The Xiongnu匈奴

The kinds of the Xiongnu are called together the Northern Di. The land of the Xiongnu borders on Yan and Zhao to the south and reaches the desert to the north; on the east it joins the nine Yi, and on the west it stands against the six Rong (六戎). Generation after generation they have been ruler and subject among themselves, and they have not received the calendar of China. Under the Xia they were called Xunyu, under the Yin, Guifang, under the Zhou, Xianyun, and under the Han, Xiongnu. Their strength and weakness, their rise and decline, their customs and what they favor, and the regions where they live are all set down in the earlier histories.

At the end of the Former Han the Xiongnu fell into great disorder and five chanyu contended to be set up, and the Huhanye chanyu lost his country, led his tribes in, and became a subject of the Han. The Han thought well of his intent and cut off a border tract of Bingzhou to settle them. Thereupon more than five thousand encampments of the Xiongnu came to live in the commanderies of Shuofang and dwelt mixed among the people of Han. Huhanye was moved by the kindness of the Han and came to court, and the Han kept him there and granted him a residence, and let him be called chanyu by his own former title, and gave him silk floss and silk, cash and grain year by year, treating him like a ranked marquis. His sons and grandsons received it in turn, and it did not break off for generations. Their tribes were put under the commanderies and districts where they lived, to be governed by the officials there, so that they were much like the registered households, only they paid no taxes or tribute. As many years went by their households and numbers slowly grew and spread over the north, and they became harder and harder to hold in check. At the end of the Later Han, when all under heaven was in turmoil, the assembled ministers said one after another that the Hu were far too many and were sure to become raiders, and that the guard against them should be set beforehand. In the Jian'an years Emperor Wu of Wei first divided their host into five divisions, and in each division he set up one of their own noble men as chief and chose men of Han as majors (司馬) to oversee them. At the end of Wei the chiefs were changed again into commandants. The commandant of the left division led something over ten thousand encampments and lived in the old Zishi district of Taiyuan; the commandant of the right division had something over six thousand encampments and lived in Qi district; the commandant of the south division had something over three thousand encampments and lived in Puzi district; the commandant of the north division had something over four thousand encampments and lived in Xinxing district; and the commandant of the center division had something over six thousand encampments and lived in Daling district.

After Emperor Wu took the throne, there was a great flood among the Xiongnu beyond the frontier, and more than twenty thousand encampments under Saini and Heinan and the rest came over and submitted. The emperor took them in again and had them live below the old city of Yiyang in Hexi. Afterward they came to live mixed among the people of Jin again, and from this there was no place among the commanderies of Pingyang, Xihe, Taiyuan, Xinxing, Shangdang and Leping where they were not found. In the seventh year of Taishi the chanyu Meng rebelled and encamped at the city of Kongye, and Emperor Wu sent He Zhen, the marquis of Lou, with the staff of authority to punish him. Zhen had always had resource and strategy, and he judged that Meng's host was fierce and violent and could not be held down by a small force, so he secretly enticed Li Ke, the commander of Meng's left division, to kill Meng. At this the Xiongnu were struck with fear and submitted, and for years they did not dare rebel again. After that they came little by little to hold a grudge and killed the chief clerks, and they slowly became a trouble on the frontier.

Guo Qin of Xihe, an attending censor, sent up a memorial: "The Rong and the Di are strong and unruly, and they have been a trouble through the ages. At the beginning of Wei the people were few, and all the commanderies of the northwest became dwellings of the Rong. Now they are obedient, it is true; but a hundred years hence, if there is an alarm of dust and wind, the Hu horsemen will come from Pingyang and Shangdang to Mengjin in less than three days, and Beidi, Xihe, Taiyuan, Fengyi, Anding and Shangjun will all become the court of the enemy. Now, while the awe of the pacifying of Wu still holds, and with the plans of your counseling ministers and fierce generals, send out the people of Beidi, Xihe and Anding, recover Shangjun and fill up Fengyi, and in the districts north of Pingyang raise men under sentence of death and move forty thousand households of able men from the Three He and the Three Wei to fill those places. If the outer peoples (裔) are not to throw the Hua (華) into disorder, then move out little by little the mixed Hu of Pingyang, Hongnong, Wei commandery, Jingzhao and Shangdang, make strict the guard on the coming and going of the four barbarian peoples, and make clear the former kings' ordinance of the wild domain. This is the long plan for ten thousand generations."

The emperor did not take it up. By the fifth year of Taikang, the Xiongnu Hu Tai'ahou came over and submitted with his tribe, twenty-nine thousand three hundred people. In the seventh year the Xiongnu Hu Dudabo and Weisha Hu and the rest each led their kinds, great and small, more than a hundred thousand mouths in all, and came to Jun, the prince of Fufeng and inspector of Yongzhou, and surrendered. The next year the Xiongnu commander Dadoudeyiyuju and the rest again led their kinsfolk, great and small, eleven thousand five hundred mouths, twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and five thousand sheep, with carts and tents and household goods past all counting, and came and surrendered, and they presented the products of their region besides. The emperor received and comforted them all.

The Northern Di take the tribe as their kind. Those who came to live inside the frontier are the Tuge, the Xianzhi, the Koutou, the Wutan, the Chile, the Hanzhi, the Heilang, the Chisha, the Yubi, the Weisha, the Tutong, the Bomie, the Qiangqu, the Helai, the Zhongqi, the Dalou, the Yongqu, the Zhenshu and the Lijie, nineteen kinds in all. All have their tribes, and they do not mix with one another. The Tuge are the most powerful and noble, and so they become chanyu and lead all the kinds. Their country has these titles: the Worthy King of the Left and of the Right, the Yili King of the Left and of the Right, the Yulu King of the Left and of the Right, the Jianshang King of the Left and of the Right, the Shuofang King of the Left and of the Right, the Dulu King of the Left and of the Right, the Xianlu King of the Left and of the Right, and the Anle King of the Left and of the Right, sixteen ranks in all, and for all of them they use the chanyu's own sons and younger brothers. The Worthy King of the Left is the noblest, and only the heir may hold it. Of their four surnames there are the Huyan, the Bu, the Lan and the Qiao, and the Huyan are the noblest: they have the Rizhu of the Left and of the Right, who are counselors of state (輔相) generation after generation. The Bu have the Juqu of the Left and of the Right, the Lan have the Danghu of the Left and of the Right, and the Qiao have the Duhou of the Left and of the Right. There are also the Cheyang, the Juqu, the Yudi and other mixed titles, just as China has its hundred offices. Among the people of their country are the Qiwu and the Le, who are all brave and hardy and quick to rebel. In the time of Emperor Wu there was a commander of horse, Qiwu Xianye, who had merit in the campaign against Wu and was raised to be commandant of Chisha.

In the Yuankang years of Emperor Hui, the Xiongnu Hao San attacked Shangdang and killed the senior officers, then came in and held Shangjun. The next year San's younger brother Duyuan led the Qiang and the Hu of Fengyi and Beidi and attacked and broke the two commanderies. From this time on the Northern Di slowly grew strong, and the Central Plain fell into disorder.