The Kumo Xi (Xu Elina-Qian, p.296b), also known as the Tatabi, were ancient

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 subtropica ...

people located in current

Northeast China Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

from 207 AD to 907 AD. After the death of their ancestor Tadun in 207, they were no longer called

Wuhuan The Wuhuan (, < Eastern Han Chinese: *''ʔɑ-ɣuɑn'', <

Khitan Xianbei in submitting to the Yuwen

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multiling ...

. Their history is widely linked to the more famous Khitan.Xu Elina-Qian, pp.268-271 During their history, the Kumo Xi engaged in conflict with numerous Chinese dynasties and with the Khitan tribes, eventually suffering a series of disastrous defeats to Chinese armies and coming under the domination of the Khitans. In 907, the Kumo Xi were completely assimilated into the Khitan-led Liao dynasty of China.

Etymology

Omeljan Pritsak reconstructs the ethnonym underlying

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese language, Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expande ...

*''kʰuo^H-mɑk̚-ɦei'' as ''qu(o)mâġ-ġay''. The first element ''qu(o)mâġ'' is from *''quo'' "yellowish" plus denominal suffix *''-mAk'', cognate with Mongolian ''qumaġ'' "fine sands" and with Turkic ''qumaq'' and ''qum''.Golden, P.B. (2003) "Cumanica II: The Ölberli (Ölperli): The Fortunes and Misfortunes of an Inner Asian Nomadic Clan" in ''Nomads and their neighbours in the Russian Steppe'' note. 49 p. 16-17 of 5-29 As for *''ɦei'', Christopher Atwood (2010) proposed that it reflects an ''i''-suffixed form of OC 胡 *gâ > '' hú''. Further, ''gâ'' is etymologically uncertain:

Peter Benjamin Golden Peter Benjamin Golden (born 1941) is an American professor emeritus of History, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He has written many books and articles on Turkic peoples, Turkic and Central Asian studies, such as ''An int ...

(2003) proposes several Mongolic etymologies: ''ɣai'' "trouble, misfortune, misery", ''χai'' "interjection of grief", ''χai'' "to seek", ''χai'' "to hew", albeit none compelling. Pritsak proposes that the ''qu(o)mâġ-ġay'' comprised two Proto-Mongolic groups: the ''Qu(o)mâġ'', whom he linked to the Kimek and the Qun/

Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

(whose ethnonym possibly meant "yellow") and the ''Qay'' proper. However, Golden thinks that ''qu(o)mâġ-ġay'' simply means "desert Qay" or "sand Qay", referring to their earlier habitat. As for the exonym ''Tatabï'' given to Kumo Xi by

Göktürks The Göktürks (; ), also known as Türks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks, were a Turkic people in medieval Inner Asia. The Göktürks, under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) and his sons, succeeded the Rouran Khaganate as the main powe ...

, Yury Zuev (2002) compares ''Tatabï'' to

Avestan Avestan ( ) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family and was First language, originally spoken during the Avestan period, Old ...

''tata apo'' and proposes an etymology from Iranic *''tata-api'' "falling waters", after having noted that the name of a Xī-(奚)-associated tribe ''Bái-Xí'' 白霫 (< MC *''bˠæk̚-ziɪp̚'') literally meant "white downpour/torrent" in Chinese, and that the Xī (奚) and Xí (霫) occupied the same area, Zhongjing (中京).

Origin

The Kumo Xi were descendants of the

Wuhuan The Wuhuan (, < Eastern Han Chinese: *''ʔɑ-ɣuɑn'', <

Book of the Later Han'' records that “the language and culture of the

are the same as the Wuhuan”. Along with the Xianbei, the Wuhuan formed part of the proto-Mongolic Donghu confederation in the 4th century BC. The Weishu (Description of the Khitan, Vol. 1000, 2221) records that the Kumo Xi and Khitans (descendants of the Xianbei) spoke the same language. The '' Book of Wei'' (Description of the Khitan, Vol. 100, 2223) records : The '' Book of Sui'' records: The ''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'' records:

History

In 388 AD, the Kumo Xi and Khitans fought with the Xianbei-led

Northern Wei dynasty Wei (), known in historiography as the Northern Wei ( zh, c=北魏, p=Běi Wèi), Tuoba Wei ( zh, c=拓跋魏, p=Tuòbá Wèi), Yuan Wei ( zh, c=元魏, p=Yuán Wèi) and Later Wei ( zh, t=後魏, p=Hòu Wèi), was an imperial dynasty of Chi ...

. The conflict severely weakened the Kumo Xi while the Khitans were not as badly affected, resulting in their split into separate polities. By the early

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

(around the 7th century AD), the (now named) Xi had become subordinate to the Khitans. After the Khitans' Li-Sun Rebellion (696-697) and revolt of Ketuyu (730-734), the Xi regained their position of dominance. The Xi then entered a golden age, lasting from approximately 755 to 847. During this period the Xi were friendly with An Lushan, and supported An in his

An Shi Rebellion The An Lushan rebellion was a civil war in China that lasted from 755 to 763, at the approximate midpoint of the Tang dynasty (618–907). It began as a fu (administrative division), commandery rebellion attempting to overthrow and replace the Ta ...

(756-763), plundering Han territories frequently within this period. This aggressive policy seems to have consumed Xi forces, especially weakening their demographic vitality, allowing the less aggressive Khitans to dominate them. Xi raids into Tang territory provoked successive heavy responses from the Tang court, resulting in battles in the 760s and in 795 that were disastrous for the Xi. After 795, the Xi became a tributary people to the Tang. The Uyghur Empire (744-840) collapsed in the 840's. When the Tang dynasty simultaneously displayed signs of division, the Xi rose in rebellion in 847, and were subsequently and disastrously defeated by Zhang Zhongwu, the frontier commander of Lulong. The Xi were never able to recover from their defeat in 847. In the late ninth century AD the Khitans rose to eventually absorb the remnants of Xi people, and established the Liao dynasty in 907.

Cultural heritage

It is believed that the '' Xiqin'', a bowed, stringed instrument that is the ancestor of the Chinese '' Erhu'', the Mongolian '' Khuuchir'' and '' Morin khuur'', was derived from a Xi instrument. Хуучир mongol.undesten.mn

Notes

References