Yilou is the modern Chinese name of a people in 3rd- to 6th-century
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
.
In some sources, their name was also written as Sushen, after
an earlier people that were traditionally thought to be from the same region. Although it is common to link the Yilou to the earlier Sushen or the later
Mohe (and hence to the
Jurchens
Jurchen (Manchu: ''Jušen'', ; zh, 女真, ''Nǚzhēn'', ) is a term used to collectively describe a number of East Asian Tungusic-speaking peoples, descended from the Donghu people. They lived in the northeast of China, later known as Manch ...
who founded the
Jin Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...
and the
Manchus
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
who founded the
Qing), such connections remain unclear, and the groups may even be from different regions entirely. Some historians think that the Chinese, having heard that the Yilou paid arrows as tribute, simply linked them with the Sushen based on ancient records recording a similar practice.
The Yilou disappeared from documents in the 6th century. The
Mohe rose into power there instead.
[.]
Accounts by outsiders
The ''
Records of the Three Kingdoms'' records that the Yilou were located more than a thousand ''
li'' north of
Buyeo
Buyeo or Puyŏ ( Korean: 부여; Korean pronunciation: u.jʌ or 扶餘 ''Fúyú''), also rendered as Fuyu, was an ancient kingdom that was centered in northern Manchuria in modern-day northeast China. It is sometimes considered a Korea ...
in forests covering mountainous terrain that had formerly been the kingdom of the Sushen clan. The text reports that, although the Yilou were subjects of Buyeo, they did not speak the same language as the people of Buyeo and
Goryeo
Goryeo (; ) was a Korean kingdom founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korean Peninsula until 1392. Goryeo achieved what has been called a "true national unificat ...
. The text's author did not know the northern extent of Yilou territory, but they reportedly had access to the sea, as they sailed in boats to plunder other kingdoms. The text notes that the Yilou were the most undisciplined of the
Eastern Barbarians, as they were the only ones not to use sacrifical vessels for food and drink.
According to the ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'', the Yilou had access to grain, cattle, horses, and sackcloth, and they produced red jade and good-quality
sable skins, for which they were well known. The Yilou were talented archers and had a tendency to poison their arrowtips so that anyone they hit with their arrows died. They raised pigs for food and clothing, and they smeared themselves with pig fat in winter to protect themselves from the cold. Settlements were centred around pig pens, and homes were typically
pit houses, with those of the wealthy families descending as far as nine steps below ground. They apparently had no single ruler; instead, each settlement had its own head ().
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See also
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References
ethnic groups in Chinese history
history of Manchuria
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