Eastern Hu

The Donghu (; ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic Hu people that were first recorded from the 7th century BCE and was taken over by the Xiongnu in 150 BCE. They lived in northern Hebei, southeastern Inner Mongolia and the western part of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang along the Yan Mountains and Greater Khingan Range.

Name

Nomenclature

The Classical Chinese name literally means "Eastern Barbarians". The term ''Dōnghú'' contrasts with the term ''Xīhú'' meaning "Western barbarians" (, meaning "non-Chinese peoples in the west" and Five Barbarians 五胡 (''Wǔ Hú'') "five northern nomadic tribes involved in the Uprising of the Five Barbarians (304–316 CE)". Hill (2009:59) translates ''Xīhú'' as "Western Hu" and notes:

In 307 BCE, the 胡 '' Hú'' proper, encompassing both the eastern ''Dōnghú'' (東胡, "Eastern Hu") and the western ''Linhu'' (林胡, "Forest Hu"), were mentioned as a non-Chinese people who were neighbors of Zhao and skilled at mounted archery (a military tactic which King Wuling of Zhao would later adopt). Pulleyblank E. G. (1994) “Ji Hu: Indigenous Inhabitants of Shaanbei and Western Shanxi,” in Edward H. Kaplan, ed.,'' Opuscula Altaica: Essays presented in honor of Henry Schwarz''. ed. by. Bellingham: Western Washington University. pp. 518-519 of 499-531 However, the term ''Hu'' can also refer to a variety of different races and different ethnic groups. It was used by Han Chinese to describe anyone who is not of ethnic Han Chinese descent and were considered barbarians: for example, Sima Qian also used Hu to refer to the Xiongnu, who were then ruled by Touman Chanyu, once expelled by Qin general Meng Tian north from the Ordos Loop, yet able to regain their territory following the Qin Empire's collapse. All Hu workmen were famed for their skills at making bows and carts even without specialization.

The peoples categorized as the Five Barbarians, or "Five Hu", were the Xiongnu, Jie, Xianbei, Di, and Qiang.''A History of Chinese Civilization''
Jacques Gernet, Cambridge University Press 1996 P.186-87Peter Van Der Veer, "III. Contexts of Cosmopolitanism" in Steven Vertovec, Robin Cohen eds., ''Conceiving Cosmopolitanism: Theory, Context and Practice'' Oxford University Press 2002
p. 200-01 Of these five ethnic groups, the Xiongnu and Xianbei were nomadic peoples from the northern steppes. The ethnic identity of the Xiongnu is uncertain, but the Xianbei appear to have been Mongolic. The Jie, another pastoral people, may have been a branch of the Xiongnu, who may have been Yeniseian or Indo-Scythian.Dorothy Wong, ''Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form University of Hawaii'' Press
P.44 The Di and Qiang were from the highlands of western China. The Qiang were predominantly herdsmen and spoke Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) languages, while the Di were farmers who may have spoken a Sino-Tibetan(Chinese
段渝, 先秦巴蜀地区百濮和氐羌的来源
2006-11-30 or Turkic language. The traditional explanation, going back to the second-century Han dynasty scholar Cui Hao 崔浩 is that the Donghu were originally located "east of the Xiongnu" who were one of the "Five Barbarians" (''Hú'').Yu (1986), p. 436. Modern Chinese apologetics suggests that "Donghu" was a transcription of an endonym and did not literally mean "Eastern Barbarian".

The usual English translation of ''Dōnghú'' is "Eastern Barbarians" (e.g., Watson, di Cosmo, Pulleyblank, and Yu), and the partial translation "Eastern Hu" is occasionally used (Pulleyblank). Note that "Eastern Barbarians" is also a translation for '' Dōngyì'' 東夷, which refers to "ancient peoples in eastern China, Korea, Japan, etc."

Chinese Sinocentrism differentiates the '' Huáxià'' "Chinese" and the ''Yì'' 夷 "barbarians, non-Chinese, foreigner": this is referred to as the '' Huá–Yì distinction''. Many names besides ''Hu'' originally had pejorative "barbarian" meanings, for instance ''Nanman'' 南蠻 ("southern barbarians") and ''Beidi'' 北狄 ("northern barbarians"). Edwin G. Pulleyblank explains:

The historian Nicola di Cosmo concludes:

In modern Standard Chinese usage ''hú'' has lost its original meaning although it still appears in words like '' èrhú'' 二胡 (lit. "two foreign") "Chinese two-string fiddle", ''hútáo'' 胡桃 ("foreign peach") "walnut", and ''húluóbō'' 胡萝卜 ("foreign radish") "carrot".

Etymology

The modern pronunciation ''Dōnghú'' differs from the Old Chinese pronunciation, which roughly dates from the Warring States period (476–221 BCE) when Donghu was first recorded. Old Chinese reconstructions of ''Dōnghú'' include *''Tûngɣâg'', *''Tungg'o'', *''Tewnggaɣ'', *''Tongga'', and *''Tôŋgâ'' > *''Toŋgɑ''. William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart (2014) reconstruct the Old Chinese ancestor of ''Hú'' as * �a. Recently, Christopher Atwood reconstructs a foreign ethnonym *''ga'', which was borrowed into Old Chinese as 胡 *''gâ'' (> ''hú''), while an ''i''-suffixed derivative of *''ga'' underlies two Middle Chinese transcriptions: namely,
*''*Bo-lâk Khėi'' (> ''Bùluò-Jī'') (步落稽), based on the ethnonym of a people of Xiongnu, Mountain Rong or Red Di origins in Northern Shaanxi-Shanxi- Ordos; as well as
*''*Gʰiei'', based on the ethnonym of the Mongolic-speaking Xī (奚), whom Arab geographers knew as ''Qāy''.

The etymology of ethnonym *''ga'' (> 胡 OC *''gâ'' > Ch. ''hú'') is unknown. As for *''gas possibly derivation ''Qay'': Golden (2003) proposes several Mongolic etymologies: ''ɣai'' "trouble, misfortune, misery", ''χai'' "interjection of grief", ''χai'' "to seek", ''χai'' "to hew", albeit none compelling.

Some dictionaries and scholars (e.g. Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat) confuse Dōnghú 東胡 with Tungusic peoples, ''Tonggu'' 通古. Russian Mongolist Lydia Viktorova states that:

This "chance similarity in modern pronunciation", writes Pulleyblank, "led to the once widely held assumption that the Eastern Hu were Tungusic in language. This is a vulgar error with no real foundation."

History

Among the northern ethnic groups, the Donghu was the earliest to evolve into a state of civilization and first developed bronze technology. Their culture was associated with the Upper Xiajiadian culture, characterized by the practice of agriculture and animal husbandry supplemented by handicrafts and bronze art. Through the use of cavalry and bronze weaponry in warfare, the Donghu apparently dominated over the Xiongnu on their west. Although "Upper Xiajiadian" is indeed frequently attributed to the Donghu, such attribution remains uncertain given the lack of details in Chinese sources about what the Donghu exactly were, beyond a name (''Donghu'', Eastern Hu, ie "Eastern mounted nomads") and the account of their destruction by the Xiongnu.

The (ca. 109–91 BCE) ''Shiji'' section on Xiongnu history first records the Donghu during the era of Duke Wen of Jin (r. 697–628 BCE) and Duke Mu of Qin (r. ca. 659–621 BCE).

At this time Qin and Jin were the most powerful states in China. Duke Wen of Jin expelled the Di barbarians and drove them into the region west of the Yellow River between the Yun and Luo rivers; there they were known as the Red Di and the White Di. Shortly afterwards, Duke Mu of Qin, having obtained the services of You Yu, succeeded in getting the eight barbarian tribes of the west to submit to his authority.

Thus at this time there lived in the region west of Long the Mianzhu, the Hunrong, and the Diyuan tribes. North of Mts. Qi and Liang and the Jing and Qi rivers lived the Yiqu, Dali, Wuzhi, and Quyuan tribes. North of Jin were the Linhu (Forest Barbarians) and the Loufan, while north of Yan lived the Donghu (Eastern Barbarians) and Shanrong (Mountain Barbarians), each of them with their own chieftains. From time to time they would have gatherings of a hundred or so men, but no one tribe was capable of unifying the others under a single rule.Sima Qian (author); Watson, Burton (translator), 1993. ''Shiji'', "vol. 110 - Account of the Xiongnu"; p. 132.

In 307 BC King Wuling of Zhao (born 356 BC, reigned 325-299 BC), a contemporary of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), instituted a military reform called "Hu clothes, Cavalry archery" after having been repeatedly harassed earlier in his reign by Donghu horse-archers. In 300 BCE Qin Kai, a general taken hostage from the state of Yan (whose capital "Ji" is now Beijing), defeated the Donghu after having gained the esteem of the Donghu and learning their battle tactics. In 273 BC (26th year of King Huiwen) Zhao defeated the Donghu. In 265 BC Li Mu of the Zhao state, one of the four most prominent generals of the Warring States period, defeated the Donghu after stopping a major Xiongnu invasion. By the time of the rule of the Xiongnu Chanyu Touman (c. 220 BCE to 209 BCE), "the Donghu were very powerful and the Yuezhi were likewise flourishing." When the Xiongnu crown prince Modu Chanyu killed his father Touman (in 209 BCE) and took the title of Chanyu, the Donghu thought that Modu feared them, and they started to ask for tribute from the Xiongnu, his best horses and even a consort of Modu's. Modu conceded. Not satisfied with this they asked for some of the Xiongnu territories. This enraged Modu who attacked and soundly defeated them, killing their ruler, taking his subjects prisoner, and seizing their livestock, before turning west to attack and defeat the Yuezhi (c. 177 BCE). This caused disintegration in the Donghu federation. Thereafter, the Wuhuan