The Man, commonly known as the Nanman or Southern Man (Chinese: 南蠻), or the Southern Barbarians, were ancient indigenous peoples who lived in inland South and Southwest China, mainly around the Yangtze River valley. The Nanman included multiple ethnic groups, probably related to the predecessors of the modern Miao, Zhuang, and Dai peoples, and non-Chinese Sino-Tibetan groups such as the Yi people. There was never a single polity that united these people, although the state of Chu ruled over much of the Yangtze region during the Zhou dynasty and was heavily influenced by the Man culture. By the 7th century AD, the Nanman had become mixed with the Han Chinese and over time resulted in the modern population of southern China.^[1]