyue border was essentially that of Changsha, and therefore was constantly fortified on both sides.

The second stage was from 183 BC to 135 BC, when Minyue submitted to Nanyue after seeing it defeat the Han dynasty's first attack on Nanyue.

Southwestern Yi people lived west of Nanyue, and shared borders with Nanyue in Yelang, Wulian, Juding, and other regions.

Nanyue compared this to the example of the Southern Han dynasty based in Guangzhou.