The Luandi (; alternatively written as Xulianti ) was the ruling clan of the Xiongnu that flourished from the 3rd century BCE to 4th century CE. The form Luandi comes from the Book of Han,[ Hanshu, chapter 94a, l. 7a] while the form Xulianti comes from the Book of Later Han.[ Hou Hanshu, chapter 89, l. 7b]
Etymology
Lanhai Wei and Hui Li reconstruct the Old Chinese pronunciation of 挛鞮 as *lyuan-tlïγ, evolving from an earlier 虚连题 (*Hala-yundluγ), as a result of a historical sound shift involving the initial dropping of *h- by demonstrating its occurrence in several historical sources. Furthermore, the conjugation of the roots , meaning colorful; meaning horse, as the participle suffix would have resulted in the semantic meaning "tribe with skewbald horses" in an early Turkic dialect, allowing it to be further identified with the historical
Alat tribe tribe.
Moreover, the authors argue that the conquest of the same clan by the Xue in the 4th century CE eventually gave birth to the
Xueyantuo.
On the other hand, Anna Dybo reconstructs the Old Chinese pronunciation of 攣鞮 as *r(h)wan-de and posits that the clan's name, among other lexemes, were borrowed from "one of the Eastern Middle Iranian languages which was similar to a kind of archaic Khotanese Saka", and thus comparable to Khotanese Saka runde, plural of rre from *rwant- "king".[Dybo, Anna (2014), “Early contacts of Turks and problems of Proto-Turkic reconstruction”, in Tatarica, 2, p. 9]
Status and relation
The Luandi held some of the highest positions in the Xiongnu society, including the title of
chanyu within the Xiongnu confederacy. In the confederation, Luandi was a paternal dynastic tribe,
Huyan was an initially maternal dynastic tribe, and Xubu was a subsequently maternal dynastic tribe. They were the three most prominent tribes ("Houses" in N. Bichurin)
[Bichurin N.Ya., "Collection of information on peoples in Central Asia in ancient times", vol. 1, Saint Petersburg, 1851, p. 15 ( note 1: Huyan and Xubu always were in marital relationship with Chanyu. Xubu had a post of the State Judge. The custom of taking for the Khan maidens only from the same houses also survived in the Chingis-khan's house.)] in the Xiongnu.
There were four other noble tribes: Huyan, Xubu, Qiulin and Lan. The Huyan belonged to the dominating left wing, and the Lan and the Xubu belonged to the right wing.[Taskin B.S., "Materials on Sünnu history", Science, Moscow, 1968, p. 130 (In Russian)] A source also considered Lan and Luandi as two variants of the same word due to their phonetic similarity.
Rulers
The earliest prominent figure from the clan itself was perhaps their leader
Touman. He would be succeeded by his son
Modu Chanyu. Later on, the branch of the Luandi clan that founded the
Former Zhao changed their surname to Liu (劉), the surname of the Han dynasty emperors, while the branch that established the Hu Xia dynasty changed their surname to Helian (赫連).
List of rulers
See also
Notes
-
Wang, Zhonghan (2004). "Outlines of Ethnic Groups in China". Taiyuan: Shanxi Education Press. . p. 134.
-
Lin, Gan (1986). "A Comprehensive History of Xiongnu". Beijing: People's Press. CN / K289. p. 11-12.
-
Book of Han, vol. 94a.
-
Book of Later Han, vol. 89.
-
Bichurin N.Ya., "Collection of information on peoples in Central Asia in ancient times", vol. 1, Sankt Petersburg, 1851
