Yelang, also Zangke, was an ancient political entity first described in the 3rd century BC in what is now western

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It was active for over 200 years. The state is known to modern Chinese from the idiom, "Yelang thinks too highly of itself" ().Wade, Geoff,
The Polity of Yelang and the Origin of the Name 'China'
, ''

Sino-Platonic Papers ''Sino-Platonic Papers'' is a scholarly monographic series published by the University of Pennsylvania. The chief focus of the series is on the intercultural relations of China and Central Asia with other peoples. The journal was established in 19 ...

'', No. 188, May 2009.

Name

The inhabitants of Yelang called themselves ''Zina''. This may be source of the Sanskrit word Cīna (चीन). The English word China is derived from this Sanskrit word.

Geography

Expanse

The Yelang were believed to have been an alliance of agricultural tribes covering parts of modern-day

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

and

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

Location

The ancient Chinese historian

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

described Yelang located west of the Mimo and Dian, south of

Qiongdu Xichang, formerly known as Jiandu, Jianchang and Ningyuan(fu), is a city in and the seat of the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in the south of Sichuan, China. In 2012 it had a population of 481,796. History The Qiongdu were the local peo ...

(in what is now southern

), and east of the nomadic Sui and Kunming. Some people have identified the seat of the kingdom as

Bijie Bijie () is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Guizhou Province, China, bordering Sichuan to the north and Yunnan to the west. The Daotianhe Reservoir, located to the north of the town was commissioned in 1965 with a rated annual capacity o ...

() in today's

Liupanshui Liupanshui () is a city in western Guizhou province, People's Republic of China. The name Liupanshui combines the first character from the names of each of the city's three constituent counties: Liuzhi, Panzhou, Shuicheng. As a prefecture-level ...

area, in modern

province, whilst others suggest the capital moved throughout the region over time.

Culture

Subsistence

The Yelang were a primarily a confederation of agricultural farming tribes.

Appearance and dress

Yelang people wore their hair up and decorated themselves with jewellery such as bracelets and necklaces.

Material culture

Archaeologists have retrieved relics from Yelang graves including "bronze swords, U-shaped bronze hairclips, turquoise bracelets and jade necklaces", as well as "various bronze, porcelain and stone vessels visibly different from those belonging to other cultures studied in China, like the

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

Dian Dian may refer to: Places * Dian Kingdom, ancient kingdom in modern Yunnan province, China * ''Diān'' (滇), an official abbreviation for Yunnan province * Lake Dian, a lake in Yunnan * Dian, Armenia, a village * People * Dian (given name), a lis ...

and Bashu cultures".

Burial rites

Tomb excavations show a unique burial custom in some Yelang tombs, in which the head of the deceased is placed into a bronze pot. This custom is unknown elsewhere in China.

Military

According to Chinese records the Yelang had strong armies.

Government

In 2007 a

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

man publicly disclosed his possession of an ancient seal, said to be that of the Yelang kingdom, and claimed to be the 75th descendant of the King of Yelang.

Political relations

Nanyue

Yelang had a close relationship with the

Nanyue Nanyue (), was an ancient kingdom ruled by Chinese monarchs of the Zhao family that covered the modern Chinese subdivisions of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau, southern Fujian and central to northern Vietnam. Nanyue was establish ...

("Southern Yue") kingdom and used the

Zangke River Beipan River () is a river in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, China, and part of the great Pearl River (China), Pearl River basin. Other names The upper reaches in Yunnan and Guizhou were once known as the Zangke River. Course The Beipan River ...

(now known as the Beipan River) as a means of international transportation. The kingdom of Yelang declared their allegiance to Nanyue rule from the start of 183 BC until the end of 111 BC. The

Yi people The Yi or Nuosu people,; zh, c=彝族, p=Yízú, l=Yi ethnicity historically known as the Lolo,; vi, Lô Lô; th, โล-โล, Lo-Lo are an ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with eac ...

may be modern-day descendants of the Yelang kingdom.

In Chinese culture

Yelang is best known to modern Chinese because of an incident said to have occurred in the 120s BC. According to the story the king of Yelang, convinced that his kingdom was the greatest in all the world, inquired rhetorically of the

emperor's envoy, "Which is greater, Yelang or Han?" This gave rise to the

Chinese idiom ''Chengyu'' () are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expression, most of which consist of four characters. ''Chengyu'' were widely used in Classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language t ...

, "Yelang thinks too highly of itself" (). Other sources suggest that Yelang's king was simply copying an earlier statement by a ruler of the adjacent

Kingdom of Dian Dian () was an ancient kingdom established by the Dian people, a non-Han Chinese metalworking civilization that inhabited around the Dian Lake plateau of central northern Yunnan, China from the late Spring and Autumn period until the Eastern Ha ...

. Other Chinese sources describe the Yelang people as possessing supernatural powers.

References

{{coord, 27, 31, 40, N, 108, 29, 37, E, region:CN-52_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title 1st-century BC establishments in China Ancient peoples of China Former countries in Chinese history History of Guizhou