Dongyi

The Dongyi or Eastern Yi (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dōngyí; Wade–Giles: Tung-yi; literally: "Eastern Barbarians" or "Eastern Foreigners") was a collective term, referring to ancient peoples who lived in eastern China during the prehistory of ancient China and in lands located to the east of ancient China. The people referred to as Dongyi vary across the ages. They were one of the Four Barbarians in Chinese culture, along with the Northern Di, the Southern Man, and the Western Rong; as such, the name "Yi" was something of a catch-all and was applied to different groups over time.

According to the earliest Chinese record, the Zuo Zhuan, the Shang Dynasty was attacked by King Wu of Zhou while attacking the Dongyi and collapsed afterwards.

Oracle bone inscriptions from the early 11th century BCE refer to campaigns by the late Shang king Di Yi against the Rénfāng (人方), a group occupying the area of southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu. Many Chinese archaeologists apply the historical name "Dongyi" to the archaeological Yueshi culture (1900–1500 BCE). Other scholars, such as Fang Hui, consider this identification problematic because of the high frequency of migrations in prehistoric populations of the region.

The Chinese word yi in Dongyi has a long history and complex semantics.

Chinese dictionaries reveal the semantic complexities of yi (). The Far East Chinese-English Dictionary defines eleven meanings:

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