History of Guangdong

Him Mark Lai

Chinese culture today is derived basically from the culture developed by the people active in the middle and lower Yellow River basin of North China, especially the Huaxia 華夏, beginning more than four thousand ago. By the 3rd century BC, the various principalities formed by these people became unified under the Qin 秦 state, which also expanded its political domination over a vast territory covering the Huai 淮河, the middle Chang (Yangzi) River 長江 basins, as well as part of the Pearl River basin. The empire unified under one rule facilitated communications and exchanges, helped along by official policies, that led to the diminution of regional differences and emergence of a Han Chinese 漢族 identity in North China. Over the next two millennia as Han Chinese settled in central, south, and southwest China, they encountered and absorbed many diverse cultures and ethnic groups, which greatly modified and enriched Han Chinese language and culture.  This is one of the reasons why there are such great regional variations in dialects and customs among Han Chinese today.               
There are great regional variations even in the prevalence of surnames.  According to China's 1982 census, the top three surnames in China--Li 李 (Cantonese Lei or Lee), Wang 王 (Cantonese Wong), and Zhang 張 (Cantonese Jeung, Cheung), comprise 22.4 percent of the population or about 200 million people. However, in Guangdong Chen 陳 is the top surname and among Cantonese in the Pearl River Delta region, to which a majority of the Chinese in America trace their origins, Wang is not a very common surname, while Mai 麥 (Cantonese Mak, Mark), a fairly common surname in Guangdong, is seldom found outside the province. It is not ranked among the 100 most common surnames in China and not even listed among the 507 surnames in Baijiaxing 百家姓 (Surnames of the hundred families). These demographic differences should alert us to the fact that even though Guangdong has a common history with the rest of China, there were factors unique to the province's history that contributed to the development of regional differences.

The Yue
The Yue 越, 粵 (Cantonese Yuet, Vietnamese Viet) were the earliest inhabitants of Guangdong when the region was first described in Chinese history,  They first appeared more than 3,000 years ago in the lower Yangzi River Valley in eastern China and from there spread southward along the coast into the present Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam.  They had a language and culture different from that of proto-Chinese states in the Yellow River basin in the north led by the Huaxia 華夏. The Yue claimed descent from the Xia 夏. Some modern scholars support this view, citing the fact that both peoples worshipped the dragon as their totem, but others point out that the center of the Xia state was in Henan, which was some distance from the Yue domains, the northern boundary of which were at the south bank of the lower Chang (Yangzi) River valley. They say that  the Yue were more likely to be the descendants of  the original inhabitants of the region who left numerous sites with pottery shards distinguished by geometrical impressed patterns 幾何印紋陶. 
Formation of states arose later among the Yue than among the Huaxia. The Gouwu 句吳 in northern Jiangsu apparently had links with the Huaxia as early as the end of the Shang dynasty, around the 11th century BC. It was alleged that during that period Taibo 太伯 and Zhongyong 仲雍, eldest and second sons respectively of Gugong Danfu 古公亶父 , progenitor of the Zhou state in Shaanxi, voluntarily exiled themselves to the Juwu to yield the Zhou throne to their capable younger brother Jili 季歷, who became King Wen of Zhou 周文王. The story of Taibo and Zhongyong, which most certainly was revised and idealized, is an indication of early contacts with the Yellow River Basin states and has led some historians to claim that the Juwu was a branch of the Zhou. Archaeological evidence, however, have demonstrated definitively that Juwu culture were a part of Yue culture, although due to its proximity to the more organized states of the Yellow River Basin, the Juwu 句吳 became the first Yue group to form a state during the 6th century BC. This state grew powerful enough to challenge the state of Chu 楚 for hegemony in the middle Yangzi River basin. Decades later, another Yue group in neighboring Zhejiang, the Yuyue 于越, also formed a rival state. By the 5th century BC, the state of Yue 越 had defeated and absorbed the state of Wu to dominate the lower Yangzi River valley for about a century before Chu in turn conquered it in the 4th century BC. The Yue people then fragmented into many principalities in southeast China subservient to the state of Chu. 
During the 3rd century BC, the state of Qin 秦 was in the process of unifying the states in north and central China to create an empire under the First Emperor 始皇帝. After Qin defeated the state of Chu in 223 BC, the emperor ordered his army to advance southward in five columns to absorb the Yue realms into the empire. The Dong’ou 東甌, a Yue people in southern Zhejiang, and the Minyue 閩越 in Fujian soon became vassals of the emperor. The Qin armies, however, encountered fierce resistance from the Nanyue 南越 in Guangdong and Guangxi. At one point a Qin army was defeated and nearly annihilated. In order to facilitate supplying the Qin armies fighting in the present Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam, the twenty-mile long Ling Qu 靈渠 canal was excavated, connecting the headwaters of the Xiang River 湘江 in the Yangzi River basin with the Li River 灕江 [漓江] flowing into the West River basin. The superior armament and military organization of the Qin military forces finally prevailed and by 214 BC Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam were subjugated. The land was administered as three prefectures of the Qin Empire. At this time Guangdong was an undeveloped semi-tropical frontier region of forests, jungles, and swamps inhabited by wildlife such as elephants and crocodiles.  In order to speed development of the land, the emperor forced thousands of people from northern China, most of them convicts, to settle among the native Yue in the new domains. 
The Qin Empire lasted barely half a century and was brought down by peasant revolts. During the ensuing turmoil in north China, the Minyue in Fujian joined forces with the rebels to participate in the overthrow of the Qin empire; however, in Guangdong Zhao Tuo 趙佗, native of Hebei in north China who was appointed district magistrate in the newly conquered realm by the Qin court, proclaimed himself king of Nanyue (Southern Yue) 南越王. His realm included what are now Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam. Panyu (Cantonese Punyu) 番禺, the capital, was located on the site of the present city of Guangzhou 廣州.      
Nanyue remained independent for about a century.  Under Zhao Tuo's rule, Chinese settlers were encouraged to intermarry with the Yue, thereby laying the basis for the formation of the Cantonese-speaking group.  During the 2nd century in 111 BC, an army sent by the Han 漢 emperor, successor to Qin dynastic rule, brought the land into the Chinese empire again. During the Han period Panyu was already beginning to function as a center for the maritime trade from abroad. However, during this period the principal ports in Guangdong for foreign trade were at Xuwen 徐聞 on the tip of Leizhou Peninsula opposite Hainan Island and Hepu 合浦 on the Gulf of Tonkin, now part of southeastern Guangxi Province. The regions in the vicinity of these ports were noted for their production of pearls. The ports became the termini in China of the maritime silk route 海上絲綢之路 initiated during the Han period. It was at this port that emissaries from India 天竺 and the Eastern Roman Empire 大秦 landed when they reached China during the Han dynasty.
The Han empire established the Jiaozhou Prefecture with the prefecture governor stationed at Guangxin 廣信 in the West River valley in western Guangdong. This site became a center for Chinese culture in the Lingnan region. The language used among the officials, their followers, and the literati was Yayan 雅言, which was the common speech used in the Central Plains of the Yellow River basin. Yayan also became the common language used in conversations between the officials and literati with the local Yue people. This in time became the basis for the beginnings of the evolution of the Yue dialect. In 226 AD the state of Wu 吳國  divided Jiaozhou into two, with Guangxin as the seat of government for one part, which was named Guangzhou 廣州. Later, when the seat of the prefectural governor moved to Panyu, that city also became known as Guangzhou.

Guangdong and Fujian as Frontier Regions
Over the next few centuries there was a steady trickle of migrants from the north into the region.  This influx increased during the 4th and 5th centuries AD when chaotic political conditions existed in North China.  Most refugees settled in the Yangzi River valley. Tradition alleged that during the 4th century members of eight clans escaping chaotic conditions in the north migrated into Fujian, where they settled and played important roles in the development of the province. It should be recognized that Han Chinese had been settling in Fujian since the Han dynasty; however, the political turmoil in the Yellow River basin provided an impetus for even greater numbers to emigrate.  
Others migrated to the Lingnan region. At this time Han Chinese settlements in Guangdong were principally in the valley of the West River and southern Guangdong, the population of which exceeded that of Han Chinese in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta. Northern Guangdong in the Meizhou region and northeastern Guangdong in the Chaozhou region were even less densely populated. At the beginning of the 7th century there were only 131,230 Han Chinese households in Guangdong, or 0.65 households per sq. km. It should be pointed out that the non-Han Chinese population was not included in the Chinese census and that Guangdong remained a sparsely populated region.
During this period the Guangdong hinterland away from the major river valleys was still dominated by the descendants of the Yue, now known as the Li 俚人, who were ruled indirectly through chieftains recognized by the Chinese court. In general Li and Han relations were amicable and in one instance the Li even helped to install a Chinese emperor.  This occurred in the 6th century when Chen Baxian 陳霸先, the prefect of Gaoyao 高要, with his Li allies marched northward from Guangdong to establish the short-lived Chen 陳 dynasty at Nanjing. Chen was the only Chinese emperor to have arisen in Guangdong. One of his principal allies was Lady Xian 冼夫人, an influential Li leader in southern Guangdong married to Chinese official Feng Bao 馮寶.  For more than six decades spanning the Liang, Chen, and Sui dynasties Lady Xian was a pivotal figure maintaining amicable relations between the Li and the Han. This helped to facilitate the integration of the Li as part of the Han Chinese people.      
During this same period the seaport at the Pearl River Delta, first named Guangzhou in 264 AD, gradually developed into a major port, eclipsing Xuwen and Hepu in southern Guangdong. By the eighth century during mid-Tang it had become an important maritime trade center, where traders of products from the West River Basin met merchants coming from southern Asia and Southeast Asia. The port also offered easier access to land routes connecting with the rest of China. Over the centuries many new ideas and products from abroad entered China via this maritime silk route. Merchants claiming to be from the Roman Empire brought in asbestos cloth during the 3rd century AD. Bodhidharma 菩提達磨, the founder of Chan Buddhism 禪宗, was alleged to have stepped ashore in Guangzhou in 526 AD.  Around the 7th century Islam was introduced into China at this seaport, and a large foreign quarter consisting of Persian and Arab merchants sprang up in the city.  Intermarriage with local people was not uncommon, thus introducing an ethnic strain from abroad into the Cantonese population.
In spite of the growing importance of Guangzhou as a port, the delta had not yet become the prosperous and densely populated region we know today.  The seaport was on the edge of a shallow island-studded bay.  Over time the territories rimming this bay slowly became colonized and developed, as evidenced by the creation of new districts.  In the 3rd century a county named Pingyi 平夷 ("Suppressed Barbarians") was created on the western shore of the bay, where non-sinicized tribal groups still lived. This district embraced most of the territory of the present Sze Yup and later became known as Xinhui 新會 (Cantonese Sunwui) and as Gangzhou 岡州 (Cantonese Kong Chow) during the 6th and 7th centuries.  The founding of Pinyi was followed during the 4th century by the creation of Dongguan prefecture 東官郡 on the eastern edge of the bay in the East River Delta, which included the present Dongguan 東莞 (Cantonese Tungkun) on the Pearl River Delta and extended eastward to embrace Chaozhou 潮州 on the Han River delta. In the 6th century Nanhai 南海 (Cantonese Namhoi), west and south of Guangzhou, came into being, carved out of Panyu. But even as late as the 6th century AD, the West River Valley upriver from the delta was economically more highly developed and more densely populated than the delta or the regions north and east of it.
This situation began to change during the Tang 唐 dynasty in 716 AD the situation when an official, Zhang Jiuling 張九齡, pushed the imperial government to build a good road that pierced the mountain barrier connecting his home region in northern Guangdong to the Chang (Yangzi) River basin in neighboring Jiangxi Province. This route to Guangdong greatly facilitated immigration and the introduction of Chinese culture and technology from the north. Consequently, northern Guangdong developed rapidly and soon overtook the West River basin to become the most densely populated region of the province. During the Song 宋 dynasty this area became the springboard for rapid colonization of the Pearl River Delta region.
In the meantime, Han Chinese were continuing to settle in the lower Han River basin in northeastern Guangdong. Since the bulk of the settlement came via the maritime route from southern Fujian, sizable colonies of people speaking Southern Fujian (Minnan 閩南) dialects appeared in the Han River Delta 韓江三角洲 around Chaozhou 潮州 near the present Shantou 汕頭 (Swatow) in northeast Guangdong. Chaozhou began developing into a port with a growing maritime trade. As the Chinese population increased, armed conflict sometimes developed between them and the She 畬 people already living in the region. For example, in 669 the She in southern Fujian and northeastern Guangdong defeated an army sent by the imperial court and it took almost a decade before the imperial troops could pacify the region. By the 8th century, however, the situation in the region had stabilized as the Chaozhou region rapidly became sinicized under Han Chinese rule. One official who the Chaozhou revered as having encouraged Chinese education in the area was the famous literary figure Han Yu 韓愈, who was exiled there in 819 after he had incurred the displeasure of the emperor. However, Han Yu only stayed eight months. He was just one of a number of Han Chinese officials who over a number of decades pushed sinicization of the populace in the region. Contemporary visitors to Chaozhou can still visit a number of historic sites attributed to Han Yu’s sojourn in the area. 
The increased pace of development in Fujian and Guangdong during the Tang left such a deep impression on the Fujianese and Guangdongese that even today they continue to refer to China as Tangshan 唐山 (Mountains of Tang) rather than Zhongguo 中國, to the Chinese language as Tanghua 唐話 (Speech of Tang) rather than Hanyu 漢語, and to the Chinese people as Tangren 唐人 (People of Tang) rather than Hanren 漢人. 
Around this time the Yue disappeared from history as a separate people. The bulk of the people were assimilated as part of the Han Chinese people. Those who did not assimilate retreated to less developed areas.  Most anthropologists and historians consider their direct descendants to be modern non-Han ethnic groups, such as the Zhuang 壯, Buyi 布依, Shui 水, Dong 侗, Maonan 毛 南, and Li 黎 of southern China. Some also feel that groups such as the She 畬,Yao 瑤, and Gaoshan 高山 (in Taiwan) also were derived at least partly from the Yue.     
The Yue made important contributions to Han Chinese culture.  According to archaeological evidence, the Yue were the first people in China to practice widespread rice agriculture.  They also domesticated the water buffalo as a beast of burden.  Many anthropologists believe that the dragon-boat race and the glutinous rice dumpling zong 粽 associated with the dragon-boat festival 端午節, were derived from ancient Yue folk religion. The Yue language was probably a major factor influencing the development of the major dialects along the southeast China coast.
The Yue imprint was especially strong in Guangdong, one of the areas where the Yue lingered longest as a separate group.  Cantonese are distinguished from their compatriots in the north by such characteristics as a generally shorter stature and darker hue skin.  The Cantonese dialect not only preserves much of the pronunciation and usage of medieval China, but it also includes many linguistic features in syntax, grammar, and vocabulary inherited from the Yue. These are similar to those still found in kindred non-Han languages in south China, especially the Zhuang.  Cantonese folk culture also has preserved distinctive regional characteristics.
With the disintegration of the Tang empire during the 10th century, Fujian came under the rule of the state of Min for fifty-four years (892-945), Nanhan 南漢 (Southern Han), for sixty-eight years (904-971), and Guangdong became an independent kingdom.  Sheltered by the mountain barrier from the chaos in the rest of China, Both Min and Nanhan were economically prosperous.  Min was swallowed by the kingdom of Nantang, while Nanhan again became a part of the Chinese empire when the Song 宋 emperors unified China. 
The Song government divided Guangzhou into two parts: Guangnam Donglu 廣南東路 [Eastern route of Guangnan] and Guangnan Xilu 廣南西路 [Western route of Guangnan]. Eventually these names were shortened to Guangdong 廣東 and Guangxi 廣西.
The Song Empire, unlike the Tang, was a weak military power and was constantly fending off attacks by the peoples from Mongolia and Manchuria on its northern borders.  This steady pressure stimulated migra­tion toward the south to escape the threat and thus further sped up the development of Fujian and Guangdong. It was during this period about a thousand years ago that the Cantonese dialect 粵方言 or Baihua 白話 began to take its present form based on Chinese as spoken by migrants from the north. However, due to the mountain barriers and the distance to the West River valley, this took place over a lengthy period of time with the newcomers settling among a large native Yue population. Thus, the language spoken by the Yue heavily influenced the Cantonese dialect. The pronunciation used in Guangzhou 廣州話 is today considered the standard.
During this same period Chinese in the southern part of Fujian and northeastern Guangdong also evolved the Minnan 閩南方言 dialect, of which Chaozhou (Teochiu) dialect 潮州方言 or Fuklo speech 福佬話 is a subgroup. Chaozhou pronunciation is today considered the standard for this sub-dialect.  
By this time the deposition of soil from the West, North, and East rivers as they emptied into the South China Sea was gradually turning the shallow bay facing Guangzhou into a delta region. Islands in the bay were in the process of becoming mountains separated by river channels and valleys.  During the 12th century some of the islands in this primordial delta became Xiangshan County 香山縣 (Cantonese Heungshan; now Zhongshan 中山 and Zhuhai 珠海.

The Zhuji Xiang Legend
Toward the end of the Song dynasty one of the most famous tales in Cantonese tradition allegedly occurred.  In the year 1273 (one version gave the year as 1131) an imperial concubine with the surname Su 蘇妃 (or in some versions Hu 胡妃) incurred the emperor's wrath and fell into disfavor.  In secret she fled the palace.  At a ferry she met a wealthy merchant, Huang Zhuwan 黃貯萬 (or in some versions Zhang Zhuwan 張貯萬), who was shipping grain to the capital.  Attracted by her beauty, Huang took her back with him to his home in Nanxiong 南雄 (Cantonese Namhung) in northern Guangdong.  Later, the emperor discovered the concubine's absence and ordered a search for her.  But after trying for a year, officials could not find any trace of her.   
During this period Huang had punished one of his servants.  In revenge the disgruntled man leaked the news of the presence of the imperial concubine in the Huang household. The information soon came to the ears of the officials, who, in order to cover up their previous failure to find the concubine, concocted a report of a bandit disturbance in the Nanxiong region.  The plan was to dispatch troops to wipe out the population in order to seal their lips forever. 
The villagers were panic-stricken when they heard the news.  Ninety-seven families who lived in Zhuji Xiang 珠璣巷 (Pearl Lane), a village in the region, met and decided to pack their belongings and flee to the south.  They embarked on bamboo rafts and floated down the North River.  Their journey finally ended at Xiangshan, where they scattered to settle at various sites in the then relatively undeveloped Pearl River Delta.
Many leading clans there today claim descent from these pioneers and the tale is as well known among Pearl River Delta Cantonese as the story of the Mayflower is among Anglo-Americans.  The ninety-seven families who fled had thirty-three surnames (the numbers vary with different versions) among them.  Besides the original thirty-three, another forty clans also claim Zhuji Xiang ancestry, giving a total of seventy-three surnames.  If we consider different lineages of the same surname separately, then there are nearly one hundred lineages. Chinese Americans of Cantonese descent whose forebears came from the Pearl River Delta region, especially if they came from Nanhai, Panyu, Shunde, Xiangshan, Dongguan, or Xinhui counties, have a good chance of encountering this tale in their genealogical research.  
The Zhuji Xiang tale was not documented in the official histories and there are many variations and contradictions in the details. One Chinese historian believes that the tale may have been derived from the accumulated experiences of the many groups who migrated southward to the Pearl River Delta region in flight from the Mongol armies.  For those coming from the north, Nanxiong would have been the first stopping point in Guangdong. This appears to be a plausible explanation. But one thing is certain--settlement of the Pearl River Delta region accelerated during this period. 
It was during this period that large-scale construction of levees began in the Pearl River Delta to reclaim marshlands for agricultural purposes and for flood control. Thus, by the thirteenth century the population density in the delta began to increase rapidly and approach that of northern Guangdong.

Hakka and Fujianese Migrations
A new group entered Guangdong during the same period as the Zhuji Xiang tradition.  Inhabitants long settled in Guangdong called these relatively late arrivals Kejia 客家 (Hakka, Guest People), a name the Hakkas also accepted and adopted.  Hakkas claim to be originally from Henan Province.  During the 4th century chaotic conditions in the north had forced them to migrate south to central China.  Political chaos in the 9th century, toward the end of the Tang dynasty, spurred a second migration to the region just north of Guangdong. The Mongol invasion during the 13th century led to the third wave of migration into Guangdong and Fujian.  In Guangdong the Hakkas settled in the mountainous terrain in the upper Han River basin and the East River 東江 basin in the northeastern part of the province, centering on Meizhou 梅 州 (formerly Meixian 梅縣). The present Hakka dialect took shape during this period. The standard is based on Meizhou speech.          
For several centuries from the Southern Song through the Ming dynasties people from Chaozhou and neighbor­ing southern Fujian also migrated by the sea route southward to settle at various points along the Guangdong coast. Increased migration also occurred as a consequence of the Song court's flight from the pursuing Mongols south along the southeast China coast. Many migrants settled in southern Guangdong in the eastern part of the Leizhou Peninsula 雷州半島 and the coastal area from Yangjiang 陽江 to Dianbai 電白counties in southern Guangdong as well as in the northeastern part of Hainan Island 海南島.  In the Pearl River Delta a number settled in the Longdu 隆都 (Cantonese Lungdu), Nanlang 南蓢 (Namlong) and Sanxiang 三鄉 (Samheung) areas in Zhongshan as well as Qi’ao 淇澳 in Zhuhai, forming enclaves that spoke Fujian-derived dialects in a Cantonese area.
The rapid development of the economy in Fujian and Guangdong also led to the development of trade and commerce with the rest of China and also abroad. From the Southern Song through the Yuan dynasties, Fujian’s Quanzhou rose to be the principal port in South China, surpassing even Guangzhou. However, silting of the harbor by the Ming dynasty caused it to decline in importance as a port of call and Guangzhou again became the leading port in South China.
As the economies of Fujian and Guangdong developed and the design of seagoing vessels and navigation technology (such as the introduction of the use of the magnetic compass) improved during the period from the early 12th century (Southern Song) to the end of the 16th century (late Ming), an increasing number of Chinese vessels and merchants from Fujian and Guangdong ventured abroad, many to southeast Asia, where some settled and established communities of Huaqiao or overseas Chinese. One scholar estimated this population to be somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000.   
Meanwhile in China, as the Mongol armies steamrollered their way to becoming the first non-Han Chinese people to conquer all of the Chinese empire, Song supporters fought desperate rearguard actions as they retreated southward to Guangdong.  They finally reached the end of the road in the Pearl River Delta.  The Song imperial court was alleged to have stopped in Kowloon near the former Kai Tak Airport 啟德機場.  The court then continued its flight, dodging in and out of the islands that still dotted the Pearl River Delta.  Finally in 1279 Song naval forces were defeated in a battle at the mouth of the West River near Xinhui, and loyal Song minister Lu Xiufu 陸秀夫 jumped into the ocean with the boy emperor on his back to end the Song dynasty.  Today many people in this area have the surname Zhao 趙 (Chew, Jue) and claim descent from the Song royal line.

Ming and Qing Dynasties
Mongol rule was short-lived and in the 14th century the Ming expelled the Mongol rulers from China.  Guangdong's economy continued to develop under the Ming.  The production of silk and other textiles, sugar, and handicraft products greatly increased.  In the Pearl River Delta, Foshan 佛山 (Fatshan) became known for its skilled steel smelters, while in nearby Shiwan (Shek'wan) 石灣 the ceramic industry became more highly developed in technical quality and variety of products. Commercial activities accelerated, as Guangzhou became the largest center of commerce in Guangdong and China's most important port for the international maritime trade.  Guangdong merchants also transported the province's products to sell in other parts of China or abroad.      
The development of the area was reflected in the creation of additional counties.  During this period, in the aftermath of a nineteen-year-long rebellion in the Pearl River Delta led by Huang Xiaoyang 黃蕭養, Shunde 順德 (Shuntak), the last of the Sam Yup to be created, was founded in 1452, taking away part of the territory of Nanhai.  When the Portuguese arrived in the Far East and began aggressively probing the Pearl River estuary during the 16th century, the Ming government responded.  In 1573 it created Xin'an 新安 (Sunon, the present Bao'an 寶安) out of the southern part of Dongguan 東莞 (including the present Hong Kong S.A.R.) to facilitate coastal defenses against these foreign invaders as well as against the forays of Chinese and Japanese pirates lurking in the area. 
During the Ming period the Han Chinese population also rapidly increased in the mountainous areas on the upper reaches of the Han, East, and North rivers in northern and northeastern Guangdong due to migrations from neighboring Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. These areas became solidly Hakka-speaking areas.            
As the Han Chinese population increased it encroached upon areas where non-Han Chinese tribes lived.  As pressures intensified, the inevitable conflicts broke out, and from the 14th through the 17th centuries, the Ming 明 government launched numerous military campaigns to suppress tribal uprisings in these areas.  In the Pearl River Delta region three of the four counties of Sze Yup 四邑 were formed between mid-Ming and early Qing. Enping 恩平 (Yanping) was established in 1478.  In 1498, after suppression of a Yao uprising in the western part of Xinhui, the imperial government created Xinning 新寧 (Sunning, “New tranquility;” the present Taishan 台山).  At the beginning of the Qing in 1649, the last Sze Yup county, Kaiping 開平 (Hoiping), was carved from parts of Xinhui, Xinxing 新興, and Enping.        
Similar developments took place in other areas of Guangdong.  In northeastern Guangdong the Hakka and Chaozhou dialect groups were confronted by She tribes, while settlers in western Guangdong encountered the Zhuang and Yao, and those in southern Guangdong and Hainan Island came face to face with the Li 黎. Eventually many tribesmen submitted and became sinicized and absorbed as part of the Han Chinese population.  Others retreated before the Han Chinese advance and retained their ethnic identities.  In some areas of Guangdong friction between these tribes and Han Chinese, although diminishing in scope, continued into the 18th century. 
By the 17th century Guangdong again became one of the last Han Chinese bastions during the dying gasps of the Ming dynasty.  As the defeated Ming loyalists fled southward ahead of the Manchu advance, they did not put an end to their internal power struggles. One Ming pretender proclaimed himself emperor in Guangzhou, while for awhile another established his court in Zhaoqing 肇慶 (Cantonese Shiuhing) at the head of the Pearl River Delta.  After the fall of these pretenders, Manchu armies suppressed nests of Ming loyalists, bandit bands, and remaining Yao strongholds in Guangdong.   
Earlier the Manchu imperial government had ordered the region along the entire China coast to be evacuated for about fifty li (approximately sixteen miles) to provide a buffer zone against attacks from Ming adherents led by Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 (also known as Koxinga 國姓爺), who had ousted the Dutch from the island of Taiwan and established a base there.  After the ban was lifted in 1684, many of the original inhabitants did not return, and immigrants from other areas with limited arable land filled the vacuum.  A number settled in former evacuated areas near the ocean, such as the present Zhongshan and the New Territories in Hong Kong.  Other Hakkas were encouraged by Guangdong authorities to spread out and settle in mountainous areas in the Pearl River Delta.  For example, after Huaxian 花縣 (Cantonese Fa Yuen) was formed from parts of Panyu and Nanhai in 1685 in order to facilitate the control of bands of brigands operating from the area's mountainous region, many Hakkas settled in the district.  By 1708 Qing military authorities had encouraged Hakka settlers to establish seventeen villages in the future Heshan County.  In 1732, in order to facilitate the defense of settled villages against the alleged depredations of Yao tribesmen living in mountains in the area, territory was taken from Xinhui and Kaiping to form Heshan 鶴山 (Cantonese Hokshan) as one of the last counties to be created in the Pearl River Delta region.  During this same period other Hakkas were also migrating out of Guangdong to Taiwan, Guangxi, and Sichuan. In Sze Yup the Hakka population grew rapidly.  In Xinning Hakkas grew to be about an estimated third of the population.  

Aggression from the West
The position of Guangdong as a major city and port on China's southern flank made it the destination of maritime travelers coming from the south and east.  Portugal, the first European nation to reach China in 1514, occupied Macao 澳門 on the southern tip of Xiangshan in 1557 in order to be in a strategic position to control the China trade.  From Macao the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci entered Guangdong, where he stayed at Zhaoqing for several years before departing for the north.             
The English, Dutch, French, and Ameri­cans soon followed the Portuguese, all seeking their share of the lucrative traffic in silk, tea, porcelain and other Chinese goods.  Guangzhou benefited from this commerce, especially after the imperial government decreed in 1757 that it was the only port to be opened to foreign ships.  The flourishing trade, however, whetted the appetite of Western merchants and they pressured a reluctant Qing government to open the entire country for trade.  Matters came to a head over the British opium trade at the Pearl River Delta.  In the ensuing Opium War of 1839-42, China was defeated.
In the Treaty of Nanjing ending the war China agreed to pay 21,000,000 yuan in reparations to the British government. Five treaty ports—Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai--were opened to the British. Western missionaries were allowed to step up their activities in the city. Hong Kong Island, off the tip of Xin’an County on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary, was ceded to the British, who developed it into an international port overshadowing Macau on the other side of the estuary in importance.
The forced opening of China, led by Britain, facilitated the entry of not only merchants and goods, but also western missionaries and ideas. In 1844 American missionary Issachar J. Roberts 羅孝全 established the first Protestant chapel in Guangzhou to preach the gospel. In 1847 Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全, a Hakka from Hua Xian north of Guangzhou who had failed in the imperial examinations, learned the basic concepts of Christianity from Roberts, and after modifying the teachings, he founded the Bai Shangdi Jiao 拜上帝教 ("Worship God sect"). Hong moved to Guangxi, where he attracted many followers. In 1851 the sect under Hong's leadership began the Taiping Rebellion in Guangxi, which spread quickly and almost toppled the Qing Empire. In Guangdong the Triad secret society took advantage of the political instability caused by the Taiping victories also to stage uprisings to restore Ming rule. Beginning in 1854, a number of Triad-led insurrections broke out in Dongguan, Hua Xian, and other parts of the delta region. In Nanhai the Red Turbans 紅巾, as the insurgents were familiarly known, occupied and then set fire to Foshan, which burned for 3 days. The insurgents were unable to capture Guangzhou, but the fighting and destruction covered a wide area in the surrounding countryside and there was a great deal of pillaging, plundering, and destruction by both government and rebel forces.
After the Qing forces had gained the upper hand against the Red Turbans, the Second Opium War broke out. Previously, the people of Guangzhou had refused to implement provisions of the Treaty of Nanjing permitting Westerners to enter Guangzhou's walled city. England together with France soon found pretexts to declare war on China. A British and French expeditionary force attacked Guangzhou in 1857 and occupied the city for more than three years. There was more pillaging and plundering and the people of the surrounding region suffered heavily. In 1858 the Treaty of Tianjin ending the Second Opium War imposed further reparations on China and opened additional treaty ports, including Shantou and Qiongshan (on Hainan Island). Two years later England and France forced China to sign the Treaty of Beijing, paying more reparations and ceding the Kowloon peninsula 九龍半島 in the southern part of Xin’an County to become a part of the British colony of Hong Kong.
In the meantime friction between the Hakka minority and the Cantonese led a bloody conflict to break out in the Sze Yap region from 1856 to 1868. The fighting was especially fierce in Xinning, where the Hakkas were displaced from most of the territory and forced to retreat into the small enclave of Chixi (Cantonese Chikkai) 赤溪.  After the fighting ended, many Hakkas chose to leave for southern Guangdong and Hainan. (In the 1980s Hakkas comprise less than 3 percent of the Taishan population.) The economic dislocation caused by this conflict was a factor causing Sze Yup people to emigrate abroad.
Foreign powers continued to trample on China’s sovereignty, extracting privileges and concessions in various parts of the country. In the southern part of China, England in 1897 asked for treaty port status for Sanshui 三水 (Guangdong), Wuzhou 梧州 (Guangxi), and Tengyue 騰越 (Yunnan), as well as the right to board and disembark passengers at Jiangmen 江門, Ganzhu 甘竹, Zhaoqing 肇慶, and Deqing 德慶 in Guangdong. In 1898 France leased Guangzhou Wan (the present Zhanjiang) for 99 years and England followed by leasing for 99 years the New Territories 新界 (additional territory from Xin’an County as well as several offshore islands), adding it to Hong Kong colony in 1898. Even little Portugal was able to negotiate a treaty with China in 1887, recognizing Macao as a Portuguese possession. The newly modernized Japan entered the picture in 1895, when it defeated China in Korea and annexed Taiwan Island and the Pescadores Islands to its empire.
During this period the Western powers were also extending their rule over much of the non-Western world. They were colonizing and developing some of this territory, while in other regions they were exploiting the resources. Impoverished Chinese peasants in south China, hard pressed by political developments, provided one of the sources of cheap labor. Thus, beginning with the 17th century there was increase emigration numbering several million Chinese laborers and merchants that laid the foundation for today’s overseas Chinese population in Southeast Asia, the Americas, and other parts of the world. In time these Chinese abroad grew to be a force, introducing ideas and capital to help the effort to modernize China.
The constant exposure of Guangdong to influence from abroad had led the people to be receptive to change and new ideas.  Thus, in the modern era Guangdongese were instrumental in introducing modern Western practices and technology; for example, Cantonese were the first Chinese aviators and started some of the first Chinese motion picture companies and earliest depart­ment stores in Hong Kong and Shanghai.     
The ever-present threat of foreign aggression also stimulated the growth of strong nationalistic sentiments.  Guangdongese played active leadership roles in movements to modernize China.  Among the leaders were Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全, who led the Taiping Rebellion 太平天國 that almost toppled the Manchu dynasty, Kang Youwei 康有為 and Liang Qichao 梁啟超, who led an abortive movement to reform the Manchu empire, and Sun Yat-sen 孫逸仙, 孫中山, 孫文, who became the acknowledged head of the movement to overthrow the 2,000-year-old imperial system.  All were natives of counties in the Pearl River Delta region. Guangdongese were also active participants in the 1905 boycott of American goods in protest against the Chinese Exclusion Act. 

The Republic
By the end of the first decade of the 20th century the imperial system was on its last legs. The Republic of China came into being in 1912 with Sun Yat-sen as provisional president. The revolutionary party he led became the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party of China). However, the republican forces were too weak and divided and warlords soon controlled the national government. The country lapsed into civil war as Sun and the Kuomintang went into exile. Around 1920 the Sun Yat-sen-led Kuomintang became allied with southern warlords to establish a military government headquartered in Guangzhou. There they made preparations for a northern expedition to reunify China.
In 1923 Sun Yat-sen led a reorganization of the Kuomintang, admitted Chinese Communist Party members into the Kuomintang, and forged an alliance with the USSR. The focus of the revolution was shifted toward support for the workers and peasants as the party became more militant. In 1926, a year after Sun had passed on, General Chiang Kai-shek finally launched the Northern Expedition from Guangzhou. When his armies reached the lower Yangzi River basin, Chiang turned on the Communists and on April 12, 1927, began a bloody purge of Communists and their sympathizers in Shanghai. He then established a national government in Nanjing.
The changed situation led the Communists to initiate a number of uprisings. In April 1927 Peng Bai 彭湃 led the peasant uprisings in the Hai-Lufeng 海陸豐 (present Shanwei) area. This was followed by peasant uprisings on Hainan Island. There was a Guangzhou uprising in Guangzhou in December that was quickly quelled by Kuomintang troops, but the peasant uprisings in the countryside continued into the 1930s.
After the Guangzhou insurrection, General Chen Jitang 陳濟棠 rose to gain uncontested control of Guangdong. He further consolidated his position by strengthening his military forces and allying himself with Chiang's political foes, which had established a rival Kuomintang group in Guangzhou in 1931 to challenge the Nanjing government. Chen became the dominant figure in the group and was known by the nickname Nantian Wang 南天王 [King of the southern heavens].
Chen expanded his military forces to 150,000. He also had under his command the Guangdong Air Force, the strength of which rivaled that of the Nanjing government. Chen also sought to develop the economy as a firm foundation for his power. He encouraged the building of modern industrial plants, many of which were helped by contributions and investments from Guangdong emigrants abroad. A number of Chinese from North America also saw service in the Guangdong Air force.
In 1936 Chen allied himself with military men in Guangxi to demand that the Nanjing government take action to resist Japanese aggression in China. However, the challenge collapsed when Chiang Kai-shek bribed the Guangdong Air Force to defect en masse to Nanjing and Chen had to flee to Hong Kong.

The War of Resistance Against Japan and Afterward
During the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese occupied Guangzhou and the surrounding regions in 1938. The following year the Japanese also occupied the Shantou-Chaozhou region, Hainan Island, and other strategic points along the Guangdong coastline. The Guangdong KMT government moved to Shaoguan 韶關 in northern Guangdong. Communist-led guerilla forces established resistance bases , the largest of which were in the East River東江游擊隊 basin and Hainan Island 瓊崖游擊隊. Hong Kong became a temporary safe haven for activities supporting the war of resistance to Japan. Both the Kuomintang and the Communist established liaison offices in the colony. This situation ended when the colony surrendered to the Japanese on December 25, 1941.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Civil war broke out after the end of the War of Resistance and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established in 1949 after the Communist armies won the civil war. Guangdong continued to be a province of China; however, Jinzhou, which was located west of the Leizhou Peninsula, became part of Guangxi Province in 1965 to give that landlocked province access to the ocean. In 1988 Hainan Island was made a separate province to help speed up its economic development 

With the defeat of the Kuomintang government, many supporters fled to Hong Kong, Taiwan, or overseas. Trade with the mainland was interrupted during the Korean War, when the U.S. led the United Nations to place a trade embargo against the PRC. For three decades, Hong Kong became one of the few points of contact between Mainland China and the Western world until tensions between the two sides began to be reduced around 1970.

Hong Kong continued to play an important role after 1979 when the PRC initiated a set of economic reforms.  In 1978 Hong Kong became the main source of foreign investments to the mainland. The first special economic zone (S.E.Z.) was created in 1979 at Shenzhen 深圳 at the border area of Baoan immediately north of Hong Kong. In a quarter of a century the area mushroomed from a country town into a modern city with a bustling seaport, an airport, and in 2004 began operation of a subway system. Other S.E.Z.’s. were established in Zhuhai 珠海 and Shantou 汕頭 in Guangdong

Other changes occurred in the entire region. Dongguan became a regional-level municipality and an area with many investments from abroad, including many from Taiwan. Its products are shipped to all parts of the world. The economic development in other localities has also been rapid and the counties in Guangzhou region were elevated one after another to county-level cities. In 1992 the municipalities of Shunde, Panyu, and Nanhai came into being. In 1993 there were the newly established county-level cities of Sanshui, Gaoyao, Sihui, Zengcheng, and Hua Xian, which had to change its name to Huadu 花都 to avoid having the confusing name Hua Xian Shi (Hua County City). This was followed by the elevation of Conghua, Gaoming, and Huiyang to county-level city status in 1994. As the economy continued to grow, Huadu and Panyu became integrated as districts of the City of Guangzhou in 2000. Shortly afterward, Foshan City became Chancheng District 禪城區, which together with Nanhai 南海區, Shunde 順德區, Sanshui 三水區, and Gaoming 高明區, became districts of  the region-level city of Foshan.

The net effect of this economic development was prosperity and modernization of the region. The demand for factory labor led to the hiring of numerous workers who seasonally migrated from other parts of China. In some localities they number as much as a third to a half of the inhabitants; however, these statistics are not enumerated in the census as part of the population of permanent residents. The rise of these factories also took manufacturing jobs away from Hong Kong, which earlier had prospered and grown to be a metropolis, a financial and manufacturing center, and entrepôt when China was isolated from the world economy. With the number of manufacturing jobs drastically reduced and being partially replaced by positions in the services sector, the financial and banking sectors have become increasingly dominant.

With the lease of the New Territories due to expire in 1997, the governments of the United Kingdom and the PRC discussed the issue of Hong Kong's sovereignty. In 1984, the two countries signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, agreeing to transfer the sovereignty of Hong Kong to the PRC in 1997. The declaration stipulated that Hong Kong would be governed as a special administrative region, retaining its laws and high degree of autonomy for at least fifty years after the transfer. In 1985, members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council was for the first time in more than a century and a half of British rule elected by Hong Kong voters. Similarly, Macao reverted to Chinese rule in 1999.

Emigration
The existence of a long maritime frontier in Guangdong resulted in an adventuresome and enterprising people. When the Western nations were developing their colonies and frontier regions during the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of emi­grants from Guangdong and neighboring provinces went abroad to better their lots in the foreign lands. Statistics on the population of Chinese abroad vary widely. But it is generally acknowledged that well over half of them can trace their roots to Guangdong. The Guangdong Province Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs estimated that in the 1980s, 7 million Chinese living outside the borders of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan were from Cantonese-speaking areas of Guangdong, more than 6 million from Chaozhou dialect areas, and 3 million from Hakka-speaking areas of Guangdong, as compared to 66 million living in Guangdong.
Emigration of the Cantonese was facilitated by the proximity of the international ports of Macao and Hong Kong, and Cantonese became the most widely dispersed, although not necessarily the most numerous, dialect group among the Chinese abroad.   In the United States the Cantonese emigrants' presence was even more pronounced, and up to 1965 about 90 to 95 percent of Chinese could trace their roots to the Pearl River Delta and Sze Yup in Guangdong Province. There was not much immigration of the Hakka and Chaozhou dialect groups into North America before World War II. However, political turmoil in Southeast Asia, where many had immigrated, led to a migration of these dialect groups to all parts of the Western world, including the United States and Canada.
From this sketch of the historical development of Guangdong over a period of 2,000 years, one can see that the introduction of cultural elements as well as migration of people from the north at different periods played major roles in shaping the pace and course of development of the province.  Significantly, development did not proceed at the same pace in every part of the province.  In spite of the fact that some regions were settled 2,000 years ago, other parts remained frontier areas until fairly recent times, especially the areas in the Pearl River Delta and Sze Yup regions, from which many Chinese Americans claim their ancestry.  This then is the Guangdong heritage of the overseas Chinese and forms the backdrop with which our Guangdong forebears played out their roles in the evolving historical drama.
From the point of view of the genealogical researcher, this history also provides some guidance for evaluating information on one's ancestral tree. Although it is probably true that the remote ancestors of many Guangdongese can be traced to North China and perhaps even to the Yellow Emperor, another fact obvious from Guangdong history is that the native Yue and their heirs once formed a significant part of the Guangdong population and have left an obvious physical and cultural imprint on the people. Yet one finds very few Guangdongese claiming them as ancestors, since many Guangdong genealogists seeking social status and prestigious ancestral trees may have been tempted to make claims, often unsubstantiated, to remote ancestors of northern, and hence Han Chinese, as opposed to “southern barbarian” 南蠻 origin.         
It should also be noted that women, at least some of whom were not of northern Han Chinese origin, are excluded from genealogical considerations when tracing lineages. Also over the centuries there have been numerous changes of surnames for various reasons so that the possession of a certain surname does not necessarily ensure descent from the alleged progenitor of that clan. All these considerations point to the fact that it is not an easy task to do historically rigorous genealogical research. A few families have a reliable genealogy reaching back many centuries. For example, the genealogy of the descendants of Confucius is probably one of the few authentic ones since so much attention had been focused on the family during the entire course of Chinese history. For others, the historically reliable part would not extend beyond the progenitor of the local lineage identified with one’s clan village of origin.  In most cases, the situation may fall somewhere between the two extremes. In all cases, including the genealogy of Confucius's family, a point is eventually reached beyond which the information is not subject to rigorous historical analysis and can only be considered part of a tradition.  Tradition, as long as one recognizes the limitations, of course can continue to be a source of pride and strength to the particular individual and his family. 

Him Mark Lai
May 10, 2008

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Notes