Nanman

Nanman
Zhou geography: Huaxia surrounded by the Four Barbarians—Dongyi in the east, Nanman in the south, Xirong in the west, and Beidi in the north.
Traditional Chinese	南蠻
Simplified Chinese	南蛮
Literal meaning	Southern Man (ethnonym)
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Nánmán Wade–Giles Nan-man Hakka Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Nàm-màn Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Naam4 Maan4 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Lâm-bân Tâi-lô Lâm-bân

The Man, commonly known as the Nanman or Southern Man (Chinese: 南蠻; Jyutping: Naam4 Maan4; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lâm-bân, lit. Southern Barbarians), were ancient indigenous peoples who lived in inland South and Southwest China, mainly around the Yangtze River valley. In ancient Chinese sources, the term Nanman was used to collectively describe multiple ethnic groups, probably the predecessors of the modern Miao, Zhuang, and Dai peoples, and non-Chinese Sino-Tibetan groups such as the Jingpo and Yi peoples. It was an umbrella term that included any groups south of the expanding Huaxia civilization, and there was never a single polity that united these people, although the state of Chu ruled over much of the Yangtze region during the Zhou dynasty and was partly influenced by the Man culture.