Luandi Jihoushan

Biography

Family Background and Early Years

Huhanye Chanyu belonged to the Luandi clan, the ruling lineage of the Xiongnu. His great-grandfather was Qiedihou Chanyu, who reigned from 101 to 96 BCE; his grandfather was Hulugu Chanyu, who reigned from 96 to 85 BCE; and his father was Xulüquanqu Chanyu, who reigned from 68 to 60 BCE. During Xulüquanqu Chanyu's reign, years of warfare and natural disasters had already badly weakened the Xiongnu. In 71 BCE, the third year of Benshi, five Han generals led more than 160,000 cavalry against the Xiongnu, while Wusun also sent 50,000 cavalry in a pincer attack. The Xiongnu suffered severe losses in people and livestock. That winter Huyandi Chanyu personally led 10,000 cavalry against Wusun, but a snowstorm with snow more than a zhang deep caused people and animals to freeze to death; fewer than one-tenth returned. Dingling, Wuhuan, and Wusun then attacked from the north, east, and west. The Xiongnu were greatly weakened, lost the ability to resist Han forces effectively, and increasingly turned toward heqin marriage alliances.

In 68 BCE, the second year of Dijie, Huyandi Chanyu died and Xulüquanqu Chanyu succeeded him. The Xiongnu continued to suffer recurrent famines, with six or seven out of every ten people and animals dying, while warfare with small states in the Western Regions and aristocratic factional struggles intensified. In 60 BCE, the second year of Shenjue, Xulüquanqu Chanyu died. Zhuanqu Yanzhi and her younger brother, the Dulongqi, Great Juqu of the Left, conspired to enthrone the Wise King of the Right Tuqitang as Woyanqudi Chanyu. After taking power, Woyanqudi concentrated on internal purges: he killed leading nobles who had held power under Xulüquanqu, removed members of Xulüquanqu's family and close kin, promoted Dulongqi, and placed his own relatives in important posts. Jihouyan, as a son of Xulüquanqu Chanyu, was unable to succeed and fled to his father-in-law Wuchanmu. Wuchanmu had originally been the ruler of a small state between Wusun and Kangju. After repeated attacks, he led his people to submit to the Xiongnu and settled in the Right territory.

Uprising and the Five Chanyus Civil War

After two years of Woyanqudi Chanyu's violent rule, the country no longer supported him. In 58 BCE, the fourth year of Shenjue, the Wuhuan attacked the Guxi King in the eastern Xiongnu territory and carried off people. Woyanqudi became angry with the Guxi King, who, fearing punishment, joined with Wuchanmu and nobles of the Left to enthrone Jihouyan as Huhanye Chanyu. They mobilized 40,000 to 50,000 troops of the Left and marched west against Woyanqudi. Defeated, Woyanqudi fled and sought help from his younger brother, the Wise King of the Right. The latter hated Woyanqudi's brutality and refused to assist him, and Woyanqudi committed suicide. Dulongqi fled to the Wise King of the Right, while all of his followers surrendered to Huhanye Chanyu.

The aristocratic conflict continued after Huhanye's accession. A few months after returning to the chanyu court, he demobilized the forces and allowed them to return to their former territories. He recovered his elder brother Hutuwusi, who had been living among the common people, and appointed him Left Guli King. He also instigated nobles in the Right territory to kill the Wise King of the Right. In the winter of the same year, Dulongqi and the Wise King of the Right jointly enthroned Boxutang as Tuqi Chanyu and sent tens of thousands of troops east against Huhanye. The Xiongnu then entered the Five Chanyus Civil War. In 57 BCE, the first year of Wufeng, the Hujie King, Right Aojian King, and Wujie Commandant under Tuqi Chanyu successively proclaimed themselves Hujie Chanyu, Cheli Chanyu, and Wujie Chanyu. Together with Tuqi and Huhanye, five chanyus stood simultaneously. In 56 BCE, the second year of Wufeng, Huhanye sent his younger brother, the Right Guli King, and others west to raid Tuqi's encamped forces and killed or carried off more than ten thousand people. Tuqi personally led 60,000 cavalry east against Huhanye but was defeated and committed suicide. Huhanye accepted Cheli Chanyu's surrender and captured and executed Wujie Chanyu. His strength increased, though he still had only tens of thousands of followers. Later, Xiuxun King, a cousin of Tuqi Chanyu, proclaimed himself Runzhen Chanyu, while Huhanye's elder brother Hutuwusi proclaimed himself Zhizhi Chanyu. Zhizhi first killed Runzhen and then defeated Huhanye, taking possession of the chanyu court.

Submission to the Han and the Return North

In 54 BCE, the fourth year of Wufeng, after being defeated by Zhizhi Chanyu, Huhanye accepted the advice of the Left Yizhizi King and decided to submit to the Han for protection. Many Xiongnu ministers opposed the proposal, believing that submission would damage Xiongnu dignity, but the Left Yizhizi King argued that the Han was strong and that submission offered security. Huhanye accepted his advice. In 53 BCE, the first year of Ganlu, Huhanye sent his son, the Wise King of the Right Zhulouqutang, to the Han as a hostage while testing the Han court's attitude. The Han welcomed his submission. In 52 BCE, the second year of Ganlu, Huhanye moved south, submitted to the Han, and declared himself a Han subject. In the first month of 51 BCE, the third year of Ganlu, he made his first court visit and met Emperor Xuan of Han at Ganquan Palace, northwest of present-day Chunhua in Shaanxi. He was given exceptional honors and ranked above the regional kings. Emperor Xuan personally met him outside Chang'an, and Huhanye performed formal homage and declared himself a subject of the Han emperor. This was the first time a Xiongnu chanyu attended the court of a ruler of the Central Plains.

After the audience, Emperor Xuan sent 16,000 cavalry to escort Huhanye to the area south of the Gobi and settled his people below the Guanglu frontier defenses, northeast of present-day Yulin in Shaanxi, to pasture and to guard the Han's Shouxiang fortifications. The Xiongnu were short of grain, and the Han provided another 34,000 hu of grain. Huhanye and the Han envoys agreed that “the Han and the Xiongnu shall become one family and shall never deceive or attack one another for all generations.” In the second month of 50 BCE, the fourth year of Ganlu, Huhanye made a second court visit. In the second month of 49 BCE, the first year of Huanglong, he made a third. Over the following years his power gradually recovered with Han support. In 43 BCE, the first year of Yongguang, after Zhizhi had moved west and the internal threat had receded, Huhanye led his people north and returned to the chanyu court in the steppe. In 36 BCE, the third year of Jianzhao, the Western Han Protector-General of the Western Regions Gan Yanshou and Deputy Commandant Chen Tang led forces that killed Zhizhi Chanyu. With Han support, Huhanye Chanyu reunified the Xiongnu realm.

Marriage to Wang Zhaojun and Later Years

In the first month of 33 BCE, the first year of Jingning, Huhanye Chanyu made his third visit to Chang'an to meet Emperor Yuan of Han and asked to become an imperial son-in-law. Emperor Yuan gave him Wang Qiang, courtesy name Zhaojun, a woman of good family serving in the palace. The Book of Han: Account of the Xiongnu records: “Emperor Yuan gave the Chanyu Wang Qiang, courtesy name Zhaojun, a woman of good family from the rear palace.” After marrying Wang Zhaojun, Huhanye bestowed on her the title Ninghu Yanzhi, meaning that “the Hu would obtain peace through her.” Wang Zhaojun bore him a son, Yituzhiyashi, who was later appointed Right Rizhu King.

Huhanye had several Yanzhi and many sons. His Great Yanzhi, a daughter of the Huyan King, bore Diaotaomogao, Qiemixu, Xian, and Le; Zhuanqu Yanzhi, also a daughter of the Huyan King, bore Qiemoche and Nangzhiyasi; another consort, Tuqi Yanzhi, bore Luhun; a fifth Yanzhi bore Yu; and Wang Zhaojun bore Yituzhiyashi. Huhanye Chanyu died in 31 BCE, the second year of Jianshi. His son Diaotaomogao succeeded him as Fuzhuleiruodi Chanyu. Following Xiongnu custom, Wang Zhaojun then remarried Fuzhuleiruodi Chanyu. From Huhanye's submission to the Han onward, the Xiongnu and Han maintained peaceful relations for sixty or seventy years.

The Decline of the Xiongnu and Their Internal Strife

What Huhanye Shanyu (Personal name Jihoushan) inherited was a Xiongnu already weakened by foreign war and internal division. In 71 BC the Han sent out five generals including Tian Guangming with more than a hundred and sixty thousand horse, while the Wusun raised more than fifty thousand to attack from two sides, "bringing more than two hundred thousand troops down upon the Xiongnu," who on hearing of it fled in terror, "driving their herds far away," suffering heavily: "of the people, killed, wounded or fled, and of the herds driven far off or dead, the number cannot be reckoned." In the winter of the same year the Xiongnu themselves led ten thousand horse against the Wusun and met a great snow, "more than a fathom in a day, so that of the people and herds frozen to death not one in ten returned"; neighbouring states took the chance to fall on them, the Dingling entering on their east and the Wusun striking their west, "and in all the three states killed tens of thousands, took tens of thousands of horses and great numbers of cattle," and with many more dead of hunger, "of the people three in ten died and of the herds five in ten," so that the Xiongnu were much enfeebled, "all the dependent states broke up, and robbery could not be controlled," and they could no longer resist Han arms but "wished for marriage alliance." Afterwards Xulü Ququ Shanyu came to the throne in a famine in which "of the people and herds six or seven in ten died," fighting went on with small states, and among the nobles the struggle for power never ceased — and it was in these circumstances that Huhanye became Shanyu.

When he first took the title he had dismissed the nobles of the Zhuanqu yanzhi's faction, and the later quarrel over the succession began with a conspiracy: when Xulü Ququ Shanyu was gravely ill the Zhuanqu yanzhi told him not to go far, and when he died the Haoju king Xing Weiyang summoned the nobles of the several divisions, "who did not come," whereupon the Zhuanqu yanzhi and her brother Dulongqi conspired to set up the wise king of the right as Woyan Qudi Shanyu. He at once turned his attention inward, killed all the powerful nobles of Xulü Ququ's time, dismissed all the sons and near kin of Xulü Ququ, employed Dulongqi and placed his own sons in the chief posts. Jihoushan, son of Xulü Ququ, could not succeed and fled to his wife's father Wuchanmu — a chief whose people, harried by raids, had submitted to the Xiongnu while keeping their own following and living in the right region. Xianxianchan, the day-by-day king, long at odds with Woyan Qudi, now brought several tens of thousands of his horsemen over to the Han and was enfeoffed as marquis of Guide. In two years as Shanyu Woyan Qudi "was violent in slaughter and the state did not submit to him": he made his youngest son king of Aoqian against Wuchanmu's objection, which bred resentment, failed in pursuing the Aoqian who had migrated east, and by his crown prince's repeated slander turned the nobles of the left region against him. So Wuchanmu and the nobles of the left region "set up Jihoushan together as Huhanye Shanyu" and, raising forty or fifty thousand troops of the left region, attacked westward; Woyan Qudi fled, sought help from his brother the wise king of the right, who, hating his cruelty and that he "did not love men," refused it, and in despair he killed himself, while Dulongqi fled to the wise king of the right and all his followers surrendered to Huhanye. This was in 58 BC.

Five Shanyu at Once and the Submission to Han

The strife did not end with his accession. Dulongqi and the wise king of the right set up Boxutang as Tuqi Shanyu, who moved east with several tens of thousands and defeated Huhanye; in the autumn of 57 BC Tuqi had the right Aoqian king, as Wuji commissioner, take twenty thousand horse eastward against Huhanye, while in the west the Hujie king and others rebelled and set themselves up in turn, the right Aoqian king proclaimed himself Chelî Shanyu and the Wuji commissioner made himself Wuji Shanyu, "and so the Xiongnu had five Shanyu." Tuqi attacked Chelî in person and sent Dulongqi against Wuji; both were beaten and joined with the Hujie Shanyu, with forty thousand troops; then the Hujie and Wuji gave up the Shanyu title and "joined in supporting Chelî as the sole Shanyu." In 56 BC Huhanye sent his younger brother west to attack Tuqi's eastern garrison, killing and plundering more than ten thousand, and Tuqi, marching a thousand li east with sixty thousand horse, met Huhanye's forty thousand, was beaten and killed himself, while Dulongqi and Tuqi's youngest son fled to the Han; at the same time Wuli Wendun and his son brought several tens of thousands south to surrender to Han, being enfeoffed as marquises of Yiyang and Xincheng. Huhanye took in Chelî, who had come over, and captured and beheaded Wuji, and presently made the Shanyu court his capital, his strength somewhat increased, "but his following was still only some tens of thousands." Afterwards Tuqi's cousin Xuxun made himself Runzhen Shanyu in the right region, and Huhanye's elder brother, the wise king of the left Hutuwusi, made himself Zhizhi Shanyu; and within two years Zhizhi fought Runzhen, killed him, took his people and beat Huhanye, making the Shanyu court his capital. An edict of 55 BC described the situation: "the kings set themselves up on every side and were divided into five Shanyu, attacking one another, so that the dead numbered tens of thousands, the herds were nine-tenths wasted, the people starved and burned one another for food, and there was great disorder." To find a way out was now the most pressing question for the Xiongnu.

The way Huhanye chose was to come south to the Han. In 53 BC he "brought his people south near the frontier, sent his son into Han and declared himself a subject, meaning to use Han strength to preserve himself"; in the second month of 51 BC he appeared before the emperor at the Ganquan palace and was received with special honours, and in the second month of 49 BC he came to court again. After 49 BC, with Zhizhi having moved west and the internal danger gone and his own strength growing, he led his people back north of the desert in 43 BC. In the first month of 33 BC, Zhizhi having been destroyed by a Han expedition, he came to Chang'an a third time, asked to be made a son-in-law, and the History of the Former Han records that "Emperor Yuan gave him Wang Qiang, a good-family girl of the palace, whose courtesy name was Zhaojun," who was styled the Ninghu yanzhi. He died in 31 BC, having reigned from 58 to 31 BC, twenty-eight years.

Major Activities

Submission to the Han

The most important act of Huhanye Chanyu's reign was his submission to the Han. In 52 BCE, the second year of Ganlu, he moved south and submitted; in the first month of 51 BCE, the third year of Ganlu, he attended the Han court for the first time and met Emperor Xuan at Ganquan Palace. He received exceptional honors and ranked above the regional kings. The Han then sent troops to escort him to pasture below the Guanglu frontier defenses and supplied grain so that his followers could recover. Huhanye and the Han agreed that “the Han and the Xiongnu shall become one family and shall never deceive or attack one another for all generations,” laying a foundation for peace. In 43 BCE, the first year of Yongguang, Huhanye returned north to the chanyu court. After Zhizhi Chanyu was killed by the Western Han in 36 BCE, Huhanye, supported by the Han, reunified the Xiongnu and ended more than two decades of internal conflict.

Marriage to Wang Zhaojun

In 33 BCE, the first year of Jingning, Huhanye made his third visit to Chang'an and asked Emperor Yuan of Han to make him an imperial son-in-law. Emperor Yuan gave him Wang Qiang, courtesy name Zhaojun, who became Ninghu Yanzhi. Wang Zhaojun bore Huhanye a son, Yituzhiyashi. After Huhanye's death, Wang Zhaojun followed Xiongnu custom and remarried his son and successor Fuzhuleiruodi Chanyu. Zhaojun's departure beyond the frontier became one of the best-known episodes in the history of Han–Xiongnu heqin marriage alliances and later inspired many works of literature, drama, and painting.

Reunification of the Xiongnu

When Huhanye first became chanyu, the Xiongnu had been fragmented by the Five Chanyus Civil War. Tens of thousands had died, livestock losses had reached eight or nine tenths, and famine was so severe that people were said to burn and eat one another. With Han support Huhanye gradually eliminated his rivals: he defeated Tuqi Chanyu, accepted the surrender of Cheli Chanyu, and ultimately benefited from the Han destruction of Zhizhi Chanyu. He eventually reunified the Xiongnu realm and restored order.

The Turning Point in Han-Xiongnu Relations and His Descendants

Huhanye's submission to the Han was the greatest turning point in Han-Xiongnu relations since the siege of Baideng. Earlier the Xiongnu, though there had been talk of marriage alliance, relied on their horsemanship and were a constant frontier scourge; by Emperor Xuan's time, under the joint blows of Han and Wusun, "of the people three in ten died and of the herds five in ten," and with five Shanyu attacking one another and "the herds nine-tenths wasted and the people starving and burning one another for food," they could no longer stand alone. Huhanye exchanged "sending his son into Han and declaring himself a subject" for Han support, twice went in person to the Ganquan palace and to Chang'an to appear before the emperor and was "received with special honours"; he led his people back north of the desert in 43 BC after Zhizhi moved west, and in 33 BC, after Zhizhi was destroyed, came to court a third time and asked to be made a son-in-law, thus becoming, with Han support, the only Shanyu of the Xiongnu. With marriage and court audiences as its forms, Han and Xiongnu kept a relative peace for decades thereafter, the frontier recovered, and the name of Wang Zhaojun, the "Ninghu yanzhi," entered the centre of later literature and folk narrative because of this marriage.

Throughout this turning point ran the pattern of his family and succession. His sons were borne by women of the Huyan king's house, one styled the Zhuanqu yanzhi and two the great yanzhi; his eldest son, born about 65 BC, became wise king of the right in 56 BC, was sent to the Han as a hostage in the second month of 53 BC, returned to the Xiongnu in 43 BC and became wise king of the left, dying before Jihoushan. Thereafter his sons succeeded one another as Shanyu: one born about 50 BC became wise king of the left in 34 BC and Shanyu in 31 BC under the title Fuzhulei Ruodi, dying in 20 BC; one born about 48 BC became wise king of the left in 31 BC and Shanyu in 20 BC under the title Souxie Ruodi, dying in 12 BC; one born about 47 BC, son of the Huyan king's elder daughter, became wise king of the left in 20 BC and Shanyu in 12 BC under the title Cheya Ruodi, dying in 8 BC; a full brother of his, born about 45 BC, became wise king of the left in 12 BC and Shanyu in 8 BC under the title Wuzhuliu Ruodi, dying in AD 13; and another, born about 44 BC of the Huyan king's younger daughter, made himself Shanyu in AD 11 under the title Xiao Shanyu, gave up the title the same year, succeeded in AD 13 under the title Wulei Ruodi, and died in AD 18. This series of titles and dates traces the line of Huhanye's house through several generations after the submission; and it was the long survival of that line which made the name Huhanye the emblem, in the history of the Xiongnu, of the passage from confrontation to vassalage.

Personal Relations

• Great-grandfather: Qiedihou Chanyu
• Grandfather: Hulugu Chanyu
• Father: Xulüquanqu Chanyu
• Elder brother: Zhizhi Chanyu (Hutuwusi)
• Yanzhi: Great Yanzhi (daughter of the Huyan King), Zhuanqu Yanzhi (daughter of the Huyan King), Tuqi Yanzhi, the fifth Yanzhi, and Ninghu Yanzhi (Wang Zhaojun)
• Sons: Zhulouqutang; Diaotaomogao (Fuzhuleiruodi Chanyu); Qiemixu (Souxieruodi Chanyu); Qiemoche (Cheyaruodi Chanyu); Nangzhiyasi (Wuzhuliuruodi Chanyu); Xian (Wuleiruodi Chanyu); Le; Zhu; Yu (Huduerhidaogaoruodi Chanyu); Luhun; Yituzhiyashi (son of Wang Zhaojun); and others, twenty sons in all
• Wuchanmu: Huhanye's father-in-law, formerly ruler of a small state between Wusun and Kangju; later submitted to the Xiongnu and played a key role in supporting Huhanye's enthronement
• Left Yizhizi King: advisor to Huhanye who strongly advocated submission to the Han
• Huyan King: Huhanye's father-in-law and head of one of the four major Xiongnu clans
• Emperor Xuan of Han: received Huhanye at Ganquan Palace in 51 BCE and granted him exceptional honors
• Emperor Yuan of Han: gave Wang Zhaojun to Huhanye in 33 BCE
• Woyanqudi Chanyu (Tuqitang): defeated by Huhanye in 58 BCE and then committed suicide
• Tuqi Chanyu (Boxutang): defeated by Huhanye in 56 BCE and then committed suicide
• Zhizhi Chanyu (Hutuwusi): Huhanye's elder brother and long-term rival; killed by the Western Han in 36 BCE
• Runzhen Chanyu (Xiuxun King): killed by Zhizhi Chanyu in 54 BCE

Historical Assessment

Han and Contemporary Assessments

• Officials at the court of Emperor Xuan described Huhanye's submission as the Xiongnu chanyu “turning toward the civilizing influence and admiring righteousness, with the whole country of one mind, presenting treasures at court,” regarding it as evidence of the far-reaching prestige of Han rule (Book of Han, Annals of Emperor Xuan).
• Ban Gu's Book of Han: Account of the Xiongnu records that after Huhanye submitted, “the Chanyu went to his residence, his rank above the regional kings,” and notes that he “declared himself a subject and attended court, serving the Han with great respect,” affirming his role in maintaining Han–Xiongnu peace.
• Under Emperor Yuan, court officials regarded Huhanye's “guarding the frontier and keeping the covenant” as a guarantee of peace along the border. His request to become an imperial son-in-law was taken as a further deepening of Xiongnu dependence on the Han (Book of Han, Annals of Emperor Yuan).

Song and Yuan Periods

• Sima Guang's Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance gives a detailed account of Huhanye's submission. It describes him as one who “judged the times and circumstances and humbled himself to serve the Han,” approving his strategy of retreating in order to preserve the Xiongnu and arguing that “Huhanye's submission to the Han was not only a plan for the Han, but also a plan for the Xiongnu.”
• Song historians often contrasted Huhanye with Zhizhi, portraying Huhanye as one who “understood the times” while Zhizhi “relied on strength and brought disaster upon himself.” Hu Yin's Observations from Reading History, for example, praised Huhanye for being “able to humble himself in order to preserve and extend his state.”

Ming and Qing Periods

• Wang Fuzhi, in Du Tongjian Lun, argued that Huhanye “served the strong while weak and served the great while small; it was not his original desire, but he understood the balance of strength and weakness and therefore preserved his ancestral state,” acknowledging both the realism and the necessity of his policy.
• The Qing scholar Zhao Yi, in Notes on the Twenty-Two Histories, discussed “Huhanye's audience with the Han,” calling it “the beginning of a Xiongnu chanyu attending the Han court; from this point the Xiongnu became increasingly weak and the Han increasingly strong,” stressing the episode's significance for the changing balance between the two powers.

Modern Research

• Lin Gan's History of the Xiongnu describes Huhanye's submission to the Han as “a major turning point in Xiongnu history” and argues that it “accorded with the desire of the Xiongnu people for peace,” objectively promoting contact and integration between Han and Xiongnu peoples.
• Tian Yuqing's History of Qin and Han states that Huhanye's submission “ended more than a century of confrontation between the Xiongnu and the Han” and brought long-term stability to the northern frontier, making it one of the most important events in the history of Han–Xiongnu relations.
• Modern scholars generally regard Huhanye's political skill as lying in his ability to retreat in order to advance: by submitting to the Han he preserved room for Xiongnu survival, while his marriage to Wang Zhaojun became a symbol of amity between peoples (Jian Bozan, Outline of Chinese History).