BRONZE AGE YUE PEOPLES

(754 BCE - 234 CE)

Yuè (Pinyin, “Axe-people”); Bǎiyuè (“Hundred Yue”)

 

XINAN YUE

Kingdom of Tian (Tianyuè) (295 BCE - 45 CE)

 Yelang (Yèláng) (295 - 110 BCE)

Qiang (316 - 135 BCE)

 

YANGZHOU YUE

Yángyuè (“Yue of Yangzhou”)

Kingdom of Great Yue (Yuyuè) (496 - 334 BCE)

Wucheng Province (Wúxing) (333 - 223 BCE)

Mountain Yue (Shanyuè) (222 BCE - 234 CE)

Kingdom of the Eastern Ou (Dong’ou) (333 - 138 BCE)

Kingdom of the Min (Mǐnyuè) (333 - 111 BCE)

Nanman (Nánmán) (741- 203 BCE)

Hengshan/Changsha Kingdom (Héngshan/Chángsha Wáng) (202 BCE - 33 CE)

 

LINGNAN YUE

Lower Yue (Luoyuè) (754 - 258/257 BCE)

Western Ou (Ouyuè) (754 - 258/57 BCE)

Âu Lạc Kingdom (258/57 - 179 BCE)

Kingdom of the Southern Yue (Nányuè) (214 - 111 BCE)

Hainan and Taiwan (110 BCE - 184 CE)

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Prior to the Qin Dynasty’s expansion out to the eastern coast of China, and the Han Dynasty’s expansion south of the Yangtze River into southern China—from about the eighth to the third centuries BCE—these regions were inhabited by a number of peoples known to the northern imperial Chinese as the Yuè (Pinyin, “Axe-people”). By the time the Yue peoples of the eastern coastal littoral and Hunan had been incorporated into the nascent Empire of China in the third century BCE, several Warring States had made forays south of the Yangtze River, and northern Chinese writers coined the term, Bǎiyuè (“Hundred Yue”), to refer to what seemed to them a chaotic mélange of tribal peoples and kingdoms and different groups with different practices and languages (i.e., “Baiyue” was not intended to refer to literally 100 distinct groups, but instead simply meant “many” or “multitude”). Many of the Yue peoples had lived in the places where the northern states first encountered them for many generations before, but none were literate peoples before the coming of the Chinese—the Chinese considered them “southern barbarians” that needed the guiding hand of civilization—and therefore we do not have a lot of really good historical information about many of the groups that fell under the general rubrics of “Yue” or “Baiyue.” The term, “Yue” (pronounced, yoo-way), seems to have been a reference to one of the salient features of warfare in pre-imperial southern China—use of the axe as a weapon. Archeology has confirmed that this was an important weapon among most of the Yue peoples, whereas axes were extremely rare in the armies of the imperial north. Ancient Chinese historians seem to have latched on to this as an example of the ferocity and barbarity (as they saw it) of the southern peoples. There were three broad regional groupings of the Yue peoples, and I think it is important to note that these groupings were geographical, defined by prominent topographical features like rivers and mountain ranges that created natural barriers between different regions, but modern ethnologists have determined that many of the sub-groups within these regional groupings were not in fact of the same ethnicity, and in some cases neighbors had very different cultural practices and languages. In other cases, the geographical barriers did not prove to be social barriers, and some groups migrated from one region to another, or their population divided and spread out into different regions. Modern ethnologists point out that archeological, linguistic, and genetic evidence indicate that the Yue peoples were actually a collection of many different cultural-linguistic groups from the Tibeto-Burmese, Tai, and Mon-Khmer cultural-linguistic families. Up until the end of the third century CE, most imperial Chinese historians generally only drew a distinction between the semi-nomadic cattle and horse-herding Tibeto-Burmese peoples (related to the Tibetans) of western China (modern Qinghai, southern Gansu, Sichuan, Chongqing, and southwestern Hubei regions), called the Qiang (pronounced, chang) in Pinyin; the Tai and Mon-Khmer agro-pastoralist peoples of southern China (modern Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan), and the steppe-dwelling horse-herding nomads in Mongolia and Manchuria, known as the Xiongnu and Xianbei, respectively. The Qiang, whose territories encompassed the hill country that curves around the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, were divided into two regional groups—those in Qinghai-Gansu and those south of the Yangtze—and those that lived in the north (particularly the Gansu Qiang) were sometimes lumped together with the Xiongnu, and those that lived south of the Yangtze were sometimes lumped together with the Yue in the minds of the Chinese. Most of the Yue peoples had experienced a degree of Sinicization as the result of several major military expeditions and efforts at colonization undertaken by several northern states during the Warring States Period (ca. 481-221 BCE) and the unification of the north under the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE), but many of the colonies established in the south during these periods were either abandoned soon after their foundation or remained tiny islands of Sino-Yue culture in a sea of unassimilated indigenous tribes. However, a combination of expansion by these Sino-Yue states and the imperial dynasties of the north inexorably Sinicized the south—those that did not submit were driven to migrate south into Indochina, where they played a role in the ethnogenesis of the Vietnamese, Lao, Thai/Siamese, and Bamar/Burmese peoples. The Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), the Kingdom of Shu Han (221-263 CE), and the Jin Dynasty (265-420 CE) made substantial conquests in the south that ultimately brought most of southern China and northern Vietnam fully under the political hegemony of the Empire of China. This was followed by several waves of mass ethnic Han migration into the south, peaking in the Tang (618-907 CE) and Song (960-1279 CE) dynasties. By the end of the Song Dynasty, there only remained tiny pockets of isolated self-identified Yue peoples, mostly in remote heavily forested regions of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan.

 

There were three broad regional groupings of Yue peoples encountered by the Qin and Han during the formation of the Empire of China—Yangzhou (pronounced, yong-chow), Lingnan (lee-ung-nahn), and Xinan (shee-nahn). Yangzhou encompassed the eastern littoral of China between the Huai River in the north and the Nanling Mountains in the south (analogous to modern southern Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Fujian), although to this I have appended the Changsha Kingdom in Hunan. Period sources sometimes distinguish between the Sinicized Yue north of the Yangtze (Yángyuè , yong-yoo-way), and the unassimilated peoples south of the Yangtze (Bǎiyuè, by-yoo-way, or Nánmán, nahn-mahn). Lingnan encompassed the southern littoral of China between the Nanling Mountains in the north (lǐng nán means, “south of the Nanling mountains”) and the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam (analogous to modern Guangdong, Guangxi, northeastern Vietnam, and the islands of Hainan and Taiwan). Xinan encompassed the Sichuan Basin and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in the interior of southern China (analogous to modern Sichuan, Chongqing, southwestern Hubei, Guizhou, and Yunnan).

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The army pictured above is that of the Kingdom of Tian/Dian (295 BCE-45 CE) in the Xinan Region. The Tianyuè (pronounced, tee-ahn-yoo-way) were originally a group of ethnic Tai peoples whose territories lay around Lake Tianchí (Pinyin, “Heavenly [or Celestial] Lake”)(a.k.a. Kunming Lake), located in the northeastern part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau (modern northern Yunnan, southern Sichuan, and western Guizhou). Most of what is known about the Kingdom of Tian comes from archeological finds and Sima Qian’s, Shǐjì, “Historical Records” (written ca. 109-91 BCE). The bare facts are these:  The Kingdom of Tian/Dian was created when an army from the Chinese state of Chu (1030-223 BCE), commanded by a general named Zhuang Qiao (choo-wong chow), was sent to conquer the tribes living around Lake Tian/Dian in the early third century BCE. After receiving the submission of the local tribes, Zhuang and his men found that in their absence Chu had been conquered by the state of Qin. Rather than attempt to return north to try to liberate their homeland, Zhuang Qiao and his men chose to settle in Tian, and Zhuang Qiao declared himself king of the Tian Kingdom (ca. 295 BCE). The Tian Kingdom had a stormy relationship with its neighbors. The Tianyue seem only to have directly governed the ethnic Tai peoples living in the vicinity of Lake Tian/Dian, while the Qiang tribes of southern Sichuan, the Yelang of northern Guizhou (another ethnic Qiang group), and the Mon-Khmer and Tai peoples in Yunnan (collectively, Yunnan Yue) oscillated between serving as tributary allies of the Tianyue and fighting against them. The Tianyue themselves affected a certain degree of northern imperial Chinese culture prior to the Han conquest of the south, including a degree of conformity to the Hanfu dress code, growing their hair out long and wearing it in a top-knot, and adopting some elements of the Qin-Han military system (in particular, crossbows), although it is also apparent that Zhuang Qiao’s men and their descendants were assimilated into the local culture (e.g., head-hunting and human sacrifice continued to be practiced). The Tianyue were primarily agro-pastoralists (rice, vegetable, and fruit farmers, and keepers of cattle, pigs, and chickens). Following the Hanfu dress code meant that the more assimilated elements of Tianyue society would have worn a sleeved, open, cross-collar waste-length upper garment (yi) in combination with baggy trousers (ku) or an ankle-length wrap (qun), sometimes supplemented with a belt or sash and shoes. Less assimilated elements of society are often shown in Tianyue art wearing far less formal clothing, with a short, closed tunic that reached to the knees (similar to the Hanfu ru), and they either wear knee-length trousers or they are barelegged, although all are shown barefoot. In order to distinguish themselves from the Han, the Tainyue seem to have preferred to wear their top-knot atop their forehead, rather than at the back of the head like most contemporary northern Chinese. The Qiang peoples of Sichuan and the Yelang of northern Guizhou were related to the Tibetan peoples. Some were agro-pastoralists (particularly the Ba, Shu, and Yelang)—mixing agriculture with the herding of sheep and cattle—while others were nomadic herders of cattle and horses. They are pictured in Tianyue art as wearing their hair long and braided into pigtails (sometimes with a headband or scarf), and wearing a long-sleeved knee-length robe (usually belted at the waist and pulled up over the waistband), with long baggy trousers, shoes with pointed toes, and sometimes a short vest worn over the robe. The Yunnan Yue peoples, on the other hand, were generally shown with only a loin-cloth or a short, knee-length wrap that was probably the ancestor of the modern sompot of Khmer, Liao, and Thai traditional wear. Most of the Tai peoples of Yunnan practiced some form of tattooing—men could have extensive tattoos all over their bodies, while women generally only had facial tattoos, although we have no specific evidence for this among the Tianyue (probably another way they chose to present themselves as being more civilized than their neighbors). The Yunnan Yue are also usually shown with a shaved head, or with very short hair (kind of like a crew-cut), sometimes with a small knot of hair bound up atop the forehead, or with shoulder-length hair (like a modern page-boy haircut). These differing hair styles may have indicated membership in different tribes, but we do not know for certain. The Qin and Han campaigns in Lingnan and Xinan effected great changes in the socio-cultural makeup of southern China, with many groups migrating within and out of the region—particularly into Indochina—and many groups were assimilating with the Han and with each-other, and the Han were not too particular about documenting all of this, so it is often impossible for modern scholars to identify these groups or to correlate them with modern indigenous groups.

 

In 135 BCE, the Han Dynasty began its conquest of the south. Emperor Wu of Han (141-87 BCE) sent an envoy named Tang Meng (tong moong) to the king of the Yelang federation—Duotong (doo-oh-tong)—with gifts and an offer to become a vassal of the Han. When the offer was refused, the Han invaded and defeated Duotong and his allies from Tian. The territory of the Yelang was made into a Han military province called the Yelang Commandery (yae-long). At this same time (i.e., 135 BCE), the Han seem also to have consolidated their hold over southern Sichuan—the Han had inherited northern Sichuan from the Qin, but the city-states of Ba and Shu, which had also belonged to Qin (starting in 316 BCE), had become functionally independent after the fall of Qin (ca. 206 BCE), and the nomads had never accepted Qin suzerainty. Under the Han, Ba (bah) and Shu (shoo) were made into commanderies (still called Ba and Shu), while the lands of the southern Qiang nomadic peoples (i.e., those that had formerly been tributary allies of Tian) were divided into two commanderies—Jianwei (jee-en-way) and Jiangwang (jee-en-wong). In 122 BCE, emperor Wu of Han sent a group of explorers into the Yunnan-Guizhou (yoon-nan-gway-chow) region to try to map out trade routes and gather information on the topography and peoples of the region. Several of these explorers were taken prisoner by the Tianyue, who saw them as spies (rightly so). They were kept in captivity for four years (ca. 122-118 BCE), although they were eventually ransomed by emperor Wu and returned to the north. They returned to the Han court with tales of their time in the south, including an outline of the products available in the south (particularly cattle, horses, fruit, and slaves), a description of its constituent peoples (reports of the use of elephants as mounts were received with particular interest), and an estimate of the size of the Tian army (30,000 men) and an assessment of its tactics (noting that in some ways their military imitated Han practices). In 111 BCE, Emperor Wu of Han ordered the commandant of the Yelang Commandery to raise troops to contribute to the Han campaign against the Kingdom of Nanyue (non-yoo-way) (see below), but when the commandant tried to comply, the Yelang tribes rebelled with the assistance of the Tianyue. The commandant and Han garrison were slaughtered. Nevertheless, emperor Wu sent an army from the north against the Nanyue, and after Nanyue was defeated, the Han army of conquest was sent to fight against the Yelang (ca. 110 BCE). Despite support from the Kingdom of Tian, the Yelang were again subdued, and the Yelang Commandery was re-established. Emperor Wu then sent an envoy—Wang Ryu (wong jer-wa)—to the court of the king of Tian, demanding his surrender. It was made clear to the king that all of his northern allies had been conquered (Ba, Shu, the nomadic Qiang, and the Yelang), that the Empire of China had also conquered the peoples to the east (Minyue) and south (Nanyue) of Tian, and that it was only a matter of time before the Tianyue could expect a full-scale invasion by the Han. The king surrendered his kingdom, which was made into the Yizhou Commandery (yee-chow). Yizhou acquired a Han garrison, and trade with the north began in earnest. Nevertheless, the Tianyue rebelled against Han rule several times—in 86-82 and 28-25 BCE, and in 9-23, 42-45, and 176 CE. After the rebellion in 86-82 BCE was crushed, the Han began an intensive program of colonization in Tian by ethnic Han. The forces of the Yizhou Commandery also launched a series of campaigns against the Yunnan Yue (ca. 57-75 and 114-225 CE). Thus, with the defeat of the Tianyue, Nanyue, Yelang, and Yunnan Yue, as well as the Qiang of the Sichuan Basin (sit-chu-wan), and the kingdoms of Minyue and Nanyue along the coasts, the history of the Bronze Age Yue comes to a close. As mentioned above, many of these peoples fled the Han conquest (both the initial conquest and after each subsequent rebellion), migrating south into Indochina, while simultaneously the Han embarked on a program of colonization and the forced Sinicization of those that remained under Han rule. The result was a broad shift in the socio-cultural and ethnic makeup of southern China and southeast Asia, and although several later Chinese dynasts and states claimed a Yue identity, this had become an ethnic Han regional designation, and does not reflect any significant cultural or linguistic Yue pedigree.

Most of what we know about the equipment of the army of the Kingdom of Tian, and the tactical stance of its constituent elements, comes from archeological finds in and around Lake Tian (the locals sometimes propitiated their gods by throwing goods into the lake, or by dumping sacrificial victims into the lake), from the Shǐjì of Sima Qian, and the Tianyue royal burial ground at Shizhaishan (pronounced, shee-chee-eye-shan). Many images of these artifacts can be seen on the website for the Provincial Museum of Yunnan. Despite the paucity of explicit evidence, a pretty good picture of the Tianyue military system can be inferred. The Tianyue were expert bronze workers and their artifacts are often highly detailed—of particular interest to military historians are the bronze war drums, originally filled with cowrie shells, which for interment with kings and nobles had their skin removed and replaced with a bronze lid with scenes of daily life (hunting, bull fights, herding), religious ceremonies (including sacrifice of war prisoners), and warfare (including head-hunting) depicted in caste-bronze miniature figures (perhaps the earliest evidence of historical miniatures war-gaming ;-). As mentioned above, the Tianyue are distinguished from their Qiang, Mon-Khmer, and Tai neighbors through the use of several visual clues. There are two types of Tianyue soldiers that stand out in Tianyue art: The first are obviously heavy infantry, wearing what appears to be segmented plate armor with protection for the torso, upper arms, and hips/groin, as well as a substantial gorget around the neck, and a substantial helmet that, to my eyes, looks a lot like a morion without the crest (if there is a Chinese name for this type of helmet, I have never encountered it). The Tianyue heavy infantrymen wield swords, crescent-bladed one-handed axes, and/or short dagger-axes (a spear with a perpendicular knife blade attached below the spearhead). Although the heavy infantrymen in the Tianyue sculptures do not have shields, we know from Sima Qian that the Tianyue heavy infantry carried rectangular shields painted with zoomorphic icons (tigers, lions, dragons, demons, and snakes being particularly popular). No examples of the armor worn by the heavy infantry—or any shields—have been found by modern archeologists, which means they were likely made from perishable materials. In the case of the body armor, it is likely that the segmented plate armor was made from hardened leather or rhinoceros hide. Shields were likely rattan covered in leather. Tactically, it is likely that Tianyue heavy infantrymen were the equivalent of Qin and Han Dynasty close combat infantrymen (see my Early Imperial China gallery), and filled a similar tactical role—main battle infantrymen fighting in a phalanx-like formation. There is also a type of unarmored infantry portrayed in Tianyue art, either bare-headed or wearing a bulbous cap (i.e., a cap with an ovoid protrusion sticking out of the top, probably made of felt stuffed with straw), and wielding a sword and/or a crescent-bladed axe and/or a long two-handed spear/pike. The lack of armor and the short tunic worn by these figures likely indicates that they were commoners—probably something akin to a peasant levy. We are left guessing as to their tactical stance. Contemporary Han writings do not describe how they fought (further evidence that they were perceived to be social inferiors), and their sculptural portrayal often shows them singly or in single file chasing opponents around the rim of the aforementioned war-drum lids (i.e., not in any recognizable battle formation) or helping priests to sacrifice war prisoners at an altar. If indeed the heavy infantry formations imitated the tactical stance of Qin-Han close combat infantry, it is possible that the fighters of the “peasant levy” were used to bulk out the ranks of the heavy infantry formations in a manner similar to the use of conscripts in the Qin-Han system (i.e., sometimes as an integral part of those formations, sometimes deployed separately). I personally believe they were more akin to irregular auxiliaries that fought in something closer to the indigenous style of warfare practiced by the Yelang and Yunnan Yue peoples (and the Tianyue before the coming of Zhuang Qiao). This would mean open-order formations with a flexible tactical stance that would allow them to operate both in difficult terrain and out in the open, although the fact that even the Tianyue commoners show evidence of at least some Sinicization might indicate that they had ceased using shock infantry tactics. However, I would hasten to point out that the Tianyue appear to have been as fierce as the Yelang and Yunnan Yue—despite their Sinic veneer—with human sacrifice and head-hunting being prominent features of Tianyue warfare, so I think even shock infantry tactics should not be summarily ruled out. I have seen some historical gaming systems that characterize these light infantrymen as pikemen in the mold of the Greco-Macedonian phalanx because they are sometimes shown wielding a spear two-handed, but if anything, Tianyue art shows them in an irregular fashion—chasing enemy warriors around the ridge of a war-drum—and there is no evidence they fought in a phalanx. A few Tianyue figures portray cavalrymen—they look very like the infantrymen, with the same division between armored nobles and unarmored commoners. The tactical stance of Tianyue cavalry is anybody’s guess, although it seems reasonable to assume that the armored nobles fought in a manner similar to the close-combat cavalry of the Qin and Han (they were similarly equipped), while the unarmored horsemen appear to be armed with short spears and swords, which makes me think of cavalry skirmishers (like some of the spear-armed mounted skirmishers of the Qin and Han). Horse archers are shown in Tainyue art, and most display the artistic devices that indicate Qiang cavalrymen (see below), although there is a remainder that some historians have said appear to have Caucasian features and Central Asiatic clothing and equipment. There is a theory that posits that these figures represent Yuezhi warriors (see my Eastern Aryan Nomads gallery)—we know that the Yuezhi were driven from western China (Xinjiang) in the second century BCE, and that the bulk of the population migrated through the Tarim Basin into southern Central Asia, but this theory suggests that one group may have migrated in the opposite direction (i.e., to the southeast rather than the southwest), into the lands of the Qiang (Qinghai and Sichuan), and that at least some of these Yuezhi may have fallen under the hegemony of Tian. I think it is entirely possible, although I would like to mention two caveats—the judgment that the figures in question have Caucasian feutures is subjective (I have seen pictures of the figures in question, and I don't think one can make a definitive statement as to their ethnicity), and the presence of Central Asian cavalry equipment could just as easily be explained by cultural transmission (i.e., we know that the eastern Aryan nomads influenced the development of cavalry among the Mongolic peoples, and it does not seem a huge stretch to suggest they probably also influenced the Qiang). Cavalrymen are far outnumbered by infantrymen in Tianyue art, and we may assume that this reflects the relative balance in Tianyue armies. The jungles of Yunnan-Guizhou did not lend themselves to large-scale cavalry armies, nor would normal horse archer tactics work well in jungle terrain, so it seems likely that Tian cavalry would have been few in number and tactically conservative, while Qiang horse archers were probably only fielded in large numbers when Tian was exerting its power onto the Sichuan Plateau (even those Qiang groups that migrated into northern Guizhou—the Yelang—seem to have given up cavalry warfare because it wasn't suitable to the predominant terrain in the south). Finally, the Tianyue seem to have fielded a small number of crossbowmen in imitation of the crossbow infantry formations of the northern imperials. It is likely that, as in the north, formations of Tianyue crossbowmen served in a mutually supporting role with the heavy infantry, although Han writers also commented on the use of crossbows among the southern peoples in a skirmishing role (in particular, acting like sharp-shooters and in ambushes). Although the Han explorers/spies captured by the Tianyue in 122 BCE reported that the Tianyue rode elephants and used them as draft animals, we do not know whether they ever used them in war. The only documented uses of war elephants in China are dated to 506 BCE (by the state of Chu), 554 CE (by the Liang Dynasty), 917-971 CE (by the Southern Han Dynasty), and in 970 CE (by the Song Dynasty). It seems likely to me that the Tianyue or some other of the many groups of the Baiyue may have used war elephants, but unfortunately, if they did it was not documented.

 

The Tianyue recruited auxiliaries from their tributary allies (and as we saw above, they sometimes came to the aid of their allies). The fighters supplied by these peoples conformed to their native standards, although Tianyue art is probably a good guide as to which types of fighters the Tianyue preferred to recruit as auxiliaries. In relation to the nomadic Qiang peoples that lived to the north of Tian, Tianyue art always shows unarmored horse archers and unarmored infantrymen (the infantrymen carry the “double-arc” shield that was also popular with Han soldiers). From what we know of the Qiang peoples from other sources in other contexts, settled agro-pastoralist Qiang states like Ba and Shu, and agricultural Qiang peoples like the Yelang, tended to field more infantry and better-equipped infantry, but if the Tianyue ever recruited them, they did not depict such auxiliaries in their art. It could simply be that the Tianyue preferred to depict their tributaries as being unsophisticated, but we simply do not know. As for the Yunnan Yue tributary allies, they are portrayed in an unassimilated fashion, not only unarmored but virtually naked (with only a loin-cloth or sompot). They are armed with bows, axes, dagger-axes, and long knives. Oval or rectangular shields are infrequently shown—as with the Tianyue, these were likely made of rattan covered in leather or hide (one of the prized resources the Han sought from the Yue peoples were tiger or leopard pelts). Despite lack of armor, these peoples were generally known as ferocious fighters, preferring to lay ambushes in rough terrain—following an initial shower of arrows and thrown spears (both tipped with poison), they would make a charge into the enemy ranks and cause as much havoc as possible with axe, dagger-axe, and long fighting knives, but if the enemy recovered from the initial shock and started to mount an effective defense, they were easily driven off. No cavalry is mentioned or portrayed among the Yunnan Yue. Thus, we may postulate that the war-bands fielded by these peoples were probably composed of an equal number of lightly equipped, fast-moving shock infantry and skirmishing bowmen.  

 

I used a mixture of figures from Essex and Black Hat Miniatures for this army. Some of the figures have been heavily modified to bring them more into line with my conception of the army of Tian. Unfortunately, no sculptor/manufacturer of which I know carries a line of figures specifically devoted to the Yue or Qiang peoples, although Essex has some "southern barbarians" figures that I used for the Yunnan Yue auxiliaries of Tian. Khurasan has some Zhuang tribal fighters as part of their Sung line, but they would be too anachronistic for use in a Bronze Age army. This army was one of the more labor-intensive of my projects—due to the intricate hand-painting of the shields and sculpting modifications—but I think I have managed to make a decent showing that isn’t too horribly inaccurate. The banners are from Little Big Men studios. Although I used the term, “Bronze Age Yue,” in reference to this gallery, I should point out that in imperial China bronze and iron production were often used side-by-side from a much earlier date (ninth century BCE), and therefore historians of China do not usually use the terms, “Bronze Age” or “Iron Age.” However, before the sixth century BCE, the iron forged in China was cast-iron, which was relatively brittle, and it was not until about 500 BCE that Chinese metalworkers in the state of Wu first developed a blast furnace capable of producing liquid iron that could be alloyed for greater strength and cast with molds for ease of production. These techniques did not become common throughout China at least until the end of the Western Han (ca. 9 CE), at which time iron weapons and armor became the norm. Iron use among the Qiang peoples is dated to 500 BCE, while the Baiyue peoples did not begin using iron until around 350 BCE. The Qiang actually had their own iron mines and iron works (in Sichuan and Qinghai), but the large iron deposits in Yunnan were not discovered until the end of the Eastern Han (ca. 220 CE). Therefore, use of iron implements, including weaponry, among the Baiyue peoples was limited to what iron or iron implements could be had from the Qiang and the Chinese. Neither the Qiang nor the Chinese were eager to give away the secrets of iron production, and the Qin and Han dynasties both intentionally used the iron trade as a diplomatic tool, limiting the flow of iron and iron implements to the south and cutting it off entirely when they wanted to put pressure on a particular state. Therefore, bronze implements continued to predominate in southern China until the end of the time period covered by this gallery.