Indigenous peoples of Tseng

The indigenous peoples of Tseng (Chinese: 曾島原住民 or 曾國原住民), also referred to as Aboriginal Tsengians, Indigenous Tsengians, Native Tsengians, or Yuanzhumin, are the indigenous peoples of the Tseng Republic. They are numbered at about 3.2% of the population of Tseng, or 972,294 people. However, this number adds up including those with mixed ancestry, and as much as 55% of Tsengians have aboriginal ancestors.

The origins of the indigenous people are varied. There is evidence of Austronesian peoples sailing up to what is now Sanjiao Island of Sandao from Taiwan by around 1000 BC, and there is also evidence that the Yayoi peoples sailed to Tseng from the Japanese archipelago at 500 BC. However, the Austronesians make up the majority of the genetic makeup of Tsengian aboriginals.

Pre-modern and origins
Indigenous Tsengians are the first peoples that inhabited what is now the islands of the Tseng Republic. They are mainly Austronesian, with a few (about 5-10%) having evidence of Yayoi ancestry. These Austronesians originated from the island of Taiwan, and at around 2200 BCE, they began to migrate to Southeast Asia. A few started to sail to the northwest, towards the area of Tseng via the Northern Marianas, and began to settle at Sanjiao at around 1000 BCE, moving towards the Tsengian mainland by 900-850 BCE.

Contact with the Han and Europeans
The Han began to migrate and arrive at Tseng in the 7th century BC, bringing their customs and systems of government. They drove off most of the indigenous from their lands, forcing them to move to the northern and eastern parts of the island. However, some indigenous women were kept as consorts for the monarchs of the Han kingdoms that were popping up.

During the Five Kingdoms Era, the indigenous peoples were ostracized and banned from general society, although in the Yan Kingdom, the Razai people worked as collaborators, and were treated as equal as their Han counterparts.

However, when the established their rule over Tseng in 1405, The Ming saw the resource potential for Tseng and began to increase large-scale Han immigration to the island. The dynasty brought the terms of Western Aboriginals and Eastern Aboriginals over. Western Aboriginals were indigenous that lived in western Tseng, assimilated to mainstream society, and were treated much better than Eastern Aboriginals, who lived in the isolated mountainous eastern region, were "uncouth" and "devil-like".