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The Donghu (; ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic Hu people that were first recorded from the 7th century BCE and were taken over by the Xiongnu in 150 BCE. They lived in northern Hebei, southeastern Inner Mongolia and the western part of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang along the Yan Mountains and Greater Khingan Range.
In 307 BCE, the 胡 Hú proper, encompassing both the eastern Dōnghú (東胡, "Eastern Hu") and the western Linhu (林胡, "Forest Hu"), were mentioned as a non-Chinese people who were neighbors of Zhao Shiji "Hereditary House of Zhao" quote: "今中山在我腹心，北有燕，東有 胡，西有林胡、樓煩、秦、韓之邊，而無彊兵之救，是亡社稷，柰何？" translation: "Now Zhongshan is at our heart and belly note:, Yan to the north, Hu to the east, Forest Hu to the west, Loufan, Qin, Han at our borders. Yet we have no strong army to help us, surely we will lose our country. What is to be done?"Stratagems of the Warring States, "King Wuling spends his day in idleness", quote: "自常山以至代、上黨，東有燕、 東胡之境，西有樓煩、秦、韓之邊，而無騎射之備。" Jennifer Dodgson's translation: "From Mount Chang to Dai and Shangdang, our lands border Yan and the Donghu in the east, and to the west we have the Loufan and shared borders with Qin and Han. Nevertheless, we have no mounted archers ready for action." and skilled at mounted archery (a military tactic which King Wuling of Zhao would later adopt).Pulleyblank E. G. (1994) “Ji Hu: Indigenous Inhabitants of Shaanbei and Western Shanxi,” in Edward H. Kaplan, ed., Opuscula Altaica: Essays presented in honor of Henry Schwarz. ed. by. Bellingham: Western Washington University. pp. 518-519 of 499-531 However, the term Hu can also refer to a variety of different races and different ethnic groups.Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania By Barbara A. West [3] It was used by Han Chinese to describe anyone who is not of ethnic Han Chinese descent and were considered barbarians: for example, Sima Qian also used Hu to refer to the Xiongnu, who were then ruled by Touman Chanyu, once expelled by Qin dynasty general Meng Tian north from the Ordos Loop, yet able to regain their territory following the Qin Empire's collapse. Shiji " Ch. 110 Account of the Xiongnu" All Hu workmen were famed for their skills at making bows and carts even without specialization. Zhouli (Rites of Zhou) "Dongguan Kaogong Ji (Winter Office(r)s: Records on the Examination of Craftsmanship)" 4 quote: 「胡無弓車。……胡之無弓車也，非無弓車也，夫人而能為弓車也。」Translation by Jun (2013): "Among the nomads Hu there are no special craftsmen of bow and chariot but all the men there are proficient in the art."Jun Wenren (translator) (2013) Ancient Chinese Encyclopedia of Technology: Translation and Annotation of the Kaogong Ji (the Artificers' Records). New York: Routledge. p. 3
The peoples categorized as the Five Barbarians, or "Five Hu", were the Xiongnu, Jie people, Xianbei, Di, and Qiang. A History of Chinese Civilization, Jacques Gernet, Cambridge University Press 1996 P.186-87 Peter Van Der Veer, "III. Contexts of Cosmopolitanism" in Steven Vertovec, Robin Cohen eds., Conceiving Cosmopolitanism: Theory, Context and Practice Oxford University Press 2002 p. 200-01 Of these five ethnic groups, the Xiongnu and Xianbei were from the northern . The ethnic identity of the Xiongnu is uncertain, but the Xianbei appear to have been Mongolic. The Jie people, another pastoral people, may have been a branch of the Xiongnu, who may have been YeniseianVovin, Alexander. "Did the Xiongnu speak a Yeniseian language?". Central Asiatic Journal 44/1 (2000), pp. 87-104. or Indo-Scythian. Dorothy Wong, Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form University of Hawaii Press P.44 The Di and Qiang were from the highlands of western China. The Qiang were predominantly herdsmen and spoke Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) languages, while the Di were farmers who may have spoken a Sino-Tibetan(Chinese) 段渝, 先秦巴蜀地区百濮和氐羌的来源 2006-11-30 or Turkic language. Guo Ji Zhongguo Yu Yan Xue Ping Lun, Volume 1, Issue 1, J. Benjamins 1996. page 7. The traditional explanation, going back to the second-century Han dynasty scholar Cui Hao 崔浩 is that the Donghu were originally located "east of the Xiongnu" who were one of the "Five Barbarians" ( Hú).Yu (1986), p. 436. Modern Chinese apologetics suggests that "Donghu" was a transcription of an endonym and did not literally mean "Eastern Barbarian".Hao and Qimudedaoerji (2007), p. 17.
The usual English translation of Dōnghú is "Eastern Barbarians" (e.g., Watson, di Cosmo, Pulleyblank, and Yu), and the partial translation "Eastern Hu" is occasionally used (Pulleyblank). Note that "Eastern Barbarians" is also a translation for Dongyi 東夷, which refers to "ancient peoples in eastern China, Korea, Japan, etc."
Chinese Sinocentrism differentiates the Huaxia "Chinese" and the Yì "barbarians, non-Chinese, foreigner": this is referred to as the Huá–Yì distinction. Many names besides Hu originally had pejorative "barbarian" meanings, for instance Nanman 南蠻 ("southern barbarians") and Beidi 北狄 ("northern barbarians"). Edwin G. Pulleyblank explains:
The historian Nicola di Cosmo concludes:
In modern Standard Chinese usage hú has lost its original meaning although it still appears in words like erhu 二胡 (lit. "two foreign") "Chinese two-string fiddle", hútáo 胡桃 ("foreign peach") "walnut", and húluóbō 胡萝卜 ("foreign radish") "carrot".
The etymology of ethnonym * ga (> 胡 OC * gâ > Ch. hú) is unknown.Schuessler (2007), p. 281
As for Qay, Golden (2003 & 2006) proposes several Mongolic etymologies: ɣai "trouble, misfortune, misery", χai "interjection of grief", χai "to seek", χai "to hew", albeit none compelling.Golden, Peter B. (2006). "Cumanica V: The Basmils and Qipčaqs" in Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 15: notes 24–25. p. 17 of 13-42Golden, P.B. (2003) "Cumanica II: The Olberli (Olperli): The Fortunes and Misfortunes of an Inner Asian Nomadic Clan" in Nomads and their neighbours in the Russian Steppe note. 49 p. 17 of 5-29
Some dictionaries and scholars (e.g. Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat) confuse Dōnghú 東胡 with Tungusic peoples, Tonggu 通古. Russian Mongolist Lydia Viktorova states that:
This "chance similarity in modern pronunciation", writes Pulleyblank, "led to the once widely held assumption that the Eastern Hu were Tungusic in language. This is a vulgar error with no real foundation."Pulleyblank (1983), p. 452.
The Shiji section on Xiongnu history first records the Donghu during the era of Duke Wen of Jin (r. 697–628 BCE) and Duke Mu of Qin (r. c. 659–621 BCE).
In 307 BCE King Wuling of Zhao, instituted a military reform called "Hu clothes, Cavalry archery" after having been repeatedly harassed earlier in his reign by Donghu horse-archers. In 300 BCE Qin Kai, a general taken hostage from the state of Yan (whose capital "Ji" is now Beijing), defeated the Donghu after having gained the esteem of the Donghu and learning their battle tactics. In 273 BCE during the reign of King Huiwen, Zhao defeated the Donghu. In 265 BCE Li Mu of the Zhao state, one of the four most prominent generals of the Warring States period, defeated the Donghu after stopping a major Xiongnu invasion. By the time of the rule of the Xiongnu chanyu Touman (c. 220 BCE to 209 BCE), "the Donghu were very powerful and the Yuezhi were likewise flourishing."Watson (1993), p. 134. When the Xiongnu crown prince Modu Chanyu killed his father Touman in 209 BCE and took the title of chanyu, the Donghu thought that Modu feared them, and they started to ask for tribute from the Xiongnu that included his best horses and even a consort of Modu's. Modu conceded. Not satisfied with this they asked for some of the Xiongnu territories. This enraged Modu attacked and defeated them, killing their ruler, taking his subjects prisoner, and seizing their livestock, before turning west to attack and defeat the Yuezhi.Watson (1993), p. 135. This caused disintegration in the Donghu federation. Thereafter, the Wuhuan (southern Donghu) moved to Mount Wuhuan and engaged in continuous warfare with the Xiongnu on the west and China on the south. As they became worn out from the lengthy battles, the Xianbei (northern Donghu) moved northward to Mount Xianbei to preserve their strength. When the Han dynasty vassal king Lu Wan defected to the Xiongnu in 195 BCE he was made King of Donghu (東胡王) by the Xiongnu. This Kingdom of Donghu fiefdom lasted until 144 BCE when Lu Wan's grandson Lu Tazhi defected back to the Han dynasty. The Wuhuan inhabitants of the fiefdom continued as vassals of the Xiongnu until 121 BCE. Gradually the name Donghu stopped being used. In the 1st century, the Xianbei defeated the Wuhuan and northern Xiongnu, and developed into a powerful state under the leadership of their elected Khan, Tanshihuai.Ma (1962)Liu (1994)Wang (2007)Lü (2002)
The Book of Jin, published in 648, linked the Donghu and their Xianbei descendants to the Youxiong lineage (有熊氏),Fang Xuanling et al., Jinshu, vol. 108 Murong Hui text: "慕容廆，字弈洛瑰，昌黎棘城鮮卑人也。其先有熊氏之苗裔，世居北夷，邑于紫蒙之野，號曰東胡。" tr.: "Murong Hui, courtesy name Yìluòguī, a Xianbei man from the Jí Citadel, Chānglí. He/They descended from the Youxiong lineage in former times; for generations they had been dwelling among the Northern Four Barbarians, their settlement in the wilderness of Zimeng, their appellation Eastern Hu." associated with the Yellow EmperorSima Qian, Shiji, vol. 1 [12] txt: "自黃帝至舜、禹，皆同姓而異其國號，以章明德。故黃帝爲有熊，..." tr.: "From the Yellow Emperor to Emperor Shun, and Yǔ, all had the same tribal surname (姓) yet each called his nation differently; each used a to stamp his bright virtue; therefore, the Yellow Emperor's was Youxiong..." and possibly named after the Yellow Emperor's "hereditary principality".Giles, Herbert Allen (1898), A Chinese Biographical Dictionary, p. 338 cited in Unschuld, Paul U.; Tessenow, Hermann, eds. (2011), Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: An Annotated Translation of Huang Di's Inner Classic – Basic Questions, 2 volumes, p.5 However, many non-Han Chinese rulers were claimed to be the Yellow Emperor's descendants, for individual and national prestige.Lewis, Mark Edward (2009), China's Cosmopolitan Empire: the Tang Dynasty, Harvard University Press. p. 202Abramson, Mark Samuel (2008), Ethnic Identity in Tang China, University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 154
Chinese historian Yu Ying-shih describes the Donghu.
Di Cosmo says the Chinese considered the Hu as "a new type of foreigner", and believes, "This term, whatever its origin, soon came to indicate an 'anthropological type' rather than a specific group or tribe, which the records allow us to identify as early steppe nomads. The Hu were the source of the introduction of cavalry in China."Di Cosmo (1999), pp. 951–52.
Pulleyblank cites Paul Pelliot that the Donghu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan were "proto-Mongols".
Pulleyblank also writes that although
In the past, scholars such as Fan Zuoguai and Han Feimu mistakenly thought that Jurchens (ancestors of the Manchu people) descended from the Donghu. In 1980, Russian scholar Lydia Leonidovna Viktorova criticized the 19th century phonetic identification of the ancient people of the Donghu (Eastern Hu) with the Tungus.
A genetic study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology detected the paternal haplogroup C2b1a1b among the Xianbei and Rouran. This lineage has also been found among the Donghu. Haplogroup C2b1a1b has a high frequency among Mongols.
While often being referred as tribal confederation, they may rather be an only loosely united group of nomadic tribes "that occupied territories between the Mongolian steppes and the Great Xing'an Mountains of China".
Genetic data support a close genetic relationship between the Donghu, the ancient Jinggouzi people, and the Xianbei. The closest modern extant people to the historical Donghu are the Oroqen people of Northern China.
Etymology
The modern pronunciation Dōnghú differs from the Old Chinese pronunciation, which roughly dates from the Warring States period (476–221 BCE) when Donghu was first recorded. Old Chinese reconstructions of Dōnghú include * Tûngɣâg,Dong 1948:?. * Tungg'o,Karlgren 1957:303, 34. * Tewnggaɣ,Zhou 1972:?. * Tongga,Baxter 1992:754, 763. and * Tôŋgâ > * Toŋgɑ.Schuesler 2007:215, 281. William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart (2014)Baxter, William H. and Laurent Sagart. 2014. Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. Oxford University Press, . reconstruct the Old Chinese ancestor of Hú as *gˤa. Recently, Christopher Atwood reconstructs a foreign ethnonym * ga, which was borrowed into Old Chinese as 胡 * gâ (> hú), while an i-suffixed derivative of * ga underlies two Middle Chinese transcriptions: namely,
History
Among the northern ethnic groups, the Donghu were the earliest to become a civilization and the first to develop bronze technology. Their culture was associated with the Upper Xiajiadian culture, characterized by the practice of agriculture and animal husbandry supplemented by handicrafts and bronze art.Lin (2007) Through the use of cavalry and bronze weaponry in warfare, the Donghu apparently dominated over the Xiongnu to their west.Ma (1962)Liu (1994)Wang (2007)Lü (2002), pp. 15–16. Although "Upper Xiajiadian" is indeed frequently attributed to the Donghu, such attribution remains uncertain given the lack of details in Chinese sources about what the Donghu were, beyond a name ( Donghu, Eastern Hu, ie "Eastern mounted nomads") and the account of their destruction by the Xiongnu.
At this time Qin and Jin were the most powerful states in China. Duke Wen of Jin expelled the Di barbarians and drove them into the region west of the Yellow River between the Yun and Luo rivers; there they were known as the Red Di and the White Di. Shortly afterwards, Duke Mu of Qin, having obtained the services of You Yu, succeeded in getting the eight barbarian tribes of the west to submit to his authority.
Thus at this time there lived in the region west of Gansu the Mianzhu, the Hunrong, and the Diyuan tribes. North of Mts. Qi and Liang and the Jing and Qi rivers lived the Yiqu, Dali, Wuzhi, and Quyuan tribes. North of Jin were the Linhu (Forest Barbarians) and the Loufan, while north of Yan lived the Donghu (Eastern Barbarians) and Shanrong (Mountain Barbarians), each of them with their own chieftains. From time to time they would have gatherings of a hundred or so men, but no one tribe was capable of unifying the others under a single rule.Sima Qian (author); Watson, Burton (translator), 1993. Shiji, "vol. 110 - Account of the Xiongnu"; p. 132.The Tung-hu peoples were probably a tribal federation founded by a number of nomadic peoples, including the Wu-huan and Hsien-pi. After its conquest of the Hsiung-nu, the federation apparently ceased to exist. Throughout the Han period, no trace can be found of activities of the Tung-hu as a political entity.
The Eastern Hu, mentioned in the Shih-chi along with the Woods Hu and the Lou-fan as barbarians to the north of Chao in the fourth century B.C., appear again as one of the first peoples whom the Hsiung-nu conquered in establishing their empire. Toward the end of the Former Han, as the Hsiung-nu empire was weakening through internal dissension, the Eastern Hu became rebellious. From then on they played an increasingly prominent role in Chinese frontier strategy as a force to play off against the Hsiung-nu. Two major divisions are distinguished, the Hsien-pei to the north and the Wu-huan to the south. By the end of the first century B.C. these more specific names had supplanted the older generic term.Pulleyblank (1983), p. 452
there is now archaeological evidence of the spread of pastoral nomadism based on horse riding from Central Asia into Mongolia and farther east in the first half of the first millennium BCE, as far as we have evidence it did not impinge on Chinese consciousness until the northward push of the state of Zhao 趙 to the edge of the steppe in present Shanxi province shortly before the end of the fifth century B.C.E. brought them into contact with a new type of horse-riding “barbarian” that they called Hu 胡. … In Han times the term Hu was applied to steppe nomads in general but especially to the Xiongnu who had become the dominant power in the steppe. Earlier it had referred to a specific proto-Mongolian people, now differentiated as the Eastern Hu 東胡, from whom the Xianbei 鮮卑 and the Wuhuan 烏桓 later emerged.Pulleyblank (2000), p 20.
Legacy
The Donghu later divided into the Wuhuan in the Yan Mountains New Book of Tang vol. 219 "奚亦東胡種, 為匈奴所破, 保烏丸山. 漢曹操斬其帥蹋頓蓋其後也." tr. "The Xi are also a Donghu race. Defeated by the Xiongnu, their refuge was Wuwan mountains. During Han time, Cao Cao slew their leader Tadun. Xi are probably their descendants" and the Xianbei in the Greater Khingan Range: Book of Later Han "Vol. 90 Accounts of the Wuhuan & Xianbei - Xianbei" quote: "鮮卑者，亦東胡之支也，別依鮮卑山，故因號焉。其言語習俗與烏桓同。…… 漢初，亦為冒頓所破，遠竄遼東塞外，與烏桓相接，未常通中國焉。" Xu (2005)'s translation: "The Xianbei who were a branch of the Donghu, relied upon the Xianbei Mountains. Therefore, they were called the Xianbei. ... At the beginning of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), (they) were defeated by Maodun, and then fled in disorder to Liaodong beyond the northern border of China Proper ..." the Wuhuan were ancestors of the Kumo Xi, Suishu vol. 84 "奚本曰庫莫奚東部胡之種" tr. "The Xi were originally called the Kumo Xi. They are a race of Eastern Hu" while the Xianbei were ancestors of the Khitan people New Book of Tang "Vol. 219 - Northern Barbarians - Khitans" quote: "契丹，本東胡種，其先爲匈奴所破，保鮮卑山。" Xu (2005)'s translation: "The Khitan were of Donghu origin. Their ancestors were defeated by the Xiongnu, and then sought refuge in the Xianbei Mountains." and the Mongols. Another people of Donghu descent were the Rouran Khaganate (Proto-Mongolic tribe). Book of Wei vol. 103 "蠕蠕，東胡之苗裔也，姓郁久閭氏" tr. "Rúrú, offsprings of Dōnghú, surnamed Yùjiŭlǘ"Pulleyblank (2000), p. 20, n. 57
Ethnic origins
The ethnic composition of the Donghu people remains unclear. It is suggested that the majority was of Mongolic peoples and Tungusic peoples origins, and that they stood in contact with other Steppe nomadic entities, such as the Xiongnu and the Saka people further West. The Donghu were ethnically related to the Xianbei, Jinggouzi and Rouran Khaganate, which are described as either Proto-Mongols or Para-Mongols.
Genetics
A genetic study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in August 2018 detected the paternal haplogroup C2b1a1b among the Xianbei and Rouran. This lineage has also been found among remains associated with the Donghu people. The authors of the study suggested that haplogroup C2b1a1b was an important lineage among the Donghu, and that the Rouran were paternally descended from the Xianbei and Donghu. Haplogroup C2b1a1b has a high frequency among Mongols.
See also
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