Shiwei
Encyclopedia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
, northern Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
and northern Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
and were recorded from the time of the Northern Wei
Northern Wei
The Northern Wei Dynasty , also known as the Tuoba Wei , Later Wei , or Yuan Wei , was a dynasty which ruled northern China from 386 to 534 . It has been described as "part of an era of political turbulence and intense social and cultural change"...
(386-534) until the rise of the Mongols of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
in 1206 when the name "Mongol" and "Tatar" were applied to all the Shiwei tribes. They were closely related to the Khitan people
Khitan people
thumb|250px|Khitans [[Eagle hunting|using eagles to hunt]], painted during the Chinese [[Song Dynasty]].The Khitan people , or Khitai, Kitan, or Kidan, were a nomadic Mongolic people, originally located at Mongolia and Manchuria from the 4th century...
to their south. As a result of pressure from the west, south and south-east they never established unified, semi-sedentarized empires like their neighbors, but remained at the level of a nomadic confederation led by tribal chieftains, alternately submitting to the Turks, the Chinese and the Khitan as the political climate evolved. The Mengwu Shiwei, one of the twenty Shiwei tribes during the Tang dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
(618-907), were called the Menggu during the Liao dynasty
Liao Dynasty
The Liao Dynasty , also known as the Khitan Empire was an empire in East Asia that ruled over the regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, and parts of northern China proper between 9071125...
(907-1125) and are generally considered to be the ancestors of the Mongols
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
of Genghis Khan. The ancient Korean pronunciation of Mengwu (蒙兀/蒙瓦) is "Mong-ol". Mongolia is still called "Menggu" in Chinese today.
Origins
In describing the origin of the Shiwei, Chinese dynastic histories record that it is somewhat related to the Khitan, who were of XianbeiXianbei
The Xianbei were a significant Mongolic nomadic people residing in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and eastern Mongolia. The title “Khan” was first used among the Xianbei.-Origins:...
origin. They were local Xianbei tribes who became independent after the Xianbei state
Xianbei state
The Xianbei state or Xianbei confederation was a nomadic confederation existed in northern Manchuria and eastern Mongolia from 93 to 234 AD. They descended from the Donghu and spoke a Mongolic language....
dissolved in 234 with the death of Budugen. In the Weishu, it is recorded that the language of the Shiwei was the same as that of the Khitan, who spoke the Khitan language
Khitan language
The Khitan language is a now-extinct language once spoken by the Khitan people . Khitan is generally deemed to be genetically linked to the Mongolic languages. It was written using two mutually exclusive writing systems known as the Khitan large script and the Khitan small script...
; in the Suishu, it is claimed that the Shiwei belonged to the same kind of people as the Khitan; and in both the Xin Tangshu and Jiu Tangshu, it is claimed that the Shiwei were a collateral branch of the Khitan. In this sense, the Shiwei, exactly some tribes of the Shiwei, undoubtedly had some ethnic relations with the Khitan. The Suishu records that the title of the northern Shiwei chieftain was Mohefu, which is the same as the Khitan title for their chieftain - Mohefu (莫賀弗) or "Mofuhe" (莫弗賀). For example, the Khitan Mofuhe Hechen who paid tribute to the Northern Wei at Datong
Datong
Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province of North China, located a few hundred kilometres west by rail from Beijing with an elevation of...
in 466-470 and the Khitan Mofuhe Wuyu who fled from the Goguryeo
Goguryeo
Goguryeo or Koguryŏ was an ancient Korean kingdom located in present day northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula, southern Manchuria, and southern Russian Maritime province....
and Rouran
Rouran
Rouran , Mongolia name Jujan or Nirun Ruanruan/Ruru , Tan Tan , Juan-Juan or Zhu-Zhuwas the name of a confederation of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of Inner China from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century...
in 479. Mohefu is a Chinese rendition of the title Baghatur
Baghatur
Baghatur is a historical Turco-Mongol honorific title, in origin a term for "hero" or "valiant warrior".The term was first used by the steppe peoples to the north and west of China as early as the 7th century as evidenced in Sui dynasty records...
. Concerning the ethnic relationship between the Shiwei and the Khitan, Janhunen provides a more detailed theory, "the ethnonymic distinction between the Shiwei and Khitan suggests that the division had been completed between the branches leading to Proto-Mongolic and Para-Mongolic"
Tribes
The Shiwei and Wuluohou are known as the Shiwei tribes in the period of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but are separately recorded in the Wei Shu. During the period from the Northern Qi (550-577) to the Sui Dynasty (581-618), there were five big sections of the Shiwei, they were the Nan (Southern) Shiwei, Bei (Northern) Shiwei, Da Shiwei, Bo Shiwei and Shenmoda Shiwei. In the Tang period (618-907), it is known that there were twenty Shiwei tribes, according to the records in dynastic histories. They were the Wusugu, Yisaimo, Saiezhi, Hejie, Wuluohu, Nali, Lingxi, Shanbei, Huangtou, Da Ruzhe, Xiao Ruzhe, Powo, Nebeizhi, Luotuo, Dong Shiwei, Xi Shiwei, Da Shiwei, Mengwu Shiwei, Luozu Shiwei and Dagui.Wuluohun is said to be another name for the Uriankhai
Uriankhai
"Uriankhai" , also known as Urianhai or Uryangkhai, is a term applied to several neighboring ethnic groups...
. The Da Shiwei tribe is thought to be descended from some Rouran
Rouran
Rouran , Mongolia name Jujan or Nirun Ruanruan/Ruru , Tan Tan , Juan-Juan or Zhu-Zhuwas the name of a confederation of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of Inner China from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century...
who fled east after being defeated by the Turks in 555. They were led by their chieftain Tantan (Tatar) and were incorporated into the Shiwei. In fact, Tatar is held to be an alternative name for some major Shiwei tribes. The Da Shiwei are thought to be the same as the Taichuud tribe. According to the Stele of Kul Tigin
Kul Tigin
Kul Tigin Kul Tigin Kul Tigin (Old Turkic:, Kultegin, (闕特勒/阙特勤, Pinyin: quètèqín, Wade-Giles: chüeh-t'e-ch'in, ? - 575 AD) was a general of the Second Turkic Kaganate. He was a second son of Ilterish Shad and the younger brother of Bilge Kagan....
the Thirty Tatars and Nine Tatars were formidable eastern rivals of the Göktürks
Göktürks
The Göktürks or Kök Türks, were a nomadic confederation of peoples in medieval Inner Asia. Known in Chinese sources as 突厥 , the Göktürks under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan The Göktürks or Kök Türks, (Old Turkic: Türük or Kök Türük or Türük; Celestial Turks) were a nomadic confederation of...
along with the Khitan. The number of Tatar tribes are roughly equal to the number of Shiwei tribes. Although linguistically Mongolic, the Da Shiwei may have been descended in some part from the Dingling
Dingling
The Dingling were an ancient Siberian people. They originally lived on the bank of the Lena River in the area west of Lake Baikal, gradually moving southward to Mongolia and northern China...
. The Heichezi ("black-cart") was a Shiwei clan famous for their cart industry. According to the Liaoshi, at one time the Khitan learnt the art of cart-making from the Heichezi clan. The Huangtou ("yellow-head") Shiwei may have been named so because of a high incidence of blondness within their tribe, but it is not certain. However, blondness still occurs regularly in the region today.
Events
In describing the Shiwei tribes, the Tang Huiyao vol. 96 records, "Eastward again, there was the Wuluohu tribe, the other name was Wuluohun, it was called Wuluohou in the Yuan Wei. It inhabited north of the Mount Mogaidu, and beside the Chuo River. This tribe had presented homage and paid tributes continually since the fourth year of Taiwu Zhenjun (444) (of the Northern Wei), throughout the Northern Qi, Zhou and Sui until the years after reign period of Wude (618-626)." In 544 the Shiwei chieftain Chaniandoufa brought gifts from his homeland to the Wei court.The Shiwei's political fate, as the Khitan
Khitan people
thumb|250px|Khitans [[Eagle hunting|using eagles to hunt]], painted during the Chinese [[Song Dynasty]].The Khitan people , or Khitai, Kitan, or Kidan, were a nomadic Mongolic people, originally located at Mongolia and Manchuria from the 4th century...
in great part of their pre-dynastic period, was largely determined by their far more powerful neighbors and by ever-changing balance of power between the successive regimes ruling northern China, on the one hand, and belligerent tribal neighbors on the other. When China had fallen into an anarchy at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the other nomadic people, the Türks, were getting stronger in northern Asia simultaneously, the Shiwei submitted to the Türks
Göktürks
The Göktürks or Kök Türks, were a nomadic confederation of peoples in medieval Inner Asia. Known in Chinese sources as 突厥 , the Göktürks under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan The Göktürks or Kök Türks, (Old Turkic: Türük or Kök Türük or Türük; Celestial Turks) were a nomadic confederation of...
, under the control of the three Tutuns sent by the Turkish supreme leader, so did the Khitan who were controlled by the Tutun, Pandie, who was sent by the Turkish Shabolue khaghan. At the beginning of the 7th Century, the great Chinese Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
was established. The Shiwei and many other tribal peoples were gradually drawn into its political orbit. In the period from 618 to 629, the Shiwei frequently presented homage and paid tributes to the Tang court. As a response, the Tang court set Shizhou, which was subordinate to the Governor-general of Yingzhou to control the Shiwei and Khitan tribes in 629. Until 632, the Wuluohu and some other Shiwei tribes submitted to the Tang.
According to the historical records, in the fourth year of Zhenyuan (788), the Xi
Kumo Xi
The Kumo Xi ) were a Mongolic steppe people located in current Manchuria from 207 AD to 907 AD. After the death of their ancestor Tadun in 207 they were no longer called Wuhuan but joined the Khitan Xianbei in submitting to the Yuwen Xianbei. Their history is widely linked to the more famous Khitan...
raided the Zhenwu army (located in modern Hohhot) together with the Shiwei, slaughtering both the Chinese and the Uighur commissioners, capturing the frontier people and plundering their domestic animals. The Shiwei as relative weak tribes almost always wavered between the stronger powers. They were involved in the campaign over the Chinese frontier, probably by the coercion of the Xi, their stronger neighbors to the southwest. In 789, the Shiwei sent envoys to the Tang court to apologize for their offence. During the period from 792 to 842, while having been Uighur vassals, the Shiwei still frequently presented tributes to the Tang court. In 835 the Shiwei chieftain Dasheng Duacheng led 30 Shiwei representatives in a visit to the Tang court. The Shiwei chieftain Dale came to visit the Tang court along with the Xi during the reign of Emperor Yizong of Tang (reigned 859-873). After the Uighur Empire was brought to an end by the Kirghiz in 840, they submitted to the Tang and killed the Uighur commissioners by an order of the Tang. From 789 onward, no aggressive actions conducted by the Shiwei could be found throughout the Chinese historical data, until some of their tribes were incorporated into the
Khitan and some others migrated to the northwest around the turn of the 10th Century.
In 1087 representatives of the subject Menggu Shiwei came to show respect to the Khitan court at Yanjing (Beijing). The Menggu Shiwei aided the Liao dynasty against the Jurchens till the end. According to the Qidan Guozhi, in 1124 the Shiwei helped the Khitans against the invading Jurchens. The Dajin Guozhi recording the same event says that in 1124 the Tatars helped the Khitans against the invading Jurchens. This, among other indications, has led to the opinion that the Tatars were identical with the Shiwei.