Zhuang people

The Zhuang are a Tai-speaking ethnic group primarily residing in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with smaller populations in Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. They are one of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in the People’s Republic of China. Alongside the Bouyei, Nùng, Tày, and other Northern Tai speakers, they are sometimes referred to as the Rau or Rao people. With an estimated population of 19 million, the Zhuang are the largest minority group in China.

Etymology

The Chinese character used to write “Zhuang” has changed over time. Their own name for themselves, “Cuengh” in Standard Zhuang, was originally written with a character that included a “dog radical,” a pejorative term. After the Chinese civil war in 1949, this was replaced with a character meaning “child” or “boy servant,” using a “human radical.” Later, it was changed again to a character meaning “strong” or “robust.”

Relationship to the Nùng and Tày

The Zhuang, Nùng, and Tày peoples form a cluster of Tai groups with very similar customs and dress, known collectively as the Rau peoples. In China, the Zhuang are the largest non-Han minority, with about 14.5 million people in Guangxi alone. In Vietnam, as of 1999, there were 933,653 Nùng and 1,574,822 Tày.

The Tày and Nùng are sometimes grouped together as a combined Tày-Nùng minority, but these ethnonyms are modern inventions. According to scholar Keith Taylor, the Vietnamese terms were “categories of French colonial knowledge” used to separate highlanders from lowlanders. The ethnic label “Zhuang” itself emerged from China’s “ethnic identification project” in the 1950s.

Many Tai scholars consider the Zhuang and Nùng to be essentially the same people. In the early 11th century, ethnic identities in the Sino-Vietnamese borderland were more fluid than today. The Zhuang leader Nong Zhigao was defeated in 1055 by the Song dynasty. Had he won, he might have founded a state under his clan name, Nong.

Instead, his people in China continued to be called Zhuang—a word meaning “cave” in their language—while in Vietnam they became known as Nùng. The majority group, now the largest minority, remains the same Zhuang/Nùng people, numbering over 15 million, recognized by different names in each country. Nong Zhigao has sometimes been claimed by Vietnam as a native, but this is tied to modern antagonism with China; in earlier times, the Vietnamese sometimes saw him as primarily Chinese.

Identity

Some ethnologists, including George Moseley, Diana Lary, Katherine Kaup, and Jeffrey Barlow, view the Zhuang ethnicity as a modern constructed identity. They argue that Zhuang culture was not sufficiently distinct from Han culture to warrant separate recognition. The Zhuang have interacted with Han Chinese for over 2,200 years.

As early as the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), they adopted Han practices like settled agriculture, iron plows, triple cropping, and fertilization. Living at lower elevations than other minorities, they competed directly with Han farmers and found it practical to adopt Han dress and housing styles. After Nong Zhigao’s defeat in 1055, many Zhuang families and communities abandoned their language and names, fully assimilating into the Han majority. In one case, a Zhuang student said he had considered himself Han until being taught he was Zhuang.

The Zhuang did not see themselves as marginalized or in need of promotion. Zhuang peasants resisted a formal Romanized script, noting they had used Han characters for centuries. The official classification also overlooked historical similarities between northern Zhuang and the Bouyei people.

Tang-Song transition

The Zhuang are the indigenous people of Guangxi, according to historian Huang Xianfan, with origins traceable to the Paleolithic, supported by archaeological evidence. During the Tang-Song transition, from 823 to 826, the Zhuang, Huang, and Nong clans, aided by raiders from Champa, attacked Yongzhou and captured 18 counties. The “Nung Grottoes” sought help from Nanzhao.

During the Huang Chao rebellion (874–884), Zhuang fought as irregulars in the Ningyuan Army under Pang Zhuzhao. After the Tang dynasty fell in 907, the Southern Han recruited Zhuang archers for riverine forces, who then campaigned against Ma Chu. The Zhuang did not seem to aim for empire after the Tang collapse, seeking only autonomy.

Instead, wars in the south brought more Zhuang into contact with Han Chinese as they were hired as mercenaries and river porters. Under the Song dynasty, the Jimi system continued, with officials of those prefectures titled “zhi.” The ruler of Nandan, for example, was called “Zhi Nandan.” The Zhuang were governed under this system, unlike the less numerous Yao people. Zhuang leaders sought Song approval to levy troops.