The Central Plains culture, the core of Chinese culture, has grown rapidly since the Qin and Han dynasties, and the contention of a hundred schools of thought has become a cultural phenomenon. Culture and economy reinforce each other, and as China became a great power in the East, its culture gradually gained international recognition.
Since the Han Dynasty, many foreign ethnic groups have imitated the culture of the Central Plains, including the Xiongnu. Due to the limitations of the geographical environment, the Huns were naturally strong, so they were always reluctant to admit that they were inferior to others.
Therefore, the idea of the Xiongnu learning Han culture was unrealistic at first. However, as society evolves, they gradually realize their own inadequacies and begin to accept the influence of foreign cultures.
Therefore, when the Xiongnu captured the Han Chinese, they rarely killed them, but had their own purposes.
Throughout history, there have been disputes between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities in northern China. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the major regimes in the Central Plains fought for territory, and the Xiongnu gradually grew in this context.
At that time, although the northern countries had conflicts with the Xiongnu, but the scale was not large, such as the Zhao State and the Xiongnu often had small-scale conflicts, the Xiongnu's purpose was mainly to plunder property, and they were still struggling for survival.
Later, King Zhao Xiaocheng sent Li Mu to guard the border fortress and successfully curbed the momentum of the Xiongnu southward. After Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, the internal strife ended, and he began to turn his attention to the outside world, and the confrontation pattern between the Central Plains and the Xiongnu gradually took shape.
Due to the harsh natural environment, the Xiongnu herdsmen had a difficult life, and their original intention of invasion of the Central Plains was to seek survival resources, rather than cultural aggression. During the alternation of the Qin and Han dynasties, the Xiongnu rose rapidly and formed a nation to compete with the Han Dynasty.
Almost all the wars during the Han Dynasty were related to the Xiongnu. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu were powerful, and the Han Dynasty had just experienced a war and needed to recover urgently, so Liu Bang adopted a policy of peace and proximity to delay the war and give the Han Dynasty time to recuperate.
In order to appease the Xiongnu, the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty also provided a large number of materials in addition to the princess and relatives. This tradition lasted for four generations, so that the Han Dynasty always held its breath. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che ascended the throne, he began to officially declare war on the Xiongnu, releasing this breath that his ancestors could not swallow.
It was only during the war that the Xiongnu realized the strength of the Western Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty completely woke up the Huns, who were immersed in the dream of "being fostered", and they began to think about why the Western Han Dynasty was so powerful, and finally came to the conclusion that it was all because the profoundness of the Central Plains culture further promoted the development of productive forces.
The deeper a country's cultural heritage, the stronger its influence will be. During the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains culture made great achievements in literature, economy, agriculture, talent system and management of political institutions, which shocked the Xiongnu.
They also realized that due to the differences in the natural environment, they could not develop like the Western Han Dynasty, but they could improve the self-confidence of the nation by learning the advanced culture of the Central Plains.
At that time, the Xiongnu and the Western Han were in a state of hostility, and the Western Han was unwilling to export their culture and economy to the Xiongnu. As a result, the Xiongnu came up with a strategy, that is, to provide more favorable conditions than the Western Han Dynasty to attract talents from the Western Han Dynasty to join them.
In the battles between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, if the Han generals were captured, the Xiongnu usually did not kill them easily. They understood that leaving them behind would allow them to reap the benefits of the Central Plains rather than killing a person.
In that year, Lu Xuan, the king of Yan, colluded with Chen Xuan and the Xiongnu in the Daiguo, Liu Bang was angry about this, and issued the "White Horse Alliance", calling on the people of the world to crusade against them. Subsequently, Liu Bang ordered the generals Fan Xu and Zhou Bo to attack the Yan State, and Lu Juan fled to the Xiongnu region with his family after the defeat.
In the Xiongnu region, Lu Juan was not only not snubbed, but was named the "King of Donghulu". The Xiongnu did this, on the one hand, because they hoped that Lu Juan would be able to spread the culture of the Central Plains to this region, and on the other hand, they also wanted to set up a sign to tell the people of the Central Plains that if there was no way out, they could come to the Xiongnu and would be treated well.
Through keen insight, the Xiongnu discovered the suspicion and distrust of the Central Plains Dynasty, and skillfully used this to attract talent. It was precisely because of Liu Bang's suspicion that Lu Juan chose to cooperate with the Xiongnu, which also made the Xiongnu see an opportunity.
In addition to absorbing Han Chinese, the Xiongnu also expanded their power by detaining envoys and plotting against prisoners of war. Su Wu and Zhang Qian, who were envoys to the Western Regions, were also detained by the Xiongnu for ten years, and they were detained not because the Xiongnu wanted to kill them, but because they hoped that they could serve the Xiongnu and introduce the advantages of the Central Plains into the development of the Xiongnu.
In the Han Dynasty, although many generals showed high morale after being captured by the Xiongnu, there were also many who were willing to serve the Xiongnu. Among them, it can be said that the Xiongnu's preferential treatment of the Han people has had a remarkable effect.
The Bank of China said that as a eunuch of the Han Dynasty, although he hated the Huns, after being sent to the Xiongnu, he transferred his resentment against the Xiongnu to the Han Dynasty, and shared the knowledge he learned in the Central Plains, becoming an important figure in the integration of the Xiongnu into the Central Plains culture.
1.He taught the Xiongnu the "strip counting", solved the problem that had plagued them for a long time, and with this method the Huns finally completed the statistics of the population and livestock.
BOC said that as a result, he became the "savior" of the Huns and was respected locally. 2.The Han Dynasty general Li Ling was captured in a battle with the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu Shan Yu attached great importance to him, but he never gave in.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty thought that Li Ling had died in battle and rewarded his family. A year later, Gongsun Ao sent an envoy to the Xiongnu and mistook Li Ling, who was training in the army, for Li Ling, and told Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and then Li Ling's family was all executed.
When Li Ling, who was far away in the Xiongnu, learned about it, he was very distressed and chose to surrender to the Xiongnu immediately. Shan Yu admired his determination and married his daughter to him, and Li Ling also became a nobleman of the Xiongnu.
Wei Lu took refuge in the Xiongnu in a difficult situation, and was highly valued by Shan Yu and often accompanied him. Li Ling was out to deal with military affairs, and was summoned to discuss important meetings.
The Xiongnu's recruitment policy caused the Han Dynasty to lose a lot of talents, and those who could not display their talents and pursue military exploits in the Han Dynasty defected to the Xiongnu. They thought that instead of doing useless work in the Han Dynasty, it was better to exert their strength and become the leader in the Xiongnu.
This phenomenon continued until the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, who, realizing that the country had been exhausted by the long war with the Xiongnu, changed his policy towards the Xiongnu from overt confrontation to secretly provoking internal contradictions among them and making them kill each other.
This action of Emperor Xuan of Han had a significant effect, because the difference between the Xiongnu and the Central Plains was so obvious that even if they had some talents from the Central Plains, they could not fundamentally change the status quo.
However, this behavior of the Xiongnu provides an example for the sinicization of ethnic minorities. Therefore, we can conclude that the geographical environment of the Xiongnu, the respect for the Central Plains culture, and the observation of the rapid rise of the Han Dynasty became the three key factors for them not to kill Han generals and attract talents.