In
Sima Qian's
Shiji, the
Xiongnu were mentioned as
Shanrong,
Xianyun, and Hunyu "since before the time of Tang [i.e.
Emperor Yao] and Yu [i.e.
Emperor Shun]". 3rd century scholar
Wei Zhao also identified the name Chunwei with the name of the Xiongnu: "During the Han (206 BC – 220 AD) they were called Xiongnu, and the Hunyu is just another name for the same people, and similarly, the
Xunyu is just another transcription of Chunwei, their ancestor’s name". In
Shiji jijie (Collected Explanations on Historical Records)
Liu Song historian Pei Yin quoted
Jin Zhuo's statement that "In Yao's time they were called Hunyu; in
Zhou's time they were called Xianyun; in
Qin's time they were called Xiongnu." In
Shiji Suoyin "Seeking the Obscure in the
Records",
Tang historian
Sima Zhen quoted from
Fengsu Tongyi "Comprehensive Meaning of Customs and Mores", by
Ying Shao, that "In the time of
Yin, they were called
Xunyu, which was changed to
Xiongnu"; however, this quote no longer exists in Fengsu Tongyi's received text. Sima Qian wrote that the Xiongnu's ruling clan were descendants of Chunwei, a descendant of
Yu the Great. Sima Zhen also quoted Zhang Yan's statement that "Chunwei, during the
Yin era, fled to the northern borders." However, Goldin (2011) points out chronological difficulties resulting from attempts to identify Chunwei with Hunyu and Xunyu. If one would literally interpret "since before the time of Tang and Yu" (when the Hunyu had supposedly existed) in Sima Qian's
Shiji and would identify
Chunwei with Hunyu and
Xunyu, this would result in Chunwei, allegedly a son of
Jie of the
Xia dynasty, living before instead of many generations after Yao and Shun, both of whom had lived and ruled before the Xia dynasty. Moreover, Goldin (2011) reconstructs the
Old Chinese pronunciations of Hunyu and Xunyu as *
xur-luk, as
hram′-lun′, and as *
xoŋ-NA; and comments all three names are "manifestly unrelated"; he further states that
sound changes made the names more superficially similar than they really had been, and prompted later historians and 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. Another theory suggests that
Qi (a small state, supposedly descendants of Xia) later occupied a smaller state state called "
Chunyu" and made it their last capital before being conquered by
Chu. Chunyu/Chunwei may simply be the name of a city. ==Notes==