HSIUNG-NU

Pinyin Xiongnu nomadic pastoral people who at the end of the 3rd century BC formed a great tribal league that was able to dominate much of Central Asia for more than 500 years. China's wars against the Hsiung-nu, who were a constant threat to the country's northern frontier throughout this period, led to the Chinese exploration and conquest of much of Central Asia. Of the same Mongoloid strain as the Chinese, the Hsiung-nu first appear in Chinese historical records about the 5th century BC, when their repeated invasions prompted the small kingdoms of North China to begin erecting what later became the Great Wall. The Hsiung-nu became a real threat to China after the 3rd century BC, when they formed a far-flung tribal confederation under a ruler known as the shan-y, the rough equivalent of the Chinese emperor's designation as the t'ien-tzu (son of heaven). They ruled over a territory that extended from western Manchuria (Northeast Provinces) to the Pamirs and covered much of present Siberia and Mongolia. The Hsiung-nu were fierce mounted warriors who were able to muster as many as 300,000 horseback archers on their periodic intrusions into North China, and they were more than a match for the much less maneuverable chariots of the Chinese. The completion of the Great Wall along the whole of China's northern frontier during the Ch'in dynasty (221206 BC) slowed but did not stop the Hsiung-nu; the early Han-dynasty rulers attempted to control them by marrying their leaders to Chinese princesses. But Hsiung-nu raids against China continued periodically until the Han emperor Wu Ti (reigned 141/14087/86 BC) initiated a fiercely aggressive policy against the nomads, sending expeditions into central China to outflank them and to negotiate alliances with their enemies. These expeditions led to the Chinese conquest of the state of Choson in northern Korea and southern Manchuria and the Chinese exploration of Turkistan. In 51 BC the Hsiung-nu empire split into two bands: an eastern horde, which submitted to the Chinese, and a western horde, which was driven into Central Asia. Chinese expeditions against the former group in the 1st century AD again resulted in the temporary extension of Chinese control to much of what constitutes the present-day northwestern provinces of Kansu and Sinkiang. But as the Han dynasty began to weaken, the Chinese began to hire Hsiung-nu generals to patrol China's northern borders, and these semi-Sinicized tribesmen frequently turned on their masters, particularly after the fall of the Han (AD 220) and the establishment of a number of small dynasties. In AD 304 one of these Hsiung-nu generals, Liu Yan, who claimed descent from the early Han emperors through a Chinese princess given in marriage to a Hsiung-nu chief, declared himself the first ruler of the Northern Nan dynasty, also known as the Former Chao. In 329, however, the dynasty was overthrown by another Hsiung-nu general, Shih Le, who in 319 had established his own Later Chao dynasty, which was also short-lived. Hsiung-nu raids continued periodically in the subsequent period, but all references to the tribe disappear after the 5th century. The dominant nomad people in the Mongolian steppe in the 7th century, the T'u-cheh, were identified with the Turks and claimed to be descended from the Hsiung-nu. A number of Hsiung-nu customs do suggest Turkish affinity, which has led some historians to suggest that the western Hsiung-nu may have been the ancestors of the European Turks of later centuries. Others believe that the Hsiung-nu are the Huns, who invaded the Roman Empire in the 5th century. Though possible, this view cannot be substantiated. The graves of several shan-y (Hsiung-nu chiefs) excavated in the Selenga River valley in southern Siberia have been found to contain remains of Chinese, Iranian, and Greek textiles, indicating a wide trade between the Hsiung-nu and distant peoples.