Study On The History Of Tuyuhun

Tuyuhun was a member of the nomadic people in northern China from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty and originated from Murong Xianbei and belonged to the Donghu system.Tuyuhun has been active for seven centuries in history.It is not only rich and colorful in its own history,but also has extensive and profound contact and blend with the neighbouring regimes and nationalities in military,political,economic and cultural fields.It deeply participated in the historical process of ancient China and is one of the creators of ancient Chinese multi-ethnic history and culture.The study of the history of Tuyuhun has an indispensable academic significance for a more comprehensive understanding of the northern ethnic groups from the period of the Western Jin Dynasty to the period of the Northern Song Dynasty.There are a lot of academic achievements in the study of the history of Tuyuhun.If we want to deepen on this basis,we need to systematically sort out and analyse the research results of comprehensive research,historical data,clan name,political system,economic type,cultural customs,ethnic relations and other aspects of Tuyuhun by Chinese and foreign scholars at all times and in order to make some contribution to future research.In past research results,the comparison and analysis of the basic historical data of Tuyuhun in Chinese literature is a little insufficient,which is the basic work that must be paid attention to.It can be considered that the biographies of Tuyuhun in the official histories,such as The Book of Song,The Book of Southern Qi,The Book of Liang,The Book of Zhou,The Book of Sui,The Book of Jin,The History of Northern Dynasty,The Book of Old Tang Dynasty,The Book of New Tang Dynasty,The New History of the Five Dynasties,belong to the first-hand historical materials for studying the history of Tuyuhun in different historical periods.However,the current edition of The Biography of Tuyuhun of The Book of Wei and The Biography of Tuyuhun of The History of Northern Dynasty,also retain partial fragments of The Book of Wei,making it the most valuable part.The Biography of Tuyuhun of The Book of Song plays a vital role in all historical literature on Tuyuhun's history because historians of succeeding generations either added,deleted,or rewrote the early history of Tuyuhun.Although The Biography of Tuyuhun of The Book of Jin was compiled much later,it is one of the earlier Tuyuhun biographies among existing literature.It first verifies and explains the pronunciation of names,including "Tu-yu-hun","Tui-hun","Tu-yu",and "Hun" through Chinese phonology,ethnohistory,and philology.After reconstructing the pronunciations of these nouns,it studies such pronouns as "A-chai-lu","Zi-lu","He-nan","A-zi-lu","Ye-lu" and "va-zha(A-za)".Next,it proposes that "Tui-hun","Tu-hun","Hun",and "Tu-yu" are all hurried pronunciations and abbreviations of "Tuyuhun",while "A-zi" and ancient Tibetan A-za(also written as "va-zha")are homophones of "A-chai",though their meanings are translated differently."A-chai-lu","Zi-lu","A-zi-lu",and "Ye-lu" are family names of Xianbei people living in Hexi.Also,these names may be appellations for tribal groups of diverse nationalities or derogatory titles for Tuyuhun.However,we should be cautious in interpreting the meaning of the name "Tuyuhun".In the absence of clear and direct interpretation records,we should not make rash conclusions.As a descendant of Murong Xianbei,Tuyuhun formed the hereditary system of Khan position,which was based on the father's death and son's succession,and established a set of pluralistic official systems following the system of Western Jin Dynasty and Northern Wei Dynasty.Specifically speaking,before Fulianchou,Tuyuhun set up a central official system with Zhangshi and Sima as prime minister following the system of subordinate officials in the Kingdom of Western Jin Dynasty.The local political system belonged to the tribal system,showing the characteristics of Hu Han hybrid.After the succession of Fulianchou,there was a great change in his political system.Following the official system of the Northern Wei Dynasty reformed by Emperor Xiaowen,a central official system was established with Secretariat,Chancery and Ministry of supervision as the center.The local political system also changed from tribal system to feudal system,and a simple criminal law was formulated.The economic type of Tuyuhun is characterized by nomadic economy,hunting,handicraft,agriculture and commerce.Among them,nomadic industry provides the basic means of production and living for Tuyuhun people.It is always the main economic type of Tuyuhun and occupies a dominant position in its economic structure.Hunting plays a special role in the production and life of Tuyuhun people.In addition to food and clothing,it also has the functions of entertainment and military training.Handicraft industry is an auxiliary industry of nomadic industry,which provides Tuyu Hun people with production tools,daily necessities and military equipment.Agriculture is also one of the economic types of Tuyuhun,but it is not the main mode of economic production of Tuyuhun people,and it accounts for a low proportion in the whole economic structure.Commerce plays an important role in the economic structure of Tuyuhun,which makes its nomadic economy present a strong commercial color.Under the influence of Xianbei culture,Han culture,Qiang culture,Di culture and western region culture,Tuyuhun people gradually formed distinctive cultural customs to adapt to their own social development and created distinctive civilization achievements in their long-term production and life practices.They have formed a variety of eating habits with meat and cheese as the main food,a typical Xianbei clothing culture,marriage customs with stealing marriage as the main,funeral customs with earth burial as the main,and religious beliefs with primitive Shamanism,Buddhism,lion worship as the main categories.Tuyuhun's self-political orientation has significant differences in different historical periods,from the "orthodox" Dynasty's vassal to Nomadic Khanate competing with the Central Plains Dynasties,and then to the Tang Dynasty's vassal,which is constantly developing and changing.The principles of handling ethnic relations are also changing with the change of self-political orientation.On the whole,a good tributary relationship with the southern regime is maintained.After the unification of the Northern Wei Dynasty,Tuyuhun had to belong to the Northern Wei Dynasty in order to maintain his own survival and development,but he did not agree with the Northern Wei Dynasty in terms of political identity.After Fulianchou Khan,Tuyuhun's self-political orientation changed,The monarch of Tuyuhun no longer regarded himself as a prince of the orthodox Dynasty in the Central Plains,but as "Khan",the supreme ruler of the nomadic society.This thought is reflected in the exchanges with neighbouring ethnic groups and regimes,which shows that interests first and right and left and right,use their own geographical advantages to skilfully deal with various forces,in order to maximize the interests.After being destroyed and rebuilt by the Tang Dynasty,Tuyuhun's self-political orientation changed again.He always regarded himself as a vassal of the Tang Dynasty,showing obvious characteristics of vassal state.