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TheFive Barbarians, orWu Hu (Chinese:五胡;pinyin:Wǔ Hú), is a Chinese historicalexonym for five ancient non-Han"Hu" peoples who immigrated to northern China in theEastern Han dynasty, and then overthrew theWestern Jin dynasty and establishedtheir own kingdoms in the 4th–5th centuries.[1][2][3][4] The peoples categorized as the Five Barbarians were:[1][3][5]
Of these five tribal ethnic groups, the Xiongnu and Xianbei werenomadic peoples from the northernsteppes. The ethnic identity of the Xiongnu is uncertain, but the Xianbei appear to have beenMongolic. The Jie, anotherpastoral people, may have been a branch of the Xiongnu, who may have beenYeniseian orIranian.[6][7][8] The Di and Qiang were from the highlands of western China.[1] The Qiang were predominantly herdsmen and spokeSino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) languages, while the Di were farmers who may have spoken a Sino-Tibetan[9] orTurkic language.[10]
Although the term "Five Barbarians" is often used alongside theSixteen Kingdoms, there were in fact more than five relevant ethnic groups during the period, such as theDingling andWuhuan.Patrilineally, the ruling family ofCheng-Han descended from theBandun Man, also known as Cong (賨), but are referred to asBa-Di as they mingled with the Di tribes. The Juqu clan ofNorthern Liang, though often classed as Xiongnu, were ofLushuihu ethnicity, whileGao Yun, who can either be interpreted as the last ruler ofLater Yan or first ruler ofNorthern Yan, was an ethnicGoguryeo.
Chronologicaly, the earliest usage of the phrase "Five Barbarians" or "Wu Hu" (五胡) comes from an edict written by the Empress Dowager,Chu Suanzi, when she terminated her regency in favour for her son,Emperor Mu of Jin in 357. Her edict can be found in theBook of Jin, which was compiled in 648 during theTang dynasty. The lead editor of the record,Fang Xuanling, also mentioned the "Five Barbarians" in his evaluation ofEmperor Yuan of Jin, but it is unclear which groups they were supposed to represent. Other expressions that generally refer to the non-Chinese groups during this period include the "Four Barbarians (四夷)" and "Six Barbarians (六夷)".
Additionally, theSpring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms (501–522) also contains a quote in 385 by theFormer Qin ruler,Fu Jian, that uses the "Five Barbarians" terminology.[11] Modern historians likeChen Yinke andZhou Yiliang believe that the "Five Barbarians" in this case was simply in reference to the "Five Virtues of Beginning and End", a theoretical concept often invoked by Chinese dynasties to legitimize their reigns.[12]
The Five Barbarians were only categorized during the 12th century in theSouthern Song dynasty, when the official,Hong Mai wrote an essay titled "Wuhu Luanhua" (五胡亂華; "Upheaval of the Five Barbarians") in his book,Rongzhai Suibi (容齋隨筆). Even so, he did not properly define the term, as the seven rulers he mentioned only accounted for four non-Han groups, namely theXiongnu,Jie,Xianbei andDi. A later Southern Song official,Wang Yinglin defined the Five Barbarians as "Liu Yuan's Xiongnu, Shi Le's Jie,Murong-Xianbei,Fu Hong's Di andYao Chang'sQiang."Hu Sanxing's annotation of theZizhi Tongjian affirms Wang Yinglin's view by listing the five as the Xiongnu, Jie, Xianbei, Di and Qiang, after which it became widely accepted.
They were a mix of tribes from various stocks, such asproto-Mongolic,Turkic, Tibetan andYeniseian.[13][14] Others divide them into two Turkic tribes, oneTungusic tribe, and two Tibetan tribes,[15] and yet others into Tibetan andAltaic (proto-Mongolian and early Turkic).[16] While later historians determined that there were more than five, the Five Barbarians has become a collective term for all northern and western non-Han groups that lived during theJin dynasty (266–420) andSixteen Kingdoms period.
Since the laterHan dynasty, northern China was home to various ethnic groups from the north and west. These peoples were subjects of the Han, taking up agriculture and serving in the military force. While many of them retained their respective tribal identity, they also underwent various degrees ofSinicization. By theWestern Jin period, their population had grown substantially, becoming a cause for concern among a few officials within the imperial court as they began to revolt. There were calls to have the tribes relocated outside the borders, most notably by the ministerJiang Tong in his essay,Xi Rong Lun (徙戎論; Discussion on Relocating the Rong Tribe), but these proposals were disregarded. As central authority collapsed due to theWar of the Eight Princes, many of these "barbarians" rebelled alongside their Han Chinese compatriots in theUpheaval of the Five Barbarians, although there were also those who initially fought on the side of Jin. Throughout the 4th century and early-5th century, several states were founded by the "Five Barbarians" in northern China andSichuan, collectively known as theSixteen Kingdoms.
Ruling over the steppes of East Asia, the Xiongnu empire was once a powerful adversary to the Han dynasty, but by the 1st century AD, their power had greatly declined due to defeats to the Han, internal power struggles and natural disasters. In 50 AD, a few years after the empire was split into two, theSouthern Xiongnu branch became a vassal to the Han. The court of the chanyu was moved toXihe Commandery inBing province while their people were resettled across the frontier commanderies within theGreat Wall. The Southern Xiongnu served the Han by helping them to guard the northern borders, even assisting in destroying the rivalNorthern Xiongnu. However, tension was evident between the two sides. Being economically dependant on the Han and with the Han court interfering in their politics, the Southern Xiongnu would frequently rebel on the frontiers.[17]
In 216, the warlord Cao Cao abolished the chanyu office and divided the Southern Xiongnu into Five Divisions aroundTaiyuan Commandery.[18][19][20] From this point onwards, the Xiongnu declined as a coherent identity, as the Five Divisions became dominated by theChuge branch, while those excluded mixed with tribes from other ethnicities and were vaguely referred to as "hu" and other terms for the non-Chinese. The "barbarian" tribes of Bing province underwent varying degrees ofsinicization; many among the Five Divisions adopted "Liu" as their surname, claiming that their Xiongnu ancestors had married Han princesses throughheqin, and their nobility were even allowed to hold government offices under theWestern Jin dynasty.[21] Nonetheless, they continued to resent the ruling Chinese dynasties due to their lower status and privileges.
Though the Xiongnu were no longer a unified entity by the 4th-century, their descendants continued to invoke their ancestors as a form of legitimacy. In 304, at the height of theWar of the Eight Princes,Liu Yuan of the Five Divisions rebelled and founded theHan-Zhao dynasty. He claimed direct descent from the Southern Xiongnu chanyus and, by extension, the Han princesses, as he portrayed his state as a restoration of the Han dynasty. The Tiefu tribe also descended from a member of the Southern Xiongnu imperial family, but had intermingled with theXianbei and were pushed out from Bing to theHetao region. When their member,Helian Bobo founded theHelian Xia dynasty in 407, he began emphasising his Xiongnu lineage to claim descent from theXia dynasty, which the Xiongnu traditionally regarded as their ancestors.
TheJie were one of the many miscellaneoushu tribes inBing province. The most famous Jie,Shi Le, was a descendant of the Qiangqu tribe (羌渠) of the Southern Xiongnu. Their exact origins is still debated by modern scholars, as theories range from them originating from theTocharian orEastern Iranian people ofSogdia to theYeniseian people, but with no general consensus. When a great famine broke out in Bing province in 303, many of the Jie and otherhu people were displaced before being captured and sold into slavery by the provincial inspector. The Jie andhu were thus scattered throughoutHebei andShandong.
Despite their seemingly small population, the Jie were thrusted into prominence by Shi Le, who founded theLater Zhao dynasty in 319. The Later Zhao dominated northern China for a majority of its existence before its demise in 351. FollowingRan Min's culling order and the wars that followed the Later Zhao collapse, the Jie ceased to appear in records, though some key figures in later history may have descended from them.
When the Xiongnu empire defeated them in the 3rd century BC, theDonghu people splintered into theXianbei andWuhuan. The Xianbei began occupying theMongolian plateau in around 93 AD after the Northern Xiongnu were forced to the northwest by the Han dynasty. In the mid-2nd century, the chieftain,Tanshihuai unified the Xianbei and launched incessant raids on the Han's northern borders. Following his death, however, his descendants failed to maintain the support of the chieftains and his confederation fell apart. In the northeast, several Xianbei tribes near the border became Chinese vassals and were allowed to live within theGreat Wall such as theMurong andTuoba tribes after the defeat of theWuhuan at theBattle of White Wolf Mountain in 207. Others migrated west to live around theHexi Corridor, with a branch of the Murong even subjugating theQiang people ofQinghai and founding theTuyuhun.
At the height of theJin princely civil wars, the Inspector ofYou province,Wang Jun allied himself with the local Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes, most notably theDuan-Xianbei who was granted a dukedom in Liaoxi Commandery for their services. The Xianbei were a deciding factor in the civil wars, and when theHan-Zhao broke away from Jin, the Tuoba joined forces with Jin and were also given a dukedom inDai Commandery. Meanwhile, theMurong inLiaodong, isolated from the conflicts of the Central Plains, expanded their influence in the region by providing refuge to fleeing Chinese officials and peasants. As the Jin were pushed out of northern China, however, the Xianbei distanced themselves from Jin and established full autonomy over their fiefdoms.
The Xianbei founded several states during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. The Murong were a prominent player during this period, as they founded theFormer Yan,Later Yan,Western Yan andSouthern Yan that ruled over theCentral Plains. After theBattle of Fei River, the Qifu and Tufa tribes in the Hexi founded theWestern Qin andSouthern Liang, respectively, competing for control over the region among themselves and other rival claimants. Most importantly, the Tuoba ofDai later founded theNorthern Wei dynasty, which reunified the north in 439 and ushered China into theNorthern and Southern dynasties period.
TheDi were a semi-nomadic people that resided in the western provinces ofGansu,Shaanxi andSichuan. In 111 BC, theHan dynasty expanded westwards and establishedWudu Commandery where the Di mainly resided, causing them to spread out in northern and western China. The Di tribes became Han tributaries, and relations between the two were mostly stable until the fall of Han, when the Di began to frequently rebel. In 219, the warlordCao Cao had 50,000 Di people relocated from Wudu commandery toTianshui andFufeng commanderies to deter them from allying with his rival to the south,Liu Bei.
The Di in the northwest continued to rebel during theWestern Jin dynasty. Between 296 and 299,Qi Wannian, a Di chieftain, led the various non-Han groups in rebellion, devastating theGuanzhong region and displacing many of the population. The Di that fled south into theHanzhong andSichuan basins founded theChouchi andCheng-Han regimes, although the Li clan that ruled the latter were more specifically referred to asBa-Di. The Fu clan that remained behind later founded theFormer Qin dynasty, most notable for briefly unifying northern China underFu Jiān. During the Qin collapse that followed theBattle of Fei River, the Di general,Lü Guang founded theLater Liang inGansu.
The term "Qiang" broadly referred to groups of western semi-nomadic people fromQinghai andGansu. Since the Western Han period, many of the Qiang submitted to the Chinese court and were allowed to settle in theGuanzhong region and the watersheds of theWei andJing rivers, where they practiced agriculture and lived withHan Chinese settlers. The Qiang were not a unified entity, and their various tribes often fought among themselves. However, the Qiang also faced oppression by the local Han governors and officials, leading to frequent large-scale rebellions in the northwest that adversely affected the Han military and economy. The Qiang also fought as soldiers for the Han and later for theCao Wei andShu Han during theThree Kingdoms period.
The Qiang continued to participate in rebellions in the northwest against theWestern Jin dynasty, but it would not be until after the Battle of Fei River that they established their first and only state of theSixteen Kingdoms under theLater Qin dynasty. The second ruler of Later Qin,Yao Xing, was a key proponent in the spread ofBuddhism by making it his state religion and sponsoring the influential Buddhist translator,Kumārajīva. The Qiang also founded the minor polities ofDangchang andDengzhi.
The Lushuihu (盧水胡; Lu River Barbarians) were an ethnic group that were distributed betweenZhangye in modern-dayGansu and centralShaaxi. Their origin is still debated by scholars today; "Lushuihu" may have just been a generic term for thehu tribes that lived in northwestern China, but there is also a theory that they were descendants of theLesser Yuezhi that intermingled with theQiang people. The Juqu clan of the Northern Liang dynasty were of Lushuihu ethnicity, but as their ancestors once served under the Xiongnu empire, they have been classified in more recent historiographies as "Xiongnu" to fit the Five Barbarians terminology.
The region ofBa in easternSichuan was home to theBandun Man, who were also known as the Cong people (賨人) as their taxes were collected by the Han dynasty in the form of a money calledcong (賨). Many of the Cong moved north toHanzhong to become followers of theWay of the Five Pecks of Rice, but afterCao Cao conquered the region in 215, they were resettled further north toLüeyang Commandery, where they mingled with the local Di people. These people became known as the Ba-Di, with Ba referring to their ancestral homeland. The Li clan of Ba-Di ethnicity later moved back to Sichuan duringQi Wannian's rebellion, where they founded theCheng-Han dynasty in 304. Later, the Ba chieftain,Gou Quzhi led the Ba and other tribes inGuanzhong against theHan-Zhao dynasty in 320.
The Dingling were a nomadic people that originally lived south ofLake Baikal and were vassals of the Xiongnu empire. A branch of the Dingling migrated west and resided inKangju, becoming known as the Western Dingling, before moving into China. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the Zhai clan of the Western Dingling were one of the earliest groups to rebel against theFormer Qin after their defeat at theBattle of Fei River, and in 388, they founded the short-livedZhai Wei dynasty, which is not considered as one of the Sixteen Kingdoms. The Dingling that remained behind on the northern steppes were later known at theChile,Gaoche orTiele people.
Goguryeo was one of theThree Kingdoms of Korea and a rival to the Murong-Xianbei during theSixteen Kingdoms period. During its invasion of Goguryeo in 342, the Former Yan captured several members of the Goguryeo imperial family and resettled them in Qingshan (青山, in modernJinzhou,Liaoning). One of them,Gao Yun, served theLater Yan dynasty and eventually overthrew the Murong. Historians either consider him to be the last ruler of Later Yan or the first ruler ofNorthern Yan, though his successors were from the Feng clan of Han Chinese ethnicity. According to theXi Rong Lun, there were also several Goguryeo families living inXingyang since theCao Wei period following theWei campaigns against Goguryeo.
Much like the Xianbei, theWuhuan was another group that splintered from the Donghu people. Since the 2nd century BC, the Han dynasty allowed them to settle in the northeastern commanderies ofShanggu,Yuyang,Youbeiping,Liaodong andLiaoxi in exchange for their military services. During the fall of Han, the Wuhuan looked to establish their own dominion, but their power was broken after Cao Cao defeated them at theBattle of White Wolf Mountain in 207. Many of the Wuhuan were relocated further south in China, and they gradually lost their cultural identity as they assimilated with the Han Chinese and Xianbei that filled the power vacuum. The Wuhuan continued to appear during the Jin dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms period, but their name had become a generic term forhu tribes with Donghu backgrounds. They fought as auxiliaries for the Jin during theWar of the Eight Princes andUpheaval of the Five Barbarians, and there were several fortified settlements (塢堡;wubao) in northern China that were led by the Wuhuan during theLater Yan dynasty period.
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