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Rouran Khaganate
330 AD–555 AD
Core territories of the Rouran Khaganate in Eastern Asia
Status	Khaganate
Capital	Ting northwest of Gansu Mumocheng
Common languages	Mongolic (Rouran & Mongolian) Old Turkic Middle Chinese(diplomacy)
Religion	Tengrism Shamanism Buddhism
Khagan
• 330 AD	Mugulü
• 555 AD	Yujiulü Dengshuzi
Legislature	Kurultai
Historical era	Late antiquity
• Established	330 AD
• Disestablished	555 AD
Area
405	2,800,000 km (1,100,000 sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Xianbei state First Turkic Khaganate Northern Qi Northern Zhou
Today part of	China Kazakhstan Mongolia Russia

History of Mongolia
Timeline States Rulers Nobility Culture Politics Geography Language Religion
Prehistoric period Afanasievo culture 3300–2500 BC Chemurchek culture 2750–1900 BC Munkhkhairkhan culture 1800–1600 BC Sagsai culture 1500–1000 BC Ulaanzuukh culture 1450–1150 BC Deer stones culture 1400–700 BC Slab-grave culture 1100–300 BC Chandman culture 700–300 BC Pazyryk culture 600–300 BC
Ancient period Xiongnu 209 BC–93 AD Xianbei state 93–234 Rouran Khaganate 330–555 Göktürks (First, Eastern, and Second Turkic Khaganates) 555–630 682–744 Xueyantuo 628–646 Tang protectorate 647–682 Uyghur Khaganate 744–840 Liao dynasty 907–1125
Medieval period Mongol khanates 9th–12th century Khamag Mongol 1130–1206 Mongol Empire 1206–1368 Yuan dynasty 1271–1368 Northern Yuan 1368–1635 Oirat Confederation 1399–1634 Dzungar Khanate 1634–1757 Qing dynasty 1691–1911
Modern period National Revolution 1911 Bogd Khaganate 1911–1919 Chinese occupation 1919–1921 People's Revolution (Soviet intervention in Bogd Khanate) 1921 1921–1924 People's Republic 1924–1992 Democratic Revolution 1990 Modern Mongolia 1990–present
v t e

The Rouran Khaganate (柔然; Róurán), also known as Ruanruan or Juan-juan (蠕蠕; Ruǎnruǎn) (or variously Jou-jan, Ruruan, Ju-juan, Ruru, Ruirui, Rouru, Rouruan or Tantan) was a tribal confederation and later state founded by a people of Proto-Mongolic Donghu origin. The Rouran supreme rulers used the title of "khagan", a popular title borrowed from the Xianbei. The Rouran Khaganate lasted from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century, when they were defeated by a Göktürk rebellion at the peak of their power, which subsequently led to the rise of the Turks in world history.

Their Khaganate overthrown, some Rouran remnants possibly became Tatars while others possibly migrated west and became the Pannonian Avars (known by such names as Varchonites or Pseudo Avars), who settled in Pannonia (centred on modern Hungary) during the 6th century. These Avars were pursued into the Byzantine Empire by the Göktürks, who referred to the Avars as a slave or vassal people, and requested that the Byzantines expel them. While this Rouran-Avars link remains a controversial theory, a recent DNA study has confirmed the genetic origins of the Avar elite as originating from the Mongolian plains. Other theories instead link the origins of the Pannonian Avars to peoples such as the Uar.

Considered an imperial confederation, the Rouran Khaganate was based on the "distant exploitation of agrarian societies", although according to Nikolay Kradin the Rouran had a feudal system, or "nomadic feudalism". The Rouran controlled trade routes, and raided and subjugated oases and outposts such as Gaochang. They are said to have shown the signs of "both an early state and a chiefdom". The Rouran have been credited as "a band of steppe robbers", because they adopted a strategy of raids and extortion of Northern China. The Khaganate was an aggressive militarized society, a "military-hierarchical polity established to solve the exclusively foreign-policy problems of requisitioning surplus products from neighbouring nations and states."

Name

Nomenclature

Róurán 柔然 is a Classical Chinese transcription of the endonym of the confederacy; meanwhile, 蠕蠕 Ruǎnruǎn ~ Rúrú (Weishu), which connoted something akin to "wriggling worm" , was used derogatorily in Tuoba-Xianbei sources. Other transcriptions are 蝚蠕 Róurú ~ Róuruǎn (Jinshu); 茹茹 Rúrú (Beiqishu, Zhoushu, Suishu); 芮芮 Ruìruì (Nanqishu, Liangshu, Songshu), 大檀 Dàtán and 檀檀 Tántán (Songshu). However, Baumer (2018), while acknowledging that Ruanruan (蠕蠕) was a "derogatory pun" on Rouran (柔然), proposes that the ethnonym Rouran (柔然) is indeed derived from the name Ruru (茹茹) or Ruirui (芮芮) of a "tribal father".

Mongolian Sinologist Sükhbaatar suggests Nirun Нирун as the modern Mongolian term for the Rouran, as Нирун resembles reconstructed Chinese forms beginning with *ń- or *ŋ-. Rashid-al-Din Hamadani recorded Niru'un and Dürlükin as two divisions of the Mongols.

Etymology

Klyastorny reconstructed the ethnonym behind the Chinese transcription 柔然 Róurán (LHC: *ńu-ńan; EMC: *ɲuw-ɲian > LMC: *riw-rian) as *nönör and compares it to Mongolic нөкүр nökür "friend, comrade, companion" (Khalkha нөхөр nöhör). According to Klyashtorny, *nönör denotes "stepnaja vol'nica" "a free, roving band in the steppe, the 'companions' of the early Rouran leaders". In early Mongol society, a nökür was someone who had left his clan or tribe to pledge loyalty to and serve a charismatic warlord; if this derivation were correct, Róurán 柔然 was originally not an ethnonym, but a social term referring to the dynastic founder's origins or the core circle of companions who helped him build his state.

However, Golden identifies philological problems: the ethnonym should have been *nöŋör to be cognate to nökür, & possible assimilation of -/k/- to -/n/- in Chinese transcription needs further linguistic proofs. Even if 柔然 somehow transmitted nökür, it more likely denoted the Rouran's status as the subjects of the Tuoba. Before being used as an ethnonym, Rouran had originally been the byname of chief Cheluhui (车鹿会), possibly denoting his status "as a Wei servitor".

History

Origin

Primary Chinese-language sources Songshu and Liangshu connected Rouran to the earlier Xiongnu (of unknown ethnolinguistic affiliation) while Weishu traced the Rouran's origins back to the Donghu, generally agreed to be Proto-Mongols. Xu proposed that "the main body of the Rouran were of Xiongnu origin" and Rourans' descendants, namely Da Shiwei (aka Tatars), contained Turkic elements, besides Mongolic Xianbei. Even so, the Xiongnu's language is still unknown and Chinese historians routinely ascribed Xiongnu origins to various nomadic groups, yet such ascriptions do not necessarily indicate the subjects' exact origins: for examples, Xiongnu ancestry was ascribed to Turkic-speaking Göktürks and Tiele as well as Para-Mongolic-speaking Kumo Xi and Khitans.

Kwok Kin Poon additionally proposes that the Rouran were descended specifically from Donghu's Xianbei lineage, i.e. from Xianbei who remained in the eastern Eurasian Steppe after most Xianbei had migrated south and settled in Northern China. Genetic testings on Rourans' remains suggested Donghu-Xianbei paternal genetic contribution to Rourans.

Khaganate

The founder of the Rouran Khaganate, Yujiulu Shelun, was descended from Mugulü, a slave of the Xianbei. Rouran women were commonly taken as wives or concubines by the Xianbei.

After the Xianbei migrated south and settled in Chinese lands during the late 3rd century AD, the Rouran made a name for themselves as fierce warriors. However they remained politically fragmented until 402 AD when Shelun gained support of all the Rouran chieftains and united the Rouran under one banner. Immediately after uniting, the Rouran entered a perpetual conflict with Northern Wei, beginning with a Wei offensive that drove the Rouran from the Ordos region. The Rouran expanded westward and defeated the neighboring Tiele people and expanded their territory over the Silk Roads, even vassalizing the Hephthalites which remained so until the beginning of the 5th century.

The Hepthalites migrated southeast due to pressure from the Rouran and displaced the Yuezhi in Bactria, forcing them to migrate further south. Despite the conflict between the Hephthalites and Rouran, the Hephthalites borrowed much from their eastern overlords, in particular the title of "Khan" which was first used by the Rouran as a title for their rulers.

The Rouran were considered vassals (chen) by Tuoba Wei. By 506 they were considered a vassal state (fanli). Following the growth of Rouran and the turning of Wei into a classical Chinese state, they were considered partners of equal rights by Wei (lindi gangli).

In 424, the Rouran invaded Northern Wei but were repulsed.

In 429, Northern Wei launched a major offensive against the Rouran and killed a large number of people.

The Chinese are foot soldiers and we are horsemen. What can a herd of colts and heifers do against tigers or a pack of wolves? As for the Rouran, they graze in the north during the summer; in autumn, they come south and in winter raid our frontiers. We have only to attack them in summer in their pasture lands. At that time their horses are useless: the stallions are busy with the fillies, and the mares with their foals. If we but come upon them there and cut them off from their grazing and their water, within a few days they will be either taken or destroyed.

— Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei

In 434, the Rouran entered a marriage alliance with Northern Wei. In 443, Northern Wei attacked the Rouran. In 449, the Rouran were defeated in battle by Northern Wei. In 456, Northern Wei attacked the Rouran. In 458, Northern Wei attacked the Rouran.

In 460, the Rouran subjugated the Ashina tribe residing around modern Turpan and resettled them in the Altai Mountains. The Rouran also ousted the previous dynasty of Gaochang (the remnants of the Northern Liang) and installed Kan Bozhou as its king.

In 492, Emperor Tuoba Hong sent 70 thousand horsemen against Rouran. The outcome of the expedition does not appear in Chinese sources and is thus unknown. According to Nikolay Kradin, since Chinese sources are silent about the outcome of the expedition, it is probable that it was unsuccessful. Kradin notes that, possibly strained after the battle with Wei, the Rourans were not able to prevent the Uighur chief Abuzhiluo from heading "a 100 thousand tents" west, in a series of events that led to the overthrowing and killing of Doulun Khan. Two armies were sent in pursuit of the rebels, one led by Doulun, the other by Nagai, his uncle. The Rouran emerged victorious. In the war against the Uighurs, Doulan fought well, but his uncle Nagai won all the battles against the Uighurs. Thus, the soldiers thought that Heaven didn't favor Doulan anymore, and that he should be deposed in favor of Nagai. The latter declined. Nonetheless, the subjects killed Doulan and murdered his next of kin, installing Nagai on the throne. In 518, Nagai married the sorceress Diwan, conferring her the title of khagatun for her outstanding service.

Between 525 and 527, Rouran was employed by Northern Wei in the suppression of rebellions in their territory, with the Rourans then plundering the local population.

The Rouran Khaganate arranged for one of their princesses, Khagan Yujiulü Anagui's daughter Princess Ruru, to be married to the Han Chinese ruler Gao Huan of the Eastern Wei.

Heqin

The Rourans were involved many times in royal intermarriage (also known as Heqin in China), with the Northern Yan as well as the Northern Wei dynasty and its successors Eastern and Western Wei, which were fighting each other, and each seeking the support of Rouran to defeat the other. Both parties, in turn, took the initiative of proposing such marriages to forge important alliances or solidify relations.

In the 1970s, the Tomb of Princess Linhe was unearthed in Ci County, Hebei. It contained artistically invaluable murals, a mostly pillaged but still consistent treasure, Byzantine coins and about a thousand vessels and clay figurines. Among the latter was the figurine of a shaman, standing in a dancing posture and holding a saw-like instrument. This figurine is thought to reflect the young princess' Rouran/nomadic roots.

On one occasion, in 540, the Rourans allegedly attacked Western Wei reportedly with a million warriors because a Rouran princess reported being dissatisfied with being second to Emperor Wendi's principal wife.

The first khagan Shelun is said to have concluded a "treaty of peace based on kinship" (huoqin) with the rulers of Jin. The royal house of Rouran is also said to have intermarried with the royal house of the Haital (Hephthalites) in the 6th century.

Society

Since the time of Shelun Khan, the khans were bestowed with additional titles at their enthronement. Since 464, starting with Yucheng Khan they started to use epoch names, in imitation of the Chinese. The Rouran dignitaries of the ruling elite also adopted nicknames, referring to their deeds, similarly to the titles the Chinese gave posthumously. Kradin notes that this practice is analogous with that of later Mongolian chiefs. There appears to have been a wide circle composing the nomadic aristocracy, including elders, chieftains, military commanders. The grandees could be high or low ranking. According to Kradin, the khagan could confer titles in reward of services rendered and outstanding deeds. He cites as an example of this an event occurred in 518, when Nagai entitled the sorceress Diwai khagatun, taking her as his wife, and gave a compensation, a post and a title to Fushengmou, her then former husband. The Rouran titles included mofu, mohetu (cf. Mongolian batur, baghatur), mohe rufei (cf. Mongolian baga köbegün), hexi, sili and sili-mohe, totoufa, totouteng, sijin (cf. Turkic irkin), xielifa (cf. Turkic eltäbär).

It is known that in 521 Khagan Anagui was given two bondmaids as a gift from the Chinese, while Khagan Shelun is said to have once declared that the soldiers who fought outstandingly would receive captives. However, "there is nothing in the sources about the enslavement of prisoners of war". There is, however, evidence that the Rouran resettled people in the steppe.

Initially the Rouran chiefs, having no letters to make records, "counted approximately the number of warriors by using sheep's droppings". Later, they learned to make records using notches on wood. A later source claims that the Rouran later adopted the Chinese written language for diplomatic relations, and under Anagui, started to write internal records. According to the same source, there were also many literate people among the Rouran by that time. Kradin notes that the level of literacy "based on the knowledge of written Chinese" was rather high, and that it didn't affect only the elite and the immigrants, but also some cattle-breeders were able to use Chinese ideograms. In the Book of Song there is the story of an educated Rouran "whose knowledge shamed a wise Chinese functionary". There is no record of monuments erected by the Rouran, though there is evidence of the latter requesting doctors, weavers and other artisans to be sent from China.

Imitating the Chinese, Anagui Khan introduced the use of officials at court, "surrounded himself with advisers trained in the tradition of Chinese bibliophily", and adopted a staff of bodyguards, or chamberlains. Hyun Jin Kim notes a similar use of bodyguards performing the same function in the contemporary Hunnic Empire to the west. Kim also compared the "rudimentary bureaucratic organisation" of the Rourans to that of the Huns, as well as their "hierarchical, stratified structure of government". Anagui's chief advisor was the Chinese Shunyu Tan, whose role is comparable to that of Yelü Chucai with the Mongols and Zhonghang Yue with the Xiongnu (or Huns).

Capital

The capital of the Rouran likely changed over time. The headquarters of the Rouran Khan (ting) was said to be initially northwest of Gansu. Later the capital of the Rouran became the legendary town of Mumocheng, said to have been "encircled with two walls constructed by Liang Shu". The existence of this city would be proof of early urbanization among the Rouran. However, no trace of it has been found so far; its location is unknown, and debated among historians.

Decline

In 461, Lü Pi, Duke of Hedong, a Northern Wei general and Grand chancellor of royal Rouran descent, died in Northern Wei. The Rouran and the Hephthalites had a falling out and problems within their confederation were encouraged by Chinese agents.

In 508, the Tiele defeated the Rouran in battle. In 516, the Rouran defeated the Tiele. In 551, Bumin of the Ashina Göktürks quelled a Tiele revolt for the Rouran and asked for a Rouran princess for his service. The Rouran refused and in response Bumin declared independence.

Bumin entered a marriage alliance with Western Wei, a successor state of Northern Wei, and attacked the Rouran in 552. The Rouran, now at the peak of their might, were defeated by the Turks. After a defeat at Huaihuang (in present-day Zhangjiakou, Hebei) the last great khan Anagui, realizing he had been defeated, took his own life. Bumin declared himself Illig Khagan of the Turkic Khaganate after conquering Otuken; Bumin died soon after and his son Issik Qaghan succeeded him. Issik continued attacking the Rouran, their khaganate now fallen into decay, but died a year later in 553.

In 555, Turks invaded and occupied the Rouran and Yujiulü Dengshuzi led 3000 soldiers in retreat to Western Wei. He was later delivered to Turks by Emperor Gong with his soldiers under pressure from Muqan Qaghan. In the same year, Muqan annihilated the Rouran. All the Rouran handed over to the Turks, reportedly with the exception of children less than sixteen, were brutally killed.

On 29 November 586 Yujiulü Furen (郁久闾伏仁), an official of Sui and a descendant of the ruling clan, died in Hebei, leaving an epitaph reporting his royal descent from the Yujiulü clan.

Possible descendants

Tatars

According to Xu (2005), some Rouran remnants fled to the northwest of the Greater Khingan mountain range, and renamed themselves 大檀 Dàtán (MC: *da-dan) or 檀檀 Tántán (MC: *dan-dan) after Tantan, personal name of a historical Rouran Khagan. Tantan were gradually incorporated into the Shiwei tribal complex and later emerged as Great-Da Shiwei (大室韋) in Suishu. Klyashtorny, apud Golden (2013), reconstructed 大檀 / 檀檀 as *tatar / dadar, "the people who, concludes, assisted Datan in the 420s in his internal struggles and who later are noted as the Otuz Tatar ("Thirty Tatars") who were among the mourners at the funeral of Bumın Qağan (see the inscriptions of Kül Tegin, E4 and Bilge Qağan, E5)".

Avars

Some scholars claim that the Rouran then fled west across the steppes and became the Avars, though many other scholars contest this claim. New genetic data seem to answer that question, says Walter Pohl, a historian at the University of Vienna. "We have a very clear indication that they must have come from the core of the Rouran Empire. They were the neighbors of the Chinese." "Genetically speaking, the elite Avars have a very, very eastern profile," says Choongwon Jeong, a co-author and a geneticist at Seoul National University.

That genetic data backs up two historical accounts of the Avar's origins. One sixth century Chinese source describes an enigmatic steppe people called the Rouran, one of many horse-riding nomadic groups that swept out of the Mongolian steppes to attack their northern borders. The Rouran's grassland empire was reportedly defeated by rival nomads in 552. In 567, diplomats from the Eastern Roman Empire reported the arrival of a new group from the east on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The newcomers called themselves the Avars, and claimed to be related to a far-off people known as the Rouran.

However, it's unlikely that Rouran would have migrated to Europe in any sufficient strength to establish themselves there, due to the desperate resistances, military disasters, and massacres. The remainder of the Rouran fled into China, were absorbed into the border guards, and disappeared forever as an entity. The last khagan fled to the court of the Western Wei, but at the demand of the Göktürks, Western Wei executed him and the nobles who accompanied him.

The Avars were pursued west by the Gokturks as most-wanted fugitives and accused of unlawfully usurping the imperial title of Khagan and also the prestigious name of the Avars. Contemporary sources indicate the Avars were not native to the Western Steppe but came to the region after a long wandering. Nor were they native to Central Asia to the south of which lay the Hephthalite Empire which has on and off been identified with the Avars by certain scholars. Instead the Avars' origins were further to the east, a fact which has been corroborated through DNA studies of Avar individuals buried in the Pannonian Basin which have shown that they were primarily East Asian. Their pretensions to empire despite their relatively small numbers indicate descendance from a previously hegemonic power in the Far East. The first embassy of the Avars to Justinian I in 557 corresponds directly to the fall of the Rouran Khaganate in 555. The Rouran Khaganate had fallen not through gradual decline but through a sudden internal revolution led by the Göktürks, hence the still vivid memories of empire in the Avar Khagan, a fact paralleled later by the Kara-Khitans who migrated a long distance west after being suddenly dislodged from northern China but still kept their pretensions to empire and defeated the Great Seljuk Empire in the Battle of Qatwan as the Western Liao. The Hephthalite Empire in southern Central Asia would not fall to the Göktürks until 560. The Hephthalites themselves had previously been vassals to the Rouran and adopted the title Khagan from them. They were also already known as the Hephthalites to the Byzantines. In view of these facts a strong Rouran component in the Avar Khaganate has been seen as likely, although the Khaganate later included many other peoples such as Slavs and Goths.

Genetics

Li et al. 2018 examined the remains of a Rouran male buried at the Khermen Tal site in Mongolia. He was found to be a carrier of the paternal haplogroup C2b1a1b and the maternal haplogroup D4b1a2a1. Haplogroup C2b1a1b has also been detected among the Xianbei.

Several genetic studies have shown that early Pannonian Avar elites carried a large amount of East Asian ancestry, and some have suggested this as evidence for a connection between the Pannonian Avars and the earlier Rouran. However, Savelyev & Jeong 2020 notes that there is still little genetic data on the Rouran themselves, and that their genetic relationship with the Pannonian Avars therefore still remains inconclusive.

Language

The received view is that the relationships of the language remain a puzzle and that it may be an isolate. Alexander Vovin (2004, 2010) considered the Rouran language to be an extinct non-Altaic language that is not related to any modern-day language (i.e., a language isolate) and is hence unrelated to Mongolic. Vovin (2004) notes that Old Turkic had borrowed some words from an unknown non-Altaic language that may have been Rouran. In 2018 Vovin changed his opinion after new evidence was found through the analysis of the Brāhmī Bugut and Khüis Tolgoi inscriptions and suggests that the Rouran language was in fact a Mongolic language, close but not identical to Middle Mongolian.

Rulers of the Rouran

The Rourans were the first people who used the titles Khagan and Khan for their emperors, replacing the Chanyu of the Xiongnu. The etymology of the title Chanyu is controversial: there are Mongolic, Turkic, and Yeniseian versions.

Tribal chiefs

1. Mugulü, 4th century
2. Yujiulü Cheluhui, 4th century
3. Yujiulü Tunugui, 4th century
4. Yujiulü Bati, 4th century
5. Yujiulü Disuyuan, 4th century
6. Yujiulü Pihouba, 4th century
7. Yujiulü Wenheti, 4th century
8. Yujiulü Heduohan, 4th century

Khagans

Khagans of West

1. Yujiulü Dengshuzi, 555

Khagans of East

1. Yujiulü Tiefa, 552–553
2. Yujiulü Dengzhu, 553
3. Yujiulü Kangti, 553
4. Yujiulü Anluochen, 553–554

Rulers family tree

See also

• History of the eastern steppe

Notes

1. likely Cheluhui, compare Book of Wei 103 and Golden (2013).

References

Citations

1. ^ Kradin NN (2005). "From Tribal Confederation to Empire: The Evolution of the Rouran Society". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 58 (2): 1–21 (149–169).
2. Seregin, Nikolai N.; Matrenin, Sergey S. (December 2020). "Mongolia in Rouran time: main aspects of the interpretation of archaeological materials". Povolzhskaya Arkheologiya [The Volga River Region Archaeology]. 4 (34): 36–49. doi:10.24852/pa2020.4.34.36.49. S2CID 234514608.
3. ^ Kradin 2004, p. 163.
4. Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D.". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 129. doi:10.2307/1170959. JSTOR 170959.
5. Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 222. ISSN 1076-156X. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
6. Zhang Min (June 2003). "On the Defensive System of Great Wall Military Town of Northern Wei Dynasty". China's Borderland History and Geography Studies. 13 (2): 15.
7. Kradin, Nikolay N. (2016). "Rouran (Juan Juan) Khaganate in "The Encyclopedia of Empire"". The Encyclopedia of Empire. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. pp. 1–2.
8. Wei Shou. Book of Wei. vol. 103 "蠕蠕，東胡之苗裔也，姓郁久閭氏" tr. "Rúrú, offsprings of Dōnghú, surnamed Yùjiŭlǘ"
9. ^ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (2000). "Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜: The Role of Exogamic Clans in the Organization of the Zhou Polity" (PDF). Early China. 25. Cambridge University Press: 20. JSTOR 23354272.
10. Vovin, Alexander (2007). "Once again on the etymology of the title qaγan". Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia, vol. 12 (online resource)
11. ^ Xu Elina-Qian, Historical Development of the Pre-Dynastic Khitan, University of Helsinki, 2005. pp. 179–180
12. Golden, Peter B. "Some Notes on the Avars and Rouran", in The Steppe Lands and the World beyond Them. Ed. Curta, Maleon. Iași (2013). pp. 54–56.
13. Findley (2005), p. 35.
14. "Origins of the Avars elucidated with ancient DNA". www.eva.mpg.de. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
15. ^ Weishu Vol. 103 "木骨閭死，子車鹿會雄健，始有部眾，自號柔然" "Mugulü died; son Cheluhui, fierce and vigorous, began to gather the tribal multitude, self-appellation Rouran"
16. Weishu Vol. 103 "而役屬於國。後世祖以其無知，狀類於蟲，故改其號為蠕蠕。" tr. "yet vassal(s) of (our) state. Later, (Emperor) Shizu took him/them as ignorant and appearance worm-like, so changed his/their appellation to Ruanruan ~ Ruru."
17. Grousset, Rene (1970). The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 0-8135-1304-9.
18. Pohl, Walter (2018). The Avars A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567–822. Cornell University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-5017-2940-9. Additionally, the Chinese often sought to translate names into their language, or replaced them with a similarly sounding Chinese word that seemed to fit: for instance, the Rouran were also called Ruanruan, "wriggling worms.
19. ^ Golden, Peter B. "Some Notes on the Avars and Rouran", in The Steppe Lands and the World beyond Them. Ed. Curta, Maleon. Iași (2013). p. 58.
20. Baumer, Christoph (2018). History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume Set. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-83860-868-2. in Mongolia the tribal confederation of the Rouran, whose name derives from that of tribal father Ruru or Ruirui.50 The name Juan Juan was given to them by the Tuoba emperor Taiwudi, a derogatory pun meaning 'wriggling worms'.
21. Golden, Peter B. "Some Notes on the Avars and Rouran", in The Steppe Lands and the World beyond Them. Ed. Curta, Maleon. Iași (2013). p. 54.
22. Golden, Peter B. (2016) "Turks and Iranians: Aspects of Türk and Khazaro-Iranian Interaction" in Turcologica 105. p. 5
23. Golden, Peter B. "Some Notes on the Avars and Rouran", in The Steppe Lands and the World beyond Them. Ed. Curta, Maleon. Iași (2013). pp. 54–55.
24. Lee, Joo-Yup (2016). "The Historical Meaning of the Term Turk and the Nature of the Turkic Identity of the Chinggisid and Timurid Elites in Post-Mongol Central Asia". Central Asiatic Journal. 59 (1–2): 116. It is not known which language the Xiongnu spoke.
25. Lee, Joo-Yup (2016). "The Historical Meaning of the Term Turk and the Nature of the Turkic Identity of the Chinggisid and Timurid Elites in Post-Mongol Central Asia". Central Asiatic Journal. 59 (1–2): 105.
26. Pan, Guojian (1983). The Northern Wei state and the Juan-juan nomadic tribe (Doctor of Philosophy). The University of Hong Kong Scholar hub. doi:10.5353/th_b3123015. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
27. Hyacinth (Bichurin), Collection of information on peoples lived in Central Asia in ancient times, 1950. p. 209
28. Li, Jiawei; et al. (August 2018). "The genome of an ancient Rouran individual reveals an important paternal lineage in the Donghu population". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 166 (4). American Association of Physical Anthropologists: 895–905. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23491. PMID 29681138. We conclude that F3889 downstream of F3830 is an important paternal lineage of the ancient Donghu nomads. The Donghu‐Xianbei branch is expected to have made an important paternal genetic contribution to Rouran. This component of gene flow ultimately entered the gene pool of modern Mongolic‐ and Manchu‐speaking populations.
29. "他的《番客人朝图》及《职贡图》至今在中国画史上占据重要的位置。" in Yi, Xuehua (2015). "江南天子皆词客——梁元帝萧绎之评价 – 百度文库". Journal of Huanche S&T University. 17: 83.
30. West, Barbara A. (19 May 2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 686-687. ISBN 978-1-4381-1913-7. Yujiulu Mugulu, the grandfather of Yujiulu Shelun, who was the first to unite the various Rouran clans, is believed to have been a slave of the Xianbei, and many Rouran women were taken by Xianbei as wives or concubines. The name Rouran also stems from the derogatory term used by the Xianbei to refer to them, ruanrua or ru, meaning "worms"
31. Theobald, Ulrich. "Rouran 柔然". Chinaknowledge. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. had been a slave of the Taɣbač, a sub-division of the Xianbei. His descendants later chose the name Yujiulü 郁久閭 as their family name. Mugulü's son Che-lu-hui 車鹿會 was the first to assemble a lot of other families around him, and in the mid-4th century the tribal federation of the Rouran took shape.
32. Golden, Peter B. (2010). Central Asia in World History. Oxford University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-19-972203-7. According to the Wei dynastic annals, ruling house descended from an early fourth-century Wei slave.
33. ^ Grousset (1970), p. 67.
34. ^ Kurbanov, A. The Hephthalites: Archaeological and historical analysis. PhD dissertation, Free University, Berlin, 2010
35. Grousset 1970, p. 61.
36. Xiong 2009, p. xcix.
37. Xiong 2009, p. c.
38. Bregel 2003, p. 14.
39. Lee, Lily Xiao Hong; Stefanowska, A. D. (2007). Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E.-618 C.E. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-4182-3. pg. 316.
40. ^ Cheng, Bonnie (2007). "Fashioning a Political Body: The Tomb of a Rouran Princess". Archives of Asian Art. 57. Duke University Press: 23–49. doi:10.1484/aaa.2007.0001. JSTOR 20111346 – via JSTOR.
41. Sneath, David (2007). The Headless State: Aristocratic Orders, Kinship Society, & Misrepresentations of Nomadic Inner Asia. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-14054-6.
42. Abe, Stanley Kenji (1989). Mogao Cave 254 A Case Study in Early Chinese Buddhist Art. University of California, Berkeley. p. 147.
43. Kim, Hyun Jin (2015). The Huns. Taylor & Francis. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-317-34091-1.
44. Kim, Hyun Jin (2018). Geopolitics in Late Antiquity The Fate of Superpowers from China to Rome. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-86926-3.
45. ^ Barfield 1989, p. 132.
46. Kuwayama, Shoshin (2002). Across the Hindukush of the First Millennium: a collection of the papers. Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University. p. 123.
47. ^ Pohl, Walter (2018). The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567–822. Cornell University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-5017-2940-9.
48. Syvänne, Ilkka (2022). Military History of Late Rome 565–602. Pen and Sword. Appendix I. ISBN 978-1-4738-7221-9. Soon after his accession Muhan began a campaign of conquest by destroying the remnants of the Juan-juan.
49. Xiong 2009, p. 103.
50. ^ Wang Meng (王萌); Du Hanchao (杜汉超) (2017). 隋代《郁久闾伏仁墓志》考释 [An Interpretation of the Sui dynasty Epitaph of Yujiulü Furen]. Caoyuan Wenwu 草原文物. No. 1. Retrieved 9 November 2019 – via www.wenwuchina.com.
51. Golden, Peter B. "Some Notes on the Avars and Rouran", in The Steppe Lands and the World beyond Them. Ed. Curta, Maleon. Iași (2013). p. 54-56.
52. Mark, Joshua J. (2014). "Avars". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
53. ^ Curry, Andrew (2022). "Mystery warriors made the fastest migration in ancient history. The Avar traveled from Mongolia to Hungary in the span of a decade or two, DNA evidence confirms". Science. doi:10.1126/science.abq3374. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
54. Haug, Robert (27 June 2019). The Eastern Frontier: Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central Asia. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-78831-722-1. the Róurán Khāqānate, a nomadic confederation that had ruled Mongolia from the mid-fourth until the mid-sixth century and whose rise to power may have initiated the Hunnic migrations of the fourth century.
55. Lomazoff, Amanda; Ralby, Aaron (August 2013). The Atlas of Military History. Simon and Schuster. p. 246. ISBN 978-1-60710-985-3.
56. Silić, Ana; Heršak, Emil (30 September 2002). "The Avars: A Review of Their Ethnogenesis and History". Migracijske I Etničke Teme (in Croatian). 18 (2–3): 201–202. ISSN 1333-2546.
57. Savelyev & Jeong 2020.
58. Li et al. 2018, pp. 1, 8–9.
59. Neparáczki et al. 2019, pp. 5–6, 9. "The Avar group carried predominantly East Eurasian lineages in accordance with their known Inner Asian origin inferred from archaeological and anthropological parallels as well as historical sources. However, the unanticipated prevalence of their Siberian N1a Hg-s, sheds new light on their prehistory. Accepting their presumed Rouran origin would implicate a ruling class with Siberian ancestry in Inner Asia before Turkic take-over. The surprisingly high frequency of N1a1a1a1a3 Hg reveals that ancestors of contemporary eastern Siberians and Buryats could give a considerable part the Rouran and Avar elite..."; Csáky et al. 2020, pp. 1, 9. "A recent manuscript described 23 mitogenomes from the 7th–8th century Avar elite group5 and found that 64% of the lineages belong to East Asian haplogroups (C, D, F, M, R, Y and Z) with affinities to ancient and modern Inner Asian populations corroborating their Rouran origin."
60. Savelyev & Jeong 2020, p. 17. "Population genetics in the current state of research is neutral as regards the question of continuity between the Rourans and the Avars. What it is supported is that at least some European Avar individuals were of Eastern Asian ancestry, be it Rouran-related or not."
61. Crossley, Pamela Kyle (2019). Hammer and Anvil: Nomad Rulers at the Forge of the Modern World. p. 49.
62. Vovin, Alexander 2004. 'Some Thoughts on the Origins of the Old Turkic 12-Year Animal Cycle.' Central Asiatic Journal 48/1: 118–32.
63. Vovin, Alexander. 2010. Once Again on the Ruan-ruan Language. Ötüken'den İstanbul'a Türkçenin 1290 Yılı (720–2010) Sempozyumu From Ötüken to Istanbul, 1290 Years of Turkish (720–2010). 3–5 Aralık 2010, İstanbul / 3–5 December 2010, İstanbul: 1–10.
64. Vovin, Alexander (2019). "A Sketch of the Earliest Mongolic Language: the Brāhmī Bugut and Khüis Tolgoi Inscriptions". International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics. 1 (1): 162–197. doi:10.1163/25898833-12340008. ISSN 2589-8825. S2CID 198833565.
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66. Grousset (1970), pp. 61, 585, n. 91.
67. Vovin A. "Once again on the Etymology of the title qaɣan", in Studia Etyologica Crocoviensia, (2007) vol. 12, p. 177-185.
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69. 藤田 豊八 (April 1923). "蠕蠕の国号及び可汗号につきて". 東洋学報 (in Japanese). 13 (1): 55–70.
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Sources

• Barfield, Thomas (1989), The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, Basil Blackwell
• Bregel, Yuri (2003), An Historical Atlas of Central Asia, Brill
• Csáky, Veronika; et al. (22 January 2020). "Genetic insights into the social organisation of the Avar period elite in the 7th century AD Carpathian Basin". Scientific Reports. 10 (948). Nature Research: 948. Bibcode:2020NatSR..10..948C. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-57378-8. PMC 6976699. PMID 31969576.
• Findley, Carter Vaughn. (2005). The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516770-8 (cloth); ISBN 0-19-517726-6 (pbk).
• Golden, Peter B. "Some Notes on the Avars and Rouran", in The Steppe Lands and the World beyond Them. Ed. Curta, Maleon. Iași (2013). pp. 43–66.
• Grousset, René. (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: a History of Central Asia. Translated by Naomi Walford. Rutgers University Press. New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A.Third Paperback printing, 1991. ISBN 0-8135-0627-1 (casebound); ISBN 0-8135-1304-9 (pbk).
• Kradin, Nikolay N. (2004). "From Tribal Confederation to Empire: The Evolution of the Rouran Society". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 58, No.2: 149–169.
• Li, Jiawei; et al. (August 2018). "The genome of an ancient Rouran individual reveals an important paternal lineage in the Donghu population". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 166 (4). American Association of Physical Anthropologists: 895–905. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23491. PMID 29681138.
• Neparáczki, Endre; et al. (12 November 2019). "Y-chromosome haplogroups from Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian period nomadic people of the Carpathian Basin". Scientific Reports. 9 (16569). Nature Research: 16569. Bibcode:2019NatSR...916569N. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-53105-5. PMC 6851379. PMID 31719606.
• Map of their empire
• Definition Archived 17 September 2003 at the Wayback Machine
• information about the Rouran Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine
• Kradin, Nikolay. "From Tribal Confederation to Empire: the Evolution of the Rouran Society". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 58, No 2 (2005): 149–169.
• Savelyev, Alexander; et al. (7 May 2020). "Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West". Evolutionary Human Sciences. 2 (e20). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.18. PMC 7612788. PMID 35663512.
• Xiong, Victor Cunrui (2000), Sui-Tang Chang'an: A Study in the Urban History of Late Medieval China (Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies), University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, ISBN 0-89264-137-1
• Xiong, Victor Cunrui (2009), Historical Dictionary of Medieval China, United States of America: Scarecrow Press, Inc., ISBN 978-0-8108-6053-7

External links

• Media related to Rouran Khaganate at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Inner Asia history series
Nomadic empires	Xiongnu Xianbei Rouran Göktürks First Turkic Khaganate Eastern Turkic Khaganate Western Turkic Khaganate Second Turkic Khaganate Tibetan Zubu Uyghur Kyrgyz Mongol Tatar Khamag Mongol Mongol Empire Chagatai Timurid Dzungar
Chinese empires	Han against Xiongnu Protectorate of the Western Regions Chief Official Tang against Western Turks / Eastern Turks against Tibet Mongolian Plateau Beiting Tarim Basin Liao Western Liao Northern Liao Eastern Liao Later Liao Yuan against Northwest khanates Manchuria Mongolia Tibet Northern Yuan Ming against Mongols against Turpan Manchuria Tibet Qing against Dzungar genocide Lifan Yuan Amban Manchuria Mongolia Tibet Xinjiang
Related topics	The Cambridge History of Inner Asia Greater Central Asia Central Asia Eurasian nomads Tartary Chinese Tartary Western Regions (Chinese Turkestan) China proper Sinosphere Greater China

v t e The Yujiulü clan of Rouran tribe Khagans of Rouran (includes chieftains, members, noblemen, consorts and descendants)
Pre-khaganate	Unified rule Mugulü→Cheluhui→Tunugui→Bati→Disuyuan Divided rule Eastern area Pihouba Western area Wenheti→Heduohan&Shelun Re-unified rule Heduohan&Shelun
Former Khaganate	Unified rule (fanli) Shelun→Hulü→Buluzhen→Datan→Wuti→Tuhezhen→Yucheng→Doulun→Nagai
Middle Khaganate	Unified rule Futu→Chounu→Anagui→Poluomen Divided rule Xihai rule Poluomen Huaishuo rule Anagui Re-unified rule Anagui
Later Khaganate	Divided rule Eastern area Tiefa→Dengzhu→Kangti→Anluochen Western area Dengshuzi
Members, noblemen, consorts and descendants of the Yujiulü clan	Puhun Zhaoyi Zuo Zhaoyi Gong Tuoba Yu Pi Ruowen Ruru Chidilian Dao Furen Ru Zhijuan Wang Anyi
related people	Afuzhiluo Ashina Natalu Ashina Tumen Ashina Yandou Tuoba Ke Tuoba Xu Tuoba Baoju Puliuru Jian
Family tree Surname list Category

• Rouran
• Khanates
• Former countries in Mongolian history
• Nomadic groups in Eurasia
• Ancient peoples of China
• Former countries in Chinese history
• Inner Asia
• States and territories established in the 4th century
• 555 disestablishments
• States and territories disestablished in the 6th century
• 330 establishments
• Donghu people
• Former confederations
• Former empires