"Na" In Southern China

The regions of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan-Guizhou are located in the south border of China, in which have complex topography, hot and humid climate, blocking traffic, many ethnic groups and was considered as "the land of barbarians" in ancient times. Since the Emperor of Han conquered the south and the southwest regions of China, the successive central government payed attention to strengthening the rule of the region. However, the region became exiled criminals and relegate officials places because of the economic and cultural backwardness. In the late of Han Dynasty, Northern and the Five Dynasties social upheaval in the Central Plains region, immigrants gradually moved into the area, the relationship of the Southern Minorities and Han Dynasty has been rapidly developing, the Southern Minorities absorbed advanced production technology and life cultures. Meanwhile, the history and culture of the Southern Minorities was being recorded by characters through while language heritage before. The place name of "Na" is a major feature and evidence of the region that Zhuang-Dong groups living, was first appearing in the official history of the Tang Dynasty. In fact,"Na" appears early as Yue language. Zhuang-Dong groups was the descendants of the ancient Baiyue nation, their national languages was derived from the language of Ancient Yue nation, and the structure of place names in the ancient Yue language is usually head to head names that Proper noun with Generic term, while Chinese place names is exactly the opposite, usually using an identical last word. In the four provinces, which Taiwanese support minority-populated areas, densely distributed many the pace names of Ancient Yue that is head to head, place name of "Na", which is one of the most typical representative.In the paper, tracing back to the history and statistics of the place name of "Na" on the contemporary retained. At the same time, the paper analyzed the distribution of the place name of "Na" and discussed that the distribution reflect the environment and the cultural connotation through comprehension of Ancient Yue language meaning as the Chinese transliteration of the expression. The paper also analyze and compare the place name of "Na" in Yi language to highlight the uniqueness of Zhuang-Dong on the same area.