Credit: Sungai Batu 788 BC: The Great Kingdom of Kedah Tua
In the history of China since the prehistoric time, Shang, Zhou untill Han Dynasty, the southern part of China and its shore were never been under direct Chinese Dynasty rules, furthermore the Chinese called those inhabitant as Southern Barbarian or a non-chinese tribe. Barbarian does not mean barbaric, as Roman too called the Persian as barbarian, where it simply mean people who are out of their territory, foreign tribe , different culture, physique and language. There were two kingdoms of the southern China, namely Yue and Wu, both were great seafarer and sword master. Somewhere in 5th century BC, Yue Kingdom have succeded invading Wu and eventually the southern tribe were known as Bai Yue or The Hundreds Tribe.
According to Prof Wu Chungmin, Bai Yue people were Proto Austronesian and has lot of commoness with population of Southeast Asia such as the settlement pattern of the beach terraces or shallow lagoons with stilt house, utilizing of tree crops, animal domesticating and sophisticated fishing, earthenware vessels with red slipped plain or dentate stamped pattern wares varying of round, flat bottom, ring foot pots, jars, plates, basins, and bowls.
Chungmin quoted from Professor Ling Chunsheng, “. . . Maritime Culture of Island Yi and Bai Yue ethnicities in the southeastern region. He considered the indigenous maritime ethnics in the islands of Southeast Asia, namely the Austronesian, as the result of the long voyages of Island Yi and Bai Yue migration from the mainland of southeast coast of China to islands since prehistory”.
Now, we enter into next point. For those who ever heard about the Guojian Sword, the epic of the magnificient sword was revolved around the war between Yue and Wu as mentioned above.
Guojian is the name of the king of Yue who reigned between 496 – 473 BC and he ordered the sword master to make a special sword for him as a weapon of battle. Probably he used the said sword in his invasion on Wu kingdom. Once Yue and Wu unite after the invasion, they were known as Bai Yue.
Guojian sword is a magnificient sword and when it was discovered by archaeologist in 1965, it is roughly 2450 years old but remain intact, sharp and looks like newly made due to good preservation method before it was placed in a box next to the body and buried. Ironically it was found in Wangshan tomb complex in Hubei, faraway from its native land and several speculations arised how it end up in the Chinese tomb complex. Archaeologist get to know its belong to King Guojian from the inscription on the sword. As for now, Guojian Sword is considered by archaeologist as the greatest and magnifient ancient sword ever found.
I refrain myself from making any speculation since Chunming inclined to Out of Taiwan hypothesis by Peter Belwood, while it has been supersede by Out of Sundaland thru genome and DNA research pioneered by Stephen Oppenheimer and others.
Other sources said that once Bai Yue started losing their hegemony, they gradually migrate to Southeast Asia mainland particularly during Han Dynasty. Vietnamese claimed that Bai Yue was their ancestor.
Nevertheless, I share some of references and lets watch the youtube too to get the details of the Guojian sword and the exciting story of King Guojian.
I elaborate no more since this subject is new to me and I hope others could explore furthers after reading the 2nd link given below and then download the rest of the contents.
C&P: 14/11/2025: 12.11 p.m
C&P: 14.11.2025: 12.03 p.m
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