楚秦漢之際的「楚人」

The “Chu People” from the Late Warring States Period to the Early Western Han Dynasty

The term “Chu People” in Pre-Qin texts originally referred to the monarch of the Chu state and his clan, and then gradually came to refer to the “people of the Chu state”, that is all kinds of people living in the territory of the Chu state. It could also refer to the people who identified with Chu culture, even if they were not living in the Chu state. In the process of the formation, development and growth of the Chu state, “Chu People” was a regional political group that continued to strengthen its internal cohesion, while gradually absorbing more people, and had certain common characteristics. It might actually be called the Chu nation. In the late Warring States Period, the Chu's core area, namely the region of Yan and Ying, was occupied by Qin state, and the indigenes who lived in the area were gradually incorporated into the controlling system of the Qin and slowly became the “New Qin People”. They then stopped thinking about the Chu state. In contrast, the “Chu People” that been living in the Eastern Territory of Chu, faced with the aggression and oppression of a powerful Qin state, gradually strengthened their national identity of “Chu People”, and used this national identity as a basis for their resistance. In the early Western Han Dynasty, with the gradual loss of political pressure, the “Chu People” lost its significance as a regional political group, evolving into a purely geographical and cultural one.