Baiyue
/ˌbaɪ ˈjuː/noun
An ancient Chinese collective name for diverse peoples living south of the Yangtze River and in parts of what is now southern China and northern Vietnam.
Did you know?Baiyue was an outsider’s umbrella label for many culturally distinct communities, and historians still debate how directly it connects to the later name Viet.
Etymological Timeline
Late 1st millennium BCE
Old Chinese
越 (Yue)
“A name used for peoples and states south of the central Chinese cultural sphere; the character also carried senses such as “cross” or “go beyond,” though the ethnonym’s deeper origin is uncertain.”
Warring States period
Chinese
百越 (Bai Yue)
“A collective designation—literally “Hundred Yue”—for numerous southern peoples and polities.”
3rd–2nd Century BCE
Chinese
百越
“A geographic and ethnographic label used in accounts of southern regions during the Qin and early Han expansion.”
2nd–1st Century BCE
Classical Chinese
百越
“A standard historical term in works such as the Shiji and Hanshu for the diverse communities south of the Yangtze, including areas around modern Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and northern Vietnam.”
Medieval period
Sino-Vietnamese
Bách Việt
“The Sino-Vietnamese reading of 百越, preserved in Vietnamese historical and cultural writing.”
Modern English
English
Baiyue
“A romanized historical ethnonym used by historians for the ancient southern peoples collectively identified in Chinese sources.”