The 'Zhuang' (in the
Zhuang language: Bouчcueŋь/Bouxcuengh; ) are an
ethnic group of people who mostly live in the
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern
China. They form one of the
56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the
People's Republic of China. Their population, estimated at 18 million people, puts them second only to the
Han Chinese and makes the Zhuang the largest minority in China.
Geography
The Zhuang are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live mostly in the
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Some also live in the
Yunnan,
Guangdong,
Guizhou and
Hunan provinces.
Culture
Language
Main articles: Zhuang language
There is an indigenous
Zhuang language, which has been written with
Zhuang logograms based on
Chinese characters for over a thousand years, and now is officially written in
Roman letters.
Religion
Most Zhuang follow a traditional
animist/
ancestor-oriented religion, however, there are a number of
Buddhists,
Daoists,
Christians, and
Muslims in Guangxi as well.
History
Prehistory
The Zhuang are of
Tai origin, a people who migrated south from central
China roughly 5000 years ago. The Zhuang settled in what is now
Guangxi while other Tai peoples moved to
Yunnan. It is suggested the Tai peoples migrated for food purposes, as the culture developed a unique
irrigation system which was useful for growing
rice. As the soil was terrible for this purpose in Central China, the Tai sought out more fertile plains. However, it is highly probable that struggles with emerging Chinese states that rapidly gained power with
Mesolithic (Bronze Age) weapons had something to do with this. Long struggles with China to avoid destruction (as they were "barbarians") led Tais around
1100 AD to migrate south from Southern China to create the
Lao,
Thai and
Shan peoples of
Indochina, and even as far away as Assam, India.
The dynasties
The Zhuang did not record their history until the
Eastern Zhou dynasty (475-221 BC) of China. The Chinese referred to the area as
Bai-Yue 百越/百粵 (the Hundred Yue - referring to the aborigines of southern China). Eastern
Guangxi was conquered by the Han people under the
Qin Dynasty in 214 BC. The Hans, to bring the area firmly in their control, built the Ling Canal to link the
Xiang and
Lijiang rivers and form a
North-South waterway.
An independent state known as
Nan Yue 南越 (Southern Yue, or
Vietnam) around
Canton was created by General
Zhao Tuo 趙陀 when the
Qin Dynasty collapsed. This Kingdom was supported by the Zhuang until its collapse in 111 BC. The Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) thought the Zhuang culture unproductive, so they reduced local authority and consolidated their authority with Military posts at
Guilin 桂林,
Wuzhou 梧州, and
Yulin.
In 42 AD, the
Trung Sisters (Trưng 徵) uprising was quelled by an army under General
Ma Yuan, who sought not only victory on the battlefield but felt true concern for the Zhuang people. He reorganized the Zhuang Local Authority, improved public works, dug canals and reclaimed land to increase production. His work brought the Zhuang into a more modern condition, and temples in his honor can still be seen to this day.
An influx of immigrant
Yao people from
Hunan after the collapse of the Han Dynasty caused the region to become unstable as the Yao showed hostility to assimilation. The Guiping area of Guangxi, where the Yao settled, would become a hotbed of revolution against Han rule, causing the Zhuang people to suffer terribly, despite their passive stance on assimilation.
Under the
Tang Dynasty Guangxi became part of Ling-nan Tao (large province) with present day
Hainan and
Guangdong. The noted scholar
Liu Zongyuan was prefectural administrator at
Liuzhou. Irked by Chinese expansion, however, the Zhuang moved to support the Tai kingdom of
Nanchao in
Yunnan. Guangxi was then divided into an area of Zhuang ascendancy west of
Nanning and an area of Han ascendancy east of Nanning.
After the collapse of the Tang a new Chinese kingdom known as
Nan Han (Southern Han), based in Guangdong, gained minimal control over the Zhuang, but the Nan Han Kingdom was plagued by instability and it was annexed by the
Song Dynasty of China in
971. The Nan Han rule of the Zhuang was marked by minimal interference in Zhuang affairs by the Chinese rulers.
The Song developed a new way of dealing with the Zhuang that was a combination of force and appeasement, a policy that neither satisfied the aspirations of the Zhuang nor ended the savage warfare brought to the region by the Yao against the Chinese. In 1052 a Zhuang leader,
Nong Zhigao, led a revolt and set up an independent kingdom in the Southwest. The revolt was crushed, and the Song rule became more brutal, causing the region to spasm in revolt against the Chinese.
After the
Yuan Dynasty liquidated the Song, they spent several years deciding what to do with the Zhuang. Weary of the bad relationship previous Chinese rulers had with the region, they decided to make it a full province of China rather than let it remain an occupied territory. This only caused greater stress as the Zhuang and Yao felt alienated, and hated direct rule from the Chinese government. Further complicating Zhuang aspirations, another aboriginal people, the
Miao, left
Guizhou and
Hunan for the Zhuang lands.
The area continued to be unruly, forcing the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to impose an underhanded way of dealing with it: the Ming would give tribal leaders of the Zhuang an army to attack the Yao. Once the Yao were devastated, the Ming used the armies they had given the Zhuang leaders to kill the Zhuang leaders, and force a leaderless Zhuang society under their heavy handed rule. This resulted in perhaps the bloodiest period of history in a relatively calm region. At the Battle of Rattan Gorge, in
1465, 20,000 deaths were reported. The Ming policy failed, but the larger cities in the region did prosper under Ming economic reform.
The
Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) let the region remain in chaos until
1726 when they imposed direct rule as the Yuan had. This was also a failed venture as a Yao revolution took place in
1831. Twenty years later, in
1850, the same area witnessed the
Taiping Rebellion break out. The execution of a French missionary led to the Second
Opium war in
1858. The
Franco-Chinese War of
1885 put
Vietnam under French supremacy and opened up the area to foreign encroachment. All of this caused a constant economic depression through the
nineteenth century.
Modern times
Together with neighboring Guangdong, Guangxi became an area of
Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙)'s
Nationalist (國民黨) revolution. With the fall of the Qing, the Zhuang sent representatives to the central government to campaign for Guangxi
autonomy, but when years of protocol failed, the "Guangxi Clique" turned to open revolt in
1927. Maintaining a defiant self-rule stance for two years, the Zhuang leaders of
Li Tsung-jen and Li Chi-shen modernized Guangxi, but
Chiang Kai-shek ruthlessly crushed their revolt in
1929. Despite the Clique's failure, Chiang could not put Guangxi under direct provincial rule, and it remained unruly until
1950. The
Kuomintang's suppression of Guangxi led to widespread support of
Communism.
During
World War II Guangxi was a major target of
Japanese attacks, as they invaded the coast in
1939. The famous patriotic newspaper ''National Salvation Daily'' was printed at Guilin. In
1944, the Japanese launched a major offensive to take the western half of Guangxi, but with relentless Zhuang guerrillas and a Chinese counterattack, the Japanese were routed.
Etymological note
The name of the Zhuang minority used to be written 獞. However, the character also refers to a variety of wild dogs, so it was considered an ethnic slur. In 1949, the "animal"
radical was replaced by the "human" radical, and the character became 僮. Eventually, the character was replaced with 壮, a character already in existence meaning "sturdy" or "strong".
[1]
Notables
★
Li Ning, Chinese gymnast and entrepreneur.
★
Shi Dakai, Taiping leader.
See Also
★
Zhuang studies
External links
★
The Zhuang: A Longitudinal Study of Their History and Their Culture, by Jeffrey Barlow
Notes and references
1. Defrancis, John (1984). ''The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy'', p. 117. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-0866-5.
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