Xirong Explained

Xirong or Rong were various people who lived primarily in and around the western extremities of ancient China (in modern Gansu and Qinghai). They were known as early as the Shang dynasty (1765–1122 BCE),[1] as one of the Four Barbarians that frequently (and often violently) interacted with the sinitic Huaxia civilization. They typically resided to the west of Guanzhong Plains from the Zhou Dynasty (1046–221 BCE) onwards.[2] [3] They were mentioned in some ancient Chinese texts as perhaps genetically and linguistically related to the people of the Chinese civilization.[4]

Etymology

The historian Li Feng says that during the Western Zhou period, since the term Rong "warlike foreigners" was "often used in bronze inscriptions to mean 'warfare', it is likely that when a people was called 'Rong', the Zhou considered them as political and military adversaries rather than as cultural and ethnic 'others'."[5] Paul R. Goldin also proposes that Rong was a "pseudo-ethnonym" meaning "bellicose".[6]

After the Zhou dynasty, the term usually referred to various peoples in the west during early and late medieval times. Xirong was also the name of a state during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of Chinese history.

The Xirong together with the eastern Dongyi, northern Beidi, and southern Nanman were collectively called the Sìyí . The Liji "Record of Rites" details ancient stereotypes about them.

The people of those five regions – the Middle states, and the [Rong], [Yi], (and other wild tribes round them) – had all their several natures, which they could not be made to alter. The tribes on the east were called [Yi]. They had their hair unbound, and tattooed their bodies. Some of them ate their food without its being cooked. Those on the south were called Man. They tattooed their foreheads, and had their feet turned in towards each other. Some of them (also) ate their food without its being cooked. Those on the west were called [Rong]. They had their hair unbound, and wore skins. Some of them did not eat grain-food. Those on the north were called [Di]. They wore skins of animals and birds, and dwelt in caves. Some of them also did not eat grain-food. The people of the Middle states, and of those [Yi], Man, [Rong], and [Di], all had their dwellings, where they lived at ease; their flavours which they preferred; the clothes suitable for them; their proper implements for use; and their vessels which they prepared in abundance. In those five regions, the languages of the people were not mutually intelligible, and their likings and desires were different. To make what was in their minds apprehended, and to communicate their likings and desires, (there were officers) – in the east, called transmitters; in the south, representationists; in the west, [Di-dis]; and in the north, interpreters.[7] [The term 狄鞮 ''didi'' (''ti-ti'') is identified as: "(''anc.'') Interpreter of the Di, barbarians of the west."<ref>''[[Grand Ricci|Grand dictionnaire Ricci de la langue chinoise]], Vol. V, (2001) p. 938 Translated and adapted from the French.]

Note: "middle states" in this quotation refers to the "Middle Kingdom", i.e. China.

Spade-foot three-legged pottery vessels as well as one and two handled pots were primary cultural characteristics of the Xirong.

William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart (2014)[8] reconstruct the Old Chinese name of Róng as . Today, similar-sounding self-designated ethnonyms among modern-day Tibeto-Burman peoples in western China include Rgyalrong of Sichuan, and Nung and Trung of northwestern Yunnan (see also Rung languages). Průšek suggests relations between the Rong during the Zhou dynasty and the Rén (< OC *ni[ŋ]) tribes during Shang dynasty,[9] however, the Rén dwelt in southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu, thus east, not west, of the Shang.[10]

Timeline

According to Nicola Di Cosmo,[11] 'Rong' was a vague term for warlike foreigner. He places them from the upper Wei River valley and along the Fen River to the Taiyuan basin as far as the Taihang Mountains. This would be the northwestern edge of what was then China and also the transition zone between agricultural and steppe ways of life.

Ethnicity

It is believed that the Quanrong during the Western Zhou-Warring States period (1122–476 BC) spoke a Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, and united with the Jiang clan to rebel against the Zhou.[15] [16] Mencius mentioned that even King Wen of Zhou had ancestries from the "western barbarians" (西夷).[17]

7th-century scholar Yan Shigu made these remarks about the Wusuns, one group included to the "western barbarians": "Among the barbarians (戎; Róng) in the Western Regions, the look of the Wusun is the most unusual. The present barbarians (胡人; húrén) who have green eyes and red hair, and look like macaque monkeys, are the offspring of this people";[18] [19] [20] the exonym Húrén "foreigners, barbarians",[18] was used from the 6th century to denote Iranian peoples, especially Sogdians, in Central Asia, besides other non-Chinese peoples.[21]

Genetic data on ancient Qiang remains associated with the Xirong were determined to display high genetic affinity with contemporary Sino-Tibetan peoples as well as with ancient 'Yellow River farmers' of the Yangshao culture.[22] [23]

See also

References

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Waugh . Daniel C: Professor . Silk Road Texts . University of Washington . 20 April 2014 .
  2. Web site: Archived copy . April 23, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110728025115/http://www.orbat.com/site/history/volume4/442/zhou%20dynasty/zhou%20dynasty_1.html . July 28, 2011 .
  3. Web site: Hun & Huns -- Political, Social, Cultural, Historical Analysis Of China -- Research Into Origins Of Huns, Uygurs, Mongols And Tibetans . www.imperialchina.org .
  4. Nicola Di Cosmo, Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History,Cambridge University Press, 2004 pp. 108-112.
  5. Li, Feng (2006), Landscape And Power In Early China, Cambridge University Press, p. 286.
  6. Goldin, Paul R. "Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China" in Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present. Penn Museum International Research Conferences, vol. 2. Ed. Paula L.W. Sabloff. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 2011. p. 235
  7. Wangzhi chap., tr. James Legge (1879), The Li Ki, Clarendon Press, vol.1, pp. 229-230.
  8. Baxter, William H. and Laurent Sagart. 2014. Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. Oxford University Press, .
  9. [Jaroslav Průšek]
  10. Di Cosmo, Nicola (1999). "The northern frontier in pre-imperial China". In Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Cambridge University Press. p. 908 of pp. 885–966.
  11. Cambridge History of Ancient China (1999) Chapter 13
  12. Nicola Di Cosmo in Cambridge History of Ancient China, page 924
  13. Mark Edward Lewis in Cambridge History of Ancient China, page 635
  14. Web site: Xiongnu . ((The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica)) . britannica.com . . August 2, 2016 .
  15. Chapter 14 of Keightley,'The Origins of Chinese Civilization',1983
  16. Web site: Fortress Village - The Ethnic Minorities of Southwest China. ethno.ihp.sinica.edu.tw.
  17. Mencius Li lou II. text: "孟子曰：「舜生於諸馮，遷於負夏，卒於鳴條，東夷之人也。文王生於岐周，卒於畢郢，西夷之人也。" D.C.Lau (1970:128)'s translation: "Mencius said, 'Shun was an Eastern barbarian; he was born in Chu Feng, moved to Fu Hsia, and died in Ming T'iao. King Wen was a Western barbarian; he was born in Ch'i Chou and died in Pi Ying."
  18. Book of Han, with commentary by Yan Shigu Original text:　烏孫於西域諸戎其形最異。今之胡人青眼、赤須，狀類彌猴者，本其種也。
  19. Yu, Taishan. A Study of Saka History, (1998) pp. 141-142. Sino-Platonic Papers, Number 80. University of Pennsylvania.
  20. Book of Han, vol. 96b
  21. Atwood, Christopher P. (2015). "The Qai, the Khongai, and the Names of the Xiōngnú". International Journal of Eurasian Studies. 2: p. 62 of 35–63.
  22. Song . Mengyuan . Wang . Zefei . Lyu . Qiang . Ying . Jun . Wu . Qian . Jiang . Lanrui . Wang . Fei . Zhou . Yuxiang . Song . Feng . Luo . Haibo . Hou . Yiping . Song . Xingbo . Ying . Binwu . 2022-11-01 . Paternal genetic structure of the Qiang ethnic group in China revealed by high-resolution Y-chromosome STRs and SNPs . Forensic Science International: Genetics . 61 . 102774 . 10.1016/j.fsigen.2022.102774 . 36156385 . 252254620 . 1872-4973 . Furthermore, ancient DNA revealed genetic connections between early Di-Qiang (Di and Qiang were historically combined to be one group) and Han Chinese [5], [6]..
  23. Li . Jiawei . Zeng . Wen . Zhang . Ye . Ko . Albert Min-Shan . Li . Chunxiang . Zhu . Hong . Fu . Qiaomei . Zhou . Hui . 2017-12-04 . Ancient DNA reveals genetic connections between early Di-Qiang and Han Chinese . BMC Evolutionary Biology . 17 . 1 . 239 . 10.1186/s12862-017-1082-0 . 1471-2148 . 5716020 . 29202706 . 2017BMCEE..17..239L . We identified Mogou to be the earliest ~4000 yr. BP Di-Qiang population, and genetically related to Taojiazhai in sharing up to 100% paternal (O3a) and ~60% maternal (D4, M10, F, Z) haplogroups. . free .

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