The Xiongnu 匈奴, Did the Xiongnu become the Huns? Options

[知秋一叶]

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Xiongnu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A Xiongnu belt buckle.The Xiongnu (Chinese: 匈奴; pinyin: Xīongnú; Wade-Giles: Hsiung-nü) were a nomadic pastoral people of Central Asia, generally based in present day Mongolia. From the 3rd century BC they controlled a vast steppe empire extending west as far as the Caucasus. They were active in the areas of southern Siberia, western Manchuria and the modern Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. Nevertheless their origins and ethnic composition remain unclear.

Relations between the Chinese and the Xiongnu were complicated and included military conflict, exchanges in tribute and trade, as well as marriage treaties.

The overwhelming amount of information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources. There is no way of reconstructing any substantial part of the Xiongnu language. What little we know of their titles and names come from Chinese transliterations. The Chinese terms for the people - "Xiongnu" - or its leaders - "chanyu" (單于) - presumably reflects the sound of the foreign tongue.


Origins and early history of the Xiongnu
According to Sima Qian, the Xiongnu were descendants of Chunwei (淳維), possibly a son of Jie.




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Confederation under Modu
In 209 BC, just three years before the founding of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu were brought together in a powerful confederacy under a new chanyu named Modu (冒頓). The Xiongnu's political unity transformed them into a much more formidable foe by enabling them to concentrate larger forces and exercise better strategic coordination. The cause of the confederation, however, remains unclear. It has been suggested that the unification of China prompted the nomads to rally around a political centre in order to strengthen their position.1 Another theory is that the reorganisation was their response to the political crisis that overtook them 215 BC, when Qin armies evicted them from their pastures on the Yellow River.2

After forging internal unity, Modu expanded the empire on all sides. To the north he conquered a number of nomadic peoples, including the Dingling of southern Siberia. He crushed the power Dong-Hu of eastern Mongolia and Manchuria, as well as the Yuezhi in the Gansu corridor. He was able, moreover, to recover all the lands taken by the Qin general Meng Tian. Before the death of Modu in 174 BC, the Xiongnu had driven the Yuezhi from the Gansu corridor completely and asserted their presence in the Western Regions in modern Xinjiang.

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Nature of the Xiongnu state
Under Modu, a dualistic system of political organisation was formed. The left and right branches of the Xiongnu were divided on a regional basis. The chanyu - supreme ruler equivalent to the Chinese "Son of Heaven" - exercised direct authority over the central territory. Longcheng (蘢城), near Koshu-Tsaidam in Mongolia, was established as the annual meeting place and de facto capital.

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The marriage treaty system
In the winter of 200 BC, following a siege of Taiyuan, Emperor Gao personally led a military campaign against Modu. At the battle of Pingcheng, he was ambushed reputedly by 300,000 elite Xiongnu cavalry. The emperor was cut off from supplies and reinforcements for seven days, only narrowly escaping capture.

After the defeat at Pingcheng, the Han emperor abandoned a military solution to the Xiongnu threat. Instead, in 198 BC, the courtier Liu Jing (劉敬) was despatched for negotiations. The peace settlement eventually reached between the parties included a Han princess given in marriage to the chanyu (called heqin or "harmonious kinship"); periodic gifts of silk, liquor and rice to the Xiongnu; equal status between the states; and the Great Wall as mutual border.

This first treaty set the pattern for relations between the Han and the Xiongnu for some sixty years. Up to 135 BC, the treaty was renewed no less than nine times, with an increase of "gifts" with each subsequent agreement. In 192 BC, Modu even asked for the hand of the widowed Empress Lü. His son and successor, the energetic Jiyu (稽粥), known as the "Laoshang chanyu" (老上單于), continued his father's expansionist policies. Laoshang succeeded in negotiating with Emperor Wen, terms for the maintenance of a large-scale government-sponsored market system.

While much was gained by the Xiongnu, from the Chinese perspective marriage treaties were costly and ineffective. Laoshang showed that he did not take the peace treaty seriously. On one occasion his scouts penetrated to a point near Chang'an. In 166 BC he personally led 140,000 cavalry to invade Anding, reaching as far as the imperial retreat at Yong. In 158 BC, his successor sent 30,000 cavalry to attack the Shang commandery and another 30,000 to Yunzhong.

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War with Han China
Han China was making preparations for a military confrontation from the reign of Emperor Wen. The break came in 134 BC, following an abortive trap to ambush the chanyu at Mayi. By that point the empire was consolidated politically, militarily, and financially, and was led by an adventurous pro-war faction at court. In that year, Emperor Wu reversed the decision he had made the year before to renew the peace treaty.

Full scale war broke out in autumn 129 BC, when 40,000 Chinese cavalry made a surprise attack on the Xiongnu at the border markets. In 127 BC, the Han general Wei Qing (衛青) retook the Ordos. In 121 BC, the Xiongnu suffered another setback when Huo Qubing (霍去病) led a force of light cavalry westward out of Longxi and within six days fought his way through five Xiongnu kingdoms. The Xiongnu Hunye king was forced to surrender with 40,000 men. In 119 BC both Huo and Wei, each leading 50,000 cavalrymen and 30,000 to 50,000 footsoldiers, and advancing along different routes, forced the chanyu and his court to flee north of the Gobi Desert.3

Major logistical difficulties limited the duration and long-term continuation of these campaigns. According the analysis of Yan You (嚴尤), the difficulties were two-fold. Firstly there was the problem of supplying food across long distances. Secondly, the weather in the northern Xiongnu lands was difficult for Han soldiers, who could never carry enough fuel.4 According to official reports, each side lost 80,000 to 90,000 men. Out of the 140,000 horses the Han forces had brought into the desert, fewer than 30,000 returned to China.

As a result of these battles, the Chinese controlled the strategic region from the Gansu corridor to Lop Nor. They succeeded in separating the Xiongnu from the Qiang peoples to the south, and also gained direct access to the Western Regions.




Did the Xiongnu become the Huns?
The Xiongnu have been identified with the Huns, who plagued the frontiers of Europe. This theory, once influential, has now fallen out of favour among many historians.

It is interesting to note that a slightly different pronunciation of the word 匈 (Xiong) is preserved in older languages such as Cantonese, i.e., /hUN/. It could lend credence to the theory that the Xiong were in fact the Huns, or that the Chinese refered the tribes generically as such. In the film Mulan the original title song by Jackie Chan referred to defeating the Xiongnu, and the English version refers to defeating the Huns

This post has been edited by 知秋一叶: Jun 25 2005, 11:25 PM

[flipcombatmedic]

that's the theory. it's not impossible. in fact i think people do consider it a fact in many textbooks. and also in mulan did they use Huns to refer to them than Hsiungnu.

[Ran Min PanzerDi...]

that's the theory. it's not impossible. in fact i think people do consider it a fact in many textbooks. and also in mulan did they use Huns to refer to them than Hsiungnu.

the historical Hua Mulan didn't fight the Xiong Nu. the remaining (non-assimilated)Xiong Nu had pretty much been eliminated by Ran Min's genocide campaigns in the 16 kingdoms era (the first segment of the so called "Age of Fragmentation" IE before the battle of Fei Shui).

Hua Mulan lived in Northern Wei of the North South dynasties(the age of fragmentation AFTER the battle of Fei SHui) and fought the Ruan Ruan (the avars of European history)

the Huns of European history might have been a combination of Xiong Nu(that fled), Xianbei, Ruan Ruan and assimilated Iranian nomads.

there was an interesting comparison done between Hunnish words and proto Mongolic(Xianbei) vocabulary. i need to find that

besides, you're using a movie as a reference, how stupid are you

This post has been edited by Ran Min PanzerDivision: Jun 26 2005, 07:25 PM

[blob]

this is stupid but...who were the huns? (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_neutral.gif)
and i also saw someone post that fukkien people were descended from the huns; is this true?

This post has been edited by blob: Jun 27 2005, 12:09 AM