Lingnan was the land of Baiyue and the place where Baiyue people lived in ancient times. At the end of Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Han Dynasty, it was under the jurisdiction of Nanyue State. The so-called Lingnan refers to the south of the Five Mountains, which consists of five mountains: Yuechengling, Dupangling, Zhu Meng, Qitianling and Dayuling. Generally distributed in eastern Guangxi to eastern Guangdong and the junction of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. Guangdong and Guangxi are the cradles of Lingnan culture.

About 6.5438+0.29 million years ago, the early ancients (Maba people) appeared in Lingnan. During the Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty, Guangdong ancestors had economic and cultural exchanges with the Shang and Zhou Dynasties in the Central Plains. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Lingnan and Wu Yuechu had close relations and frequent contacts. The legends of Chuting and Nanwucheng in history reflect the relationship between Lingnan and Chuyue in this period. There is also a record of "writing a letter" in Guoyu Chu Yu Shang, which shows that there was a military and political relationship between Lingnan and Chu at that time.

In the pre-Qin period, Guangdong was a place where a hundred schools of thought leaped forward. Historical materials often said that ancient Guangdong was a place of "foreigners", "hometown of evil", "slash and burn" and "people and animals were not rich". Therefore, some experts and scholars believe that there was no bronze age in the pre-Qin period in Guangdong, and it did not enter the slave society. Their argument is that although many artifacts with pre-Qin characteristics have been unearthed in Guangdong, most of them were imported from other places and cannot be interpreted as their own culture. In addition, there is no trace on the stratum to prove that Guangdong has entered the bronze civilization in the pre-Qin period. However, the crystal funerary objects in Luoyang tombs in the Spring and Autumn Period excavated this time are obviously not the tombs of ordinary people, but may be the tombs of nobles, and the tube tiles found in Yin Gang kiln site are the supplies of court nobles. Therefore, Guangdong archaeologists generally believe that although there is a certain gap between Guangdong's bronze civilization and the Central Plains in the pre-Qin period, the bronzes and tombs unearthed in Boluo prove that Guangdong did experience the bronze age and the slave society adapted to it.

Geography of the Book of Jin refers to Nanhai, Guilin and Xiang Jun, which were established in Qin Dynasty, as "the three counties of Lingnan", and defines the geographical scope of Lingnan. It is bounded by Wuling Mountains in the north and south, the South China Sea in the south, Yunnan-Guizhou in the west and Fujian in the east, including most of Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi today and northern Vietnam. After the Song Dynasty, northern Vietnam was separated. Wuling not only refers to the names of five mountains, but also includes five passages through Nanling.