Wang Yang was reciting material from the Comprehensive Study of the Southern Barbarians that the woman had given him. Southern Man was a collective term for the various barbarian peoples of the south at the time, corresponding to the Eastern Yi, Western Rong, Southern Man, and Northern Di.
Since ancient times, the peoples of the south beyond the reach of imperial civilization had all been called "Man."
Jiangnan was thick with mountain forests and crisscrossed by waterways, with barbarian tribes large and small scattered throughout. Whether they belonged to the same tribal stock or spoke the same language made no difference. In the eyes of the central dynasty, they were all "Southern Man."
Although the Southern Dynasties had long established their rule in Jiangnan, their influence had never reached every corner. In certain regions, the barbarian population even exceeded the population registered with the local authorities!
Southern Qi, for example, had twenty-two provinces and three hundred eighty-five commanderies, and roughly forty percent of its territory contained barbarian settlements.
They were numerous, but far from united, their tribes as countless as hairs on an ox. Not only did they owe no allegiance to one another, they often harbored feuds. This was, of course, a great blessing for the court. Had all the Southern Man belonged to a single tribe, formed a harmonious alliance, and remained so widely distributed, any uprising might have rivaled the Yellow Turban Rebellion in scale.
Even without a rebellion on that scale, outbreaks blossomed everywhere, causing endless trouble. Minor incidents involved killing and robbing travelers or plundering property; larger ones involved storming gates, seizing passes, and taking cities and territory. The court repeatedly had to send troops to suppress them.
Suppression was no easy matter, either. First, the barbarians had no fixed abodes, often hiding in ancient