established regular access routes from China, through Yunnan, and
down into Burma. This was the so-called southern silk route, never a
fraction as important as the northern route through Central Asia, but
a conduit nevertheless for exchange between China and India.
Who the early inhabitants of Yunnan were, we do not know,
but they were unrelated to the northern Chinese. Very limited
Chinese settlement may go back to the late fourth century BCE in the
vicinity of Kunming, and parts of Yunnan were claimed by the Han
dynasty. These were officially listed as Chinese prefectures, but admin-
istered by local rulers who, as inner barbarians, sent tribute to the Han
court. The Chinese presence was thus minimal, and during the three
centuries of division before the Sui reunified the empire, the whole
region reverted to local rule.^2
Yunnan well illustrates the process of Chinese colonisation,
and the extension of Chinese imperial power. It also illustrates how
relations between Han Chinese and ‘southwestern barbarians’ were
conducted. Often adventurous individual Chinese traders were the
first to make contact with tribal peoples. Trade was mainly in forest
products, deer antlers, hides and skins, resins and aromatic woods, in
exchange for iron and salt. Once trade became established, or traders
regularly passed through tribal territory, protection would be the
excuse for administrative intervention. Tribal chiefs would be per-
suaded to acknowledge nominal (from their point of view) Chinese
suzerainty in exchange for official recognition, gifts and titles. They
thereby became part of the Chinese world, their territory incorporated
within the empire as a frontier commandery or prefecture. This pro-
vided tribal peoples with the priceless opportunity (from the Chinese
viewpoint) to become civilised; that is, to become culturally assimi-
lated, a process encouraged both by Chinese migration and settlement,
and by intermarriage, for Chinese men were seldom reluctant to take
non-Chinese brides.
This extension of Chinese influence took place in the context of
population pressure and migration. From Chinese sources it is difficult
A Short History of China and Southeast Asia