Origins Of The Huns

Huns were called 'Xiongnu' or 'Hsiung-nu ', ferocious slaves, in Chinese. 'Hu'was Hunnic self-designation. Some linguists pointed out that ancient categorical name of 'Hu' for nomads could be a fast-paced pronunciation of two characters of 'Xiongnu'. Some scholars believe Xiongnu was the same as ancient names like 'Xunyu' or 'Xianyun'. According to Sima Qian, among the northern nomads would be 'Shanrong' (Mountain Rong) or Xunyu or Xianyun at times of Lord Yao and Lord Shun, Chunwei tribe at times of Xia Dynasty, Guifang (ghost domain) at times of Shang Dynasty, again Xianyun at times of Zhou Dynasty, and Xiongnu (Huns) at times of Han Dynasty. Huns were said to have originated from 'Chunwei' (or Xunyu), the son of last Xia Dynasty Lord Jie. Uygurs claimed they descended from this very person. Sima Qian's "Shi Ji" mentioned that Jie was driven to Youcao area (Caohu Lake of Anhui Province) in the southeast; that Jie's son married Jie's concubines; and that son Chunwei fled to the northern plains where he became ancestors of the Huns. Wang Zhonghan cited Shang oracle bones to equate one of major Shang vassals, i.e., Marquis Jiu-hou (i.e., Gui-hou of Gui-fang [ghost domain]), as equivalent to the descendants of overthrown Xia people. Both Sima Qian's "Shi Ji" and Ban Gu's "Han Shu" said that the Huns were the descendants of Xiahou-shi (i.e., Xia descendant); that they migrated to the Western Rong areas during the demise years of Xia Dynasty; and that they would attack the ancestors of Zhou founder in a place called 'Bin'. Zhou ancestor was forced to relocate to Qishan Mountain. Zhou kings had zigzag wars with the Rongs.

Two ancient categorical designation of barbarians would be 'Rong(2)' and 'Di(2)'. Rong was used mostly with the word 'Xi' for west, while 'Di' with the word 'Bei' for north. Rong would be a categorical designation of barbarians in the west & northwest. (Shanrong or Mountain Rong, however, belonged to southern Manchuria.) Rongs are differentiated into "Jiangrong" (carrying the name Jiang of the tribe of Yandi the Fiery Lord), "Xirong" (Western Rong), "Quanrong" (Doggy Rong, a derogatory designation, similar to Mongols' calling the Tartars "Noghai" the running dogs), and "Shanrong" (Mountain Rong) or "Beirong" (Northern Rong, who are most likely the ancestors of ancient Koreans who lost large patch of land to the allied forces of Yan and Qi principalities of Zhou Dynasty). Scholar Wang Zhonghan pointed out that ancient Chinese did not distinguish between 'Rong(2)' and 'Di(2)' till after the middle Spring & Autumn time period of Zhou Dynasty, with those barbarian statelets to the north of Jinn, Zheng, Wey & Xing titled 'Di92)" while those to inside and to the south of Jinn titled "Rong(2)".

Nomads, by the name of 'Shanrong' or 'Xunyu' or 'Xianyun', had been roaming on the east-west Asian steppe over 4000 years ago, prior to Xia-Shang-Zhou dynasties. (The steppe ancients texts referred to was Inner Mongolia, not Outer Mongolia.) The demise of Xia Dynasty would see Chunwei, the son of last Xia Dynasty Lord Jie, fleeing to the northwest to join the nomads and becoming the de facto ancestor of the later Huns. Sima Qian's section on Shang Dynasty did not mention too much on the steppe people other than the "Jie" legend. Ban Gu commented that Huns did not usually carry family names and that beginning from Tou-man [i.e., Mote's father], the names of Hunnic chanyu rulers were recorded in the Chinese chronicles. Shang King Wuding's wife, Fuhao, would be the famous female warrior of China who had led a campaign against ancient Gui-fang (ghost domain) barbarians (speculated to be either on the northern steppe or in Shanxi Prov). Shang Dynasty also warred with Jiang-fang in the west and Ren-fang in the east. As expounded below, Rong people in the west, sharing possibly the same blood-line with Xia Chinese but differring in 'Culture' such as cuisine, clothing, money and language, appeared to be an early offshoot of Sino-Tibetan speaking Qiangic people. After the demise of Shang Dynasty, records from Zhou Dynasty mentioned a group of Rong people under King Bo in northwestern China. Qin Lord Wengong (r. BC 765-716) would defeat King Bo's Rong and gave the land east of Qishan Mountain back to Zhou court. This would be a Xirong lord by the title of 'Bo' in a place called 'Dang(4) She' where the character 'dang' was said to be a mutation of the Shang Dynasty founder, 'Shang-Tang'. Ancient classics said that this group of people claimed heritage from Shang-Tang and used the ancient Shang capital name 'Bo' for the title of their king. Later, Qin Lord Ninggong (r. BC 715-704) would defeat King Bo and drove King Bo towards the Rong people during the 3rd year reign, i.e., in 713 BC. Ninggong conquered King Bo's Dang-shi clan during the 12th year reign, i.e., 704 BC.

Rong's Possible Link To Qiangic People
Shallow-minded and opportunistic Chinese, who never hesitated to be a traitor or a broker-dealer since the Opium War of 1839-42, had speculated a purported link to non-Mongoloid on basis of incomplete analysis of Linzi DNA on the tomb remains of people living in Shandong Peninsula 2500-3000 years ago. Such racial demeaning approach led to claims that ancient Rong-di people were non-Mongoloid or that ancient Chang-di barbarian & Zhongshan-guo people were non-Mongoloid. A thorough perusal of ancient history only leads to one conclusion, i.e., ancient Rong-di people and their offsprings were ancestors of today's Tibetans. http://mbe.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/2/214 carried an article about the new research paper by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, claiming that "The reanalysis of two previously published ancient mtDNA population data sets from Linzi (same province) then indicates that the ancient populations had features in common with the modern populations from south China rather than any specific affinity to the European mtDNA pool". (Prof Wei Chu-Hsien, in China & America, had research into 'bat cave' drawings on Taiwan Island and concluded that ancient Taiwan aboriginals had migrated there from coastal China.)

The compositions of the Rong in the west and northwest are many-layered. In light of King Bo, we could say that some descendants or affiliates of Shang would be related to the King Bo's Rong people. Huangfu Mi of Jinn Dynasty had doubts about King Bo's ancestry in Shang-Tang. Huangfu Mi of Jinn Dynasty treated King Bo as a branch of 'Xi-yi' or Western Yi aliens. Yi is more an inclusive word to mean aliens, and the Qiangs and Di(1) people could be called Xi Yi, i.e., Yi in the west, while some southwestern barbarians would be called Xi-Nan Yi, namely, southwestern Yi. In this sense, some of the Rongs at the time of Zhou Dynasty could be of Qiangic or Di(1) nature. In deed, scholar Wang Zhonghan researched into the ethnicity of ancient Rong-di people, analyzed the ancient ambiguity in regards to bundling the 'Qiang' and 'Hu' barbarians, and concluded that ancient barbarians were more likely Qiangic [Sino-Tibetan] from the west than the Huns from the north. (Latter Han Dynasty adopted the segregation policty of 'Qiang' from 'Hu' by controlling the He-xi [West of the Western Yellow River Bend] and the Silk Road.)

The Qiangs, in turn, would be the descendants of the Yandi (Fiery Lord or Fiery Emperor) tribal group carrying the tribal name "Jiang". "Xin Tang Shi" (New History Of Tang Dynasty) said that the Tibetans belonged to the Xi Qiang, namely, the western Qiangic peoples. There were 150 different groups of Qiangic peoples, widely dispersed among Sichuan, Ganshu, Qinhai and Shenxi Provinces. Ancient classics stated that the word 'qiang' means the shepherds in the west. The book which was called 'Continuum To Hou Han Shu' stated that the Qiangs were alternative race of the Jiang surname tribes of San Miao. According to Sima Qian, the 'SanMiao' people, who originally resided in the middle Yangtze River area where the later Chu Statelet was, were mostly relocated to western China to guard against the western barbarians. Lord Shun, who took over the overlord post from Lord Zhi (reign 2366-2358 BC ?, the son of Lord Diku), relocated them to western China as a punishment for their aiding Dan Zhu (the son of Lord Yao reign 2357-2258 BC ?) in rebellion. (This could lead to a sound speculation that Sino-Tibetan speaking San Miao people had dwelled in Gansu much earlier than the later Indo-European Yuezhi people, by about 1000 years at minimum.)

Reading through China's history, we could distinguish three groups of Rong in the west, Xirong or Western Rong, Quanrong or Doggy Rong, and the Rongdi or Rong-Di Rong. (Borrowing "Shan Hai Jing", Quan-yi or Quan-rong, one of the varieties of Rong people, could have derived from Huangdi the Yellow Lord since Huangdi bore Miao-long, Miaolong bore Nong-ming, Nongming bore Bai-quan [White dog] which was the ancestors of Quanrong. ) All three groups could be of same family, could be related to Jie the son of last Xia Lord as "Shi Ji" claimed, and could be related to descendants of Shang Dynasty (as detailed in the story of King Bo of Shang heritage). Qin's ancestors absorbed eight Xirong Tribes, and Qin was also responsible for helping Zhou drive the Doggy Rong out of Zhou capital. The Rongdi Rongs had migrated to the central plains of China, and the Jinn Principality and its three successor states have very close connection with them. Rongdi Rongs had inter-marriage with Zhou Kingdom, and they later split into Chidi and Baidi as explained below.

Xia Chinese versus Rong - Differing In 'Culture', Not 'Blood-Line'
What distinguished Chinese from Rong or Di would mostly likely lie in the customs, not the ethnicity. Zhou Dynasty's founder, per "Shi Ji", Gugong abolished Rong & Di customs, built city in a plain called Zhou-yuan under the foot of Qishan, and devised five posts of si tu, si ma, si kong, si shi, & si kou per Shang Dynasty system. Similar to Zhou founder, Qin's ancestors had emerged from the barbaric West to become the ruler of China. In both cases, they discarded the Rong & Di(2) customs and adopted the rituals of the central China of the time. Shang Yang [the Reformer for Qin Dynasty] claimed that he should be ascribed great contributions to Qin because he was responsible for i) renovating Qin's Rong-Di customs such as parent and son living in same bedroom and ii) differentiating the protocol of men from women.

Scholar Liu Qiyu stated that the difference between Rong and Chinese lied in 'culture', not 'blood-line'. In article "The Rong People In Nine Ancient Prefectures versus Rong-yu Xia People", Liu Qiyu cited ancient classics Zhou Yu's paragraph: "In the ancient times, Gong-gong-shi ... had first worked on repairing the 100 rivers (including the flooding of the Yellow River) ... Gong-gong-shi's descendant, Count Yu (i.e., Lord Yu), repented over his father Gun's mistake in flood control ... Gong-gong-shi's grandson, Si-yue, had acted as an assistant to Lord Yu in flood control ... Hence, Si-yue was conferred the fief of Si-yue-guo Statelet and assigned the surname of 'Jiang' which included the clan name of 'Luu' ... Today (i.e., in Zhou Dynasty times), the clan names of Shen and Luu had declined in prestige and influence but the 'Jiang' family still prevailed in Qi Principality." Liu Qiyu further cited ancient classics Zuo Zhuan and listed the statement of Ju-zhi, a son or prince of Jiang-rong barbarians, as paraphrased below: "Everyone had said that our folks, i.e., miscellaneous Rong people, belonged to the descendants of Si-yue ... Our various Rong peoples differed from Hua (i.e., Xia) people in cuisine, clothing, money and language." Liu Qiyu speculated that the clan names of Shen-Luu-Qi-Xu etc, who entered China during Western Zhou Dynasty, had been the Rong people who came eastward to China earlier, while Jiang-rong would be the original Rong people who came into China during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty time period.

Yuezhi versus 'Jiang' Surname Tribe Of SanMiao People
More detailed accounts about Yuezhi would come after Zhang Qian's visit to Central Asia, unfortunately. "Gua Di Zhi", written by Li Tai of Tang Dynasty [AD 705-907], stated that Yuezhi country included ancient Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Yanzhou and Shazhou [Dunhuang], i.e., today's Gansu, Ningxia and western Shenxi Provinces. Hence there was the speculation that in the West Yellow River Bend area could also be found Yuezhi people, which might not be true. The place names like Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Yanzhou and Shazhou were all products of late Han Dynasty. "Gua Di Zhi" was a much later book that could have error in extrapolating the presence of Yuezhi beyond the Western Corridor. ("Gua Di Zhi" was a much later book that could have error in extrapolating the presence of Yuezhi beyond the Western Corridor 1000 years ahead of its time. Further, some historian [maybe just me, after hiccup in my thoughts], who believed Yuezhi country more likely centered around Turpan [Urumqi] as evidenced by Lake Koko Nor [Lop Nur, i.e., Luobupo] mummies, had expressed doubts about Sima Qian's "Shi Ji" as far as the sentence in regards to Yuezhi's original dwelling place is concerned: Sima Qian claimed that Yuezhi, before the migration, lived between Qilian Mountain and Dunhuang hill [i.e., Tianshan Mountain Range], and that satellite Yuezhi statelets, after migrating to Central Asia, still adopted as their clan name ancient city of 'Zhaowu' [??? nowhere to be found on map].)

The section on Huns, in Sima Qian's "Shi Ji" and Ban Gu's "Han Shu", stated that the "Donghu nomads and the Yueh-chih [Yüeh-chih or Yuezhi] people were stronger than the Huns". Extrapolating on this sentence, I could say that the Yuezhi people, who had arrived in Gansu Prov 1000 years later than Sino-Tibetan SanMiao people, might have been steadily exerting pressure on the Qiangic 'Rong' & 'Di' peoples and could have driven the Qiangic people towards Shenxi-Shanxi-Henan provinces for 1000 years, from the Zhou Dynasty ancestor Gugong (12th c BC ?) to Qin China's expelling the Huns from the Ordos Plains (3th c BC). This speculation could be totally wrong since Yuezhi people were never warriors: Alternative historical accounts validated an important characteristics of ancient Yuezhi people, i.e., a trade profession entity having long term relationship with China as supplier of horses.

Scholar Wang Zhonghan studied the ancient designation of Rong-di, concluded that it would be in Han Dynasty that Chinese would make a distinction between the Qiangs and Hu [Huns], and speculated that early nomadic groups like Rong-di were Qiangic in nature, something that would revert back to the paradox as to how Sino-Tibetan Qiangic language had evolved into Altaic speech that was to be observed among the later Turks. Rond-di barbarians, who had made peace with Jinn Principality, had later split into Bai-di and Chi-di. Baidi (White Di) dwelled in ancient Yanzhou (today's Yan'an), Suizhou (today's Suide) and Yinzhou (today's Ningxia on west Yellow River Bend). Zuo Shi Chunjiu stated Jinn defeated Baidi and remnants were know as Bai-bu-hu later. Chidi (Red Di) dwelled in a place called Lu(4), near today's Shangdang. Zuo Shi Chunjiu stated that Jinn Principality destroyed the Lu(4) tribe of the Chidi, and the remnants were know as Chi-she-hu nomads later.

Yuezhi versus Xia People
According to ancient records, after Shang Dynasty overthrew Xia, remnant Xia people fled northward and westward, and majority of them returned to their ancestral home in southern Shanxi Prov, i.e., ancient 'ji-zhou' prefecture or 'zhongguo' the central statelet. Some of those Xia people who fled northward and westward, per early 20th century scholar Wang Guowei, would become the Yuezhi (?) in the west and the Huns in the north. Should we buy Wang Guowei's speculation as to Yuezhi, then it would throw the discussion into an ethnicity dispute unless we discount the actual linkage between the Yuezhi of Gansu Province and the Loulan Mummies in Xinjiang [new dominion] Autonomous Region. It is understandable that Wang Guowei might have blundered in early 20th century since Loulan mummies were not known at that time.

I would now expound on the underlying logic behind Wang Guowei's fallacy. Scholar Liu Qiyu cited Guo Yu's statement in regards to You-yu-shi as proof that Yu-shi clan had deep connection with Xia people. Liu Qiyu claimed that Yu-shi and Xia-hou-shi might have generations of inter-marriage the same way as Ji-surname and Jiang-surname or Khitan's Yeluu-shi and Xiao-shi did to each other. The statement from Guo Yu could be paraphrased like this: "In ancient times, Count Chong-bo Gun also reigned in the land of You-yu-shi clan." Count Chong-bo Gun was the father of Lord Yu and dwelled in southern or southwestern Shanxi Prov, i.e., the east bank of today's East Yellow River Bend. Yu-shi clan's locality, considered the second 'Xia Ruins' in archaeology, would be in today's eastern Shenxi Prov, i.e., Hancheng (west bank of the today's East Yellow River Bend) and Pucheng (west bank of Luo-shui River). Today's East Yellow River Bend was known as 'Xi-he' or western river because the Yellow River did not flow horizontally into the sea via Shandong Prov but made a eastern bend northward for exit into the sea via Hebei Prov.

It is widely agreed upon that after Shang Dynasty overthrew Xia in 1766 BC, remnant Xia people fled northward and westward, and majority of them returned to their ancestral home in southern Shanxi Prov. Those remnant Xia people remained on the two banks of the Yellow River Bend, across Shanxi-Shenxi provinces, for another 1100 years at minimum. Per section Qi Yu of Guo Yu, Qi Lord Huan'gong (r. 685-643 BC), who proclaimed himself a 'hegemony lord' in 679 BC and destroyed the statelets of Shan-rong and Guzhu in Manchuria in 664 BC, had campaigned against Bai-di barbarians in the west in 651 BC (i.e., 9th year of Lu Lord Xigong). Qi Huan'gong was recorded to have occupied 'da xia' (i.e., Grand Xia land) and might have crossed the river to subjugate 'xi yu' (i.e., western Yu-shi clan's land). Grand Xia land, by the 7th century BC, would probably be lying in northern Shanxi Prov only since Qin Emperor Shihuangdi (r. 246-210 BC) had his accomplishments of unification of China inscribed with such words as "reaching as far as 'da xia' land in the north", namely, Taiyuan of northern Shanxi Prov. 'xi yu' certainly pointed to the areas west of the East Yellow River Bend, namely, Hancheng and Pucheng of eastern Shenxi Prov. My conclusion is that Yuezhi people had nothing to do with the You-yu-shi or Yu-shi clan of the Xia people who were defeated by Shang people in 1766 BC. Alternative studies of Indo-European migrations could be checked for timing and movement. Wang Guowei and Xu Zhongshu, including Liu Qiyu, had all mistakenly pointed to the You-yu-shi clan as the origin for mutation into the first syllable of Yuezhi.

Xia Chinese vs Huns, Qiangic Tibetans vs Tokharai Yuezhi, & Yuezhi vs Loulan Mummies
Nova, in its TV series, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/chinamum/taklamakan.html shows the excavations of mysterious 3000-year-old mummies in China's western desert, inside today's New Dominions Province. I could not find definite link between the Yuezhi and the Loulan Mummies. The dating used here, however, shows that the Qiangic San Miao people arrived in Gansu Province earlier than the Yuezhi people no matter whether Yuezhi were Indo-European or not. Note that the 'SanMiao' people were mostly relocated to western China to guard against the western barbarians by Lord Shun as a punishment for their aiding Dan Zhu (the son of Lord Yao reign 2357-2258 BC ?) in rebellion. Hence, the Sino-Tibetan speaking San Miao people had dwelled in Gansu much earlier than the later Indo-European Yuezhi people, by about 1000 years at minimum.

Also note more Tang Chinese mummies were found in this area than Indo-Europeans mummies. http://homepages.utoledo.edu/nlight/uyghhst.htm had a good exposition of the "remarkably racialized ideas" and approaches built on basis of the mummies.

http://www.taklamakan.org/allied_comm/commonv-1-8.html carried an article by Takla entitled "The Origins of Relations Between Tibet and Other Countries in Central Asia", stating that "according to the researches of Sir Aurel Stein [i.e., the arch thief of China's Dunhuang Grotto treasures] on the origins of the people of Khotan, most were the descendants of the Aryans. They also had in them Turkic and Tibetan blood, though the Tibetan blood was more pronounced. He discovered ancient documents at a place called Nye-yar [Niya] in Khotan and he has stated that the script of these documents contained no Pali, Arabic (Muslim) or Turkic terminology. All were Tibetan terms and phrases." Tibetans, clearly the descendants of Sino-Tibetan-speaking Qiangic SanMiao people, had their influences reaching the southern Chinese Turkistan in addition to the He-xi Corridor. P.T. Takla stated further that "according to Wu Hriu(2), the facial features of the people of Khotan were dissimilar to those of the rest of the Horpa nomads of Drugu (Uighurs belonging to the Turkic people) and similar, to an extent, to the Chinese. Khotan in the north-west was called Li-yul by the ancient Tibetans. Since Khotan was territorially contiguous with Tibet, there are reasons to believe that the inhabitants of Khotan had originated from Tibet."

Concluding this episode, my unchanged belief is still that Sino-Tibetan-speaking Qiangic SanMiao people first reached the He-xi Corridor of Gansu Prov 4000 years ago and onward to Khotan area of southern Chinese Turkistan. It is never an accident that early Chinese legends were full of events about the west, including Mt Kunlun, Queen Mother of the West, Khotan jade, and Mt Kunwu Diamond Ore etc. Tokharai, possibly related to the Indo-Scythians, reached the areas of Lake Koko Nor and later Tunhuang Grotto thereafter. In the 3rd century BC, the Hun Chanyu ordered that his king attack the Yuezhi as a punishment for disturbing peace at the Chinese border. Majority of the Yuezhi fled to the region of Amu Daria river, and some fled across the mountains to live among Qiangic people in the south.

Albert von Le Coq's Observations
Albert von Le Coq, in his 1928 book "Buried Treasures Of Chinese Turkestan", had tackled the issue of human migrations that occurred in the New Dominion Province. Albert von Le Coq, after personably excavating and observing sculptures and statutes, gave sound judgments as to the timeline of the said migrations by people from the west, east and south. Albert von Le Coq's conclusion would be the same as what I had expounded via written historical chronicles, i.e., Mongoloid people fully Turkistanized the territory by 10th century.

Albert von Le Coq believed that Scythians had come over to Chinese Turkestan from today's Russian domain that was to the north of the Caspian Sea. Buddhism spread to Kabul River area. Greek Historian Herodotus called the people in Kabul River [Hindu Kush Valley] area by Aparytai, i.e., Jian-tuo-luo [Gandhara], who had served under ancient Persian King Xerxes. At this time, the images of buddha still retained the modeling on basis of Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. Alexandre the Great then exerted Greek influences over Central Asia, including Bactria, i.e., today's Afghanistan. By 130 BC, Greeks were overtaken by Parthians and Kushan Yuezhi. With the faciliation of the Kushan Yuezhi, Buddhism spread into Chinese Turkestan with Iranian & Indian inputs via two routes, i) Bactria -> Pamirs -> Kashgar-Shache-Khotan, 2) Kashmir -> Kara-Kunlun Pass [Karakorum Pass] -> Kashgar-Shache-Khotan. Then, Buddhism arrived in Turpan oasis and onward to China.

Albert von Le Coq concluded that three racial inputs converged in Chinese Turkestan, namely, Indo-European to the west, Indo-Iranian to the south and west, and Indians [should be Qiangic per translator Zhan Hongzhi of "Buried Treasures Of Chinese Turkestan"] to the south. Albert von Le Coq classified Su-te [Sogdians] as Iranian who distributed mainly in Samarkand and Bokhara area. Albert von Le Coq classified the ruling class from Kuqa to Turpan as Tochari, i.e., Indo-Europeans, but also pointed out that Tochari designated 100 as 'kand' similar to Latin 'centum'. Albert von Le Coq pointed out that Tochari tombs contained similar bronze burials as Crimea Schythian tombs. (Zhan Hongzhi pointed out that it was Yuezhi who were a branch of Tochari, not the other way around. Yuezhi meant for 'protector of the moon' per Ban Gu's "Hou Han Shu", which was to corrobate the fact that Yuezhi people revered the moon god. The moon certainly is what today's Islamic nations revered the most. Zhan Hongzhi also mentioned that Tochari tombs could be as old as 4000 years.)

Albert von Le Coq cited Chinese records [? possible possessing the source of the same fallacy as Wang Guowei's extrapolation of Yu-shi clan as equivalent to the first syllable of Yuezhi] in claiming that Tochari had intruded into the Yellow River bend in 3rd century BC till they were defeated by the Huns in 170 BC approximately [should be 177-176 BC]. Being defeated by the Huns repeatedly, the Tochari [i.e., Yuezhi] fled to the West to take over Scythian land, and Scythian fled south to take over Bactria from Greeks in 135 BC. Yuezhi went further to take over Bactria from Scythians. Kushan, the major tribe among five Yuezhi tribes, would build the Kushan Yuezhi empire after conquering India and Sistan. Buddhism flourished throughout Kushan reign till 5th century AD.

Albert von Le Coq stated that the Turks began to attack oasis in Chinese Turkestan around 760 AD. Uygurs [i.e., Uighurs] reached Gaochang [Karakhoja], i.e., near Turpan, and became subject to Buddhism influences. However, Uygur king was a Manichaen, while some of his subjects adopted Christianity. Except for Turkic clothing, Chinese chopsticks, and calligraphy pens, the Uygurs had adopted Su-te [Sogdian] lettering and medicine. Albert von Le Coq claimed that for the next two hundred years, Uygurs would control the whole area of Chinese Turkistan and became 'westernized' except for their Mongoloid facial outlooks. By 9th century, however, Uygurs suffered a defeat in the hands of the Kirghiz. Then, the Uygurs would surrender to the Mongols who had recruited so many young people that the irrigated lands would be abandoned to the moving sands.

Yuezhi versus Scythians
The Chinese recorded that the Scythians were called 'Sai' (aka 'Sai Ren' or 'Sai Zhong'), and this group of people were described to be located to the west of the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) people. Yuezhi people were said to be Indo-European, a subgroup related to the Scythians. Gua Di Zhi stated that Yuezhi country included ancient Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Yanzhou and Shazhou, i.e., today's Gansu and Shenxi Provinces. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mn0013) claimed that in the vast area "from the Korean Peninsula in the east, across the northern tier of China to the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and to the Pamir Mountains and Lake Balkash in the west ... this has been an area of constant ferment from which emerged numerous migrations and invasions to the southeast (into China), to the southwest (into Transoxiana--modern Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, Iran, and India), and to the west (across Scythia toward Europe). By the eighth century B.C., the inhabitants of much of this region evidently were nomadic Indo-European speakers, either Scythians or their kin. Also scattered throughout the area were many other tribes that were primarily Mongol in their ethnologic characteristics." There are numerous excavations of Scythian tombs in the Caucasus and the Central Asia, with artifacts like 1500 BC bronze axes in Siberia, 1200 BC Cimerian bronze north of the Black sea, 800 BC Scythian gold artifacts north of the Caspian, but not in East Asia. 600 BC bronze artifacts from Baikal were labelled as Hunnic. More, Russian archaeologists pointed out that Hunnic excavations of Mongolia pointed to the nature of agricultural settlements among the early Huns. Do remember that one son of the Yellow Overlord left for the north 4000 years ago.

It would be difficult to make a distinction between the two nomadic groups by pre-defining their domains. Could the early human beings reject each other simply by bodily appearance and hence maintain their separate physique till today? I might updold this argument by making an analogy to the relationship of dog versus wolf. It is reported via DNA studies that the dogs split from the wolves about 135,000 years ago, that they did not change in appearance till 15,000 years ago, and that they had undergone inbreeding in the last several hundreds of years, only (see Mercury News, July 25th, 2000 edition). I would not know when the Mongoloid and the Caucasoid split from each other; however, the physique of the Caucasoid points to the likelihood that their ancestors had lived in the severe cold weather of the northern hemisphere much longer than others, where they developed the lighter skin, high nose bridge and bodily hairs.

For further discussions on Barbarians & Chinese, please refer to

Common Origin For Di1-Qiang1 Barbarians & Xia Chinese
Relationship Between Shang Dynasty, Succeeding Zhou Dynasty & Barbarians
Difference Between Rong and Chinese In 'Culture', Not 'Blood-line'
Merging and Subjugating Barbarians By Zhou Dynasty & Principalities
Assertions By Luo Xianglin & Wang Zhonghan
Continuing Zigzags With Barbarians
Where Were Yuezhi, Wusun & Sai-ren [Scythians]?



Zhou/Qin People's Zigzags With Rong & Di

Aside from the Rongdi Rong, Xirong, Jiangrong & Quanrong (aka Kunyi/Hunyi or Quanyi) in northwestern China, there were the Mountain Rongs (Beirong or Wuzhong) in the northeast and Chang-Di barbarian in Shandong. Across the areas of Yellow River Bend and northern Shanxi-Shenxi provinces would be numerous small 'Rong' statelets, Chi-di and Bai-di etc.

Now back to Rong people at the time of Zhou Dynasty. Sima Qian's Shi Ji and Ban Gu's Han Shu said that the Quanrongs (possibly ancestors of the Huns), at one time, attacked the ancestor of Zhou people, forcing Zhou people into a move to Qishan Mountain where they set up the Zhou statelet. The Rongdi's relationship with Doggy Rong was not clear, but could be of same family. History book mentioned that Rongdi was of dog ancestry, related to Pan-hu the ancestor of San-Miao people who were exiled to Gansu Prov by Lord Shun.

Count of West, Xibo, namely, Zhou Ancestor Ji Chang, once attacked the Doggy Rongs (said to be same as Xianyun barbarian on the steppe). Dozen years later, Zhou King Wuwang exiled the Rongs north of the Jing & Luo Rivers. The Rongs were also called Huangfu at the time, a name to mean their 'erratic submission'. 200 years later, during 17th year reign [i.e., 985 BC per Bamboo Annals], Zhou King Muwang was noted for defeating the barbarians, reaching Qinhai-Gansu regions in the west, meeting with Queen Mother of West on Mt Kunlun [possibly around Dunhuang area], and then relocating the barbarians eastward to the starting point of Jing-shui River for better management [in a similar fashion to Han Emperor Wudi's relocating Southern Huns to the south of the north Yellow River Bend]. Zhou King Muwang attacked the Doggy Rongs and history recorded that he captured four white wolves & four white deers (white deer and white wolf being the titles of ministers of Rongdi barbarians) during his campaign. The Huangfu (Doggy Rong) people then no longer sent in yearly gifts and tributes. Zhou King Yiwang, the grandson of King Muwang (r. 1,001 - 946 BC), would be attacked by the Rongs. The great grandson, King Xuanwang (reign 827 - 782), finally fought back against the Rongs. Shi Jing eulogized King Xuanwang's reaching "Taiyuan" [i.e., Ningxia area the origin of Jing-shui River] and fighting the Jiangrong. Dongzhou Lieguo Zi said that King Xuanwang would be futile in fighting the Jiang-Rong nomads at Taiyuan. (Jiangrong could mean the same as Quanrong or later Rongdi Rong.) Thereafter, King Youwang (reign 781-771) was killed by the Doggy Rongs at the foothill of Lishan Mountain and capital Haojing was sacked. Quanrong & Xirong had come to aid Marquis Shenhou (father-in-law of King Youwang of Western Zhou, c 11 cent - 770 BC) in killing King Youwang of Zhou Dynasty in 770 BC. Rongs who stayed on at Lishan were called Li-rong. The Rongs moved to live between the Jing & Wei Rivers. Lord Qin Xianggong was conferred the old land of Zhou by Zhou King Pingwang (reign 770-720). Zhou King Pingwang encouraged the Qin Lord to drive out the Quanrongs.

Geography: The Jing River is renowed for its clearness. It originated in today's Ningxia, entered Shenxi, converged with the Wei River, and then flew into the Yellow River. The Wei River originated from Gansu, entered Shenxi, converged with Jing River, and flew into the Yellow River. The Luo River originated from Shenxi, flew through Henan, and then entered the Yellow River.

Quanrong or Doggy Rong of the west were also named Quan-yi-shi (Doggy alien tribe) or Hunyi / Kunyi (Kunlun Mountain aliens?, but was commented to be the same as character 'hun4' for the meaning of mixing-up). Shan Hai Jing legends stated that Huangdi or Yellow Lord bore Miao-long, Miaolong bore Nong-ming, Nongming bore Bai-quan (White dog) which was the ancestors of Quanrong. Shan Hai Jing also stated that Quan-yi had human face but beast-like body. An ancient scholar called Jia Kui stated that Quan-yi was one of the varieties of Rong people. Among the above names, one group of barbarians would be called the Rong-di(2) people. Some Rong and Di must have mixed up, and one more designation would be Rongdi Rong which later split into Chidi and Baidi. (Wang Zhonghan cited scholar Wang Guowei in pointing out that 'Rong' was a barbarian designation from Zhou King Youwang to Lu Lord Yin'gong & Lu Lord Huan'gong, while 'Di[2]' designation came about after Lu Lord Zhuanggong & Lu Lord Min'gong. "Rong" was equivalent to weaponry, ferociousness and other derogatory meanings. Ancient classics, like "Shi" and "Shu" interpreted Di[2] as "faraway barbarians".)

Qin warred with various Rong peoples over a time span of over 600 years. When Zhou King Liwang was ruling despotically, the Xi Rong (Xirong or Western Rong) people rebelled in the west and killed most of the Daluo lineage of Qin people. Zhou King Xuanwang conferred Qin Lord 'Qin Zhong' (r. BC 845-822 ?) the title of 'Da Fu' and ordered him to quell the Xirong. Qin Lord Zhuanggong's senior son, Shifu, would swear that he would kill the king of the Rong people to avenge the death of Qin Zhong before returning to the Qin capital. Zhuanggong's junior son would be Qin Lord Xianggong (Ying Kai) who assisted Zhou King Pingwang (reign 770-720) in cracking down on both the Western Rong and the Dogggy Rong. Shifu was taken prisoner of war by Xi Rong during the 2nd year reign of Qin Lord Xianggong and did not get released till one year later. During the 7th year reign of Qin Lord Xianggong, i.e., 771 BC, Doggy Rong barbarians sacked Zhou capital and killed Zhou king at the invitation of Marquis Shen (i.e., Shenhou). Qin Lord Xianggong (Ying Kai) died during the 12th year of his reign (766 BC) when he campaigned against the Rong at Qishan. Qin Lord Wengong (r. BC 765-716), during his 16th year reign, Wengong defeated Rong at Qishan. Wengong would give the land east of Qishan back to Zhou court. Qin Lord Ninggong (r. BC 715-704) would defeat King Bo and drove King Bo towards the Rong people during the 3rd year reign, i.e., 713 BC. Ninggong conquered King Bo's Dang-shi clan during the 12th year reign, i.e., 704 BC. Qin Lord Wugong (r. BC 697-677), during the 10th year reign, exterminated Gui-rong (Shanggui of Longxi) and Ji-rong (Tiansui Commandary), and the next year, exterminated Du-bo Fief (southeast of Xi'an), Zheng-guo Fief (Zheng-xian County) and Xiao-guo Fief (an alternative Guo Fief, different from the Guo domain conferred by Zhou King Wenwang onto his brother, Guo-shu). Xiao-guo Fief was said to be a branch of the Qiang people.

Meanwhile, lord of the Jinn Principality, Jinn Xian'gong (r. 676-651 BC), attacked Li-rong (Xi Rong) barbarians during his 5th year reign, i.e., 672 BC approx, and captured a Li-rong woman called Li-ji. In 664 BC, Qi Lord Huangong destroyed the statelets of Shan-rong and Guzhu. (Guzhu was formerly Zhu-guo Statelet, a vassal of ex-Shang dynasty.) In the northeast, The Shan-rong or Mountain Rongs went across the Yan Principality of Hebei Province to attack Qi Principality in today's Shandong Province. 44 years later, they attacked Yan. Around 664 BC, Yan-Qi joint armies destroyed the Mountain Rong Statelet as well as the Guzhu Statelet under the command of Qi Counsellor Guan Zhong, Marquis Qi Huanggong, and Count Yan. Around 664 BC, Yan-Qi joint armies drove them out, penetrated into the Rong land, and destroyed the Mountain Rong Statelet as well as the Guzhu Statelet. The story of 'old horses knew the way home' would be about the joint army being lost after they penetrated deep into the Rong land. Hence, Yan Statelet extended by 500 li to the northwest, in addition to the eastward 50 li which was given to Count Yan for his escorting Marquis Qi all the way into Qi Statelet.

During the 16th year of Zhou King Huiwang (reign 676-652), namely, 661 BC, the Chang Di barbarians who were located near today's Jinan City of Shandong Province, under Sou Man, attacked the Wey and Xing principalities. The Di barbarians, hearing of Qi army's counter-attacks at Mountain-rong, embarked on a pillage in central China by attacking Wey and Xing statelets. The Di barbarians killed Wey Lord Yigong (r. BC 668-660 ?) who was notorious for indulging in raising numerous birds called 'he' (cranes), and the barbarians cut him into pieces. A Wey minister would later find Yigong's liver to be intact, and hence he committed suicide by cutting apart his chest and saving Yigong's liver inside of his body.

Jin (Jinn) Principality also helped Zhou King by attacking the Rongs and then escorted the king back to his throne 4 years after the king went into exile. Rong-di moved to live in a place called Luhun, and they would later be forced to relocate elsewhere by Qin-Jinn principalities. When Qin intended to get rid of Luhun-rong & Jiang-rong around capital Yong in 638 BC, Jinn Principality adopted a policy of allowing remotely-related barbarian clan to stay closer to the land between Qin, Jinn and Zhou Dynasty capitals: Jinn Lord Huigong, for his mother's tie with Luhun-rong clan, relocated Luhun-rong to Yi-chuan and Jiang-rong to southern Shanxi Pro, i.e., namely, the southward migration to Mt Songshan area of Yun-surnamed Xianyun [Huns] clan whose Qiangic nature was validated about 80 years later by the dialogue between Fan Xuan-zi of Jinn Principality and the descendant of Jiang-rong. Jinn Principality began the process of expansion that would merge and conquer dozens of barbarian statelets to the east of east Yellow River Bend, with Jinn Lord Xiangong merging 17 statelets and subjugating 38 others [per "Haan Fei-zi"].

In 636 BC approx, the Rongdi nomads attacked Zhou King Xiangwang (reign 651-619) at the encouragement of Zhou Queen who was the daughter of Rongdi ruler. Jinn Principality helped Zhou King by attacking the Rongs and then escorted the king back to his throne 4 years after the king went into exile. After the defeat in the hands of Jinn, the Rongs moved to the land between the west segment of the Yellow River loop or bend and the Luo River, and two groups were known at the time, Chidi (Red Di) and Baidi (White Di). (Note that ancient West Yellow River Bend is the same as today's East Yellow River Bend. Ancient Yellow River Bend did not equate to today's inverse U-shaped course with the North Bend lying inside Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, but the U-shaped Bend with South Bend in southern Shanxi Prov and then a south-to-north turn in Hebei Province for exit into the sea.) Baidi (White Di) dwelled in ancient Yanzhou (today's Yan'an), Suizhou (today's Suide) and Yinzhou (today's Ningxia on west Yellow River Bend). Zuo Shi Chunjiu stated Jinn defeated Baidi and remnants were know as Bai-bu-hu later. Chidi (Red Di) dwelled in a place called Lu(4), near today's Shangdang. Zuo Shi Chunjiu stated that Jinn Principality destroyed the Lu(4) tribe of the Chidi, and the remnants were know as Chi-she-hu nomads later.

Back in 659 BC, Qin Lord Mugong conquered Maojin-rong. Two years after Xiao'er defeat, in 625 BC, Qin Mugong dispatched Mengmingshi on another campaign against Jinn. Incidentally, Jiang-rong barbarians had assisted Jinn in ambushing Qin army at the Battle of Mt Xiao'shan [Xiao'er]. Then, Qin turned around to expand westward. Qin Lord Mugong conquered 8 Western Rong tribes. In 623 BC, i.e., during the 37th year reign, Qin Mugong, using You Yu as a guide, campaigned against the Xirong nomads and conquered the Xirong Statelet under their lord Chi Ban. Once Chi Ban submitted to Qin, the rest of Western Rong nomads in the west acknowledged the Qin overlordship. Qin Mugong would conquer altogether a dozen (12) states in Gansu-Shaanxi areas and controlled the western China of the times. Zhou King dispatched Duke Zhaogong to congratulate Qin with a gold drum.

During the 3rd year reign of Qin Gonggong, i.e., 606 BC, Lord Chu Zhuangwang campaigned northward against the Luhun-rong barbarians and inquired about the Zhou cauldrons when passing through the Zhou capital. Luhun-rong barbarians, according to Hou Han Shu, had relocated to northern China from ancient "Gua-zhou" prefecture. Alternatively speaking, per ancient scholar Du Yu, Luhun-rong barbarians, with clan name of Yun-shi, originally dwelled to the northwest of Qin and Jinn principalities, but Qin/Jinn seducingly relocated them to Yichuan area (i.e, Xincheng, Henan Prov) during the 22nd year reign of Lu Lord Xigong (r. BC 659-627), i.e., in 638 BC.

As to barbarian groups, there were Mianzu-Quanrong-Di-Wanrong to the west of Qin Principality, Yiqu-Dali-Wushi-Xuyan etc to the north of Qin Principality, Linhu-Loufan to the north of Jin (Jinn) Principality, and Donghu-Shanrong to the north of Yan Principality. Mianzu could be pronounced Raozhu. Quanrong was know as Kunrong or Hunrong or Hunyi. The character 'hun4' for Hunyi or Hun-yi is the same as Hunnic King Hunye or Kunye and could mean the word of mixing-up. Wan-rong dwelled in today's Tianshui, Gansu Prov. Yiqu was one of the Xirong or Western rong stateles at ancient Qingzhou and Ningzhou areas. Dali-rong dwelled in today's Fengxu County. Wushi was originally Zhou land, but it was taken over by Rong. Qin King Huiwang took it back from Rong later. Linhu was later destroyed by General Li Mu. Loufan belonged to Yanmen'guan Pass area.

During the 13th year reign of Zhou King Jianwang, i.e., 573 BC, Jinn Lord Ligong was killed by Luan Shu and Zhongxing Yan, and Jinn dispatched emissaries (led by a Zhi family member) to the Zhou court to retrieve Zi-zhou as Lord Daogong. Jinn Lord Daogong made peace with Rongdi (who attacked Zhou King Xiangwang earlier), and the Rongdi sent in gifts and tributes to Jinn. Another one hundred years, Zhao Xiang-zi of Zhao Principality took over Bing and Dai areas near Yanmen'guan Pass. Zhao, together with Haan and Wei families, destroyed another opponent called Zhi-bo and split Jinn into three states of Haan, Zhao & Wei. Yiqu-Rong built castles to counter Qin. Qin King Huiwang took over 25 cities from Yiqu.

Barbarian statelets like Dali & Yiqu built dozens of castles. Yiqu-Rong built castles to counter Qin. After about one century of relative peace, Qin began to expand by attacking Dali & Yiqu. Qin King Huiwang took over 25 cities from Yiqu-rong. At the time of Qin King Zhaowang, Qin Queen Xuantaihou killed Yiqu-rong King. (King Zhaoxiangwang's mother, Queen Dowager Xuantaihou, adultered with the former Rong king from Yiqu Statelet, with two sons born.)

In 461 BC, Qin Lord Ligong, with 20,000 army, attacked Dali-rong barbarians and took over Dali-rong capital. In 444 BC, Qin Lord Ligong attacked Yiqu-rong barbarians in the areas of later Qingzhou and Ningzhou and captured the Yiqu-rong king. Around 430 BC, Yiqu-rong barbarians counter-attacked Qin and reached south of Wei-shui River. Qin Lord Xiaogong (r. BC 361-338), during the first year reign, Qin Xiaogong made an open announcement for seeking talents all over China in the attempt of restoring Qin Mugong's glories. In the east, Qin Xiaogong took over Shaancheng city, and in the west, he defeated and killed a Rong king by the name of Huan-wang near Tiansui, Gansu Prov.

The Building Of The Walls
Qin, under Qin King Zhaoxiangwang, continued wars against Wei & Zhao principalities. King Zhaoxiangwang's mother, Queen Dowager Xuantaihou, adultered with a Rong king from Yiqu Statelet in today's northwestern Shenxi Province. She had two sons born with Yiqu Rong King, but she killed the new Yiqu King and incorporated the lands of Longxi (Gansu), Beidi (today's Yinchuan of Ningxia) and Shangjun (Yulin, Shenxi Prov) on behalf of Qin. Qin took over Shangjun from Wei. Qin built the Great Wall at Longxi of Gansu, Beidi and Shangjun of Shenxi land. The two successive Jinn states which bordered the northern nomads, Wei & Zhao, plus Qin and Yan, would be busy fighting the nomads for hundreds of years, and they built separate walls to drive the nomads out. Zhao King Wulingwang adopted reforms by wearing Hu cavalry clothing and he defeated Linhu / Loufan and built Great Wall from Dai to Yinshan Mountain. Zhao set up Yunzhong, Yanmen and Dai prefectures. A Yan Principality General by the name of Qin-kai, after returning from Donghu as a hostage, would attack Donghu and drive them away for 1000 li distance. Yan built Great Wall and set up Shanggu, Yuyang, You-beiping, Liaoxi and Liaodong prefectures.

Qin State founded the first united empire of Qin in 221 BC. After Qin unification of China, Emperor Shihuangdi ordered General Meng Tian on a campaign that would drive the so-called Hu nomads or the Huns out of the areas south of the Yellow River. The Huns under Modok's father, Dou-man (Tou-man), fled northward and would not return till General Meng Tian died ten years later. Details about barbarians were also covered at prehistory section.

Ban Gu, in his three sections on the Huns, just summed up the nomadic history indiscriminately. I could not find any corroborative explanations as to those barbarians, and the literal interpretation would be like this: Chi meaning red, Bai meaning White, Chang meaning long or tall, while Rong meaning woooly (against 'mao' character for hairy skin). To make sense of those Rong & Di people, Quanrong means the Doggy Rongs, Linhu the Forest Hu nomads, Donghu the Eastern Hu nomads, and Shanrong the Mountain Rongs. "Loufan" would be a group of people to be conquered by the Huns around the turn of Qin-Han Dynasties. "Donghu" would be denoting the Tunguzic ancestors of later Xianbei and Wuhuan nomads. "Shanrong" were the people dwelling in the place bordering Korea, from whom the Yan-Qi joint armies took over large patches of land. Note that white or red were designations of tribal clothing customs or related symbols, and they had nothing to do with hair or skin. Shang Dynasty used black bird as a totem, for example, and Clyde Winters' appropriation in claimng a Negroid origin of Shang people was fallacious. Similarly, minoriy people in Southwest China, like Bai-zu and Yi-zu, had derived from Bai-man (white barbarian) and Hei-man (black barbarian) of Di-Qiang people or ancestors of today's Tibetans.

The closest affiliation to the Huns would be the Rongdi Rongs who had inter-marriage with the Zhou Kingdom and later split into Red Di and White Di. The later group of people called 'Dingling' were said to have derived from Chi Di or Red Di. Gaoche people, ancestors of Huihe (Uygurs), were said to have derived from Dingling. ('Dingling', in my opinion, was a much abused categorical name, and it was used in many places of ancient Chinese records where satisfactory explanations were lacking.) The Doggy Rongs' relationship to the Western Rong was not clear. The Doggy Rongs were called Huangfu as we mentioned above, and they were said to be the same as 'Xianyun' barbarians on the steppe. Then came the Rongdi nomads who had inter-marriage with Zhou Kingdom at one time. It is possible the Rongdi nomads were the same as the Huangfu while the Huangfu would be the same as the Doggy Rongs. The safest bet would be to go to those Rongdi nomads for Hunnic origin. If so, that means the Hunnic ancestors had at one time lived in the heart of Zhou China.

By the time of Qin Empire (221 - 206 BC), Emperor Shihuangdi (Shi Huangdi), being given a necromancy note stating that the people who would destroy Qin would be named 'Hu' (which turned out to be the name of his junior son, Hu Hai or Hu-hai), would embark on a northern expedition against a people called Xiongnu (i..e, Huns) who were categorically called Hu nomads at that time. The record shows that the Huns lived not far away from the Chinese after all. Ban Gu, in his History Of Han Dynasty, said that the Rongdi nomads were inter-spersed in the land north of the Jing River and the Wei Rivers, that Qin Emperor Shihuangdi drove them out, and that Qin China went as far west as Lintao (Tao being the Tao River in today's Gansu Province). Qin empire would take over today's Hetao (the sleeve-shaped land surrounded by the Yellow River Bend on three sides) areas and set up 44 counties. Thereafter, Qing emperor ordered general Meng Tian to cross the Yellow River, and Yinshan Mountains of Inner Mongolia were taken, where 43 more counties were set up. In both campaigns, Qin migrated convicts to the new counties. It is very clear to me that the Huns had been driven out of China from the very beginning. When Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) reunited China, Xiongnu (Huns) would be the name for the nomads in north and northwest of China, while Donghu (Eastern Hu nomads) would be the name given to the nomads to the east of the Huns. The word "nu" of Xiongnu means 'slave' literally, while the word "Xiong" means forocious'. (In latter times, Manchurian kings and emperors would call anyone serving them as "nu cai", i.e., slaves.)

For further discussions on Barbarians & Chinese, please refer to

Common Origin For Di1-Qiang1 Barbarians & Xia Chinese
Relationship Between Shang Dynasty, Succeeding Zhou Dynasty & Barbarians
Difference Between Rong and Chinese In 'Culture', Not 'Blood-line'
Merging and Subjugating Barbarians By Zhou Dynasty & Principalities
Assertions By Luo Xianglin & Wang Zhonghan
Continuing Zigzags With Barbarians
Where Were Yuezhi, Wusun & Sai-ren [Scythians]?



Linguistic Explorations

A research via linguistics could help in determining the ethnicity of the Huns. There are three branches in the Altaic language family: Mongolian, Turkic and Tunguzic. While Mongolian and Turkic share many similarities, possibly because of the fact that the Mongolians relied on Uygur Turks for creation of the Mongolian written language and consequent inter-exchange, the Tunguzic branch is very much a separate branch which would include today's Manchurians, Koreans and some Yayoi-origin Japanese. Conventional wisdom points to some speculation that the Huns belong to the Turkic branch. Though no linguist existed at that time to study the Hun language, it seemed that the Han Chinese had no difficulty in communicating with the Huns. Zhang Qian the Han emissary had hired a Hun guide for the purpose of travelling to Central Asia, not for interpretation. The Huns were very enthusiastic in retaining Chinese as ministers in their court. At one point in time, the Huns had worn Chinese clothes sent over by the Han emperors. They discarded the Chinese clothing after they were told that the Chinese emperors tried to 'sinicize' them by tricking them into silk clothing instead of the cavalry clothing.

Most linguists assert that the Huns were Turkic-speaking. My point is that Altaic language family could be a derivative to Tibetan branch of Sino-Tibetan language family. It could be a bold proposal to suggest that the language branches did not distinguish themselves till much later. Alternatively speaking, the relationship between Qiangic Proto-Tibetan and Altaic Proto-Hun activities, per Assertions By Wang Zhonghan, could be discerned by the observations from history annals. In section on northern barbarians, Scholar Wang Zhonghan pointed out that the northern barbarians and western barbarians were similar [i.e., Qiangs] at Spring-Autumn time period of Zhou Dynasty, but by the time of late Warring States of Zhou Dynasty, Chinese began to see the northern barbarians as different from the western barbarians. Northern barbarians would be ancestors of i) later Huns to the north and northwest, and ii) the Donghu [Xianbei & Wuhuan] to the north and northeast, who were to evolve into so-called Altaic speaking nomadic people. Wang Zhonghan's points are: western barbarians, i.e., Qiangs, originated from Mt Longshan [Gansu], while northern barbarians originated from north of Mt Yinshan [Inner Mongolia] and beyond. What is important here is the speculation that those northern barbarians from north of Yinshan [i.e., King'an Ridge of Manchuria] might be related to Shang Chinese refugees who fled to northeast after a defeat by Zhou Dynasty, not to mention the historical record in regards to dispatching of Shang Prince Ji-zi to Manchuria and Korea as a Zhou vassal. Wang Zhonghan touched upon the mixing-up between the western barbarians [Qiangs] and northern barbarians [Hu], which was was similar to the mix-up of Xianbei and Xiongnu [Hun] in later Han Dynasty and Three Kingdon time periods. To reconcile the historical disputes as to 'the Barbarians', I would agree with Wang Zhonghan in pointing out that the ancestors of Tunguzic people, by the time of late Warring States of Zhou Dynasty, had spread across the northern plains to be ancestors of Huns, Turks and Mongols, overpowered the Qiangic barbarians, and subdued the Yuezhi.

Incidentally, ancient classical Chinese language had totally different syntax from today's commonly-spoken Chinese: e.g., the inverse of object and noun was concerned. Alternatively speaking, Zhu Xueyuan, a contemporary Chinese, had speculated that the multiple syllable given names of Qin Statelet and other Zhou vassals could point to some Altaic origin. What Zhu Xueyuan might not know is that ancient Sono-Tibetan and ancient Altaic might be more closely related than people could imagine. While the Huns left no written language, the Turks had possessed a so-called Orkhon scripts which, like the lost languages of the Khitans, Tanguts and Jurchens, had all appeared to contain some kind of revision on top of Chinese. A simple comparison of some words in later Mongolian language yields the following interesting points: The word for the Mongolinas, Mongqol irgen, is the same word 'irgen' as used in ancient Chinese pronunciation which could be corrobated by the Cantonese pronunciation of 'irgen' and Japanese pronuncitation of 'nin' or 'dgen'. Still more interesting is the fact that Genghis Khan's name, Timuchin, shared the same prefix as some of his brothers and sister, with Ti meaning nothing more than a Chinese word 'Tie' for iron or smith. JOHANN WILHELM ADOLF KIRCHHOFF (1826-1908) mentioned two Kara-Kirghiz groups, i.e., "the On or "Right" in the east, with seven branches (Bogu, Sary-Bagishch, Son-Bagishch, Sultu or Solye, Cherik, Sayak, Bassinz), and the Sol or "Left" in the west, with four branches (Kokche or Kfichy, Soru, Mundus, Kitai or Kintai)". As stated at http://57.1911encyclopedia.org/K/KI/KIRGHIZ.htm, the "Sol section occupies the region between the Talass and Oxus headstreams in Ferghana (Khokand) and Bokhara, ... The On section lies on both sides of the Tian-shan, about Lake Issyk-kul, and in the Chu, Tekes and Narin (upper Jaxartes) valleys." Once again, ancient Chinese words, like right for 'you' (mutated into 'on') and left for 'zuo' (mutated into 'sol'), were adopted by nomadic tribes on the steppe. Note that the Huns used to designate their officials into rightside and leftside virtuous kings, similar to Qin Principality's adoption of rightside and leftside prime ministers. Isenbike Togan of Middle East Technical University stated that "written Chinese is also a system of signs... Central Asian people who were not Chinese used this system at some time in the past, including the Turks." Isenbike Togan concluded that the Turkish word for 'freezing' came from Chinese word 'dong[4]'. Reader jianx mentioned that "...many words have similar sound and meaning as chinese -- the madarin... A few examples: Chinese: Bo2: father's brother --> turkish: Bey: same meaning( more general); Wa(1)Di(4): low land --> Vadi: valley; Shui(3): water --> Sui: water; Jie(2): sister --> ajia: female relative, sister. ...Turkish people have chinese last names. For example, Turkish 'Tan' is obviously a chinese last name. In turkish, it means 'sunrise', which is nearly identical to 'Dan(4)' in chinese --- the Zhou Dynasty's famous Zhou(1)Gong(1) Dan(4) --- you should know it means that the sun is rising over the horizon."

As to Turkic language, there had existed a much earlier version of language than the Orkhon script. There is on record a poem written by the wife of a Chinese officer under the Di[1] nomads' Anterior Qin Dynasty (AD 351-394), and it was said that this love poem was sent to her husband who was exiled to the border post on China's silk road. The points to make here is that it was written in so-called 'Hui Wen' language, namely, a terminology that was to be used for denoting Turkic language later. Hui means something self-looping or percolating, in a similar fashion to the Iranian languages. The poem could be read from right to left and from left to right.

However, languages should not be the determinant factor in determining ethnicity since people could adopt other languages by inter-exchanges. The so-called Turkic language was a term denoting some common pronunciation components among the various nomadic groups of peoples roaming the Euroasian continent, and it is exactly due to this kind of mobility that could lead to the result that the Magyar or Hungarian language (which belongs to the Finno-Ugric family) contains many words of Turkish origin, relating to animal husbandry and political and military organization.

It is said that the Magyars had migrated (c.460) from the Urals to the Northern Caucasus region. Remained there for about 400 years, they were allied with the Khazars of Turkish origin. Late in the 9th cent, the Pechenegs forced the Magyars westward across Southern Russia and into present Romania. They defeated the Bulgar czar Simeon I, but Simeon, with the help of the Pechenegs, forced them northward into Hungary where they permanently settled in AD 895. They conquered Moravia and penetrated deep into Germany until they were checked (955) by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I at the Lechfeld. The terms Magyar and Hungarian are identical, but in non-Hungarian languages the word Magyar is frequently used to distinguish the Hungarian-speaking population of Hungary from the German, Slavic, and Romanian minorities. Székely, ethnic group of Transylvania and of present-day Romania, is another good example. The Székely (also known as Szeklers or Siculi) came into Transylvania either with or before the Magyars. Their organization was of the Turkic type, and they are probably of Turkic (possibly Avar) stock. By the 11th cent., however, they had adopted Magyar speech. Some scholars disputed the word 'adopt' since they believe that Székely were of Magyar family, related to one of the two sons of Attila the Hun. Székely later formed one of three privileged nations of Transylvania (the others were the Magyars and the Saxons).


The Huns vs Eastern Hu Nomads

The 'Donghu' nomads are an interesting group of people and they joined the Hunnic / Jiehu forces sacking northern China in 4th century, similar to the Visigoths in sacking Roman Empire. The word 'dong' means east in Chinese, and this group of people are referred to as proto-Tunguzic. Donghu (or Tung Hu, the Eastern Hu) would be a proto-Tunguz group mentioned in Chinese histories as existing as early as the fourth century B.C. (In the paragraph on the 'Zigzags With Rong & Di' nomads, we have on record the Donghu nomads in 7th century BC.) The ancestors of Xianbei and Wuhuan people were originally located much to the center of Mongolia and northern China. They lived to the east of the Huns.

The Huns and the Eastern Hu nomads are not friends. Hunnic king, Modu (often wrongly pronounced as Maodun in Mandarin), first defeated the Eastern Hu nomads and then attacked the Han Dynasty, once encircling the army led by Han's first emperor Liu Pang. In later times, the Eastern Hu nomads and the Qiang nomads had acted as the mercenaries of Han Chinese emperors in fighting the Huns. More history about Donghu would be described at Xianbei & Wuhuan.

The Donghu nomads and the Yueh-chih [Yüeh-chih or Yuezhi] people were said to be stronger than the Huns according to Ban Gu. The Huns retreated to the north of the Yellow River and did not return till Qin's General Meng Tian were ordered to be killed by Qin's second emperor. The Huns, weaker than Yuezhi or Donghu, were required to send in their prince to the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) as hostage. Modu (Modok), who escaped from Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) alive, later in 209 BC (?), killed his father and his elder brother and proclaimed himself 'chanyu', a word meaning the grand expanse of the universe, similar to Chinese 'Tian Zi' [Son of the Heaven]. (The term 'chanyu' was often mis-pronounced and mis-typed as 'shan-yu' wherein 'shan' denotes a Chinese surname usually.) Before the Huns attacked southward and southwestward, they had conquered 5 states to the north, including Hunyu, Qushi (Quyi), Gekun, Xinkuang, and 'Dingling'. Dingling would be part of later Gaoche people. Dingling was said to have dwelled in a place to the north of later Kangju people. With tribes and clans subjugated, Modok boasted of an army of 300,000. When the Donghu nomads accused the first Hunnic Chanyu Modu of patricide, they were driven away by the Huns. Later, Han Emperor Wudi (reign 140-87 BC) later relocated the Donghu nomads to today's Liaoning Province for segregation from the Huns.

By the first century AD, two major subdivisions of the Donghu had developed: the Xianbei in the north and the Wuhuan in the south, by names of the two mountains. This also exemplifies the kind of mobility of nomadic peoples across the whole northern plains of Euroasian continent. The early Eastern Xianbei people were composed of three tribes of Yuwen, Duan and Murong as well as closely allied with the Koguryo people in the areas of today's Manchurian-Korean border. An alternative school of thought stated that Xianbei people were comprised of the Chinese coolie who fled from Qin Emperor Shihuangdi's order to build the Great Wall at the northern borders.

The nomads somewhat likened their status to each other. While they were pillaging in northern China, they constantly called themselves as well as their nomadic adversaries by the usual Chinese derogatory terminology of "barbarians". They constantly expressed doubts about themselves as well as their competitors becoming an orthodox emperor ruling northern China. While the so-called Tungunzic Donghu nomads might not be of the same family as the Huns, they did show some kind of identification with each other. Hunnic Duke Liu Xuan, in discussions with the emperor Liu Yüan of Hunnic Han (AD 304-329) about attacking the Xianbei nomads on behalf of Chinese emperor, said, "The Xianbei and Wuhuan nomads are in fact of same kind as us, why should we attack them on behalf of the Chinese?"

At times of Qin Empire, the Huns were called "Hu", and general Meng Tian is famous for fighting the Huns to the extent that the "Hu nomads dared not to graze their horses southward." In order to distinguish between the Huns from the Hu nomads in northern and northeastern China, Chinese used the words "Donghu" to denote the eastern Hu nomads.


Modu's Hun Empire and Early Han Dynasty

In AD 308, Hunnic king Liu Yüan proclaimed himself emperor of Hunnic Han Dynasty on basis of one sound logic: Hunnic kings had historically ackowledged that they were the nephews of Han Chinese emperors. By designating his dynasty as 'Han', he intended to play the card of asserting the so-called 'Mandate of Heaven'.

The Huns, as a group of people having origin from China's Xia Dynasty and dwelling in Ordos and Hetao originally, came to the Chinese Turkistan as an outsider. Han Emperor Liu Bang led 300,000 army to attack the Huns in 200 BC. After a defeat, Han China signed a peace treaty with the Huns by means of inter-marriage with Han princesses. Peace ensued with intermittent Hunnic raids around the northern border.

Huns Attacking Yuezhi Of Chinese Turkistan
Huns then raided to the west. According to Chinese history, the Hunnic Chanyu wrote to Han emperor saying that he ordered one of his kings, Youxianwang (rightside virtuous king), to strike at the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) as a punishment for breaking peace near the Chinese border. In 175-174 BC, Hunnic Chanyu's letter mentioned that they defeated Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) people by conquering Loulan, Wusun and Hujie etc, altogether 26 statelets in Chinese Turkistan. Hunnic Chanyu Laoshang (son of Modok Chanyu) used the skull of Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) king as his utensil for drinking. (The skull utensil would become Hunnic legacy which would be retrieved for employment on major celebrations. People would have to admire the Hunnic spirit to preserve this piece of work after hundreds of years of wars, turmoils and relocations.)

In 173 BC, Han Emperor Wendi replied to Modok Chanyu emphasizing the wish for peace. Soon after that, Modok died, and his son, Jiyu, got enthroned as Laoshang Chanyu. Wendi ordered that an eunuch by the name of Zhongxing Shuo accompany a Han princess to the Huns. Zhongxing Shuo tricked Laoshang Chanyu in saying that Han Dynasty intended the Huns to wear silk clothes instead of cavalry clothes. Zhongxing Shuo would instigate the Huns in attacking the Han, and he also taught the Huns how to count cattle and horses.

In Chinese Turkistan, the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) and their affiliates, Kangju and Wusun, had previously all dwelled in the so-called Qilian Mountains area of Gansu Province per Sima Qian's "Shi Ji". Gua Di Zhi stated that Yuezhi country included ancient Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Yanzhou and Shazhou, i.e., today's Gansu and Shenxi Provinces. When they moved to Central Asia under the attacks of the Huns, they used the city name of 'Zhaowu' of Gansu as their family name, for sake of not forgetting their roots. Yueh-chih (Yuezhi), after the migration, would later set up the Kushan Empire in Bactria and Afghanistan during the period of 141-128 BC. In c. AD 50, Kujula Kadphises united the five Yueh-chih tribes and established the Kushan Empire. Later, King Kanishka extended the Kushan Empire to the Tarim Basin, covering territories from Persia to Transoxiana to Tarim Basin to the Ganges in Upper Indus, with Buddhism as the state religion. (Bactria, translated as 'da xia' in Chinese, was also mistaken by Wang Guowei as a validation of his extrapolation of Xia's You-yu-shi clan as equivalent to Yuezhi. Wang Guowei speculated that Yuezhi people, after their defeat in the hands of Huns, fled to Bactria to found a similar 'xia' kingdom and that even the later 'Tu-huo-luo' kingdom of Afghanistan could be a mutation of the ancient pronunciation for 'da xia'. I expounded on Wang Guowei's blunder earlier in this section. Note that Bactria existed at the time of Alexandre Invasion which was before the Yuezhi migrated to the west. Also note that unconventional Chinese legend also touched on 'Persia': According to "New Tang History", the junior son of Changyi (son of Huangdi the Yellow Lord), by the name of An, had relocated to the Western Rong area and designated his state as 'Anxi', a name that later would be used for Persia or Parthia.)

After being defeated by the Huns in 174-161 BC, the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) first migrated to today's Ili area. In the west, Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) pushed out the Scythians. Under the attack of their Wusun affiliates, Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) migrated southwest in 141-128 BC to the Oxus Valley, pushing out the Scythians again. The son of Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) was ordered to stay behind in Gansu Province and they were referred to as the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) Minor [Lesser Yüeh-chih] and survived in Western China for hundreds of years. The new country in Central Asia would be called Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) Major [Greater Yüeh-chih]. This touched off a wave of 'chain reaction'. The Scythians went to take over Greco-Bactria kingdom. The Wushun people, previously enslaved by the Yüeh-chih, went on a revenge against the Yüeh-chih. Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) people were driven away from the Scythian land by the Wusun Statelet. Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) moved on to occupy Bactria. The Scythians, under the pressure of the Kushan Yüeh-chih, entered India after 135 BC and finished the last remaining Greeks there. Kushan Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) followed the path of the Scythians certainly and they would dominate Central Asia for hundreds of years.

Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) people were not weak at the beginning. The Huns, in fact, needed to send in hostage to the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) on the contrary. The father of Hunnic Chanyu Modu had at first planned to borrow the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) knife in killing Modu so that he could have his junior son succeed him. Modu was dispatched to Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) as a hostage, but the Huns attacked the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) thereafter. Modu had barely escaped the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) alive. Later, in 202 BC, Modu killed his father and brother and named himself 'Chanyu', i.e., the king or emperor of the Huns. When the king of Eastern Hu nomads heard about Modu's patricide, he challenged Modu by sending emissary to Modu and demanding the 'qianli-ma' ('winged steed') and again Modu's wife. Modu gave up the horse and his wife on the first two occasions and then attacked the Dong Hu nomads when asked to secede the land between the Huns and the Dong Hu. Modu defeated the Dong Hu nomads and killed their king. After that, the Huns attacked the west and forced the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) to the Oxus Valley where their descendants refused to forge an alliance with Zhang Qian the Han Chinese emissary in fighting the Huns.

The Huns then defeated two other tribal states called 'Loufan' and 'Baiyang' (white sheep) which were located between the Huns and the Chinese. (Baiyang King was recorded to have dwelled south of the Yellow River.)

Hunnic Government Structure & Dragon Reverance
The Huns had preyed upon Chinese Turkistan to exact tributes and taxes. The Huns, according to Ban Gu, devised an official entitled 'Tongpu Duwei' in 92 BC(?), similar to governor, and sent this person to the post in charge of ancient tribal states of Yanqi [Karashahr], Weixu and Yuli [Weili], located to the southwest of today's Urumqi. ('tongpu', i.e., two Chinese characters borrowed by the Huns, literally means "servants", which was to manifest the Hunnic master-slave relationship with Chinese Turkistan.) Hunnic 'Ri-zhu-wang' (king of sun chasing) was usually stationed in the 'west court', while Hunnic 'central court' was always in Outer Mongolia. Huns possesseed an 'east court' which was in charge of eastern Mongolia and Manchuria.

Modok established his government in rightside (you) and leftside (zuo) structure, and altogether would be 24 chieftans, including:
rightside vituous king and leftside vituous king;
rightside luli king and leftside luli king;
rightside grand general and leftside grand general;
rightside grand duwei and leftside grand duwei;
rightside grand danghu and leftside grand danghu;
rightside gudu-hou and leftside gudu-hou (hou meaning marquis).
Princes were usually given the title of 'Tuqi' or 'Zhuqi', meaning virtuous. Virtuous kings took charge of danghu, with 10,000 cavalry.

Huns were recorded to have reverance for the 'Dragon'. Their capital was called by a Chinese name of 'ting'. In this sense, the Huns are the true descendants of the Dragon. Ancient Chinese, however, disliked the Dragon, and it could be shown in the proverb, 'Shegong Hao Long', i.e., the Old Man Shegong's Pretentious Fondness for Dragons. Ban Gu recorded that once a year, the Huns would converge in Chanyu's court in the first month of the year, and in the month of May, would converge in a spot in central Mongolia for dragon reverance. The place is called 'Long Cheng' (Dragon city) or 'Huang Long' (i.e., yellow dragon). The Huns revered ancestors, Heaven/Earth and ghosts & spirits. There was a reference to a Hunnic pilgrimage called 'San Long Si', i.e., Three Dragon Pilgrimage. The later Jurchens would call their capital in Manchuria by a same name, i.e., Huanglong-fu. Reading through the rituals of Euro-Asian nomadic peoples, the conclusion is that dragon reverance was a popular shamanism. In the month of August, the Huns had the autumn worshipping festival, with a requirement that they must revere at a forest. Li Ling and Su Wu, in their correspondence, mentioned this custom, and later Donghu would erect trees for reverance should they fail to find a forest. Huns also looked to the stars and moon as signs for actions: They would launch an attack when there was a full moon. Also recorded would be their live burial customs, and ministers and concubines, in maybe hundreds, would be included.

Among Hunnic tribal affiliations, the Tuge (Zhuge) tribal affiliation was the most elite, and the Hunnic 'chanyu' would be selected out of this group. The Huns enjoyed 4 big family names: Huyan, Po, Lan, and Qiao. Huyan could assume the title of leftside or rightside 'sun chasing kings', Po the title of leftside or rightside 'juqu', Lan leftside or rightside 'danghu', and Qiao leftside or rightside 'duhou'. Huyan and po (xupo) families used to have inter-marriages with chanyu family. (Later Xianbei boasted of Huyan and Lan surnames, too.) Xupo was in charge of justice. The posts of 'gudu-hou' would be acting like prime ministers. Hunnic 24 chieftans would have the levels of qian-zhang (1,000 head), bai-zhang (100 head), shi-zhang (10 head), and other titulars like xiang, duwei, danghu, juqu.

Huns Attacking Han Chinese
When the Huns raided northern China and encircled the city of Mayi (today's northern Shanxi Prov) in 201 BC, first Han Emperor Liu Bang sent Xin, King of Han(2) Principality, to resist the Huns. But Xin, after being encircled by 100-200 thousand Huns, decided to negotiate with the Huns for peace. Emperor Liu Bang accused Xin of being a coward, and Xin, for fear of punishment, surrendered to Modu. Emperor Liu Bang led 300,000 army to attack the Huns in 200 BC. The Huns, with an army of 400 thousand, then encircled the vanguard army led by first Han Emperor Liu Bang (i.e., Han Gaozu) on Mount Baideng for 7 days. Mount Baideng is to the south of today's Datong County, Shanxi Prov. It was said that Modu had placed 4 groups of horses with respective colors in four directions, arranging his battle engagement in a strategical way. The siege was ended only after Liu Bang's counsellor, Chen Ping, bribed Modu's wife by bragging about the number of beauties in Chinese court and hinting that they could replace her should Modu succeed in capturing the Chinese capital. When attacked by the Huns again, Liu Bang's counsellor, Liu Jing, proposed that the elder princess be married over to Modu. Liu selected a court maid of honor and sent her to Modu as his own daughter. Liu Jing (Lou Jing) further proposed that the prestigious families of former Zhou principalities, Chu-Zhao-Jing(3) families of Chu in sourthern China and Tian-Huai families of Qi in Shandong Province, be relocated to Chang'an for sake of defence against the Huns as well as easy supervision of those Zhou Dynasty people. Altogether over 100 thousand people, including many ex-Zhou noble families dispatched by other kings in their respective principalities, were relocated to Chang'an.

After King of Han (2) Principality defected to the Huns, Chen Xi, the prime minister of Dai Principality and a friend of Han2 Xin the Marquis of Huaiying), rebelled against Han (4) Emperor. Chen Xi himself defected to the Huns after losing battles to Han Emperor, while Han2 Xin (who had earlier encouraged Chen Xi to plot the rebellion out of anger at Han Emperor for demoting him to marquis from king) was executed together with his wife and mother's lineages, so-called 3 lineage extinction, by Han Empress Luu-hou. King Peng Yue of Liang Principality did not answer the call to quell the Chen Xi rebellion. He was arrested by Emperor Liu Bang and put to death by Empress Luu-hou. King Ying Bu of Huainan Principality was accused by his minister of plotting to rebel against Han Emperor, and during the battle, he wounded Han Emperor Liu Bang with an arrow. Ying Bu was killed by his relative, King Wu Chen of Changsa Principality. During the conflict of Chen Xi rebellion, Chen had requested for aid from Hunnic Chanyu Modu; Modu, however, did not assist Chen Qi at the beginning because of his inter-marriage with Han Dynasty. King Lu Wan of Yan Principality sent his general (Zhang Sheng) to Modu in the attempt of stopping Modu from aiding Chen Xi. But, Zhang Sheng, incited by the son of ex-Yan king Zang Tu who had been seeking asylum with the Huns, had decided to go againt Lu Wan's will. King Lu Wan acquiesced when he thought to himself that the non-Liu kings had now been reduced to only two, himself and King of Changsa Principality while Han Emperor Liu Bang had conferred 8 king titles to his own kinsmen (6 being Liu Bang's own sons and 2 the sons of his two brothers). The 8 kings would be for Qi, Chu, Dai, Wu, Zhao, Liang, Huaiyang and Huainan. Han Emperor sent his general Fan Kuai to campaign against King Lu Wan when he heard of the Yan Principality's collusion with the Huns. Han Emperor passed away shortly. King Lu Wan, hearing about the emperor's death, drove his people northward and surrendered to Hunnic Chanyu Modu. King Lu Wan was conferred the title of 'Eastern Hun Ru King'. (Lu Wan's wife would later come to see Empress Luhou for a talk of return to China, and Lu Wan's grandson defected back to China years later.)

After the death of Han Emperor Liu Bang, Hunnic Chanyu Modu sent over a letter humiliating Han Empress Luu-hou (Lühou) via a proposition of a marriage between him and Empress Luu-hou and hence a combination of the Hunnic Empire and the Han Empire. Empress Luu-hou declined it and sent over some other Liu family girl to continue the inter-marriage with the Huns.

Emperor Wendi Continuing Intermarriage Policy With Huns
When Emperor Xiaowendi (Wendi) got enthroned in 179 BC, he continued the inter-marriage policy. But the Huns still harassed the border, and Hunnic Rightside Virtuous King invaded south of Yellow River in 176 BC. Wendi dispatched prime minister Guan Ying and an army of 85,000 and Huns fled across the river. In 175-174 BC, Hunnic Chanyu sent an messenger claiming that he had penalized Rightside Virtuous King by sending him on a campaign against Yuezhi in the west.

In early time period of Former Han Dynasty (202 B.C. - A.D. 220), Han emperors used to marry princess to Hunnic kings in exchange for peace, which proved to be futile. (Many times, the Han emperors used court maids of honor in lieu of princess. In contrast, later Tang Dynasty sent orthodox princess to Tibet.) In 173 BC, Han Emperor Wendi replied to Modok Chanyu emphasizing the wish for peace. Soon after that, Modok died, and his son, Jiyu got enthroned as Laoshang Chanyu. Wendi ordered that an eunuch by the name of Zhongxing Shuo accompany a Han princess to the Huns. Zhongxing Shuo would instigate the Huns in attacking the Han, and he also taught the Huns how to count cattle and horses. Zhongxing Shuo also made the size of bamboo for Chanyu letters to be double the size of Han Emperor, and paraphrased the chanyu as 'Born by Heaven & Earth and Confirmed by Sun & Moon'. By 165 BC, i.e., the 14th year of Emperor Xiaowendi, Huns, with 140,000 cavalry, raided into China again, attacked Xiaoguan Pass, killed the Han official 'du-wei' (governing captain) of Beidi Commandary and burnt down an ex-Qin rotating palace (Palace Linguang), and attacked ex-Qin rotating Palace of Ganquan in the Yongzhou Commandary area. Emperor Xiaowendi dispatched 100000 cavalry, led by Zhou She & Zhang Wu, against the Huns by stationing the army next to Chang'an city. Lu Qing, Wei Xiao, Zhou Zao, Zhang Xiangru and Dong Chi were ordered to attack the Huns. The Huns stayed put for several months before retreating out of "sai" [border garrison] in face of Han armies which accumulated in the number of hundreds of thousands. Thereafter, Huns harassed the border almost yearly, inflicting damages in the border areas of Yunzhong & Liaodong. In 161 BC, Wendi replied to Laoshang Chanyu, acknowledging the gifts sent by Hunnic Juqu & Danghu emissaries and emphasizing the need to maintain the peace between the two countries. Laoshang Chanyu replied that he had decreed that whoever invade Han border would be penalized by death. In 159 BC, Laoshang Chanyu died, and his son, Junchen, got enthroned. Wendi continued the inter-marriage policy. Two years later, Huns invaded Shangjun and Yunzhong with 30,000 cavalry, respectively, and killed Chinese at the borderline. Emperor Wendi frequently dispatched 3 columns of armies against the Hunnic invasions by stationing them at Beidi, Juzhu [Daixian county] and Feihukou as well as reinforced capital defence at Xiliu, Jimen and Bashang. Months later, Huns retreated from Juzhu after Han army came to the border.

Emperor Jingdi
When Emperor Jingdi got enthroned in 156 BC, he continued the inter-marriage policy. At one time, King of Zhao, together with Chu King and Yue King, for sake of rebelling against the emperor, had requested with the Huns for support. Once Zhao rebellion was quelled, Huns agreed to inter-marriage. Huns had small scale border harassment throughout Emperor Jingdi's reign.

Han Emperor Wudi's Abortive Attempt At Ambushing Huns
It would be during the reign of Emperor Wudi (140-86 BC) that the Chinese fought back. Huns and Chinese traded with each other at the foot of the Great Wall till a Han emissary from Mayi city was dispatched to the Huns for setting up a trap to ambush the Huns. Huns were seduced to Wuzhou-sai border garrison with the offer of riches of Mayi city. A Han general by the name of Wang Hui was the person who proposed that Han army set up a trap to attract the Huns into an ambush. Yushi Dafu Han An'guo led 300,000 army and set up a trap at Mayi, but Hunnic Chanyu, suspicious of the quietness along the way, caught a Han captain [Shi Xingjiao at Yanmen] who disclosed the ambush scheme. Huns, in the number of 100,000 cavalry, fled home. Chanyu conferred the title of "tian-wang [heaven king]" onto Shi Xingjiao. Wang Hui, with 30,000 men, did not dare to attack the Huns when Huns retreated and he was imprisoned for his cowardice. Hence the Huns declined inter-marriage and began to raid into China frequently. Ban Gu stated that the Huns also traded with Han Dynasty in border fairs at the same time.

Zhang Qian's Trip To Central Asia
From the mouth of a defecting Hun, Wudi learnt about the relocation of Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) Major to the west of the Huns. Hence, in 138 BC, Wudi sent an emissary called Zhang Qian, a Hun guide called Tangyifu and 100 people on a trek across the west. Zhang Qian was arrested by the Huns soon, and he was forced to live among the Huns for dozens of years and he had married and born two children. Zhang, however, did not forget about Wudi's order, and he fled with his Hun guide to the west and reached the state of Dayuan [Dawan] (Kokand?, Fergana Valley). With the assistance from Dayuan [Dawan] king, he was escorted to Kangju where the Kanju king assisted him further on his trip to Bactria, the place where the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) Major had settled down.

Zhang Qian returned to China after another arrest by the Huns. Sima Qian and history chornicles called Zhang Qian's travel to the west by the term of "piercing the vacuum" as an eulogy of his personal verification of the West. Hitorical Chinese records point to Chinese Turkistan as the source of jade and diamond trade; however, nothing particular beyond Chinese Turkistan was mentioned. The trade on the Silk Road did not flourish till hundreds of years later. In history, there were at least two paths that could have more important roles than Silk Road 2000 years ago. Certainly, the sea routes also existed between Rome and China, by which the silk had actually been shipped rather than via the more precarious land of conflicting statelets and tribes. The precarious nature of the Road across deserts could be see in General Li Guangli's losing 80% of his soldiers when he first campaigned against Dayuan [Dawan] (Kokand?, Fergana Valley) in 104 BC. (People who claimed nomadic propogation of horse and cavalry to China might propose a northern belt route. Should we read Chinese records, then we often encountered passages like the nomads losing 6-7 out of 10 people and cattle during some storms. A good example of the same kind of precarious nature on the steppe could be illustrated in Zhizhi Chanyu's losing the bulk of fighters during the relocation to Kang-ju territory. While Zhizhi Chanyu stationed in Jiankun territory, Sogdia king intended to attack the Wusun Statelet with the Hunnic assistance. Zhizhi Chanyu arrived in the destination with only 3000 remnants.)

Upon Zhang's return from the west, after a span of 13 years, Emperor Wudi first ordered 4 expeditions to the southwest of China to search for a route to India. This is because Zhang Qian reported that he saw Zangke (a place in today's Sichuan Province) bamboo products and Sichuan clothing which the Bactria merchants said were shipped over from India. Wudi got in touch with Yelang Statelet and Dian-Yue Statelet etc.

What Silk Road Contributed To World Civilization
Aly Mazaheri, an ethnic Iranian and a French sinologist, in La Route De La Soie (1983), claimed that China needed only "Fergana stallions" from the rest of the world, while the rest of the world needed everything from China, all faciliated by the Silk Road. Aly Mazaheri stated that at the time Persian King Sha-na-di-er dispatched last mission to Manchu Qing Emperor Qianlong [reign 1736-1795], British had taken over 75% of the trade between Orient and Occident while Russians had the other 25%.

Silk Road, in Aly Mazaheri's opinions, had lost its role not due to the discovery of sea route, but due to the newly manufactured products that had come to replace the traditional Chinese products shipped over from Silk Road: i.e., synthetic musk replacing Chinese musk; products of industrial revolution replacing Chinese iron cast ovens, iron wok, steel nails, pliers, needles, scissors, iron file, and hammers; Venice tin-coated glass replacing Chinese bronze mirrors; Swedish matches replacing Chinese fire-making sickle that Europe had utilized for 18 centuries; and Russian water-mark paper replacing high quality Chinese paper in 19th century. Further, Aly Mazaheri pointed out that the Europeans had confusion about the identity of China by stating that Portuguese governor in India dispatched Benoit Goez on an overland trip via silk road to verify that the Khitay was the same as China, which culminated in Benoit Goez's arrival in Suzhou [Gansu Prov] in AD 1604.

Han Emperor Wudi Campaigns Against Huns
Han Emperors Wendi and Jingdi were renowned for their frugality. Their policies as to the Huns would be pacification. Han Emperor Wudi, however, embarked upon a policy of expansion. Five years after abortive Mayi trap, at about 129 BC, Huns raided into Chinese territories again. Han Emperor Wudi dispatched four generals and 40000 cavalry against the Huns at Huguan Pass Trade Fair. Wudi dispatched 4 columns of armies against the Huns, with Wei Qing departing from Shanggu (today's Huailai County, Hebei Prov), Gongsun Ao from Dai Prefecture (today's Guangling, Shanxi Prov and Weixian County, Hebei Prov), Gongsun He from Yunzhong (today's Tuoketuo County, Inner Mongolia), and Li Guang from Yanmen or Yanmenguan Pass (today's Youyue County, Shanxi Prov). Only Wei Qing won a small victory by capturing 700 Huns. General Li Guang barely escaped after being captured by Huns. Li Guang etc was demoted for his defeat. Huns, in the winter, attacked Yuyang area, near Peking. The next year, Huns, with 20,000 cavalry, invaded Manchuria and killed Liaoxi Tai Shou (i.e., grand governor or grand guardian of Western Liaoning area). Huns then invaded Yuyang, near Beijing, and almost finished the thousand cavalry led by An'guo and retreated when Han relief army arrived. Huns invaded Yanmen next and killed about 1000 people. General Han Anguo was defeated. Li Guang was called upon again and he was assigned the post of governor of You (rightside) Beiping (the name for today's Beijing), a place that belongs to today's northern areas of Tianjin Principality. Li Guang stayed there for five years before he was recalled to the capital again.

When Huns raided Beijing area again, Wudi dispatched Wei Qing and 30000 soldiers out of Yanmen Pass, and General Li Xi out of Dai Prefecture. Wei Qing won some small victories again by killing and capturing 1000 Huns. In 127 BC, Huns attacked Shanggu and Yuyang (today's northeastern Beijing, Hebei Prov). Wudi ordered Wei Qing and Li Xi on a campaign out of Yunzhong to reach Longxi (today's Weisui and Tiaohe Rivers, Gansu Prov). Wei Qing departed from Yunzhong and campaigned all the way to Longxi of Gansu, and he defeated two Hunnic kings in Baiyang and Loufan territories, took over Hunnic land south of the Yellow River, captured and killed thousands of Huns, and looted millions of sheep. Wei Qing was conferred the title of Marquis Changping. Wudi, in imitation of Qin Shihuangdi, ordered the construction of a castle on the north bank of the north Yellow River Bend, and two commandaries, Wuyuan and Shuofang, were set up. Ban Gu stated that Han Dynasty abandoned two counties in Shanggu for the Huns. In the following winter, around 126 BC, Hunnic Junchen Chanyu died, and brother King Zuo-you-li-wang Yi-zi-ye made himself the Hunnic chanyu. Yi-zi-ye defeated the son of Hunnic Junchen Chanyu, and son of Hunnic Junchen Chanyu surrendered to Han.

Between 130 and 121 B.C., Chinese armies drove the Huns back across the Great Wall, and weakened the Huns in Gansu Province as well as Inner Mongolia. Famous Chinese generals, like Wei Qing and Li Guang would emerge in this time period.

Around 126 BC, Hunnic Chanyu Junchen died. Junchen's son (Yudan) was driven off by Junchen's brother, Leftside Guli King, and this would be the Hunnic Chanyu Yizhiye. Yudan fled to Han court and was conferred the title of Marquis She'an. Marquis She'an died in few months. In the summer, tens of thousands of Hunnic cavalry invaded Dai-jun. Huns killed 'Tai Shou' [magistrate] Gong You of Dai Prefecture and captured over thousand people. In the autumn, the Huns attacked Yanmen Pass and killed over thousand people. The next year, Huns repeatedly attacked Dai, Dingxiang and Shangjun. Hunnic Youxianwang (rightside virtuous king) tried to retake the Shuofang Commandary for recovering the lost territories south of the Yellow River. Hunnic Youxianwang raided Shuofang and south of the Yellow River repeatedly.

In spring of 124 BC, Wudi ordered Wei Qing to lead an army of 100,000 on a campaign against Hunnic Youxianwang in Gaoque by departing Shuofang. Wei Qing, after trekking over 300 kilometers, captured 15000 Huns and over 10 chieftans via a surprise attack at the night. Drunken Hunnic Youxianwang escaped. In the autumn, Huns raided Dai-jun, killed captain Zhu Yang ['Du-wei' Zhu Ying?] and captured 1000 Chinese. The next spring, Wei Qing was conferred the post as 'Da Jiangjun' (namely, the Grand General), commanded 6 generals, and obtained the auxiliary support from General Su Jian, Li Ju, Gongsun He, and Li Cai. Wudi, meantime, ordered General Li Xi to attack the Huns from the east. Wei Qing was ordered to counter-attack the Huns with command of 6 generals and 100,000 strong army. Wei brought his nephew, Huo Qubing, with him. Wei Qing departed Ding-Xiang area, trekked hundred li distance, and captured and killed 19000 Huns at a cost of losing two Han generals and 3000 cavalry: Zhao Xin (a defector Hunnic chieftan who was conferred a title of marquis) surrendered to the Huns after a defeat in the hands of Hunnic Chanyu's main bulk of army, and Su Jian escaped after a defeat in the hands of the Huns. Wudi personally stood up to give Wei a toast, and ministers went to the capital's gate to greet Wei's victorious return. Hunnic Chanyu was delighted at capturing Zhao Xin, married his sister to him, and built a castle called 'Zhao Xin City' for him. Su Jian escaped during the process of Zhao Xin's surrender to the Huns, while Huo Qubing was able to capture the prime minister and the uncle of the Hunnic Chanyu. Huo Qubing was conferred the title of Marquis Guanjun-hou. Meantime, Zhang Qian was conferred the title of Marquis Bowang-hou [i.e., marquis who looked beyond] for his western tour. Zhao Xin somehow pursuaded Hunnic Chanyu Yizhiye into stopping harassing Han for some time. The next year, Huns briefly raided Shanggu and killed over hundred people.

In the spring of ensuing year, Emperor Wudi ordered expeditions to the Western Corridor. Departing from Longxi (Gansu Province), Huo Qubing, with over 100,000 cavalry, attacked the Huns in and around Yanzhi [Yanqi] Mountains and killed or captured 8000 Huns. Huo killed two Hunnic kings, King Zhelan and King Luhou, captured the prince of Hunnic king Hunye (Kunye), and grabbed the gold statute of King Xiutu (Xiuzhu). In 121 BC, Wudi ordered another campaign, with Huo Qubing and Gongsun Ao [marquis heqi-hou] departing from northern border of Longxi & Beidi, while Li Guang and Zhang Qian departed from the Beijing area of Youbeiping for attack on Hunnic leftside virtuous king. Huo crossed Juyan Lake area and attacked the Huns in and around Qilian Mountains, with 30000 Huns either captured or killed. But Li Guang lost more than half of his 4000 soldiers after being encircled by Hunnic leftside virtuous king while Zhang Qian was demoted for not sending relief to Li Guang at the eastern frontier on time.

In the autumn, Hunnic King Hunye (Kunye), for fear of punishment by Hunnic Chanyu, killed King Xiutu (Xiuzhu) and surrendered his 40000 people to Huo Qubing. Wudi relocated the Huns to five prefectures: Longxi, Beidi (today's northeastern Gansu Prov), Shangjun (today's northeastern Shenxi Prov), Shuofang, and Yunzhong. Wudi further set up Wuwei and Qiuquan Commandaries in the old territories of King Hunye (Kunye). Han Dynasty relocated poverty-stricken people of Guan-zhong area to the Hunnic territory of Xin-Qin-zhong, and reduced garrison to the west of Beidi by half. The next spring, Huns raided Youbeiping and Dingxiang with tens of thousands of cavalry and inflicted a casualty of thousands on the Chinese.

Campaigns Deep Into Outer Mongolia
In spring of 119 BC, Wudi ordered another campaign against the Huns who dwelled to the north of Gobi at the advice of Zhao Xin. With 200000 [100000 per Ban Gu] cavalry, 100000 soldiers and auxiliary and logistic horses numbering 140000, Han armies attcked the Huns deep into today's Outer Mongolia. Wei Qing departed from Dai, while Huo Qubing departed from Dingxiang for a union at north of Gobi. After one day fierce fighting, Hunnic Chanyu fled with hundreds of cavalry when Han armies launched a two prong attacks in a strong winter at dusk. Han armies chased all the way to "Zhao Xing City", capturing or killing 19000 Huns. Hunnic Rightside 'gu-li' King, thinking that his Chanyu might have died, would assume the post of chanyu and give up the post after the return of the real chanyu. Hu Qubing also fought against Hunnic leftside virtuous king after travelling 2000 li distance from Dai area and captured or killed 70000 Huns. Hu Qubing reached Langjuxu-shan Mountain and Linhan-hai Lake in Outer Mongolia. On this occasion, Li Guang committed suicide for his missing the schedule. With Huns gone, Han Dynasty established 'military farming' from Shuofang to Lingju in the west and assigned 50000-60000 soldiers.

Han Princess Marrying Over To Wusun [Ili]
Zhang Qian told Emperor Wudi that Han should marry over a princess to the Wusun Statelet so that the Huns would lose their support in Western China, a strategy called 'cutting off the right arm of the Huns'. Zhang said that Wusun originally dwelled around Dunhuang, Gansu Provice and the areas around the Qilian Mountains, together with Yüeh-chih. But Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) attacked them. The son of Wusun king would ask the Huns to help them in defeating the Yüeh-chih. When Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) took over Scythian land, Wu-sun went on to drive the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) to Bactria.

In 119 B.C., Zhang was ordered again to go west with hundreds of messengers. When those messegers returned to the capital, they did a calculation and derived the number of 36 statelets across the west of China.

Zhang Qian's second trip culminated in the inter-marriage between Wusun and Han Dynasty, with Han Princess Xieyou and Xijun married with Wusun king [i.e., "kunmo"] consecutively.

Wudi sent expeditions into the Hunnic territories frequently, and historians said he had used up his royal savings in waging the war on the Huns. Wudi's extravagent lifestyle would also be embodied by his war efforts to retrieve the 'Heavenly Horses' (flying horses) in the Central Asia. The Wusun horses were originally called 'Tian Ma', namely, the Heavenly Horses, but later Emperor Wudi renamed the Wusun horses 'Xi Ji Ma' or western-most horses while the Dayuan [Dawan] horses were given the name of 'Tian Ma'.

Han Emperor Wudi Reversing 'Intermarriage' Policy To Have Huns Send In Hostage
At the pursuasion of Zhao Xin, Hunnic Chanyu Yi-zi-ye requested for peace with Han. Emperor Wudi agreed to peace after reflecting on the loss of over 100,000 horses. Wudi sent emissary, Ren Pi, to the Huns, but Ren Pi was detained by the Huns. Ban Gu stated that Han stopped attacking the Huns after the death of Huo Qubing. Years later, Hunnic Chanyu Yi-zi-ye died after being on the throne for 13 years. Son Wu-wei assumed the chanyu throne during the 3rd year of Yuanding Era, i.e., 114 BC. Han Dynasty was busy fighting two Yue statelets in the south, while Huns refrained from attacking the border in the north.

Three years after Hunnic chanyu Wu-wei enthronement, Han Dynasty quelled the southern Yue statelets. Gongsun Ao, with 15000 cavalry, was dispatched to the north from Jiuquan. After trekking 2000 li distance, Gongsun Ao failed to locate the Huns. Meanwhile, Zhao Ponu, with 10000 cavalry, departed from Lingju, and failed to locate the Huns after reaching Xiongnu-he-shui [Hun Water] River. Emperor Wudi personally descended upon Shuofang Commandary and received welcome from 180000 cavalrymen. Wudi dispatched emissary Guo Ji to Hunnic chanyu for informing about the decapitated head of Southern Yue King. Chanyu executed his Hunnic minister who advocated a meeting with Guo Ji and retained Guo Ji as a hostage at Bei-hai-shang [i.e., Lake Baikal]. Han emissary, Wang Wu, went to see Hunnic chanyu by blackening his face via Hunnic cutoms and pursuaded chanyu about sending over prince to Han court as a hostage. Another Han emissary, Yang Xin, also visited chanyu.

At this time, Han court had conquered northern Korea as well as established Jiuquan-jun commandary on the silk road for segregating the Qiangs from the Huns. Han court had also dispatched emissaries to Yuezhi, Bactria, and Wusun. Han princess was married over to Wusun king as a means of diffusing Hunnic support in the west. Han established two more border garrisons to the north without invoking any complaint from the Huns. Yang Xin, refusing to put aside Han court's diplomatic symbol, discussed 'intermarriage' with Chanyu outside of the tent. Yang Xin insisted that Huns send in their prince as a hostage before Han court could renew intermarriage. Huns and Chinese did not back down from each other's positions, and Huns and Chinese often retained opposite party's emissaries as retaliation. After Yang Xin returned to Han court, Wang Wu was dispatched to the Huns again. Hunnic chanyu claimed that he was eager to go to Chinese capital for seeing the emperor for sake of imperial bestowals. Han court built a residency for chanyu at the capital. However, chanyu merely dispatched a noble to Han court. When this Hun died of illness, chanyu retained Han emissary Lu Chongguo on the pretext that Chinese had murdered the noble. Huns dispatched cavalry for pillaging the border again. Guo Chang was stationed east of Shuofang commandary for guarding against the Huns. In 105 BC, i.e., 6th year of Yuanfeng Era, Hunnic Chanyu Wu-wei died. Son Zhan-shi-lu enthroned. Han court dispatched emissaries for condoling the Huns. However, the Huns retained the Han emissaries. Huns and Chinese retained opposite party's emissaries for more than one dozen batches.

General Huo Qubing earlier set up the Qiuquan and Wuwei Commandaries in Gansu Province, and later more commandaries were set up, Zhangye and Dunhuang. For the first time, Chinese colonized in non-Chinese territories. Civilians were relocated to guard the posts along with the army. After General Li Guangli campaigned against the ancient state of Dayuan [Dawan] (Kokand?, Fergana Valley) in Central Asia, more posts were set up on the Silk Road. From Dunhuang to the Qinhaihu Lake, 'farming soldiers' were stationed.

Han Emperor Wudi Campaigns Against Turkistan & Central Asia
When the small statelets, like Gushi and Loulan, harassed Han emissaries, Emperor Wudi sent General Zhao Puonu on a campaign against the two statelets in 109 BC. General Zhao caught the King of Loulan statelet and conquered Gushi statelet.

When Dayuan [Dawan] (Kokand?, Fergana Valley) refused to trade their horses with Han, and further killed Han emissry and robbed the gold horse, Emperor Wudi sent General Li Guangli on a campaign against Dayuan [Dawan] in 104 BC. General Li Guangli's first campaign, with tens of thousands of convicts, failed to capture a city called Yuecheng in between. General Li Guangli returned with less than 20% of the forces in about 2 years, but Emperor Wudi stopped him from coming inside of the Yuemen (Jade Gate) Pass. General Li Guangli stayed in Dunhuang.

At this time, another Han general, i.e., Zhao Puonu, lost 20,000 men to the Huns. Wudi decided to conquer Dayuan [Dawan] first before concentrating on the Huns. He ordered 60,000 second-class citizens and convicts on a new campaign against Dayuan [Dawan], with logistical support of 100,000 buffalos and 30,000 horses. After a siege of over 40 days, in 102 BC, Dayuan [Dawan] (Kokand?, Fergana Valley) killed their king and surrendered to Han. Li Gaungli retrieved a dozen top-class horses and over 3,000 middle-class horses, and returned.

At the time Li Gaungli campaigned in Central Asia, Huns had internal turmoils. When Huns suffered calamity in husbandry due to severe cold winter, Hunnic rightside and leftside 'duwei' [captains] stealthily collaborated with Chinese in toppling chanyu. Han court built a "surrender castle" for the Hunnic captains to use. Chinese forces, about 20000 cavalry headed by Zhao Puonu, departed for joint actions. Chanyu found out about the plot and killed the Hunnic captains. Zhao Puonu caught a few thousand Huns. Before Zhao Puonu returned to "surrender castle", 80000 Hunnic cavalry surrounded him. Zhao Puonu was caught by the Huns when seeking water outside of the camp at night. Hunnic chanyu then lay siege of "surrender castle", withdrew from the siege after failure to sack it, and pillaged the border.

The next year, during the 3rd year reign, Hunnic chanyu died while on the way of personally leading an attack at "surrender castle" again. Hunnic rightside virtuous king Ju-li-hu, i.e., Zhan-shi-lu's uncle and Wu-wei's brother, assumed the throne as chanyu in 102 BC, i.e., 3rd year of Taichu Era.

New Hunnic Chanyu Calling Himself A Nephew
To counter Huns, Xu Ziwei built catsles along the road of hundred li distance beyond Wuyuan-sai garrison; Han Sui and Wei Kang acted as auxiliary support; and Lu Bode built citadel at Lake Juyan-ze. (At one time during Tang Dynasty, Lake Juyan, where E-ji-na River flew to, still possessed 300 square kilometers in size.) In 101 BC, Han Dynasty established military farming in today's Luntai & Quli and assigned an official entitled "emissarial colonel" ["i.e., shi zhe xiao wei"] there. In the autumn, Huns raided Yunzhong, Dingxiang, Wuyuan and Shuofang commandaries and killed few thousand Han people. Hunnic rightside virtuous king raided Jiuquan and Zhangye to the west and captured few thousand people. Hearing that General Li Guangli was returning from Central Asia, the Huns planned for an ambush on the road but changed mind later. Hunnic chanyu, with a reign of less than one year, died of illness in the winter. Brother, i.e., rightside grand duwei [captain] assumed the chanyu post.

In 101 BC, Han Emperor Wudi proposed a general attack at the Huns for avenging on first Han emperor's defeat in the hands of the Huns as well as first Han empress's humiliation of being asked for marriage with Modok. The new Hunnic chanyu, for appeasing the Chinese, released all emissaries and hostages who refused to surrender to Huns, including Lu Chongguo. Chanyu pretended to be humble by calling himself a nephew. However, once Su Wu brought to the Huns huge amount of money and wealth, Hunnic chanyu became arrogant again. The next year, Zhao Puonu fled back to Han court from Hunnic captivity.

Han Emissary Su Wu Being A Shepherd For 19 Years & Li Ling Surrendering To The Huns
Frictions with Huns continued. A Han emissary, Su Wu, was detained and sent to Lake Bajkal to be a shepherd for 19 years. The Su Wu story was like this: In 100 BC, Emperor Wudi sent a mission of over 100 people, led by Su Wu, to the Huns. Su Wu was detained by the Huns, and sent to Bei-Hai [North Sea, i.e., Lake Baykal]. Su Wu had returned after Huo Guang (General Ho Chu-ping's brother) requested for Su with the Hunnic king who had initially cheated Huo in saying that Su was long dead. A Hunnic insider informed Han emissary of Su Wu's exile, and Han emperor made up a story of catching a bird with a message tied to the leg stating that Su Wu was at Lake Bajkal.

Wudi decided to dispatch an army to punish the Huns. The next year, Wudi dispatched Li Guangli and 30000 cavalry against the Huns from Jiuquan area. At Tianshan [heavenly mountain], Li Guangli at one time captured or killed 10000 Huns. However, later, Li Guangli barely escaped from the encirclement by the Huns, with a loss of 6-7 out of 10 soldiers. Two more generals were sent to engage the Huns.

One contingent of 5000 archers (arrow soldiers) from southern China, led by "qi duwei" [cavalry captain] Li Ling (grandson of Li Guang), was encircled to the north of Juyan Lake [i.e., Lake E-ji-na or Lake Khara Khoto] by the Huns numbering 30000. General Li Ling surrendered to the Huns after engaging half a dozen rounds of retreating fights, inflicting a casualty of 10000 onto the Huns and exhausting all the arrows. Only 400 soldierd escaped. Hunnic chanyu married his daughter to Li Ling. Li Ling, after hearing of the death of his family families in the hands of Han court, later joined the Huns in attacking China. Li Ling was then assigned as the "rightside virtuous king" to ancient Jiankun Statelet where his descendants claimed to Tang emperor as sharing the same last name as the Kirghiz. Li Ling's son assisted one Hunnic rivalry chanyu during the internal power struggles.

Li Guangli & The Huns
Two years later, General Li Guangli, with his 70,000 troops & 60000 cavalry, departed Shuofang; Lu Bode converged with Li Guangli with another 10000. Haan Sui departed from Wuyuan with 30000 troops; and Gongsun Ao commanded 10000 cavalry and 30000 infantry from Yanmen-guan Pass. Hunnic chanyu relocated his people and belongings to the north of Yuwu-shui River, while preparing 100000 army against the Han expedition forces south of the river. Li Guangli fought against the Huns for over ten days. Han armies withdrew thereafter without any result. The next year, Hunnic chanyu died after a reign of five years. Senior son, i.e., Hunnic leftside rightuous king, became Hunnic Chanyu Hulugu in 96 BC.

Hunnic Chanyu Hulugu, who originally tried to yield the throne to his brother Zuo-da-jiang [leftside grand general], died few years later. Under the previous promise, brother Zuo-da-jiang assumed the post while the son of Hulugu was renamed "sun chasing king".

Huns raided Shanggu & Wuyuan and killed people in border area. The next year, about 90 BC, Huns raided Wuyuan & Jiuquan and killed captains in two places. Li Guangli was dispatched against the Huns. In 90 BC, General Li Guangli and his 70,000 troops departed from Wuyuan, while Shang Qiucheng led 30000 for exiting Xihe and Mang Tong led 40000 cavalry for exiting Jiuquan. Hunnic chanyu again relocated his belongings to the north of "Zhao Xin City", near a river called Zhiju-shui River, while Hunnic leftside virtuous king drove his people 600-700 li distance away from Yuwu-shui River. General Shang Qiucheng returned after locating no Huns. Huns then dispatched their generals and 30000 cavalry, together with defector general Li Ling, against the Chinese, and followed the Chinese army to Junji-shan Mountain where they fought a battle for nine days. After Han army inflicted heavy casualty on the Huns, the Huns retreated at Punu-shui River.

In the west, Mang Tong met with 20000 Hunnic cavalry headed by Hunnic rightside grand duwei [captain] and Wei Luu. Huns withdrew after seeing Mang Tong leading 40000 cavalry. Han Dynasty, meantime, dispatched troops against Cheshi in Chinese Turkistan for preventing them from a collusion with the Huns. Chinese troops captured the king and the people of Cheshi. At this time, General Li Guangli encountered 5000 cavalry led by Hunnic rightside grand duwei [captain] and Wei Luu, defeated the Huns, and chased the Huns to Fa-fu-ren [Madam Fan] Castle. Hearing that his wife was implicated in a palace upheaval, General Li Guangli intended to intrude deeper into Hun territory to make a big feat so as to avoid punishment upon return to the capital. Subordinates were wary of Li Guangli's mentality and conspired to sell out to the Huns. General Li Guangli arrived in Zhiju-shui River. With 20000 cavalry, Li Guangli crossed the river. On one day, Li Guangli met with Hunnic leftside virtuous king and leftside grand general [Zuo-da-jiang], and fought the 20000 Hunnic cavalry for a whole day. Han army killed Hunnic leftside grand general. When a subordinate officer intended to kill Li Guangli for surrendering to the Huns, Li Guangli retreated to Yanran-shan Mountain where 50000 Hunnic cavalry ambushed Li Guangli, dug a ditch in the front at night, attacked Li Guangli's camp from behind, and defeated the Han army by pushing the Han army into the ditch. Li Guangli himself surrendered to the Huns. Chanyu married his daughter to Li Guangli and made him above Wei Luu in the ranks. Li Guangli was killed one year later [about 89 BC?] by the Huns after Wei Luu [another Han defector] vilified him for envying the favor that Li Guangli received from Hunnic chanyu.

Chanyu then wrote to Han emperor, stating: "Han Chinese to the south and 'Hu' people to the north ... the so-called "Hu" meant the 'privileged son of the Heaven' ... I [chanyu} want to renew the intermarriage with Han princess ..." (Note the Huns corresponded with Chinese in Chinese pictographic languages since the nomads had no written language at all.) When Han emissary arrrived at Hun court, chanyu rebuked Han Dynasty for a Han prince rebellion against Han emperor as a violation of Confucian "Li-Yi" [courtesy & righteousness]. Han emissary countered it by stating that Chanyu Modok even engaged in patricide while Han prince rebellion was merely an argument between father and son due to instigation by prime minister. Han emissary was hence retained by the Huns for three years.

Han Emperor Zhaodi [reign 86-74 BC]
Three years after Li Guangli capture, i.e., in 87 BC, Han Emperor Wudi passed away. After a fighting for over twenty years, Hunnic chanyu, hurt by Han army's penetrations, wanted peace with Han Dynasty badly. Another three years later, chanyu decided upon intermarriage but died shortly afterward. Before the death of chanyu, the mother of Hunnic chanyu killed a virtuous half brother of the chanyu, i.e., "zuo-da-wei" [leftside grand captain]. The elder brother of "zuo-da-wei", who shared same mother as "zuo-da-wei", refused to see chanyu. Wei Luu and the mother of Hunnic chanyu, in 85 BC, hid the news of the death of chanyu and erected the son of chanyu as the new chanyu against the Hunnic chanyu's death-bed wish. Hunnic leftside virtuous king and rightside gu-li king, unhappy over the enthronement of the new chanyu, conspired to defect to Han court. The two kings further coerced King Lu-tu [Lu-zhu?] in a consipracy to gain the support of Wusun [Ili] for attacking chanyu together. King Lu-tu [Lu-zhu?] disclosed the scheme to chanyu. However, the two kings accused King Lu-tu [Lu-zhu?] of rebellion against chanyu. Two years later, in the autumn, Huns invaded Dai prefecture and killed a Han captain. The new chanyu thought about Wei Luu's scheme of building castles and hoarding grains for sake of defence against a possible Han attack. Chanyu also thought about using Su Wu and Ma Hong as two Han emissaries for relaying good-will gestures in 82 BC.

Li Ling was asked to see Su Wu by Hunnic Chanyu. Li told Su that Su's wife had already remarried and Su's two brothers had died in China. But Su Wu refused to surrender. Li gave a Hun woman to Su as his wife. When Su returned to China, he had only eight of his previous companions with him.

The next year, Huns, with about 20000 cavalry from leftside and rightside tribes, pillaged the border in four columns. Han army defeated them, captured and killed 9000 Huns, and caught alive Hunnic King Ou-tuo-wang. Chanyu, worried about King Ou-tuo-wang's possible leading the path for an attack, relocated far away towards the northwest. After the death of Wei Luu, the brother of Hunnic chanyu continued to advocate for intermarriage with Han court. After the death of the brother of Hunnic chanyu, Hunnic chanyu planned an invasion of Jiuquan and Zhangye on the Sild Road. However, Han army was informed of the invasion beforehand and thoroughly defeated the three Hunnic columns with the armies from Zhangye "tai-shou" [magistrate] and auxiliary troops from the military farming areas. Captain Guo Zhong of auxiliary troops was promoted to Marquis Cheng'an-hou, and "qian-zhang" [thousand household] King Yiqu-wang was offered 200 Chinese grams of gold and 200 horses for killing a Hunnic king.

At the times of Han Emperor Zhaodi, military farming was conducted in Luntai & Quli areas.

Hun versus Wuhuan
One more year later, 3000 Hunnic cavalry invaded Wuyuan and killed few thousand Chinese, and tens of thousands of Hunc followed through by attacking borderside castles. Ban Gu stated that Chinese beacon fires were so advanced that Huns no longer reaped lootings easily. At this time, Han heard from Hunnic defectors that Huns had dispatched 20000 cavalry against Wuhuan in the east as a punishment of Wuhuan digging up the tombs of Hunnic chanyu. General Huo Guang consulted with Zhao Chongguo as to ambushing the Huns. Fan Mingyou, against Zhao Chongguo, supported the idea of attacking the Huns by taking advantage of the Hun-Wuhuan entangles. Fan Mingyo, conferred the post as "du-liao" [trepassing Liao-he River area] General, led 20000 cavalry against the Huns. Huns retreated upon the news of Han army closing in. Fan Mingyou hence attacked the fatigued Wuhuan, killed 3 kings, and captured or killed 6000 Wuhuan. Fan Mingyou was conferred Marquis Pingling-hou.

Huns then changed target in attacking Wusun in the west and invaded Cheyan & Wushi areas. Huns tried to pressure Wusun into surrendering the princess. Wusun Princess [i.e., a Chinese princess] petitioned for help with Han court. Before Han court could decree on a military action, Han Emperor Zhaodi [reign 86-74 BC] passed away. Han Emperor Xuandi [reign 73-49 BC] enthroned.

Emperor Xuandi & Wusun Ally
When Wusun "kun-mi" [i.e., king] proposed to mount a joint attack at Huns with half of the nation's troops and 50000 horses, Han Emperor Xuandi, in 72 BC, mobilized a huge army against the Huns: Tian Guangming, being conferred Qilian General, was to depart Xi-he [Zungar Banner of Inner Mongolia] with 40000 cavalry; Fan Mingyou, i.e., General Duliao, was to depart Zhangye with 30000 cavalry; Han Zeng was to depart Yunzhong with 30000 cavalry; Zhang Chongguo, being conferred Pulei [Sarighkol] General, was to depart Jiuquan with 30000 cavalry; and Tian Shun, i.e., Yunzhong "tai shou" [magistrate], being conferred Huya [tiger teeth] General, was to depart Wuyuan with 30000 cavalry. In the west, "xiao wei" [i.e., colonel] Chang Hui commmanded the troops of Wusun and other allies in western territories, including Wusun King and totalling 50000 cavalry.

Huns, hearing of the campaign, fled with children, elderly and stocks. Han armies failed to locate any significant Huns. Fan Mingyou, at Puli-shui River, about 1200 li distance away from border garrison, captured or killed 700 Huns. Han Zeng captured or killed about 100 Huns after trekking 1200 li distance. Zhang Chongguo, having failed to catch up with the conversion with Wusun troops at Pulei-ze Lake, would capture or kill 300 Huns, including Hunnic King Puyin-wang [i.e., an emissary of chanyu], after a trek of 1800 li distance. Tian Guangming, after a trek of 1600 li distance, captured or killed about 19 Huns at Jiyi-shan Mountain. Tian Shun, after a trek of 80000 li distance, captured or killed about 19 Huns at Danyu-shui River. Both Tian Guangming and Tian Shun were ordered by Han emperor to commit suicide for dereliction later. In the west, at about 71 BC, Chang Hui and Wusun troops sacked Hunnic court of rightside gu-li king, caught chanyu's father and sister-in-law and numerous kings, captured or killed 39000 Huns, and looted 700000 stocks like horses, sheep, buffalos, mules and camels etc. Chang Hui was upgraded to Marquis Changluo-hou.

Chang Hui thereafter mobilized 50000 army from Western Territories in campaigning against Qiuci for its killing of a Chinese general in charge of farming soldiers at Wu-lei [Luntai] six years earlier. (At the times of Han Emperor Zhaodi, military farming was first conducted in Luntai & Quli areas.) New Qiuci king had to surrender a minister by the name of Gu-yi for execution.

Huns hence hated Wusun a lot. In the winter, Chanyu personally commanded a retaliation force against the Wusun and caught some elderly and sick people. On the way home, Huns lost 9 out 10 people in a severe winter storm. Taking advantage of Hunnic decline, Dingling statelet attacked the Huns from the north, Wuhuan attacked the Huns from east, and Wusun attacked from the west. Tens of thousands of Huns died. Starvation would cost the Huns a loss of 3 out 10 people, and Hunnic cattle lost half in number. Further, Hunnic subordinates disintegrated from the alliance. When Han army intruded into Hun territory with 3000 cavalry, Han army easily caught a few thousand Huns. Border hence became more serene than ever.

In 68 BC, Hunnic chanyu passed away, and brother "leftside virtuous king" assumed the throne as Chanyu Xuluuquanqu. When Han abandoned border garrisons, the new chanyu sent in emissary for intermarrige. However, "leftside grand juqu" [i.e., the father of a deposed queen of former chanyu] conspired to send in cavalry against the Han after the footsteps of Hunnic emissary in a claim of using the old Han Chinese trick. Three Hunnic emissaries promptly notified the Han of the scheme and Huns hence aborted their pillage. In this year, Huns suffered another famine and lost 6-7 out of 10 cattle. In the autumn, a Hunnic tribe, after entangles with King Outuo, surrendered to Han.

Replacing Chang Hui as protector-general in Western Territories would be Zheng Ji [?-49 BC]. The next year, i.e., 67 BC, troops from Western Territories under the command of Zheng Ji attacked Cheshi, i.e., Hunnic ally. Chenshi, i.e., today's Ji-mu-sa-e of New Dominion Province, was situated on the linkage point between Han Dynasty and Wusun, north of Tianshan Mountain. Cheshi, having married Hunnic princess, often ambushed Chinese emissaries. Zheng Ji assembled 1500 farming soldiers and about 10000 auxiliary troops for a campaign against Cheshi and caught the king. Chanyu retrieved the remnant Cheshi people and made a brother of former Cheshi king into the new king. Han court sent in new farming soliders to Cheshi land. Military farming, which was restricted to Wulei [Luntai] & Quli areas at the times of Han Emperor Zhaodi, was expanded to Cheshi & Loulan area. Still one more year later, Huns dispatched leftside and rightside grand generals against farming soliders in Cheshi land as well as Wusun statelet. Two years later, Huns attacked Cheshi farming garrison again in vain. In 67 BC approximately, Zheng Ji, in face of Hunnic attacks, rescinded the Cheshi military farming and moved across Tianshan [Heavely] Mountain to merge with Qu-li's farming garrison. Han court relocated Cheshi people to Jiao-he River [Yar-khoto] area [i.e., Turpan].

Next year, Dingling harassed Huns again. One year later, Huns aborted an attack at Han after a Hunnic noble surrendered to Han and chanyu caught the illness of blood vomitting. Chanyu died in 60 BC, after a reign of nine years, before his king was sent to Han court for peace talk.

Protector-General Office For Western Territories
By the time of Emperor Xuandi (reign 73-48 BC), south of Tianshan Mountains was under Han Chinese control. A Hunnic king called 'Ri-zhu-wang' (king of sun chasing) offended Hunnic chanyu , and hence he defected to Han China, yielding to Chinese the original Hunnic control of northern part of Chinese Turkistan. By 62 BC, north of Tianshan Mountains was firmly controlled by Chinese as well. Colonization went as far as the ancient state of Shache [Yarkand]. This post was responsible for reporting on the situations in such states as Kangju (Sogdia) and Wusun (Ili).

By 60 B.C., Emperor Xuandi established the Office of 'Xi Yu Protector-General' (Xi Yu meaning 'Western Region' or 'Western Territories') to supervise the "36 states" north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. Zheng Ji's protector-general office, located at Wulei, was in charge of farming soldiers as well as the 36 statelets. The protector-general office was put in charge of military farming, officialdom & vassal conferral and validations, supervision of Qiangic peoples, communication & transportation, beacon tower ['feng sui'] maintenance, and certainly commerce and trade. Han Shu claimed that about 376 persons, ranging from citadel chief, hundred person chief, thousand person chief, duwei, danhu, general, prime minister, marquis to king, had been conferred Han court's officialdom seals [gold seals vs violet seals] and silk thread for seals. Han court also dispatched representatives to kings and county magistrates as either military officials or civil service officials, which were validated by excavations from Wulei ruins in Luntai county. Also excavated in Khoten would be local coins with Han Chinese characters on the face and Central Asian marks on the back. Continuing with Zheng Ji, over 18 Chinese had been assigned the post of protector-general, with the seal of last protector-general Li Chong excavated from Shaya-xian county of Qiuci [Kuqa] recently. Among the protector-generals, from Han Emperor Xuandi's reign to Xin Dynasty, would be Zheng Ji, Han Xuan, Gan Yanshou, Duan Huizong, Lian Bao, Han Li, Guo Shun, Du Jian, Dan Qin, and Li Chong etc.

Hunnic Internal Turmoils
Hunnic internal turmoils once led to the existence of five 'chanyu'. Nine years earlier, queen zhuan-qu, after being discarded out of favor, went into adultery with rightside virtuous king. At the time of death of chanyu, rightside virtuous king did not heed the queen's call and went to 'dragon city'. When chanyu died, Hunnic king Xing-wei-yang tried to assemble kings in vain. Queen zhuan-qu and her brother conspired to erect Tu-qi-tang [Zhu-qi-tang?, the rightside virtuous king] as the new chanyu. New chanyu killed away the ministers of the former chanyu, including King Xing-wei-yang and utilized queen zhuan-qu's brother as top minister. The son of former chanyu Xu-lu-quan-qu fled to the land of his father-in-law Wu-chan-mu, i.e., a small statelet between Wusun and Kangju. Hunnic 'Rizhuowang' [i.e., sun chasing king], whose sister was married to Wu-chan-mu, would lead dozens of thousands of cavalry for a defection to Han court. Hunnic 'Rizhuowang' [Xian-xian-dan ? or Xian-xian-shan] was conferred the title of Gui-de-hou [i.e., Marquis Returning Gratitude]. New chanyu then made his own brother the new Hunnic 'Rizhuowang'. With Hunnic 'Rizhuowang' defecting to Chinese, Hunnic governor post of "tongpu duwei" automatically revoked itself in Chinese Turkistan. On the Chinese side, the post of "shizhe [emissary] xiaowei [colonel]" was renamed "wuji xiaowei" in charge of military farming at Gaochang [i.e., Turpan].

The defection of 'Rizhuowang' had to do with Hunnic Youxianwang (rightside virtuous king) taking over the power with the help of ex-queen. 'Rizhuowang' was the brother (?) of the dead Hunnic chanyu. 'Rizhuowang' sent an emissary to Han protector-general at Quli, Zheng Ji, for help. In 60 BC approximately, Zheng Ji sent an army of 50000 and escorted 'Rizhuowang' to Han capital, i.e., Chang'an.

When new chanyu killed two more brothers of defector Hunnic 'Rizhuowang' Xian-xian-dan, Wu-chan-mu admonished the chanyu in vain. After a Hunnic king died, new chanyu instituted his own son instead of selecting a descendant of the dead king, which caused an eastward relocation of the tribe of this Hunnic king. The new chanyu led 10000 cavalry in a chase of the relocating tribe but he was defeated. The new chanyu also antagonized another prominent noble, i.e., "zuo-di-gui-ren" [leftside land's noble man].

One year later, Wuhuan attacked the Huns in the east, and Hunnic King Gu-xi-wang was worried about chanyu's rebuking his defeat in the hands of Wuhuan. Hunnic King Gu-xi-wang colluded with Wu-chan-mu and "zuo-di-gui-ren" in supporting the son of the former Hunnic chanyu for setting up an independent court and calling himself 'Huhanye Chanyu' (often wrongly pronounced as huhanxie chanyu). About 40000-50000 people in leftside land assembled to oppose the new chanyu at north of Gu-qie-shui River. After a brother ["rightside virtuous king"] refused to lend support to the new chanyu, new chanyu committed suicide in 58 BC, after a reign of three years. Leftside grand juqu, i.e., Du-rong-qi, led his people to the service of 'Huhanye Chanyu'.

After the death of the usurping Hunnic Chanyu, three more Hunnic leaders proclaimed themselves 'chanyu', leading to co-existence of five 'chanyu'. 'Huhanye Chanyu' attempted to kill rightside virtuous king. In the winter, Leftside grand juqu, i.e., Du-rong-qi, colluded with rightside virtuous king in erecting "sun chasing king" [Bo-xu-tang] as Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu. Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu dispatched tens of thousands of troops eastward against 'Huhanye Chanyu'. After defeating 'Huhanye Chanyu', Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu made his two sons into rightside and leftside gu-li kings. In the autumn of the following year, Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu dispatched the brother of Xian-xian-dan, Hunnic "duwei" [captain] Wu-ji and 20000 cavalry against 'Huhanye Chanyu'. In the west, Hunnic King Hu-jie-wang colluded with a Hunnic "danghu" in bad-mouthing rightside virtuous king. Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu fell into the trap and killed rightside virtuous king. Hunnic King Hu-jie-wang, being worried about his safety, fled away to be Hu-jie Chanyu. The brother of Xian-xian-dan declared himself Chen-li Chanyu. Hunnic "duwei" [captain] Wu-ji declared himself Wu-ji Chanyu.

Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu dispatched Du-rong-qi agaisnt Wu-ji Chanyu, while he himself attacked Chen-li Chanyu. Chen-li Chanyu and Wu-ji Chanyu fled to the northwest and hence combined with Hu-jie Chanyu into 40000 strong forces. Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu, leaving 40000 cavalry against Hu-han-ye Chanyu in the east, campaigned against Chen-li Chanyu with another 40000 cavalry. Chen-li Chanyu fled to northwest. The next year, Hu-han-ye Chanyu sent a brother against Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu and inflicted a casualty of 10000 onto Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu. Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu personally led 60000 cavalry for 1000 li distance camapaign against Hu-han-ye Chanyu. After a defeat, Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu committed suicide. The son of Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu, together with Du-rong-qi, fled to seek asylum with Han court. Chen-li Chanyu surrendered to Hu-han-ye Chanyu. Tens of thousands of people under Hu-han-ye Chanyu's "leftside grand general" also sought suzerainty with Chinese. At this time, the son of defector Han general Li Ling erected Wu-ji Chanyu. Hu-han-ye Chanyu campaigned against Wu-ji Chanyu and killed him.

Huhanye Chanyu's Seeking Suzerainty With Chinese
Soon, the younger and elder brothers of Hu-han-ye Chanyu rebelled. Younger brother of Hu-han-ye Chanyu, i.e., King Xiu-xun-wang, declared himself Run-zhen Chanyu in the west, while elder brother of Hu-han-ye Chanyu, i.e., rightside virtuous king, declared himself Zhi-zhi Gu-du-hou Chanyu in the east. Two years later, Run-zhen Chanyu attacked Zhi-zhi Gu-du-hou Chanyu. Zhi-zhi Gu-du-hou Chanyu killed Run-zhen Chanyu and then combined forces against Hu-han-ye Chanyu. Zhi-zhi Gu-du-hou Chanyu defeated Hu-han-ye Chanyu and obtained the Hunnic central court of Mongolia. Hence, in 53 BC, 'Huhanye Chanyu', against the objections of most ministers, dispatched his son [rightside virtuous king] to the Han Chinese court as a hostage and sought suzerainty by moving his people southward.

Around 53 BC, hearing that 'Huhanye Chanyu' obtained the support of the Han Chinese, the last competing 'chanyu', Zhizhi, sent his son [rightside grand general] to Han Court as a hostage as well. In 52 BC, 'Huhanye Chanyu' arrived in Wuyuan Garrison and went on to see Han Emperor Xuandi in Ganquan-gong Palace in Jan of 51 BC. 'Huhanye Chanyu' and his entourage received grand welcome at the capital, with various Han ministers and vassals giving reception at Weiqiao Bridge. 'Huhanye Chanyu' stayed at Chang'an for one month. Han Emperor dispatched Dong Zhong & Haan Chang and 16000 cavalry as an escort to see Hu-han-ye depart Jilu-zhai [chicken and deer garrison] of Shuofang [northern domain] Commandary. Zhizhi Chanyu dispatched emissary to Han court as well.

The next year, two chanyu dispatched emissary to Han court. One more year later, 'Huhanye Chanyu' came to Han court again, and received bestowals of 110 leather clothes, 9000 units of silk, and 8000 grams of cotton. No escort was dispatched for seeing him off.

Hunnic Split of 51 BC & Zhizhi Chanyu Campaigning To The West
Zhizhi raided to the west. At this time, a brother of former Tu-qi [Zhu-qi] Chanyu defected away from Huhanye Chanyu for the west and declared himself Yilimu Chanyu. Zhizhi Chanyu killed Yilimu Chanyu, and with a combined force of 50000, stayed in the west upon news that Han court might assist Huhanye Chanyu in fighting him. For countering Han court and Huhanye, Zhizhi sent an emissary to Wusun "Xiao-kunmi" [lesser king] Wujiutu for an alliance. However, Wusun killed Zhizhi's emissary and delivered the head to Han's protector-general office. More, Wusun dispatched 8000 cavalry against Zhizhi but got defeated by Zhizhi. Zhizhi further defeated Wujie in the north and Jiankun in the west. Further in the north, Zhizhi defeated Dingling statelet. With combined forces from three statelets, Zhizhi then attacked Wusun several times. Zhizhi made Jiankun his capital. Ban Gu's Han Shu claimed that Jiankun was located 7000 li distance to the west of Chanyu court in Mongolia and 5000 li distance to the north of Cheshi in Chinese Turkistan.

At about 48 BC, i.e., the year Han Emperor Yuandi [r 48-32 BC] got enthroned, 'Huhanye Chanyu' wrote to Chinese court about his economic hardship. Yuandi decreed that Yunzhong & Wuyuan commanderies transport 20000 units of grains to the Huns. At this time, Zhizhi chanyu requested with Han court for releasing his son. Han court ordered Gu Ji escort the prince to Zhizhi. However, Zhizhi chanyu killed Gu Ji without a reason. Zhizhi, being afraid of Han for his killing Han emissary, relocated to the west, namely, the ancient Jiankun Statelet. This relocation also had to do with the request from Kangju (Sogdia) king.

Western history books said that the Hunnic empire split into two hordes in 51 BC, with the Eastern Horde subject to China. Reading through records on the Huns, I could only point to the event of relocation to Jiankun Statelet by 'Zhizhi Chanyu' for an explanation. 'Zhizhi Chanyu' descendants, namely, the Kirghiz, would stage a comeback in 9th century and replaced the Huihe (Uygurs) around 840s AD. So to say, this group of Huns might not be counted as the ancestors of the Western Huns headed by Attila.

During Yuandi's reign, the official "wuji xiaowei" was put in charge of military farming at Cheshi. Western Han Dynasty's "wuji xiaowei" would turn into Eastern Han Dynasty's "yihe duwei" at the times of Eastern Han Emperor Mingdi [reign 58-75 AD].

At about 47 BC, Han court returned Huhanye's son by ordereding that Haan Chang & Zhang Meng escorted the prince back to Hun territory. Haan Chang & Zhang Meng inquired with Huhanye Chanyu as to the rumor that Zhizhi Chanyu might have killed emissary Gu Ji. Hearing that the Southern Huns talked about a return to the north of Gobi, Haan Chang & Zhang Meng, on their own initiative, made a swear with Huhanye Chanyu in the attempt of retaining the Huns for better management. Haan Chang & Zhang Meng climbed Mt Dongshan at Ruo-shui River with Huhanye Chanyu and drank the blood-dripped wine with the Yuezhi King skull vessel. The swear claimed that the Han Chinese and Xiongnu [Huns] promise to be of same family for ever. A white horse was killed for the ceremony. Upon the return of Haan Chang & Zhang Meng, court ministers rebuked the two guys for making an 'perpetual' alliance without consulting with the emperor. Han emperor ordered that the swear be released but the alliance be kept. Later, Huhanye Chanyu returned to the north.

While Zhizhi Chanyu stationed in Jiankun territory, Kangju (Sogdia) king intended to attack the Wusun Statelet with the Hunnic assistance. Kangju (Sogdia) king sent an emissary to Zhizhi, with a gift of several thousands of camels and horses. On the way to Kangju (Sogdia), Zhizhi Chanyu lost quite some people due to cold weather. About 3000 remnants arrived in Kangju territory for tha alliance. Governor-general Gan Yansou answered the call from Wusun and sent 6 columns of armies to defeat Kangju (Sogdia) and 'Zhizhi Chanyu'. Zhizhi's descendants would later call themselves the Kirghiz, a mutation in the pronunciation of 'Zhizhi'.

After the death of Zhizhi, Huhanye Chanyu was both happy and worried. Huhanye wrote to Han court that he did not visit Han emperor frequently because he was worried that Zhizhi might attack him. In 33 BC, 'Huhanye Chanyu', came to Han capital and was married with lady Wang Zhaojun, a court maid of honour. (Lady Zhaojun, like many princesses and maids of honour married with Huns or other nomads before and after her, would later re-marry with the successor Hunnic King, a practice adopted by the nomads throughout history.) Peace ensued for dozens of years.

Huhanye Chanyu, after the marriage with Wang Zhaojun, wrote to Han court, expressing the wish to guard the borderline from Shanggu to Dunhuang in lieu of Han Dynasty's border garrisons and beacon towers. A court minister, Hou Ying, objected to the abandonment of garrisons by citing the past history. Hou Ying emphasized that Hunnic chieftans often claimed that Huns often cried whenever passing through Mt Yinshan area, a historical belt that was good hunting and grazing ground due to the abundance of animals and the grass/trees. Hou Ying also mentioned that border garrisons and beacon towers had played the role of preventing Chinese from slipping across the border for the banditry. Hence, emperor wrote to Huhanye about the need to retain border garrisons for guarding against banditry. Huhanye replied to express understanding of the great idea.

Lady Wang Zhaojun, titled 'ning [pacifying] hu [Huns] yanzhi [queen]', had born son Yituzhiyashi who was made into rightside sun chasing king. Huhanye Chanyu died in the second year of Emperor Chengdi's Jianshi Era, i.e., 31 BC, after a reign of 28 years.

Xin Dynasty [9-23 AD]
At one time, two daughters of Lady Wang Zhaojun were invited by Wang Mang to visit the Han court, and Hunnic king promptly sent over one of the Lady Wang's daughters to the Han Court. This girl stayed in Han court for one whole year. After Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, and named his dynasty Xin, namely, new, he would re-cast the seals bearing his new dynastic names and sent those seals to the Hunnic kings in exchange for the old seals conferred by Han Emperors. Later, the Huns found out about the trick and rebelled against the Wang Mang's Xin Dynasty.

Wang Mang would fail to quell the Hunnic rebellions. He called upon the two sons of the brother of Lady Wang Zhaojun and sent them to the Huns frequently as 'ambassadors of friendship'. The two sons of the brother of Lady Wang Zhaojun would often contact the husband of the elder daughter of Lady Wang Zhaojun to broker peace.

Wang Mang, however, continued his tricks and he at one time placed into custody the husband of the elder daughter of Lady Wang Zhaojun as a hostage, intending to support him as the new Hunnic king. During Wang Mang's reign, the Hun-Han relationship was the worst. Subsequent turmoils and rebellions which overthrew Xin Dynasty would allow the Huns to re-take control of parts of Chinese Turkistan.

It would be in AD 73 that Eastern Dynasty dispatched major campaigns against the Huns. General Dou Xian and Geng ZHong defeated the Huns in and beyong Jiuquan on the Silk Road, further defeated Hunnic King Huyan-wang to the north of Tianshan Mountain, and took over Yiwu [Hami] and established the post of "yihe duwei" [i.e., farming captain]. As an offshoot of the campaign, in AD 73 [16th year of Mingdi's Yongping Era], Ban Chao was dispatched along the southern side of Tianshan Mountain for recovering Chinese control over the Western Territories.


Huns & the Latter Han Dynasty

In AD 48, the Hunnic Empire formally dissolved due to internal fights. The Hunnic internal turmoils had very much to do with the killing of Lady Wang Zhaojun's son by a Hunnic kinsman. The Huns adopted a rule of passing on the kingdom to brothers, but one brother of the Huns refused to acknowledge Wang Zhaojun's son as a legal heir. In AD 73 (?), Han Dynasty sent a huge expedition against the Huns. Ban Gu (General Ban Chao's brother) wrote an extol article and had it inscribed on a stone monument in today's Outer Mongolia. After a period of passive dealings with the Huns, Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220) slowly adopted the policies of its predecessor, namely, cutting off the right arm of the Huns, namely, the territories of today's Western China. It recovered the lost territories, driving the Huns back into the Altai Mountains and the steppes north of the Gobi.

General Dou Xian and Geng Zhong defeated the Huns in and beyong Jiuquan on the Silk Road, further defeated Hunnic King Huyan-wang to the north of Tianshan Mountain, and took over Yiwu [Hami, i.e., ancient Komul] and established the post of "yihe duwei" [i.e., farming captain]. As an offshoot of the campaign, Ban Chao was dispatched along the southern side of Tianshan Mountain for recovering Chinese control over the Western Territories. Bao Chao utilized diplomacy and Han Dynasty prestige in subjugating the Hunnic vassals such as Shanshan [Pichang], Yutian [Khoten], and Shule etc.

At the times of Eastern Han Emperor Mingdi [reign 58-75 AD], Eastern Han Dynasty's "yihe duwei", on basis of Western Han Dynasty's "wuji xiaowei", was put in charge of military farming. Also stationed in Chinese Turkistan would be "xiyu [western territories] zhangshi [senior minister]" who was under the supervision of Dunhuang "taishou" [i.e., prefecture governor]. In 1959, a seal bearing "si [manage] he [rice paddy] fu [office] yin [seal]" was excavated in Ni-ya of Minfeng-xian county. Chinese archaeology had revealved ruins of military farming in such counties as Luntai, Shaya, Ruoqiang and Luo-bu-po [i.e., Lake Koko Nor], with traces of barns, canals, flood gates, castles, wells, metallergy sites, potteries, woks, iron spades, wind blowers, low banks and ridges between fields, coins, wooden inscription plates, and mail relay stations. Scholar Huang Wenbi stated that military farming was controlled by two offices of Ganchang [Khocho] to the left and Gumo to the right. Hou Han Shu mentioned that grand general was in charge of five military farming units which were subdivided into the "qu" units of left and right. Aside from military farming, two more forms were employed, i.e., convict farming and civilian farming. Records from Juyan Lake military farming pointed to family members co-living with soldiers on site. Ruoqiang, Shanshan, Qiemo and Qiuci, with iron ore and metallergy, had produced iron sickles, iron saws, and iron ploughs. Han Shu mentioned that as many as 600000 horses were raised by Han China in northwestern territories at one time.

In AD 91, General Dou Xian mounted another deadly campaign against the Northern Huns. Northern Huns hence began a migration that would lead to the chain reaction to the West. Scholar Luo Xianglin stated that the Huns split into two groups: Ye-da [White Huns] posing threat to Sassanian Dynasty to the northeast of today's Iran, and western offshoot moving to south of Ural Mountain. Luo Xianglin further stated that the Western Huns, under Balamir, due to a famine, relocated towards Europe in AD 372, conquering Eastern Goths and driving away Western Goths. Balamir, after conquering the territories north of Danube, received the tributes from Roman Emperor. Balamir's son would be Attila who, with 700000 army, campaigned against East Roman Empire in AD 447 and attacked Western Roman Empire in AD 450.

Two Colonial Policies Of Han Dynasty
Two colonial policies were adopted at the time. The other policy would be setting up the castles along the Silk Road, which would effectively segregate the Huns from the Qiangic nomads in today's Qinhai-Gansu areas. This is in addition to the first policy of cutting off the right arm of the Huns. General Ban Chao (Pan Chao) was dispatched to today's Xinjiang areas where he stayed for 30 years, till reaching the age of 70. Ban Chao was entitled 'du hu' (protector general) of 'Xi Yu', i.e., the Western Territories and Marquis Dingyuan-hou.

In AD 97, one small expedition led by Gan Ying, a secretarial official under General Pan Ch'ao, crossed the Pamir Mountains and reached the Xihai or West Sea (Caspian Sea?) in search of Lijian (Alexandra, Egypt), i.e., Rome. When Pan Chao's soldiers reached the sea, they were cheated by the local Arab ruler about insurmountability of the high seas. History recorded that the locals cheated Gan Ying about some kind of creature on the Sea which might cause travellers homesick. Arabs tried to stop the Chinese from going to Rome for sake of monopolizing the silk and tea trade. This kind of Chinese expansion will usually give today's Chinese countrymen a wrong impression in that the Chinese empire was very powerful at that time. (If the West Sea was the Caspian, then at this place, Alexander the Great had a dillusion at the Caspian, thinking that the sea was insurmountable. There is a confusion here as to the exact sea referred as 'Xi Hai' or West Sea. Ancient classics claimed that Arabs and Parthians traded with Romans at Xihai Sea. Hence, Xihai would be most likely the Mediterranean rather than the Caspian. Some Chinese expert believed that West Sea referred to the Arab Sea. Thus, Gan Ying had reached the Mediterranean coast. She Taishan believed that "Li-jian" in Shi Ji and Han Shu was Ptolemy Egypt, but Rome in Hou Han Shu & Wei Luue.)

Ban Chao versus Kushan Yuezhi
In Western History book, there was citation of Pan Chao's defeating the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) Kushan Empire. The truth is nothing more than Pan Chao's wisdom in defending Western territories from the attack of the 70 thousand strong army sent by the Kushan Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) king. Ban had ruled the western territories via a very small contingent, a couple of thousands of Han army. When Ban first embarked on his trip to the West, he had 36 Chinese, only. Later, the Han Emperor sent him a contingent of 500 and another contingent of maybe 2-3000 men. In the early years, the Chinese posts in the West were often in perils. At one time, several thousand soldiers stood steadfast against a Hunnic encirclement for several years, and one general (Geng Gong) was famous for preaching to the Heaven for water after digging deep into the ground without any trace of water.

The Kushans had been mostly an outsider during the whole time period of about 30 years when Ban was busy conquering the 36-50 kingdoms of Xinjiang and driving out the Hun influence. Kushan king had at one time helped the Ban Chao (Pan Chao) in not sending relief army to the pro-Hun kingdom. Kushan king got only enraged after Pan Chao threw to the ground the letter which was to request for Han princess for marriage. Pan Chao, as we know, had only a few thousand Chinese soldiers, and the rest were locals. Pan told his troops that the Yüeh-chih, with 70,000 people, would soon run out of grain supply and they would go home by themselves. When Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) sent an emissary to a neighboring country for borrowing grains, Pan ambushed the emissary and cut off the head of the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) emissary. Thereafter, the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) promised that they would never wage war with Han Chinese.

With few than thousands of soldiers who had actually been dispatched by the Han Dynasty, and most of those soldiers were actually convicts, Ban had been able to colonize the territories in the same way as the British did in India one thousand years later. Ban first successfully adopted the policy of "ruling aliens with aliens". Though, Ban Chao's efforts were very much ignored by Han Emperor. For many years, until the age of 70, he had petitioned time and again with Han Emperor for permission to return to China proper for retirement, and his request was not approved till he asked his historian sister relay a message to the emperor for mercy. Ban Chao had sent his son on a mission back to Han Court at one time, mentioning in his letter to the emperor that he wished to have his son come to China to take a personal look at China proper. In his sister's letter, there was reference to the fact that the two to three dozens of Chinese who accompanied Pan on his journey to the West (at the order of General Dou Gu 30 years earlier) had all died in remote lands. In the same year Ban Chao returned to China, he died at age 71. Shortly thereafter, Ban's successor lost the control of western territories to the Huns. Uygur nationalists mentioned that Ban Chao's son fled back to China proper the second year Ban Chao left the western territories. To save the few thousands of Chinese stranded in the West, Han emperor would order big contingents, in tens of thousands, to march out of the Yuemen Pass for rescuing the Han garrison troops.

Hunnic Split of AD 89
Around AD 89, General Dou Xian, under the order of his empress sister, led a huge army comprising of soldiers from Beijing Area and the Southern Hun allies, had a decisive battle over the Northern Huns at Jiluoshan Mountains. Han army chased the Huns deep into the northwest territories, defeated 81 Hunnic tribes, and captured over 200 thousand Huns. History of the Northern Dynasties recorded that the Chanyu of Northern Huns fled westward to the ancient Kang-chu Statelet, while the remaining weak and elderly Huns relocated to the north of the Qiuci (Chouci) Statelet. In the west, the descendants of those Huns would set up a country called Nie-Ban [Yue-ban] (a word that was used for Nirvana), in the ancient Kang-chu or Kang-ju territories which was to the northwest of the ancient Wusun Statelet.

Ban Yong
Around AD 120, governor of Dunhuang, Cao Zong, requested with Han Court for relief. Earlier, Cao Zong tried to recover the lost territories in Chinese Turkistan by sending his official (Suo Ban) to Yiwu Statelet. Shanshan King and "Frontal Cheshi" ["qian cheshi"] King both submitted to Cao Zong, but the "Hind Cheshi" ["hou cheshi"] requested with Hunnic armies for defeating the Frontal Cheshi. The Huns controlled the northern route of the Silk Road.

Ban Yong, the son of Ban Chao, proposed a restoration of 300 farming soldiers and a deputy governor-general in Dunhuang. Ban Yong further proposed that a senior official be dispatched to Loulan with 500 farming soldiers for sake of cutting off the invasion of Qiuci (Chouci) / Yanqi and beefing up the courage of Shanshan / Yutian against the threats of the Northern Huns. In AD 124, Ban Yong was conferred the post of senior official for western territories. From AD 125 to 127, as "zhang shi" [senior minister of Han court], Ban Yong won over the defection of Qiuci (Chouci) King plus their two accessory states, Gumuo and Wensu. Together, they defeated the "Frontal Cheshi" and the Northern Huns. In AD 125, Ban Yong, leading 6000 cavalry consisting of Shanshan, Shule and Frontal Cheshi, defeated the "Hind Cheshi". Ban Yong went on to drive Northern Huns away, and he captured 20,000 Huns. Later, Ban Yong was ordered to attack the Yanqi Statelet, but Ban Yong was punished by Han Emperor Shundi because Ban Yong did not catch up with his colleague who deliberately arrived at Yanqi first and defeated Yanqi.

Ban Yong wrote "Records Of What I Saw and Heard In Western Territories". Later Historian Fan Ye, in Hou Han Shu, completed his section on "western territories" on basis of Ban Yong records.


Huns During Wei-Jinn Time Periods

By the time of Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220-280), Cao Cao [Ts'ao Ts'ao], the nominal protector of Latter Han emperor, around AD 210s, ordered the Eastern Huns (who were called 'Southern Huns' at that time, descendants of 'Huhanye Chanyu') to settle down in today's Taiyuan area, Shanxi Province. Cao Cao reorganized thirty thousand Hun tribes into five tribal groups and further divided the leftside tribal group into two subgroups, to be led by Zuoxianwang (leftside virtuous king) and Youxianwang (rightside virtuous king). Ts'ao Ts'ao designated an official called 'marshal' for each of the five tribes and assigned a Chinese 'sima' to supervise them.

Ts'ao later negotiated with Zuoxianwang for the release of Cai Wenji, the daughter of a Han Chinese minister. Lady Cai was grabbed by the Huns in an earlier raid, and lived with the Huns for twelve years, with two children born with the Hunnic king. Historians had blamed Ts'ao for introducing the Huns back to the ancestral land of the Huns, and it would be in this area that the Huns mutiplied into a huge threat to later dynasty of Western Jinn.(AD 265-316) The truth is that the Southern Huns had stayed in this area for one hundred years already and they were given privileges of tax exemption by Han Dyansty.

By the end of Ts'ao Wei Dynasty, the title of 'marshal' was changed to 'captain ['duwei']. Leftside Tribe 'duwei' was allowed to control 10,000 households and they dwelled in Cishi County, Taiyuan; Leftside Tribe, 6,000 households, Qixian County; Southside Tribe, 3,000 households, Puzi County; Northside Tribe, 4,000 households, Xingxin Couny; and Central Tribe, 6,000 households, Daling County. After Jinn Dynasty was founded in AD 265, the Huns outside of the border suffered flooding, and hence 20,000 more households of Huns from Saini and Heinan were relocated to Yiyang, west of the Yellow River Bend. In AD 284, 29,300 Huns, led by Hutai Ah'hou, submitted to Jinn Chinese. The second year, another group of Huns, 11,500 Huns in total, came to Jinn China. History of Jinn Dynasty recorded that altogether 19 Hunnic tribal affiliations came to China. Among them, the Tuge tribal affiliation was the most elite, and the Hunnic 'chanyu' would be selected out of this group. The Huns enjoyed 4 big family names, Huyan, Po, Lan, and Qiao. Huyan could assume the title of leftside or rightside 'sun chasing kings', Po the title of leftside or rightside 'juqu', Lan leftside or rightside 'danghu', and Qiao leftside or rightside 'duhou'. Around 295s AD, the Huns began to rebel against Jinn Chinese authorities, killing officials and looting.

Reading records throughout the Former and Latter Han Dynasties, one conclusion could be reached for the Huns. This group of people is a unique one which used the name Hun thoughtout history. They are a stubborn or persistent nomadic people who is bent on fighting the Chinese. It will be understandable to know that it was Qin's emperor who had driven the Huns away from Hetao area in the first place. At the time, there are more than two dozens of small nomadic kingdoms and/or tribal states in Gobi, Mongolia and and today's New Dominion areas, but the Huns never settled down as a static county or state or city like the other nomads. They are constantly on the move. The only reason that they did not succeed in overthrowing Chinese dynasty would lie in what Chen Shou said in San Guo Zhi, namely, the Han emperors had conducted constant raids into the fertile lands of the Gobi and Mongolia, which played a role of disrupting the growth or multiplicity of the Huns. What the Huns had been doing for hundreds of years was in fact engaged in the seesaw warfare with the Chinese for the control of the western territories. Both the Han Chinese and the Huns constantly dispatched the emissaries to the small nomadic states and/or tribal states, either requesting tributes or threatening the tribal statlets with force in demanding them sever diplomatic relations or suzerainty with the opposite parties. When one state and/or tribal state surrendered to the Han Chinese or the Huns, the Huns and the the Han Chinese would send expeditions to attack the traitor state or tribal statelet as a punishment. It's the small state and/or tribal statelet sanwiched in between that suffered the most.

The weakened Huns provided a vacuum for the Xianbei (or Hsien-pei in Wade-Giles) to move in in the middle of 1st century AD. The Xianbei were the northern branch of the Donghu (or Tung Hu, the Eastern Hu), a proto-Tunguz group mentioned in Chinese histories as existing as early as the fourth century B.C. By the first century, two major subdivisions of the Donghu had developed: the Xianbei in the north and the Wuhuan in the south. The Xianbei expanded their territories, and they took over most of the northern territories held by the Huns previously. There appeared a Xianbei chieftan called Tanshikui (reign AD 156-181) who established a Xianbei alliance by absorbing dozens of thousands of Huns. By the time of Three Kingdoms Period (AD 220-280), the Wuhuan nomads had taken control of today's Hebei Province and Peking areas. Ts'ao Ts'ao broke a new Xianbei alliance by sending an assasin to kill a Xianbei chieftan called Kebineng. Warlord Yüan Shao campaigned against the Wuhuans and controlled three prefectures of Wuhuan nomads. After Ts'ao Ts'ao defeated Yuan Shao, Yüan's two sons, Yüan Shang and Yüan Xi fled to the refuge with the Wuhuans. Ts'ao Ts'ao campaigned against the Wuhuans, killed a chieftan called Datu (with same last character as Hunnic Chanyu Motu), and took over the control of southern Manchuria. The Xianbei nomad, with major tribes of Murong, Yuwen, Duan as well as the Koreans, would take the place of the Wuhuans. They would establish many successive states, which, although short-lived, gave rise to numerous tribal states along the Chinese frontier. Among these states was that of the Toba (T'o-pa in Wade-Giles), a subgroup of the Xianbei, in modern China's Shanxi Province. The Xianbei and the Wuhuan used mounted archers in warfare, and they had been good mercenaries for the Han Chinese and the Wei Chinese. Among General Ts'ao Ts'ao columns of army against the Shu State during the three Kingdoms Period (AD 220-280), many would be the Xianbei nomads wearing stirups.


Hunnic Han & Zhao Dynasty (AD 304-329)

When Western Jinn Dynasty (AD 265-316) reunited China, Hunnic King Zuoxianwang sent his son Liu Yüan to Jinn Dynasty to be a hostage, which was a norm laid out by Ts'ao in late Han period. Liu Yüan spent most of his time in Chinese court and was a very ambitious man suspected by one Chinese minister as well as protected by another minister. When Liu Yüan's father died, he was allowed to go back to the Hun tribes for the funeral in AD 304. Then, he returned to the court to fulfill his mission as a hostage. When a Jin Dynasty border general (Wang Jun) invited the Xianbei and Wuhuan nomads (proto-Tunguz people) in attacking Jinn Chinese capital, Liu Yüan requested with Jinn emperor to go back to the Hun tribes for organizing counter-Xianbei forces. Liu Yüan returned to the Huns in AD 308, and helped Jinn fight the Xianbei and the Jinn rebel Wang Jun. Thereafter, Liu Yüan returned to Jinn court and was appointed Dadudu (i.e., "grand marshal") of the five Hunnic Tribal Groups. In AD 311, Hunnic King Youxianwang Liu Xuan proposed that Liu Yüan proclaim to be the great Hunnic emperor. Liu Yüan, who, like all other Hunnic kings, had adopted the family name "Liu" of Han emperors, agreed to the proposal and proclaimed the founding of the dynasty of Hunnic Han, meaning a posterior dynasty of Han against Jinn (AD 265-316) and Wei (AD 220-265) which usurped Han, in the sense of succession. Liu stated, "The great Chinese saint, Lord Yü, was originally a Xirong (western Rong) nomad and the Zhou kings (1122? BC - 221 B.C.) were from the Dongyi (eastern Yi) barbarians, where is the logic that the emperors must be of the same ethnical origin?" After Liu Yüan's death, the Huns under Liu Yüan's son, Liu Cong took over Jinn capital Luoyang in AD 311; the Western Jinn selected a new emperor one year later and re-established its capital in Chang'an (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi province), only to be sacked again in AD 316. Hence began the historical time period called "Five Nomads Ravaging China", with the five nomads being Huns, Jiehu, Xianbei (including Wuhuan & Toba), Qiang, & Di.

The Hun's Han Dynasty did not last long. The same palace power struggles between queens and princes, which plagued the Western Jinn dynasty just years earlier, would reemerge. The father-in-law of Liu Can, the new Hunnic Han emperor, would kill Liu Can and dug up the tombs of Liu Yüan and Liu Cong. Prime Minister Liu Zhuo (cousin of the Hunnic Han emperor) and General Shi Le (a Jie or Jiehu nomad, from one of the five nomad groups) led the troops to crack down on the palace rebellion. Later, Liu Zhuo would change the dynasty name to Zhao from Han in AD 319. General Shi Le's ambition led to the delaration of a separate Zhao Dynasty (AD 319-352), called Posterior Zhao Dynasty in contrast with Liu Zhuo's Zhao Dynasty. By AD 326, Shi Le's Posterior Zhao destroyed Liu Zhuo's Zhao, ending the small Hunnic empire established in China's central plains spanning Henan and Shanxi-Shaanxi provinces.


Five Nomad Groups Ravaging China

The impact of the nomads on northern China had been compared to that felt by Rome. We could probably sense the influx of the nomads by calculating a rough figure for the Huns. When General Ts'ao Ts'ao re-organized thirty thousand Hun tribes into today's Shanxi-Shaanxi provinces during the 2nd century AD, we could estimate the Huns to be having 50-100 persons per tribe, to yield about 1.5-3 million. As to the Chinese population, it had been in a state of fluctuating to a peak of 50 million every dynastic cycle, with every dynastic change costing a loss of half the population. I will do a calculation of minor nomadic tribe population on another occasion. Two very good examples remain to achive a more accurate estimation of the figures. One example would be Emperor Fu Juan's order to disseminate his Di nomads among posts in northern China, and another example would be the extermination of Jiehu nomads. Emperor Fu Juan, after a revolt of his kinsmen, decided to disperse his tribesmen across various military posts, and altogether 15000 households were driven out of the capital. As to the Jiehu, Shi Ming, an adopted son of Jiehu's Posterior Zhao, had at one time killed about 200,000 Jiehu nomads.

By AD 317, all of China north of the Yangtze River/Huai River had been overrun by nomadic peoples: the Xianbei from the north; some remnants of the Xiongnu from the northwest; and the Qiang people of Gansu and Tibet from the west and the southwest. Chaos prevailed as these groups warred with each other. The Chinese south of the Yangtze had failed to reconquer the northern region. General Zu Di crossed the Yangtze River but failed to hold on to the gain. The notable thing about this time period is that there were still several Chinese strongholds in today's Hebei/Shandong provinces and in the western Silk Road corridor, that were cut off from the court in southern China.

Shi Le's son, Shi Hu, would be killed by his own general, Ran Min (a Chinese), and Jiehu nomad's Posterior Zhao (AD 319-352) was destroyed in AD 352. Ran Min's Ran Wei Dynasty (short-lived to be on the list of 16 Nations) would be destroyed by Xianbei nomad's Anterior Yan (AD 337-370) Dynasty. Di nomad's Anterior Qin (AD 351-394) would destroy Xianbei's Anterior Yan in AD 370. Di nomad's Qin would try to attack the Eastern Jinn Dynasty (AD 317-420) south of the Huai River. After losing the battle to the Jinn Chinese under general Xie Xuan and Xie An in AD 384, two Qin generals (of the Qiang and the Xianbei origins, respectively) overthrew the Di nomad's Qin (AD 351-394) and set up separate Posterior Qin Dynasty (AD 384-417) and Posterior Yan Dynasty (AD 384-410). Eastern Jinn Dynasty's army, under general Liu Yü, would renew northern expeditions and finally destroyed the Posterior Qin Dynasty of the Qiangs (AD 384-417) and Posterior Yan Dynasty of Xianbei (AD 384-409) south of the Yellow River and today's Xi'an area.
Southern China
In AD 420, General Liu Yü (who claimed Han heritage) of Eastern Jinn Chinese would usurp the power by proclaimg the Southern Song Dyasty (AD 420-479) in place of Eastern Jinn Dynasty. There would appear three more Han Chinese dynasties, namely Southern Qi (AD 479-502), Southern Liang (AD 502-557), and Southern Chen (AD 557-589). The last one, Chen, would be swallowed by the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618) which had replaced the nomadic dynasties in Northern China.


Toba's Wei Dynasty, Ruruans, & Hunnic Decline

By the end of the fourth century, the region between the Huai River and the Gobi, including much of modern Xinjiang, was dominated by the Toba. The word "To" means earth and "Ba" means descendants in northern Chinese dialect. Toba nomads are said to be a branch of the Xianbei nomads, the proto-Tunguz people. According to "History Of Toba Wei Dynasty", the Tobas claimed heritage from the junior son of the Yellow Overlord or Huangdi. The Yellow Overlord was said to represent the virtue of 'earth', one of the five forms of materials in ancient Chinese metaphysics. Further, it is claimed that the Tobas were not recorded in Chinese history because the ancestors of Tobas did not want to join the ranks of the Huns etc in pillaging China. Toba Xianbei was said to be a group of people who dwelled to the northeatern-most of all Xianbei. The Eastern Xianbei would include tribes like Yuwen, Murong and Duan, while the Western Xianbei would include Qifu & Tufa (to mutate into Tubo in Chinese and Tibet in English).

In earlier times of Western Jinn Dynasty, Tobas were befriended by a a Chinese border general called Liu Kun whose strategy was to "fight the aliens via the aliens". Liu Kun had requested with Western Jinn emperor for the authorization to have the Tobas settle down in today's Yanmen Pass, an area called the Dai prefecture in Qin Empire's times. Liu even sent his son to the Tobas as a hostage. After the death of Liu Kun in the hands of Liu's Xianbei ally in today's Beijing area, the Tobas would assert themselves over the other nomads. Emerging as a partially sinicized state of Dai between A.D. 338 and 376 in the Shanxi area, the Toba established control over the region as the Northern Wei Dynasty (A.D. 386-533) . Taking advantage of two wars which weakened the Xianbei-Qiangs-Chinese, respectively, namely, 1) the war waged by Hunnic Xia (AD 407-431) and 2) the northern expedition by General Liu Yu, the Tobas turned out to be the last beneficiary in northern China. General Liu Yü of Eastern Jinn Dynasty first attacked the Xianbei in today's Jiangsu-Shandong provinces, and then attacked the Qiangic nomads in today's Luoyang-Xi'an areas. However, General Liu was eager to return to Nanking to usurp the Jinn Dynasty, and his army in Luoyang-Xi'an areas were defeated by the Hunnic Xia. The Hunnic Xia, however, would soon be replaced by the Tobas who had steadily built up their power base in today's Shanxi-Hebei areas. The Hunnic Xia had once requested aid from another Hunnic people, the Ruruans in the Altai Mountains, but the Tobas had been able to defeat them both.

The Toba Wei Dynasty (AD 386-534) armies drove back the Ruruan (referred to as Ruanruan or Juan-Juan by Chinese chroniclers), a newly arising nomadic Hunnic people in the steppes north of the Altai Mountains, and reconstructed the Great Wall. Western history books said the Toba's rise had put pressure on the Ruruans who in turn caused the migration of the Huns towards Europe. During the fourth century, the Huns left the steppes north of the Aral Sea to invade Europe. The Chinese history put the Ruruans in the same category as the Huns, and the group of Huns who invaded Europe would be very likely another competing tribes who lost their wars to the Ruruans.

Northern Wei moved its capital southward to Loyang in AD 493 and the Tobas changed their family name to the Chinese name of "Yuan". Northern Wei would continue the attacks at Southern China and seesaw warfare would continue till Northern Wei split into two parts of Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties in AD 534, later to be usurped by Northern Qi Dynasty (A.D. 550-577) and Northern Zhou Dynasty (A.D. 557-581) under two generals of Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties, respectively. By the middle of the fifth century, Northern Wei had penetrated into the Tarim Basin in Inner Asia, as had the Chinese in the second century.

With the dissapearance of Hunnic empire of Han/Zhao in China's central plains, the Eastern Huns would dissipate into the melting pots of the time, "Five Nomads Ravaging China". There are two more small dynasties established by the Huns during the 16 Nations time period of AD 304-420, namely, Northern Liang (AD 397-439) and Xia (AD 407-431). But they all ended up defeated by the Toba, a sub-Tunguzic group which emerged out of the Xianbei and Wuhuan nomads. Historical records would show that the Huns served in the army of the Toba's Wei Dynasty, but unsuccessfully rebelled in AD 523.

Toba set up six garrisons or prefectures in northern China and Mongolia. In this very place, the Hunnic remnants were very active. Many soldiers and generals under Toba army were Hunnic. More than that, the Ruruans, a kin of the Huns in my opinion, had staged numerous comebacks against the Tobas from their base in the Altai Mountains. The Ruruans at one time tried to help their Hunnic kinsmen of Hunnic Xia Dynasty. At the other time, the Ruruans colluded with the Tobas in cracking down on the Hunnic rebellions in the northern six garrisons of the Tobas. Joining the Hunnic rebellion against the Tobas would be several groups of peoples by the name of 'Tiele' or 'Chile', ancestors of later Uygurs.

The Huns, Xianbei, Tiele, and the Chinese all served in the army of the Toba's Wei Dynasty. Major northern posts and towns of the Toba Dynasty were in the hands of the Huns. Numerous generals of the Toba army were Hunnic, too. The nature of this time period would be the mingling of various groups of the nomads and sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between the ethnicity. The Huns rebelled in today's Wuyuan area, Inner Mongolia in AD 523. The Tobas, together with the Ruruans, cracked down on the Huns. Thereafter, the Tobas moved about 200 thousand Huns to today's Hebei province. The Hunnic rebellions contributed to the decline and disintegration of the Toba Wei Dynasty, and it had been directly responsible for the gradual rising of two generals under Wei Dynasty, general Yuwen Tai and general Gao Huan, who had later helped to set up as well as usurp Eastern Wei and Western Wei Dynasty, respectively. General Yuwen Tai of Northern Zhou (AD 557-581) and General Gao Yang were Xianbei in ethnicity though Gao Yang carried a Chinese last name of Gao. Gao-shi clan was also the the name adopted by Koguryo.

Ruruan had in fact served as an example for the later Turks in extracting benefits from both Western Wei and Eastern Wei. At one time, the Eastern Wei sent their Toba princess to the Ruruans as a bride, and the Western Wei promptly sent in their princess to the brother of the Ruruan king as a bride. In order to maintain closer relations with the Ruruans, the Emperor of Western Wei had divorced with his empress and requested for marriage with the daughter of the Ruruan king. The Ruruan king had further forced the Western Wei Emperor into ordering his ex-wife commit suicide.

During the Toba era, the Huns in northern China had finally dissapeared as a group. Those who had remained in the Altai Mountains area had survived as the Ruruans, to be defeated by the Turks later. Their European counterparts would have dissapeared much earlier, soon after Attila's death in AD 453. In China, there is still a famous Hunnic family name in existence today. That would be the name of Hu'yan. This shows that the Huns did not just disappear altogether. At least their names had survived.


Descriptions of Non-Mongolian Physiques

For further discussions on Barbarians & Chinese, please refer to


Common Origin For Di1-Qiang1 Barbarians & Xia Chinese
Relationship Between Shang Dynasty, Succeeding Zhou Dynasty & Barbarians
Difference Between Rong and Chinese In 'Culture', Not 'Blood-line'
Merging and Subjugating Barbarians By Zhou Dynasty & Principalities
Assertions By Luo Xianglin & Wang Zhonghan
Continuing Zigzags With Barbarians
Where Were Yuezhi, Wusun & Sai-ren [Scythians]?


Non-Mongolian physiques did exist among Chinese as a result of Chinese interaction with Hunnish, Turkic and Mongol peoples during the course of history. As history had recorded, various steppe people, at certain points, had been recorded to be people carrying different features as to hair, nose, eye and skin. Hunnish, Turkic and Mongol peoples, however, should be considered more Mongoloid peoples than else, and they had acted as a kind of buffer in between Mongoloid and Caucasoid peoples since prehistory. To clarify Chinese ethnic continuity, I also expounded Huangdi's ethnicity in related discussions in prehistory.htm section. I had cited Prof Wei Chu-Hsien's interpretation of ancient classics "Shi-zi" (approx 338 BC works) in authenticating the ethnicity about barbarians in four directions: Guan-xiong-guo in the south, Chang-gu-guo (Chang-gong? long arm) in the west, Shen-mu-guo (deep eye socket) in the north, and Yuhu and Yujing as east-sea and north-sea seagods. I will use "Shi-zi" and "Shan Hai Jing" records of deep eye socket people to the north of Huangdi as a corrobaration that Huangdi people were not of deep-socket eyes at all. Once and for all, I had settled the issues in regards to Huangdi or the Yellow Overlord, i.e., i) semantic error in translating the overlord for 'di4' into emperor; ii) Nordic racist appropriation in attaching Caucasian tag to Huangdi. In the paragraph on the origin of Huns above, I had expounded the ethnic nature of various Rong people as mainly Sino-Tibetan speaking Qiangic people. Wang Zhonghan analyzed the relationsip between Qiangic Proto-Tibetan and Altaic Proto-Hun activities to derive a conclusion that "the northern barbarians and western barbarians were similar [i.e., Qiangs] at Spring-Autumn time period, but by the time of late Warring States, Chinese began to see the northern barbarians as different from the western barbarians". DNA studies, i.e., "Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of a 2,000-Year-Old Necropolis in the Egyin Gol Valley of Mongolia", as illustrated at http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v73n2/35013/35013.web.pdf, clearly corroborated the point that Mongoloid presence in today's Outer Mongolia was dominant over 2000 years ago. The geographical isolation of the Chinese continent, separated by the huge Gobi "Desert Sea", explained why there had existed the limited contacts between the east and the west till the Altaic-speaking Huns raided to the west from the east.

I would make a claim here that the Huns were semi-sinicized people who had lived along the Chinese border for thousands of years, and the Huns were much more civilized than the later Jurchens and Mongols. My speculation is that the ancient Chinese could have much in common with the Huns. The early Chinese historical accounts did not have much hint as to the physique of the Huns. That is probably to do with my speculation that the ancient Chinese of 2000 years ago might not be different from the Huns at all. I would also cast doubts on the nature of the Huns under Attila who invaded Europe. Because the European historians stated that those Huns who first invaded Europe were so barbaric that they did not eat cooked foods at all. The Atilla Huns do not sound like their Asian kinsmen.

Early Chinese historical accounts did record the difference in the physique of peoples in Chinese Turkistan and beyond. Earlier records said the people to the west of the ancient Gaochang Statelet (Turpan) possessed the features of high nose bridge and deep socket eyes. Records also stated that the people beyond the Pamir Mountains possessed high nose bridge and hairy skins. Later accounts mentioned the existence of 'blue-appled' people in southern Chinese Turkistan. (Chinese character for 'blue', namely, 'bi', could also mean 'dark green'.)

In northwestern Siberia, Kirghiz people, descendants of Jiankun Statelet located to the northwest of Siberia, were recorded to be a group of people who had 'green eyes'. Kirghiz, with the help of a traitor Huihu (Uygur) general, defeated and expelled Huihe from Mongolia around AD 840s. Chinese history recorded that the northern Mongolians possessed 'chestnut-colored eyes'. The Mongolians of 13-14th centuries classify the rest of nomadic peoples as 'Se Mu Ren', namely, 'color-eyed peoples'. It would be in Ming Dynasty's history book that we found descriptions of modern Europeans, namely, 'cat-eyed', 'eagle-mouthed', and 'red-haired'. Interestingly, Ming Chinese did not talk too much about the Portugese who were known as 'Falangji' (a word mutated from 'Frank' and also meant for cannons that Arabs mimicked on basis of European inventions), while the Dutch was nicknamed 'Hongmaogui', namely, red-haired ghosts. In this sense, the Portugese could appear much more different than the Dutch.

The relationship between Chinese and nomads was very much interwined. The first recorded defection to the Huns would be the son of King Zang Tu of Yan Principality in late 3rd century BC. (King Zang Tu was conferred the king title by General Xiang Yu, not Emeperor Liu Bang the first emperor of Han Dynasty.) The son of Zang Tu later instigated the rebellion and defection of King Lu Wan of Yan Principality. (Lu Wan was a childhood pal of Emperor Liu Bang, and Liu Bang conferred him the title of king as an appreciation of their childhood friendship after defeating the rebellion of King Zang Tu.) Before Lu Wan' defection, King of Haan(2) Principality, Xin, failed to resist the Huns and surrendered to the Huns for fear of punishment by Liu Bang. The prime minister of Dai Principality, Chen Xi, also fled to the Huns. So to say that quite some Chinese kings and officials had joined hands with the Huns during the early years of Han Dynasty ( 206 BC-23 AD). Han Emperor Wudi, who reigned from 141 to 87 B.C., would campaign against the Huns several times. Some generals under Wudi, like General Li Ling (the grandson of General Li Guang), had surrendered to the Huns. Certainly, many Huns and their nobles were taken prisoners or surrendered to the Han Chinese, too. The son of one Hunnic king, Jin-Ridi, would later be appointed a post in the Chinese court, and he would be responsible for maintaining Liu family heritage of the Han Dynasty during several palace struggles.

Tribal empires rose and fell, the conquered and the conquerors mixed up, and ethnic and linguistic dividing lines blurred. Notable would be the fact that the so-called Indo-European nomads, Scythians ('Sai Ren' or 'Sai Zhong' People) and Yuezhi (Yüeh-chih), had migrated to Oxus (ancient Kuei or Gui River) and the Iranian world a long time ago. It would be during the Western Jinn (AD 265-316) that historical accounts record extensively the difference of the physique of some nomads from the Chinese. Those descriptions are mostly to do with the Xianbei nomads whose ancestors were driven to Manchuria by the Huns. When an Eastern Jinn minister (Wang Dun) rebelled against Emperor Mingdi in AD 322-325, he called the emperor by a derogatory name of "Huangxu-nu of Xianbei", meaning "yellow-haired slave of the Xianbei nomads". This is because Mingdi's mother was from the Dai prefecture, i.e., Yanmen'guan Pass area. My interpretation would be to take ancient Chinese color of yellow as brown. Dark brown hair is very common among today's northern Chinese. Emperor Fu Jian of Anterior Qin Dynasty (AD 351-394) called the Xianbei rebels 'Bai Lu', namely, light-skinned enemies. Historians, including Cai Dongfan, speculated that Xianbei, whose ancestors fled to Manchuria under the Hunnic attack, might have possessed lighter skin; and Ming-Qing dynastic printing houses, which compiled China's 25 chronicles into commonly-readable series, had pointed out that Jinn Dynasty wealthy in northern China liked to buy Xianbei women as concubines for the height. Having interpreted "Huangxu-nu of Xianbei" as "yellow-haired slave of the Xianbei nomads", I would conclude that Xianbei 'Bai Lu' could merely mean white-colored clothing people by adopting Scholar Wang Zhonghan's linkage of ancient Bai-yi [White Yi] subgroup of Dong-yi [Eastern Yi] barbarians to the tribal custom of wearing white-colored clothes. In deed, today's Koreans, i.e., kinsmen of the Tungunzic Dong Hu, still had a tradition of wearing white robe. (Corroborating factor would be: In the eyes of the Qiang1/Di1 people, northerners like Xianbei might possess lighter skin. Today's Tibetans and Qiangs in Sichuan do possess darker-complexions. Using modern science, we could attribute the shade difference among southern and northern Mongolians to different levels of unltra-violet exposure.)

Another disputable claim would be related to the Jiehu people. As to the Jiehu, i.e., one of the five troubal groups which pillaged China, they were said to have possessed higher nose bridge than the other nomadic groups. Shi Min, an adopted son of Jiehu's Posterior Zhao, had at one time killed about 200,000 Jiehu nomads. Jiehu was an alternative race of the Huns, but they must have looked the same to other Huns and Chinese except for the high nose bridge. History recorded that the criteria used for sorting out Jiehu was the nose bridge, only. History said that Shi Min's armies killed those people who looked like Jiehu because of high nose bridge. (Jiehu founder, Shi Le, was said to have travelled out of his domain to seek for employment or career in his early years. Shi Le was at one time captured in today's Shandong Province when the local Jinn warlord was given advice to round up Hu nomads for filling up the army ranks. This points to the kind of melting-pot as existed in late Jinn time periods. Note that high nose bridge had been observed among the Tanguts of Xi-xia [Western Xia] Dynasty as well as today's Yi-zu minority in southwestern China, i.e., they all possessed dark face with red decoration and comparatively higher nose bridge. After a close exam of Ainu's hairy body, one could put away the "racial approach" with a claim that neither high nose bridge itself nor hairy body itself was not equivalent to a Caucasoid.)

16 Nations (AD 304-420) were comprised of various nomadic groups of people, Huns, Jiehu, Xianbei (including Wuhuan & Toba), Qiang, & Di. Ultimately, the Tobas, who were of Xianbei heritage, took over northern China. Leftover Huns were absorbed by Ruruans, and Ruruans were defeated and exterminated by Turks. Tobas would deal with the onslaughts by the Ruruans first and then the Turks. Tobas got sinicized in northern China. Ultimately, Toba Wei Dynasty would be usurped by two generals of Xianbei heritage. By Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618), Turks would replace their Ruruan masters as the strongest power in the northern steppe.

Ashina Turks might have possessed features different from other Huns. In the 17th year of Western Wei's Datong era, i.e., AD 551, Turkic Khan Tumen (Bumin) obtained Toba Princess Changle as a bride. In the first year of Western Wei Emperor Feidi, Tumen defeated the Ruruans and Tumen declared himself Khan Yili. Tumen's son, named Keluo, was Khan Yixiji, and he would defeat Ruruan Khan's brother (Dengshuzi). Yixiji's brother, Sijin (Sinjibu?), aka Yandu, would succeed Khan Yixiji as Khan Muchu. Sijin was recorded to be red-faced and possess eyes like "liuli" [now meaning brown and green imperial construction, previously meaning five-color glass].




In the 7th century, there was record in regards to the difference of Ashina Turks from the ordinary Hu or Huns. A Turkic khan called Simo was not recommended for the post of Turkic Arch-Khan because he looked more like an ordinary 'Hu' nomad than an Ashina Turk. This kind of records, however, did corrobate the fact that Central Asian features, maybe in areas like deep socket eyes and high nose bridge, were rare in relationship with the general physique of the people in the steppe area. Speculation would be that majority Huns were of Mongol stock, but few Altaic people, like Jiehu & Ashina Turks, had inherited or picked up Caucasian features of Chinese Turkistan or Central Asia, possibly after the ancestral Huns raided to the west.

Orkhon Turks (Eastern Turks) were defeated by Uygurs. Uygurs would control Kirghiz in the west and Khitans in the east. Around the 8th century, the Kirghiz people would come into play. According to Xin Wu Dai Shi (New History Of Five Dynasties), Kirghiz belonged to the ancient 'Jiankun' Statelet which was located to the western-most of the Huns, 7000 li away from the Hunnic court in Mongolia, in fact. They should be to the west of Yiwu Statelet and to the north of Yanqi Statelet. Hunnic Chanyu Zhizhi destroyed Jiankun and ex-Han General Li Ling, who surrendered to the Huns, was assigned to the land of Jiankun as King of Youxianwang (rightside virtuous king) with an army of 80,000. "New History Of Five Dynasties" said that Kirghiz possessed lighter skin, red hair, green eyes and taller height, and that those Kirghiz with black hair must be the descendants of Li Ling. At one time, during Tang Emperor Suzong's reign of AD 758-760, the Huihu (Uygur) conquered the Jiankun Statelet of the Kirghiz. The Kirghis allied themselves with Tibetans, Arabs and Karlaks. Kirghiz, with the help of a traitor Huihu (Uygur) general and combining a cavalry force of 100000, defeated Huihu (Uygur) and killed the Huihu khan around AD 840s. Kirghiz claimed that they shared the same last name as Tang emperors, i.e., Li. They claimed to be descendants of General Li Ling of 800 years earlier. They sent another emissary to Tang court, and it took the emissary three years to circumvent to Tang court for seeing Emperor Wuzong. Later, Kirghiz sent another emissary and made a proposal to attack Huihu (Uygur) together with Tang. It would be in AD 859 that Tang Emperor Xuandi decided to confer the Kirghiz the title of Khan Bravery-Intelligence. Tang was hesitant in conferring the king title and making Kirghiz an alternative rival to the defunct Huihu power. Xin Wu Dai Shi said Kirghiz paid three more pilgrimages during AD 860-875, but they failed to exterminate Huihu (Uygur).

With the downfall of the Uygurs, the Khitans had their Uygur seal replaced by Tang China and then ruled eastern Mongolia, most of Manchuria, and much of northern China by AD 925. When the Kirghiz defeated the Huihe (Uygurs) in AD 840 and took over northern Mongolia, there was a group of people called the Naimans who remained in their homalands in the Altai Mountains and attached themselves to the Kirghiz. The Naimans is said to be a Mongol name for a group of the Turkic tribe called 'Sakiz Oghuz' or the Eight Oghuz, a name which existed in 8th century. Gradually, the Naimans grew in strength and drove the Kirghiz to the River Yenesei and rooted the Keraits from their homeland on the Irtysch in the Altai and drove them towards Manchuria, hence indirectly causing the Khitans to move to northern China where they established the Liao Dynasty in AD 907-1125, a name associated with the Liao River in Manchuria. The Khitans changed their dynastic names back and forth between Liao and Khitan, several times. Khitans would conquer the Xi and Shiwei Tribes, the Dadan Tribes, the Bohai Tungus people and the Sino-Tibetan Tanguts.

After the fall of Tang Dynasty (AD 619-907), three dynasties among the Five Dynasties (AD 907-960), Posterior Tang 923-936, Posterior Jinn 936-946, Posterior Han 947-950, were ruled by the Sha'to Turks. The remaining Orkhon Turks were not heard from after China's Five Dynasties time period. Huihe (Uygurs or Uighurs) took refuge in Ganzhou and Xinjiang after being replaced by the Kirghiz and expelled from Mongolia.

During the 10th century, among over twenty Shiwei tribes, there would be another interesting name called 'Huangdou Shiwei', i.e., yellow head Shiwei. Xin Wu Dai Shi, citing the account of a Chinese (Hu Qiao) taken prisoner of war by Khitans, mentioned that there were a statelet called Yujuelu with 'Maodou' (hairy head) people to the northwest of Shiwei and to the north of the Kirghiz people. Also to the northeast of Shiwei would be another group of 'Maoshou' or hairy head people.

Genghis Khan was rumored to have carried red hair and green eyes. Paul Ratchnevsky quoted the contemporary Chinese Zhao Hong as saying that Genghis Khan differed from other Tartars in that he was tall and had long beard, and quoted Marco Polo as saying that Khubilai did have black hair but fair complexion 'ringed with red'. Rashid ad-Din, in 'Collected Chronicles', said that Genghis Khan was amazed to see that Khubilai had black hair while the rest of their family had red hair and said his grandson must have taken 'his old uncles' features. Genghis Khan belonged to the Borjigid clan which was a branch of the Kiyats to which the Jurchens (Jurchids), Changsi'ut and the Kiyat-Sayar also belonged. The importance of the Borjigids lies in the legend that after the death of Dobun-mergen, the alleged ancestress Alan-ko bore Bodunchar after being visited by a strange 'golden glittering man'. Rashid ad-Din alluded to a foreign origin of the visitor and described him as having red hair and blue-green eyes. Paul Ratchnevsky speculated that the mysterious visitor could be a Kirghiz since the Kirghiz people were said to be tall and possessed red hair and green eyes. Note that Rashid ad-Din's writings came from secondary sources and rumors and that Yuan Shi (History of Yuan Dynasty) only recorded that Bodunchar had grey eyes against the chestnut-colored eyes of his brothers and half-brothers. Nothing is mentioned of hair or skin of Bodunchar or Genghis Khan.

My pointing out the above features had led some people to speculation that ancient Chinese were not necessarily Chinese in modern sense. Note important linguistic differentiation here. The Yuezhi spoke Indo-European tongue should they be firmly classified as Indo-European. The Chinese spoke Sino-Tibetan tongue. The Rong & Di2 nomads, known as the later Huns and Turks, spoke the Altaic tongue. I would ask people to go to Xi'an and observe the terra cotta soldiers for a clear idea as to how ancient Chinese looked like over 2300 years ago. To dispel racially polarized extrapolation, I had discussed the issue of Qin Chinese ethnicity in Qin section. I explained why I consider Qin and Zhou people as mainly Sino-Tibetan speaking Chinese versus the Indo-European Yuezhi or Altaic-speaking steppe people; I had listed two good examples to show that Qin/Zhou Chinese were not color-blind people; and I searched early Chinese classics to extract the meaning of blackness as coined in 'Qian Shou' and 'Li Min' for relation to the skin, not the hair. To dispell any speculation, I had listed the following sentence as a proof that ancient Chinese took pride in hair's density and blackness as beauty and health: In classics Zuo Zhuan, during the 28th year reign of Lu Lord Zhaogong, a statement was made to infer that in the old times, a You-reng-shi woman bored a beautiful daughter, with 'zhen[3] hei[1]' (i.e., dense and black) hair.

Origins Of The Huns
Linguistic Explorations
The Huns vs Eastern Hu Nomads
Modu's Hun Empire and Early Han Dynasty
Huns & the Latter Han Dynasty
Huns During Wei-Jinn Time Periods
Hunnic Han & Zhao Dynasty (AD 304-329)
Five Nomad Groups Ravaging China
Toba's Wei Dynasty, Ruruans, & Hunnic Decline
Descriptions of Non-Mongolian Physiques Attila the Hun
Roman Legions Under Huns & Living In China
Distinction From The Turks & Uygurs
Uygurs & Karlaks vs Orkhon Turks
Uygurs vs Kirghiz
Distinction From "White Huns (Hephthalites)"
Yüeh-chih, Scythians, & Ye-tai (White Huns)
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written by Ah Xiang