Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

ASIA IN ANCIENT TIMES HIST 1301 | History Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors Chinese texts have the oldest documented accounts of numerous non-Chinese people residing on the steppes. These sources referred to the people as the Hu (or Donghu) and classified them into five major groupings. They were the Jie, the Xiongnu, the Di, the Qiang, and the Xianbei. The Khitan and other lesser tribes were among the latter dwellers of the ancient world's steppes. Chinese scribes mentioned the Xiongnu as one of the more potent confederations, who ruled over the region close to Mongolia between the third and the first century BCE. Once the Yuezhi, their competitors, were forced to relocate west, the Xiongnu emerged as the preeminent military confederation. The Xiongnu's relationship with Chinese dynasties, like the Han, was complex for many years. At times, the Xiongnu and the Chinese were a pair of natural traders, trading horses for silk and food. In order to get access to Chinese civilization, the Xiongnu were typically required to pay tribute and accept a lower social rank in exchange for trading privileges and other benefits like Chinese wives, which served to forge closer cultural links. Other times, the Xiongnu preferred to create defences like the numerous fortress walls erected by succeeding dynasties in the north, provoke conflict, and launch raids into China in order to show their military and cultural superiority. The Xiongnu had periods in their history when their military might forced the Chinese to pursue an appeasement strategy and demand enormous quantities of food, silk, and money in exchange for peace. Consequently, the tribute that flowed between the Han Chinese and the Xiongnu frequently turned into a bribe intended to placate the nomadic tribes. Tribal chieftains may also frequently be used as Chinese vassals, dividing and fomenting strife among the numerous Xiongnu tribes or serving as a buffer to safeguard the Chinese border with the steppes. Additionally, it was frequently expedient for Chinese officials and soldiers to desert to the Xiongnu, marrying into influential families that desired their administrative prowess. Because of all these factors, the boundary between China and the steppes remained ill-defined and ever-shifting, even as Han historians started labelling people like the Xiongnu as "barbarians" and the opposite of what it meant to be Chinese. On the other hand, in opposition to their own identities and ideals, Chinese farmers were frequently viewed by steppe nomads and tribes as inferior, helpless, and subservient peoples. Silk Roads were vital to the conflict between the two. Two Han military expeditions searched central Asia for allies, tipping the power balance that had previously favoured the Xiongnu. Through these operations, the Xiongnu were successfully subjugated and dominance over the eastern end of the Silk Roads was established. Later, around the middle of the first century BCE, years of internal conflict over their succession plan devastated the Xiongnu. In these conflicts, weaker factions typically advanced towards the Chinese empire's periphery in an attempt to win Chinese backing for their campaigns against their adversaries. As a result, the Southern Xiongnu, whose territory was under threat from resource scarcity and natural calamities, joined the Han as vassals and fought the Northern Xiongnu. As part of the ongoing cultural interchange between China and the Inner Asian Steppe, accepting tributary status necessitated sending a noble prince as a captive to reside in the Han capital and receive a traditional Chinese education. As the later Han relocated immigrants west and attempted to establish military colonies along the frontiers for defence, supported by non-Chinese auxiliary soldiers, the channels between the two civilizations increased. Within the boundaries of China's empire, hundreds of thousands of Xiongnu people lived, frequently settling down and assimilating into the local way of life and customs. During the Six Dynasties (220–589 CE), several branches of the Xiongnu tribe established dynastic republics throughout northern China in the wake of the fall of the Han dynasty. For the following two centuries, heavy cavalry regiments transformed these nomadic tribes into the most formidable combat force in Asia with inventions like the stirrup and new types of armour that covered the whole mounted fighter and his horse. During this period, huge, multiethnic conquering republics controlled by chiefs claiming mixed lineage from both Chinese and nomadic people dominated much of northern China and the Inner Asian Steppe. Strong Xiongnu commanders like Shi Le and Liu Yuan established dynasties like the Later Zhao and the Han Zhao, respectively. Nonetheless, these kingdoms frequently used their ancestry and cultural connections to the Han dynasty as justification for their claims to legitimacy. Over these centuries, the Xiongnu's racial markers and sense of self as different from the Chinese and other steppe people gradually vanished. During an era of declining long-distance commerce and grain production, an economy based on ranching and herding expanded from the Inner Asian Steppe to northern China. During this time, the Xianbei, an additional ethnic nomadic tribe, also became a significant force in East Asia. The Xianbei, who were originally from southern Manchuria, were formerly subservient to bigger steppe nomadic groups like the Xiongnu. Following the collapse of the Han, the Xianbei invaded areas of mainland China in search of horses, captured combatants, and herds of sheep and cattle. Due to their military prowess, the Xianbei forced a large-scale population shift in northern China, with many Chinese seeking jobs as administrators and advisors. The Tuoba clan, a branch of the Xianbei, established the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534 CE) by using the riches of Chinese farmers. Taking up the title of emperor, Xianbei emperors like Xiaowen attempted, in the latter part of the 5th century, to transform their civilization into a real Chinese monarchy, following the Han model. For instance, affluent, well-educated Chinese from the Southern dynasties were married off to their daughters by aristocratic Xianbei families under the reign of Xiaowen. Such changes turned out to be risky. The Northern Wei's courtly center's extravagance and culture turned off the Xianbei troops stationed at its borders, leading to their uprising in 524 CE. Years of civil conflict and the sacking of Luoyang, the capital, were the outcome. Even yet, the Xianbei continued to exert a significant influence on East Asian politics far into the Sui and Tang empires. As the Xianbei and Xiongnu disappeared, the Khitan, a different tribe, started to gradually gain control on the steppes and elsewhere around the fourth century. The Khitan, who inhabited a region spanning from Mongolia to Siberia for ages as tiny clans of hunters, fishermen, herders, and warriors, eventually established the Liao dynasty (907– 1125). Later empires formed by the Mongols and Jurchen that ruled over all of China and the Inner Asian Steppe were even more spectacular.