山越是三國時代孫吳立國於江南所面臨的最大內患，然而在孫吳政權幾十年的征討與統治之後，卻驟然消失。近代學者對山越族屬之爭議，依其對山越集團之界定寬鬆，可分為廣義與狹義的兩種山越論。前者認為，山越雖有部分是古越人之後裔或江南土著，但其中大部分卻是亂世之中開闢山區或逃往山區規避賦稅搖役的漢族人民。後者認為，只有古越人後裔才是山越。然而，史籍所見的山越，常被描述為蠻夷之類的化外之民，整體上是被當時的人視為是「非我族類」的異族。 三國時代的山越，幾乎遍及孫吳全境，如此廣大地域的居民，當然不可能是成員彼此認同的特定族群。商周時期已有越族，但要到春秋晚期越之名始大顯於世，戰國晚期越似已成為東南沿海各族的泛稱，並出現「百越」一詞，戰國末到西漢初，東南各地又出現許多與越有關之國名或族名，越之概念逐漸擴大為泛指江南廣大地域之異族。東漢末年出現「山越」一詞，而三國時代反抗孫吳統治的山區各族群，遂都被統稱為山越。 以往學者對山越的消失，都認為是融合於漢族之中。然而，筆者認為山越不可能全部被漢化，山越的消失只是「山越」一詞用法之消失，原山越之各種族裔在兩晉以後轉化以各種不同的族稱呈現，這種族群轉化的現象，乃是與大量漢人南下對各地加深開發，產生新的族群認識有密切的關係。

San Yue was the largest domestic trouble that Sun Wu, in the Three Kingdoms period (San Kuo), had to be confronted with as they set up their country in the southern part of the Yangtze River (Jiang Nan). Nevertheless, San Yue, after years of being conquered and ruled by the Sun Wu sovereignty, disappeared all of a sudden. Scholars in modern times, with different perspectives, disputed with each other warmly over San Yue's ethnic characteristic. In accordance with the unlimited definition of San Yue, it could be defined in the broad and the narrow sense respectively. The former regarded some parts of San Yue as the descendants of the ancient Yue people or the Jiang Nan aboriginals, while a majority of them were the Han people opening up the mountain wastelands or fled to the mountains to escape themselves from income tax paying or military service doing during the period of disorder. On the other hand, the latter thought that the descendants of the ancient Yue people were real San Yue. However, San Yue, in the historical classics, was often referred to as the uneducated barbarians like Man and Yi. To sum up, people at that time considered San Yue ”alienated”, not belonging to them. San Yue, in the Three Kingdoms, was nearly situated in the territory of Sun Wu. Hence, it was absolutely impossible for the residents located in so broad a territory to identify with each other as a specific ethnic group. Yue, existing in the era of Shang Zhou and in the late Chuen Qiu, was well-known to the public then. What’s more, in the late Warring States (Zhan Kuo), it seemed that Yue had been a general term for most ethnic groups along the southeastern coastland. Also, the term of ”Bai Yue” appeared during that time. Moreover, from the late Zhan Kuo to the early West Han, in the southeastern area, a good many names of states and ethnic groups concerning Yue came into sight. Thus, the general idea of Yue gradually was developed into an alien group residing in the broad territory of Jiang Nan. The term, San Yue, appeared first in the late East Han. During the epoch of San Kuo, all of the races amid mountains, opposing to the Sun Wu sovereignty, were generally termed San Yue. Scholars in the past thought San Yue's integration into Han's society led to its disappearance. Rather, the author finds San Yue's joining in Han's society as a whole impossible. In a way, the term of San Yue was out of use, accordingly, resulting in the disappearance of the race. That is, various kinds of San Yue ethnic groups, after the times of Liang Jin, underwent a complete transformation, with miscellaneous ethnic designations. Such ethnic transformation phenomenon, surely, had close relationship with most Han people's deepening development in Jiang Nan after their moving southward, bringing about a new ethnic recognition as well.