The historian says史評

The historian says: all that takes shape and receives breath is called the most numinous of the ten thousand things, and yet, being bound to the soil and following their quarter, they come to have the difference of dividing into kinds. Those who tread in benevolence and righteousness become the people of the Central Land, and those who give rein to violence become the outer barbarians. Set them beside the grasses and trees, and they are marked apart by their regions. The sort of the Yi and the Di are those among whom moral teaching is cut off. Their spying at the gaps in the frontier has been a trouble from of old, and if the earlier histories are examined, their encroachments were not one or two. The Yellow Emperor (軒皇) drove them off in the north, Emperor Yao campaigned in the south, the lord of Yin overcame them in the east, and the king of Zhou hunted in the west, and all of this was to ward off their raiding and disorder.

In the time of Qin and Han the Xiongnu were strongest, and between the reigns of Emperor Yuan and Emperor Cheng, Huhanye gave himself in pledge; the Han thought well of his fidelity and settled him in the soil of the Central Plain. As the years ran long their kinds grew ever more numerous, and their confused titles and different names cannot all be set down. When it came to the Taishi years, the earlier error was not mended: the frontier wall was thrown wide open and more tribes were called in, taking in the late adherence of Weisha and opening the way for the fresh surrender of Yuju. Their tents ran on one after another and their bow cases followed in line, filling the outskirts and covering the fields. Before long, boiling lips became the custom of the place and whistling arrows gathered into flocks; they shook out the owl's cry and worked ruin, they gave rein to the wolf's heart and played the tyrant. He Zhen let out his plans, but he could not check the sprouting of treachery; Guo Qin hurried up his memorial, but he could not save them from the creeping of the evil. Before twelve years had come round the capital was overturned where it sat, the people fell into mire and coals, and the cruel tribes overflowed to heaven. If one traces out what brought it on, it was the fault of Emperor Wu.

Tuyuhun divided his line off from the false Yan and gave up from afar the place of the true heir; he led the remnant host of the Eastern Hu and took the old home of the Western Qiang. His net was loose and his government unhurried, his land broad and his soldiers whole; he widened a foundation of ten thousand li and left behind the teaching of setting all to rights, and he did not forget loyalty and righteousness. Truly this is to be praised. Tuyan showed his greatness early and was likened to Xiang Ji, that is Xiang Yu, but he had only begun to follow the teaching of the court when he was suddenly cut off young by Jiang Cong. His high fidelity stood out from the crowd, and he too was a fine man of the far marches.

Yeyan was utterly filial and put his fresh grief into shooting at the grass; Bixi was deep in brotherly love and went beyond the old fervor of the brothers who divided the bramble; Shilian was warm and dutiful and made bright the meaning of serving the ancestors; Shipi was bold and strong and held within him the plan to set his age in order; Luogan, while still a child, early showed the mark of an outstanding man, but before he could stretch out his hero's heart he was first cut down by a cruel hand. That those who hold to obedience must come to ruin: how is this not Heaven bringing Jin (晉) to its end? Moreover Tuyuhun and Murong Hui were branches of one stem, born at the far edge of the frontier, and each of them planned for his grandsons and helped his sons, and both of them cast off the barbarian stamp and looked toward the Hua. Hui's descendants were treacherous and cruel and borrowed the phoenix chart to steal a title; Tuyuhun's heirs were loyal and careful, refused the Longhe command and turned back with sincerity. Those who harbored treachery perished within a few generations, and those who took loyalty for their stock grew finer with each succeeding age. Piling up good has a surplus of blessing: truly this saying is to be trusted.

The eulogy says: far off indeed were the former kings, who marked apart the many regions. Rebellion comes of the slackening of virtue, and coming to court flourishes with good teaching. Emperor Wu rose to the sacred chart, but his wisdom was dark about the moving of the Hu; and when he suddenly lost house and country, he had much to be ashamed of before clear counsel. Tuyuhun roused himself in his brilliance and thought to set right a falling fortune; that he made his line flourish was truly the gift of the teaching of loyalty.