The Âu Việt or Ouyue () were an ancient conglomeration of

Baiyue The Baiyue (, ), Hundred Yue, or simply Yue (; ), were various ethnic groups who inhabited the regions of East China, South China and Northern Vietnam during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. They were known for their short hair, ...

tribes living in what is today the mountainous regions of northernmost

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

, western

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, and northern

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ...

, China, since at least the third century BCE. They were believed to have belonged to the Tai-Kadai language group. In the legends of the

Tay people Tay may refer to: People and languages * Tay (name), including lists of people with the given name, surname and nickname * Tay people, an ethnic group of Vietnam ** Tày language * Atayal language, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan (ISO ...

, the western part of Âu Việt's land became the Nam Cương Kingdom, whose capital was located in what is today the Cao Bằng Province of Northeast Vietnam. In eastern China, the Ouyue established the

Dong'ou Dong'ou () also known as Ouyue (), was an ancient kingdom in modern Wenzhou and Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China. The realm of Dong'ou was given to Zou Yao by Emperor Gaozu of Han Emperor Gaozu of Han (256 – 1 June 195 BC), born Li ...

or Eastern Ou kingdom. The Western Ou ( 西甌; ; ''Tây'' meaning "western") were other

tribes, with short hair and

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing pro ...

s, who blackened their teeth and are the ancestors of the upland Tai-speaking

minority groups The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

in Vietnam such as the Nùng and Tay, as well as the closely related

Zhuang people The Zhuang (; ; za, Bouxcuengh, italic=yes; ) are a Tai-speaking ethnic group who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. They form one of t ...

. The Âu Việt traded with the

Lạc Việt The Lạc Việt or Luoyue ( or ; pinyin: ''Luòyuè'' ← Middle Chinese: *''lɑk̚-ɦʉɐt̚'' ← Old Chinese *''râk-wat'') was a group of multilinguistic, specifically Kra-Dai and Austroasiatic, tribal peoples that inhabited ancient northe ...

(Austroasiatic-speaking people), the inhabitants of the state of Văn Lang, located in the lowland plains to Âu Việt's south, in what is today the

Red River Delta The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta ( vi, Châu thổ sông Hồng) is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Bình River in northern Vietnam. ''Hồng'' (紅) is a Sino-Vietnamese wo ...

of northern Vietnam, until 258 BC or 257 BC, when Thục Phán, the leader of an alliance of Âu Việt tribes, invaded Văn Lang and defeated the last

Hùng king Hùng king (c. 2524 BC – ?; Chữ Hán: 雄王; vi, Hùng Vương (雄王) or ''vua Hùng'' (𤤰雄); ''Vương'' means "king" and ''vua'' means "monarch; could mean emperor or king") is the title given to the ancient Vietnamese rulers of th ...

. He named the new nation "

Âu Lạc Âu Lạc ( Hán tự: 甌貉 (Peripheral Records/Volume 1:6a): "王既併文郎國，改國號曰甌貉國。""The King then annexed the Văn Lang nation, changed the nation's name to Âu Lạc nation."/甌駱; (Volume 113): "且南方卑濕， ...

", proclaiming himself "

An Dương Vương An Dương Vương () was the king and the only ruler of the kingdom of Âu Lạc, a classical antiquity state centered in the Red River Delta. As the leader of the Âu Việt tribes, he defeated the last Hùng king of the state of Văn Lang ...

" (literally "Peaceful

Virile Virility (from the Latin ''virilitas'', manhood or virility, derived from Latin ''vir'', man) refers to any of a wide range of masculine characteristics viewed positively. Virile means "marked by strength or force". Virility is commonly associ ...

King"). According to Chinese historians: * The

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), th ...

conquered the

state of Chu Chu, or Ch'u in Wade–Giles romanization, (, Hanyu Pinyin: Chǔ, Old Chinese: ''*s-r̥aʔ'') was a Zhou dynasty vassal state. Their first ruler was King Wu of Chu in the early 8th century BCE. Chu was located in the south of the Zhou he ...

, unifying China. Qin abolished the noble status of the royal descendants of the state of Yue. After some years,

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of " king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Empero ...

sent an army of 500,000 to conquer the West Ou. After three years, Qin forces killed West Ou chief Yiyusong (譯籲宋). Even so, West Ou waged

guerilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tact ...

against Qin and slew Qin commander Tu Sui (屠睢) in retaliation. * Before the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a wa ...

, the East and West Ou regained independence. The Eastern Ou was attacked by the

Minyue Minyue () was an ancient kingdom in what is now the Fujian province in southern China. It was a contemporary of the Han dynasty, and was later annexed by the Han empire as the dynasty expanded southward. The kingdom existed approximately from ...

Kingdom, and

Emperor Wu of Han Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign la ...

allowed them to move to between the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

and the

Huai River The Huai River (), formerly romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in China. It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins in China, and like them runs from west to east. ...

. The Western Ou paid tribute to Nanyue until it was conquered by the Han. :zh:s:史記/卷113 Descendants of these kings later lost their royal status. Ou (區), Ou (歐) and Ouyang (歐陽) remain as family names. According to Vietnamese historians: * 257 BC, An Dương Vương 安陽王 unified the Lạc Việt tribe (Austroasiatic) (chiefdom) of Hung Kings 雄王 (Hưng Vương) with his Âuviệt tribe (Tai-Kadai) (chiefdom) into a single tribe (The Âulạc chiefdom). * 208 BC, Zhao Tuo captured Âulạc and incorporated it into his Han kingdom of Nanyue, which was ruled by the Han dynasty. * In 938, Ngô Quyền 吳權 defeated the Southern Han army, opening a long period of independent Vietnam under the full monarchy. The Âu Việt tribe is thought to have been one of the most important progenitors of the Vietnamese people, along with the Lạc Việt people and some of ancient Han Chinese customs and traditions that was imparted onto Vietnamese culture during Northern Rule.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Au Viet 3rd-century BC Asian people Ancient peoples of China Former countries in Chinese history Ancient Vietnam Nanyue History of Guangxi History of Guangdong Tai peoples Tày people Zhuang people