A Dissection of the Nanyue Identity: Moving the Frontiers of the Southern Han Dynasty

This project explores ethnic identities and its effect on political decisions along the southern frontier of the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD), suggesting that the identities of figures along the southern frontier adopted a third, liminal identity outside of the simple binary of “Han” and “non-Han”. By utilizing evidence from Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian and other classical texts, as well as archaeological goods from the tomb of the Nanyue King, the Hepu tombs, and Luobowang tombs, I will contend that identities were far more complex than the traditional historiographic view of a black-and-white view of either Han or not Han.