The Xianbei (; simplified Chinese: 鲜卑; traditional Chinese: 鮮卑; pinyin: Xiānbēi) were an ancient nomadic people who inhabited parts of present-day northeastern China, Inner Mongolia, and the eastern Eurasian steppe. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multilingual, multi-ethnic confederation consisting of mainly Proto-Mongols (who spoke either pre-Proto-Mongolic, or Para-Mongolic languages), and, to a minor degree, Tungusic and Turkic peoples. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into the Wuhuan and Xianbei when they were defeated by the Xiongnu at the end of the 3rd century BC. In the 1st century BC, the Xianbei began engaging in the conflict between the Han dynasty and the Xiongnu, culminating in the Xianbei replacing the Xiongnu on the Mongolian Plateau.
The chieftain Tanshihuai unified the Xianbei in the mid-2nd century and waged war against the Han dynasty but the Xianbei splintered following his death in 181 AD. After suffering several defeats by the end of the Three Kingdoms period, the Xianbei migrated southwards and settled close to Han society and submitted to the Chinese dynasties. As one of the "Five Barbarians", they fought as auxiliaries for the Western Jin dynasty during the War of the Eight Princes and the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians before declaring independence while the Jin were pushed out from northern China. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the Xianbei founded several short-lived states and established themselves in the Central Plains.
The Xianbei were at one point all subjected to the Di-led Former Qin dynasty before it fell apart not long after its defeat in the Battle of Fei River. In the wake of the Qin collapse, the Tuoba founded the Northern Wei dynasty and reunited northern China, ushering China into the Northern and Southern dynasties period. The Northern dynasties, all of which were either led or heavily influenced by the Xianbei, opposed and promoted sinicization at one point or another but tended towards the latter, merging with the general Chinese population by the Tang dynasty. The Northern Wei Emperor Xiaowen in particular implemented policies that suppressed Xianbei customs while promoting Han culture at court such as language, dress, and rituals. He arranged for ethnic Han elites to marry daughters of the Tuoba imperial clan in the 480s AD. More than fifty percent of Tuoba Xianbei princesses of the Northern Wei were married to southern Han men from the imperial families and aristocrats of the Southern dynasties who defected and joined the Northern Wei.
Etymology
Paul Pelliot tentatively reconstructs the Eastern Han Chinese pronunciation of Xianbei (鮮卑) as */serbi/, from *Särpi, after noting that Chinese scribes used 鮮 to transcribe Middle Persian sēr (lion) and 卑 to transcribe foreign syllable /pi/; for instance, Sanskrit गोपी gopī "milkmaid, cowherdess" became Middle Chinese 瞿卑 (ɡɨo-piᴇ) (> Mand. qúbēi).
On the one hand, *Särpi may be linked to the Mongolic root *ser ~*sir which means "crest, bristle, sticking out, projecting, etc." (cf. Khalkha сэрвэн serven), possibly referring to the Xianbei's horses (semantically analogous with the Turkic ethnonym Yabaqu < Yapağu 'matted hair or wool', later 'a matted-haired animal, i.e. a colt'). On the other hand, the Book of the Later Han and the Book of Wei stated that before becoming an ethnonym, Xianbei had been a toponym, referring to the Great Xianbei mountains (大鮮卑山), which is now identified as the Greater Khingan range (simplified Chinese: 大兴安岭; traditional Chinese: 大興安嶺; pinyin: Dà Xīng'ān Lǐng).
Schuessler (2014) reconstructs 鮮卑's Old Chinese pronunciation in the 1st century BCE as *sen-pe, and Eastern Han Chinese pronunciation as sian pie; while reconstructing no syllable coda -r for 鮮's pronunciation in any of those two stages, Schuessler remarks that "[i]n syllable-final position n represents foreign n as well as r and perhaps l", and still derives both *sian pie and *sen-pe from foreign *Särbi.
Shimunek (2018) reconstructs *serbi for Xiānbēi and *širwi for 室韋 Shìwéi < MC *ɕiɪt̚-ɦʉi.
History
Origin
Warring States period's Chinese literature contains early mentions of Xianbei, as in the poem The Great Summons in the anthology Chu Ci and possibly the chapter "Discourses of Jin 8" in the Guoyu. However the early appearance of the word xianbei in the Chu ci refers to a belt buckle rather than a people.
The first time the Xianbei people appeared in recorded history was in the Book of the Later Han, compiled in the 5th century. According to the Book of the Later Han, the Xianbei were originally a branch of the Donghu people together with the Wuhuan (or Wuwan) and "the language and culture of the Xianbei are the same as the Wuhuan". When the Donghu "Eastern Barbarians" were defeated by the Xiongnu leader Modu Chanyu around 208 BC, the Donghu splintered into the Xianbei and Wuhuan. The Xianbei were driven into the Khingan Mountains in northeastern Inner Mongolia. The Xianbei practiced some agriculture, or at least more than the Xiongnu. They wielded bows made of horn and produced fur garments made of sable and other pelts. Archaeological remains of a Han dynasty Xianbei site in northeastern Inner Mongolia include skeletons of roebuck, deer, wild pigs, and hunting tools.
Since the Xianbei are described as identical to the Wuhuan in culture and language, it can be assumed that descriptions of the Wuhuan apply to the Xianbei as well. According to a description of the Wuhuan by a Chinese historian who died in 266, they were nomads who moved to find new land for herds to graze, although they also practiced some agriculture. They took the personal names of their strongmen as their surnames. Family life was matriarchal except when it came to warfare. However these might just be stereotypes to reinforce a non-Chinese "other" by the authors.
The first significant contact the Xianbei had with the Han dynasty was in 41 and 45, when they joined the Wuhuan and Xiongnu in raiding Han territory.
In 49, the governor Ji Tong convinced the Xianbei chieftain Pianhe to turn on the Xiongnu with rewards for each Xiongnu head they collected.
In 54, Yuchouben and Mantou of the Xianbei paid tribute to Emperor Guangwu of Han.
In 58, the Xianbei chieftain Pianhe attacked and killed Xinzhiben, a Wuhuan leader causing trouble in Yuyang Commandery.
In 85, the Xianbei secured an alliance with the Dingling and Southern Xiongnu.
In 87, the Xianbei attacked the Xiongnu chanyu Youliu and killed him. They flayed him and his followers and took the skins back as trophies.
In 91, the Northern Xiongnu were defeated by the Han dynasty and the Xianbei began occupying the Mongolian Plateau, absorbing 100,000 Xiongnu tribes and increasing their strength.
In 109, the Wuhuan and Xianbei attacked Wuyuan Commandery and defeated the local Han forces. The Southern Xiongnu chanyu Wanshishizhudi rebelled against the Han and attacked the Emissary Geng Chong but failed to oust him. Han forces under Geng Kui retaliated and defeated a force of 3,000 Xiongnu but could not take the Southern Xiongnu capital due to disease among the horses of their Xianbei allies.
The Xianbei under Qizhijian raided Han territory four times from 121 to 138. In 145, the Xianbei raided Dai Commandery.
Xianbei Confederation
Around the mid-2nd century, a chieftain, Tanshihuai, unified the Xianbei tribes and established an imperial court at Mount Danhan (in present-day Shangyi County, Hebei). When he was 14 or 15 years old, another tribe stole cattle and sheep from his family. He pursued the thieves and retrieved their livestock. He became a great chieftain and eventually united the tribes covering all the former Xiongnu lands.
Claiming the title of Daren (大人; "Elder"), Tanshihuai attacked the Wusun in the west and repelled the Dingling from the north and Buyeo from the east. He divided the Xianbei empire into three sections, each governed by an appointed chieftain.
Tanshihuai of the Xianbei divided his territory into three sections: the eastern, the middle and the western. From the You Beiping to the Liao River, connecting the Fuyu and Mo to the east, it was the eastern section. There were more than twenty counties. The darens (chiefs) (of this section) were called Mijia 彌加, Queji 闕機, Suli 素利 and Huaitou 槐頭. From the You Beiping to Shanggu to the west, it was the middle section. There were more than ten counties. The darens of this section were called Kezui 柯最, Queju 闕居, Murong 慕容, et al. From Shanggu to Dunhuang, connecting the Wusun to the west, it was the western section. There were more than twenty counties. The darens (of this section) were called Zhijian Luoluo 置鞬落羅, Rilü Tuiyan 曰律推演, Yanliyou 宴荔游, et al. These chiefs were all subordinate to Tanshihuai.
Throughout his reign, Tanshihuai aggressively raided the Han dynasty's northern borders, with his first recorded raid being in 156. In 166, he allied with the Southern Xiongnu and Wuhuan to attack Shaanxi and Gansu. These raids devastated the border commanderies and claimed many lives. Though the Han was able to repel them at times, they were concerned that they would not be able to subdue Tanshihuai. The Han attempted to appease him by offering him the title of King, but Tanshihuai rejected them and continued to harass their borders. By 168, there were annual raids on the Han frontier.
In 177, Xia Yu, Tian Yan and the Southern Xiongnu chanyu, Tute Ruoshi Zhujiu led a force of 30,000 against the Xianbei. They were defeated and returned with only one-tenth of their original forces. A memorial made that year records that the Xianbei had taken all the lands previously held by the Xiongnu and their warriors numbered 100,000. Han deserters who sought refuge in their lands served as their advisers and refined metals as well as wrought iron came into their possession. Their weapons were sharper and their horses faster than those of the Xiongnu. Another memorial submitted in 185 states that the Xianbei were making raids on Han settlements nearly every year.
Despite the constant raids, the loose Xianbei confederacy lacked the organization of the Xiongnu Empire, and they were struggling to sustain their growing population. Tanshihuai died in 181 and was succeeded by his son, Helian, but his poor leadership caused half of his followers to rebel before he was killed while raiding Beidi during the last years of Emperor Ling of Han. Helian's son, Qianman was too young at the time of his father's death, so the chieftains elected his nephew, Kuitou, to succeed him. Once Qianman came of age, however, he challenged his cousin to succession, destroying the last vestiges of unity among the Xianbei.
Three Kingdoms
By the Jian'an era (196–220), the Xianbei had already split into many different groups, including Kuitou in Inner Mongolia, Kebineng in northern Shanxi, and Suli, Mijia and Queji in northern Liaodong. Following his death in 205, Kuitou's territory was divided between his brothers, Budugen and Fuluohan. The fractured Xianbei tribes began to pay tribute and offer their vassalage to the Chinese court after the Han warlord Cao Cao destroyed the Wuhuan confederacy at the Battle of White Wolf Mountain in 207. In 218, the Wuhuan of Dai Commandery called upon Fuluohan to assist them in their rebellion, but the rebels later double crossed him in favour of Kebineng, who killed Fuluohan. Budugen went to the court of Cao Wei in 224 to ask for assistance against Kebineng, but he eventually betrayed them and allied with Kebineng in 233. Kebineng killed Budugen soon afterwards.
Kebineng was initially from a minor Xianbei tribe. He rose to power west of Dai Commandery by taking in Chinese refugees who helped him drill his soldiers and make weapons and armor. After the Wuhuan's defeat in 207, he sent tribute to Cao Cao, and later provided assistance against the rebel Tian Yin. In 218, Kebineng allied with the Wuhuan of Dai and killed Fuluohan, but they were then defeated and forced back across the frontier by Cao Zhang. In 220, he acknowledged Cao Pi as Emperor of Cao Wei, but soon turned on Wei for impeding his advances on another Xianbei chieftain, Suli. Kebineng conducted raids on Wei before he was assassinated by a Cao Wei agent in 235, after which his confederacy disintegrated.
The other Xianbei tribes carried on with their southward migration, with some becoming vassals of Cao Wei and the succeeding Western Jin dynasty. In 258, the Tuoba tribe settled near the frontier and occupied the abandoned city of Shengle, north of the Yin Mountains. To the east of them, the Yuwen tribe began living between the Luan River and Liucheng, while the Murong tribe were permitted by the Chinese court to move deeper into the Liaodong Peninsula. In Liaoxi Commandery, a Xianbei ex-slave of the Wuhuan founded a tribe known as the Duan. To the far west, an offshoot of the Murong migrated into northern Qinghai and mixed with the native Qiang people, later becoming the Tuyuhun. The Qifu tribe gradually moved into the Longxi basin, while a branch of the Tuoba, the Tufa tribe, roamed the Hexi corridor. In 270, the Tufa chieftain, Shujineng, led the various ethnic tribes in the northwest in a rebellion against the Jin dynasty in Qin and Liang provinces but was defeated in 279 by Ma Long. By 280, the increase in the number of non-Han people in northern China was observable. An official warned that they lived as far south as Xi'an and Anyang, about three days away from the capital of Luoyang on horseback.
Sixteen Kingdoms
At the turn of the 4th century, the Western Jin dynasty fought a series of bloody civil wars in the War of the Eight Princes. As fighting intensified, non-Han troops from the northern frontiers were brought in to revitalize the princes' armies. The Inspector of You province, Wang Jun, an important ally to one of the princes, had under his command a contigent of Xianbei and Wuhuan auxiliaries. These soldiers played a decisive role in the outcome of the wars, capturing Ye in 304 and Chang'an in 306, but also partook in their sackings. When the Xiongnu of Shanxi rebelled and founded the Han-Zhao dynasty in 304, the Tuoba lent their assistance to combat the rebels.