Friends who have read this article probably know the idiom of "night lang arrogance", which means that people are incompetent and arrogant. And the origin of this idiom is in the yelang country that once really existed in history. According to the "Chronicle of The Chronicle of Southwest Yilie", Emperor Wu of Han once sent an envoy to Southwest Yi, and after Yelang, because the road was blocked at that time, the people of Yelang had a very limited understanding of the Han Dynasty, so they asked the sentence "Han and I are big", which means to ask the Han Dynasty who is bigger than our Yelang, and later this record evolved into the idiom of "Yelang is arrogant". So what is the existence of the Yelang Kingdom that wants to be "bigger" than the Han Dynasty? How big is it? How is Yelang related to India and South Vietnam?
According to the history books of the Central Plains, the yelang kingdom first entered the vision of the Central Plains people around the beginning of the 3rd century BC. King Xiang of Chu, who reigned from 298 TO 262 BC, sent the general Zhuang Hao to lead an army to the area around present-day Fuquan City, Guizhou Province, to fight against the Night King. Later, Zhuang Hao's army succeeded in subjugating the Night King, making him a vassal of the Chu state.
Sengoku period Night Lang Kingdom (bottom)
However, what is more interesting in this history is that after Zhuang Hao submitted to Yelang, because the Ba County and Qianzhong County of the Chu State were captured by the Qin State, he could not return to the core area of the Chu State, and as a result, Zhuang Hao simply did not go back, and settled in Dianchi Lake around Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, today, and established the Dian State, declaring himself the King of Dian.
And this Dian country actually has a lot to do with the provenance of "Night Lang arrogance", and it can even be said that to a certain extent, the night lang in "Night Lang arrogance" is actually a back pot man, because the first to be "big" with Han is actually the Dian kingdom. We say this because the State of Dian, founded by Zhuang Hao, actually existed for a long time, and not only did it not completely perish in the process of unifying the Central Plains by the Qin Dynasty, but it also existed until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. At that time, Emperor Wu of Han sent emissaries to the southwestErn Yi region, in fact, the first to arrive was the State of Dian, and later to Yelang. The source of the sentence "Han And I am big" in the "Chronicle of History" is actually recorded like this:
The King of Dian and the emissaries of Han said, "Which han is greater than me? "And the same is true of Ye Lang Hou.
So in fact, this record clearly says that it was the King of Dian who first asked "Han is greater than me" after seeing the Han envoy, and although Yelanghou also asked the same thing, it seems that he only repeated the words of the King of Dian. So later, the idiom of "Night Lang is arrogant" is actually a bit of a back pot for Night Lang.
However, the reason why the idiom of night lang arrogance can be produced is actually related to the fact that at that time, compared with the Dian kingdom, night lang may indeed be larger. Because although it is indeed more funny that Yelang wants to be bigger than the Han Dynasty, Ma Qian of the Taishi Company did mention in the "History" that "the southwest Yijun is long and the night lang is the largest.". That is to say, at that time, there were dozens of regimes and tribes in Southwest Yi, of which Yelang was indeed the largest. Therefore, the idiom of "Night Lang is arrogant" actually takes the largest Night Lang in Southwest Yili as the representative of Southwest Yi. Therefore, after understanding this background, it is not too difficult to understand why Yelang wants to be bigger than the Han Dynasty, because in the cognition established by Yelang based on the circle of Southwest Yi at that time, it really felt that it was very big.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were many exchanges with Yelang
However, this does not mean that Ye Lang is ignorant of the outside world. Because there is some evidence that at that time and even earlier, the Yelang region may have had some contact with the Indian region. Because it is recorded in the "Records of History" that the most direct reason why Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty sent envoys to Yelang was that he wanted to find a way to India (poisoned) and wanted to establish direct contact with India. Contacting India was related to the discovery of a trade route perhaps related to Yelang by the Han Dynasty.
The "Chronicle of History" records that when Zhang Qian was on his mission to the Western Regions, he saw products such as Shu cloth, Qiong bamboo, and canes produced in the Great Xia Kingdom of the Western Regions (probably located in the Bactrian region of Central Asia). Zhang Qian felt very strange, so he asked the locals where did these things come from? As a result, the locals said that they came from the southeast of the poisoned country (India), and these things in the poisoned country were exchanged for doing business with the Shu people. Later, Zhang Qian also learned that the poisoned country was almost two thousand miles west of Qiong (in present-day Sichuan, China). After Zhang Qian learned of this information, he felt very valuable, so when he returned, he made a suggestion to Emperor Wu of Han: Bactria was in the southwest of the Han Dynasty, because he admired China, so although there were Xiongnu who obstructed their channels of communication with China, they still bought Shudi products in such a big circle. Then the body poison is obviously closer to China than Bactria and China, and if you can establish direct contacts with them, it will definitely be beneficial and harmless.
Approximate orientation of Bactria
Therefore, Emperor Wu of Han would send emissaries to Southwest Yi and even to Yelang, and the direct purpose of these emissaries was to find a way to India. But this mission of these emissaries was ultimately not completed, and they were all blocked near Kunming and failed to reach India. However, this record also shows that at that time, there was probably a commercial channel between Shudi and India, so it was possible for Shudi's goods to reach the western region through India. This also shows that the yelang area may indeed be an important transit place for trade and commerce between Shudi and India, which means that they may not have been a closed group that knew nothing about the outside world at that time.
In addition, the Yelang State and the Southern Yue State established by the Southern Expeditionary Qin General Zhao Tuo in the last year of the Qin Dynasty should have also had relatively close contacts. Because at that time, Emperor Wudi of Han sent envoys to Yelang, and another reason was that when Emperor Wudi of Han sent envoys to South Vietnam before, he saw a kind of wolfberry sauce in South Vietnam. Later, Han Ling knew that this wolf sauce was resold by the Shu people from Yelang to South Vietnam, so after the Han envoy returned, he wrote to Emperor Wu of Han, believing that through Yelang he could restrain the state of South Vietnam and create favorable conditions for Emperor Wudi of Han to pacify South Vietnam and unify China.
The situation of the South Vietnamese kingdom in the early period with YeLang
Combined with the records of different historical books, some scholars believe that at that time, a certain subordinate relationship had already been formed between Yelang and South Vietnam. At that time, the two sides exchanged each other at the Kejiang (牂) Kejiang (北panjiang in the territory of today's Yunnan nobility). After 183 BC, the Kingdom of Yelang may have also claimed the title of vassal to the State of South Vietnam.
Later, the South Vietnamese kingdom may have had a certain influence on the Night Lang Kingdom. After the Han envoy arrived at Yelang, he gave a generous gift to Hou Duotong of Yelang and built a road for the local area, and then agreed with Duotong to set up Han Dynasty counties in the local area, but perhaps promised to let Duotong's son be the county order. And this Duotong probably felt that the Han Dynasty was far away, and at the same time, it did lack a direct understanding of the strength of the Han Dynasty, so although it was verbally agreed, it was actually too serious. Although in 135 BC the Han Dynasty set up four counties under the jurisdiction of the Yelang State in the area controlled by the Yelang Kingdom and the southern part of the adjacent Han Dynasty Guanghan County, but in the following 20 years, the Yelang State seemed to be completely independent. It was not until 112 BC, after the Han Dynasty destroyed the State of South Vietnam, that Yelang seemed to truly understand the strength of the Han Dynasty, and only after that did he begin to send envoys to the center of the Han Dynasty to pay tribute. This also shows from another side that the relationship between Yelang and South Vietnam was indeed relatively close at that time.
In the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty, we can see the situation in places such as Yelang and Muke
After this, the Han Dynasty's rule over Yelang and the surrounding areas was significantly strengthened, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty soon removed the southern part of the previously established Qianwei Commandery and established the new county of Muke County. At the same time, the original Night Lang Hou Duotong was crowned the Night Lang King, still giving him a relatively high status. So after this, the Night Lang Kingdom still existed for decades. However, in 27 BC, Yelang rebelled against the Han and was eventually defeated by the han officials, after which the Yelang state was destroyed.
The above content is basically the main record of the Yelang Kingdom in the Chinese historical books. Because the Yelang Kingdom itself did not leave any written materials, these records can be said to be the only written records that can be seen in modern times for the Yelang Kingdom. However, although there is no written record, there are still some legends in some ethnic minorities in the southwest that may be related to the Yelang Kingdom, and some legends show that the Yelang Kingdom may have actually had 4 different dynasties, and it is itself a tribal alliance, including 5 relatively large regimes, and each regime is a consortium of 6 to 10 tribes. Moreover, during the existence of the Night Lang Kingdom, there were also wars between different Night Lang regimes, and eventually the demise of the Night Lang State had a lot to do with its civil war.
Some ethnic minorities in the southwest may be associated with Yelang
Of course, these legends may indeed reflect the true state of the Yelang Kingdom at that time, but after all, these legends cannot be fully regarded as serious historical materials, so their authenticity is still a bit of a question mark. After 27 BC, Yelang basically disappeared into the long river of history. Some views believe that the ethnic minorities in southwest China today, such as the Yi, Shui and Gelao ethnic groups, may have some connection with Yelang, but because the directly related historical materials are very rare, these views are not conclusive. (Image from the Internet, infringement notice deleted)