After the disintegration of the
Xianbei state, nomadic groups were led by their khagan, Murong Tuyuhun (慕容吐谷渾; 246–317), to the rich pasture lands around
Qinghai Lake about the middle of the 3rd century AD. Murong Tuyuhun was the older brother of the
Former Yan's ancestor
Murong Hui and elder son of the
chanyu Murong Shegui (慕容涉歸) of the
Murong Xianbei who took his people from their original settlements on the
Liaodong Peninsula to the
Yin Mountains, crossing the
Yellow River between 307 and 313, and into the eastern region of modern
Qinghai. The Tuyuhun Empire was established in 284 by subjugating the native peoples referred to as the
Qiang, including more than 100 different and loosely coordinated tribes that did not submit to each other or any authority. After Tuyuhun died in
Linxia, Gansu in 317, his sixty sons further expanded the empire by defeating the
Western Qin (385–430) and
Xia (407–431) kingdoms. The Qinghai Xianbei, Tufa Xianbei, Qifu Xianbei and Haolian Xianbei joined them. They moved their capital west of Qinghai Lake. These Xianbei groups formed the core of the Tuyuhun Empire and numbered about 3.3 million at their peak. They carried out extensive military expeditions westward, reaching as far as
Hotan in
Xinjiang and the borders of
Kashmir and
Afghanistan, and established a vast empire that encompassed
Qinghai,
Gansu,
Ningxia, northern
Sichuan, eastern
Shaanxi, southern Xinjiang, and most of
Tibet, stretching from east to west and from north to south. They unified parts of Inner Asia for the first time in history, developed the southern route of the
Silk Road, and promoted cultural exchange between the eastern and western territories, dominating the northwest for more than three and half centuries until it was destroyed by the
Tibetan Empire. For most of its history, Tuyuhun existed as an independent state.
Conflict between the Tang and Tibetan empires During the beginning of the
Tang dynasty, the Tuyuhun Empire came to a gradual decline and was increasingly caught in the conflict between the Tang and the
Tibetan Empire. Because the Tuyuhun controlled the crucial trade routes between east and the west, the empire became the immediate target of invasion by the Tang. The Tibetan Empire developed rapidly under the leadership of
Songtsen Gampo, who united the Tibetans and expanded northward, directly threatening the Tuyuhun Empire. Soon after he took the throne of the Yarlung Kingdom in Central Tibet in 634, he defeated the Tuyuhun near Qinghai Lake and received an envoy from the Tang. The Tibetan emperor requested marriage to a Tang princess, but was refused. In 635–636 the
Emperor Taizong of Tang defeated the Tibetan army; after this campaign, the Emperor Taizong agreed to provide a Tang princess to Songtsen Gampo. The Tibetan emperor, who claimed that the Tuyuhun objected to his marriage with the Tang, sent 200,000 troops to attack. The Tuyuhun troops retreated to
Qinghai, whereas the Tibetans went eastward to attack the
Tangut people and reached into southern Gansu. The Tang government sent troops to fight. Although the Tibetans withdrew in response, the Tuyuhun Empire lost much of its territory in southern Gansu to Tibetans. The Tuyuhun government was split between the pro-Tang and pro-Tibet factions, with the latter increasingly becoming stronger and collaborated with Tibet to bring about an invasion. The Tang sent general
Xue Rengui to lead 100,000 troops to fight Tibet in
Dafeichuan (modern
Gonghe County, Qinghai). They were annihilated by the ambush of 200,000 troops led by Dayan and the Tibetans. The Tibetan Empire took over the entire territory of the Tuyuhun.
Disintegration and northern
Qinghai (907–1125) and northern
Qinghai (1207) After the fall of the kingdom, the Tuyuhun people split. Led by
Murong Nuohebo on the eastern side of the
Qilian Mountains they migrated eastwards into central China. The rest remained and were under the rule of the Tibetan Empire. Through this period, the Xianbei underwent massive diasporata over a vast territory that stretched from the northwest into central and eastern parts of China, with the greatest concentrations by Mount Yin near the
Ordos Loop. In 946, a
Shatuo,
Liu Zhiyuan, conspired to murder the highest Xianbei leader, Bai Chengfu, who was reportedly so wealthy that "his horses had silver mangers". With the looted wealth that included an abundance of property and thousands of fine horses, Liu established the
Later Han (947–950). The incident took away the central leadership and stripped the opportunity for the Xianbei to restore the Tuyuhun Kingdom, although later they were able to establish the
Western Xia (1038–1227), which was destroyed by the Mongols. ==Language==