(1000–600 BCE). Inner Mongolia Museum. Among the northern ethnic groups, the Donghu were the earliest to become a civilization and the first to develop
bronze technology. Their culture was associated with the
Upper Xiajiadian culture, characterized by the practice of agriculture and animal husbandry supplemented by handicrafts and bronze art. Through the use of cavalry and bronze weaponry in warfare, the Donghu apparently dominated over the
Xiongnu to their west. Although "Upper Xiajiadian" is indeed frequently attributed to the Donghu, such attribution remains uncertain given the lack of details in Chinese sources about what the Donghu were, beyond a name (
Donghu, Eastern
Hu, ie "Eastern mounted nomads") and the account of their destruction by the Xiongnu. The
Shiji section on Xiongnu history first records the Donghu during the era of
Duke Wen of Jin (r. 697–628 BCE) and
Duke Mu of Qin (r. c. 659–621 BCE).At this time Qin and Jin were the most powerful states in China. Duke Wen of Jin expelled the
Di barbarians and drove them into the region west of the
Yellow River between the Yun and Luo rivers; there they were known as the Red Di and the White Di. Shortly afterwards, Duke Mu of Qin, having obtained the services of You Yu, succeeded in getting the eight barbarian tribes of the west to submit to his authority. Thus at this time there lived in the region west of
Long the Mianzhu, the Hunrong, and the Diyuan tribes. North of Mts. Qi and Liang and the Jing and Qi rivers lived the Yiqu, Dali, Wuzhi, and Quyuan tribes. North of Jin were the Linhu (Forest Barbarians) and the Loufan, while north of
Yan lived the Donghu (Eastern Barbarians) and
Shanrong (Mountain Barbarians), each of them with their own chieftains. From time to time they would have gatherings of a hundred or so men, but no one tribe was capable of unifying the others under a single rule. In 307 BCE
King Wuling of Zhao, instituted a military reform called "Hu clothes, Cavalry archery" after having been repeatedly harassed earlier in his reign by Donghu horse-archers. In 300 BCE
Qin Kai, a general taken hostage from the
state of Yan (whose capital "Ji" is now
Beijing), defeated the Donghu after having gained the esteem of the Donghu and learning their battle tactics. In 273 BCE during the reign of
King Huiwen, Zhao defeated the Donghu. In 265 BCE
Li Mu of the
Zhao state, one of the four most prominent generals of the
Warring States period, defeated the Donghu after stopping a major Xiongnu invasion. By the time of the rule of the Xiongnu chanyu
Touman (c. 220 BCE to 209 BCE), "the Donghu were very powerful and the
Yuezhi were likewise flourishing." When the Xiongnu crown prince
Modu Chanyu killed his father Touman in 209 BCE and took the title of
chanyu, the Donghu thought that Modu feared them, and they started to ask for tribute from the Xiongnu that included his best horses and even a consort of Modu's. Modu conceded. Not satisfied with this they asked for some of the Xiongnu territories. This enraged Modu attacked and defeated them, killing their ruler, taking his subjects prisoner, and seizing their livestock, before turning west to attack and defeat the Yuezhi. This caused disintegration in the Donghu federation. Thereafter, the
Wuhuan (southern Donghu) moved to Mount Wuhuan and engaged in continuous warfare with the Xiongnu on the west and China on the south. As they became worn out from the lengthy battles, the
Xianbei (northern Donghu) moved northward to Mount Xianbei to preserve their strength. When the Han dynasty vassal king
Lu Wan defected to the Xiongnu in 195 BCE he was made King of Donghu (東胡王) by the Xiongnu. This Kingdom of Donghu fiefdom lasted until 144 BCE when Lu Wan's grandson Lu Tazhi defected back to the Han dynasty. The Wuhuan inhabitants of the fiefdom continued as vassals of the Xiongnu until 121 BCE. Gradually the name Donghu stopped being used. In the 1st century, the Xianbei defeated the Wuhuan and northern Xiongnu, and developed into a powerful state under the leadership of their elected
Khan, Tanshihuai. The
Book of Jin, published in 648, linked the Donghu and their
Xianbei descendants to the
Youxiong lineage (有熊氏), associated with the
Yellow Emperor and possibly named after the Yellow Emperor's "hereditary principality". However, many non-
Han Chinese rulers were claimed to be the Yellow Emperor's descendants, for individual and national prestige. Chinese historian
Yu Ying-shih describes the Donghu.The Tung-hu peoples were probably a tribal federation founded by a number of nomadic peoples, including the Wu-huan and Hsien-pi. After its conquest of the Hsiung-nu, the federation apparently ceased to exist. Throughout the Han period, no trace can be found of activities of the Tung-hu as a political entity.
Hu monumental statues from
Shandong, featuring people with a high nose, deep eyes and a pointed hat.
Eastern Han period, 2nd century CE. Pulleyblank cites
Paul Pelliot that the Donghu, Xianbei, and Wuhuan were "proto-Mongols".The Eastern Hu, mentioned in the
Shih-chi along with the Woods Hu and the Lou-fan as barbarians to the north of Chao in the fourth century B.C., appear again as one of the first peoples whom the Hsiung-nu conquered in establishing their empire. Toward the end of the Former Han, as the Hsiung-nu empire was weakening through internal dissension, the Eastern Hu became rebellious. From then on they played an increasingly prominent role in Chinese frontier strategy as a force to play off against the Hsiung-nu. Two major divisions are distinguished, the Hsien-pei to the north and the Wu-huan to the south. By the end of the first century B.C. these more specific names had supplanted the older generic term. Pulleyblank also writes that although there is now archaeological evidence of the spread of pastoral nomadism based on horse riding from Central Asia into Mongolia and farther east in the first half of the first millennium BCE, as far as we have evidence it did not impinge on Chinese consciousness until the northward push of the state of Zhao 趙 to the edge of the steppe in present Shanxi province shortly before the end of the fifth century B.C.E. brought them into contact with a new type of horse-riding “barbarian” that they called Hu 胡. … In Han times the term Hu was applied to steppe nomads in general but especially to the Xiongnu who had become the dominant power in the steppe. Earlier it had referred to a specific proto-Mongolian people, now differentiated as the Eastern Hu 東胡, from whom the Xianbei 鮮卑 and the Wuhuan 烏桓 later emerged. ==Legacy==