Some Issues Concerning The History Of The Huns

The Huns inhabited Northern China from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the period of Wei and they were very influential in Chinese history.As a general name of the tribe “Huns” appeared for the first time in historical records in Qin Dynasty and was occasionally used in historic annals in brief or with some details provided.Generally “Huns” was recorded in the historical documents of the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties,whereas this name rarely appears in Chinese historical records after the Jin Dynasty.The history of the Huns and their descendants is important for the history of China's northern nationalities.In terms of the regional history and the history of ancient ethnic relations,its research is highly significant for the ancient Chinese history.As to the present status of relatively unsubstantial research,some issues about Hun's history need more systematic study and discussion.On the basis of previous studies this research reconsiders and newly explores some issues,which have been less analyzed before,and attempts to put forward a new academic viewpoint.The literature used for this dissertation constitute mainly historical documents as well as some archaeological material,and relevant theories and methods from disciplines such as history,ethnology,historical geography and archaeology are employed.The dissertation consists of three chapters.Chapter One provides a thorough analysis of the basic legal system of the Huns.In the past,historians just recorded the contents of a few parts of the Huns' code of laws,but they did not achieve any results in regard to other regions of the law.Through summarizing detailed cases we can find that the Huns had a complete,even abundant,legal system,which included state,social system as well as military and ordinary laws.The Hun's code of laws had positive influence on stabilizing and promoting the social development.Chapter Two is about different historical periods of the Huns' succession to Chanyu.Based on previous studies and new historical data,it was found that the Huns had different throne succession systems in different periods and that many factors influenced these systems,such as predecessor Chanyu's orders and nobility's interferences.Chapter Three is based on the factors mentioned in Chapter Two and analyzes the Hun's nobility's influence on Huns' society and its composition.Actually “Guiren”,“Daren”?“Wang” and “Yinqin Shizu” were all used to record the same group of nobility by different historians.