Xirong (tribe)

Xirong () or Rong were various people who lived primarily in and around the western extremities of ancient China (in modern Gansu and Qinghai). They were known as early as the Shang dynasty (1765–1122 BCE), as one of the Four Barbarians that frequently (and often violently) interacted with the sinitic Huaxia civilization. They typically resided to the west of Guanzhong Plains from the Zhou Dynasty (1046–221 BCE) onwards. They were mentioned in some ancient Chinese texts as perhaps genetically and linguistically related to the people of the Chinese civilization.

Etymology

The historian Li Feng says that during the Western Zhou period, since the term ''Rong'' "warlike foreigners" was "often used in bronze inscriptions to mean 'warfare', it is likely that when a people was called 'Rong', the Zhou considered them as political and military adversaries rather than as cultural and ethnic 'others'." Paul R. Goldin also proposes that ''Rong'' was a "pseudo-ethnonym" meaning "bellicose".

After the Zhou dynasty, the term usually referred to various peoples in the west during early and late medieval times. Xirong was also the name of a state during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of Chinese history.

The Xirong together with the eastern Dongyi, northern Beidi, and southern Nanman were collectively called the '' Sìyí'' (). The ''Liji'' "Record of Rites" details ancient stereotypes about them.

The people of those five regions – the Middle states, and the ong i (and other wild tribes round them) – had all their several natures, which they could not be made to alter. The tribes on the east were called i They had their hair unbound, and tattooed their bodies. Some of them ate their food without its being cooked. Those on the south were called Man. They tattooed their foreheads, and had their feet turned in towards each other. Some of them (also) ate their food without its being cooked. Those on the west were called ong They had their hair unbound, and wore skins. Some of them did not eat grain-food. Those on the north were called i They wore skins of animals and birds, and dwelt in caves. Some of them also did not eat grain-food. The people of the Middle states, and of those i Man, ong and i all had their dwellings, where they lived at ease; their flavours which they preferred; the clothes suitable for them; their proper implements for use; and their vessels which they prepared in abundance. In those five regions, the languages of the people were not mutually intelligible, and their likings and desires were different. To make what was in their minds apprehended, and to communicate their likings and desires, (there were officers) – in the east, called transmitters; in the south, representationists; in the west, i-dis and in the north, interpreters. he term 狄鞮 ''didi'' (''ti-ti'') is identified as: “(''anc.'') Interpreter of the Di, barbarians of the west.” Translated and adapted from the French./blockquote>

Note: "middle states" () in this quote refers to the " Middle Kingdom", i.e. China.

Spade-foot three-legged pottery vessels as well as one and two handled pots were primary cultural characteristics of the Xirong.

William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart (2014) reconstruct the Old Chinese name of Róng as . Today, similar-sounding self-designated ethnonyms among modern-day Tibeto-Burman peoples in western China include Rgyalrong of Sichuan, and Nung and Trung of northwestern Yunnan (''see also Rung languages''). Prusek suggests relations between the Rong during the Zhou dynasty and the Rén ( < OC *ni � tribes during Shang dynasty, however, the Rén () dwelt in southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu, thus east, not west, of the Shang.

Timeline

According to Nicola Di Cosmo, 'Rong' was a vague term for warlike foreigner. He places them from the upper Wei River valley and along the Fen River to the Taiyuan basin as far as the Taihang Mountains. This would be the northwestern edge of what was then China and also the transition zone between agricultural and steppe ways of life.

*c. 964 BCE: King Mu of Zhou defeated the Quanrong and the following year attacked the Western Rong and Xurong.
*859 BCE: King Yi of Zhou (Ji Xie): Zhou capital attacked by the Rong of Taiyuan.
*877-841 BCE: King Li of Zhou: Western Rong and Xianyun