The Luandi (; alternatively written as Xulianti ) was the ruling clan of the ancient
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...
that flourished between 3rd century BCE to 4th century CE. The form Luandi comes from the ''
Book of Han
The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. I ...
'', while the form Xulianti comes from the ''
Book of Later Han
The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...
''.
Lanhai Wei and Hui Li reconstruct the Old Chinese pronunciation of 挛鞮 as *lyuan-tlïγ, evolving from an earlier 虚连题 (*Hala-yundluγ), as a result of a historical sound shift involving the initial dropping of *h- by demonstrating its occurrence in several historical sources. Furthermore, the conjugation of the roots
*hala, meaning colorful;
*yund meaning horse,
*-luγ as the participle suffix would have resulted in the semantic meaning "tribe with skewbald horses" in an early Turkic dialect, allowing it to be further identified with the historical
Ulayundluğ tribe.
Moreover, the authors argue that the conquest of the same clan by the Xue in the 4th century CE eventually gave birth to the
Xueyantuo
The Xueyantuo were an ancient Tiele people, Tiele tribe and khaganate in Northeast Asia who were at one point vassals of the Göktürks, later aligning with the Tang dynasty against the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Eastern Göktürks.
Names Xue ...
.
Anna Dybo on the other hand reconstructs the
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
pronunciation of 攣鞮 as ''*r(h)wan-de'' and posits that the clan's name, among other lexemes, were borrowed from "one of the Eastern
Middle Iranian
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are groupe ...
languages which was similar to a kind of archaic
Khotanese Saka", and thus comparable to Khotanese Saka ''runde'', plural of ''rre'' from ''*rwant-'' "king". There were four other noble tribes:
Huyan
The Huyan (; LHC: *''ha(C)-jan'' < (~200 BCE): *''hɑ-janH/B'') was a noble house that led the last rem ...
,
Xubu The Xubu (; LHC: *''sio-pok'') was a tribe of the Xiongnu tribe that flourished between 3rd century BCE to 4th century CE. Chinese annals noted that the Xubu tribe replaced the Huyan tribe, which was an earlier maternal dynastic tribe of the dynast ...
,
Qiulin
Qiulin ({{zh, c=丘林 < LHC: *''kʰu-lim'' < *''khwə-rəm''[Schuessler, Axel (2014) "Phonological Notes on Hàn Period Transcriptions of Fo ...]
and
Lan. The Huyan belonged to the dominating left wing, and the Lan and the Xubu belonged to the right wing. A source also considered Lan and Luandi as two variants of the same word due to their phonetic similarity.
This was also attributed to the way the name Lan was used to identify Xiongnu's supreme rulers.
The Luandi was a clan that held some of the highest positions in the Xiongnu society, including the title of
chanyu
Chanyu () or Shanyu (), short for Chengli Gutu Chanyu (), was the title used by the supreme rulers of Inner Asian nomads for eight centuries until superseded by the title "''Khagan''" in 402 CE. The title was most famously used by the ruling L ...
within the Xiongnu confederacy. In the confederation, Luandi was a paternal dynastic tribe,
Huyan
The Huyan (; LHC: *''ha(C)-jan'' < (~200 BCE): *''hɑ-janH/B'') was a noble house that led the last rem ...
was an initially maternal dynastic tribe, and Xubu was a subsequently maternal dynastic tribe. They were the three most prominent tribes ("Houses" in N. Bichurin)
[Bichurin N.Ya., ''"Collection of information on peoples in Central Asia in ancient times"'', vol. 1, Saint Petersburg, 1851, p. 15 ( note 1: ''Huyan'' and ''Xubu'' always were in marital relationship with ''Chanyu''. ''Xubu'' had a post of the State Judge. The custom of taking for the Khan maidens only from the same houses also survived in the Chingis-khan's house.)] in the Xiongnu.
The earliest prominent figure from the clan itself was perhaps their leader
Touman
Touman ( zh, 頭曼), from Old Chinese (220 B.C.E.): *''do-mɑnᴬ'', is the earliest named leader (''chanyu'') of the Xiongnu, reigning from .
Life
Competing with the Xiongnu for supremacy were the ''Dōnghú'' (東胡) or 'Eastern Barbarian ...
. He would be succeeded by his son
Modu Chanyu
Modu, Maodun, Modun (, from Old Chinese (220 B.C.E.): *''mouᴴ-tuən'' or *''mək-tuən'', c. 234 – c. 174 BCE) was the son of Touman and the founder of the empire of the Xiongnu. He came to power by ordering his men to kill his father in 209 B ...
. Later on, the branch of the Luandi clan that founded the
Han Zhao dynasty changed their surname to Liu (劉), the surname of the Han dynasty emperors, while the branch that established the
Hu Xia dynasty changed their surname to Helian (赫連).
See also
*
Tuqi
The Tuqi King () was a high office of the Xiongnu, a title also known to the Chinese as "worthy/wise prince/king".Chen (1999), p. 237–277Ma (2005), p. 397–411 In the 6th to 8th centuries, Chinese annalists used the expression 贤王 ''Xian wang ...
*
Jin Midi
Jin Midi (134–86 BC) (, courtesy name Wengshu (翁叔), formally Marquess Jing of Du (秺敬侯), was a foreign prince and a warrior of the Western Han Dynasty. He was a Hu (胡) "barbarian" from a kingdom in central Gansu area and ser ...
Notes
References
*Wang, Zhonghan (2004). "Outlines of Ethnic Groups in China". Taiyuan: Shanxi Education Press. . p. 134.
*Lin, Gan (1986). "A Comprehensive History of Xiongnu". Beijing: People's Press. CN / K289. p. 11-12.
* ''
Book of Han
The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. I ...
'', vol.
94a.
* ''
Book of Later Han
The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...
'', vol.
89.
* Bichurin N.Ya., ''"Collection of information on peoples in Central Asia in ancient times"'', vol. 1, Sankt Petersburg, 1851
Han dynasty
Nomadic groups in Eurasia
Asian royal families
Xiongnu
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