Is it possible that we are the Sinicized Xianbei people?

The early Xianbei was just a subordinate nation of the Xiongnu, a nomadic people in the north in history. Therefore, Xianbei's culture and political system were not only comparable to the Central Plains Dynasty, but even compared with the Xiongnu, it was also a class behind.

However, with the frequent contact between the Xiongnu and the Central Plains dynasty during the Han Dynasty, the Xianbei people gradually discovered that the strength of the farming civilization with relatively stable means of production was far greater than that of the nomadic people, so starting from the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xianbei people continued to Moving closer to the Han people, when the Han Dynasty drove the Xiongnu to Central Asia, the Xianbei people took the opportunity to occupy Mobei.

After that, Xianbei took advantage of the chaos of the Central Plains dynasty to develop. During the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Xianbei people had established many separatist regimes in northern China. Among them, the Tuoba tribe established in 385 AD The Northern Wei Dynasty unified the north in 439 AD and moved its capital to Luoyang in 493 AD, thus forming a north-south confrontation with the orthodox dynasty that fled to the south. At that time, after the Xianbei people occupied the northern region and established a political power, some Han people had been massacred earlier, and some Han people had already fled south with the Jin Dynasty's army to avoid war. The majority of the Han people had gathered in the southern region. , so by the time the Northern Wei Dynasty established its capital in Luoyang, there were already quite few Han people in the Central Plains.

But the lack of it does not mean that there is none. Most of the people who were able to escape were dignitaries. Ordinary people did not have the financial strength to afford such a long journey. After all, there was no advanced technology at that time. The only means of transportation are cattle and horses.

So there are still Han people remaining in the north, and no matter how they are massacred, the population base is still larger than that of ethnic minorities. They are still the main body in the north, and they still have the greatest influence on all aspects of the north.

At the same time, because Xianbei had been following the Xiongnu in nomadic culture before entering the Central Plains, it was still in a relatively backward stage of slavery. After entering the Central Plains, the Xianbei people suddenly found that their slavery system was incompatible with society and could no longer control the Central Plains that had entered the feudal system, so they began to find their own ways to seek change.

How to change it? Naturally, we should learn from the advanced culture of the Han people in the Central Plains. In order to establish a stable ruling system, the Xianbei rulers at that time began to gradually imitate the Han ruling system from the beginning of the Northern Wei Dynasty. They not only set up officials according to the Han ruling style, but also collected taxes from the people according to the Han tax system, and even encouraged The Xianbei people learned farming techniques from the Han people, and of course chose to appoint a large number of Han officials to improve their bureaucracy.

In short, after the establishment of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Xianbei people took decades to complete the change from the slave system to the feudal system.

Of course, after improving their governance system, the Xianbei people also realized that their own culture had a certain backwardness, because Xianbei did not have a complete writing system at all and was unable to complete effective written communication. During the period of Emperor Xiaowen, the rulers also realized this, so after moving the capital to Luoyang, Emperor Xiaowen began to fully Chineseize the Xianbei people in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

However, in the understanding of many ethnic groups in ancient China, only the Han culture in the Central Plains is the orthodox culture of the world, and only the emperor who calls the shots in the Central Plains is the supreme ruler of the world. Therefore, in order to prove himself, the Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty He was also of orthodox origin, and with the help of Han ministers, he found evidence that Xianbei was also of Han descent.

The general content is: After the Yellow Emperor Yan Emperor defeated Chi You, the Yellow Emperor canonized his youngest son Changyi to the northern region. The descendants of Changyi and many of his tribesmen are the ancestors of the Xianbei people, so Xianbei is also a branch of the Han people. It's just that they were controlled by the Huns back then, so they were forced to cut off from the Central Plains culturally. Now they have a rare opportunity to recognize their ancestors, so they should follow the Central Plains culture in a timely manner and not go against the wishes of their ancestors. ?

"Northern History. Book of Wei" records: ?The first of Wei Dynasty (Tuoba clan) came from the Xuanyuan clan of Huangdi. Huangdi's son called him Changyi, and Changyi's youngest son was granted the title of Northern Kingdom, with the Daxianbei Mountain, so he was given the title. ?

This large-scale and thorough sinicization has made the Xianbei people generally the same as the Han people.

If this continued for a long time, perhaps the Xianbei people would have disappeared long ago. However, after the establishment of the Western Wei Dynasty, its rulers knew that if things continued like this, the nation would be in dire straits, so they changed their previous Sinicization strategy and asked the whole country to restore their own "national consciousness." Therefore, in the later Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Xianbei people only retained the political system of the Han people, and as for culture, they tried to restore the Xianbei national language and surnames.

However, since the Sinicization policy of the Northern Wei Dynasty was to implement comprehensive Sinicization, and because Han culture was advanced and inclusive, the Sinicization of Xianbei had developed to the solidification stage, and the process of restoring Xianbei culture in the Northern Zhou Dynasty was not very smooth. smoothly.

After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, his relative Yang Jian came to power. He was a native Han Chinese. Naturally, he would not restore Xianbei culture and would carry out Sinicization to the end.

From this, we can actually see that the Xianbei people did not pay a heavy price in the process of dynasty change. It was relatively peaceful and was Chineseized, and it was a top-down model.

The Sinicization of the Xianbei nation under this model is relatively complete. During the Tang Dynasty, the Xianbei people had been completely integrated into the Han system, and their clothing, customs and even appearance were no longer the same as those of the Han people. Different.

The Xianbei people eventually accepted Han culture and gradually integrated with the Han people over time. Therefore, there is no doubt that some of us must have ancestors from Xianbei people. In other words, there are Xianbei people. Bloodline.

But it should be mentioned that in this process of mutual integration, the Han people have always occupied a dominant position. The Xianbei people did rule the northern region of China back then, but after all, their effective rule was not very long. Moreover, although the Xianbei people ruled the Han people from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Xianbei people did not massacre the Han people with a larger population base. Instead, they intermarryed with the Han people quite frequently.

Therefore, Xianbei prefers a fused character.

Especially after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the Xianbei people have reached cultural unity with the Han people. A large number of Han people who had fled to the south returned to the Central Plains to farm and live, and the number of Han people in the Central Plains increased rapidly. . In addition, intermarriage between Xianbei and Han people has become common, and the Xianbei people, with a smaller population, have been completely integrated by the Han people.

Even the Xianbei people at that time believed that they were just a member of the Han nationality and not an independent nation. After all, Emperor Xiaowen had already proposed that the Han people and Xianbei were of the same ancestry and race. Naturally, there was no need for other Xianbei descendants to be special beings. If they insisted on being special, they might be killed.

Finally, let me make a concise summary. In fact, it is impossible to completely draw a clear line between the Han people and many ethnic minorities in history. The process of human historical development is originally a process of mutual integration of human genes.

For example, the Han nationality was once called "Han people" in history. Such a name is nothing more than the identity of other ethnic groups for all the people of the Han Dynasty, because the Han Dynasty had developed extremely powerful, so A title has remained.

By the time of the Tang Dynasty, our country once again entered an extremely prosperous dynasty. "Tang people" became a name for the people of the Tang Dynasty, and during the reign of the Tang Dynasty, a large number of ethnic minorities were integrated like Xianbei into the system of the Han cultural circle. Upon closer inspection, we cannot simply say that we are the descendants of a certain ethnic group, but can only be said to be the descendants of the integration of multiple ethnic groups.