Ethnic origin of Tanka in Fujian

on

Introduction

This article explores and identifies the ancestors and descendants of the natives of Fujian province whose details were mostly clouded in mystery in the past.

Min tribe

The Min tribe was the earliest natives in Fujian and was one of the two ancestors of the Minyue tribe. They lived along the Min River and are skilled with small boats.
Map of Min River and Tanka boats in Fujian

Northwest Fujian has many high mountains that is full of snakes and Min people feared and worshipped these creatures. In fact, the origin of the Chinese character for the word Min depicts a snake lying in the middle of a door (see photo of drum below).
Snake temple on shore of Min River

The snake temple above on the shore of Min River in Zhanghu (樟湖) town in Nanping (南平) prefecture in northwestern Fujian was built during the Ming dynasty to worship the snake god who saved their lives and not associated with the ancient Min tribe. However, this might be a familiar scene more than 2300 years ago.

After researching the origin of the Kra, another branch of the Kra-Dai people, the Min people were most probably the Kra people with hanging coffins found in Wuyi mountain. Refer to their origin in this blog for further details.

Minyue tribe

Prince Yu (玉), the eldest son of King Wujiang (無疆), and some of his tribe escaped to northern Fujian after Chu state destroyed his ancestral Wu-Yue state (modern day Zhejiang province) in 334 BC.

Migration path of Wu-Yue tribe to Fujian (Blue) 

This ancient Wu-Yue tribe mixed with the Min natives to become Minyue (閩越) tribe. The Minyue kingdom established its first capital in Wuyi mountain (武夷山) in northwest Fujian around 334 BC.
Museum of Minyue city in Wuyi mountain

The Qin dynasty conquered Minyue kingdom in 222 BC when Wuzhu (無諸) was the king. Later, King Wuzhu helped the founder of Han dynasty to overthrow the Qin dynasty and re-established Minyue kingdom which lasted from 202 BC - 110 BC.
Minyue king

Emperor Wu of Han dynasty (漢武帝) conquered Minyue kingdom in 110 BC and burned down all its palaces and cities in north-western Fujian.

After destroying the kingdom, Emperor Wu decreed that all Minyue people were to be relocated to the northern region between Yangtze River and Huai River to closely monitor their activities.

After this event, Fujian was largely depopulated except for some Minyue people who escaped to live on the boats. Fujian region was repopulated with large migration of Han Chinese who live on the fertile land in later dynasties.

Tanka tribe in Fujian

Since the majority (more than 98%) of today's Fujian population are actually Han Chinese who migrated there during the last 2000 years, who are the real descendants of the Minyue tribe there today?

Based on the cultural elements of ancient Minyue tribe and also claims from descendants, the natives were identified as the modern Tanka (蜑家) tribe who still lives on the Min River and the coastal areas on the first map above.

This is based on the following cultural elements which are different from Han Chinese.
Culture
Tanka
Han Chinese
Worship Snake Dragon
Reside River Land
Tattoo Snake No body tattoo
Hair Cut their hair short Keep their hair
Hairpin shape Snake  Flower, dragon, phoenix
Teeth Pull out their teeth in weddings and adulthood Keep all teeth
Pray Minyue king Wuzhu in ancient times Various Han Chinese historical heroes

The word Tan-Ka was given by the Han Chinese to refer to the egg-shape of their boats. 'Tan' means egg and 'Ka' means people.

In the 'Origin of Wu language' article in this blog, it was determined that the Wu-Yue language was actually a proto-Tai language.

The Tanka started to live on the boats after Minyue kingdom was destroyed in 110 BC, presumably to avoid being captured by the Han Chinese. Among the Tanka, those with surnames Kuo (郭) and Ni (倪) claim to be descendants of Minyue tribe.

Tanka people were discriminated by the Han Chinese in the past. They conduct their wedding ceremony on boats and were forbidden to marry the Han Chinese who dwelled on the land. Some Tanka started to live back on land only in the 20th century.
Bridegroom's boat receiving the bridge's boat in a marriage

Tanka language

Since Wu-Yue is one of the two ancestors of Minyue tribe, the Minyue language is essentially a proto-Tai language as well and some Minyue words can be found in some Min languages as shown in the table below. Note: Some Min words which are actually Classical Chinese words were wrongly identified as Minyue words in Wikipedia.

Meaning
Min branch
Minyue
Tai
Indented
North
lap
lap
Slip off
North & South
lat
lut
Snake
North 
yuei
nguu

However, Tanka people have already abandoned their original proto-Tai language sometime in the past. Tanka people in Fujian province speaks an Eastern Min language similar to Fuzhou language whereas the Tanka people in Guangdong province speaks a Yue Chinese language similar to Cantonese language.

Other ethnic minority in Fujian

The only other non-Tai-Kadai ethnic minority that has been recorded to live in Fujian as early as the Tang dynasty is the ethnic She (畬).

Ethnic She is part of the Hmong-Mien tribes who traditionally live in the mountains instead of boats. The ethnic She's original homeland was along the Gan River basin in Jiangxi province.
Migration of ethnic She to Fujian

The ethnic She in Fujian most probably migrated to Fujian centuries after the Minyue tribe was formed and not before.

Conclusion

The descendants of the ancient Minyue people are the modern Tanka people who live along the Min River in Fujian province today. The Tanka also live along the Pearl River in Guangdong province.
Tanka with snake around his neck living on a boat

Tanka tribe is part of the Tai-Kadai people and they were forced to live on boats due to the massive migration of Han Chinese from the north in ancient times. Tanka is currently classified as 'Han Chinese' by China but that is not their true origin.

The Tanka is an ethnic minority constituting less than 1% of the population in those two provinces today.

Related links

Ethnic origin of Kra part 2

Sources


Last updated: 27 Oct 2021
Copyright © eastasiaorigin.blogspot 2017-2021. All rights reserved.

Comments

Post a Comment