- For the history of each of the 'Wu Hu tribes,
see Sixteen Kingdoms.
For the Uprising, see Wu Hu
uprising. For other uses, see Wuhu.
Wu Hu ( ) is a collective term for various
non-Chinese steppe tribes during the period from the
Han Dynasty (202BC-AD220) to the
Southern and Northern
Dynasties period that ended in AD581. These
nomadic tribes originally resided outside
China proper, but gradually migrated
into Chinese areas during the years of turmoil between the Western
Han Dynasty and
Three Kingdoms. These non-Chinese tribal
forces constantly harassed and raided Han domains, and until the
administration of Emperor
Han Wudi, had an
upper hand against Han Chinese forces, but were
ultimately defeated by the increasingly
superior Han Chinese army. Not until the late 3rd century were
the Wu Hu people able to once again regain military power over the
majority Han-led regimes, and seized the opportunity afforded by
the weakness of the central government of imperial China to extend
their settlement of pastoral lands into the fertile
North China Plain.
The
Rebellion of the Eight
Kings during the Western Jin
Dynasty triggered a large scale Wu Hu uprising from 304, which
resulted in the sacking of the Chinese capitals at Luoyang
(311) and
Chang'an
. The
Xiongnu Kingdom of
Han-
Former Zhao captured
and executed the last two Jin emperors as the Western Jin Dynasty
collapsed in 317.
Many Chinese fled to the south of Yangtze River
as numerous tribesmen of the Wu Hu and remnants of
the Jin wreaked havoc in the north. Fu Jiān temporarily unified the north but his
brilliant achievement was destroyed after the
Battle of Feishui. The
Northern Wei Dynasty unified northern
China again in 439 and ushered in the period of the
Northern Dynasties.
Definitions
The term
Wu Hu was first used in
Cui Hong's
Shiliuguo Chunqiu, which recorded the
history of the five tribes' ravaging Northern China from the early
fourth century to the mid fifth century.
Wu Hu
means "five nomadic groups", hence the alternative "
Five
Hu." The most accepted composition of Wu Hu included five
nomadic tribes:
Xiongnu
(匈奴, sometimes identified with the
Huns),
Xianbei (鮮卑),
Di (氐),
Qiang (羌), and
Jie (羯) although
different groups of historians and historiographers have their own
definitions.
The Chinese word "hu" (胡) in "Wu Hu" means "unintelligible" or
"difficult to understand," which probably refers to the native
languages spoken by these ethnic groups. It's quite similar to the
origin of the word "
barbarian" in many
European languages.
Collective term for nomads
After later historians determined that more than five nomadic
tribes took part, Wu Hu has become a collective term for all
non-Chinese nomads residing in North China at the time. The time at
which the ravages occurred is called The Period of Wu Hu (五胡時代) or
the
Wu Hu Chaos in China (五胡亂華,
literally "Five Hu Wreak-havoc-on China"). States founded by Wu Hu
were called the
Sixteen
Kingdoms.
Han definition for Xiongnu
Traditional historians interpreted
Hu as
barbarians; some further stretched this obsolete analogy
to equate
Hu with the
Xiongnu. Others
objected to such similarities, stating that Wu Hu were
substantially civilized before the turmoil of the Western Jin
Dynasty.
Xiongnu was in fact the most powerful non-Chinese ethnic group
neighboring the Chinese
Han Dynasty
therefore the Han simply referred to them as the
Hu (the
non-Chinese or the
barbarian). Both terms were
used concurrently. Nevertheless,
Hu later became the
collective term for non-Chinese ethnic groups and was often
preceded by
Chinese numerals and
characters such as
Wu
(five) and
Zhu (numerous). A diplomatic message in
Han Shu defined Hu as the
proud son of
heaven (天之驕子) (Chapter 94).
Wu Hu after the fall of Northern Xiongnu
When the Eastern
Han Dynasty slowly
brought the
Northern Xiongnu into submission in
the first century by military and diplomatic measures, hordes of
herdsmen and the Southern Xiongnu, originally subdued by the
Northern Xiongnu, began trading without having heavy tribute
imposed on them. Horses and animal products were traded mainly for
agricultural tools, such as the
harrow
and the
plough, and clothing of which
silk was the most popular. Those herdsmen
helped the Han dynasty defend against any remaining Xiongnu in
return.
The more they engaged in commerce with the
Chinese, the more they preferred to stay near China's border, to
facilitate trade, instead of residing on the steppes of Manchuria and Mongolia
.
Some
groups of non-Xiongnu herdsmen even settled permanently within the
border, first of which was the Wuhuan (烏桓),
who immigrated to the area of today's Province of Liaoning
during the
era of Jiangwu (25–56). Note that the Southern
Xiongnu migrated before Wuhuan but not for commercial
reasons.
Liaison among the dynasty and groups of herdsmen relied on mutual
economic and military benefits. As the Northern Xiongnu, the
masters of the Mongolian steppes and mortal enemy of the
Han Dynasty, was still potent enough during the
reigns of
Emperor Ming,
Emperor Zhang and
Emperor He (58–105) to keep the volatile
alliance intact, the Eastern Han dynasty enjoyed the most
prosperous years of its almost 200 years of existence.
Even fragments of the
Northern Xiongnu migrated well within the border to the Xihe plain
(literally meaning the plain on the west of the Huang He
, south of
the Ordos Desert).
The picture drastically changed in the later years of reign of
Emperor He, son of Emperor Zhang.
Dou Xian
(50s–92), brother-in-law of Emperor Zhang through his sister
Empress Duo, utterly defeated the Northern Xiongnu in a series of
campaigns during the
Yongyuan era (89–105). The remnants
just escaped annihilation, conceded defeat, began migrating out of
the Mongolian steppes and disappeared as a distinct group of
herdsmen once and for all. Others were assimilated into other
tribes by intermarriage: the
Yuwen tribe being
a good example.
In their wake a power vacuum was left on the Mongolian steppes.
The main
contenders were the Southern Xiongnu, who inhabited a region to the
south of the steppe and had now grown into a group of more than a
hundred thousand herdsmen on the Xihe plain,
the Xianbei, who lived in the east of the
steppe residing on the plains of Manchuria, the Dingling, who originally dwelt on the banks of
Lake
Baikal
and had already commenced trekking south into the
steppes before Duo Xian destroyed the Northern Xiongnu, and the
Wuhuan, who lived south of Xianbei and were the weakest of the
four.
Instead of constantly trading for provisions, tools and luxuries,
these four powerful groups of herdsmen, though still allies of the
Han Dynasty, often cooperated to plunder areas of the northern
border. The dynasty could not muster an all-out campaign to wipe
them out, but often attempted, through diplomatic and monetary
measures to split one or more groups from the alliance of
herdsmen.
On the other hand the dynasty was constantly declining as clans of
consorts and eunuchs engaged in a continuous struggle for power.
Wealthy merchants and aristocrats were acquiring lands from
peasants who had been cultivating their own land for years.
"Landless" peasants had to come under the protection of the rich
and so pay rent to these new landowners rather than pay taxes to
the government. Coupled with bureaucratic corruption, tax revenues
dropped dramatically. Large landholding families also took
advantages of the weakness of central government and established
their own armies. Increasingly governors of regions (the highest
level) administered their territories as independent rulers. The
recruitment of troops and tax collection could be carried out at
the discretion of the regional governors, contributing to the
disunity that led to the inevitable crumbling of China into
Three Kingdoms.
The dynasty also had to deal with
Qiang
and
Di on the western border, who
had constantly been involved in skirmishes against the dynasty
since the middle of Western
Han Dynasty
(around mid-
1st century BC). As the
Eastern
Han Dynasty declined, the Qiang,
nominal ancestors of modern
Tibetans, began
planning major invasions. Through spies and collaborators, the Han
court knew about the situation and had to deploy soldiers near the
border to fend off Qiang skirmishes and small-scale
invasions.
Although few major Qiang invasions were carried out, never
successfully, such a military deployment constantly drained the
treasury and was a cradle for ambitious militarists, the most
famous of whom was
Dong Zhuo (130s–192),
the pretender to the Han court from 189-192. The more the Han court
weakened through domestic problems, the more the herdsmen craved
the dynasty's wealth. The Wuhuan were a frequent ally with the Han
court against Xianbei and the Southern Xiongnu (hereafter
abbreviated as Xiongnu), although they also sometimes allied with
the Xiongnu to fend off joint attacks by the Han and Xianbei.
The Han court also deployed mercenaries from the Xianbei and Wuhuan
for campaigns against the Wu Hu and to quell peasant
insurgent. These mercenaries were often
sympathetic to the peasant uprising and hence not trusted by the
Han military authorities. However they were the best available
option for suppressing the insurgents and consequently these
soldiers were poorly treated by being deployed far away from their
homeland, or in the most dangerous positions on the battlefield or
by starving them of provisions and weapons. Thus militarists who
could earn the trust of the Xianbei or Wuhuan would collaborate
with the tribes for the sake of their own careers.
For
instance a unit of about 5,000 Wuhuan cavalry that usually resided
in You Province (part of modern northeastern Hebei
and western
Liaoning Province)
was deployed in Southern Jing Province (in Hunan
Province)
for three consecutive years. The rebellions (187-189) of
Zhang Chun (died 189) and
Zhang Ju (died 189) in You Province in alliance
with this Wuhuan cavalry unit marked the first of many such
collaborations.
Yuan Shao (140s–202) and
Gongsun Zan (140s–199), two
warlords of the
end of
Han Dynasty, also exploited Wuhuan and Xianbei respectively in
their own quests for predominance. Ironically
Gongsun Zan was the commander tasked with
suppressing the rebellion of
Zhang Chun
and
Zhang Ju.
Xianbei confederacy of Tanshihuai
The bitter and unstable relationship between the Han court and
various nomadic groups lasted from the start of second century to
early 160s until the appearance of
Tanshihuai (檀石槐 b. 120s - d. 181), an
illegitimate son of a low ranked military officer of Xianbei
mercenaries deployed against the Southern Xiongnu. Despite his low
social status among Xianbei herdsmen, he managed to unify all the
Xianbei tribes under his rule in a confederacy against the Han
court.
Each Xianbei tribe was led by a chieftain and were grouped under
the confederacy into three smaller federations, the Western, the
Central and the Eastern. Notable chieftains under Tanshihuai were
Murong (see
Sixteen Kingdoms), Huitou (see
Sixteen Kingdoms) and Tuiyin (see
Tuoba).
The confederacy was a rudimentary centralized government. All
tribes had to share all trade profits, military duties and a
unified stance against the Han court. Slavery was also important as
captives were forced to work to provide provisions and
weapons.
Supported by this confederacy, Tanshihuai brought the Southern
Xiongnu into a close alliance.
The Wuhuan, Dingling, Qiang and Di were at
times aiding the confederacy which now included all the major
tribes on the steppes stretching from today Jilin
province to
central Xinjiang.
Uneasiness at the Han court about this development of a new power
on the steppes finally ushered in the only all-out campaign on the
northern border to annihilate the confederacy once and for all. In
177 A.D., 30000 Han cavalry commanded by Xia Yu (夏育), Tian Yan (田晏)
and Zang Min (臧旻), each of whom was the commander of units sent
against the Wuhuan, the Qiang, and the Southern Xiongnu
respectively before the campaign, attacked the confederacy.
Each military officer commanded 10,000 cavalrymen and advanced
north on three different routes, aiming at each of the three
federations. Cavalry units commanded by chieftains of each of the
three federations almost annihilated the invading forces. Eighty
percent of the troops were killed and the three officers, who only
brought tens of men safely back, were relieved from their
posts.
Tanshihuai
found a temporary solution when he sacked the area of modern
Jilin province, inhabited by the Wō people (倭).
These proficient fishermen provided a source of provisions, though
it was never enough. To make the matters worse, the successors of
Tanshihuai (his sons and nephews) after his death in 181 never
earned the respect from chieftains of the three federations. They
were also less ambitious and constantly fought among themselves for
the increasingly powerless lord of confederacy.
On the other hand, tribes began to emigrate from the steppe, mainly
to the southwest and southeast for better pasture. The weakness of
the Han court also encouraged tribes to move further into China.
For
example the Tufa (禿髮) tribe, an offshoot of the Tuiyin (Northern Wei Dynasty), settled in the
eastern mountainous area of today Qinghai
province. Thus the effective border of
dynasty was pushed further south and east. The confederacy was
virtually dissolved in early third century therefore the warlords
of the Han dynasty could play their own game of fighting for
supremacy without much interference from tribes outside
China.
As the Eastern
Han Dynasty slowly
disintegrated into an era of
warlords,
battles for predominance eventually ushered in the
Three Kingdoms. However years of war had
generated a severe shortage of labor, a solution to which was the
encouragement of immigration of Wu Hu herdsmen. Thus the
Wei court, controlling Northern China at the
time, reluctantly yielded areas already occupied to the Wu Hu and
sometimes colonized areas depopulated by war with some weaker
tribes of herdsmen.
Several large-scale forced relocations of Di
to area of southwestern Shaanxi
and northern Sichuan
took place in the 220s.
Surprising to some historians, the immigration went smoothly since
no powerful confederacy of any tribes was established.
Wuhuan, partisans of
Yuan
Shao and his sons, had already been squashed when
Cao Cao sent
an expedition into You
Province. Its herdsmen were dispersed all over Northern China
and were no longer a major threat. Some of them even assimilated
into Chinese, Xianbei and Xiongnu by marriage, thus the Wuhuan were
not counted as one of the five tribes of Wu Hu.
Later years of the period saw only skirmishes on borders as the
three governments concentrated on reclaiming the loss of
productivity. Thus an era of prosperity began after the unification
under the Western
Jin Dynasty
as the relocated tribes adopted agriculture and contributed to the
revival of the economy. Other tribes, still residing in the areas
that they had occupied since the Eastern
Han
Dynasty, frequently served as mercenaries against minor
rebellious chieftains such as
Kebineng and
Tufa Shujineng (禿髮樹機能).
However
the Jin bureaucracy forgot an underlying threat: Living in areas
well south of the Great Wall and
closer than ever before to the capital of China at Luoyang, any
widespread uprising by the Wu Hu would be impossible to
halt.
A era of relative prosperity had existed since
Jin Wudi unified China in 280: Wu hu tribes
residing inside and in the vicinity of China regularly paid taxes
to the Jin's court. They traded horses and animal products for
agricultural goods and silk. Mercenaries could always be called
upon request. Powerful chieftains cannot match the diplomatic
measures of the Chinese bureaucracy. The scenario resembled that of
Eastern
Han Dynasty with one exception:
the underlying internal weakness of the dynasty provided the Wu Hu
with the invaluable chance to become rulers of China
themselves.
An important reason for this weakness was the influence of the
principal landholding families. These families were so powerful
that the founders of the
Three
Kingdoms had to rely on them to establish their domains. The
Nine grade controller
system, by which prominent individuals in each administrative
area were given the authority to rank local families and
individuals in nine grades according to their potential for
government service, further consolidated their authority. Because
the ranking was arbitrarily decided by a few prominent persons, it
frequently reflected the wishes of the leading families in the area
rather than the merit of those being ranked.
Since individuals from the elites were almost guaranteed
bureaucratic posts without ever working hard, many found other ways
of killing time. They engaged either in extravagantly showing off
their wealth or time-consuming and often useless discussions on
Daoism. Such pastimes were so popular that
the minority of hard working individuals were often despised. Local
officials and nobles often exploited both peasants and Wu Hu
herdsmen for personal gain and in order to bribe officials for
higher posts.
Although the Jin Dynasty was slowly deteriorating socially and
politically, some officials did foresee the crisis.
Discussion
of the God of Money (錢神論
Qián Shén Lùn) and
Discussion on Tribe Relocation (徒戎論
Tú Róng Lùn)
acutely reflected the extravagant livelihood and the possibility of
an uprising of the Wu Hu. The latter work provides accurate
locations of the region where the Wu Hu resided.
Southern Xiongnu now dominated Bingzhou (in modern Shanxi
province)
and their horsemen could arrive at Jinyang (Taiyuan
) in half-a-day's ride and Luoyang, the
capital, in a few days.
The accession of
Emperor Hui in 290 marked
the beginning of the crumbling of the Jin Dynasty. Possibly
retarded at birth, he was merely a puppet of powerful parties which
sought to control the Jin court. During the Rebellion of the Eight
Kings, all parties in power attempted to wiped out the former
rulers by murder, disloyalty, mass executions or battles. Each
struggle grew more violent and bloodier than the one before. Not
surprisingly, Wu Hu mercenaries were often called upon. Wu Hu
chieftains and herdsmen clearly comprehended the selfishness of
nobility and destruction of the country through their struggle for
power and wealth. Coupled with famine, epidemic and floods,
cannibalism was observed in some parts
of the country only few years after Emperor Hui's accession. Wu Hu
herdsmen saw no reason to obey orders from the Jin court and
widespread uprisings soon followed.
The
revolt by Qi Wannian (齊萬年), a Di
chieftain residing in the border region of today's Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, marked the first such uprising.
His group of insurgents, which was mainly made up of Di and Qiang
tribesmen, numbered around fifty thousand. Although his revolt was
suppressed after six years of destructive battles, waves of
refugees and remnants wreaked havoc in neighboring territories.
The first
of the Sixteen Kingdoms was founded
by a group of Di refugees who fled into Sichuan.
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