Guǎngxìn

The Guǎngxìn are Yue-speaking Han people of the middle Xi River valley, centred on Wuzhou in eastern Guangxi. Their name recalls Guangxin, a county founded in 111 BC after the Han conquest of Nanyue; as seat of Cangwu Commandery it was the centre of Han-ruled Lingnan, reached from the Yangtze through the Lingqu Canal.

Garrisons and waves of northern settlers planted Chinese speech among the Baiyue of this corridor, making it the earliest heartland of the Yue language. In 997 the Song divided the Guangnan circuit east and west of Guangxin, giving rise to the names Guangdong and Guangxi.

Ming campaigns against Yao rebels of the Great Vine Gorge brought the Viceroy of Liangguang to Wuzhou, where a viceroy yamen was set up in 1469; it moved to Zhaoqing in 1564, briefly returned to Wuzhou in 1655 and finally settled in Guangzhou in 1746.