Who can introduce the history of the Huns?

History of the Xiongnu (1)

History of the Xiongnu (1)

For most Chinese people, when the word "Asian" is mentioned When looking at the picture, it is easy to think of an "orthodox" image of yellow people. They are of medium to short stature, with sparse hair, light yellow skin, slender eyes, not very prominent brow ridges, and straight but not high nose bridges. This is a typical image of Northeast Asians, mainly distributed in northern China, North Korea and Japan. We think this is the "pure" yellow race. The history and culture of Asia are mainly their history and culture. They created Asia and gave Asia the meaning of "Asia". Other Asians are hybridized both physically and culturally. West Asians were hybridized by Indo-European races, and South Asians were hybridized by Negro race. We tend to associate this orthodox Asian with a long history and cultural origins, intensive agriculture, and a gentle and reserved character. They are unfit and poorly muscled, and although there may be many tall individual types, they are generally not stocky. No matter in terms of history, culture, social life or physical constitution, they all appear too slender, as if they have been overly saturated with a precocious civilization. Asian intuitive imagery seems to have feminine characteristics. It should be said that this is an incomplete or inaccurate impression. Asia's slender and feminine characteristics may come from the continental climate and the agricultural production methods it determines. In fact, the real North Asians are nomadic people. They have never been the gentle, reserved, overly civilized and somewhat feminine "Asians" like us. They are a fierce, provocative, and bloody nation. Although they did not develop a sophisticated agricultural culture, they were never less intelligent than us. Ordinary Westerners and Western anthropologists position the representatives of Asians as Mongolians, which somewhat puzzles us so-called "orthodox" Asians. If we know something about Western history, we won't be surprised by this. You must know that the impression left on them by the nomadic peoples of the North Asian grasslands is so profound that it is not an exaggeration to say that it will be unforgettable. The Mongols they are talking about have migrated to the West on a large scale, or simply invaded and raided, whether in the pre-civilization period or in recorded historical periods. North Asians were good at expeditions. In the early days of human civilization, they were widely distributed across the Eurasian continent. The Lapps in Western Europe and the Eskimos in the Arctic, as well as the Finn-Ugric language group, Hungary and Bulgaria in central Europe, Turkey on the Eurasian border, and the Mongolian facial shape and cultural characteristics of the Russians are all from them The results of the activity. Since the beginning of recorded history, North Asian steppe peoples have made four military invasions of the West. The first was the westward migration of the Huns; the second and third marked the beginning of Hungarian and Bulgarian history respectively; and the fourth was the Mongolian expedition. Among them, both the first and fourth times have direct or indirect relations with China. The nightmare most vividly remembered by Europeans is the Mongolian conquest of the world. We Chinese are no strangers to the Mongolian conquests in the thirteenth century. Genghis Khan's ambitions led to the insertion of a Yuan dynasty into the annals of Chinese history, a vast empire spanning Eurasia unique in human history. The advanced military technology and science of the Han people made the Mongolian expedition unstoppable. Their military advantage over Westerners was no less than that of the United States over Iraq in the Gulf War. Although their civilization enlightenment was later than that of our Han people, the Mongols are by no means lacking in wisdom. Genghis Khan was never a reckless hero who only knew how to bend a bow and shoot at eagles. It was the Mongols who were the first to apply the idea of ??systems engineering to warfare. We can fully imagine that without the thinking of systems engineering, such a huge expedition plan would be impossible to realize. A reliable logistics support system, a unique engineering force commanded by Han people at the time, advanced military tools and communication methods, and careful battle plans, coupled with their natural bravery and toughness, as well as their monotony and backwardness in material enjoyment, This allowed them to travel across Eurasia like a hurricane. This was a real Mongolian hurricane, the "Yellow Peril" that still haunts Westerners. Although the Mongolian conquest was so massive, I think among the Asian yellow people who conquered Europe, the westward migration of the Huns was the most tragic and poetic, and had immeasurable historical significance. Regardless of whether Westerners are willing to accept this view, in fact it was the Huns who contributed to a turning point in the development of European history.

They pushed the Germanic barbarians in the jungle onto the stage of history, and together with them ended the era of the Romans in a devastating manner. The history of the empire disappeared, diversified feudal state politics began, and a major division of European countries was formed that continues almost to this day. Attila, the last Hun king, was unanimously called the "Scourge of God" by the Romans and Germans, expressing Europe's fear and helplessness. However, don’t forget that it was the Huns who wielded the first whip that turned the chariot of European history. This is the true whip of God. The Huns established a huge empire in Europe, but their empire was short-lived. Their fate in Europe seems to have merely contributed to a turning point in history. When this transition was completed, their empire collapsed, and even the entire nation was absorbed into European history and culture and ceased to exist. The story of the Huns who migrated westward to Europe is extremely dramatic. This nation ended itself at the most glorious moment of its life, leaving behind an unforgettable legend. In the vocabulary of Westerners, the Huns are synonymous with extremely vicious people. During World War II, Hitler's German soldiers were called Huns. However, in the lands once ruled by the Huns, people still admired and missed Attila's heroism. To this day, Attila is still the name used by boys in Hungary and Turkey, and some people even claim to be descendants of Attila. The Huns also left something else to Europe. After Attila failed to conquer Gaul (the only failure in his life), he attacked Aquileia in Italy the following year. Some farmers and fishermen (known as Venetians) fled the war to a swampy peninsula on the Adriatic coast. After hundreds of years of operation, they established one of the most beautiful and developed city-states in Europe, which later became the Republic of Venice. We Chinese are no strangers to the Huns. They are a northern nomadic people living on the Mongolian Plateau. They are also known as the Hu people in history. They have been around since the beginning of recorded history. During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, they were called Guifang, Quanrong, etc. The ancient Chinese believed that they, like us, were descendants of Yan and Huang, descendants of the Xia people who were driven to the north by the Yin people. According to "Historical Records: Biography of the Xiongnu", "The Xiongnu are descendants of their ancestors, the Xia Queen." "The Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Great Wilderness Bei Jing" states that the Quanrong and the Xia tribe have the same ancestors, both descended from the Yellow Emperor. From the Spring and Autumn Period until the Eastern Han Dynasty, and even during the Five Hus and Sixteen Kingdoms period, the Huns continued to harass southward. In the 24th year of Guangwu and Jianwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty (48 BC), a small group of Huns, about 5,000 households, split off and joined the Han Dynasty. They were called the Southern Xiongnu. Most of the remaining Huns, namely the Northern Huns, were defeated and fled to the west in AD 89 under the attack of the Eastern Han Empire. In order to maintain the integrity of their nation, these Huns who moved westward struggled for more than 200 years on the grasslands around the Caspian Sea in search of a new homeland. In the second half of the fourth century (AD 360), their power suddenly exploded. Under the leadership of a king named Balambir, the Huns entered the territory of the Alans, a powerful kingdom located between the Volga and Don rivers and belonging to the Turkic nomads. The Huns defeated the Alan coalition forces along the Don River, killed the Alan king, and adopted the Alan army as their ally through treaties and threats of force. The Huns then began to continue westward, and their next target was the Ostrogoths. From this moment on, the most glorious scene of this nation began. I do not deny that I am very fond of this period of history. When I first learned about Attila's great deeds, I was fascinated by these Huns. Their historical role, their dramatic destiny, their outstanding military and diplomatic genius, and the impact they have left on the Western world as a true oriental nation - to be precise, a descendant of Yan and Huang. , are deeply attracted to me. It should be said that they evoked an emotion in me. If this emotion can be conveyed to readers, then I will feel very satisfied. This article will talk about some of the deeds of the Huns in Europe. When the Huns entered Europe, they had been away from their traditional homeland for more than two hundred years. Before this, apart from Chinese history books, there were very few records about them, especially their experience of migrating from northern China to the west. Generally speaking, we can know that the Northern Xiongnu passed through Kangju, Dayuan, Shanshan and other Western Region countries on their way westward.

These countries had been conquered and enslaved by the Xiongnu in the past, so instead of welcoming their transit, they took advantage of their downfall to retaliate. Therefore, the Xiongnu had to continue to move westward to find a new home for survival. During this period, they stayed in Central Asia for about two hundred years. When they left for the last time, the Huns left the old and the weak in the local area and selected the strong to continue their western expedition. Some European historians believe that they had little cultural achievements and that they were just a nomadic people who lived on horseback and had unusual military genius. The Roman historian Marcellinus described them as a group of savages who did not know how to use fire, did not know how to appreciate delicious food, and ate the meat and grass roots of any animal. This obviously contains considerable distortion and misunderstanding. The social organization of the Huns was a military tribal alliance. They are good at fighting and have extremely strong combat mobility. They are good at riding and shooting, and are good at pretending to retreat to lure the enemy, and then outflank them. They could tell the number of enemies based on the smoke caused by horses running in the distance. It is thought that they invented some harnesses, such as the stirrups for riding horses. Some people think that because they migrated long distances and experienced many regions and ethnic groups, their physiques changed greatly. However, according to the description of Attila's image in ancient Western historical books, it can be seen that he has typical characteristics of the yellow race. We can imagine that the Huns recruited some other races as their allies during their westward migration. Over the past two to three hundred years, these foreigners mixed with the Huns to varying degrees. The later Huns actually mixed a variety of different ingredients, but they all identified themselves as Huns in terms of national cultural characteristics and national psychology. After the Huns defeated the Alans, they temporarily settled in the Don River grassland. To the west of the Huns alliance, there were two Germanic tribal alliances: one was the Ostrogoth alliance from the west of the Dnieper River to the east of the Denis River, and the other was the Ostrogoth alliance west of the Denis River. to the Visigoth confederation between the Carpathians. To the southwest of the Visigoth League was the territory of the Roman Empire. After the Roman Empire conquered Gaul, it mainly had Germanic neighbors in the north. Initially, it was mostly the Romans who expanded and plundered the Germanic areas. After the third century, the empire declined day by day, the border defenses were loosened, and various Germanic barbarian tribes continued to encroach and infiltrate. The situation at that time was somewhat similar to China's "Five Chaos in China" at the same time. These Germanic barbarian tribes later launched a full-scale attack on the Roman Empire and eventually became the conquerors of the empire. During the era of the Roman Empire, the Germans were called barbarians because of their cultural backwardness. At that time, the Germans lived in the forest. They basically made a living by hunting. They wore animal skins, ate animal meat, lived in straw huts, and had no writing or etiquette. They never bathed, and their bodies smelled so bad that civilized people were afraid to avoid them. The Romans at that time cursed, "Don't let me meet a German." The Germans were tall, with blue eyes and white skin, golden red hair, and extremely strong bodies. Their children were raised like animals without care, and women often did heavy manual labor. The tribal organization of the Germans was a primitive military tribal alliance, and the leader was also the highest military officer. The Germanic tribes had been at war with each other for many years, and all the men were warriors. Their horses were small and used primarily for riding rather than fighting. Once faced with an enemy, they would jump off their horses and fight with the enemy with a kind of short sword. At this time, their horses would stand still obediently. Compared with the Huns, the Germans' living conditions were much better. They had forests and land suitable for farming, while the Huns had long lived on the northern steppes with harsh climate conditions. In 375 AD, the Huns, led by their old king Balambar, began to attack the territory of the Ostrogoths on a large scale, kicking off a great ethnic migration that lasted for more than two hundred years in the history of medieval Europe. The Ostrogoths had never seen mounted combat, nor had they seen such a swift and violent attack. Under the overwhelming attack of the Huns, the Ostrogothic king committed suicide because of his guilt because he could not save his homeland. His subjects fled westward until the Danube River. In order to find a new living space, these terrified German barbarians attacked the Visigoth tribes they passed along the way, uprooted them and drove them farther west. While fleeing, the Visigoths attacked the neighboring Germanic tribes, which soon spread fear to the Vandals, Sueves, Burgundians, Alamanni, Franks and Saxons. . This was like a chain reaction. The Huns' attack drove almost all the Germanic tribes into action.

There is no doubt that the military capabilities of the Huns exceeded all the German barbarians and Romans at that time. Roman historians have vivid descriptions of this. The Huns always made chaotic shouts when fighting. Sometimes they formed regular columns, but most of the time they fought without rules. The Huns' combat mobility was unusual. They would sometimes scatter suddenly and sometimes gather together extremely quickly to form a loose array. They would run as fast as lightning across the wilderness, flying over the enemy's forts at lightning speed, causing the enemy to be attacked before they could take a breath. The Huns' excellent riding and archery skills enabled them to fight at long distances. When fighting at close quarters, they had no regard for their own safety, and when their enemies tried to dodge their swords, they would throw a net to trap them and immobilize them. Under pressure from the Huns, all these Germans fled westward, hoping to seek refuge within the Roman Empire. Later, with the permission of the Roman Emperor Valens, the Visigoths crossed the Danube and took refuge in Thrace within the empire. The number of Visigoths who came to take refuge was so large that the Roman officials responsible for counting them could not count them at all. After the count reached 200,000, they lost control. The influx of so many Visigoths was undoubtedly an uneasy factor for the Roman Empire. But the Roman officials in charge of these Visigoths made a huge mistake. They took the opportunity to arbitrarily use and humiliate these German barbarians, and finally forced them to rise up and resist. In 378 AD, the Visigoths defeated the Roman army that came to suppress them at Adrianople near Constantinople, and Emperor Valens himself was also killed. Later, the Roman general Theodosius reluctantly suppressed the uprising at the cost of allowing the Visigoths to live in the western Balkans as allies. Theodosius later became the Roman emperor. Before his death, he divided Rome into east and west parts and bequeathed them to his two sons. In this way, starting from 395 AD, there were two independent Eastern and Western Roman Empires. The capital of Western Rome was still the city of Rome, while the capital of Eastern Rome was Constantinople (the Roman Empire began to implement decentralization in 285 AD, but was restored to unity by Emperor Constantine in 312 AD). The Germans were wild, unwilling barbarians, and they were also true warriors. Like the Huns, as a backward barbarian people, they knew little about the enjoyment of life except drinking. Therefore, compared with the Romans, they could achieve high combat effectiveness at a very low cost. After the Germans were driven out of the forest, they could no longer maintain their accustomed way of life and became real bandits and conquerors. They roamed the territory of the Roman Empire, especially the Visigoths and Vandals. The Visigoths had been fighting in vast areas of Gaul, Italy and Spain. In 396 AD, King Alaric of the Visigoths captured Athens and looted it. In 401 AD, the Visigoths invaded Italy and burned Rome in 410 AD, making the holy city fall for the first time. The Vandals attacked Rome again in 455, looting and destroying it and causing extremely heavy losses. This is how the Vandalism, which wasted and destroyed the achievements of civilization, got its name. In just a few decades, some Germanic kingdoms were established in the empire. The Visigoths conquered and founded Spain in 416. The Franks occupied Gaul in 418 and established the Frankish Kingdom. The Vandals entered North Africa in 429, occupied and established their capital in Carthage in 439. In these German conquests, the Huns rarely played a prominent role. After the first heavy blow to Europe, they stayed along the Danube River and established a Hun Empire in Central Europe centered on the Great Hungarian Plain (then called Pannonia). During this period, the Ostrogoths were forced to join the Huns' alliance, which strengthened their power. They also fought with the Visigoths against the Romans. They crossed the Danube River in 395 and participated in the battle against the Romans; they also participated in the battle to capture the city of Rome in 410. But for fifty years they held their position essentially as allies of the Romans. In return, starting from 420, the Eastern Roman Empire would provide them with a certain salary every year.

By the time of Theodosius I in 432, the power of the Huns had increased significantly, so much so that the Hunnic king Roas, also known as Rugilas, forced the Eastern Romans to pay annual A large stipend, which in essence has become a tribute. This awkward relationship lasted until the Huns repeatedly threatened to intervene directly in the internal affairs of the empire. The decisive rise in power of the Huns came after Attila (406-453) ascended the throne and became king of the Hunnic Empire. In 433 AD, the 27-year-old Attila and his brother Bleda inherited the throne of the empire from their uncle Loas. In 436, Attila ruthlessly murdered his brother and ruled the empire alone. Compared with his predecessors, Attila was more ambitious, more aggressive, and extremely intelligent. Attila is a very prominent character in history. The Hun Empire during the Attila period was the last and most glorious chapter in the history of the Huns. He humiliated the Romans, frightened the Germans, and was so powerful that he frustrated and helpless the Westerners, so much so that he and his Huns cavalry were called the "Scourge of God." Regarding various aspects of Attila's personal records, there have been some derogatory records in Western history books, but they still retain vivid and specific descriptions. Attila fought bravely when he was young, but after he ascended the throne, he relied more mainly on his mind rather than his martial arts to complete the conquest of the north. He has great ambitions and superb political and diplomatic skills, and is also cunning and cruel. As Attila, King of the Hun, his gait and behavior showed a kind of arrogance that his power was superior to that of all mankind. According to legend, he once claimed to possess the sword of the God of War, so when his subordinates came to see him, if they looked directly at him, they had to step back at the same time, otherwise their eyes would be burned out. He had a habit of rolling his eyes ferociously, as if he enjoyed the fear of those he frightened. Attila advocated simplicity in life, but he was very tolerant of the luxury of his subordinates. His subjects were extremely in awe of him. When he went out on patrol, everyone who saw him would cheer for him to show their obedience. There would be a canopy to greet him when he entered and exited the palace, and there would be hymns specially composed for him at banquets. He even had a personal secretary as a gift from the Romans. Attila's appearance seems unflattering. According to records, he was short and fat, with broad shoulders, a huge head on a short and thick neck, thick black hair and a sparse beard, a flat nose, and a pair of sharp and sinister black eyes. Although this description seems a bit disrespectful, there is no doubt that this is an image of an Oriental. This shows that after more than 300 years of westward migration, the Huns were not mixed with other ethnic groups and lost their original physical characteristics. We don’t know much about the social life of the Huns during Attila’s time, but we can still get a glimpse of it from some legends. There was an Eastern Roman official and his entourage who went on a mission to the Hun Empire. They were fortunate enough to meet Attila and other Hun generals, and even participated in the feast held by Attila. From his lengthy record of this experience, we can learn about some of the folk customs, diplomacy, and politics at that time. These Roman officials encountered heavy rains and floods on the way, and were able to escape thanks to the generous help of the Huns from nearby villages. The Huns welcomed them into the village to warm themselves by the fire, served them delicious food, and arranged for them to rest. Not only that, but as part of their goodwill, the Huns also sent beautiful girls to accompany their guests to rest. It can be seen from this that the Huns, as a culturally backward nation at that time, had barbaric customs and simple and kind folkways coexisting. In terms of material life such as clothing, food, and shelter, the Huns were generally wealthy. They have delicious food and fine wine, nice hair styles, noble clothes and even huge bathrooms. But they only have villages, not cities. Attila's palace was nothing more than a wooden structure surrounded by wooden piles and topped with a spire. Due to the extremely vast territory involved in many years of conquest, the ethnic composition of the Huns' tribe was very complex. Hunnic, Gothic and Latin, or a mixture of these languages, were all spoken here. This Eastern Roman official met and talked with a Greek at the site of the palace of Atti. This Greek was originally a prisoner, but he was freed due to his bravery in battle, married a Hun woman, and became a guest of the nobles. What is interesting is the comparison and evaluation of the Hunnic Empire and the Roman Empire by this Greek.

He said that he liked living among these savages. When there was no war, life here was quite peaceful and rich. Rome, in turn, was responsible for many of the disasters caused by the war.