A Swarm of Dragons Four MORE CHU

A Swarm of Dragons Four MORE CHU

I mentioned the CHU HAN wars and rebellions briefly last time and how close we may have come to having the first dynasty to unify most of china being called CHU rather than CHIN / QIN.

Here's some innovative CHU culture artifacts in lacquer

Note the rich colors that influenced HAN dynasty art.

But first a reminder of its location amongst the other states and realms.

Yes Black and Red Lacquer appeared in the CHU state before the Han dynasty and it would seem the CHU state lacquer workers developed polychrome lacquer first first!

Finally the first known and surviving silk scroll came from a tomb near a major CHU state city

the famous Lady with a Dragon and Phoenix!

The lasting influence of CHU culture probably strengthened Taoism within Chinese culture against the militarism of the QIN and the restored Confucianism of the HAN.

If you can access a translation of Sima Qian read about the struggles of CHU against Qin and Han.

Chinese culture modern or ancient is not a monolith.

A Final thought artifacts show that the CHU traded south and southwest with the Yue Ba Shu and other cultures. Was that a factor in the sinicization of what became Vietnam?

YUE beyond the south

YUE - BEYOND THE SOUTH

History and language are linked and the word and name Yue proves this.

Yue as a word and character is a verb.

As a name it describes an ancient nation in what is now southern China.

The original Yue people seem to have been non Sinitic probably speaking an Austroasiatic language related to Vietnamese though the name is now used to describe a grouping of dialects that includes Cantonese.

The Yue realm was once in eastern Zhejiang south of WU then came to cover the areas that are now Guangdong and Guangxi before becoming assimilated fully into the Chinese or Sinitic culture.

Beyond is perhaps not the best translation of Yue but conisder the name of of modern Vietnam. YueNan.

I suspect Beyond the South reflects the  ancient view of Yue  and Vietnam. 

The lands that were beyond the borders of southern China.

There was a time when the Huai and then the Yangtze river was the southern border.

Yes that was thousands of years ago and its China or in the case of Vietnam Sinicized now.

Borders change though. Who knows what the few thousand years will bring to the lands beyond the south?