Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
: ( ZS) *''qʰun-lug'', (Schuessler): *''hun-juk'') is the name of an ancient nomadic tribe which invaded China during legendary times. They are traditionally identified with the Guifang, the
Xianyun
The Xianyun (; Old Chinese: ( ZS) *''g.ramʔ-lunʔ''; (Schuessler) *''hɨamᴮ-juinᴮ'' < *''hŋamʔ-junʔ'') was an ancient nomadic tribe that invaded the
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...
.
Identification
Chinese annals contain a number of references to the ''Xunyu''. The earliest authors were
Sima Qian
Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...
(c. 145 or 135 BC – 86 BC),
Ying Shao
Ying Shao (144–204), courtesy name Zhongyuan, was a Chinese politician, writer and historian who lived during the Eastern Han dynasty. He was an author of the '' Fengsu Tongyi'', an encyclopedic work about the folk customs and legends that exi ...
(AD 140–206), Wei Zhao (204-273), and Jin Zhuo (c. late 3rd or 4th century). They claimed that ''Xunyu'' or ''
Xianyun
The Xianyun (; Old Chinese: ( ZS) *''g.ramʔ-lunʔ''; (Schuessler) *''hɨamᴮ-juinᴮ'' < *''hŋamʔ-junʔ'') was an ancient nomadic tribe that invaded the
Chunwei Chunwei (; Old Chinese: Reconstructions of Old Chinese#Zhengzhang (1981–1995), ZS: *''djun-ɢʷi''; Reconstructions of Old Chinese#Baxter–Sagart (2014), B-S: *'' ɢʷij'') is a name associated with the Xiongnu, a tribal confederation of n ...
, during the Yin era, fled to the northern borders.”; immediately after, Sima Zhen stated that Yue Chan (樂產) wrote in the now-lost Guadipu (括地譜) "Register of the Encompassing Lands" that: “Jie, (ruler of) the House of Xia lived an immoral life. Tang exiled him to Mingtiao, he died there three years later. His son Xunyu 獯粥 married his concubines and they wandered far away to the northern wilderness in search of pasture lands, and then in the Middle Kingdom they were mentioned as Xiongnu 匈奴.” Wei Zhao identified the names ''Chunwei'' and ''Hunyu'' with the name of the
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...
: “During the Han (206 BC-220 AD) they were called
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...
匈奴, and the ''Hunyu'' 葷粥 is just another name for the same people, and similarly, the ''Xunyu'' 獯粥 is just another transcription of ''Chunwei'' 淳維, their ancestor’s name”. Jin Zhuo stated that: "In Yao's time they were called ''Hunyu''; in Zhou's time they were called ''Xianyun''; in Qin's time they were called ''Xiongnu''." Sima Zhen quoted from Fengsu Tongyi (風俗通義) "Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Mores", by
Ying Shao
Ying Shao (144–204), courtesy name Zhongyuan, was a Chinese politician, writer and historian who lived during the Eastern Han dynasty. He was an author of the '' Fengsu Tongyi'', an encyclopedic work about the folk customs and legends that exi ...
應劭, that “In the time of Yin, they were called ''Xunyu'' ��粥 which was changed to ''Xiongnu'' ��奴��; however, this quote no longer exists in Fengsu Tongyi's received text.
Based on phonetical studies and comparisons of inscriptions on bronze and the structure of the characters,
Wang Guowei
Wang Guowei (; 2 December 18772 June 1927) or Wang Kuo-wei, courtesy name Jing'an () or Boyu (), was a Chinese historian and poet. A versatile scholar, he made important contributions to the studies of ancient history, epigraphy, philology, vern ...
(1877–1927) came to the conclusion that the tribal names Guifang (鬼方), Xunyu, Xianyu (鮮虞),
Xianyun
The Xianyun (; Old Chinese: ( ZS) *''g.ramʔ-lunʔ''; (Schuessler) *''hɨamᴮ-juinᴮ'' < *''hŋamʔ-junʔ'') was an ancient nomadic tribe that invaded the
Rong, Di, and Hu in the old annals designated one and the same people, who later entered Chinese history under the name Xiongnu,
The exact time period when the nomads' ethnonym had the Old Chinese phonetizations ancestral to
standard Chinese
Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...
''Xunyu'' remains determined only vaguely. They were mentioned in legends involving legendary Zhou ruler Old Duke Father Dan (): in the book
Mencius
Mencius (孟子, ''Mèngzǐ'', ; ) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher, often described as the Second Sage () to reflect his traditional esteem relative to Confucius himself. He was part of Confucius's fourth generation of disciples, inheriting ...
(published c. 300 BCE) as 獯鬻 ''Xunyu'', and in
Records of the Grand Historian
The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...
(published c. 91 BC) as ''Hunyu'' 葷粥 or ''Xunyu'' 薰育.
Using Sima Qian's
Records of the Grand Historian
The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...
and other sources, Vsevolod Taskin proposes that in the earlier pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, or Huangdi ( zh, t=黃帝, s=黄帝, first=t) in Chinese, is a mythical Chinese sovereign and culture hero included among the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. He is revered as ...
) the Xiongnu were called ''Hunyu''; and in the late pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary
Emperor Yao
Emperor Yao (; traditionally c. 2356 – 2255 BCE) was a legendary China, Chinese ruler, according to various sources, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
Ancestry and early life
Yao's ancestral name is Yi Qi () or Qi (), clan ...
and
Emperor Shun
Emperor Shun ( zh, c=帝舜, p=Dì Shùn) was a legendary leader of ancient China, regarded by some sources as one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors being the last of the Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he lived sometime between 229 ...
) they were called ''Rong''; in the literate period starting with the
Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou d ...
(1600–1046 BC) they were called ''Guifang'', in the Zhou period (1045–256 BC) they were called ''Xianyun'', and starting from the Qin period (221–206 BC) the Chinese annalists called them ''Xiongnu''.
Even so, Paul R. Goldin (2011) reconstructs the
Old Chinese
Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
pronunciations of 葷粥 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 薰育 as *''xur-luk'', 獫狁 as ''hram′-lun′'', and 匈奴 as *''xoŋ-NA''; and comments all three names are "manifestly unrelated". He further states that
sound change
In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...
s made the names more superficially similar than they really had been, and prompted later commentators to conclude that those names must have referred to one same people in different epochs, even though people during the
Warring States period
The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...
would never have been thus misled.Goldin, Paul R "Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China" in ''Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present''. Penn Museum International Research Conferences, vol. 2. Ed. Paula L.W. Sabloff. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 2011. p. 225-226; p. 237, n.22
Xianyun
The Xianyun (; Old Chinese: ( ZS) *''g.ramʔ-lunʔ''; (Schuessler) *''hɨamᴮ-juinᴮ'' < *''hŋamʔ-junʔ'') was an ancient nomadic tribe that invaded the
Chunwei Chunwei (; Old Chinese: Reconstructions of Old Chinese#Zhengzhang (1981–1995), ZS: *''djun-ɢʷi''; Reconstructions of Old Chinese#Baxter–Sagart (2014), B-S: *'' ɢʷij'') is a name associated with the Xiongnu, a tribal confederation of n ...
*
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...