The name  (, chữ Hán: ) is a variation of  (; literally "Southern ''Việt''"), a name that can be traced back to the Triệu dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The term "" (Yue) () in Early Middle Chinese was first written using the logograph "戉" for an axe (a homophone), in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions of the late Shang dynasty ( BC), and later as "越". At that time it referred to a people or chieftain to the northwest of the Shang. In the early 8th century BC, a tribe on the middle Yangtze were called the Yangyue, a term later used for peoples further south. Between the 7th and 4th centuries BC Yue/Việt referred to the State of Yue in the lower Yangtze basin and its people. From the 3rd century BC the term was used for the non-Chinese populations of south and southwest China and northern Vietnam, with particular ethnic groups called Minyue, Ouyue, Luoyue (Vietnamese: Lạc Việt), etc., collectively called the Baiyue (Bách Việt, ; ). The term Baiyue/Bách Việt first appeared in the book ''Lüshi Chunqiu'' compiled around 239 BC. By the 17th and 18th centuries AD, educated Vietnamese apparently referred to themselves as ''nguoi Viet'' (Viet people) or ''nguoi nam'' (southern people).