Kingdom of t’su ( မိူ င်းၸူ း)

In their long march to the south and west, the tai never failed to establish( ၵေႃႇတင်ႈ) their kingdom
and empire whenever the situation favoured. The Chinese historical annals(မၢႆတွ င်းသၢႆပို ၼ်းမိူ င်း)
revealed the emergence of the tai confederation states(ၸို င်ႈမိူ င်းႁူမ်ႈတု မ်ႊ), known as T’su . where was
T’su then? Ascending the Yangtze river to the present province of Hupeh , there was the seat of the
T’su states. According to the Sinologist Mr,Parker,T’su was the largest tai confederation states of
the ancient time, cover the vast area of land northward between the Yangtze ricer and yellow river.
Including the tai old state of Ngu or Wu(ငူ ႇ(ငူ း) ဢမ်ႇၼၼ် ဝူ ႇ) and all the regions southward to the sea.
Regrading the wide spread of the tai ethnic race, scholar S. Hallett remarked that the tai not only
stretched far away from eastward , perhaps to the Chinese sea but also formed one of the chief
ingredients of the Chinese race.
Another pre- Chinese period of the tai state was called pang or pan-hu(ပၢင်/ပၢင်ႁူႉ) and it was
predominant(ယို င်ႈယႂ်ႇဢွၼ်လိူ ဝ် in the central china, south of the yellow river. The Pang people
occupied(ယူ ႇသဝ်းၵိၼ်သၢင်ႈ) the area of the northeast of Sichuan and the west of Honan. The generic
name(ၸို ဝ်ႈတို ၼ်း) of the people of Pang was Ngoa or Yao or Grate. They should be considered to be the
oldest stock(ၸု မ်းၶိူ ဝ်းၵဝ်ႇၵႄႇသု တ်း) of the ethnic people . Their land and word spoken at that time were
recorded in the Annals of the eastern Han. It was also found that out of eight words in the first list, five
are tai. The pang(ပၢင်ႊ) was in existence since the twentieth century BC. They will not subdued by the
Chinese until the end of the eleventh century AD, and they did not acknowledge(ယို ၼ်ႁ ပ်ႉ) the supremacy
of the Chinese(လွင်ႈပိူ င်ႇငမ်းၶႄႇ) emperor. The chief of the Pang state was, once, recognized as the king of
Siang -yang( Hupeh) .and governor the King- chou. His realm contained eighty thousand village. The
Pang state was contemporary and rival(ႁိမ်ၼႃႈတီႈၵၼ်) to the Chinese Hai dynasty . Friendly relationship
were established between two states and mutual help was given to each other. Political existence(ႁႅင်းၵၢၼ်
မိူ င်း) of the Great Pang state was , however , destroyed by Shang- Wu-Ting ing 1231BC. After the lapse
of 767 years, the old Pang people was revived with the help from Tchou pepele. The second seat of the
pang state was between the Yuen and the Wu river , west and southwest of Tung-Ting lake(ၼွင်လူ င်တု င်တိ
င်း), the mountain region.
Another groups of tai ethnic people moved to set up their settlement(လွင်ႈပၵ်းသဝ်း) at the head –
water of Yangtze river and occupied the region at the intersection(ဢွင်ႈတီႈၶွၺ်ႊၵၼ်) of Honan, Hupeh and
Nang-hwui province . from there they extended their territory westward into kiu lung ( green wilderness
of thick wooded area) range of mountain, farming the boundary between the shansi and Sichuan
provincees. Professor M. Terrien de lacouperie assumed the area to be the original cradle( ဢွင်ႈတီႈယူ ႇၵူ ႇ
တီႈၼွၼ်း) of the tai race.
Moving to the western part of Sichuan round about two thousand BC . another tai ethnic group
set up a new kingdom in history as Ta Mung or great mung , this group of tai people was recognized as
the progenitor of the tai groups of TongKing of Vietnam.
The tai ethnic people were always on the move and they never tired to fine a new place and
establishing new Bann,Mong and Kingdoom. They were required to do that to maintain their identity ,
their culture heritage and wet -rice cultivation culture and their values and rights to exist as a civilized(
မီးလွင်ႈယဵၼ်ႇငႄႈၸၼ်ႉသု င်) people like other nationalities.
A twin city- state that was established by another branch of the tai ethnic groups , were called Pa
and Lung(မိူ င်းပႃးလႄႈ မိူ င်းလု င်း) . these two states were played an important part in the subsequent history
of the tai race. The seats of both Pa and lung states were in the west part of Sichuan. The Pa had relation
even with T’su as early as 600BC .There is evidence of pa princesses married to T’su kings . the chineses
annals also mention how the ruler of Hia Ki sent his minister, Mong Tu to Pa state to established
relationship between tow kingdoms in BC 1971 . The Chinese annals also state that near Pang was the
lung. The Lung people was called by the Chinese a Lung-jen and the Pa people as Pa’- yi. The Pa people
lived under a government of their own. The dynastic of histories of the Hou- Han- shu ( the later Han
dynasty , AD 25-250) give a long description of the Pa kingdom and the prominent role it played during
the dynastic period of the time. Wu -hsiand was described as as hero king who helped of found the state
of Pa in the eastern part of Sichuan.
The Pa people spread to Hupei and Honan areas and then moved down to the Yangtze river and
then to Chia – ling and Ch’u- rivers. A branch of the Pa people was know as Tsung.they also established
their kingdom called Tsung. They had their settlements in Hunan- Guizhou border region. During the Han
dynasty , the native people who lived along the Yu river of the Lang-Chung were Tsung people. The Hua-
yang- kuo- chih also explains that T’ang – chu was the oldest Tsung kingdom. In Sichuan there was a
place called Ch’u where settlement of Tsung people could be found. Another stock of tai ethnic people
who inhabited(ယူ ႇသဝ်း) the regions in western Hunan, southern Kuei-chow and eastern Yunnan were
called Chung or Chung- chia and those in the western of Kawansi were called Chuang. They all spoke
tai language with a variant dialects(လၢႆးလၢတ်ႈၵႂၢမ်းပိူ င်ႈၵၼ်ဢိတ်းဢီႈ) . during the Chou Dynasty (1122BC -
225 BC) the Pa state was on equal footing with other feudal states of china. Like Ch’in on the north Ch’u
and Teng on the east. These states sometime fought each other and sometimes cordial relationship were
established.
Shuh was another tai state located on the western part of Sichuan. The limits of the Shuh
kingdom, according to ch’ang chu , the author of the Hua-yang-kuo-chih , were from Pao- hsieh route on
the north to Nanchung on the south . pao-hsich route was a vally on the Shensi province. In the modern
period . this route up with Shensi and Sichuan provinces. Nan-chung was the vast province, including
southern Sichuan , western Guizhou and most parts of Yunnan. The king of Shuh at that time was called ‘
Wang Ti’
The Hua-yang-kuo-chih also said that the state of shuh and pa were contemporary and rivals( ႁိ
မ်ၼႃႈတီႈၵၼ်) . sometime they were at war with each other. The shuh king appointed his brother to assist in
his administration and that post was called “ Chia- meng( ၸႂ်မိူ င်း)’ . the translation of Chia- meng could
be kyem-mong ( ၵႅမ်မိူ င်း) used in the later period by tai chiefs. In 316BC . shuh and pa were conquered (
ပိူ င်ႇငမ်း) and annexed by Ch’in.
The tai in Sichuan ( သီႇသွၼ်ႊ) during the Han dynasty ( ပၢၼ်ၶိူ ဝ်းၶု ၼ်ႁ ၢၼ်ႉ)(206BC to 220AD)
were known as pan-hsun. The pan-hsun people set up their numerous settlements along the Yu river
during the 3rd century BC. They were good cultivators as well as courageous fighters . the Han Kings,
whatever they had trouble with the neighboring sates and unable to defeat( တို ၵ်းပေႉ) them enlisted the
help of the pan-shun people to fight for them. The Han king called them “ marvelous troops” and
conferred titles on them they were very often exempted from taxation as a reward for their victories over
the ememies. They remained loyal subjects of the Han emperor.
For many centuries , the tai ethnic people were dominant race( ၶိူ ဝ်းဢၼ်ပိူ င်ႇငမ်း) over the wide
strip land on the left side of the Yangtze from Sichuan to the sea. But they were always followed by the
long stretching ( ၽေႈဝၢတ်ႈ) of the Chinese race.from the south – western part of china, the tai ethnic
groups known to the Chinese as pai -i make another moved to center the remote province of the western
frontier , Yunnan . the pai-i( ပၢႆယီ ႈ / ပၢႆယေႈ) people referred to (ၶေႃႈမၢႆထို င်) themselves as Ai loa or Ngai
loa( ဢၢႆႈလၢဝ် ဢမ်ႇၼၼ် ငၢႆးလၢဝ်း).