A specific kingdom, which had been known as the "Yue Guo" (越國) in modern Zhejiang, was not mentioned until it began a series of wars against its northern neighbor Wu during the late 6th century BC.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian and Discourses of the States, the Yue are descended from Wuyu, the son of Shao Kang, the sixth king of the Xia dynasty.

This region corresponds with that of the old corded-ware Neolithic, and it continued to be one that shared a number of practices, such as tooth extraction, pile building, and cliff burial.

After the fall of Yue, the ruling family moved south to what is now northern Fujian and set up the Minyue kingdom.

Mingdi, Wujiang's second son, was appointed minister of Wucheng (present-day Huzhou's Wuxing District) by the king of Chu.

126 Tai-Kadai cognates have been identified in Maqiao Wu dialect spoken in the suburbs of Shanghai out of more than a thousand lexical items surveyed.