60 Boundaries and Beyond
within the reach” (yaofu) of the state and therefore under Chinese
(Huaxia) inβluence. The south, including modern Guangdong, was the
land of the Man people. It was not under Xia and Shang inβluence and was
classiβied as a land far from the capital or “a land beyond reach” (huangfu).
The Man people were perceived to be more obstinate than the Yi. This
was a not unwarranted designation as they actually did begin to cause
border disturbances during Xia and Shang times. Between 401‒381 ćĈ,
the renowned military strategist Wu Qi had helped the Kingdom of Chu
to annex the region around Lake Dongting and Changwu.^6 Thereafter,
Chinese inβluence slowly penetrated the region south of the Yangzi River
and the description yaofu was then extended to it. In other words, the
two terms yaofu and huangfu did not indicate the geographical distances
of those lands from the Chinese capital, as traditional Chinese texts would
tend to imply; their actual usage pointed more to whether they fell within
the perimeter of regular contacts, ritualized by tribute relations. The
lands of the Rong and Di people in the west and north respectively, for
example, were considered faraway and inaccessible. Another interesting
example was Sulu in the South Seas. As a Qing source puts it, “it had long
been an area beyond [our] reach (huangfu zhidi).... During the 15th year
of the Ming Yongle Reign, ... [the three kings of the country together with
their consorts] came to pay tribute.”^7 From then on, Sulu was placed
within the orbit of yaofu.
During Qin-Han times, China’s eastern and southeastern borders
were extended to the sea; the former Yi and Man regions became parts
of China proper. In the south, the Qin formed three new prefectures,
namely: Nanhai, Gueilin and Xiangjun, roughly corresponding to modern
Guangdong, Guangxi and northern Vietnam. The region around present-
day Guangdong, once categorized as an inaccessible land, now became
an integral part of the imperial domain.^8 With the exception of the
border between China and modern Vietnam, that remained an unstable
and shifting entity, the sea now became a natural and stable boundary
and the coastline formed, using Owen Lattimore’s phrase again, part of
China’s new “rigid frontiers”. This factor had the effect of constricting
any further expansion on the part of China.
- Gu Yanwu 顧炎武 (1613–82), Tianxia junguo libing shu 天下郡國平利病書
[Problems and challenges in the various regions of China] (hereafter TXJGLBS),
29: 1a; Tongdian 通典 [General institutional records of the previous dynasties],
comp. Du You (735–812) 杜佑編撰, 188: la. - Da Qing yitong zhi 大清一統志 [The unitary gazetteer of the Great Qing]
(hereafter DQYTZ) (1764 ed.), 423: 1a. - Du You, Tongdian, 188: la.
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