According to ancient records, the Xiongnu were an ancient people whose history dates back to the Three Dynasties of xia and Shang. Sima Qian recorded in the "Chronicle of the Xiongnu": "The Xiongnu, the Miao descendants of their ancestor Xia Hou clan, were also known as Chun Wei. On the question of the origin of the Xiongnu, Ban Gu copied almost the entire text of the "History" in the "Book of Han and the Biography of the Xiongnu": "The Xiongnu, whose Miao descendants of the Xia and Later Clans, are known as Chunwei. Zhang Yan, a historian of the Three Kingdoms period, said that Chunwei was exiled to the north in the early years of the Shang Dynasty. Lechan's "Genealogy of the Land" has a more detailed discussion: "Xia Jie has no way, the soup is put on the ming strip, and he dies in three years." His son, The Concubines of his wife, took refuge in the Northern Wilderness and migrated with livestock, known in China as the Xiongnu. In a word, in the literature of the Han Dynasty and previous eras in China, the ancestors of the Xiongnu were the remnants of the Xia who fled to the northern steppes after the Shang Tang destroyed xia. Although Sima Zhen quoted this statement in the "History of Suoyin Vol. 25", he questioned this statement: "His words are of Miao descent after Xia, or of course. ”
Four important theories of origin
The origin of the Huns has been widely debated. Ancient scholars were unable to study in depth due to the scarcity of ancient historical materials and the limitation of the hidden evidence. Modern scholars can get the help of archaeology, physical anthropology, molecular archaeology, etc., and have achieved rich results in the study of this problem. In addition to the traditional Xia descendants, there are the following more important statements:
First, the same name theory. In his "Ghost Fang Kunyi 猃狁考", Mr. Wang Guowei proposed that the ghost fang, Kunyi, meat porridge (Xūnyù, with "獯鬻") and 猃狁 (Xiǎnyǔn, also known as 玁狁) in the Shang Dynasty period, Rong and Di in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Hu in the Warring States period were all "of the same species" as the Xiongnu. This theory has been supported by most scholars since the 20th century.
Second, Yiqu said. Mr. Meng Wentong believes that the ancestor of the Xiongnu was Yiqu in works such as "Studies on Ethnic Minorities in Zhou and Qin", on the grounds that in the "History of Qin Benji", it is recorded that in the seventh year of the reign of King Huiwen of Qin (318 BC), "Han, Zhao, Wei, Yan, and Qi Shuai Xiongnu jointly attacked Qin"; and the Warring States Strategy Qin Ce II records that in the same year, Yiqu "attacked Qin with an army and defeated the Qin people under Li Shuai". The two history books refer to each other, and it can be seen that the Xiongnu is the Yiqu.
Third, west. In "The Hu of Elan and the Huns of the Huns", Mr. Cen Zhongmian considered the Huns to be "a Turkic species migrating from the northwest". Mr. Sun Cizhou also believed in the "Era of the Emergence of The Xiongnu in China's Border Plugs" that the Xiongnu were nomadic people from the west, appearing on the northern border of China from the 26th year of Qin Shi Huang (221 BC) to the 33rd year (214 BC).
Fourth, the northern steppe peoples said. This theory was first proposed by Russian and Mongolian archaeologists, and in China, it was founded in Mr. Cao Yongnian's "Xiongnu in the History of the Warring States". He believes that the Xiongnu in the pre-Qin era were only one of many tribes or races of different ethnic origins in the north at that time, and later because of the strength of the Xiongnu, all the tribes of the steppe were called Xiongnu ("all thought of xiongnu"). This doctrine was supported by many scholars after the 1980s.
Synonyms say
It is not credible that the Xiongnu are of the Xia Hou clan, because the Xiongnu have different characteristics from the Xia. First, the language is very different. The vast majority of scholars believe that the Xiongnu language belongs to the Altaic language family, but it is not yet certain whether it belongs to the Turkic, Tungusic or Mongolian language families, and some scholars believe that the Xiongnu language belongs to the extinct Fourth Language Family of the Altaic language family (Yi Linzhen) or the "Altai Primitive Language" (Yang Jianxin) before the formation of the three major language families. Either way, the Xiongnu language is significantly different from the Han-Tibetan Chinese language family (primitive Chinese) to which the Huaxia belong. Second, the physique is different. The remains from the excavated Xiongnu tombs show that although the Hun race has the composition of the Europa race or the Far Eastern race, it is dominated by the North Asian Mongol race (that is, the ancient Siberian type), which is significantly different from the Huaxia ethnic group of the East Asian Mongol race (see Zhu Hong's "Physical Anthropology"). Of course, two ethnic groups with very different languages and bloodlines cannot be in the same lineage, but the Xiongnu do have some kind of relationship with the Xia, and the Xiongnu customs have the relics of the Huaxia people, such as sacrificing dragons ("Dragon City of the May Congress" and "Three Dragon Ancestral Halls"), sacrificing the sun and the moon ("single out of the camp, the beginning of the worship of the sun, the sunset worship of the moon"), Shang Hei ("do not use ink to face it, not allowed to enter the vault") and so on. Therefore, it goes without saying that the ancestors of the Xiongnu and the Huaxia clan had long been in contact, and it is also very likely that some of the Huaxia who migrated north would merge into the Xiongnu alliance during the pre-Qin period.
Yiqu said
The righteous canal theory lacks basis. The xiongnu's participation in the Five Kingdoms' conquest of Qin in the seventh year of the Seventh Dynasty of the Qin Huiwen Dynasty contained in the "Records of History" is isolated evidence, which is only found in the "Qin Benji" and is not contained in other historical materials. Moreover, even if the Xiongnu participated in this joint attack on Qin, it could not prove that the Xiongnu were Yiqu, because the two countries could use troops against the Qin state at the same time. Moreover, Yiqu is popular for cremation, and the customs are incompatible with the Xiongnu who advocate burial.
West said
As far as the Xiongnu are concerned, it is difficult to confirm the key issue of the time and route of the Xiongnu entering China's northern frontiers, or contradicting other historical sources or being vague.
Wang Guowei advocated the same kind of synonym theory, and the identification of Ghost Fang, Kunyi, XuanYi, Yue, Rong, Di, and Hu as the "former names" of the Xiongnu people confused the difference between the two types of foreign races. Based on the results of ancient texts, oracle bones, gold texts and archaeology, it can be seen that the Rongdi peoples such as Ghost Fang, Kunyi, Hulu, Hulu, Hun, Andu Rong lived in northern Jibei, northern Jin, northern Shaanxi, Ningxia, Longdong and other places, which were dominated by forest and grassland landforms in the pre-Qin period and belonged to the agricultural and pastoral staggered belt; while the living areas of the steppe nomadic peoples such as Xiongnu, Linhu, Loufu, Donghu, Yueshi, Ding Zero, and Quzhi lived in the Mongolian plateau, Hexi Corridor, Altai Mountains, Tianshan North Road, Transbaigal and even South Siberia in the north.
Northern steppe peoples said
As Latimer has already pointed out in "China's Inland Frontiers of Asia", the Rongdi are not steppe nomads, they are engaged in a mixed agriculture and animal husbandry economy and hunting as the ancient Chinese peoples. For example, the Zuo Biography records that in the fourteenth year of xianggong (559 BC), after the Rong of Guazhou (at the junction of present-day Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi) was expelled by the Qin state, he defected to the Jin state and was given the "southern contempt field" of "the residence of the fox and the mouth of the jackal". The Rong people "removed their thorns and drove them foxes and jackals", reclaimed wasteland for agricultural production, and built their own cities. For example, the "Later Han Shu XiQiang Biography" mentions that Yiqu and Dali built dozens of cities. They also mainly used chariots and infantry in the war, such as the Western Zhou Dynasty against the Ghost Fang during the Kang Dynasty, capturing more than 100 chariots of the Ghost Fang army in one battle, and the Jin army in the year of Zhao (541 BC) when the Jin army fought against Wu and Qundi, the other side was mainly infantry. These characteristics are very different from the Xiongnu who "migrated by water and grass, and had no city to live in the industry of cultivating the land" and "Shili could bend the bow and ride all the armor", and were more similar to the Chinese people.
Moreover, since ancient times, the Rongdi tribes have had a deep relationship with the Huaxia people in times of war and between relatives and separations. As early as the era of the Five Emperors, the Yellow Emperor had "chased meat porridge from the north". During the Yin Shang, Wu Ding attacked the ghost side, and it took three years for the Shang army to defeat the ghost side. The Zhou people had a closer relationship with Rong Di, and during the reign of King Tai, the Zhou people were driven by Rong Di to Qishan (northeast of present-day Baoji); King Wen attacked Quǎn Yi; King Wu exiled Rong Yi to the north of Jing and Luo, in order to pay tribute at the time, and ordered the deserted clothes", and once conquered Rong Di; but during the reign of King Mu of Zhou, Rong Di and the Zhou people began to fight, and although King Mu attacked Xi Rong and won the victory of the four white wolves and four white deer, the alliance between the Zhou people and the Rong Di also came to an end completely. In the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were both Rong Di's invasions that caused heavy losses to the Zhou people: "Jing Mu Jing Family, The Reason of Yi Yun", "Isn't it a Day's Commandment, Yi Yun Kong Thorn"; there were also blows to Rong Di when King Xuan Zhongxing was in the process of": "Thin cutting of the Fox, as for Taiyuan", "Out of the car PengPeng, the city of The other Shuofang". In the end, Western Zhou turned against the most powerful State of Shen (the mother of King Ping of Zhou) in Xirong due to a dispute over the throne, and was destroyed by the combined forces of Shen, Zeng, and Xirong, and the father and son of King You of Zhou were killed by the Rong people at the foot of Mount Li. Shen Hou lured the wolf into the house, and the Rong people then seized the ancestral land of Zongzhou between the Jing River and the Wei River.
In the early Spring and Autumn Period, Rong Di was once aggressive towards the Central Plains states. Shanrong had crossed the Yan state to attack the state of Qi, and the Duke of Qi (Qi Gong) led an army to repulse it on the outskirts of the capital. 44 years later, Shanrong attacked the State of Yan again, and the State of Yan asked the State of Qi for help, and Duke Huan of Qi led an army to attack Shanrong and repulse it. After more than twenty years, Rong Di actually attacked the Eastern Zhou capital Of Luoyi (present-day Luoyang, Henan), attacked the King of Zhou, and expelled the King of Xiang to the State of Zheng. Rong Di also installed King Xiang's half-brother Prince Wang as the Son of Heaven, captured Lu Hun (陸浑, in modern Yichuan, Luoyang), and infiltrated his sphere of influence eastward into wei. Four years later, Duke Wen of Jin sent troops to help, Rong Di was driven away, the prince was killed, and the son of King Xiang was able to succeed to the throne. According to the "Zuo Biography", from the Duke of Min to the Duke of Xuan (mid-7th century BC to the beginning of the 6th century BC), in the 70 years, Rong Di attacked Chengzhou twice, once destroyed the states of Xing, Wei, and Wen, and repeatedly invaded the states of Jin, Qi, Lu, and Zheng. Subsequently, Duke Wen of Jin and Duke Mu of Qin successively became overlords of the princes and held high the banner of Honoring Wang Zhiyi. The State of Qin and the State of Jin also became the main force in the war against Rong Di. Their main enemies were Chidi and Baidi between the Round River and the Luo River, Mianzhu, Qirong, Di, and Xi, west of Longshan (present-day Liupanshan), and Yiqu, Dali, Wushi, and Qiyan, north of Qishan, Liangshan, Jingshui, and Qishui. The war lasted for hundreds of years, until the middle of the Warring States period, with the fall of Zhongshan and Yiqu, which ended with the victory of the Huaxia people.
On the other hand, Rong Di also had close contacts with Huaxia, intermarried with each other and shared blood. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Xi Rong was an important ally of it, and the Western Zhou royal family had two Rongren queens, and the Eastern Zhou Xiang King once married Di Nu as a queen. During the reign of Duke Xiang of Jin, Zhirong of Guazhou called himself a "minister of the Jin state who did not invade or rebel". The Duke of Jin sent Wei Dai (魏绛) to "and Rong Di", causing many Rong Di tribes to "submit to Jin".
By the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, when Sima Qian was located, it was only two hundred years before the Xiongnu appeared in the late Warring States period of the Central Plains, but the history of the Xiongnu was no longer clear ("its inheritance is unobtainable and inferior"), let alone others.
Of course, the relationship between the Rongdi and the Xiongnu was also very important, because they constituted an important source of the Xiongnu. Although the theory that the Xiongnu originated as a steppe nomad is increasingly supported, its specific formation process is still full of doubts.
Around 1000 BC (the early Western Zhou Dynasty), due to the dry cooling of the climate, the growth of the population, the maturity of horseback riding technology and the advancement of metallurgical technology, the mixed agricultural and pastoral populations in the Eurasian steppes generally transitioned to nomadic life. In pursuit of the fertile meadows, nomadic tribes continue to roar south from the cold North Asian region. In the Xiliao River Basin and the Ordos Highlands, the agricultural communities left over from the Longshan era gradually withered or moved south, and the local people were inaccessible for thousands of years, and the remaining residents' lives were also nomadic. Around 600 BC (late Spring and Autumn), nomadic tribes from present-day Mongolia and Siberia also migrated to this area, conquering (or merging) the local population, forming nomadic tribes such as Linhu, Loufu, and Donghu. The former, in particular, created a brilliant Ordos bronze culture. It is characterized by bronze ornaments with burial animal ornaments and a large number of bronze weapons, harnesses, and a large number of cattle, horses and sheep burials, while rare pottery and agricultural tools.
During the same period, due to the rise of political centralization, intensive cultivation and irrigation agriculture, and the rise of Chinese national consciousness, the Chinese states that had achieved partial unification, especially the three kingdoms of Qin, Zhao, and Yan, continued to expand northward. A large number of small rongdi countries and tribes were wiped out, and their people either integrated into the Huaxia tribe or fled north to the intertwined areas of agriculture and animal husbandry. During the long escape, they were unable to take away their houses, farmland and most of their furniture, and the only possessions they could take with them were livestock and weapons. Although these northerly escapees were engaged in agriculture and built cities, they could only survive on livestock and plunder. After a few generations, they have lost the agricultural settlement skills and consciousness of their ancestors, no different from the nomadic tribes that moved south on the Mongolian plateau. By the middle of the Warring States period at the latest, the Rong Di had withered away as an independent group and integrated into the Huaxia and Hu peoples. The agrarian world and the nomadic world go directly to contact and confrontation. This was also the background of the three kingdoms of Yan, Zhao and Qin in the middle of the Warring States period and the Hu people to fight and build the Great Wall.
However, the praying mantis catches the yellow finch in the back. The Xiongnu headquarters, which originally lived in the hangai mountains north of present-day central Mongolia, also moved south from the Mongolian steppe. After their transformation into nomadic peoples, they were part of the slate tomb culture. For some reason (perhaps in search of warm and fertile pastures or defeated by neighboring nomadic tribes), they marched south at the turn of the Spring and Autumn Warring States and arrived at the YinShan Region. As Lin Hu and Lou Fu suffered heavy losses in the war against the Qin and Zhao states, the more powerful Xiongnu tribes took the opportunity to conquer Lin Hu and Lou Fu, and absorbed the local Hu people and rong di who fled north, establishing a powerful tribal alliance. Although the ruling tribes of the Xiongnu came from the north of the desert, their main culture inherited the Ordos bronze culture of Lin Hu and Lou Fu, and absorbed the cultural factors of rongdi and even some Huaxia ethnic groups. Although these tribes of different origins, different production methods, and different cultures were later called Huns, there were always great differences in race and culture. The subsequent split between the Southern And Northern Huns was also related: the Southern Huns had a larger east Asian component, unlike the Northern Huns, who were predominantly North Asian.
This article is excerpted from the "War Code 036"
