Lac people
 | This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
The Lac or Lạc people (Lakkien: người Lạc, Menghean: 駱族 / 락족 Ragjok) are an ethnic group in southwestern Menghe. They are the second-largest ethnic group in the country, after the majority Meng, and they are the largest of the country's southwestern ethnic groups.
Etymology
Records from the Meng dynasty refer to the early Lac as the Wŏl, or Wŏlsŏ, meaning "west of the Wŏl river." The term Lạc first appeared in the 2nd century CE, and unlike Wŏl, it was an endonym rather than an exonym. The precise etymology of the term remains unclear. The earliest written records use the Meng character 駱, which originally referred to a white horse with a black mane; the ancient tribes of the Chŏllo region were known for their horsemanship, even after they transitioned to sedentary agriculture. More recently, some linguists have argued that Lạc is derived from a word for canal or water, in reference to the irrigation systems which branched out from the Wŏl river; similar nouns today include lạch, "canal, ditch, waterway" and nước rạc, "ebbing tidal water." In this theory, the character 駱 is purely phonetic.
History
According to legend, the Lac are descended from an ancient clan that broke away from the Yellow Emperor's kingdom 5,000 years ago. They first settled on the Chŏllo plain, but they were driven out again by the Meng dynasty, retiring to the far side of the Wŏl river. Historians disagree on the extent to which this account reflects actual events; the Yellow Emperor is regarded by many as a mythical or at least mythically embellished figure, but Meng conquests onto the Chŏllo plain may have displaced the local semi-nomadic people westward.
During the 3rd century CE, the various Lac tribes united into the kingdom of Tống, which at its peak stretched from the Wŏl river into what is today Argentstan. During the centuries that followed, Tống resisted Meng efforts at conquest, rising in power during the Five States and Seven Kingdoms period and maintaining its independence during the Jin and Sŭng dynasties, albeit with some loss of territory in the latter. Even as the Lạc in this period resisted Menghean political control, they adopted many aspects of Meng culture, including the Chữ_Nôm alphabet.
In the 9th century, growing numbers of Taleyan and Khalistani merchants began arriving by sea, bringing with them a new religion: Shahidism. The new traders were initially confined to the coast, but their number and influence grew over time as the South Menghe Sea trading network flourished. In 1026, Taleyan merchants backed a Shahidist rebel movement and managed to seize power in the south, forming the Ayyubid Sultanate. During this period, Shahidism was established as a state religion, and the practice of traditional Lạc faiths was outlawed. By the 13th century, some 95% of the population had converted to Shahidism.