Where do the ancient Xianbei, Khitan, and Xiongnu peoples live now?

Those once-prominent nations such as the Xianbei, Khitan, and Xiongnu have long since perished in the long course of history. It may not be accurate to say that they died out. To be precise, these ethnic groups have now integrated into other ethnic groups, mainly the Han people. Their descendants are indeed still distributed across the land of China. Xiaoyuan will take a look at the rise and fall of these ethnic groups from the beginning. Let’s first talk about the Xiongnu, the ancestor of the nomadic people. The Xiongnu first appeared in historical materials during the Warring States Period. It once joined forces with the armies of several other countries to attack Qin. At this time, the Xiongnu was still a loose alliance composed of many nomadic tribes. From the perspective of the Central Plains, they are all Huns. From their own perspective, the Huns are just what outsiders call themselves. We all have our own tribes. There are no less than dozens of these large and small tribes, and some of the larger ones are : Tu Ge, Hun Porridge, Ding Ling, Lin Hu, Lou Fan, etc. However, by the end of the Warring States Period, the Huns had truly become one family, and their threat to the Central Plains was becoming more and more serious. Countries had to start building the Great Wall to prevent the Huns from plundering every day. Even so, it could not stop the Xiongnu's continuous invasion and encroachment, and each family had no choice. The wars during the Warring States Period were really endless, and there was no spare power to deal with the Xiongnu. This situation changed after the unification of Qin Shihuang. He sent Meng Tian on the Northern Expedition, recovered the occupied Hetao area, and drove the Xiongnu back to Mobei. However, as soon as Qin Shihuang died, the Xiongnu came back under the leadership of Touman Shanyu, and Hetao was occupied again. The Xiongnu became more and more powerful. They defeated the other two nomadic tribes, the Yuezhi and the Donghu, and began to form a large empire. Therefore, Liu Bang personally conquered the Xiongnu, but they were all surrounded in Baideng and almost received a box lunch in advance. At this time, the area controlled by the Xiongnu is roughly as shown in the picture below. It can be seen that it was much larger than the territory of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. Next, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty came on the scene. Wei Qing, Huo Qubing and other famous generals defeated the Xiongnu and recovered a large area of ??lost territory. The Xiongnu gave in and were forced to move westward, and soon split into the northern and southern Xiongnu. The Southern Xiongnu went south and surrendered to the Han Dynasty. From then on, what the Han Dynasty had to deal with was actually the Northern Xiongnu who stayed in Mobei. The Eastern Han Dynasty continued to attack the Northern Huns. The Northern Huns were not at peace. There was also a plague of locusts to help them. They suffered several defeats and lost hundreds of thousands of people. They had to continue to flee westward. During this period, the Han army was led by a famous general. Dou Xian. I fled to the vicinity of Wusun Kingdom. Where is this place? I found a map to show it. This is already the far west of the Western Region. As this was not enough, the Han Dynasty continued to attack, and the Northern Xiongnu continued to retreat westward into the Central Asian steppes. Since then, records have been lost. Many people believe that the people led by the Huns leader Attila, known as the "Whip of God", were the northern Huns who moved westward, but this has not yet been recognized in the historians. The Southern Xiongnu who surrendered to the Han Dynasty became restless at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and gradually regained their independent status. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Southern Xiongnu Chanyu occupied Bingzhou and established their hegemony, which also opened the period of the Five Hus and Sixteen Kingdoms. During this period, Liu Yuan established the territory of the former Zhao as shown below: This was the last glory of the Xiongnu. After the demise of the former Zhao, the Xiongnu never rose again. The Xiongnu who once dominated for a while disappeared from history, and the Xiongnu merged into the Han nationality. Their descendants are widely distributed in today's Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan and Fujian. For example, the Jin family is located in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, the Jin family is located in Zhaili Village, Saiqi Town, Fu'an City, Fujian Province, and the Helian family is located in Hebi City, Henan Province. , located in Nanxi Guzhai County, Wannan Anhui Province, Jinshi Jinya Town, Yuzhong City, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, Jinshi Jincun Houlu, Zhengzhai Town, Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province, Congshi Wendeng City, Shandong Province, etc., are all legendary. They are descendants of the Xiongnu Jinri. Let’s talk about Xianbei. The ancestor of Xianbei came from ancient Siberia, and is now generally considered to be a descendant of Donghu or Shanrong. When talking about Xianbei, we still have to talk about Xianbei’s ancestor Donghu. After the Shanyu was defeated, he retreated to the Xianbei Mountains, hence the name. At that time, the main scope of Xianbei's activities was equivalent to today's Chifeng City in eastern Inner Mongolia, near the Hagul River in Arukorqin Banner and northwest Liaoning. Suppressed and subordinated to the Xiongnu. It was not until Dou Xian was defeated by the Xiongnu that a vacuum appeared on the Mongolian plateau, and Xianbei had room to rise. Especially when Wuhuan, another nomadic tribe in the late Han Dynasty, declined after being conquered by Cao Cao, Xianbei became the boss. Many tribes originally controlled by the Xiongnu called themselves Xianbei. The period from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Eastern Jin Dynasty was the peak period of Xianbei. Among them, the Murong tribe established the Qianyan, Later Yan, Xiyan, and Nan. There are a series of large and small Yan states such as Yan. It is no wonder that Murong Fu in "The Eight Tribes of the Dragon" is still determined to regain the Yan state. The Yuwen tribe established the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and the Tuoba tribe established the Dai Kingdom, the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and the Western Wei Dynasty. and other countries. The Tuyuhun tribe of Western Xianbei dominated Qinghai, Gansu, southern Xinjiang, and western Sichuan until it was conquered by Tubo in 663. In addition, there were also small regimes such as Western Qin and Nanliang. During that time, Xianbei was active. After many regions in the northeast, northwest, and southwest were destroyed one by one, the Xianbei people never recovered, and the majority were merged into the Han people, while the rest evolved into other grassland tribes such as Rouran. In modern times, the Xibo people are considered to be descendants of the Xianbei. They are mainly distributed in Liaoning Province and Xinjiang Er Autonomous Region, with about 190,000 people. In addition, more than 3,000 Yuan clan members in Xiaoxiang, Heshan County, Guangdong Province are believed to be descendants of the Xianbei Tufa clan.

This is a powerful character who established a larger dynasty, dominated Asia, and fought against the Central Plains regime for hundreds of years. Where did they come from? In fact, they came from tribes such as Xianbei and Xiongnu. Their ancestors include the Rouran tribe who fled to the upper reaches of the Liao River, and the Dieci tribe of the Yuwen tribe in Eastern Xianbei. In addition, many tribes originally belonging to the Xiongnu scattered in the grasslands also contributed a lot of population to the Khitan. Therefore, the Khitan gradually rose to prominence at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and established the Liao Kingdom under the rule of the heroic Lord Yelu Abaoji, which lasted for more than 200 years. The territory of the Liao Kingdom was quite large. It was said to cover thousands of miles. You can see the picture below for details. It can be said that it lived up to its name. When it was strong, it was the most powerful country in East Asia and Central Asia at that time. After the Liao Kingdom was destroyed by the Jin Kingdom, the Khitan noble Yelu Dashi established the Western Liao in the northwest, which lasted for 87 years and was finally destroyed by the Meng Yuan. Since then, the Khitan as an independent nation has also disappeared. After the Khitan was destroyed, most of their descendants integrated into other ethnic groups in northern China, such as Han, Mongolian, Manchu, etc. There are also ethnic groups that have been preserved. In Central Asia, there are Khitan remnants among the Zhongyuzi Naiman tribe of the Kazakhs, and there are also Khitan tribes among the Kyrgyz people. In China, the Daur people located in the Daur Autonomous Banner of Molidawa in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Ewenki Autonomous Banner, and the Meris Daur District of Qiqihar City in Heilongjiang Province are considered to be direct descendants of the Khitan. They number about 130,000 people. The ethnic group known as the "" people" in Yunnan, according to genealogy records, are also descendants of the Khitans who stayed in the area with the Mongolian army.