From the 3rd century BC the term was used for the non-Han 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. At first, Yue was regarded as peoples of the south that practiced un-Chinese slash-and-burn cultivation and lived in stilt houses, but did not suggest that all Yue were the same and spoke the same language. They were loosely-connected or independent tribal societies belonged to a diverse ethno-linguistic complex. As imperial power expanding toward south, Chinese sources generalized the tribes of Northern Vietnam at the time as Yue, or the Luoyue and the Ouyue (Lạc Việt and Au Viet in Vietnamese). Over time, the term Yue morphed and became a geopolitical designation rather than a term for a group of people, and became more of a historical and political term rather than tied to connotations of barbarism. During the period of Chinese rule, many states and rebellions in the former region of Yue (Southern China and Northern Vietnam) used the name of Yue as an old geopolitical name rather than as an ethnonym.