Misplaced Pages

#296703

91-671: After the disintegration of the Xianbei state, nomadic groups were led by their khagan, Murong Tuyuhun (慕容吐谷渾; 246 - 317), to the rich pasture lands around Qinghai Lake about the middle of the 3rd century AD. Murong Tuyuhun was the older brother of the Former Yan 's ancestor Murong Hui and elder son of the Chanyu Murong Shegui (慕容涉歸) of the Murong Xianbei who took his people from their original settlements on

182-799: A Murong Xianbei cemetery in Lamadong, Liaoning , China ca. 300 AD. They were determined to be carriers of the maternal haplogroups J1b1 , D (three samples), F1a (three samples), M , B, B5b , C (three samples) and G2a . These haplogroups are common among East Asians and some Siberians. The maternal haplogroups of the Murong Xianbei were noticeably different from those of the Huns and Tuoba Xianbei. Murong Nuohebo Murong Nuohebo ( Chinese : 慕容諾曷鉢 ) (died 688), regnal name Wudiyebaledou Khan (烏地也拔勒豆可汗) or, in short, Ledou Khan (勒豆可汗), Tang dynasty noble title Prince of Qinghai (青海王),

273-566: A Tang princess in marriage, and his attacks captured much of Tuyuhun's people and forced the rest north of the Qinghai Lake . Tibet forces then attacked Tang as well, but were repelled by the Tang general Niu Jinda (牛進達), and, after receiving agreement from Emperor Taizong that a princess would be given to Songtsen Gampo in marriage, withdrew (that princess, Wencheng , would eventually marry Songtsen Gampo in 641). In 639, Murong Nuohebo visited

364-522: A crop failure in 668 and could not afford a major military campaign, and thereafter, the Tuyuhun people were not settled in the Qilian. In 670, Tibet launched a major attack on Tang's Anxi Protectorate , capturing 18 prefectures from Tang. In response, Emperor Gaozong sent the general Xue Rengui , assisted by the generals Ashina Daozhen (阿史那道真) and Guo Daifeng (郭待封) with the stated missions of recapturing

455-589: A force of 3,000 Xiongnu but could not take the Southern Xiongnu capital due to disease among the horses of their Xianbei allies. The Xianbei under Qizhijian raided Han territory four times from 121 to 138. In 145, the Xianbei raided Dai Commandery . Around the mid-2nd century, a chieftain, Tanshihuai , unified the Xianbei tribes and established an imperial court at Mount Danhan (彈汗山; in present-day Shangdu County , Inner Mongolia ). Under Tanshihuai,

546-560: A member of their tribe based on their character and abilities. Even as they established their states on the Central Plains and adopted the Chinese hereditary system, influential brothers, uncles and cousins of the Xianbei rulers often posed as rival claimants to the throne. Art of the Xianbei portrayed their nomadic lifestyle and consisted primarily of metalwork and figurines. The style and subjects of Xianbei art were influenced by

637-524: A step further by decreeing the change of Xianbei names to Han names , even changing their own family name from Tuoba to Yuan. Xiaowen also moved the capital to Luoyang in the Chinese heartlands away from Pingcheng near the northern frontiers. While the population in Luoyang were open to accepting the policies, the population near the old capital were more conservative and held on to their Xianbei culture. Marriages to Han elite families were encouraged, and

728-420: A variety of influences, and ultimately, the Xianbei were known for emphasizing unique nomadic motifs in artistic advancements such as leaf headdresses, crouching and geometricized animals depictions, animal pendant necklaces, and metal openwork . The leaf headdresses were very characteristic of Xianbei culture, and they are found especially in Murong Xianbei tombs. Their corresponding ornamental style also links

819-572: Is also a Para-Mongolic language. When the Chinese pilgrim Songyun visited the region in 518, he noted that the people had a written language, which was more than a hundred years before Thonmi Sambhota is said to have returned from India after developing a script for writing the Tibetan language. Xianbei The Xianbei ( / ʃ j ɛ n ˈ b eɪ / ; simplified Chinese : 鲜卑 ; traditional Chinese : 鮮卑 ; pinyin : Xiānbēi ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in

910-452: Is also possible that the Xianbei spoke more than one language. However, there are no remaining works written in Xianbei, which are thought to have been written using Chinese characters . Only a few words remain, such as 啊干 'elder brother'. According to Du, et al. (2024), some historians believe that the Xianbei could have had "exotic" features such as high nose bridges, blond hair and thick beards. However, other scholars have suggested

1001-496: Is worn on top of the head and resembles a tree or animal with many leaf pendants, and the rare "Blossoming Vine" (huaman), which consists of "gold strips interwoven with wires with leaves." Leaf headdresses were made with hammered gold and decorated by punching out designs and hanging the leaf pendants with wire. The exact origin, use, and wear of these headdresses is still being investigated and determined. However, headdresses similar to those later also existed and were worn by women in

SECTION 10

#1732765035297

1092-737: The Former Yan (337–370), Later Yan (384–407) and Southern Yan (398–410), as well as the Western Yan (384–394; not listed among the Sixteen Kingdoms). The Murong dominated the northeast and at one point vied to unify China, but fell short due to family infighting, corruption and weak rulers. Meanwhile, in Gansu , the Qifu established the Western Qin (385–431) while the Tufa established

1183-702: The Han dynasty , the Xianbei began occupying the Mongolian Plateau , absorbing 100,000 Xiongnu tribes and increasing their strength. In 109, the Wuhuan and Xianbei attacked Wuyuan Commandery and defeated local Han forces. The Southern Xiongnu chanyu Wanshishizhudi rebelled against the Han and attacked the Emissary Geng Chong but failed to oust him. Han forces under Geng Kui retaliated and defeated

1274-756: The Liaodong Peninsula to the region of the Yin Mountains , crossing the Yellow River between 307 and 313, and into the eastern region of modern Qinghai . The Tuyuhun Empire was established in 284 by subjugating the native peoples referred to as the Qiang , including more than 100 different and loosely coordinated tribes that did not submit to each other or any authority. After Tuyuhun died in Linxia , Gansu in 317, his sixty sons further expanded

1365-639: The Northern Wei dynasty (386–535), becoming the first of the Northern dynasties (386–581). The Northern Wei grew in power after they defeated and supplanted the Later Yan on the Central Plains . In 439, they conquered the last of the Sixteen Kingdoms , thereby unifying the north and completing the transition into the Northern and Southern dynasties period . The Northern Wei unification

1456-911: The Oroqen people . A genetic study published in the Russian Journal of Genetics in April 2014 examined the mtDNA of 17 Tuoba Xianbei buried at the Shangdu Dongdajing cemetery in Inner Mongolia, China. The 17 samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroups D4 (four samples), D5 (three samples), C (five samples), A (three samples), G and B. A genetic study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in November 2007 examined 17 individuals buried at

1547-509: The Sixteen Kingdoms in northern China. The Murong of Liaodong were the most notable clan of this period. Having adopted the Jin governing system and customs, they rose to prominence during the fall of Western Jin by providing refuge and cooperating closely with the Chinese exiles, eventually establishing Xianbei rule over the Central Plains after they defeated the Ran Wei in 352. They founded

1638-668: The Southern Liang (397–414). The Tuoba retained their fiefdom of Dai (310–376), which was elevated to a kingdom in 315, before they were eventually conquered by the Di -led Former Qin dynasty . With the fall of Dai, northern China was briefly unified under the Qin, but as they rapidly collapsed following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Fei River in 383, the Tuoba restored their state as

1729-459: The Sui dynasty and his mother was Sui's Princess Guanghua, he was considered too sinicized and not supported by the people. Late in 635, he was assassinated. Murong Nuohebo, who was said to be young (although his age by that point is unknown), and who carried the title of Prince of Yan, became khan. The Emperor Taizong of Tang sent the general Hou Junji with Tang troops to help Murong Nuohebo pacify

1820-664: The Tang dynasty (618–907). Both Sui and Tang were founded by families who identified with their Han Chinese heritage, and were backed by an alliance of Chinese and Xianbei nobles from the Northern Zhou who sought to protect their common interest. Through these political establishments, the Xianbei who entered China were largely merged with the Chinese, examples such as the wife of Emperor Gaozu of Tang , Duchess Dou and Emperor Taizong of Tang 's wife, Empress Zhangsun , both have Xianbei ancestries, while those who remained behind in

1911-826: The Tuoba tribe settled in the abandoned city of Shengle , north of the Yin Mountains . To the east of them, the Yuwen tribe settled between the Luan River and Liucheng , while the Murong tribe were allowed to move deeper into Liaodong . The Duan tribe was founded in Liaoxi within the Great Wall by a Xianbei ex-slave along with a group of exiles. In the west, an offshoot of the Murong moved into northern Qinghai and mixed with

SECTION 20

#1732765035297

2002-588: The Wuhuan and Xianbei when they were defeated by the Xiongnu at the end of the third century BC. Following the split, the Xianbei people did not have a direct contact with the Han dynasty, residing to the north of the Wuhuan. In the first century BC, the Xianbei began actively engaging in the struggle between the Han and Xiongnu, culminating in the Xianbei replacing the Xiongnu on the Mongolian Plateau in 93 AD. In

2093-597: The Wuhuan at the Battle of White Wolf Mountain in 207, Budugen, Fuluohan, Kebineng and others paid tribute to him. In 218, Fuluohan met with the Wuhuan chieftain Nengchendi to form an alliance, but Nengchendi double crossed him and called in Kebineng, who killed Fuluohan. Budugen went to the court of Cao Wei in 224 to ask for assistance against Kebineng, but he eventually betrayed them and allied with Kebineng in 233. Kebineng killed Budugen soon afterwards. Kebineng

2184-646: The Central Plains and give pushback on the Wei's sinicization policies. The Northern Qi was ruled by the Gao clan, a Xianbeified Han Chinese family who relied on the Xianbei elites and favoured their traditions. Meanwhile, the Northern Zhou was ruled by the Yuwen clan of Xianbei ethnicity. Ruling over a predominantly Chinese population, the military reforms of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou saw an attempt to revive

2275-725: The Chinese dynasties. As one of the so-called " Five Barbarians " that settled in northern China, the Xianbei fought as auxiliaries for the Western Jin dynasty during the War of the Eight Princes and the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians before eventually distancing themselves and declaring their autonomy as the Jin was pushed to the south. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the Xianbei founded several short-lived states in

2366-802: The Chishui (赤水, probably the headwaters area of the Yellow River ) area, Emperor Gaozong rejected the proposal. Around 666, Emperor Gaozong created Murong Nuohebo the Prince of Qinghai—a greater title than the title of Prince of Heyuan—perhaps to try to show Tibet that he still intended to restore Tuyuhun. In 669, Emperor Gaozong decreed that the Tuyuhun people be settled in the Qilian Mountains , but many officials opined that this would expose them to Tibet attacks and that an attack against Tibet would be necessary first. The Tang chancellor Yan Liben opposed on account that much of Tang had suffered through

2457-623: The Eastern Han Chinese pronunciation of 鮮卑 is /sian pie/, and he does not reconstruct syllables ending in -r for this stage. He reconstructed the Later Han pronunciation of 室韋 as /śit wui/. On the one hand, *Särpi may be linked to the Mongolic root *ser ~ *sir which means "crest, bristle, sticking out, projecting, etc." (cf. Khalkha сэрвэн serven ), possibly referring to the Xianbei's horses (semantically analogous with

2548-540: The Five Barbarians . For their services, the Duan and Tuoba were granted the duchies of Liaoxi and Dai , respectively. However, for varying reasons, most of the Xianbei eventually withdrew from the conflict, allowing the remnants of Jin to be quickly overwhelmed. Mass number of Chinese officers, soldiers and civilians fled south to join the Eastern Jin or north to join the Xianbei duchies. The Xianbei founded several of

2639-643: The Northern Wei dynasty, and ultimately led to the creation of the Yungang Grottoes . The Xianbei are thought to have spoken Mongolic or Para-Mongolic languages, with early and substantial Turkic influences, as Claus Schönig asserts: The Xianbei derived from the context of the Donghu , who are likely to have contained the linguistic ancestors of the Mongols . Later branches and descendants of

2730-578: The Northern Wei started to arrange for Han Chinese elites to marry daughters of the Xianbei Tuoba royal family in the 480s. More than fifty percent of Tuoba Xianbei princesses of the Northern Wei were married to southern Han Chinese men from the imperial families and aristocrats from southern China of the Southern dynasties who defected and moved north to join the Northern Wei. Some Han Chinese exiled royalty fled from southern China and defected to

2821-475: The Prince of Weixin, then stationed at Shanshan . The Tang officer Xi Junmai (席君買) took this opportunity to ambush the Prince of Xuan and killed him and two of his brothers. Tuyuhun, however, was said to be thrown into a state of confusion, and Emperor Taizong sent the official Tang Jian (唐儉) to help Murong Nuohebo pacify the people. In 652, Murong Nuohebo and Princess Guanghua both visited Chang'an, and Emperor Taizong's son and successor Emperor Gaozong created

Tuyuhun - Misplaced Pages Continue

2912-665: The Shouyang Princess was wedded to the Liang dynasty ruler Emperor Wu of Liang 's son Xiao Zong (蕭綜). After the Six Frontier Towns Rebellion and the events that followed, the Northern Wei split into Eastern Wei (534–550) and Western Wei (535–556) before becoming the Northern Qi (550–577) and Northern Zhou (557–581) respectively. The chaos allowed the Xianbei frontier nobility to enter

3003-422: The Tang capital Chang'an . Emperor Taizong created the daughter of a clansman as Princess Honghua and gave her to Murong Nuohebo in marriage. In or before 641, Murong Nuohebo's prime minister, the Prince of Xuan, had taken control of the government, and he planned to attack Princess Honghua and then seize her and Murong Nuohebo and surrender to Tibet. When Murong Nuohebo heard of this plot, he fled to his general

3094-546: The Tibet prime minister Gar Tongtsen Yulsung (Lu Dongzan, 祿東贊) had his son Gar Trinring Tsendro ("Lun Qinling" (論欽陵) or "Qizheng" (起政) in Chinese) resume attacks against Tuyuhun, on account of Tuyuhun's submission to Tang. Both Tibet and Tuyuhun sent emissaries to Tang accusing each other and asking for Tang assistance. Emperor Gaozong declined both requests. However, Tuyuhun was weakening in light of Tibet attacks, and in 663,

3185-890: The Turkic ethnonym Yabaqu < Yapağu 'matted hair or wool', later 'a matted-haired animal, i.e. a colt') On the other hand, the Book of the Later Han and the Book of Wei stated that before becoming an ethnonym, Xianbei had been a toponym, referring to the Great Xianbei mountains (大鮮卑山), which is now identified as the Greater Khingan range ( simplified Chinese : 大兴安岭 ; traditional Chinese : 大興安嶺 ; pinyin : Dà Xīng'ān Lǐng ). Shimunek (2018) reconstructs * serbi for Xiānbēi and * širwi for 室韋 Shìwéi < MC *ɕiɪt̚-ɦʉi . Warring States period 's Chinese literature contains early mentions of Xianbei, as in

3276-401: The Tuyuhun lands to permit the Tuyuhun people to return to their territory. However, the campaign was plagued by disagreements between Xue and Guo, and Tang forces eventually suffered a major defeat by Tongtsen's son and successor Gar Trinring at the Battle of Dafeichuan , ending hopes of allowing the Tuyuhun people to return. In 672, Emperor Gaozong, apparently giving up on the idea, settled

3367-583: The Tuyuhun objected to his marriage with the Tang, sent 200,000 troops to attack. The Tuyuhun troops retreated to Qinghai , whereas the Tibetans went eastward to attack the Tangut people and reached into southern Gansu. The Tang government sent troops to fight. Although the Tibetans withdrew in response, the Tuyuhun Empire lost much of its territory in southern Gansu to Tibetans. The Tuyuhun government

3458-423: The Tuyuhun people at Shanzhou (鄯州, in modern Haidong Prefecture , Qinghai ), but even Shan Prefecture was considered too exposed to Tibet attacks, and so soon the Tuyuhun people were settled in Lingzhou (靈州, roughly modern Yinchuan , Ningxia ), but establishing a separate prefecture for them—Anlezhou (安樂州). Murong Nuohebo was made its prefect. (There is thus a split among historians between treating 663 or 672 as

3549-483: The Tuyuhun people. In spring 636, Murong Nuohebo sent emissaries to Tang, offering to submit as a vassal and sent a younger brother or brothers to serve as hostage. Emperor Taizong created him the dual titles of Prince of Heyuan and Wudiyebaledou Khan (or Ledou Khan in short). By 638, however, Tuyuhun was under constant attack by Tibet , whose ruler Songtsen Gampo had become hostile toward Tuyuhun because he thought Murong Nuohebo had interfered with his attempt to seek

3640-416: The Tuyuhun. After the fall of the kingdom, the Tuyuhun people split. Led by Murong Nuohebo on the eastern side of the Qilian Mountains they migrated eastwards into central China. The rest remained and were under the rule of the Tibetan Empire. Through this period, the Xianbei underwent massive diasporata over a vast territory that stretched from the northwest into central and eastern parts of China, with

3731-436: The Xianbei are the same as the Wuhuan ". The first significant contact the Xianbei had with the Han dynasty was in 41 and 45, when they joined the Wuhuan and Xiongnu in raiding Han territory. In 49, the governor Ji Tong convinced the Xianbei chieftain Pianhe to turn on the Xiongnu with rewards for each Xiongnu head they collected. In 54, Yuchouben and Mantou of the Xianbei paid tribute to Emperor Guangwu of Han . In 58,

Tuyuhun - Misplaced Pages Continue

3822-408: The Xianbei attacked the Wusun in the west and repelled the Dingling from the north and Buyeo from the east. He divided the Xianbei empire into three sections, each governed by an appointed chieftain. Tanshihuai of the Xianbei divided his territory into three sections: the eastern, the middle and the western. From the You Beiping to the Liao River , connecting the Fuyu and Mo to the east, it

3913-415: The Xianbei chieftain Pianhe attacked and killed Xinzhiben, a Wuhuan leader causing trouble in Yuyang Commandery . In 85, the Xianbei secured an alliance with the Dingling and Southern Xiongnu . In 87, the Xianbei attacked the Xiongnu chanyu Youliu and killed him. They flayed him and his followers and took the skins back as trophies. In 93, as the Northern Xiongnu were forced to the northwest by

4004-428: The Xianbei include the Tabghach and Khitan , who seem to have been linguistically Para-Mongolic. [...] Opinions differ widely as to what the linguistic impact of the Xianbei period was. Some scholars (like Clauson) have preferred to regard the Xianbei and Tabghach (Tuoba) as Turks, with the implication that the entire layer of early Turkic borrowings in Mongolic would have been received from the Xianbei, rather than from

4095-412: The Xianbei of the northeast, primarily the Duan , were brought in to fight in the civil wars of the Jin princes and played a deciding factor in the wars. When the Xiongnu in Shanxi rebelled and founded the Han-Zhao dynasty , the Tuoba offered their assistance to Jin to fight the rebels. The Jin were heavily reliant on the Xianbei's military force as they gradually lost the north during the upheaval of

4186-479: The Xianbei run their state, but eventually the Xianbei became Sinophiles and promoted Buddhism. The beginning of this conversion is evidenced by the Buddha imagery that emerges in Xianbei art. For instance, the included Buddha imprinted leaf headdress perfectly represents the Xianbei conversion and Buddhist synthesis since it combines both the traditional nomadic Xianbei leaf headdress with the new imagery of Buddha. This Xianbei religious conversion continued to develop in

4277-480: The Xianbei to Bactria. These gold hat ornaments represented trees and antlers and, in Chinese, they are referred to as buyao ("step sway") since the thin metal leaves move when the wearer moves. Sun Guoping first uncovered this type of artifact, and defined three main styles: "Blossoming Tree" (huashu), which is mounted on the front of a cap near the forehead and has one or more branches with hanging leaves that are circle or droplet shaped, "Blossoming Top" (dinghua), which

4368-483: The Xianbei warrior culture, which includes reverting the sinicized names of the Northern Wei and rewarding Han Chinese officers with Xianbei names. The Prime Minister of Northern Zhou, Yang Jian , later had these names restored back to Han names. In 581, Yang Jian founded the Sui dynasty (581–618) and unified China in 589 after absorbing the Chen dynasty (557–589). When the Sui came to an end amidst peasant rebellions and renegade troops, his cousin, Li Yuan , founded

4459-407: The Xianbei was animal husbandry combined with agricultural practice. They were the first to develop the khanate system, in which formation of social classes deepened, and developments also occurred in their literacy, arts and culture. They used a zodiac calendar and favoured song and music. Tengrism and subsequently Buddhism were the main religions among the Xianbei people. After they abandoned

4550-409: The Xianbei, opposed and promoted sinicization at one point or another but trended towards the latter and had merged with the general Chinese population by the Tang dynasty . The Northern Wei also arranged for ethnic Han elites to marry daughters of the Tuoba imperial clan in the 480s. More than fifty percent of Tuoba Xianbei princesses of the Northern Wei were married to southern Han men from

4641-458: The Xianbei. Historian Edward H. Schafer believes many of the Xianbei were blondes, but others such as Charles Holcombe think it is "likely that the bulk of the Xianbei were not visibly very different in appearance from the general population of northeastern Asia." Chinese anthropologist Zhu Hong and Zhang Quan-chao studied Xianbei crania from several sites of Inner Mongolia and noticed that anthropological features of studied Xianbei crania show that

SECTION 50

#1732765035297

4732-474: The Xianbei. Several daughters of the Xianbei Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei were married to Han Chinese elites, the Liu Song royal Liu Hui (劉輝), married Princess Lanling (蘭陵公主) of the Northern Wei, Princess Huayang (華陽公主) to Sima Fei (司馬朏), a descendant of Jin dynasty (266–420) royalty, Princess Jinan (濟南公主) to Lu Daoqian (盧道虔), Princess Nanyang (南陽長公主) to Xiao Baoyin (蕭寶寅), a member of Southern Qi royalty. Emperor Xiaozhuang of Northern Wei's sister

4823-442: The Xianbei. They were defeated and returned with only one-tenth of their original forces. A memorial made that year records that the Xianbei had taken all the lands previously held by the Xiongnu and their warriors numbered 100,000. Han deserters who sought refuge in their lands served as their advisers and refined metals as well as wrought iron came into their possession. Their weapons were sharper and their horses faster than those of

4914-399: The Xiongnu. Another memorial submitted in 185 states that the Xianbei were making raids on Han settlements nearly every year. Despite the constant raids, the loose Xianbei confederacy lacked the organization of the Xiongnu empire, and they were struggling to sustain their growing population. Tanshihuai died in 181 and was succeeded by his son, Helian, but he lacked his father's abilities and

5005-422: The Xiongnu. However, since the Mongolic (or Para-Mongolic) identity of the Xianbei is increasingly obvious in the light of recent progress in Khitan studies, it is more reasonable to assume (with Doerfer) that the flow of linguistic influence from Turkic into Mongolic was at least partly reversed during the Xianbei period, yielding the first identifiable layer of Mongolic (or Para-Mongolic) loanwords in Turkic. It

5096-401: The Yarlung Kingdom in Central Tibet in 634, he defeated the Tuyuhun near Qinghai Lake and received an envoy from the Tang. The Tibetan emperor requested marriage to a Tang princess, but was refused. In 635-636 the Emperor Taizong of Tang defeated the Tibetan army; after this campaign, the Emperor Taizong agreed to provide a Tang princess to Songtsen Gampo. The Tibetan emperor, who claimed that

5187-404: The appearance of the Xianbei was not dramatically different from modern East Asians. A genetic analysis of Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou revealed that he had an East Asian appearance, consistent with the hypothesis that the Xianbei were primarily of East Asian appearance. Yellow hair in Chinese sources could have meant brown rather than blonde and described other people such as the Jie rather than

5278-442: The back of hammered metal sheets. The nomadic traditions of the Xianbei inspired them to portray horses in their artwork. The horse played a large role in the existence of the Xianbei as a nomadic people, and in one tomb, a horse skull lay atop Xianbei bells, buckles, ornaments, a saddle, and one gilded bronze stirrup. The Xianbei not only created art for their horses, but they also made art to depict horses. Another recurring motif

5369-400: The backgrounds were decorated with openwork or mountainous landscapes, which harks back to the Xianbei nomadic lifestyle. With repeated animal imagery, an openwork background, and a rectangular frame, the included image of the three deer plaque is a paradigm of the Xianbei art style. Concave plaque backings imply that plaques were made using lost-wax casting , or raised designs were impressed on

5460-418: The border commanderies and claimed many lives. Though the Han was able to repel them at times, they were concerned that they would not be able to subdue Tanshihuai. The Han attempted to appease him by offering him the title of King, but Tanshihuai rejected them and continued to harass their borders. In 177, Xia Yu , Tian Yan and the Southern Xiongnu Chanyu , Tute Ruoshi Zhujiu led a force of 30,000 against

5551-440: The borders of Kashmir and Afghanistan , and established a vast empire that encompassed Qinghai , Gansu , Ningxia , northern Sichuan , eastern Shaanxi , southern Xinjiang, and most of Tibet , stretching 1,500 kilometers from east to west and 1,000 kilometers from north to south. They unified parts of Inner Asia for the first time in history, developed the southern route of the Silk Road , and promoted cultural exchange between

SECTION 60

#1732765035297

5642-405: The conflict between the Tang and the Tibetan Empire . Because the Tuyuhun controlled the crucial trade routes between east and the west, the empire became the immediate target of invasion by the Tang. The Tibetan Empire developed rapidly under the leadership of Songtsen Gampo , who united the Tibetans and expanded northward, directly threatening the Tuyuhun Empire. Soon after he took the throne of

5733-433: The courts. Another key form of Xianbei art is animal iconography, which was implemented primarily in metalwork. The Xianbei stylistically portrayed crouching animals in geometricized, abstracted, repeated forms, and distinguished their culture and art by depicting animal predation and same-animal combat. Typically, sheep, deer, and horses were illustrated. The artifacts, usually plaques or pendants, were made from metal, and

5824-427: The daughter of a clansman the Lady of Jincheng and married her to Murong Nuohebo's oldest son Murong Sudumomo (慕容蘇度摸末). (At a later point, after Murong Sudumomo died, Emperor Gaozong created another daughter of a clansman the Lady of Jinming and married her to Murong Nuohebo's second son Murong Talumomo (慕容闒盧摸末). Meanwhile, the relationship between Tuyuhun and Tibet appeared to be largely peaceful for years, but in 660,

5915-399: The deceased in afterlife processions and guard their tomb. Furthermore, the figurine clothing specifies the according social statuses: higher-ranking Xianbei wore long-sleeved robes with a straight neck shirt underneath, while lower-ranking Xianbei wore trousers and belted tunics. Xianbei Buddhist influences were derived from interactions with Han culture. The Han bureaucrats initially helped

6006-422: The eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia , Inner Mongolia , and Northeastern China . The Xianbei were strongly suggested to be a multilingual, multi-ethnic confederation consisting of mainly Proto-Mongols (who spoke either pre-Proto-Mongolic, or Para-Mongolic languages ), and, to a minor degree, Tungusic and Turkic peoples. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into

6097-411: The eastern and western territories, dominating the northwest for more than three and half centuries until it was destroyed by the Tibetan Empire . The Tuyuhun Empire existed as an independent kingdom and was not traditionally considered to be an orthodox dynasty in Chinese historiography . In the beginning of the Tang dynasty , the Tuyuhun Empire came to a gradual decline and was increasingly caught in

6188-446: The empire by defeating the Western Qin (385-430) and Xia (407-431) kingdoms. The Qinghai Xianbei, Tufa Xianbei, Qifu Xianbei and Haolian Xianbei joined them. They moved their capital 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) west of Qinghai Lake. These Xianbei groups formed the core of the Tuyuhun Empire and numbered about 3.3 million at their peak. They carried out extensive military expeditions westward, reaching as far as Hotan in Xinjiang and

6279-415: The frigid north and migrated into Northern China , they gradually abandoned nomadic lifestyle and were sinicized and assimilated with the Han Chinese . Emperor Xiaowen of the Xianbei-led state of Northern Wei in northern China, eventually decreed the changes of Xianbei names to Han names . Prior to Tanshihuai, the Xianbei did not have a hereditary system , and their chieftains were chosen by electing

6370-412: The frontier by Cao Zhang . In 220, he acknowledged Cao Pi as emperor of Cao Wei. Eventually, he turned on the Wei for frustrating his advances on Suli. Kebineng conducted raids on Cao Wei before he was killed in 235, after which his confederacy disintegrated. Many of the Xianbei tribes migrated south and settled on the borders of the Wei-Jin dynasties, where they often offered their submission. In 258,

6461-442: The general Su Dingfang to command Tang forces to the west, to help protect Tuyuhun remnants, but carried out no actual military attacks against Tibet, although he sent emissaries to rebuke Tongtsen when Tongtsen subsequently sent emissaries to again make accusations against Tuyuhun and request another marriage with Tang. In 665, when Tibet made a peace overture, requesting a marriage treaty with Tuyuhun and also permission to graze in

6552-471: The greatest concentrations by Mt. Yin near Ordos Loop . In 946, a Shatuo , Liu Zhiyuan , conspired to murder the highest Xianbei leader, Bai Chengfu, who was reportedly so wealthy that “his horses had silver mangers”. With the looted wealth that included an abundance of property and thousands of fine horses, Liu established the Later Han (947-950). The incident took away the central leadership and stripped

6643-611: The imperial families and aristocrats from southern China of the Southern dynasties who defected and moved north to join the Northern Wei. Paul Pelliot tentatively reconstructs the Eastern Han Chinese pronunciation of 鮮卑 as */serbi/, from * Särpi , after noting that Chinese scribes used 鮮 to transcribe Middle Persian sēr ( lion ) and 卑 to transcribe foreign syllable /pi/; for instance, Sanskrit गोपी gopī "milkmaid, cowherdess" became Middle Chinese 瞿卑 ( ɡɨo-piᴇ ) (> Mand. qúbēi ). According to Schuessler, however,

6734-475: The mid-2nd century, the chieftain, Tanshihuai unified the Xianbei and waged war against the Han dynasty. His confederation threatened the Han's northern borders for many years, but quickly disintegrated following his death in 181 AD. After suffering several defeats by the end of the Three Kingdoms period , the Xianbei migrated south and settled in close proximity to Han society and submitted as vassals to

6825-613: The native Qiang people , becoming Tuyuhun . The Qifu tribe settled near the Longxi basin , while a branch of the Tuoba, the Tufa tribe, roamed the Hexi corridor . In 270, the Tufa chieftain, Tufa Shujineng , led the various ethnic tribes in the northwest in a rebellion against the Jin dynasty in Qin and Liang provinces but was defeated in 279 by Ma Long . During the War of the Eight Princes ,

6916-575: The north and established themselves on the Central Plains . The Xianbei were at one point all subjected to the Di -led Former Qin dynasty before it fell apart not long after its defeat in the Battle of Fei River by the Eastern Jin. In the wake of the Former Qin's collapse, the Tuoba formed the Northern Wei dynasty and eventually reunited northern China, ushering China into the Northern and Southern dynasties period. The Northern dynasties , all of which were either led or heavily influenced by

7007-671: The northern grassland evolved into tribes of the Rouran and Khitan . In the West, the Xianbei kingdom of Tuyuhun remained independent until it was defeated by the Tibetan Empire in 670. After the fall of the kingdom, the Xianbei people underwent a diaspora over a vast territory that stretched from the northwest into central and eastern parts of China. Murong Nuohebo led the Tuyuhun people eastward into central China, where they settled in modern Yinchuan , Ningxia. The economic base of

7098-666: The opportunity for the Xianbei to restore the Tuyuhun Kingdom, although later they were able to establish the Western Xia (1038-1227), which was destroyed by the Mongols. Alexander Vovin (2015) identifies the extinct Tuyuhun language as a Para-Mongolic language, meaning that Tuyuhun is related to Mongolic as a sister clade but is not directly descended from the Proto-Mongolic language . The Khitan language

7189-572: The poem " The Great Summons " ( Chinese : 大招 ; pinyin : Dà zhāo ) in the anthology Verses of Chu and possibly the chapter "Discourses of Jin 8" in Discourses of the States . When the Donghu "Eastern Barbarians" were defeated by Modu Chanyu around 208 BC, the Donghu splintered into the Xianbei and Wuhuan. According to the Book of the Later Han , "the language and culture of

7280-871: The racial type is closely related to the modern East-Asians, and some physical characteristics of those skulls are closer to modern Mongols, Manchu and Han Chinese . A genetic study published in The FEBS Journal in October 2006 examined the mtDNA of 21 Tuoba Xianbei buried at the Qilang Mountain Cemetery in Inner Mongolia , China. The 21 samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroups O (9 samples), D (7 samples), C (5 samples), B (2 samples) and A . These haplogroups are characteristic of Northeast Asians. Among modern populations they were found to be most closely related to

7371-433: The situation was exacerbated when the Tuyuhun official Suhe Gui (素和貴), accused of crimes, fled to Tibet and revealed many secrets about Tuyuhun. Tibet forces thereafter attacked Tuyuhun and defeated Tuyuhun forces. Murong Nuohebo and Princess Honghua abandoned Tuyuhun's territory and took the people to Tang's Liang Prefecture (涼州, roughly modern Wuwei, Gansu ), requesting to settle within Tang territory. Emperor Gaozong sent

7462-597: Was considered destroyed by either 663 or 672. It is not known when Murong Nuohebo was born. In 635, his grandfather, the Busabo Khan Murong Fuyun , who had been aggravating the Tang dynasty for years with border raids, drew a Tang reprisal attack, commanded by the general Li Jing , and was killed in flight. Murong Nuohebo's father Murong Shun surrendered and was created the Gandou Khan to succeed Murong Fuyun, but as Murong Shun had spent years in

7553-502: Was firmer, he faced the threat of Tibetan Empire to the south-west. In 663, unable to stand Tibetan pressure, he took his people and requested refuge in Tang territory, and by 672, the Tibetan Empire had taken over all of former Tuyuhun territory. The Tuyuhun people were settled within Tang territory, and Murong Nuohebo was made a Tang prefect. While he continued to carry the title of khan until his death in 688, typically, Tuyuhun

7644-407: Was from a minor Xianbei tribe. He rose to power west of Dai Commandery by taking in a number of Chinese refugees, who helped him drill his soldiers and make weapons. After the defeat of the Wuhuan in 207, he also sent tribute to Cao Cao, and even provided assistance against the rebel Tian Yin. In 218 he allied himself to the Wuhuan rebel Nengchendi but they were heavily defeated and forced back across

7735-712: Was killed in a raid on Beidi during the last years of Emperor Ling of Han . Helian's son, Qianman was too young at the time of his father's death, so the chieftains elected his nephew, Kuitou, to succeed him. Once Qianman came of age, however, he challenged his cousin to succession, destroying the last vestiges of unity among the Xianbei. By the Jian'an era (196–220), the Xianbei had split into many different groups, most notably with Kuitou ruling in Inner Mongolia , Kebineng in northern Shanxi , and Suli and Mijia in northern Liaodong . Following his death, Kuitou's brothers Budugen and Fuluohan succeeded him. After Cao Cao defeated

7826-497: Was long-lasting and brought a period of relative peace to the north in the wake of the chaotic Sixteen Kingdoms period. The Xianbei had naturally been in the process of sinicization since they first entered the Chinese interior, but this process became systemic during the late Northern Wei period. Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei established a policy of systematic sinicization that was continued by his successors and largely abandoned Xianbei traditions. The royal family took sinicization

7917-478: Was split between the pro-Tang and pro-Tibet factions, with the latter increasingly becoming stronger and collaborated with Tibet to bring about an invasion. The Tang sent general Xue Rengui to lead 100,000 troops to fight Tibet in Dafeichuan (present Gonghe County , Qinghai). They were annihilated by the ambush of 200,000 troops led by Dayan and the Tibetans. The Tibetan Empire took over the entire territory of

8008-515: Was the eastern section. There were more than twenty counties. The darens (chiefs) (of this section) were called Mijia 彌加, Queji 闕機, Suli 素利 and Huaitou 槐頭. From the You Beiping to Shanggu to the west, it was the middle section. There were more than ten counties. The darens of this section were called Kezui 柯最, Queju 闕居, Murong 慕容, et al. From Shanggu to Dunhuang, connecting the Wusun to the west, it

8099-574: Was the last khan of the Xianbei -ruled Tuyuhun state. He had become khan in 635 after his grandfather, the Busabo Khan Murong Fuyun and his father, the Gandou Khan Murong Shun , had both been killed in the same year: Murong Fuyun during a Tang invasion and Murong Shun assassinated by his own people in the aftermaths of the Tang conquest. Murong Nuohebo's control over his people was initially tenuous and required Tang military affirmation on at least two occasions, but once his control

8190-531: Was the western section. There were more than twenty counties. The darens (of this section) were called Zhijian Luoluo 置鞬落羅, Rilü Tuiyan 曰律推演, Yanliyou 宴荔游, et al. These chiefs were all subordinate to Tanshihuai. Throughout his reign, Tanshihuai aggressively raided the Han dynasty's northern borders, with his first recorded raid being in 156. In 166, he even allied with the Southern Xiongnu and Wuhuan to attack Shaanxi and Gansu . These raids devastated

8281-578: Was the winged horse. It has been suggested by archaeologist Su Bai that this symbol was a "heavenly beast in the shape of a horse" because of its prominence in Xianbei mythology. This symbol is thought to have guided an early Xianbei southern migration, and is a recurring image in many Xianbei art forms. Xianbei figurines help to portray the people of the society by representing pastimes, depicting specialized clothing, and implying various beliefs. Most figurines have been recovered from Xianbei tombs, so they are primarily military and musical figures meant to serve

#296703