The Xiongnu were originally a nomadic tribe that arose in northern China around the 3rd century BC. At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu became powerful and repeatedly attacked, posing a great threat to the Western Han regime and controlling the Western Regions. After recuperating, the strength of the Early Han Dynasty quickly recovered, and in the face of repeated attacks by the Xiongnu, the Han began to fight back. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu were defeated by the Han army and withdrew from southern Mo.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the famous Han Dynasty general Geng Kui led his elite troops out of Yansai (present-day Ejina Banner, Gansu), went straight to the court of the Northern Xiongnu Shan Yu, and besieged the Northern Xiongnu Shan Yu at Jinwei Mountain (present-day Altai Mountain). The Han army defeated the Northern Xiongnu army, captured the Northern Xiongnu Shan Yu's mother Fu Shi, and beheaded more than 5,000 people under the king of the great tribe. The Northern Xiongnu escaped with only a few cavalrymen and did not know where they were. The Han army captured all the treasures and livestock of the Northern Xiongnu, and chased them out of Saiwai for more than 5,000 miles, a distance that had not been achieved since the Han Dynasty sent troops to the Xiongnu.
The Book of later Han records this great war: all eight tribes of the Southern Xiongnu surrendered to the Han Dynasty, and the Northern Xiongnu led the remnants of the Northern Xiongnu "do not know where they are". From this period of history, the Xiongnu began to split, and after the Southern Xiongnu surrendered to the Han Dynasty, the Southern Xiongnu merged with the northern ethnic groups. Some of them moved inward to the Central Plains, and some of them stayed in the southern part of the desert to continue to live by nomadic herders, among which the Southern Xiongnu "Tu Gebu" who moved inland changed their "Liu surname" during the Wei and Jin dynasties. The ancestors of Yuwen Xianbei in the Xianbei Department were the Xiongnu tribes that remained in the desert north after the defeat of the Northern Xiongnu.
Most of the tribes of the Xiongnu who migrated inward also disintegrated during the Wei and Jin dynasties, and many Xiongnu people have switched to farming methods and become "household Qi people" under the Wei and Jin dynasties. The upper nobility of the Huns, on the other hand, became aristocratic bureaucrats. For example, the surnames of "Liu", "Lan", "Qiao" and other surnames in the Xiongnu at that time were highly Sinicized.
And where did the remaining Northern Xiongnu, who fled far away after the Battle of Jinweishan, go? Could it be that the human world has evaporated? Many ancient historians have tried to find the vanished Northern Huns, but unfortunately have never found it. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that an official named Hong Jun found the vanished Northern Xiongnu from European history books.
In European historical texts, it is recorded that a group of "Huns" from the East migrated all the way to the west, from the second half of the 4th century AD to Europe, continuously defeated strong enemies such as the Visigoths and The Goths, triggering the "Great Migration of Nations" on the European continent that lasted for centuries. Their leader, Attila, was even known as the "Whip of God."
Hong Jun continued to study in depth and found that this "Hun" who turned the European continent upside down was actually the descendants of the Northern Xiongnu who "evaporated" in the Book of Later Han. Because the disappearance of the Northern Xiongnu coincided with the time of the emergence of the "Huns" in Europe, and the European classics recorded the customs and habits of the "Huns" people, humanistic customs and information related to the "Huns" army were highly consistent with the Xiongnu. So it is certain that the Northern Huns did not suddenly disappear, but came to Europe.
Hong Jun wrote his views in detail into his book "YuanShi Translation Evidence Supplement", which was quickly recognized by modern Chinese scholars. Ding Qian, a historian of the Republic of China, combined with Chinese and foreign historical materials, described in detail the "Xiongnu westward migration route" - first moved to Kangju during the Han Dynasty, and then expeditioned to the Caspian Sea and entered the Hungarian steppe.
According to relevant historical records, after the death of attila, the Hun leader "Whip of God" in 453 AD, the Huns subsequently disintegrated and scattered in the middle reaches of the Danube River, including the Hungarian steppe. Later, the Northern Huns gradually integrated into the local dominant ethnic group. And some of the cultural customs that are still left in the local area still allow us to see their presence more than a thousand years ago.
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