Talk:Wu (state)

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Move discussion in progress[edit]

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Chen (state) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 22:59, 18 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

maps[edit]

no one knows where that state was without a proper picture, someone please take some map and highlighten Wu in it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.17.182.219 (talk) 20:05, 5 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Good point. I've added a map to the article. -Zanhe (talk) 05:20, 8 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Note that the borders are largely specious. — LlywelynII 11:46, 30 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There are several things needing to be fixed, including the origin and identity of the founder of Wu, Taibo[edit]

Taibo is attributed to be the founder of the state of Wu, who, according to Chinese records, was of Chinese origin. But the source may be from Sima Qian's historical records, which is unreliable, specifically in the case of Taibo's origin and identity. It is said that Sima Qian had tendency to assign Chinese origin to non-Sinitic rulers [1] (p. 36). At least, there should be a clarification about the unreliability of the source. Gustmeister (talk) 11:55, 19 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Language?[edit]

There is nothing to indicate that the language of Wu was proto-Austronesian or proto-Tai-Kadai (although the language of Yue may well have been). The article mentions Wu's connection with Japan, it is more likely that the language was proto-Japanese.24.108.52.84 (talk) 06:12, 13 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This is also nonsense. If they used the same language as the one used in The Art of War and The Art of War can be read by modern Chinese people, how was it typologically different than Old Chinese? --2001:16B8:3122:F800:2029:6167:2B1:2EA6 (talk) 16:07, 9 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

They didn't, any more than you read Ovid in Latin because English has lots of loanwords and the same rough alphabet. People read the Art of War with modern characters, parsed by previous scholars into the same classical Chinese diction as the northerners. If Sunzi ever existed (it's debated) and ever wrote the Art of War (it's debated) he certainly didn't write it in its current modern form (undisputed). — LlywelynII 11:46, 30 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

For additional reasons this anon editor was mistaken, see Talk:Yue (state) for Chinese language articles by Zhengzhang Shangfang discussing the apparent influence of Kam–Tai on the known placenames of Wu and Yue. — LlywelynII 03:14, 2 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Sources for article expansion[edit]

Brindley, Erica Fox (2003), "Barbarians or Not? Ethnicity and Changing Conceptions of the Ancient Yue (Viet) Peoples, ca. 400-50 BC" (PDF), Asia Major, 3rd Series, vol. 16, Academia Sinica, pp. 1–32, JSTOR 41649870.
Brindley, Erica Fox (2015), Ancient China and the Yue, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-107-08478-0.

includes information on Wu as well.

Li Xueqin (1991), "Chu Bronzes and Chu Culture" (PDF), New Perspectives on Chu Culture during the Eastern Zhou Period, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 1–22.

Similarly, this article covers the known Shang relations with the south, inclusive of the Wu and Yue areas. It's unclear from the article though if Shang-era bronzes were also found in Hunan and Hubei or only found in Hunan and Hubei, belying the later histories that made the entire length of the lower Yangtze 'Han' from a very early date. — LlywelynII 03:12, 2 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]