Author: Chen Erhu
(A set of pictures of "Splendid Wei Yang")
First, the divine beast in the minds of the humble people
Tuoba Xianbei, is the other kind of Xianbei people, but also the last out of the Daxing'anling Xianbei people, it is said that they originated from the Great Xianbei Mountain (north of the Daxing'anling), in the process of moving south", "nine difficulties and eight obstacles", difficulties, from the Yimin River to the south through the Daxing'anLing, through the alpine forest and river valley swamp, in a large swampy area, how can not go out, the entire tribe is in danger, and even many Tuoba Xianbei people want to give up the migration, at this critical moment, there are divine beasts descending, this divine beast is like a horse, if the cow is not an ox, Under the leadership of the Divine Beast, after a year of time, he finally got out of the predicament.
Some people say that this divine beast is "Xianbei", which means the meaning of rui beast.
So, what is this divine beast? Experts combined the deer-patterned bronze plaques unearthed by the Xianbei people and this related description, and believe that this sacred beast is our reindeer today, also known as the "four unlikes".
Reindeer "horns like deer non-deer, body like horses not horses, head like donkeys not donkeys, hooves like cattle not cattle", and the historical records of the "sacred beasts" are quite similar, and this reindeer can carry hundreds of pounds, endurance is quite good, good at crossing forests and swamps, it is very likely that Tuoba Xianbei people use reindeer to get rid of the dilemma encountered in the migration process (today, people living in Daxing'anling still raise a large number of reindeer);
There is also a saying that the sacred beast encountered by the Tuoba Xianbei people during their migration is the "steamed bun" mentioned in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", which is shaped like a white horse, sawtooth, and can eat tigers and leopards. In the tombs of the Xianbei people, a similar "sacred horse" has been unearthed, its shape is like a horse, the eyes are facing the sky, there is a single horn on the kiss, the horn end is backward, there are hooves and claws, and the back wings can fly, which is very similar to the "駮" in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", perhaps this is a beautiful legend of Tuoba Xianbei, that is, the "horned end" said in some historical materials.
In ancient times, many tribes had totem worship, perhaps this is the original totem of Tuoba Xianbei, giving the clan spiritual strength and unity, increasing the strength and courage to overcome difficulties, and also the means by which the Tuoba leader uses religion to unite the clan.
Second, the Tuoba Xianbei people who gradually came south
Since the first century AD, the Huns, who once dominated the Mongolian steppe, gradually declined under the blows of the Han Dynasty, and eventually split into the Southern Xiongnu and the Northern Xiongnu, the Southern Xiongnu were subordinate to the Han Dynasty, and the Northern Xiongnu were forced to move west. In this way, this vast Mongolian grassland was suddenly empty, and the Xianbei people who had been living in the Daxing'anling area saw the vitality and came south one after another to enter the Mongolian steppe, which also provided unlimited living space for the slowly moving southward Tuoba Xianbei.
According to the Book of Wei: About the first half of the first century, the Tuoba Xianbei people moved south under the leadership of the leader Tui Yin, and every time they went, they would stay for a while, longer or shorter, leaving the mark of the Tuoba Xianbei people along the way, and constantly growing and learning, accepting new things, colliding and merging with the remaining Xiongnu and other ethnic groups, and strengthening the team.
About the middle of the first century, "there were hundreds of thousands of Xiongnu, each with its own name, and Suotou Tuoba was also one", that is to say, the Huns with "Suotou" as the leader joined the ranks of Tuoba Xianbei.
In the ancient steppe area, the Xianbei people and the Xiongnu intermarriage is very common, it is said that the Xiongnu men who marry the Xianbei women, the children born are regarded as The Huns, in order to distinguish the Huns, known as the "Tiefu Huns"; the Xianbei men marry the Xiongnu women, and the children born are called "Tuoba Xianbei", which is also to distinguish them from other Xianbei people.
With the growth of the clan, Tuoba Xianbei was no longer a single tribe, but a tribal federation, with at least seven tribes (or these seven being the most famous of them), namely the Qiu bone clan, the Baba clan, the Daxi clan, the Qiu Dun clan, the Qihai clan, the Yilou clan and the Pu clan, together with the Tuoba clan (拓跋氏), forming the Tuoba Eight Tribes (Eight Kingdoms). Later, the tuoba chieftain Lin separated the descendants of his uncle from the Tuoba clan and changed it to the Yi clan, and formed the "ten surnames" of the Tuoba Xianbei people, and after Tuoba Xianbei established the Northern Wei, he called these "ten surnames" "ten surnames of the imperial family".
After Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, the Tuoba clan was changed to the Yuan clan.
Why change your last name? The Zizhi Tongjian says this: Emperor Xiaowen of Wei issued an edict: "The northerners call the soil to expand, and then to pull it out." Wei Zhixian was born from the Yellow Emperor, and was the King of Tude, so he was known as Tuoba Clan. Fu Tu, the color of yellow, the yuan of all things, should be changed to the surname of Yuan. ”
See, they say that they are descendants of the Yellow Emperor, the natives, the yellow representative of the center, and the beginning of all things (Yuan), so they should change the surname to Tuoba.
The Qiu clan was later changed to the Hu clan, the Baba clan was later changed to the Changsun clan, the Da Xi clan was later changed to the Xi clan, the Qiu Dun clan was later changed to the Qiu clan, the Qian Hai clan was later changed to the Hai clan, the Pu clan was changed to the Zhou clan, and the Yi lou clan was later changed to the Yi clan.
The earliest person to compile the origin of Tuoba Xianbei for Tuoba Xianbei was the Northern Wei famous minister Cui Hao, who came from the Qinghe Cui clan, one of the four famous clans in the north at that time, the family clan, the three dynasties of Northern Wei Daowu, Ming Yuan, and Taiwu, and the officials to Situ participated in military affairs and played an important role in the unification of northern China by The Northern Wei Dynasty.
Cui Hao was ordered by the Emperor of Northern Wei to compile the history of Tuoba Xianbei and wrote the thirty volumes of the "Book of The State", and it is said that Cui Hao recorded some of Tuoba Xianbei's disgraceful history and was killed, known as the "Cui HaoGuo History Case", implicating many people.
The Book of Wei, which we see today, says that Tuoba Xianbei's ancestor was Shi Jun, a descendant of changyi, the yellow emperor's younger son, which was obviously made up by the Han people.
However, Tuoba Xianbei reached the period when Jie fen was the leader, and the history was relatively clear.
It is said that in the process of migration, When Jiefen led Tuoba Xianbei, one day he was suddenly confronted by a fairy who floated down from the sky and came to Jiefen and said affectionately and gently: "I am a Heavenly Daughter, and I married you on the orders of the Heavenly Emperor." ”
Jie Fen listened and was overjoyed, so the two of them spent a happy night happily, and when the sun rose slowly, the fairy reluctantly said to Jie Fen: "Next year's day, let's meet here!" After saying that, he took off into the air.
On this day the following year, Jie Fen came to this early, and the fairy did come as expected, holding a baby in her arms, she handed the baby to Jie Fen and told him: "This is your son, and when this child grows up, he will make your family the emperor for generations." ”
This legendary baby is the later Shenyuan Diliwei. Therefore, there is a saying among the Tuoba Xianbei people: "Emperor Jiefen has no wife's family, and Emperor Liwei has no uncle's family." ”
Tuoba Xianbei reached the era of Li Wei as the leader, gradually became stronger, and became the first khan of Tuoba Xianbei.
Around 258 AD, the Tuoba Xianbei tribe moved from Wuyuan (around Baotou, Inner Mongolia) to Shengle (north of Inner Mongolia and Lingele County), and the surrounding tribes were successively annexed to form a tribal alliance, which incorporated the Xiongnu, Ding Zero, Rouran, Wuhuan and other tribes (a total of seventy-five non-Tuoba Xianbei tribes), with eight Tuoba tribes as the main ones (that is, the eight surnames of the clan).
At this time, the Three Kingdoms of the Central Plains were at their peak, and Tuoba Liwei actively promoted the social reform of Tuoba Xianbei, took the initiative to maintain friendly relations with the Cao Wei regime, made peace with Cao Wei, and sent his son The Desert King to Cao Wei as a proton, laying the foundation for Tuoba Xianbei to establish Northern Wei later.
Third, the Xianbei people began to establish a divided regime
In the blink of an eye, Tuoba Yilu became the leader of Tuoba Xianbei, proclaimed himself the acting king, and established the first regime of Tuoba Xianbei, Dai, with Shengle as the northern capital and Pingcheng (northeast of present-day Datong City, Shanxi) as the southern capital, and also laid a solid foundation for the establishment of the later Northern Wei.
They were the dai state established by Tuoba Yilu (315-376 AD, Xianbei Tuobabu), the Former Yan established by Murong Hao (337-370 AD, Xianbei Murongbu), the Later Yan established by Murong Chui (384-407 AD, Xianbei Murongbu), the Western Qin established by Qifu Guoren (384-431 AD, Xianbei Qifubu), and the Western Yan established by Murong Hong (384-394 AD), Southern Liang (397-414 AD, Bald Ministry) founded by Bald Wugu, Southern Yan established by Murong De (398-410 AD, Murong Bu), Tuguhun established by Ye Yan (329-663 AD, Tuguhunbu), Northern Yan established by Feng Bao (407-436 AD, Murong Bu), Northern Wei established by Tuoba Jue (386-534 AD, TuobaBu), And Eastern Wei established by Yuan Shanjian (534-551 AD), Tuoba Bu), the Western Wei (535-557 AD, Tuoba Bu) established by Yuan Baojue, and the Northern Zhou (557-581 AD, Yuwen Bu) established by Yuwen Jue, it can be said that for a time "Hu Feng" flourished.
Tuoba Xianbei's succession to the Khan's throne is generally passed down from brother to nephew, adopting a nomadic hereditary election method, because each succession of Khans is fiercely competitive, and the various factions with inheritance rights compete with each other, sometimes weakening their own strength and internal differentiation. Since the fall of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Xianbei people have completely withdrawn from the stage of history and gradually disappeared into the long river of history.
However, we cannot deny that Tuoba Xianbei was the earliest established dynasty among the northern nomads, dominating northern China, and played a role in promoting the spread of northern grassland culture (nomadic culture) in the Yellow River Basin and the integration with the Central Plains culture (farming culture).
Tips: If you like this article, please forward and comment.