Five Barbarians

Patrilineally, the ruling family of Cheng-Han descended from the Bandun Man, also known as Cong (賨), but are referred to as Ba-Di as they mingled with the Di tribes.

The earliest recorded use of the phrase "Five Barbarians" or "Wu Hu" (五胡) comes from the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms (501–522) from a quote by the Former Qin ruler, Fu Jian, although it was not specified who the five exactly were.

[11] Modern historians like Chen Yinke and Zhou Yiliang believe that the "Five Barbarians" in this case was simply in reference to the "Five Virtues of Beginning and End", a theoretical concept often invoked by Chinese dynasties to legitimize their reigns.

A later Southern Song official, Wang Yinglin defined the Five Barbarians as "Liu Yuan's Xiongnu, Shi Le's Jie, Murong-Xianbei, Fu Hong's Di and Yao Chang's Qiang."

Hu Sanxing's annotation of the Zizhi Tongjian affirms Wang Yinglin's view by listing the five as the Xiongnu, Jie, Xianbei, Di and Qiang, after which it became widely accepted.

[16] While later historians determined that there were more than five, the Five Barbarians has become a collective term for all northern and western non-Han groups that lived during the Jin dynasty (266–420) and Sixteen Kingdoms period.

[18][19][20] From this point onwards, the Xiongnu declined as a coherent identity, as the Five Divisions became dominated by the Chuge branch, while those excluded mixed with tribes from other ethnicities and were vaguely referred to as "hu" and other terms for the non-Chinese.

The "barbarian" tribes of Bing province underwent varying degrees of sinicization; many among the Five Divisions adopted "Liu" as their surname, claiming that their Xiongnu ancestors had married Han princesses through heqin, and their nobility were even allowed to hold government offices under the Western Jin dynasty.

The Tiefu tribe also descended from a member of the Southern Xiongnu imperial family, but had intermingled with the Xianbei and were pushed out from Bing to the Hetao region.

When a great famine broke out in Bing province in 303, many of the Jie and other hu people were displaced before being captured and sold into slavery by the provincial inspector.

At the height of the Jin princely civil wars, the Inspector of You province, Wang Jun allied himself with the local Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes, most notably the Duan-Xianbei who was granted a dukedom in Liaoxi Commandery for their services.

Meanwhile, the Murong in Liaodong, isolated from the conflicts of the Central Plains, expanded their influence in the region by providing refuge to fleeing Chinese officials and peasants.

After the Battle of Fei River, the Qifu and Tufa tribes in the Hexi founded the Western Qin and Southern Liang, respectively, competing for control over the region among themselves and other rival claimants.

In 111 BC, the Han dynasty expanded westwards and established Wudu Commandery where the Di mainly resided, causing them to spread out in northern and western China.

The Di that fled south into the Hanzhong and Sichuan basins founded the Chouchi and Cheng-Han regimes, although the Li clan that ruled the latter were more specifically referred to as Ba-Di.

The second ruler of Later Qin, Yao Xing, was a key proponent in the spread of Buddhism by making it his state religion and sponsoring the influential Buddhist translator, Kumārajīva.

Since the 2nd century BC, the Han dynasty allowed them to settle in the northeastern commanderies of Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaodong and Liaoxi in exchange for their military services.

Many of the Wuhuan were relocated further south in China, and they gradually lost their cultural identity as they assimilated with the Han Chinese and Xianbei that filled the power vacuum.

The Wuhuan continued to appear during the Jin dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms period, but their name had become a generic term for hu tribes with Donghu backgrounds.

They fought as auxiliaries for the Jin during the War of the Eight Princes and Upheaval of the Five Barbarians, and there were several fortified settlements (塢堡; wubao) in northern China that were led by the Wuhuan during the Later Yan dynasty period.