Did the Xiongnu Empire that terrorized the Han Dynasty in China move to Europe and became the Khans that terrorized the Roman Empire? The general idea is no longer controversial, but the devil is in the details as historians argue about the specifics. So in this episode, I am going to talk about what happened to the Xiongnu after the Han-Xiongnu War and how they could have moved to Europe. In the first century, the Xiongnu Empire had broken apart into two entities. The Northern Xiongnu, which ended up moving west, and the Southern Xiongnu, which melded with other people groups in China.
To know how they got here, let's jump a couple of centuries back and do a quick recap. Since the dawn of Chinese history, before Qin Shi Huang unified China, various nomadic tribes had lived in the periphery of the various states of China. Sometimes they raid these sedentary states.
At other times, they form alliance with them to serve as mercenaries. And the Xiongnu Confederacy were just one among many nomadic people groups. After Qin Shi Huang completed his conquest of China in 221 BCE, he found them to be the last lingering threat to his rule. So he attacked them and drove them northwards. At that time, the Xiongnu Confederacy was not the most prominent force in the steppes yet.
They were rivaled by other nomadic groups such as the Yuezhi to the west and the Donghu to the east. But after the Xiongnu prince, Modu seized the reign of leadership from his father, Toman, and became the Sanyu, he was able to quickly defeat these rival groups and greatly expanded the Confederacy into an empire. Meanwhile, down south, the Qin Dynasty had been overthrown and the Han Dynasty emerged from the ashes of a very bloody power struggle.
Unsurprisingly, this fragile newborn dynasty was easily defeated by the Xiongnu. And for survival, the Han Dynasty negotiated a humiliating peace treaty which was known as the Heqing Treaty. As part of the deal, The Xiongnu will stop their raids, but the Han Empire had to send hefty tributes to the Xiongnu and marry off their princesses to the Xiongnu royalty. Since then, the fates of these two empires became inextricably linked, and the balance of power kept seesawing between the two.
Funded by the tributes, the Xiongnu was able to expand and eventually became the largest empire in the world at the time. They drove their old rival, the Yuezi, further west and absorbed smaller tribes they defeated into their mix, such as the Wusun. It is important to keep in mind that the Xiongnu Empire, like the other nomadic empires, was made up of loose confederacy of different tribes of different ethnicity, culture, and language groups.
And the membership can be very fluid. For example, The Wu Sun will eventually break away once they have gained enough power and the confidence to ignore the Xiongnu's orders. Confederacies can also split, such as the Donghu split into the Xianbei and Wuhuan after their defeat by the Xiongnu. Given the existence of so many tribes within the group and their political structure that granted great amount of autonomy to their subordinates, they couldn't visibly stop all the raids into the Han Empire.
It's like herding cats. So despite the Han dynasty sticking to the Heqing Treaty, they still suffered from periodic raids. But by the time Han Wudi, the 7th emperor of the Han dynasty, ascended to the throne, the Han empire had built up enough economic and military strength to fight back. So he stopped the Heqing Treaty and launched a series of successful campaigns against them. In his lifetime, He greatly expanded the Han Empire and weakened the Xiongnu.
Not long after his death, the Xiongnu entered into a civil war caused by succession crisis. Ah, they had plenty of those. And to secure his position in the empire, the Shanyu at the time, Hu Hanyue, made a proverbial deal with the devil and submitted to the Han Dynasty so that he can defeat his rivals.
This is the Xiongnu Empire at one of its lowest points. But the twists and turns of fate reverse the situation by the next century, when Wang Meng usurped the throne of the Han Dynasty and established the short-lived Xing Dynasty. The political upheaval leading up to the revival of the Han Dynasty severely weakened them. The Xiongnu even floated the idea of refreshing the tributary relationship to have the Han Dynasty be the subordinates again.
But another succession crisis struck when Hu Duersi wanted to have his son, Punu, succeed him. This is contrary to the succession rules set up by his predecessor, Ku Hanyue. The adult brother of the Shan Yu had priority over the Shan Yu's son to the throne. This time, the rift caused an irreparable split between the different Xiongnu factions. And B, the Shan Yu's brother took eight tribes with him and formed the Southern Xiongnu.
He then submitted to the Han Dynasty to gain support and funding to fight the war against his nephew's faction, which had come to be known as the Northern Xiongnu. The thing about the Xiongnu is that their worst enemies are not the sedentary agrarian people like the Chinese, Persians, or Romans. Their greatest enemies were actually other nomadic tribes, especially themselves.
The Han Empire's policy to fund the Southern Xiongnu worked really well. The destruction of the Northern Xiongnu was practically set on auto-drive by then. The Southern Xiongnu allied themselves with the Xianbei and other tribes to deal significant blows to the Northern Xiongnu.
And finally, in the Battle of the Altai Mountains, when the Han forces finally destroyed the Northern Xiongnu's political structure, the bulk of the combatants on their side were actually from Southern Xiongnu. The Han army probably could have just sat and watched the fight unfold. By the end of this battle, 200,000 Xiongnu from 81 tribes surrendered to the Han army. The rest of them would probably have moved westward.
But the ones that stayed nearby were absorbed into the Xianbei Confederacy in the 2nd century. From here on, the fates of the northern and southern Xiongnu diverged greatly. Information on the Northern Xiongnu is a bit patchy. So, to give us better context on what might have happened to them, let's look at what happened to the Southern Xiongnu.
To secure the Southern Xiongnu's allegiance for future generations, the Han Empire resettled them along the northern frontiers in mixed Han-Xiongnu settlement. But by the end of the 2nd century, the Han Dynasty started to unravel. frayed by corruption and eunuch-led factionalism. With its collapse, China became a battleground for famous warlords such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian. Cao Cao, having the advantage of controlling the northern part of China, subjugated various nomadic tribes, Wu Huan, Xian Bei, Xiongnu, etc., and incorporated them into his army.
He also divided the Xiongnu into five. Through the Three Kingdoms period and beyond, the Xiongnu and other groups pretty much served as mercenaries to whichever faction that are willing to secure their allegiance. And by the time of the Jing Dynasty, a civil war known as the War of the Eight Princes opened up the floodgates for various nomadic tribes to enter China. They were invited in by various factions that are eager to borrow their power. But eventually, they started to develop their own ambition for the imperial throne, leading to the event known as the Uprising of the Five Barbarians, as five major groups, Xiongnu, Di, Jie, Qiang, and Xianbei, established their own kingdoms and joined the fray in the battle for the dominion of China.
This period is known as the Sixteen Kingdoms Period, due to the many kingdoms that rose and fell quickly in the north. like a game of whack-a-mole, except bloodier. Different branches of the Xiongnu established their own kingdoms during this period.
One of them, led by Liu Yao, even established a kingdom called Han, later referred by historians as Han. as Han Zhao. Yes, as you might have guessed, he claimed to be the descendants of the Han emperors through the He Qing marriage policy. And his family even changed their surnames to Liu, the surname of the Han royal family.
That's a pretty clever hustle if you ask me. But eventually, all the Xiongnus end up getting conquered by another group of nomadic people, the Toba tribe of the Xianbei, who would establish the Northern Wei Dynasty, the dynasty which scholars speculated to be the setting for the Ballad of Mulan. Eventually, the southern Xiongnu lost their identity as they assimilated into the Taobao Wei dynasty. As we have seen, these nomadic confederacies have very fluid form of membership and hierarchy.
As the Taobao rose above the other Xianbei tribes and established northern Wei, so did the Guizhuang rose out of the Yuezi and established the Kushan Empire located in today's Pakistan. As for the Northern Xiongnu, it is hard to say for certain what actually happened to them. Historians are still debating the specifics, but they have found a few clues that can be used to trace the movement of the Northern Xiongnu to the West. The main evidence for their shared origin is the similarity of their names. Xiongnu, pronounced in ancient Chinese, would probably sound something like Hunnu and you There are various nomadic people groups appearing throughout Central Asia, all the way to Europe, bearing similar names.
Additionally, a series of bronze cauldron with similar designs to the ones used by the Xiongnu were discovered along the supposed migration route. Using these evidence, they speculated that the process of their migration would probably have looked something like this. After the Battle of the Altai Mountains, Some of the northern Xiongnu settled in the Altai and between the 2nd and 3rd century, some of them split into the Yueban Xiongnu or the Weik Xiongnu, which eventually settled in Zetishu, displacing the Wusun.
Meanwhile, the other group moved further west and became the Iranian Huns and the European Huns. The Iranian Huns settled in Central Asia and became part of the various groups of nomadic people. such as the Sionites, Kittarites, Akhon Huns, Nezek Huns, and Hephthalites. Due to the intermarriage and the revolving door of tribal affiliation, it is very difficult to know the exact composition of these groups. And how many of the original Xiongnu tribes remained was unknown.
As for the European Huns, they moved even further west. And if the name doesn't make it obvious, yes, they moved to Europe. Around the 370s, they overwhelmed the Alans and Goths, taking some into their ranks and drove the rest to the south of the Danube, where they eventually came into conflict with the Romans. The Huns would eventually conquer Scythia and Germania before they came knocking on the gates of Rome.
And the rest is history. Now that we have brought the Han-Shungnu war series to a close, On the next episode, I will set up the stage for the Tang Dynasty series by spotlighting the dynasty that preceded it, the Sui Dynasty. So subscribe to the channel if you don't want to miss it. If you would like to participate in the discussion and vote on future topics, then be a pro and join us on Patreon. You can also help the channel by liking, sharing, and commenting.
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