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The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 BC, founded the Xiongnu Empire. After overthrowing their previous overlords, the Yuezhi, the Xiongnu became the dominant power on the steppes of East Asia, centred on the Mongolian Plateau. The Xiongnu were also active in areas now part of Siberia, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. Their relations with the Chinese dynasties to the south-east were complex—alternating between various periods of peace, war, and subjugation. Ultimately, the Xiongnu were defeated by the Han dynasty in a centuries-long conflict, which led to the confederation splitting in two, and forcible resettlement of large numbers of Xiongnu within Han borders. During the Sixteen Kingdoms era, listed as one of the "Five Barbarians", their descendants founded the dy ...
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Chanyu
Chanyu () or Shanyu (), short for Chengli Gutu Chanyu (), was the title used by the supreme rulers of Inner Asian nomads for eight centuries until superseded by the title "''Khagan''" in 402 AD. The title was most famously used by the ruling Luandi clan of the Xiongnu during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). It was later also used infrequently by the Chinese as a reference to Tujue leaders. Etymology According to the ''Book of Han'', "the Xiongnu called the Tian, Heaven (天) ''Tengri, Chēnglí'' (撐犁) and they called a child (子) ''gūtú'' (孤塗). As for ''Chányú'' (單于), it is a "vast [and] great appearance" (廣大之貌).". L. Rogers and Edwin G. Pulleyblank argue that the title ''chanyu'' may be equivalent to the later attested title ''tarkhan'', suggesting that the Chinese pronunciation was originally ''dān-ĥwāĥ'', an approximation for ''*darxan''.Universität Bonn. Seminar für Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft Zentrala ...
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Xiongnu Language
Xiongnu, also referred to as Xiong-nu or Hsiung-nu, is the language(s) presumed to be spoken by the Xiongnu, a people and confederation which existed from the 3rd century BCE to 100 AD. It is sparsely attested, and the extant material available on it comprises about 150 words, as well as what may be a two-line text transcribed using Chinese characters, which the Xiongnu may have used themselves for writing their language. Attestation Apart from tribal and sovereign names, some words, a song in the potentially related Jie language, and Chinese descriptions, the language(s) of the Xiongnu is very poorly documented, and very fragmentarily attested. Classification The origin of the Xiongnu is disputed and no theory has more support than another. Xiongnu, with our current information, is Unclassified language, unclassifiable or a language isolate, that is, a language whose relationship with another language is not apparent. Turkic language According to Savelyev and Jeong (20 ...
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Han–Xiongnu Wars
The Han–Xiongnu Wars. or Sino–Xiongnu Wars, were a series of military conflicts fought over two centuries (from 133 BC to 89 AD) between the agrarian society, agrarian Ancient China, Chinese Han dynasty, Han Empire and the Eurasian nomads, nomadic Xiongnu confederacy, although extended conflicts can be traced back as early as 200 BC and ahead as late as 188 AD. The History of China, Chinese civilization initially clashed with Inner Asian nomadic tribes (then collectively known as ''Beidi, Di'') that would later become the Xiongnu during the Warring States period, and various northern ancient Chinese states, states built elongated fortifications (which later became the Great Wall) to defend against raid (military), raids down from the Mongolian Plateau. The unified Qin dynasty, who Qin's wars of unification, conquered all other states under the First Emperor, dispatched General Meng Tian in 215 BC in Qin's campaign against the Xiongnu, a successful campaign to expel the Xiongnu ...
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Chinese Dynasties
For most of its history, China was organized into various Dynasty, dynastic states under the rule of Hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarchs. Beginning with the establishment of dynastic rule by Yu the Great , and ending with the Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor, abdication of the Puyi, Xuantong Emperor in AD 1912, Chinese historiography came to organize itself around the succession of monarchical dynasties. Besides those established by the dominant Han Chinese, Han ethnic group or its spiritual Huaxia predecessors, dynasties throughout Chinese history were also founded by non-Han peoples. Dividing Chinese history into dynastic epochs is a convenient and conventional method of periodization. Accordingly, a dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, as well as to describe events, trends, personalities, artistic compositions, and artifacts of that period. For example, porcelain made during the Ming dynasty may be referred to as "Ming ...
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Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states since the lengthy conquest of Siberia, which began with the fall of the Khanate of Sibir in 1582 and concluded with the annexation of Chukotka in 1778. Siberia is vast and sparsely populated, covering an area of over , but home to roughly a quarter of Russia's population. Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Omsk are the largest cities in the area. Because Siberia is a geographic and historic concept and not a political entity, there is no single precise definition of its territorial borders. Traditionally, Siberia spans the entire expanse of land from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, with the Ural River usually forming the southernmost portion of its western boundary, and includes most of the drainage basin of the Arctic Ocean. I ...
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Touman
Touman ( zh, 頭曼), from Old Chinese (220 BCE): *''do-mɑnᴬ'', is the earliest named '' chanyu'' (leader) of the Xiongnu tribal confederation, reigning from , directly preceding the formation of the Xiongnu empire. Life Competing with the Xiongnu for supremacy were the ''Dōnghú'' or 'Eastern Barbarians' and the Yuezhi. In 215 BCE, Qin Shi Huang, the founding emperor of the Qin dynasty, sent a 300,000-strong army headed by General Meng Tian into the Ordos region and drove the Xiongnu northward for 1000 ''li'' (about ).Watson (1993), p. 133. "Touman, unable to hold out against the Qin forces, had withdrawn to the far north, where he held out for over ten years." After the death of the Qin general Meng Tian in 210 BCE, Touman led the Xiongnu across the Yellow River to regain their previous territory.Sima Qian, '' Records of the Grand Historian''"Account of the Xiongnu"quote: "又度河據陽山北假中。" A legend says that Touman favoured a younger son from another c ...
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East Asia
East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Japan, Japan, Economy of South Korea, South Korea, and Economy of Taiwan, Taiwan are among the world's largest and most prosperous. East Asia borders North Asia to the north, Southeast Asia to the south, South Asia to the southwest, and Central Asia to the west. To its east is the Pacific Ocean. East Asia, especially History of China, Chinese civilization, is regarded as one of the earliest Cradle of civilization#China, cradles of civilization. Other ancient civilizations in East Asia that still exist as independent countries in the present day include the History of Japan, Japanese, History of Korea, Korean, and History of Mongolia, Mongolian civilizations. Various other civilizations existed as independent polities in East Asia in the past ...
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Steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome A steppe is usually covered with grass and shrubs, depending on the season and latitude. The term ''steppe climate'' denotes a semi-arid climate, which is encountered in regions too dry to support a forest, but not dry enough to be a desert. Steppes are usually characterized by a semi-arid or continental climate. Temperature extremes can be recorded in the summer of up to and in winter of down to . Besides this major seasonal difference, fluctuations between day and night are also significant: in both the highlands of Mongolia and northern Nevada, can be reached during the day with sub-freezing readings at night. Steppes ave ...
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Yuezhi
The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat at the hands of the Xiongnu in 176 BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups migrating in different directions: the Greater Yuezhi and Lesser Yuezhi. This started a complex domino effect that radiated in all directions and, in the process, set the course of history for much of Asia for centuries to come. The Greater Yuezhi initially migrated northwest into the Ili River, Ili Valley (on the modern borders of China and Kazakhstan), where they reportedly displaced elements of the Sakas. They were driven from the Ili Valley by the Wusun and migrated southward to Sogdia and later settled in Bactria. The Greater Yuezhi have consequently often been identified with peoples mentioned in classical European sources as having overrun the Greco-Bactrian K ...
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Eurasian Steppe
The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, European Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia. Since the Paleolithic, Paleolithic age, the Steppe Route has been the main overland route between Eastern Europe, North Asia, Central Asia and East Asia economically, politically, and culturally. The Steppe route is a predecessor not only of the Silk Road, which developed during Classical antiquity, antiquity and the Middle Ages, but also of the Eurasian Land Bridge in the modern era. It has been home to nomadic empires and many large tribal confederations and ancient states throughout history, such as the Xiongnu, Scythia, Cimmerians, Cimmeria, Sarmatians, Sarmatia, Hunnic Empire, Sogdia, Xianbei, Mongol Empire, Magyar tribes, and Göktürk Khaganate. Geography Divisi ...
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Chinese Historiography
Chinese historiography is the study of the techniques and sources used by historians to develop the recorded history of China. Overview of Chinese history The recording of events in Chinese history dates back to the Shang dynasty ( 1600–1046 BC). Many written examples survive of ceremonial inscriptions, divinations and records of family names, which were carved or painted onto tortoise shell or bones. The uniformly religious context of Shang written records makes avoidance of preservation bias important when interpreting Shang history. The first conscious attempt to record history in China may have been the inscription on the Zhou dynasty bronze Shi Qiang ''pan''. This and thousands of other Chinese bronze inscriptions form our primary sources for the period in which they were interred in elite burials. The oldest surviving history texts of China were compiled in the ''Book of Documents (Shujing)''. The '' Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu)'', the official chronicle of the ...
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