Editing Xiongnu (section)

== Culture ==
===Art===
[[File:Plaque with 3 Ibexes, 2nd-1st century BCE, Xiongnu.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Belt buckle with three [[Ibex]]es, 2nd–1st century BC, Xiongnu.<ref>{{cite web |title=Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/49444 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref>{{sfn|Bunker|2002|p=136}}{{sfn|Bunker|2002|p=30}}]]
[[File:Belt buckle with animal combat scene, 2nd-1st century BCE, North China.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Belt buckle with animal combat scene, 2nd – 1st century BC, made in North China for the Xiongnu.{{sfn|Bunker|2002|loc=pp. 29, 101; item 68}}<ref name="metmuseum.org"/>]]
[[File:Belt Buckle with Zoomorphic Design, North China, 3rd-2nd century BCE.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Belt Buckle with [[Ordos culture|nomadic]]-inspired [[animal style|zoomorphic design]], manufactured in China for the Xiongnu.{{sfn|Bunker|2002|loc=p. 100, item 67}}{{sfn|Bunker|2002|p=29}}]]
Within the Xiongnu culture more variety is visible from site to site than from "era" to "era," in terms of Chinese chronology, yet all form a whole that is distinct from that of the Han and other peoples of the non-Chinese north.{{sfn|Psarras|2003|p={{page needed|date=April 2022}}}} In some instances, the iconography cannot be used as the main cultural identifier, because art depicting animal predation is common among the steppe peoples. An example of animal predation associated with Xiongnu culture is that of a tiger carrying dead prey.{{sfn|Psarras|2003|p={{page needed|date=April 2022}}}} A similar motif appears in work from [[Maoqinggou]], a site which is presumed to have been under Xiongnu political control but is still clearly non-Xiongnu. In the Maoqinggou example, the prey is replaced with an extension of the tiger's foot. The work also depicts a cruder level of execution; Maoqinggou work was executed in a rounder, less detailed style.{{sfn|Psarras|2003|p={{page needed|date=April 2022}}}} In its broadest sense, Xiongnu iconography of animal predation includes examples such as the gold headdress from Aluchaideng and gold earrings with a turquoise and jade inlay discovered in [[Xigoupan]], Inner Mongolia.{{sfn|Psarras|2003|p={{page needed|date=April 2022}}}}

Xiongnu art is harder to distinguish from [[Saka]] or [[Scythian art]]. There is a similarity present in stylistic execution, but Xiongnu art and Saka art often differ in terms of iconography. Saka art does not appear to have included predation scenes, especially with dead prey, or same-animal combat. Additionally, Saka art included elements not common to Xiongnu iconography, such as winged, horned horses.{{sfn|Psarras|2003|p={{page needed|date=April 2022}}}} The two cultures also used two different kinds of bird heads. Xiongnu depictions of birds tend to have a medium-sized eye and beak, and they are also depicted with ears, while Saka birds have a pronounced eye and beak, and no ears.{{sfn|Psarras|2003|pp=102–103}} Some scholars{{who|date=November 2014}} claim these differences are indicative of cultural differences. Scholar Sophia-Karin Psarras suggests that Xiongnu images of animal predation, specifically tiger-and-prey, are a spiritual representation of death and rebirth, and that same-animal combat is representative of the acquisition or maintenance of power.{{sfn|Psarras|2003|pp=102–103}}

=== Rock art and writing ===
[[File:Fig6Ishjamts p166R1.gif|thumb|upright=0.5|left|2nd century BC – 2nd century AD characters of Xiongnu-[[Xianbei]] script (Mongolia and Inner Mongolia).{{sfn|Ishjamts|1996|loc=p. 166, Fig 5}}]]
The rock art of the [[Yin Mountains|Yin]] and [[Helan Mountains]] is dated from the 9th millennium BC to the 19th century AD. It consists mainly of engraved signs (petroglyphs) and only minimally of painted images.{{sfn|Demattè|2006}}

[[Records of the Grand Historian|Chinese sources]] indicate that the Xiongnu did not have an ideographic form of writing like Chinese, but in the 2nd century BC, a renegade Chinese dignitary Yue "taught the [[Shanyu]] to write official letters to the Chinese court on a wooden tablet {{Convert|31|cm|in|abbr=on}} long, and to use a seal and large-sized folder." The same sources tell that when the Xiongnu noted down something or transmitted a message, they made cuts on a piece of wood ('ke-mu'), and they also mention a "Hu script" (vol. [[:zh:s:史記/卷110|110]]). At Noin-Ula and other Xiongnu burial sites in Mongolia and the region north of Lake Baikal, among the objects discovered during excavations conducted in 1924 and 1925 were over 20 carved characters. Most of these characters are either identical or very similar to letters of the [[Old Turkic alphabet]] of the Early Middle Ages found on the Eurasian steppes. From this, some specialists conclude that the Xiongnu used a script similar to the ancient Eurasian runiform, and that this alphabet was a basis for later Turkic writing.{{sfn|Ishjamts|1996|loc=p. 166, Fig 6}}

=== Religion and diet ===
According to the ''[[Book of Han]]'', the Xiongnu called Heaven (天) 'Chēnglí,' (撐犁)<ref>Book of Han, Vol. 94-I, 匈奴謂天為「撐犁」，謂子為「孤塗」，單于者，廣大之貌也.</ref> a Chinese transcription of [[Tengri]]. The Xiongnu were a nomadic people. From their lifestyle of herding flocks and their horse-trade with China, it can be concluded that their diet consisted mainly of [[Lamb and mutton|mutton]], [[horse meat]] and wild geese that were shot down. 

Historical evidence gives reason to believe that, from the 2nd century BC, proto-Mongol peoples (the Xiongnu, [[Xianbei]], and [[Khitan people|Khitans]]) were familiar with Buddhism. Remains of Buddhist [[prayer beads]] were found in a Xiongnu grave in [[Ivolginsky District]].<ref name="a">Александр Берзин, Тибетский буддизм: история и перспективы развития, M., 1992 (Alexandr Berzin, ''Tibetan Buddhism: History and Future Prospects'', Moscow 1992; Буддизм, Л. Л. Абаева, М., Республика, 1991 (''Buddhism'', L.L. Abaeva, Respublika, Moscow 1991)</ref>