Product Code Database
The Xunyu (; Old Chinese: (ZS) * qʰun-lug, (Schuessler): * hun-jukSchuessler, A. (2014) "Phonological Notes on Hàn Period Transcriptions of Foreign Names and Words" (PDF) . Studies in Chinese and Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Dialect, Phonology, Transcription and Text. Language and Linguistics Monograph Series (53). Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica. p. 264) is the name of an ancient nomadic tribe which invaded China during legendary times. They are traditionally identified with the Guifang, the Xianyun and the Xiongnu.Book of Jin "Vol. 97, section Northern Di" quote: " 匈奴之類，總謂之 北狄。…… 夏曰： 薰鬻，殷曰 鬼方，周曰 獫狁，漢曰 匈奴。"
Sima Zhen quoted Zhang Yan (張晏) as saying that “Chunwei, during the Yin era, fled to the northern borders.”;Sima Zhen. Suoyin, chapter 24 quote: "張晏曰淳維以殷時奔北邉" immediately after, Sima Zhen stated that Yue Chan (樂產) wrote in the now-lost Guadipu (括地譜) "Register of the Encompassing Lands" that: “Jie, (ruler of) the House of Xia lived an immoral life. Tang exiled him to Mingtiao, he died there three years later. His son Xunyu 獯粥 married his concubines and they wandered far away to the northern wilderness in search of pasture lands, and then in the Middle Kingdom they were mentioned as Xiongnu 匈奴.”Sima Zhen. Suoyin, chapter 24 quote: "樂彥括地譜云夏桀無道湯放之鳴條三年而死其子獯粥妻桀之衆妾避居北野隨畜移徙中國謂之匈奴" Wei Zhao identified the names Chunwei and Hunyu with the name of the Xiongnu: “During the Han (206 BC-220 AD) they were called Xiongnu 匈奴, and the Hunyu 葷粥 is just another name for the same people, and similarly, the Xunyu 獯粥 is just another transcription of Chunwei 淳維, their ancestor’s name”.quoted in Sima Zhen. Suoyin, chapter 24, quote: "韋昭漢曰匈奴葷粥其别名則淳維是其始祖蓋與獯粥是一也" Jin Zhuo stated that: "In Emperor Yao's time they were called Hunyu; in Zhou dynasty's time they were called Xianyun; in Qin dynasty's time they were called Xiongnu."In Pei Yin (裴駰), Shiji jijie (史記集解), Vol. 110 quote: "晉灼曰堯時曰葷粥周曰獫狁秦曰匈奴" Sima Zhen quoted from Fengsu Tongyi (風俗通義) "Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Mores", by Ying Shao 應劭, that “In the time of Shang dynasty, they were called Xunyu 獯粥, which was changed to Xiongnu 匈奴”;Sima Zhen. Suoyin, chapter 24, quote: "應劭風俗通曰殷時曰獯粥改曰匈奴" however, this quote no longer exists in Fengsu Tongyi's received text.Goldin, Paul R. "Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China" in Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present. Penn Museum International Research Conferences, vol. 2. Ed. Paula L.W. Sabloff. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 2011. p. 237
Based on phonetical studies and comparisons of inscriptions on bronze and the structure of the characters, Wang Guowei (1877–1927) came to the conclusion that the tribal names Guifang (鬼方), Xunyu, Xianyu people (鮮虞), Xianyun (獫狁), Xirong, Beidi, and Five Barbarians in the old annals designated one and the same people, who later entered Chinese history under the name Xiongnu,Wang Guowei, "Guantang Jilin" (觀堂集林, Wang Guowei collection of works), Ch.2, Ch. 13Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of nomadic tribes in China 3rd-5th cc", Issue 3 "Mujuns", p. 276Taskin V.S., 1968, "Materials on history of Sünnu", "Science", Moscow, p.10
The exact time period when the nomads' ethnonym had the Old Chinese phonetizations ancestral to standard Chinese Xunyu remains determined only vaguely. They were mentioned in legends involving legendary Zhou dynasty ruler Old Duke Father Dan (): in the book Mencius (published c. 300 BCE) as 獯鬻 Xunyu, Mencius, "King Hui of Liang B" quote: "故大王事獯鬻，句踐事吳。", translation: "As King Tai served the Hunyu, Gou Jian served Wu." and in Records of the Grand Historian (published c. 91 BC) as Hunyu 葷粥 Shiji, "Annals of the Five Emperors" quote: "北逐 葷粥" or Xunyu 薰育.Shiji, "Annals of Zhou" quote: " 薰育戎狄攻之，欲得財物，予之。" translation: "The Xunyu, Xirong, Beidi attacked him, demanding wealth and livestock; he gave those away to them".
Using Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian and other sources, Vsevolod Taskin proposes that in the earlier pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary Yellow Emperor) the Xiongnu were called Hunyu; and in the late pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun) they were called Rong; in the literate period starting with the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC) they were called Guifang, in the Zhou dynasty period (1045–256 BC) they were called Xianyun, and starting from the Qin dynasty period (221–206 BC) the Chinese annalists called them Xiongnu.in Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of Sünnu", p.10Sima Qian, Shiji, Ch. 1, l. 4b; Ch. 110, l. 1a, notes Classic of Poetry "Major Hymns - Decade of Dang - Dang" quote: "文王曰咨、咨女殷商。……內奰于中國、覃及 鬼方。" Legge's translation: "King Wen said, 'Alas! Alas! you sovereign Yin-shang, ... Indignation is rife against you here in the Middle kingdom, and extends to the demon regions."
Even so, Paul R. Goldin (2011) reconstructs the Old Chinese pronunciations of 葷粥 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 薰育 as * xur-luk, 獫狁 as hram′-lun′, and 匈奴 as * xoŋ-NA; and comments all three names are "manifestly unrelated". He further states that made the names more superficially similar than they really had been, and prompted later commentators to conclude that those names must have referred to one same people in different epochs, even though people during the Warring States period would never have been thus misled.Goldin, Paul R. "Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China" in Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present. Penn Museum International Research Conferences, vol. 2. Ed. Paula L.W. Sabloff. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 2011. p. 225-226; p. 237, n.22
|
|
