The Zhuang (; ; , , Sawndip: 佈獞) are a Tai-speaking ethnic group who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. With the Bouyei, Nùng, Tày, and other Northern Tai speakers, they are sometimes known as the Rau or Rao people. Their population, estimated at 19 million people, makes them the largest minority in China.
Etymology The Chinese character used for the Zhuang people has changed several times. Their autonym, "Cuengh" in Standard Zhuang, was originally written with the graphic pejorative , (or tóng, referring to a variety of wild dog).漢典. "獞". Chinese. Accessed 14 August 2011. 新华字典, via 中华昌龙网. 字典频道. "獞 ". Chinese. Accessed 14 August 2011. Chinese characters typically combine a semantic element or radical and a phonetic element. John DeFrancis recorded that was previously Tóng, , with "dog radical" and tóng, phonetic, a slur, but also describes how the People's Republic of China eventually removed it. In 1949, after the Chinese civil war, the logograph was officially replaced with a different graphic pejorative, (Zhuàng or tóng, meaning "child; boy servant"), with the "human radical" with the same phonetic. Later was changed to a different character , (meaning "strong; robust").
Relationship to the Nùng and Tày The Zhuang, Nùng, and Tày people are a cluster of Tai peoples with very similar customs and dress known as the Rau peoples. In China, the Zhuang are today the largest non-Han Chinese minority with around 14.5 million population in Guangxi Province alone. In Vietnam, as of 1999, there were 933,653 Nùng people and 1,574,822 Tày people. Recently the Tày and Nùng have been referred to as a combined Tày-Nùng minority. However these ethnonyms are a recent phenomenon and did not exist until the modern age. According to Keith Taylor, the Vietnamese terms were "categories of French colonial knowledge" used to differentiate highlanders from lowlanders. The ethnic Zhuang was a product of the "ethnic identification project" pursued in 1950s China.
Many scholars of the Tai peoples consider the Zhuang and Nùng to be essentially the same people, a single ethnic group. During the early 11th century, ethnic identities and boundaries were more fluid than in the modern Sino-Vietnamese borderland. The Zhuang leader Nong Zhigao was defeated in 1055 by the Song dynasty. Had he won, it is possible that he might have established a state under his own clan name, Nong. Instead, his people in China continued to be referred to as Zhuang, which in their own language means "cave", while in Vietnam they came to be known as Nùng. The majority ethnic group and now the largest minority, however, was and still is the same, the Zhuang/Nùng, who together number more than 15 million people. They are just recognized by different names in China and Vietnam. Nong Zhigao (V. Nùng Trí Cao) has sometimes been claimed by Vietnam as a Vietnamese native, but this is due to antagonism with modern China, while in previous times the Vietnamese sometimes saw him as primarily Chinese.
Identity Some ethnologists such as George Moseley, Diana Lary, Katherine Kaup, and Jeffrey Barlow view the Zhuang ethnicity as a modern constructed ethnic identity. In the eyes of the ethnologists, the Zhuang culture was not sufficiently divergent from what the ethnologists considered "Han culture", to warrant recognition as a separate ethnic identity. The Zhuang had been interacting with the Han Chinese for over 2,200 years. As early as the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), the Zhuang adopted Han cultural practices and technology such as settled agriculture, iron plows, triple cropping, and fertilization. They lived at lower elevations than other minority groups and competed more directly with Han farmers than slash-and-burn agriculturalists. As direct competitors, the Zhuang found it expedient to adopt Han dress and housing styles. After the defeat of the Zhuang leader, Nong Zhigao, in 1055, many Zhuang families and communities gave up their own language and names and completely assimilated into the Han majority.
In one instance, a Zhuang student said that he had previously regarded himself as Han Chinese before being taught that he was Zhuang. The Zhuang did not perceive themselves as marginalized or in need of promotion. Zhuang peasants displayed resistance to the ideal of a formal Romanized Zhuang script, noting that they had used Han script for centuries. Formal classification of the Zhuang also ignored historical similarities between northern Zhuang and the Bouyei people.
History
Origins
The Zhuang are the indigenous peoples of Guangxi, according to Huang Xianfan.General History of the Zhuang(1994). Beijing: National Press, p. 1–66. The Zhuang's origins can be traced back to the Paleolithic, as demonstrated by a large amount of contemporary archaeological evidence.
Tang-Song transition From 823 to 826, the Zhuang, Huang, and Nong clans, aided by raiders from Champa, attacked Yongzhou and seized 18 counties. The "Nung Grottoes" sought aid from Nanzhao.
During the Huang Chao rebellion (874–884), the Zhuang took part in anti-rebel efforts as irregular units in the Ningyuan Army led by Pang Zhuzhao. After the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907, the Southern Han recruited Zhuang archers to outfit its riverine forces. They took part in campaigns against Ma Chu.
The Zhuang do not seem to have aspired to creating an empire after the collapse of the Tang and sought merely autonomy. In fact the opposite seemed to have occurred and the wars in the south drew more Zhuang into contact with Han Chinese as they were sought after as mercenary troops and river porters.
Song Administration The Song dynasty continued the Jimi system of the Tang dynasty and named the officials of those jimi prefectures zhi. So the ruler of Nandan was called "Zhi Nandan". The Zhuang people were governed under this system but not the Yao people, who were far less numerous. Zhuang leaders sought Song approval to legitimate their position. After being recognized, they also received a salary and their family was guaranteed hereditary succession to the post. Song authority was bestowed through seals, which theoretically went to the hereditary leader, but in practice usually went to the claimant put forward by the locals, often after military conflicts. When there was no obvious heir, the seals often went to the wife of the deceased, whose accession to the post became customary. In theory the Song court could replace recalcitrant leaders like an ordinary official, but in practice this power was weighed against the cost to maintain tranquillity among the Zhuang and stability on the Sino-Viet border. As a result, Jimi rulers who were disobedient were usually sufficiently powerful to refuse replacement as well.
Zhuang jimi prefectures were essentially feudal. Land was held by lesser families in perpetuity and could not be sold or transferred. As a result the Zhuang habitually entered military service under the Han Chinese to seek new land, often at the expense of other minorities such as the Yao people. Han Chinese were forbidden from buying Zhuang land or to engage in commercial activity within their jimi districts. However Zhuang-Han marriages were allowed, resulting in land titles that were nominally Zhuang held but had been subsumed under Han administration. The jimi prefectures paid a tax that was usually more a customary and semi-voluntary exaction in practice, though this depended upon the power of the lord. Even when taxed, it was at a lower rate than that of regular prefectures. Many jimi prefectures did not pay taxes but "tribute." The Mo clan paid 100 ounces of silver as tribute annually.
The jimi prefectures often engaged in petty squabbles that escalated to military conflict. At one point the Mo clan of Nandan pillaged each other over the ownership of an ox before Song authorities settled the matter. Such small scale conflicts were frequent and Song authorities preferred to remain uninvolved and avoided confrontation when possible.
Military conflicts The Zhuang provided the Song dynasty with river transportation during the Song conquest of Southern Han (970–971). Some 20,000 Zhuang also fought for Southern Han but they were defeated. Afterwards, the Mo clan of Nandan submitted to Song authority in 974 and the Meng clan of Yizhou rebelled in 1038 but was put down.
In 980, the Zhuang participated in the Song–Đại Cồ Việt war as Song allies, however the expedition ended in defeat.
In 1000, the Zhuang attacked Yongzhou but the attack was quelled by Zhuang troops of the Song-allied Huang clan.
In 1001, Zhuang calling themselves the Troops of Chen (chenbing) rebelled in Yizhou. Their leader, Su Chengzhun, titled himself King of the Pacified South (nanping wang). The rebels took a few towns but were hampered by floods and suffered several defeats until their leader was killed three months later.
In 1004, a Nong chieftain was given a banquet at a Song prefecture. The Viets reacted to this with anger and pillaged the area.
In 1038, there was a disturbance at Rongzhou and Yizhou which took troops from three prefectures and the loss of six high-ranking officials to suppress. The prefect of Yizhou blamed the unrest on bad administration and that the problem was the result of systematic neglect of the south on the throne's part: administrators received inadequate salaries and local troops only received supplies sporadically. As a result, the temptation to raid barbarian lands was irresistible.
In 1044, Ou Xifan of the Ou clan rebelled to the northwest of Yizhou. Ou Xifan had received a jinshi degree and served as an officer but grew dissatisfied with his rewards. He declared the Great Tang and declared war on the Song. He was caught in 1045 and executed by vivisection.
Rise of the Nong
The major Zhuang clans were the Huang, Nong, and Wei. During the early Song period, the Huang clan was left in charge of the You and Zuo rivers. The Wei had settled on the Song-Viet border. However the power of the Nong clan increased and began to upset Huang supremacy. By the early Song, they ruled over an area known as Temo, which stretched from modern Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the west to Jingxi in the east and Guangyuanzhou (Quảng Nguyên, now Cao Bằng province) in the south. Emperor Taizong of Song (r. 976–997) bestowed special favors on Nong leadership, acknowledging that they had succeeded the Huang in the Zuo River region.
The first member of the Nong clan to gain official recognition was Nong Minfu. It is not known when he was born, but a memorial in early 977 states that the "peaceful and generous" leader Nong Minfu of Guangyuanzhou had established himself over ten neighboring villages with the support of Southern Han (907–971). Minfu had supported Duan Siping (r. 937–944) of the Dali Kingdom and was rewarded with titles. Duan rewarded another leader in Temo with the title buxie. The Song bestowed the titles "minister of works" (sigong) and "grand master of splendid happiness bearing the golden pocket with purple trimming" (jinzi guanglu daifu) on Minfu. These titles were passed onto Minfu's son, Nong Quanfu (, ). He was also granted additional authority of Dangyouzhou (modern Jingxi, Guangxi). His younger brother, Nong Quanlu, controlled Wennaizhou (modern Na Rì District). Such preferential treatment was viewed with anger in Đại Cồ Việt, which attacked a Song garrison in 1004 after it held a banquet for a Nong chieftain.