Kucha and subjugated the
Wusun
The Wusun (; Eastern Han Chinese *''ʔɑ-suən'' < (140 BCE < 436 BCE): *''Ɂâ-sûn'') were an ancient semi- ; while the rest fled across the
Altai mountains
The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their headwaters. The massif merges with the ...
towards
Kangju
Kangju (; Eastern Han Chinese: ''kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ'' < *''khâŋ-ka'' (c. 140 BCE)) was the Chinese name of a kingdom in Central Asia during the first half of t ...
in
Transoxania. It states that this group later became the
Hephthalites
The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...
.
Southern Xiongnu
Coincidentally, the Southern Xiongnu were plagued by natural disasters and misfortunes—in addition to the threat posed by Punu. Consequently, in 50 AD, the Southern Xiongnu submitted to tributary relations with Han China. The system of tribute was considerably tightened by the Han, to keep the Southern Xiongnu under control. The ''chanyu'' was ordered to establish his court in the Meiji district of
Xihe Commandery and the Southern Xiongnu were resettled in eight frontier commanderies. At the same time, large numbers of Chinese were also resettled in these commanderies, in mixed Han-Xiongnu settlements. Economically, the Southern Xiongnu became reliant on trade with the Han.
Tensions were evident between Han settlers and practitioners of the nomadic way of life. Thus, in 94, Anguo Chanyu joined forces with newly subjugated Xiongnu from the north and started a large scale rebellion against the Han.
During the late 2nd century AD, the southern Xiongnu were drawn into the rebellions then plaguing the Han court. In 188, the ''chanyu'' was murdered by some of his own subjects for agreeing to send troops to help the Han suppress a rebellion in
Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...
—many of the Xiongnu feared that it would set a precedent for unending military service to the Han court. The murdered ''chanyu's'' son
Yufuluo, entitled Chizhisizhu (), succeeded him, but was then overthrown by the same rebellious faction in 189. He travelled to
Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyan ...
(the Han capital) to seek aid from the Han court, but at this time the Han court was in disorder from the clash between Grand General
He Jin
He Jin () (died 22 September 189), courtesy name Suigao, was a Chinese military general and politician. He was the military Grand Marshal and regent of the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. He was an elder half-brother of Empress He, the emp ...
and the eunuchs, and the intervention of the warlord
Dong Zhuo
Dong Zhuo () (died 22 May 192), courtesy name Zhongying, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. At the end of the reign of the Eastern Han, Dong Zhuo was a general and powerful minist ...
. The ''chanyu'' had no choice but to settle down with his followers in
Pingyang, a city in
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-leve ...
. In 195, he died and was succeeded as ''chanyu'' by his brother
Huchuquan Chanyu.
In 215–216 AD, the warlord-statesman
Cao Cao
Cao Cao () (; 155 – 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde (), was a Chinese statesman, warlord and poet. He was the penultimate grand chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the dynasty's final years. As one o ...
detained
Huchuquan Chanyu in the city of
Ye, and divided his followers in Shanxi into five divisions: left, right, south, north and centre. This was aimed at preventing the exiled Xiongnu in Shanxi from engaging in rebellion, and also allowed Cao Cao to use the Xiongnu as auxiliaries in his cavalry.
Later the Xiongnu aristocracy in Shanxi changed their surname from
Luanti to Liu for prestige reasons, claiming that they were related to the Han imperial clan through the old intermarriage policy. After Huchuquan, the Southern Xiongnu were partitioned into five local tribes. Each local chief was under the "surveillance of a chinese resident", while the shanyu was in "semicaptivity at the imperial court."
Later Xiongnu states in northern China
The Southern Xiongnu that settled in northern China during the
Eastern Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
retained their tribal affiliation and political organization and played an active role in Chinese politics. During the
Sixteen Kingdoms
The Sixteen Kingdoms (), less commonly the Sixteen States, was a chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when northern China fragmented into a series of short-lived dynastic states. The majority of these states were founded by ...
(304–439 CE), Southern Xiongnu leaders founded or ruled several kingdoms, including
Liu Yuan's
Han Zhao Kingdom (also known as
Former Zhao
The Han Zhao (; 304–329 AD), or Former Zhao (), was a dynastic state of China ruled by the Xiongnu people during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of Chinese history. In Chinese historiography, it was given two conditional state titles, the Northern ...
),
Helian Bobo's
Xia and
Juqu Mengxun's
Northern Liang
The Northern Liang (; 397–439) was a dynastic state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in China. It was ruled by the Juqu family of Lushuihu origin (a branch of the Xiongnu). Although Duan Ye of Han ethnicity was initially enthroned as the Northern Liang ...
Fang Xuanling
Fang Qiao (; 579 – 18 August 648), courtesy name Xuanling, better known as Fang Xuanling, posthumously known as Duke Wenzhao of Liang, was a Chinese statesman and writer who served as a chancellor under Emperor Taizong in the early Tang dynas ...
's
Book of Jin
The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang ...
lists nineteen Xiongnu tribes: Tuge (屠各),
Xianzhi (鮮支), Koutou (寇頭), Wutan (烏譚),
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...
(赤勒), Hanzhi (捍蛭), Heilang (黑狼),
Chisha (赤沙), Yugang (鬱鞞), Weisuo (萎莎), Tutong (禿童), Bomie (勃蔑), Qiangqu (羌渠),
Helai (賀賴), Zhongqin (鐘跂), Dalou (大樓), Yongqu (雍屈), Zhenshu (真樹) and Lijie (力羯).
Han Zhao dynasty (304–329)
In 304,
Liu Yuan became Chanyu of the Five Hordes. In 308, declared himself emperor and founded the
Han Zhao Dynasty. In 311, his son and successor
Liu Cong captured
Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyan ...
, and with it the
Emperor Huai of Jin China.
In 316, the
Emperor Min of Jin China was captured in
Chang'an
Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...
. Both emperors were humiliated as cupbearers in
Linfen
Linfen is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shanxi province, China, bordering Shaanxi province to the west. It is situated along the banks of the Fen River. It has an area of and according to the 2020 Census, a population of 3,976, ...
before being executed in 313 and 318.
North China came under Xiongnu rule while the remnants of the Jin dynasty survived in the south at
Jiankang
Jiankang (), or Jianye (), as it was originally called, was capital city of the Eastern Wu (229–265 and 266–280 CE), the Jin dynasty (317–420 CE) and the Southern Dynasties (420–552), including the Chen dynasty (557–589 CE). Its wal ...
.
;Reign of Liu Yao (318–329)
In 318, after suppressing a coup by a powerful minister in the Xiongnu-Han court, in which the emperor and a large proportion of the aristocracy were massacred, the Xiongnu prince
Liu Yao
Liu Yao (died 329), courtesy name Yongming, was the final emperor of the Xiongnu-led Han Zhao dynasty of China. He became emperor in 318 after most other members of the imperial Liu clan were massacred by Jin Zhun in a coup. However, the empire ...
moved the Xiongnu-Han capital from Pingyang to Chang'an and renamed the dynasty as Zhao. Liu Yuan had declared the empire's name Han to create a linkage with Han Dynasty—to which he claimed he was a descendant, through a princess, but Liu Yao felt that it was time to end the linkage with Han and explicitly restore the linkage to the great Xiongnu chanyu
Maodun, and therefore decided to change the name of the state. (However, this was not a break from Liu Yuan, as he continued to honor Liu Yuan and Liu Cong posthumously; it is hence known to historians collectively as
Han Zhao.)
However, the eastern part of north China came under the control of a rebel Xiongnu-Han general of
Jie ancestry named
Shi Le. Liu Yao and Shi Le fought a long war until 329, when Liu Yao was captured in battle and executed. Chang'an fell to Shi Le soon after, and the Xiongnu dynasty was wiped out. North China was ruled by Shi Le's
Later Zhao
The Later Zhao (; 319–351) was a dynasty of the Sixteen Kingdoms in northern China. It was founded by the Shi family of the Jie ethnicity. The Jie were most likely a Yeniseian people and spoke next to Chinese one of the Yeniseian languages.Vo ...
dynasty for the next 20 years.
However, the "Liu" Xiongnu remained active in the north for at least another century.
Tiefu tribe and Hu Xia dynasty (260–431)
The northern
Tiefu branch of the Xiongnu gained control of what is modern-day Inner Mongolia in the 10 years between the conquest of the
Xianbei
The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into th ...
-ruled
state of Dai by the
Former Qin dynasty in 376, and its restoration in 386 as the
Northern Wei dynasty
Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern dynasties, it ruled northern China from 386 to 535 during t ...
. After 386, the Tiefu were gradually destroyed by or surrendered to the Tuoba, with the submitting Tiefu becoming known as the Dugu.
Liu Bobo
Helian Bobo (; Middle Chinese Guangyun: ; 381–425), né Liu Bobo (劉勃勃), courtesy name Qujie (屈孑), formally Emperor Wulie of Xia (夏武烈帝), was the founding emperor of the Xiongnu-led Hu Xia dynasty of China. He is generally consi ...
, a surviving prince of the Tiefu fled to the
Ordos Loop
The Ordos Plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin or simply the Ordos, is a highland sedimentary basin in North China, northwest China with an elevation of , and consisting mostly of land enclosed by the Ordos Loop, a large northerly rectangular ...
, where he founded a state called the
Hu Xia dynasty (thus named because of the Xiongnu's supposed ancestry from the Xia dynasty) and changed his surname to Helian (赫連). The Hu Xia dynasty was conquered by the Northern Wei in 428–31, and the Xiongnu thenceforth effectively ceased to play a major role in Chinese history, assimilating into the Xianbei and Han ethnicities.
Tongwancheng (meaning "Unite All Nations") was the capital of the Hu Xia, whose rulers claimed descent from Modu Chanyu.
The ruined city was discovered in 1996 and the State Council designated it as a cultural relic under top state protection. The repair of the Yong'an Platform, where
Helian Bobo, emperor of the Da Xia regime, reviewed parading troops, has been finished and restoration on the 31-meter-tall turret follows.
Juqu clan and Northern Liang dynasty (401–460)
The Juqu clan was of Lushuihu origin, a branch of the Xiongnu.
Their leader
Juqu Mengxun took over the
Northern Liang dynasty by overthrowing the former puppet ruler
Duan Ye
Duan Ye (; died 401) was the first king of Northern Liang of the Sixteen Kingdoms period in Chinese history. He was of Han ethnicity, and was originally a commandery governor of Later Liang, but after Xiongnu generals Juqu Mengxun and Juqu Nanc ...
. By 439, the Juqu power was destroyed by the
Northern Wei dynasty
Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei (), Tuoba Wei (), Yuan Wei () and Later Wei (), was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei. The first of the Northern dynasties, it ruled northern China from 386 to 535 during t ...
. Their remnants were then settled in the city of
Gaochang before being destroyed by the
Rouran
The Rouran Khaganate, also Juan-Juan Khaganate (), was a tribal confederation and later state founded by a people of Proto-Mongolic Donghu origin.*Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (2000)"Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜: The Role of Exogamic Clans in the Organizat ...
.
Significance
The Xiongnu confederation was unusually long-lived for a steppe empire. The purpose of raiding the
Central Plain was not simply for goods, but to force the Central Plain polity to pay regular tribute. The power of the Xiongnu ruler was based on his control of Han tribute which he used to reward his supporters. The Han and Xiongnu empires rose at the same time because the Xiongnu state depended on Han tribute. A major Xiongnu weakness was the custom of lateral succession. If a dead ruler's son was not old enough to take command, power passed to the late ruler's brother. This worked in the first generation but could lead to civil war in the second generation. The first time this happened, in 60 BC, the weaker party adopted what Barfield calls the 'inner frontier strategy.' They moved south and submitted to the dominant Central Plain regime and then used the resources obtained from their overlord to defeat the Northern Xiongnu and re-establish the empire. The second time this happened, about 47 AD, the strategy failed. The southern ruler was unable to defeat the northern ruler and the Xiongnu remained divided.
Ethnolinguistic origins
There are several theories on the ethnolinguistic identity of the Xiongnu.
Proposed link to the Huns
The Xiongnu-Hun hypothesis was originally proposed by the 18th-century French historian
Joseph de Guignes, who noticed that ancient Chinese scholars had referred to members of tribes which were associated with the Xiongnu by names which were similar to the name "Hun", albeit with varying Chinese characters.
Étienne de la Vaissière
Étienne, a French analog of Stephen or Steven, is a masculine given name. An archaic variant of the name, prevalent up to the mid-17th century, is Estienne.
Étienne, Etienne, Ettiene or Ettienne may refer to:
People
Scientists and inventors
* ...
has shown that, in the
Sogdian script used in the so-called "Sogdian Ancient Letters", both the Xiongnu and the Huns were referred to as the γwn (''xwn''), which indicates that the two names were synonymous.
Although the theory that the Xiongnu were the precursors of the Huns as they were later known in Europe is now accepted by many scholars, it has yet to become a consensus view. The identification with the Huns may either be incorrect or it may be an oversimplification (as would appear to be the case with a
proto-Mongol people, the
Rouran
The Rouran Khaganate, also Juan-Juan Khaganate (), was a tribal confederation and later state founded by a people of Proto-Mongolic Donghu origin.*Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (2000)"Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜: The Role of Exogamic Clans in the Organizat ...
, who have sometimes been linked to the
Avars of Central Europe).
Iranian theories
There is a general consensus among scholars that the Xiongnu elite were originally Iranian.
Harold Walter Bailey
Sir Harold Walter Bailey, (16 December 1899 – 11 January 1996), who published as H. W. Bailey, was an English scholar of Khotanese, Sanskrit, and the comparative study of Iranian languages.
Life
Bailey was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, an ...
proposed an
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
origin of the Xiongnu, recognizing all of the earliest Xiongnu names of the 2nd century BC as being of the
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
type. Central Asian scholar
Christopher I. Beckwith notes that the Xiongnu name could be a cognate of
Scythian
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
,
Saka
The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histo ...
and
Sogdia
Sogdia ( Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Emp ...
, corresponding to a name for
Northern Iranians.
[: "Accordingly, the transcription now read as Hsiung- nu may have been pronounced * Soγdâ, * Soγlâ, * Sak(a)dâ, or even * Skla(C)da, etc."] According to Beckwith the Xiongnu could have contained a leading Iranian component when they started out, but more likely they had earlier been subjects of an Iranian people and learned the Iranian nomadic model from them.
In the 1994
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
-published ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia'', its editor
János Harmatta claims that the royal tribes and kings of the Xiongnu bore Iranian names, that all Xiongnu words noted by the Chinese can be explained from a
Scythian language
The Scythian languages are a group of Eastern Iranian languages of the classical and late antique period (the Middle Iranian period), spoken in a vast region of Eurasia by the populations belonging to the Scythian cultures and their desce ...
, and that it is therefore clear that the majority of Xiongnu tribes spoke an Eastern Iranian language.
According to a study by Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong, published in 2020 in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences by Cambridge University Press, "The predominant part of the Xiongnu population is likely to have spoken Turkic". However, important cultural, technological and genetic contributions of Iranian-speakers to the Xiongnu culture were also mentioned. All sampled Xiongnu genomes contain varying degrees of Iranian ancestry, amounting to between 5 and 25% across Xiongnu genomes.
[ Text was copied from this source, which is available under ]
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Yeniseian theories
Lajos Ligeti
Lajos Ligeti (October 28, 1902, Balassagyarmat – May 24, 1987, Budapest) was a Hungarian orientalist and philologist, who specialized in Mongolian and Turkic languages. After completing his secondary studies in his native town, he entered the ...
was the first to suggest that the Xiongnu spoke a Yeniseian language. In the early 1960s
Edwin Pulleyblank was the first to expand upon this idea with credible evidence. The Yeniseian theory proposes that the
Jie, a western Xiongnu people, spoke a Yeniseian language.
Hyun Jin Kim notes that the 7th AD Chinese conpendium, ''Jin Shu'', contains a transliterated song of Jie origin, which appears to be Yeniseian. This song has led researchers Pulleyblank and Vovin to argue for a Yeniseian Jie dominant minority, that ruled over the other Xiongnu ethnicities, like Iranian and Turkic people. Kim has stated that the dominant Xiongnu language was likely Turkic or Yeniseian, but has cautioned that the Xiongnu were definitely a multi-ethnic society.
Pulleybank and D. N. Keightley asserted that the Xiongnu titles "were originally Siberian words but were later borrowed by the Turkic and Mongolic peoples". Titles such as tarqan, tegin and kaghan were also inherited from the Xiongnu language and are possibly of Yeniseian origin. For example, the Xiongnu word for "heaven" is theorized to come from Proto-Yeniseian ''tɨŋVr''.
Vocabulary from Xiongnu inscriptions sometimes appears to have Yeniseian cognates, such as Xiongnu kʷala 'son' and Ket qalek 'younger son', Xiongnu sakdak 'boot' appears to be similar to Ket sagdi 'boot' and Xiongnu gʷawa "prince" and Ket gij "prince" or Xiongnu dar "north" and Yugh tɨr "north".
Pulleyblank also argued that because Xiongnu words appear to have clusters with r and l, in the beginning of the word it is unlikely to be of Turkic origin, and instead believed that most vocabulary we have mostly resemble Yeniseian languages.
Alexander Vovin also wrote, that some names of horses in the Xiongnu language appear to be Turkic words with Yeniseian prefixes.
An analysis by Savalyev and Jeong has cast doubt on the Yeniseian theory. The Xiongnu were characterized by a genetic affinity to Iranian speakers, which is lacking in modern-day Yeniseian speakers such as
Kets, who are more genetically similar to
Samoyedic speakers than to Xiongnu individuals and other Iron Age Siberians.
Turkic theories
According to a study by Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong, published in 2020 in the journal Evolutionary Human Sciences by Cambridge University Press, "The predominant part of the Xiongnu population is likely to have spoken Turkic". However, genetic studies found a mixture of haplogroups from western and eastern Eurasian origins that suggested a large genetic diversity within, and possibly multiple origins of Xiongnu elites. The Turkic-related component may be brought by eastern Eurasian genetic substratum.
Other proponents of a Turkic language theory include
E.H. Parker,
Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat,
Julius Klaproth,
Gustaf John Ramstedt
Gustaf John Ramstedt (October 22, 1873 – November 25, 1950) was a Finnish diplomat, orientalist and linguist. He was also an early Finnish Esperantist, and chairman of the Esperanto-Association of Finland.
Biography
Ramstedt was born in Eken� ...
,
Annemarie von Gabain,, and
Charles Hucker
Charles O. Hucker (June 21, 1919 – November 18, 1994) was a professor of Chinese language and history at the University of Michigan. He was regarded as one of the foremost historians of Imperial China and a leading figure in the promoti ...
. André Wink states that the Xiongnu probably spoke an early form of Turkic; even if Xiongnu were not "Turks" nor Turkic-speaking, they were in close contact with Turkic-speakers very early on.
Craig Benjamin
Craig G. Benjamin is an Australian-American historian who is professor of history in the Frederik J. Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University, where he teaches East Asian civilization, big history, ancient Central Asian history, a ...
sees the Xiongnu as either proto-Turks or
proto-Mongols
The proto-Mongols emerged from an area that had been inhabited by humans and predecessor hominin species as far back as 45,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic. The people there went through the Bronze and Iron Ages, forming tribal allianc ...
who possibly spoke a language related to the
Dingling.
Chinese sources link several Turkic peoples to the Xiongnu:
* According to the ''
Book of Zhou'', ''
History of Northern Dynasties'', ''
Tongdian'', ''
New Book of Tang
The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...
'', the
Göktürks
The Göktürks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks ( otk, 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, Türük Bodun; ; ) were a nomadic confederation of Turkic peoples in medieval Inner Asia. The Göktürks, under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) a ...
and the ruling Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation,
[ Linghu Defen et al., ''Zhoushu'']
vol. 50
quote: "突厥者,蓋匈奴之別種,姓阿史那氏。"[ Du You, ''Tongdian']
vol. 197
quote: "突厥之先,平涼今平涼郡雜胡也,蓋匈奴之別種,姓阿史那氏。"
** However, the Ashina-surnamed Göktürks were also stated to be they were "mixed barbarians" (; ''záhú'') who fled from
Pingliang (now in modern
Gansu province
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
).
or from an obscure Suo state (索國), north of the Xiongnu.
* Uyghur Khagans claimed descent from the Xiongnu (according to Chinese history ''
Weishu'', the founder of the
Uyghur Khaganate
The Uyghur Khaganate (also Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate, self defined as Toquz-Oghuz country; otk, 𐱃𐰆𐰴𐰕:𐰆𐰍𐰕:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, Toquz Oγuz budun, Tang-era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that e ...
was descended from a Xiongnu ruler).
*
Book of Wei
The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to ...
states that the Yueban descended from remnants of the
Northern Xiongnu chanyu's tribe and that Yueban's language and customs resembled Gaoche (高車), another name of the Tiele.
*
Book of Jin
The ''Book of Jin'' is an official Chinese historical text covering the history of the Jin dynasty from 266 to 420. It was compiled in 648 by a number of officials commissioned by the imperial court of the Tang dynasty, with chancellor Fang ...
lists 19 southern Xiongnu tribes who entered
Former Yan
The Former Yan (; 337–370) was a dynastic state ruled by the Xianbei during the era of Sixteen Kingdoms in China.
Initially, Murong Huang and his son Murong Jun claimed the Jin dynasty-created title "Prince of Yan," but subsequently, in 352 ...
's borders, the 14th being the
Alat (Ch. 賀賴 ''Helai'' ~ 賀蘭 ''Helan'' ~ 曷剌 ''Hela''); ''Alat'' being glossed "piebald horse" (Ch. 駁馬 ~ 駮馬 ''Boma'') in
Old Turkic
Old Turkic (also East Old Turkic, Orkhon Turkic language, Old Uyghur) is the earliest attested form of the Turkic languages, found in Göktürk and Uyghur Khaganate inscriptions dating from about the eighth to the 13th century. It is the old ...
.
However, Chinese sources also ascribe Xiongnu origins to the Para-Mongolic-speaking
Kumo Xi
The Kumo Xi (Xu Elina-Qian, p.296b), also known as the Tatabi, were a Mongolic steppe people located in current Northeast China from 207 CE to 907 CE. After the death of their ancestor Tadun in 207, they were no longer called Wuhuan but joined ...
and
Khitans.
Mongolic theories
Mongolian and other scholars have suggested that the Xiongnu spoke a language related to the
Mongolic languages
The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this language ...
. Mongolian archaeologists proposed that the
Slab Grave Culture
The Slab-Grave culture is an archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Mongols.Tumen D., "Anthropology of Archaeological Populations from Northeast Asipage 25,27 The ethnogenesis of modern Mongolian people is linked to the ...
people were the ancestors of the Xiongnu, and some scholars have suggested that the Xiongnu may have been the ancestors of the
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
.
Nikita Bichurin considered Xiongnu and
Xianbei
The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into th ...
to be two subgroups (or
dynasties) of but one same
ethnicity
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
.
[N.Bichurin "Collection of information on the peoples who inhabited Central Asia in ancient times", 1950, p. 227]
According to the "
Book of Song
The ''Book of Song'' (''Sòng Shū'') is a historical text of the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties of China. It covers history from 420 to 479, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories, a traditional collection of historical records ...
", the
Rouran
The Rouran Khaganate, also Juan-Juan Khaganate (), was a tribal confederation and later state founded by a people of Proto-Mongolic Donghu origin.*Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (2000)"Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜: The Role of Exogamic Clans in the Organizat ...
s, whom
Book of Wei
The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to ...
identified as offspring of
Proto-Mongolic Donghu people
Donghu (; IPA: ; ) or Hu (; IPA: ) Pulleyblank E. G. (1994) “Ji Hu: Indigenous Inhabitants of Shaanbei and Western Shanxi,” in Edward H. Kaplan, ed.,'' Opuscula Altaica: Essays presented in honor of Henry Schwarz''. ed. by. Bellingham: Western ...
, possessed the alternative name(s) 大檀 ''Dàtán'' "
Tatar
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different " and/or 檀檀 ''Tántán'' "Tartar" and according to
Book of Liang, "they also constituted a separate branch of the Xiongnu".
Old Book of Tang
The ''Old Book of Tang'', or simply the ''Book of Tang'', is the first classic historical work about the Tang dynasty, comprising 200 chapters, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Originally compiled during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingd ...
mentioned twenty Shiwei tribes, whom other Chinese sources (
Book of Sui
The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead author. ...
,
New Book of Tang
The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...
) associated with the
Khitans,
[Xu Elina-Qian (2005). ''Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan''. University of Helsinki. p. 173-178] another people who in turn descended from the Xianbei and were also associated with the Xiongnu. While the Xianbei, Khitans, and Shiwei are generally believed to be predominantly
Mongolic- and
Para-Mongolic-speaking,
yet Xianbei were stated to descend from the
Donghu, whom Sima Qian distinguished from the Xiongnu. (notwithstanding Sima Qian's inconsistency
). Additionally, Chinese chroniclers routinely ascribed Xiongnu origins to various nomadic groups: for examples, Xiongnu ancestry was ascribed to Para-Mongolic-speaking
Kumo Xi
The Kumo Xi (Xu Elina-Qian, p.296b), also known as the Tatabi, were a Mongolic steppe people located in current Northeast China from 207 CE to 907 CE. After the death of their ancestor Tadun in 207, they were no longer called Wuhuan but joined ...
as well as Turkic-speaking
Göktürks
The Göktürks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks ( otk, 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, Türük Bodun; ; ) were a nomadic confederation of Turkic peoples in medieval Inner Asia. The Göktürks, under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) a ...
and
Tiele;
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; ; xng, Temüjin, script=Latn; ., name=Temujin – August 25, 1227) was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in history a ...
refers to the time of Modu Chanyu as "the remote times of our Chanyu" in his letter to Daoist
Qiu Chuji
Qiu Chuji (10 February 1148– 21 August 1227), courtesy name Tongmi (通密), also known by his Taoist name Master Changchun, was the disciple of Wang Chongyang and a renowned Taoist master. He is known for meeting Genghis Khan near the Hindu ...
.
Sun and moon symbol of Xiongnu that discovered by archaeologists is similar to Mongolian
Soyombo symbol.
Multiple ethnicities
Since the early 19th century, a number of Western scholars have proposed a connection between various language families or subfamilies and the language or languages of the Xiongnu.
Albert Terrien de Lacouperie considered them to be multi-component groups. Many scholars believe the Xiongnu confederation was a mixture of different ethno-linguistic groups, and that their main language (as represented in the Chinese sources) and its relationships have not yet been satisfactorily determined. Kim rejects "old racial theories or even ethnic affiliations" in favour of the "historical reality of these extensive, multiethnic, polyglot steppe empires".
Chinese sources link the
Tiele people
The Tiele (, Mongolian ''*Tegreg'' " eople of theCarts"), also transliterated as Dili (), Chile (), Zhile (), Tele (), also named Gaoche or Gaoju (, "High Carts"), were a tribal confederation of Turkic ethnic origins living to the north of Chi ...
and Ashina to the Xiongnu, not all
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging to ...
. According to the ''
Book of Zhou'' and the ''
History of the Northern Dynasties
The ''History of the Northern Dynasties'' () is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. The text contains 100 volumes and covers the period from 386 to 618, the histories of Northern Wei, Western W ...
'', the
Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation,
[ Linghu Defen et al., '' Book of Zhou'', Vol. 50. ][Li Yanshou (), '']History of the Northern Dynasties
The ''History of the Northern Dynasties'' () is one of the official Chinese historical works in the ''Twenty-Four Histories'' canon. The text contains 100 volumes and covers the period from 386 to 618, the histories of Northern Wei, Western W ...
'', Vol. 99. but this connection is disputed, and according to the ''
Book of Sui
The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead author. ...
'' and the ''
Tongdian'', they were "mixed nomads" () from
Pingliang.
[ Wei Zheng et al., '']Book of Sui
The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead author. ...
'', Vol. 84. The Ashina and Tiele may have been separate ethnic groups who mixed with the Xiongnu.
Indeed, Chinese sources link many nomadic peoples (''hu''; see ''
Wu Hu'') on their northern borders to the Xiongnu, just as Greco-Roman historiographers called
Avars and
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
"
Scythians
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Cent ...
". The Greek
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...
of ''
Tourkia'' ( el, Τουρκία) was used by the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
emperor and scholar Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe ...
in his book ''
De Administrando Imperio
''De Administrando Imperio'' ("On the Governance of the Empire") is the Latin title of a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is ("To yown son Romanos"). It is a domes ...
'',
though in his use, "Turks" always referred to
Magyars
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Uralic ...
.
Such archaizing was a common literary ''topos'', and implied similar geographic origins and nomadic lifestyle but not direct filiation.
Some
Uyghurs
The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia, Cent ...
claimed descent from the Xiongnu (according to Chinese history ''
Weishu'', the founder of the
Uyghur Khaganate
The Uyghur Khaganate (also Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate, self defined as Toquz-Oghuz country; otk, 𐱃𐰆𐰴𐰕:𐰆𐰍𐰕:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, Toquz Oγuz budun, Tang-era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that e ...
was descended from a Xiongnu ruler), but many contemporary scholars do not consider the modern Uyghurs to be of direct linear descent from the old Uyghur Khaganate because modern
Uyghur language
The Uyghur or Uighur language (; , , , or , , , , CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script with 8-11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xi ...
and
Old Uyghur language
Old Uyghur () was a Turkic language which was spoken in Qocho from the 9th–14th centuries and in Gansu.
History
The Old Uyghur language evolved from Old Turkic after the Uyghur Khaganate broke up and remnants of it migrated to Turfan, Q ...
s are different.
Rather, they consider them to be descendants of a number of people, one of them the ancient Uyghurs.
In various kinds of ancient inscriptions on monuments of
Munmu of Silla
Munmu of Silla (626–681; reigned 661–681) was the 30th king of the Korean kingdom of Silla. He is usually considered to have been the first ruler of the Unified Silla period. Munmu was the son of King Muyeol and Munmyeong, who was the young ...
, it is recorded that King Munmu had Xiongnu ancestry. According to several historians, it is possible that there were tribes of
Koreanic
Koreanic is a small language family consisting of the Korean and Jeju languages. The latter is often described as a dialect of Korean, but is distinct enough to be considered a separate language. Alexander Vovin suggests that the Yukjin dialec ...
origin. There are also some Korean researchers that point out that the grave goods of Silla and of the eastern Xiongnu are alike.
Language isolate theories
Turkologist
Gerhard Doerfer has denied any possibility of a relationship between the Xiongnu language and any other known language, even any connection with Turkic or Mongolian.
Geographic origins
The original geographic location of the Xiongnu is disputed among steppe archaeologists. Since the 1960s, the geographic origin of the Xiongnu has attempted to be traced through an analysis of
Early Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
burial constructions. No region has been proven to have
mortuary
A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...
practices that clearly match those of the Xiongnu.
Archaeology
In the 1920s,
Pyotr Kozlov's oversaw the excavation of royal tombs at the
Noin-Ula burial site in northern Mongolia, dated to around the first century CE. Other Xiongnu sites have been unearthed in
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
, such as the
Ordos culture
The Ordos culture () was a material culture occupying a region centered on the Ordos Loop (corresponding to the region of Suiyuan, including Baotou to the north, all located in modern Inner Mongolia, China) during the Bronze and early Iron Age fr ...
.
Sinologist
Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...
Otto Maenchen-Helfen has said that depictions of the Xiongnu of
Transbaikal
Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykalye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal in Far Eastern Russia.
The steppe and ...
ia and the Ordos show commonly show individuals with West Eurasian features. Iaroslav Lebedynsky said that West Eurasian depictions in the Ordos region should be attributed to a "Scythian affinity".
Portraits found in the
Noin-Ula excavations demonstrate other cultural evidences and influences, showing that Chinese and Xiongnu art have influenced each other mutually. Some of these embroidered portraits in the Noin-Ula
kurgan
A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central As ...
s also depict the Xiongnu with long braided hair with wide ribbons, which is seen to be identical with the
Ashina clan hair-style. Well-preserved bodies in Xiongnu and pre-Xiongnu tombs in the
Mongolian Republic and southern
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
show both East Asian and West Eurasian features.
Analysis of cranial remains from some sites attributed to the Xiongnu have revealed that they had
dolichocephalic skulls with East Asian craniometrical features, setting them apart from neighboring populations in present-day Mongolia. Russian and Chinese anthropological and craniofacial studies show that the Xiongnu were physically very heterogenous, with six different population clusters showing different degrees of West Eurasian and East Asian physical traits.
Presently, there exist four fully excavated and well documented cemeteries:
Ivolga, Dyrestui, Burkhan Tolgoi, and Daodunzi. Additionally thousands of tombs have been recorded in
Transbaikal
Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykalye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal in Far Eastern Russia.
The steppe and ...
ia and Mongolia.
The archaeologists have chosen to, for the most part, refrain from positing anything about Han-Xiongnu relations based on the material excavated. However, they were willing to mention the following:
"There is no clear indication of the ethnicity of this tomb occupant, but in a similar brick-chambered tomb of the late Eastern Han period at the same cemetery, archaeologists discovered a bronze seal with the official title that the Han government bestowed upon the leader of the Xiongnu. The excavators suggested that these brick chamber tombs all belong to the Xiongnu (Qinghai 1993)."
Classifications of these burial sites make distinction between two prevailing type of burials: "(1) monumental ramped terrace tombs which are often flanked by smaller "satellite" burials and (2) 'circular' or 'ring' burials." Some scholars consider this a division between "elite" graves and "commoner" graves. Other scholars, find this division too simplistic and not evocative of a true distinction because it shows "ignorance of the nature of the mortuary investments and typically luxuriant burial assemblages
nd does not account forthe discovery of other lesser interments that do not qualify as either of these types."
Genetics
Maternal lineages
A 2003 study found that 89% of Xiongnu maternal lineages are of East Asian origin, while 11% were of West Eurasian origin. However, a 2016 study found that 37.5% of Xiongnu maternal lineages were West Eurasian, in a central Mongolian sample.
According to Rogers & Kaestle (2022), these studies make clear that the Xiongnu population is extremely similar to the preceding
Slab Grave population, which had a similar frequency of Eastern and Western maternal haplogroups, supporting a hypothesis of continuity from the Slab Grave period to the Xiongnu. They wrote that the bulk of the genetics research indicates that roughly 27% of Xiongnu maternal haplogroups were of West Eurasian origin, while the rest were East Asian.
Some examples of maternal haplogroups observed in Xiongnu specimens include
D4b2b4, Haplogroup N (mtDNA), N9a2a, Haplogroup G (mtDNA), G3a3, Haplogroup D (mtDNA)#D4, D4a6 and Haplogroup D (mtDNA)#D4, D4b2b2b. and Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U2, U2e1.
Paternal lineages
According to Rogers & Kaestle (2022), roughly 47% of Xiongnu paternal haplogroups were of West Eurasian origin, while the rest were of East Asian origin. They observed that this contrasts strongly with the preceding
Slab Grave period, which was dominated by East Asian patrilineages. They suggest that this may reflect an aggressive expansion of people with West Eurasian paternal haplogroups, or perhaps the practice of marriage alliances favoring people with Western patrilines.
Some examples of paternal haplogroups in Xiongnu specimens include haplogroup Q (Y-DNA), Q1b, Haplogroup C-M217, C3, Haplogroup R1, R1, Haplogroup R1b, R1b, Haplogroup O-M175, O3a and Haplogroup O-M175, O3a3b2, R1a1a1b2a-Z94, R1a1a1b2a2-Z2124, Q1a and N1a.
Autosomal ancestry
A study published in the ''American Journal of Physical Anthropology'' in October 2006 detected significant genetic continuity between the examined individuals at Egyin Gol and modern Mongolians.
A genetic study published in ''Nature (journal), Nature'' in May 2018 examined the remains of five Xiongnu. The study concluded that Xiongnu confederation was genetically heterogeneous, and Xiongnu individuals belonging to two distinct groups, one being of East Asian origin and the other presenting considerable admixture levels with West Eurasian (possibly from Central Saka) sources. The evidence suggested that the
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
probably emerged through minor male-driven East Asian geneflow into the Saka through westward migrations of the Xiongnu.
A study published in November 2020 examined 60 early and late Xiongnu individuals from across of Mongolia. By admixture they formed three distinct clusters, "early/Xiongnu_west" related to Scythians, "early/Xiongnu_rest" with more Northeastern Asian ancestry and "late/Xiongnu" with high heterogenity having Sarmatian and Han Chinese gene pool influence. Their uniparental haplogroup assignments also showed heterogenetic influence on their ethnogenesis as well as their connection with Huns.
[ Text was copied from this source, which is available under ]
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Culture
Art
Within the Xiongnu culture more variety is visible from site to site than from "era" to "era," in terms of the Chinese chronology, yet all form a whole that is distinct from that of the Han and other peoples of the non-Chinese north. In some instances, the iconography cannot be used as the main cultural identifier, because art depicting animal predation is common among the steppe peoples. An example of animal predation associated with Xiongnu culture is that of a tiger carrying dead prey. A similar motif appears in work from Maoqinggou, a site which is presumed to have been under Xiongnu political control but is still clearly non-Xiongnu. In the Maoqinggou example, the prey is replaced with an extension of the tiger's foot. The work also depicts a cruder level of execution; Maoqinggou work was executed in a rounder, less detailed style. In its broadest sense, Xiongnu iconography of animal predation includes examples such as the gold headdress from Aluchaideng and gold earrings with a turquoise and jade inlay discovered in Xigouban, Inner Mongolia.
Xiongnu art is harder to distinguish from
Saka
The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histo ...
or Scythian art. There is a similarity present in stylistic execution, but Xiongnu art and Saka art often differ in terms of iconography. Saka art does not appear to have included predation scenes, especially with dead prey, or same-animal combat. Additionally, Saka art included elements not common to Xiongnu iconography, such as winged, horned horses. The two cultures also used two different kinds of bird heads. Xiongnu depictions of birds tend to have a medium-sized eye and beak, and they are also depicted with ears, while Saka birds have a pronounced eye and beak, and no ears. Some scholars claim these differences are indicative of cultural differences. Scholar Sophia-Karin Psarras suggests that Xiongnu images of animal predation, specifically tiger-and-prey, are spiritual, representative of death and rebirth, and that same-animal combat is representative of the acquisition or maintenance of power.
Rock art and writing
The rock art of the Yin Mountains, Yin and Helan Mountains is dated from the 9th millennium BC to the 19th century AD. It consists mainly of engraved signs (petroglyphs) and only minimally of painted images. The ''
Records of the Grand Historian
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...
'' (vol. :zh:s:史記/卷110, 110) state that when the Xiongnu noted down something or transmitted a message, they made cuts on a piece of wood; they also mention a "Hu script".
Chinese sources indicate that the Xiongnu did not have an ideographic form of writing like Chinese, but in the 2nd century BC, a renegade Chinese dignitary Yue "taught the Shanyu to write official letters to the Chinese court on a wooden tablet 31 cm long, and to use a seal and large-sized folder." The same sources tell that when the Xiongnu noted down something or transmitted a message, they made cuts on a piece of wood ('ke-mu'), and they also mention a "Hu script". At Noin-Ula and other Xiongnu burial sites in Mongolia and the region north of Lake Baikal, among the objects discovered during excavations conducted between 1924 and 1925 were over 20 carved characters. Most of these characters are either identical or very similar to letters of the Old Turkic alphabet of the Early Middle Ages found on the Eurasian steppes. From this, some specialists conclude that the Xiongnu used a script similar to the ancient ''Eurasian runiform'', and that this alphabet was a basis for later Turkic writing.
Religion and diet
According to 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. ...
, "the Xiongnu called Heaven (天) 'Chēnglí,' (撐犁)
[Book of Han, Vol. 94-I, 匈奴謂天為「撐犁」,謂子為「孤塗」,單于者,廣大之貌也.] a Chinese transcription of Tengri. The Xiongnu were a nomadic people. From their lifestyle of herding flocks and their horse-trade with China, it can be concluded that their diet consist mainly of Lamb and mutton, mutton, horse meat and wild geese that were shot down.
See also
* Chanyu#List of Xiongnu Chanyus, List of Xiongnu rulers (Chanyus)
* Chanyu#Chanyu family trees, Rulers family tree
* Nomadic empire
* Ethnic groups in Chinese history
* History of the Han Dynasty
* Ban Yong
* Zubu
* List of largest empires
*
Ordos culture
The Ordos culture () was a material culture occupying a region centered on the Ordos Loop (corresponding to the region of Suiyuan, including Baotou to the north, all located in modern Inner Mongolia, China) during the Bronze and early Iron Age fr ...
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
; Primary sources
* Ban Gu et al., ''
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. ...
'', esp. vol. 94, :zh:s:漢書/卷094上, part 1, :zh:s:漢書/卷094下, part 2.
* Fan Ye (historian), Fan Ye et al., ''Book of the Later Han'', esp. :zh:s:後漢書/卷89, vol. 89.
*
Sima Qian
Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years be ...
et al., ''
Records of the Grand Historian
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...
'', esp. :zh:s:史記/卷110, vol. 110.
; Other sources consulted
*
*
*
*
*
* ()
*
*
* (Proceedings of the First International Conference of Eurasian Archaeology, University of Chicago, May 3–4, 2002.)
*
* (original edition)
* (First paperback edition)
*
*
*
*
* Hall, Mark & Minyaev, Sergey. Chemical Analyses of Xiong-nu Pottery: A Preliminary Study of Exchange and Trade on the Inner Asian Steppes. In: ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' (2002) 29, pp. 135–144
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Internet Archive* .
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* AuthorHouse.
Further reading
* Davydova, Anthonina. The Ivolga archaeological complex. Part 1. The Ivolga fortress. In: ''Archaeological sites of the Xiongnu'', vol. 1. St Petersburg, 1995.
* Davydova, Anthonina. The Ivolga archaeological complex. Part 2. The Ivolga cemetery. In: ''Archaeological sites of the Xiongnu'', vol. 2. St Petersburg, 1996.
* Davydova, Anthonina & Minyaev Sergey. The complex of archaeological sites near Dureny village. In: ''Archaeological sites of the Xiongnu'', vol. 5. St Petersburg, 2003.
* Davydova, Anthonina & Minyaev Sergey. The Xiongnu Decorative bronzes. In: ''Archaeological sites of the Xiongnu'', vol. 6. St Petersburg, 2003.
* Helimski, Eugen
(Short History of the Samoyedic peoples). In: ''The History of the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic Peoples''. 2000, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
* Kiuner (Kjuner, Küner) [Кюнер], N.V. 1961. ''Китайские известия о народах Южной Сибири, Центральной Азии и Дальнего Востока'' (Chinese reports about peoples of Southern Siberia, Central Asia, and Far East). Moscow.
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External links
Encyclopedic Archive on XiongnuThe Xiongnu EmpireThe Silk Road Volume 4 Number 1The Silk Road Volume 9Belt buckle, Xiongnu type, 3rd–2nd century B.C.Videodocumentation: Xiongnu – the burial site of the Hun prince (Mongolia)
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