Donghu was a powerful northern ethnic group during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period of China, named after the Xiongnu who lived east. It was an ancient nomadic people of northeastern China and a confederation of tribes that included tribes of the same clan and different names at the time. As early as the Shang Dynasty, there are records of Donghu's activities. Since historical records, Donghu has always been a powerful tribe, defeating the Yan state during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, and at the end of the Qin Dynasty, it once extorted and extorted money from the Xiongnu.
Donghu is one of the ethnic minorities in northern China, and the activities of the Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties, as well as the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties were in the eastern part of present-day Inner Mongolia, and occupied an important position in The history of Our Country. On the one hand, they and the various ethnic groups on the grassland constantly integrated with each other, on the other hand, they continued to move into the Central Plains to integrate with the Han nationality, and finally they all integrated into the Han nationality. Thus the Eastern Hu is actually a major branch of the ancestors of the Han people.
The name Donghu first appeared in the Yizhou Shu Wang Hui, and there are records of "Dong Hu and Huang Yi (pi)". Donghu and Tu He, Guzhu, Lingzhi and other clans coexisted at that time. These ancient peoples have all been annexed by Yan after the Warring States. It can be seen that this record will not be later than the Warring States. In the Yi zhou Shu Wang Hui Chapter, it is also said that "due north there is... The Huns... Dong Hu...", Kong Chao's commentary: "Dong Hu, Dong Dong Yi"; It is also said that Xiongnu and Donghu are aliases for "Northern Di". The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Western Classic of Hai Nei also says: "The Eastern Hu is in the Eastern Hu, and the Yi people are in the Eastern Hudong." "Osawa is believed to be the Darienore of Inner Mongolia today. Donghu was in the eastern part of Daze, in the present-day Xilamulun River Valley, where the Yi people were supposed to be the Dongyi who lived in the area of present-day Liaodong. The Guan Zi Xiao Kuang chapter says: "(Huan Gong) rescued the Duke of Jin, captured the king defeated Hu Raccoon (he), broke Tu He, and rode Kou Shifu" Of which Hu Gong should refer to Dong Hu. The "Chronicle of the Xiongnu" records: "The Jin Dynasty was first established, and wanted to cultivate hegemony,...... Nei Ying Zhou Xiang Wang, living in Luo (luo) Yi. When it was, Qin and Jin became a powerful country,...... In northern Jin, there are Lin Hu and Lou Fu Zhi Rong, and in northern Yan there are Dong Hu and Shan Rong. "This should also be in the Spring and Autumn Period, because after the Spring and Autumn Period, Shanrong has disappeared from history."
These records of Donghu all prove that Donghu was an ancient ethnic group that operated in the near-Silamulun River Valley during the Zhou Dynasty. There is no more record of when the Donghu people established the state. However, from the "Chronicle of the Xiongnu", it is mentioned that the Yan general Qin Kai was once a hostage in Eastern Hu, and the record of Eastern Hu having a king can be inferred that Eastern Hu had already established a state during the Warring States period, so it also formed the Eastern Hu nation.
Regarding the origin of Donghu, the literature is brief and confusing.
Yin Zhizhang of the Tang Dynasty said: The ancestors of Donghu were the Tuhe tribe. However, this statement contradicts the historical data recorded in books such as the Book of Yizhou and Guan Zi, where Donghu and Tu He are juxtaposed. According to the records in the book, The Eastern Hu and Tu He should have existed at the same time as the two ethnic groups, tu he's range of activities is in today's western Liaoning region, and Eastern Hu is in today's eastern Mongolia. Tu He could not have been an ancestor of Dong Hu.
Some people believe that shanrong in the spring and autumn is the predecessor of Donghu. In the Warring States period, Shanrong was renamed Donghu. According to this statement, the name "Donghu" should have appeared as early as the Warring States period. However, judging from the records of the Book of Yizhou, the name of Donghu appeared at the beginning of the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, and the Classic of Mountains and Seas also recorded the emergence of Donghu, which was earlier than the Warring States period, and the "History of the Xiongnu Column" and the "Book of Yizhou" even mentioned Donghu and Shanrong side by side. Therefore, the Donghu and Shanrong should also be changed to two ethnic groups side by side. Shanrong's range of activity was in the upper reaches of today's Daling River Basin, and Donghu was in today's Sylamulun River Basin.
After the defeat of Shanrong by the Duke of Qi Huan, Donghu once went south and occupied the territory that originally belonged to Shanrong. Later, due to the attack of the Yan state, one of the seven heroes of the Warring States, Donghu retreated thousands of miles to the north, and then retreated to the West Lamulun River Valley. During this period, the Shanrong tribe may have partially integrated into Donghu, but it cannot be said that Shanrong is the ancestor of Donghu.
It is also said that the ancestors of Donghu were the Tufang people. This statement has only been proposed in recent years. However, the exact location of the earth is still difficult to determine for a while, and there is no more historical data that can prove that the earth is the ancestor of Donghu.
In addition, some people believe that Donghu Zuyuan is related to Wu Geng's establishment of "Northern Yin"; Some people say that the Donghu people were the remnants left by Jizi Dong when he went to Korea in the late Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty; It has also been suggested that the Donghu are descendants of Yin Shang.
Relatively speaking, among these views, the ancestors of the Donghu people originated from the Yin Shang clan.
The Yin Shang tribe used the Xuan bird as a totem and originally lived in the area of Fan and Zhenshi north of Yanshan Mountain. The fern and the stone, that is, the valley of the Laoha River and the Xilamulun River, are the places where the Yin Shang clan arose. This area was the area where the Donghu clan later operated. Starting from the first chief recorded in the historical records, the Yin Shang tribe experienced a total of 14 generations of chiefs, during which they migrated 8 times, and by the time of the reign of Tang, who established the Shang Dynasty, the Yin Shang tribe settled in today's Anyang, Henan. The 8 migrations in between are a long historical process. It is likely that when the Yin Shang tribe decided to migrate, some of the members did not leave. The Yin Shang tribes that entered the Central Plains were quickly assimilated by the agricultural civilization, while the Yin Shang remnants who remained in their homeland still lived a nomadic life on the grasslands, and their customs did not change much. When the Central Plains people met these Yin Shang remnants again, they did not know that they were Yin Shang bloodline, thinking that they were barbarians like the Xiongnu, Shanrong and other ethnic groups. The Xiongnu called themselves Hu at that time, and the Donghu were called Donghu because they lived in the east of the Xiongnu nation.
The Eastern Hu lived in the early years of the Shang Dynasty just north of the Shang Dynasty, and in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty lived in the north and east of the Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Donghu shang was in the development stage of clan tribes at the end of primitive society. In the Warring States period, Donghu expanded from the north of the Jin and Yan dynasties to the east and south, and its power reached the northern part of the Yan and the vast area northeast of it, that is, the middle and upper reaches of the Luan River north of present-day Miyun County in Beijing, the upper reaches of the Liao River, the Xilamulun River and the Laoha River basin, including the western part of today's Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, and parts of eastern Inner Mongolia.
The Donghu people advocate nature, worship the sun, moon, stars, water, fire and other natural things, with bears, tigers, deer, wolves and other animals as totems. In nomadic life and sacrificial activities, the Donghu people created a dance system with "rotation" as the main movement, which has been called "Huxuan" by later generations. Donghu people are also good at making baked foods, especially foods such as "grilled meat" and "scones", which have been handed down to this day. Modern baked cakes are the evolution and development of "Hu Cakes" baked by the Donghu people.
Because the main body is a nomadic people, the life of hunting and herding makes the donghu people fierce, advocating force and war, and often plundering wealth and slaves through war. Although the development of the Central Plains civilization was somewhat slower, in the early Warring States period, the Donghu people mastered superb bronze smelting technology. The bronze swords, copper swords, copper knives, copper goats, and bronze helmets cast by the Donghu people not only have high technical value, but also are very sharp and practical, especially the bronze double-sided curved blade bronze short swords and long swords, which can be called the weapons of war at that time. In particular, the horn bow of the Donghu people, made of huge horns and beef tendons and deer tendons, is both short, strong and powerful, extremely lethal, with feather arrows made of carved plumes, red willow poles, and bronze arrows, which are light and flexible, and are very suitable. This kind of horned bow and feather arrow was one of the more advanced weapons until the Tang and Song dynasties. The Qi folk song recorded in the Warring States Policy describes the image of the Donghu people as saying: "The big crown is like a sword, and the sword is too long." It can be seen that at that time, the hats of the Donghu people were very large, like a dustpan, and the bronze swords used could be erected on the ground and could reach the chin. At that time, the Donghu people wore this kind of big hat that could shield the wind and rain, rode a high-headed horse, wielded a long sword in their hands, and a short bow made of ox horns hanging from their waists, often attacking Yan, Zhao, Qi and other countries. Their cavalry and cavalry tactics were demonstrated to the Central Plains. Powerful troops and effective tactics were immediately learned and promoted by the Central Plains, and flexible horse warfare replaced clumsy vehicle warfare.
Because of continuous development and annexation, by the Zhou Dynasty and even the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, Donghu was no longer a single ethnic group, but a tribal federation, among which there were peoples mainly fish hunting active in the northeast, nomadic peoples active in the central region, and nomadic and agricultural peoples active in the west and south.
When Donghu was strong, there were "more than 100,000 people who controlled the strings", and the population of Donghu at the time of the strong was about 700,000.
For nearly 800 years, the Donghu people have always lived in a vast area centered on the Mongolian Horqin steppe. Through the friction with the countries of the Central Plains, the two sides deepened their understanding and accelerated the process of mutual integration, injecting fresh blood into the Chinese civilization.
Of course, it is also a hypothesis that the Donghu people and the Yin Shang tribe share the same ancestry, and there is still a lack of further evidence to support it. The Donghu people, who do not like to settle and do not like tombs, have left too few relics to find the truth of history from the limited traces.
During the Warring States period, the Miyun area under the jurisdiction of today's Chinese capital Beijing was originally under the jurisdiction of the State of Yan, located in the northeast of the State of Yan. It is an important gateway for the Central Plains to enter and leave the northeast and Inner Mongolia regions, and its geographical location is special, and it is an important border defense town and a place where soldiers and families must fight.
At that time, after the dispute between the princes of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Central Plains region entered the period of the Seven Heroes. Years of war and turmoil have left the princely states of the Central Plains with no time to take care of themselves, and the northern nomads have become extremely active, and the Miyun region has become the only way for them to go south. Therefore, the Miyun region has become an important battlefield for the Yan kingdom that owns this area to compete with the northern nomads.
At that time, in the north of the Yan kingdom was the powerful Dong hu. Taking advantage of the weakness of several generations of monarchs in the Yan kingdom, the Eastern Hu clan quickly occupied the Miyun area. Through this passage, the Donghu people ran amok and wantonly plundered the wealth and people of the Yan kingdom. The border of the Yan state was threatened by Donghu, and the people fled their homeland one after another, and the former prosperous villages were desolate and uninhabited.
The scenery of Donghu lasted until King Ji of Yanzhao ascended the throne as the monarch of the State of Yan.
Ji Zhi was the 38th grandson of Duke Zhao of Zhou. At that time, Yan Guoben was also a big country. When the throne passed to the Yan king, the yan king listened to the rumors and wanted to learn from Yao Shun, and actually ceded the throne to Xiang Guozizhi. The general of the Yan kingdom and Ji Zhi, who was a hostage in Korea, immediately rebelled against Zizhi, and a great disturbance broke out in the Yan kingdom. The State of Qi took the opportunity to invade the State of Yan in the name of quelling the civil unrest in Yan and almost destroyed the State of Yan.
After Ji Zhi quelled the civil unrest, he took the throne as King Zhao of Yan. He saw that the formerly powerful Yan kingdom had been reduced to the smallest of the seven princes, and he was very unwilling and determined to make the Yan state strong. Actively seek talents to govern the country in order to revive the Yan kingdom.
The acquisition of talents was not as easy as imagined, so King Yan Zhao personally went to the door to ask the old minister Guo Kuiting what to do.
Guo Kui (wěi), pondering for a while, said: "I can't say that I want to recommend ready-made talents." But let me start with a story. In ancient times, there was a monarch who loved Maxima and sent people everywhere to look for it, but he did not find it for three years. A courtier heard that there was a precious thousand-mile horse in the distance, and he took a heavy amount of money to buy it. Unexpectedly, when the attendant arrived there, Maxima had already fallen ill and died. The attendant did not dare to return empty-handed, so he took out the ordinary money to buy the horse's head back and offered the horse's head to the monarch. The monarch was furious and said, 'I want you to buy live horses, and who told you to pay for useless horse heads?' The attendant replied, "When outsiders hear that the king is willing to pay for dead horses, naturally some people will offer live horses to the king." Sure enough, as soon as the news of the king's heavy money on the dead horse spread, everyone thought that the dead horse would spend so much money to buy it, let alone the live horse! Within a year, the monarch had several horses. The king must seek talents, so he may as well try me as a horse bone. ”
King Yan Zhao, who was greatly inspired to hear this, immediately sent someone to build an exquisite mansion for Guo Kui to live in, and also worshiped Guo Kui as a teacher. Talented people from all over the world saw that King Yan Zhaowang was recruiting talents in good faith and rushed to see them, the most famous of which was The Zhao Guoren Le Yi. King Bai Leyi of Yan zhao, yaqing, asked him to rectify state affairs and train soldiers and horses, and the state of Yan became stronger day by day.
Therefore, King Yan Zhao, together with the State of Zhao, Korea, the State of Wei, and the State of Qin, sent troops under the command of Le Yi to attack the State of Qi. Le Yi was good at commanding, the morale of the five countries was strong, and the Qi army was defeated. The generals of Zhao, Han, Qin, and Wei fought a victorious battle, each occupying several cities in the State of Qi, and did not want to fight any more. However, Le Yi refused to give up and led the Yan army to lay siege to Linzi, the capital of the State of Qi.
After eliminating the threat of the State of Qi, King Yan Zhao continued to exert his strength and great strength. Through his efforts, the State of Yan was already able to go to war with Dong Hu, but it was necessary to choose a general who could lead the Yan army to defeat Dong Hu.
Soon, Qin Kai escaped from Donghu and returned. Qin Kai was a famous general of the Yan Kingdom. In order to reach a non-aggression agreement with Dong hu, the State of Yan sent Qin Kai to Dong Hu as a hostage. Qin Kai was shrewd, scheming, rich in combat experience, and experienced in the battlefield for a long time. During his time as a hostage in Donghu, he ostensibly obeyed the Donghu people, gained the appreciation and trust of the Donghu people, secretly observed and studied the politics, military, etiquette, and mountain and river terrain of Donghu, and had a clear understanding of all aspects of the situation in Donghu, especially the operational characteristics and combat methods of the Donghu army.
Around 302 BC, during the reign of King Wuling of the State of Zhao, the Eastern Hu people often harassed the State of Zhao. At that time, Zhao Guo was mainly engaged in car warfare, and was often defeated by the Donghu people who were healthy and good at riding and shooting. To this end, King Wuling of Zhao implemented reforms and implemented the "Hu costume riding shooting" - learning to wear hu people's narrow-sleeved tight clothes, learning the Hu people's horseback riding and archery techniques, and replacing car warfare with riding warfare. The First Chinese Cavalry Corps created by the Eastern Hu people was introduced to the Central Plains.
In 273 BC, the twenty-sixth year of King Hui of Zhao, Dong Hu, who had once submitted to the State of Zhao, rebelled and occupied the Dai Commandery of the State of Zhao. The State of Zhao then sent an army to counterattack and captured Eastern Hu's territory of Oudai.
Around 315 BC, the State of Yan was defeated by Eastern Hu. The King of Yan took Qin Kai as a "hostage" and sent him to Donghu for pledge. Qin Kai gained the trust of the Donghu people and became familiar with the internal situation of Donghu, and later fled back to the Zhao state. The leader defeated Dong Hu. The Donghu were forced to retreat to the central and eastern parts of the Horqin steppe.
In 206 BC (the first year of Han Gaozu),the Xiongnu tribes that ruled the western part of the Mongolian plateau occurred in which Mao Dun killed his father Man and established himself as Shan Yu. The king of Donghu, believing that the Xiongnu were weak and deceitful, first sent people to ask for a wife and a good horse, and then planned to ask for land on the border between the two countries. Mao Dun angrily said, "The earth, the origin of the country, why give it!" Suixing soldiers cut down Donghu. The Eastern Hu people were not prepared and defeated, and the Eastern Hu state was destroyed, and the Wuhuan and Xianbei tribes were divided.