In ancient literature, "Yue" means "Yue", and "Yue" and "Yue" were very common in ancient times. Tribes along the coast south of the Yangtze River are often collectively referred to as "Yue" in pre-Qin ancient books, "Baiyue" or "Zhu Yue" in literature (including wuyue, Fujian, Yangyue, Nanyue, Xi 'ou and Luoyue), and "Nanyue" in Guangdong.

After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the meaning of the word "Guangdong" narrowed, generally referring to Lingnan area, or "South Guangdong". Until modern times, Guangdong and Guangxi were still called "Guangdong". After the Republic of China, the word "Guangdong" became the abbreviation of Guangdong Province.

According to the archaeological findings of Modaoshan site in Yunan, Guangdong Province and Nanjiang Paleolithic site group, there were human activities in Lingnan in the early Paleolithic period. In the middle of Paleolithic Age, about 6.5438+0.29 million years ago, early ancients (Maba people) appeared in Lingnan. During the Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty, Guangdong ancestors had economic and cultural exchanges with the Central Plains. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Lingnan and Wu Yuechu had close relations and frequent contacts.

The legends of Chuting and Nanwucheng in history reflect the relationship between Lingnan and Chuyue in this period. At that time, people living in Guangdong were ethnic minorities called "Southern Guangdong", including Zhuang, She and Tujia.

At that time, the Pearl River Delta region in central Guangdong was still the sea, so these ethnic minorities were mainly distributed in western and eastern Guangdong, Zhuang in western Guangdong and She in eastern Guangdong. Archaeology confirmed that Guangdong had a high degree of civilization in the pre-Qin period and was one of the cradles of Chinese civilization.

Lingnan culture

Lingnan culture consists of four parts: root culture (language identity culture), Baiyue culture (inherent local culture), Central Plains Han culture (central plains culture that moved south) and overseas culture (foreign culture). Its connotation is rich and colorful, covering Lingnan architecture, Lingnan gardens, Lingnan painting school, opera music, arts and crafts, folk festivals, religious culture, food culture and so on.

Geographically speaking, Lingnan culture is divided into three parts: Guangdong culture, Guangxi culture and Hainan culture, especially Guangfu culture, Guangdong Hakka culture and Chaoshan culture, which constitute the main body of Lingnan Chinese culture.

Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Guangdong