Chapter 3 3. Wuhu enters China

The Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms are a mess. Chaos is certain.This historical period started from Emperor Hui of the Western Jin Dynasty and ended with Liu Song in the Southern Dynasty, which lasted 136 years.There were actually nineteen to twenty regimes established during this period.Some of them rise and fall successively, and some coexist at the same time.At most, there were eight regimes standing side by side in northern China for nine to ten years. The founders of the regime are mostly ethnic minorities, including the Xiongnu, Jie (pronounced Rujie), Xianbei, Di (pronounced Rulow), and Qiang, collectively known as the "Five Hus".Among them, the Xianbei people established the most regimes, seven.Followed by Di people, four.Again for the Huns, three.Jie people and Qiang people, one each.In addition, there are four small regimes established by the Han people, a total of twenty countries.Not counting Qiu Chi and the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Eighteen Kingdoms.It is called "Sixteen Kingdoms" because Ran Wei and Xi Yan are not counted.

The list of eighteen countries is as follows: I am afraid that not many people can remember the names of these countries and people, but it is clear that the so-called "sixteen countries" are basically in the north; and from the map below, it is not difficult to see why this phenomenon is called "five random China" . That's right, half of the Jin Dynasty has been lost, and it is really "not a place": the Guanzhong area was originally the birthplace of the Zhou civilization, and Chang'an and Luoyang were the capitals of the four dynasties of Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin. Chinese authentic.Now everything has become "Hu Tian Hu Di", isn't it "disrupting China"?

This really made a lot of people sad.We know that the predecessor of the Han nationality is the Huaxia nationality, and the base of the Huaxia nationality is in the Central Plains.The word "China" on He Zun, a bronze vessel from the period of King Cheng of Zhou, even refers to Luoyang. This is the earliest written record of the word "China".Luoyang fell into the hands of the Hu people, which was no less serious than the loss of Rome by the Roman Empire. What's more, the Chinese nation has always had a concept: if you live in China, you are authentic, and if you are authentic, you can rule the world (for details, please refer to the second volume of the history of China, "The Country", and the third volume, "The Founders").Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, all are.Now that the Hu people "live in China", shouldn't they be the emperor and rule the world?

The Hu people think it should be, the Han people think it should not. The representative of the Han people who holds this view is Liu Kun.Liu Kun was a general of the Western Jin Dynasty who insisted on "resisting war behind the enemy" when the Central Plains fell. Shi Le, a general of the Jie tribe who tried to instigate the enemy's Huns, gave the reason: You Hu people can't be the emperor anyway, so why not come to our Jin Dynasty Be a famous minister. Shi Le sent the envoy politely with famous horses and precious treasures.He wrote back to Liu Kun saying: The general is a Han, and he should be loyal to the Jin Dynasty.I, Shi Le, am originally a barbarian and a di, so I'm afraid I can't help you with your country's affairs.

Liu Kun hit a snag, and Shi Le became emperor. Shi Le was not the first person of the Wuhu to proclaim himself emperor in northern China. The first one was Liu Yuan from the Huns, whose country name was Han.He even claimed that he was the legal heir of the Han Dynasty, because Mao Dundan was Liu Bang's son-in-law, and later generations of Shanyu and the Emperor Han were cousins.Brother and brother, of course he will take over the imperial line of the Han Dynasty. It's a pity that Liu Yuan's statement was not generally recognized. His country name was later changed to Zhao by his nephew and adopted son, and he was called Qian Zhao in history.The country founded by Shi Le, a Jie man, was also called Zhao, and it was called Later Zhao in history.Former Zhao was destroyed by Later Zhao, Later Zhao was destroyed by Ran Wei, Ran Wei was destroyed by Qianyan, and Former Yan was destroyed by Former Qin.After the extermination of the former Yan, northern China temporarily belonged to the former Qin.

The former Qin Dynasty belonged to the Di people, while the former Yan Dynasty belonged to the Xianbei people.Therefore, the protagonists of the first half of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms are: Xiongnu (former Zhao), Jie (later Zhao), Xianbei (former Yan), Di (former Qin), and Qiang (later Qin), who rose suddenly when the former Qin declined. Ran Wei is short-lived.As for the second half, of course it belonged to the Xianbei people. The Northern Wei Dynasty they established even lasted for nearly a century. Who said "Yi Di" cannot be king? Of course.Dominating the world is obviously just wishful thinking and self-indulgence of the Han people.In fact, since Liu Yuan, the Hun, opened the gap, northern China has been the historical stage of ethnic minorities for two and a half centuries.Even the Sui and Tang, who were of mixed Hu-Han blood in the north, were the ones who finally unified the whole of China.

That's the truth, and that's history. In fact, it is absurd and ridiculous cultural prejudice to regard the Hu people as an inferior nation that can be humiliated.What's more, the so-called "Five Hus" did not enter China suddenly from distant foreign countries.They have lived in China for a long time, and mixed with Han people or even mixed blood.In other words, they are actually Chinese, so why should they be regarded as "heterogeneous"? However, the Han nationality represents an advanced culture after all, so the result of the matter is as follows: On the one hand, the discrimination and oppression of the Han people by the northern minorities are unbearable; on the other hand, they admire and yearn for the Han civilization and system wholeheartedly.Therefore, after the Hu people entered the Central Plains and called Wang Jianguo, they did not intend to implement "Huhua", but instead "Sinicized" themselves.

Sinicization has already begun. The Huns were the first to be Sinicized.Because from the time of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, they continued to move southward, and set up camp along the Great Wall in the Hetao area of ​​the Yellow River, acting as the border guards and allies of the Han Empire.This process has lasted more than 200 years until the Western Jin Dynasty. How could the Xiongnu still be Huns?Liu Yuan's claim that he was entitled to the ancestral inheritance of the Han Dynasty was not without reason. The Jie who established the Later Zhao, the Di who established the Pre-Qin, and the Qiang who established the Post-Qin have varying degrees of Sinicization, but their enthusiasm for Han culture is no less than that of the Xiongnu. The former Qin emperor Fu Jian can even be called a sinologist.He once said quite complacently: I visit Taixue three times in one month, and the tradition of Duke Zhou and Confucius will not be interrupted here at last.

However, Xianbei is the most powerful. In other words, the Northern Wei Dynasty of the Tuoba clan in Xianbei. The story of the Northern Wei Dynasty is no longer in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, so it can only be discussed in the long run.What is certain is that the Sinicization of the Northern Wei Dynasty was thorough and comprehensive.Emperor Xiaowen Tuobahong even ordered the prohibition of Hufu and Xianbei language, changed the Xianbei surnames of the nobles to Han surnames (for example, Tuoba to Yuan), and ordered the six emperors to marry the daughters of high-ranking Han officials like himself , It can be called "full Sinicization".

As a result, it took only 30 years for this nation to assimilate into the Han nationality; while certain cultural traditions that were gradually forgotten by the Han nationality in the south were exhausted by the Huns, Jie, Di, Qiang, and Xianbei ethnic minorities in the north. Biography (For all the above, please refer to the twelfth volume of the Chinese History "Southern Dynasties, Northern Dynasties"). This cannot be called "Five Husbands in China", but should be called "Five Hus Entering China". In fact, it was precisely because of the integration of these ethnic minorities that a new nation with the Han nationality as the majority was born, and the "Second Empire" (Sui and Tang Dynasties) in Chinese history was also established.However, none of them knew that at that time there was also a great migration of ethnic groups in Europe, and a large number of Germanic barbarians poured into the Roman Empire. The fate and choices facing Roman civilization were almost exactly the same as those of China.

Of course, this is something.