It was a prolonged struggle, which finally broke the Xiongnu but also cost the Han huge losses in lives and treasures. He did find other allies, willing to become Han vassal states, from as far away as Ferghana and Sogdiana in Central Asia. Xiongnu power was finally broken in 60 b. The reasons were superior Han resources and leadership, the declining ability of later Xiongnu shanyu, the inability of the Xiongnu tribal structure of government to handle expanded power, and better treatment of vassal states by the Han.
Civil wars ensued among the Xiongnu, which broke them into two groups in 54 b. The Southern Xiongnu surrendered to the Han dynasty and became vassals; their leaders came to pay homage at the Han capital and received subsidies, while many of the tribesmen were settled along the border regions. Campaigns against the Northern Xiongnu continued sporadically until the end of the first century c. Some were forced to move west; those remaining became intermingled with other nomadic groups.
After the fall of the Han in c. By the sixth century the Xiongnu had been absorbed into Chinese culture. Email This BlogThis! We know nothing of their fate: in the Wei Lue , written in the middle of the 3rd century, the Xiongnu are completely absent from the piedmont north of the Tianshan Chavannes, Xiongnu and the Huns. Could these Xiongnu have given rise to the Huns who appeared on the Volga from the year CE before they invaded Europe? The question is highly controversial and has been the subject of numerous works since de Guignes first proposed the identity of the two groups in The reference in one of the very early Sogdian documents conventionally called the Ancient Letters of to the Xwn pillagers of Luoyang, where the Chinese sources speak of the Xiongnu, seemed to be decisive evidence in favor of this identification Henning, before O.
Maenchen-Helfen attempted to prove on several occasions that the two were unrelated, mainly using archaeological data, but also via critical examination of the texts.
First, it seems possible to prove that the names are indeed identical. In it was a Sogdian merchant writing in the Gansu corridor who, in a letter to a correspondent at Samarqand, described with precision the plundering of the Southern Xiongnu in China and called them Xwn , a name which must be connected to that of the Huns Henning, , a point conceded by Maenchen-Helfen, , p. This connection poses no problems to specialists in Chinese phonology Pulleyblank, , p.
The Sogdians had been acquainted with the Xiongnu since the extension of their empire to western Central Asia in the 2nd century BCE, and one can no longer doubt the quality of the evidence contra Sinor, p. But these texts do not imply that the Huns of Europe or Central Asia after were themselves descendants of the Xiongnu: one can imagine that the name Xwn or Huna — an accurate word for describing the Southern Xiongnu who plundered North China in the 4th century as well as the ancient Xiongnu, known as far as India — may then have been used again for very different nomadic peoples.
Further still, we have proof of such usage: in Sogdiana in the 8th century, the Turks are sometimes named Xwn Grenet, , and certain Huns of some Khotanese texts could not be Xiongnu an example in Bailey, , p. But this generic name did not develop from nothing, and only the Xiongnu hypothesis can account for it. Enoki, , p. Here, too, there is hardly any reason to doubt this direct testimony stemming from the report of an official Sogdian envoy in China see Enoki, , pp.
In order to proceed further, it is first necessary to stress the extent to which the testimony of the Wei shu concerning the Xiongnu in the West is isolated. Beginning with the hypothesis of de Guignes, scholars have sought on several occasions to identify a westward migratory movement of the Xiongnu. For a long time, the episode cited above the establishment of the shanyu Zhizhi in the valley of the Talas was used for that purpose: the Xiongnu who accompanied Zhizhi to the West were considered to be the ancestors of the Huns of Europe.
Even if one takes into account the latest reports of the Northern Xiongnu north of the Tian Shan CE , two centuries still separate them from the invasion of Sogdiana, while we have no reason to suppose the existence of a westward movement of the Southern Xiongnu. Save Word.
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Join Our Free Trial Now! Learn More About Hsiung-Nu. Statistics for Hsiung-Nu Look-up Popularity. Unfamiliar with the attack-and-retreat strategy of the Xiongnu, Gaozu allowed himself to be separated from his main army, and was surrounded by the Xiongnu cavalry. Gaozu had no choice but to negotiate, and offered a settlement to win his own release.
Though the Han continued to hold the Xiongnu and their nomadic way of life in disdain "xiongnu" is a Chinese word that translates roughly into "illegitimate offspring of slaves" , they could not ignore the very real military threat they posed to the Han Empire. To avert continued hostilities, the Han court was forced to maintain marital ties with the shanyu and offer annual tribute of silk, wines, rice and other foodstuffs. Another Xiongnu demand that the Han were most loathe to recognize was the right to trade with Chinese communities at the frontier, for this would undermine the Han desire to keep a healthy buffer zone between the two empires.
The Xiongnu countered this reluctance in the tried and true method: through raids, looting those goods that the Han court denied them purchase. Eventually the right to trade was granted, though the sale of arms and goods that could be used for military purposes was outlawed. This policy forced the Xiongnu to look to Central Asia for such as materials as iron, for which they traded many of the goods they had acquired from the Chinese. In this manner, Han trade policies with the Xiongnu were indirectly responsible for the increase in trade between East and Central Asia along the silk routes.
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