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This paper examines the process of extinction of the ‘kings, marquises, lords, and chiefs’ in the ancient Yunnan region before the emergence of prominent clans and barbarian leaders. Through this, it was confirmed that the emergence of prominent clans and barbarian leaders ultimately signified the establishment of the border county system of the Han empire. The expansion of the Han empire into the southwest barbarian region, which began after the strategy of Tang Meng in 135 BCE, led to the extinction of the southwest barbarian ‘king, marquis, lord, and chief,’ and in this process, a new space called ‘Nan Zhong’ appeared. ‘Nan Zhong’ constituted a part of the Han empire but was a space that was neither ‘China’ nor ‘barbarian (southwest barbarian).’ In other words, it was a space where the social order represented by the prominent clans and barbarian leaders operated. Firstly, this article describes the types of ‘barbarians’ who lived in the Nan Zhong region during the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties periods and the emergence of prominent clans. Although nearly 300 years of border county rule following the southwest conquest of Emperor Wu of Han did not wholly ‘Sinicize’ the barbarians in the Nan Zhong region, it created a native elite group called barbarian leaders and prominent clans. The rebellions in various counties of Nan Zhong and the southern expedition of Zhuge Liang symbolically represented this. Next, it organizes the two meanings held by the southwest barbarian ‘lords and chiefs’ during the Two Han periods and examines their presence. The southwest barbarian ‘lords and chiefs’ seen in the Chinese historical texts were mainly institutional entities formed through the endorsement of the Chinese state. The political existence of such lords and chiefs was each a local lord of their territory while simultaneously being a hegemon of the region, holding several to dozens of settlements with an average scale of about 200 households. Lastly, it examined the process of the extinction of ‘kings, marquises, lords, and chiefs’ centering on the case of the ‘Zangke County’ region. The ‘Han Shu’ “Biography of Southwest Barbarians” shows the figures of several commanders, including Qulan Lord, Dan Zhi Marquis, Tong Bing Marquis, Ye Lang King, Lou Wo Marquis, and Gou Cheng King, who belonged to Zangke County, as mentioned by Sima Qian, and they disappeared from the records after going through four rounds of upheavals. This phenomenon means that the order maintained by the feudal ennoblement no longer existed in the ‘Nan Zhong’ region. However, ‘Nan Zhong’ did not become a part of ‘China,’ uniformly governed by the laws of the Han empire.