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The Five Barbarians, or Wu Hu (Chinese: 五胡; pinyin: Wǔ Hú), is a Chinese historical exonym for five ancient non-Han "Hu" peoples who immigrated to northern China in the Eastern Han dynasty, and then overthrew the Western Jin dynasty and established their own kingdoms in the 4th–5th centuries.^[1][2][3][4] The peoples categorized as the Five Barbarians were:^[1][3][5]

• Xiongnu
• Jie
• Xianbei
• Qiang
• Di

Of these five tribal ethnic groups, the Xiongnu and Xianbei were nomadic peoples from the northern steppes. The ethnic identity of the Xiongnu is uncertain, but the Xianbei appear to have been Mongolic. The Jie, another pastoral people, may have been a branch of the Xiongnu, who may have been Yeniseian or Iranian.^[6][7][8] The Di and Qiang were from the highlands of western China.^[1] The Qiang were predominantly herdsmen and spoke Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) languages, while the Di were farmers who may have spoken a Sino-Tibetan^[9] or Turkic language.^[10]

The "Five Barbarians" is generally used to refer to the non-Han ethnic groups during the Sixteen Kingdoms of the 4th and early 5th centuries, despite the fact that other groups like the Dingling and Wuhuan also existed alongside the five during the period. Even among the ruling families of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Li clan of Cheng-Han were Ba-Di, with Ba referring to their Bandun Man or Cong (賨) background, while the Juqu clan of Northern Liang, though often classed as Xiongnu, were of Lushuihu ethnicity. Gao Yun, who was either the last ruler of Later Yan or first ruler of Northern Yan, was also an ethnic Goguryeo. The "Five Barbarians" terminology is very likely a later invention from the Southern Song dynasty.

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.^[12]

The Five Barbarians as a concept only emerged during the 12th century in the Southern Song dynasty, when the official, Hong Mai wrote an essay titled "Wuhu Luanhua" (五胡亂華; "Upheaval of the Five Barbarians") in his book, Rongzhai Suibi (容齋隨筆). Even so, he did not properly define the term, as the seven rulers he mentioned only accounted for four non-Han groups, namely the Xiongnu, Jie, Xianbei and Di. 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.

They were a mix of tribes from various stocks, such as proto-Mongolic, Turkic, Tibetan and Yeniseian.^[13][14] Others divide them into two Turkic tribes, one Tungusic tribe, and two Tibetan tribes,^[15] and yet others into Tibetan and Altaic (proto-Mongolian and early Turkic).^[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.

Since the later Han dynasty, northern China was home to various ethnic groups from the north and west. These peoples were subjects of the Han, taking up agriculture and serving in the military force. While many of them retained their respective tribal identity, they also underwent various degrees of Sinicization. By the Western Jin period, their population had grown substantially, becoming a cause for concern among a few officials within the imperial court as they began to revolt. There were calls to have the tribes relocated outside the borders, most notably by the minister Jiang Tong in his essay, Xi Rong Lun (徙戎論; Discussion on Relocating the Rong Tribe), but these proposals were disregarded. As central authority collapsed due to the War of the Eight Princes, many of these "barbarians" rebelled alongside their Han Chinese compatriots in the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians, although there were also those who initially fought on the side of Jin. Throughout the 4th century and early-5th century, several states were founded by the "Five Barbarians" in northern China and Sichuan, collectively known as the Sixteen Kingdoms.

Ruling over the steppes of East Asia, the Xiongnu empire was once a powerful adversary to the Han dynasty, but by the 1st century AD, their power had greatly declined due to defeats to the Han, internal power struggles and natural disasters. In 50 AD, a few years after the empire was split into two, the Southern Xiongnu branch became a vassal to the Han. The court of the chanyu was moved to Xihe Commandery in Bing province while their people were resettled across the frontier commanderies within the Great Wall. The Southern Xiongnu served the Han by helping them to guard the northern borders, even assisting in destroying the rival Northern Xiongnu. However, tension was evident between the two sides. Being economically dependant on the Han and with the Han court interfering in their politics, the Southern Xiongnu would frequently rebel on the frontiers.^[17]

In 216, the warlord Cao Cao abolished the chanyu office and divided the Southern Xiongnu into Five Divisions around Taiyuan Commandery.^[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.^[21] Nonetheless, they continued to resent the ruling Chinese dynasties due to their lower status and privileges.

Though the Xiongnu were no longer a unified entity by the 4th-century, their descendants continued to invoke their ancestors as a form of legitimacy. In 304, at the height of the War of the Eight Princes, Liu Yuan of the Five Divisions rebelled and founded the Han-Zhao dynasty. He claimed direct descent from the Southern Xiongnu chanyus and, by extension, the Han princesses, as he portrayed his state as a restoration of the Han 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 their member, Helian Bobo founded the Helian Xia dynasty in 407, he began emphasising his Xiongnu lineage as to claim descent from the Xia dynasty, which the Xiongnu traditionally regarded as their ancestors.

The Jie were one of the many miscellaneous hu tribes in Bing province. The most famous Jie, Shi Le, was a descendant of the Qiangqu tribe (羌渠) of the Southern Xiongnu. Their exact origins is still debated by modern scholars, as theories range from them originating from the Tocharian or Eastern Iranian people of Sogdia to the Yeniseian people, but with no general consensus. 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. The Jie and hu were thus scattered throughout Hebei and Shandong.

Despite their seemingly small population, the Jie were thrusted into prominence by Shi Le, who founded the Later Zhao dynasty in 319 which dominated northern China for a majority of its existence before its demise in 351. Following Ran Min's culling order and the wars that followed the Later Zhao collapse, the Jie ceased to appear in records, though some key figures in later history may have descended from them.

When the Xiongnu empire defeated them in the 3rd century BC, the Donghu people splintered into the Xianbei and Wuhuan. The Xianbei began occupying the Mongolian plateau in around 93 AD after the Northern Xiongnu were forced to the northwest by the Han dynasty. In the mid-2nd century, the chieftain, Tanshihuai unified the Xianbei and launched incessant raids on the Han's northern borders. Following his death, however, his descendants failed to maintain the support of the chieftains and his confederation fell apart. In the northeast, several Xianbei tribes near the border became Chinese vassals and were allowed to live within the Great Wall such as the Murong and Tuoba tribes after the defeat of the Wuhuan at the Battle of White Wolf Mountain in 207. Others migrated west to live around the Hexi Corridor, with a branch of the Murong even subjugating the Qiang people of Qinghai and founding the Tuyuhun.

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. The Xianbei were a deciding factor in the civil wars, and when the Han-Zhao broke away from Jin, the Tuoba joined forces with Jin and were also given a dukedom in Dai Commandery. 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. As the Jin were pushed out of northern China, however, the Xianbei distanced themselves from Jin and established full autonomy over their fiefdoms.

The Xianbei founded several states during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. The Murong were a prominent player during this period, as they founded the Former Yan, Later Yan, Western Yan and Southern Yan that ruled over the Central Plains. 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. Most importantly, the Tuoba of Dai later founded the Northern Wei dynasty, which reunified the north in 439 and ushered China into the Northern and Southern dynasties period.

The Di were a semi-nomadic people that resided in the western provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan. 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 people became Han subjects, and relations between the two were mostly stable until the fall of Han, when the Di tribes began to rebel. In 219, the warlord Cao Cao had 50,000 Di people relocated from Wudu commandery to Tianshui and Fufeng commanderies to deter them from allying with his rival to the south, Liu Bei.

The Di in the northwest continued to rebel during the Western Jin dynasty. Between 296 and 299, Qi Wannian, a Di chieftain, led the various non-Han groups in rebellion, devastating the Guanzhong region and displacing many of the population. 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 Fu clan that remained behind later founded the Former Qin dynasty, most notable for briefly unifying northern China under Fu Jiān. During the Qin collapse that followed the Battle of Fei River, the Di general, Lü Guang founded the Later Liang in Gansu.

The Qiang were another western semi-nomadic people that resided in Qinghai and Gansu. Initially vassals of the Xiongnu, the Qiang gradually turned to the Han dynasty as the Xiongnu empire collapsed. They were allowed to settle in the Guanzhong region along with the watersheds of the Wei and Jing rivers, where they practiced agriculture and lived with Han Chinese settlers. The Qiang were not a unified entity, and the various Qiang tribes often fought among themselves. However, the Qiang also faced oppression by the local Han governors and officials, leading to frequent large-scale rebellions in the northwest that adversely affected the Han military and economy. The Qiang also fought as soldiers for the Han and later for the Cao Wei and Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period.

The Qiang continued to participate in rebellions in the northwest against the Western Jin dynasty, but it would not be until after the Battle of Fei River that they establish their first and only state of the Sixteen Kingdoms under the Later Qin dynasty. 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. The Qiang also founded the minor polities of Dangchang and Dengzhi.

The Lushuihu (盧水胡; Lu River Barbarians) were an ethnic group that were distributed between Zhangye in modern-day Gansu and central Shaaxi. Their origin is still debated by scholars today, and a leading theory is that they were descendants of the Lesser Yuezhi that intermingled with the Qiang people. The Juqu clan of the Northern Liang dynasty were of Lushuihu ethnicity, but as their ancestors once served under the Xiongnu empire, they have been classified in more recent historiographies as "Xiongnu" to fit the Five Barbarians terminology.

The region of Ba in eastern Sichuan was home to the Bandun Man, who were also known as the Cong people (賨人) as their taxes were collected by the Han dynasty in the form of a money called cong (賨). Many of the Cong moved north to Hanzhong to become followers of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice, but after Cao Cao conquered the region in 215, they were resettled further north to Lüeyang Commandery, where they mingled with the local Di people. These people became known as the Ba-Di, with Ba referring to their ancestral homeland. The Li clan of Ba-Di ethnicity later moved back to Sichuan during Qi Wannian's rebellion, where they founded the Cheng-Han dynasty in 304. Later, the Ba chieftain, Gou Quzhi led the Ba and other tribes in Guanzhong against the Han-Zhao dynasty in 320.

The Dingling were a nomadic people that originally lived south of Lake Baikal and were vassals of the Xiongnu empire. A branch of the Dingling migrated west and resided in Kangju, becoming known as the Western Dingling, before moving into China. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the Zhai clan of the Western Dingling were one of the earliest groups to rebel against the Former Qin after their defeat at the Battle of Fei River, and in 388, they founded the short-lived Zhai Wei dynasty, which is not considered as one of the Sixteen Kingdoms. The Dingling that remained behind on the northern steppes were later known at the Chile, Gaoche or Tiele people.

Goguryeo was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and a rival to the Murong-Xianbei during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. During its invasion of Goguryeo in 342, the Former Yan captured several members of the Goguryeo imperial family and resettled them in Qingshan (青山, in modern Jinzhou, Liaoning). One of them, Gao Yun, served the Later Yan dynasty and eventually overthrew the Murong. Historians either consider him to be the last ruler of Later Yan or the first ruler of Northern Yan, though his successors were from the Feng clan of Han Chinese ethnicity. According to the Xi Rong Lun, there had also been several Goguryeo families living in Xingyang since the Cao Wei period following the Wei campaigns against Goguryeo.

Much like the Xianbei, the Wuhuan was another group that splintered from the Donghu people. 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. During the fall of Han, the Wuhuan looked to establish their own dominion, but their power was broken after Cao Cao defeated them at the Battle of White Wolf Mountain in 207. 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.

• History of China
  • Han dynasty
  • Three Kingdoms
  • Jin dynasty (266–420)
  • Sixteen Kingdoms
  • Southern and Northern Dynasties
  • Northern Wei Dynasty
• Shiliuguo Chunqiu
• List of past Chinese ethnic groups