Editing Five Barbarians (section)

=== Xiongnu ===
{{main|Xiongnu}}
Ruling over the steppes of East Asia, the Xiongnu empire was once a powerful adversary to the Han dynasty, but by the 1st century AD, their power had greatly declined due to defeats to the Han, internal power struggles and natural disasters. In 50 AD, a few years after the empire was split into two, the [[Southern Xiongnu]] branch became a vassal to the Han. The court of the chanyu was moved to [[Xihe Commandery]] in [[Bingzhou|Bing province]] while their people were resettled across the frontier commanderies within the [[Great Wall of China|Great Wall]]. The Southern Xiongnu served the Han by helping them to guard the northern borders, even assisting in destroying the rival [[Northern Xiongnu]]. However, tension was evident between the two sides. Being economically dependant on the Han and with the Han court interfering in their politics, the Southern Xiongnu would frequently rebel on the frontiers.<ref>di Cosmo 2004: 186</ref>

In 216, the warlord Cao Cao abolished the chanyu office and divided the Southern Xiongnu into Five Divisions around [[Taiyuan Commandery]].<ref>[[Fan Ye (historian)|Fan Ye]], "[[Book of Later Han]]" (Hou Han Shu), Ch. 79, f. 7b</ref><ref>and in Bichurin N.A., Collection of information on peoples in Central Asia in ancient times", vol. 1, Sankt Petersburg, 1851, pp. 146–147 (''In Russian'')</ref><ref>in Taskin B.S., ''"Materials on Sünnu history"'', Science, Moscow, 1973, pp. 95-96, 154 (''In Russian'')</ref> From this point onwards, the Xiongnu declined as a coherent identity, as the Five Divisions became dominated by the [[Chuge]] branch, while those excluded mixed with tribes from other ethnicities and were vaguely referred to as "[[Hu (people)|''hu'']]" and other terms for the non-Chinese. The "barbarian" tribes of Bing province underwent varying degrees of [[sinicization]]; many among the Five Divisions adopted "Liu" as their surname, claiming that their Xiongnu ancestors had married Han princesses through ''[[heqin]]'', and their nobility were even allowed to hold government offices under the [[Western Jin Dynasty|Western Jin dynasty]].<ref>Di Cosmo (2002), 192–193; Yü (1967), 9–10; Morton & Lewis (2005), 52</ref> Nonetheless, they continued to resent the ruling Chinese dynasties due to their lower status and privileges.

Though the Xiongnu were no longer a unified entity by the 4th-century, their descendants continued to invoke their ancestors as a form of legitimacy. In 304, at the height of the [[War of the Eight Princes]], [[Liu Yuan (Han-Zhao)|Liu Yuan]] of the Five Divisions rebelled and founded the [[Han-Zhao|Han-Zhao dynasty]]. He claimed direct descent from the Southern Xiongnu chanyus and, by extension, the Han princesses, as he portrayed his state as a restoration of the Han dynasty. The Tiefu tribe also descended from a member of the Southern Xiongnu imperial family, but had intermingled with the [[Xianbei]] and were pushed out from Bing to the [[Hetao]] region. When their member, [[Helian Bobo]] founded the [[Helian Xia|Helian Xia dynasty]] in 407, he began emphasising his Xiongnu lineage to claim descent from the [[Xia dynasty]], which the Xiongnu traditionally regarded as their ancestors.