The problem of the two Han Dynasty The mystery of the disappearance of the Xiongnu
In order to survive, the Huns of the Punu Shan era would surrender to the emerging Eastern Han Dynasty! What an unexpected thing it was. In the early days of Punudan's reign, the Xiongnu suffered serious natural disasters, human and animal hunger, and most of them died.
In order to find a little living space, Punu made peace with the Han Dynasty, hoping that the Eastern Han Dynasty could relax its precautions against the north. However, this move was learned of in advance by the king of the day.
Day by day, the orthodox Shan Yu descendants, because of the destruction of his uncle, have never been able to ascend to the throne. As a result, the disgruntled King Riju surrendered to the Han Dynasty one step ahead of him, and with the support of the latter, established the "Southern Xiongnu" regime, which fought against the "Northern Xiongnu" Punu regime.
Since then, the situation between the North and the South has undergone earth-shaking changes. Under the assimilation of the Han Dynasty, the Southern Xiongnu lived a relatively stable life, while the Northern Xiongnu power was constantly squeezed. The Southern and Northern Xiongnu have always been in a state of "deep enmity and provocation, and mutual service".
Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu took the opportunity to invite the Han Dynasty to send troops to help him clear the obstacles, and Dou Xian also took this opportunity to atone for his brother Dou Xian. In the end, Pu Nu Shan Yu was defeated in the area of Jinwei Mountain, led his troops to flee to the land of Wusun, and disappeared from historical records.
It was not until the end of the 19th century, when Hong Jun, the champion of the late Qing Dynasty, sent the Tsar ** that he saw the clues of the suspected remnants of the Xiongnu in exile in Europe in the Western historical books circulating in the country.
In these sources, the French orientalist Deggin put forward a point of view: the defeated Northern Huns moved westward, moved to Europe, and later established a very prosperous Hun Empire on the Eastern European Plain under the leadership of Attila, the "whip of God" who shook the Eurasian continent.
Attila's Feast is a 19th-century European oil painting now in the collection of the National Gallery in Budapest, Hungary. The painting sparked Deggin's views and caused a strong reaction in Europe.
With the deepening of cultural exchanges between China and the West, British historian Edward Gibbon, Chinese scholars Zhang Taiyan, Liang Qichao and others have also accepted this view. Among the Chinese classics, the earliest record of the "Xiongnu" is Sima Qian's "Historical Records".
Sima Qian wrote in the book: "The Xiongnu, the descendants of their ancestor Xia Hou, are also called Chunwei. Above Tang Yu, there are Shanrong, 猃狁 (xiǎn yǔn), and meat porridge (xūn yù), which live in the northern barbarians and move with animal husbandry. ”
According to Sima Qian's records, the ancestor of the Huns was Chunwei, the son of Xia Wei. He believes that they gradually became nomadic tribes, probably because in the Western Zhou Dynasty, in addition to the Chunwei branch, there were other nomadic savages in the north.
These Huns under Chunwei's knees may have forgotten their original living customs because they were mixed with other savages. However, later scholars have different views on Sima Qian's account.
Wang Guowei deduced in "Ghost Fang Kunyi Lynx Examination" that Xiongnu should be another official name for the northern nomads during the Han Dynasty. He believes that these differences in titles are related to the pronunciation of the official dialect used by the dynasty at that time.
Because the Xiongnu did not have a written language, they did not leave a record of the origin of their ancestors. However, scholars seem to agree that the Huns were active in the steppes of present-day Mongolia at least by the end of the 4th century BC.
The Huns who lived there were naturally not as happy as their ancestors in the Central Plains, who were active in the Great River Valley. The cruel living environment requires them to have the wild nature of the grassland wolf in order to survive.
As a result, after many resource annexes between the grasslands, the Xiongnu gradually grew stronger under the leadership of the leader Touman. In order to establish a high prestige, Touman set himself the title of Shan Yu and became the legal first ruler of the Xiongnu tribe.
Since then, the name of Shan Yu has also been enjoyed by the supreme rulers of the Xiongnu Empire. Although the Xiongnu became increasingly powerful under the leadership of Touman, looking at the north at that time, the Xiongnu were just small pawns, and their surroundings were strong enough to endanger the Central Plains Dynasty, as well as Donghu and Yueshi.
Under such circumstances, Touman let his eldest son Mao Dun lead the Huns to conquer new territories. However, what is surprising is that the son is fighting bloodily in the front, but Lao Tzu is living a leisurely life with his wife and children in the rear.
I don't know who blew the pillow wind, Touman even considered abolishing Chang Liyou, planning to kill Mao Dun on the battlefield. At the last moment, Mao Dun stole Yue's good horse and rode it back to the Xiongnu.
Touman had no choice but to let Mao Dun command 10,000 soldiers and horses.
Mao Dun Shan Yu: From "Ming Di Killing His Father" to the Establishment of the Xiongnu Empire Mao Dun Shan Yu's life was full of expansion and challenges. In order to save his life, he created a kind of Mingdi arrow with two whistles, cleaned up the disobedient people, and successfully launched the "Mingdi Killing Father" and became the new Xiongnu Shan Yu.
During his reign, he continued to expand his territory, extending his tentacles to the borders of the Central Plains Dynasty. Although he had no intention of invading the Central Plains in the early days, when the Han Dynasty was in ruins, he seized the opportunity to lead his army south to invade in an attempt to disturb the situation in the Central Plains.
Maudun's expansion and challenges showed his wisdom and courage, and also laid the foundation of the Xiongnu Empire. His story allows us to see the image of a hero who is not afraid of challenges and keeps forging ahead, and also makes us reflect on history and think about the future of mankind.
Han Wangxin's "two-faced" behavior made Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, deeply disgusted, so Liu Bang had an excuse to send troops to attack Han Wangxin, which also indirectly contributed to the result of a head-to-head confrontation between Mao Dun and Liu Bang's own army.
The ancestor of Maudun descended to Chunwei, not to mention a thousand years, but there has never been a written word. How to keep a huge empire running at a high speed may be the biggest challenge facing the Xiongnu Empire in its continued expansion and development in the future.
Having been ambitious and strategic all his life, Maudon clearly understands the truth. Upon his return to the steppe, Maudun immediately set about designing a hierarchy within the Xiongnu Empire.
In this early steppe management system, Mao Dun divided the entire Xiongnu Empire into three, with the eastern part of the empire under the management of the Zuoxian King and the western part of the empire under the territory of the Right Xianwang.
Like Maudun, they had the authority to establish "royal courts" (similar to vassal capitals) in their respective jurisdictions. In addition to major military operations such as the war against the Han Dynasty, the left and right Xian kings had the right to dispatch their own troops to fight everywhere and expand the territory of the Xiongnu Empire.
Title: Huo Qubing led the army against the Xiongnu, won a lot, and fled north in a hurry. After the war, the vitality of the Xiongnu was greatly damaged, and Shanggu County and the residence of the Hun Evil King set up a border fortress of the Han Dynasty to monitor the movements of the Xiongnu.
The Xiongnu caused large-scale internal strife due to the single throne, and a large number of nobles rebelled. Among them, the sages of the Rizhu Dynasty defected to the Cheng Han Dynasty and became the guide of the first large-scale Han-Hungarian integration in history.
At the same time, the ascension of Huhan Shan Yu made the Xiongnu have a situation in which the two Shan Yu stood side by side, which eventually led to a great loss of vitality of the Xiongnu.
Hu Han Evil Shan Yu: From the Battle of the Royal Court to the Alliance with the Han Dynasty In the process of conquering political enemies, Hu Han Evil Shan Yu had a great conflict with his brother, which led the latter to establish himself as Zhi Zhi Shan Yu, and led his troops to defeat the royal court of Hu Han Evil, establish the Northern Xiongnu, and fight against Hu Han Evil.
Faced with his brother's coercion, Hu Han Xie chose to form an alliance with the Han Dynasty. In 53 B.C., Hu Han Xie took his son, Youxian Wang Bah Louqutang as a hostage, and went to Chang'an with his younger brother Zuoxian Wang to meet Emperor Xuan of Han.
In order to show great sincerity in submission, Hu Han Xie publicly proposed to lead his subordinates to stay in Guanglusai in Monan and guard Monan and the Hetao area for the Han Dynasty. The plan proposed by Hu Hanye was to recapture the homeland of the Xiongnu, and at the same time, he also made it clear that he would belong to the Han Dynasty and be willing to be sent by the Han Dynasty.
Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty immediately ordered the general Dong Zhong to lead his troops to protect Huhan Evil Shan Yu, and gave 34,000 Hu before and after the valleys and rice cakes of the Huhan Evil Tribe, so as to ensure their livelihood.
After that, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty divided the original tribes of Huhan Evil into two, one part was annexed to the state, and the other part was placed in Shuofang and other counties, and they were integrated and assimilated with the Han people. At the same time, Zhi Zhishan Yu chose a different path from Hu Han Evil.
In order to avoid his retaliation by the Han-Hungarian coalition army, he extended the tentacles of the war to the Western Regions. There, Kangju, a great country in the Western Regions, took him in. With the financial support of King Kangju, Zhizhi took advantage of the civil strife in Wusun to occupy a large area of land west of Lake Isai and save money for himself.
The geographical relationship between Kangju and the countries of the Western Regions is close. Wusun was once harassed by the Xiongnu war, and was later violently beaten by the remnants of the Xiongnu, and felt powerless to resist, so he asked the Han Dynasty for help.
The Han Dynasty was very nervous when they heard that the remnants of the Xiongnu might re-enter the Western Regions. In 36 BC, the Western Regions Governor Gan Yanshou and the deputy lieutenant Chen Tang were ordered to go to Kangju to investigate the situation.
After owning his own territory, Zhi Zhishan became arrogant. He not only killed the Kangju king's reward to his wife and people, but also ordered the Kangju people to become Xiongnu slaves, and demanded the son that the Han Dynasty had previously sacrificed for showing weakness.
When the Han envoy Gu Ji escorted his son to Kangju, Zhi Zhishan Yu slaughtered Gu Ji and other Han envoys to feed the dogs, which was shocking. The Western Regions Governor Hugan Yanshou was worried about this, believing that if the Han Dynasty did not punish Zhi Zhishan Yu's arrogant behavior, it would seriously affect the prestige of the Han Dynasty in the Western Regions.
However, due to the absence of an edict from the imperial court, even if Gan Yanshou could go to the Western Regions, he could not send troops privately. Chen Tang believed that in the face of the changeable situation outside the country, it was necessary to transfer troops to various countries in the Western Regions to jointly deal with Zhizhi Danyu.
He expounded his views to Gan Yanshou, and then pretended to use the holy decree of the Han Emperor to transfer troops to various departments in the Western Regions. Coincidentally, at this juncture, Gan Yanshou suddenly "stayed in bed for a long time".
Chen Tang took this opportunity to directly act as the deputy lieutenant of Gan Yanshou, and led the ** teams of the Western Regions to jointly crusade against Zhi Zhishan Yu. Under Chen Tang's call of "those who commit me to be a strong man, although they are far away, they will be punished", Zhi Zhishan was completely defeated.
The remnants of his Xiongnu also had to abandon the plan to continue moving westward, and were uniformly distributed to the countries of the Western Regions by the Han Dynasty soldiers, and were reduced to pieces. The defeat of Zhi Zhi Shan Yu caused Hu Han Evil Shan Yu to give up all his illusions and invite himself to be the son-in-law of the Han family in order to fulfill the courtesy of the vassals.
For this sudden "harmony", Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty was inevitably caught off guard. Because, the Han woman who was favored by Hu Han Xie was Wang Zhaojun, who was beautiful and fragrant. For the sake of peace, Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty could only endure the pain of parting his love, watching Wang Zhaojun marry the Huns, and start a good story of harmony.
Subsequently, with the consent of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, Hu Han Evil Shan Yu returned to Mobei with his wife again and became the Han Domain. Although Hu Han Yeshan decided to "call the court into the Han Dynasty" at the critical moment in exchange for a short period of peace, but at this time the strong Han Dynasty was also in turmoil, and the attached Han Dynasty actually planted the seeds of the Southern Xiongnu who tended to be peaceful again.
In 9 A.D., Wang Mang, a relative of the Han Dynasty, usurped the Han dynasty and established a new dynasty. Wang Mang's coup d'état completely broke the situation in which the Southern Xiongnu had lived in peace since Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty.
At that time, in order to harmonize the Xiongnu, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty gave him a "golden seal" when he met Hu Han Yedan, so that he could enjoy higher treatment than the princes and kings of the Han family. As soon as Wang Mang came to power, he directly chased down the political treatment of Shan Yu, demoted them to small lieges, and didn't even give the face that the "king" should have.
What's more, in the second year of his accession, Wang Mang took advantage of the suzerainty of the new Han dynasty to divide the Xiongnu land, people, cattle and sheep into fifteen, and at the same time set up 15 descendants of the Han evil to be single, so that each of them led a part and went their own way.
Although this move weakened the possibility of the Xiongnu tribe's comeback to a certain extent, it sowed trouble for the frontier that had finally calmed down. The mercenary Xiongnu Shan Yu was introduced into a "chess game" of attacking each other.
Wang Mang reaped the benefits of the fisherman, and supported the pro-Han Wang Zhaojun's son-in-law Bu Xu and others to fight against the former Xiongnu nobles. However, this caused the Xiongnu to spread their grievances on the Han family in the Central Plains, and the seizure of border cities and the killing of Han people occurred from time to time.
However, Wang Mang, who was in charge of the trouble, did not seem to realize that his policy of border congestion not only led to the transformation of the political pattern of East Asia in the following millennium, but also caused his newly established dynasty to quickly disappear into the shadow of history.
Although Wang Mang, the founding emperor of the new dynasty, has passed away, his head has been treasured by later generations of emperors for more than 200 years, like a symbol of the times. In 23 AD, Wang Mang's life came to an end, and the first army invaded Chang'an, and he also died in the war.
However, Wang Mang's death did not stop the Huns' hatred of him, and Hudu Shan Yu, the son of Huhan Evil Shan Yu, led the Xiongnu who were supported by the Han Dynasty to make a comeback, and they supported a Lu Fang who pretended to be surnamed Liu, wanting to avenge the revenge.
However, Lu Fang was not a true hero, he ate the food of the Huns, but colluded with Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty. The contradictions between the Xiongnu and the Eastern Han Dynasty intensified, and Hudushan Yu decided to go into battle in person, only to die before the war began.
After Hudu's death, a snowstorm swept through the Mobei base camp, adding a bit of instability to the Xiongnu, who had already had cracks inside. On the issue of heirs, Hudu Dan Yu did not learn the lessons of his father Hu Han Evil Shan Yu era, and similar to Hulu Gudan Yu in the previous unification era, he also tried his best to destroy the Xiongnu legal brother and brother system.
Under the leadership of his son Pu Nu Shan Yu, the new monarch of the ancient Xiongnu was established in that year of famine, and step by step led the shattered empire into the abyss of no return.
Punu Shan Yu's political enemies had made peace with the Eastern Han Dynasty, and he could only give up the idea of making peace with the Eastern Han Dynasty and turn his anger on the New Southern Xiongnu regime. Under the ravages of the blizzard and the continuous counterattack of the Southern Xiongnu, Pu Nushan was cornered, and could only turn his vision of development to the Western Regions, which had been cut off from the Han dynasty for decades, just like his ancestors.
However, the heavens seem to be intent on destroying this steppe wolf, and when Pu Nushan was passing through the Western Regions, two great heroes suddenly appeared in the Han Dynasty: Ban Chao and Geng Gong. The former subdued Shanshan, a great power in the Western Regions, with 36 officials, and the latter defeated the Xiongnu soldiers in the Western Regions with the "power of the gods", causing the Xiongnu's attempt to take root in the Western Regions and seek development again.
The Han Dynasty's Dingyuan Marquis Banchao led 36 attachés to pacify the Western Regions, but a greater change was brewing within the Xiongnu. Since Maudun, the Xiongnu have always had the habit of enslaving other tribes.
While the Punu were too busy to take care of themselves, other nomadic tribes rose up one after another. A branch of the Donghu tribe, the Xianbei tribe, gradually grew, and in their limited nomadic space, they became the "thugs" of the Han Dynasty against the Huns, who had enslaved them for many years.
The Xianbei Tuoba tribe regarded the Hulunbuir grassland as their homeland and fought against the Xiongnu to the end. In the end, under the blow of Dou Xian, the Xiongnu were forced to move west. In the Book of Wei during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the author clearly recorded that after this remnant was defeated, he fled to Wusun in the west.
After staying in Wusun for a period of time, the sturdy Xiongnu tribes once again embarked on the pace of westward migration, migrated farther to Kangju, and assimilated and merged with the local Wusun people and Gaoche people, and established the Yueban Kingdom.
A people full of mystery, once dominated the steppes of Northeast Asia, but disappeared without a trace in the long river of history. It was not until nearly 200 years later that Western historical records say that they appeared under the command of Tigranus, the king of the Western Asian nation of Greater Armenia, and that they had put up an excellent resistance during the campaign of Shapur II of the Sassanid dynasty of Persia against the peoples of Central Asia.
However, accounts of them were intermittent until Attila, the "Whip of God", led his Huns to conquer Europe, and people were horrified to discover that they had made a comeback.
However, the relationship between the Huns and the Xiongnu has not been unified in the academic circles. Some scholars believe that the term "Huns" may come from the Phrynoi in Strabo's account, and another ancient book, the Encyclopedia, also records that "the Tocharians, Funi and other ignorant tribes in the country of Seris did not attach importance to the ...... of fat cattle and sheep."”
Sailis is the ancient Western name for the Central Plains Dynasty, so they believe that the Huns are the product of the westward migration of the Northern Xiongnu. In short, the history of this people is full of mysteries and unknowns, waiting for us to dig and explore.
Is the existence of Attila, the leader of the nomadic people, once known as the "Whip of God", really related to the westward migration of the Northern Xiongnu? Although the northern part of Eurasia was basically controlled by nomadic forces except for northern Europe during the period of the emergence of the Huns, the appearance of Attila and Nemidi's speculation do not directly link them to the westward migration of the Northern Xiongnu.
The only thing that is certain is that the Southern Xiongnu who remained in the Han Dynasty later became the "border guards" of the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Three Kingdoms period, they once again lost their backers and could only return to the grassland to compete with the rising Xianbei people for living space.
In the end, while defeating the Xianbei tribe, they also raised the banner of anti-Jin. In 311 AD, the rebellious Xiongnu army captured Emperor Huai of Jin under the leadership of Liu Cong, and this historical event known as the "Yongjia Rebellion" was the "return to light" of the Xiongnu who had been silent for a long time.
Their iron hooves once again broke through the hard-won unification of the world in the Central Plains, and opened a great ** period of about 270 years. However, the Xiongnu's enthusiasm for internal strife caused them to lose their territory, and they continued to decompose in the subsequent turmoil and migration, and merged with other ethnic groups, forming the "Zahu" of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
And these "miscellaneous hus", except for a small number of ethnic groups integrated into the northern part of the country, most of them disappeared in the historical books after the unification of the Sui and Tang dynasties. This means that the last performance of the Xiongnu on the stage of Chinese history ended with their complete integration into the Han nationality in the Central Plains.