Editing Five Barbarians (section)

==Definition==
[[File:Distribution of the Five Barbarians.jpg|thumb|400x400px|Distribution of the Five Barbarians during the Western Jin dynasty.]]
The earliest recorded use of the phrase "Five Barbarians" or "Wu Hu" (五胡) comes from the ''[[Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms]]'' (501–522) from a quote by the [[Former Qin]] ruler, [[Fu Jian (337–385)|Fu Jian]], although it was not specified who the five exactly were.<ref>(堅嗔目叱之曰：「小羌乃敢於逼天子，豈以傳國璽授汝羌乎！五胡次序，無汝羌名，違天不祥，其能久乎！璽已送晉，不可得也。」) ''Shiliuguo Chunqiu'', vol.4</ref> Modern historians like [[Chen Yinke]] and [[Zhou Yiliang]] believe that the "Five Barbarians" in this case was simply in reference to the "[[Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)#Dynastic transitions|Five Virtues of Beginning and End]]", a theoretical concept often invoked by Chinese dynasties to legitimize their reigns.<ref>[http://www.xjass.com/ls/content/2009-12/01/content_120382.htm “五胡”新释] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723133818/http://www.xjass.com/ls/content/2009-12/01/content_120382.htm |date=2011-07-23 }}</ref>

The Five Barbarians as a concept only emerged during the 12th century in the [[Song dynasty|Southern Song]] dynasty, when the official, [[Hong Mai]] wrote an essay titled "''Wuhu Luanhua''" (五胡亂華; "[[Upheaval of the Five Barbarians]]") in his book, ''[[Rongzhai Suibi]]'' (容齋隨筆). Even so, he did not properly define the term, as the seven rulers he mentioned only accounted for four non-Han groups, namely the [[Xiongnu]], [[Jie people|Jie]], [[Xianbei]] and [[Di (Five Barbarians)|Di]]. A later Southern Song official, [[Wang Yinglin]] defined the Five Barbarians as "[[Liu Yuan (Han-Zhao)|Liu Yuan's]] Xiongnu, Shi Le's Jie, [[Murong]]-Xianbei, [[Fu Hong|Fu Hong's]] Di and [[Yao Chang|Yao Chang's]] [[Qiang (historical people)|Qiang]]." [[Hu Sanxing|Hu Sanxing's]] annotation of the [[Zizhi Tongjian]] affirms Wang Yinglin's view by listing the five as the Xiongnu, Jie, Xianbei, Di and Qiang, after which it became widely accepted.

They were a mix of tribes from various stocks, such as [[proto-Mongols|proto-Mongolic]], [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]], Tibetan and [[Yeniseian people|Yeniseian]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ILpGAQAAIAAJ Tang China: vision and splendour of golden age], by Edmund Capon. 1989, page 14.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4DVkAAAAMAAJ Renditions, Issues 15-18]. Centre for Translation Projects, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1981, page 82.</ref> Others divide them into two Turkic tribes, one [[Tungusic peoples|Tungusic]] tribe, and two Tibetan tribes,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=n3kdAAAAMAAJ China], by Pin-chia Kuo. Oxford University Press, 1970, page 36.</ref> and yet others into Tibetan and [[Altaic]] (proto-Mongolian and early Turkic).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UWvxBwAAQBAJ China: A Macro History], by Ray Huang. Routledge 2015. page.?</ref> While later historians determined that there were more than five, the Five Barbarians has become a collective term for all northern and western non-Han groups that lived during the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)]] and [[Sixteen Kingdoms]] period.