Why is it said that "Five Barbarians Entered China" describes the history of the development and growth of the Chinese nation?

　　During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in Chinese history, many northern nomadic groups entered the Central Plains to establish political power.

How should this historical period be viewed and called?

There has always been a saying that "five chaos brought chaos to China". The word "Chaos" reveals the fact that there are many regimes, attacking each other, and the people of all ethnic groups have suffered tremendously.

Especially in the Central Plains region, due to its dense population, developed production, material wealth and advanced culture, the people in the Central Plains suffered even more serious disasters caused by war.

From the perspective of building a strong sense of the Chinese nation's community today, although the word "chaos" describes a considerable part of the objective reality, it has obvious limitations because it ignores the transformation of the Wuhu regime in the later period.

In the process of advancing into the Central Plains, most of the Wuhu regimes quickly and proactively chose "Sinicization" in terms of political concepts and cultural customs, and actively pursued the idea of ​​​​unification. This caused the war between them to gradually evolve into a fight for Chinese orthodoxy and the pursuit of the unification of the north and the south. s method.

Therefore, we believe that the most significant difference between entering China and rebelling against China is that entering China involves actively learning from the Central Plains culture, while rebelling against China clearly involves passive destruction and invasion.

Therefore, calling this period the "Five Barbarians Entering China" is obviously more in line with the historical pattern of pluralism, multi-ethnic integration and Chinese cultural traditions in Chinese history. It also more substantively reveals the history of various ethnic groups moving from great collision to great integration. process.

▲Situation map of the Southern and Northern Dynasties (picture source: Atlas of Historical Situations of China)

　　Existing historical materials provide sufficient evidence support for the "Five Hus entering China".

　　During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, rulers of various regimes continued to advocate the "unification" of the country, inherited various basic systems of the Han Dynasty, and reflected the mentality of actively learning from and integrating into "Han" culture.

　　At the political level, from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Western Jin Dynasty, the Xiongnu, Wuhuan, Xianbei, Di, Qiang and other ethnic groups inside and outside the Great Wall were mostly under the management of the guardian officials established by the Central Plains Dynasty, the captains of border counties and vassal states, and even county officials. .

Most of the leaders of these ethnic groups were awarded various levels of official titles such as "king", "hou", "qianchang", "hundredchang", and "shichang" by the Central Plains dynasty, with such abilities as "Guiyihou" and "Lushanwang" A title indicating submission to the imperial court.

These names are not empty names, but indicate that the surrounding ethnic groups have been included in the world order with the Central Plains Dynasty as the core.

　　The "Five Hu" regimes involved multiple ethnic groups and had a bureaucracy that was a mixture of Hu and Han.

Among the 263 officials who can be counted in the Xiongnu, Han and Zhao regimes, there are 114 Xiongnu (including royal family members), 131 Han people, and 18 people from other ethnic groups.

Among the 175 central government officials in Houyan who could identify their ethnic origin, 26% were from the Murong clan, 11% from other Xianbei people, 10% from other ethnic minorities, and 53% from Han people; among the 110 military officials who could identify their ethnic origin, Those who belong to the Murong clan account for 27%, other Xianbei people account for 14%, other ethnic groups account for 14%, and Han people account for 45%; among the 93 local officials (34 people at the governor level) who can confirm their clan affiliation, Murong The clan accounts for 24% (18 governor-level people), other Xianbei people account for 9%, other ethnic groups account for 4%, and Han people account for 63%.

Among the 32 people in the 30 types of central officials that can be counted in the Later Qin Dynasty, there are 6 royals, 19 Han people, 3 Qiang people, 3 Di people, and 1 retired official.

Among the 66 officials who can be counted in Daxia, there are 27 Tiefu Xiongnu, 26 Han, 4 Xianbei, 4 Xiongnu, 2 Qiang, 2 Tuyuhun, and 1 Tuge.

▲Situation map of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties (picture source: Historical Atlas of Chinese Territories)

　　At the social level, the Northern Wei Dynasty implemented a crucial "dispersed tribes" policy, that is, the dissolution of tribal organizations.

In the first year of Tianxing (398), the Northern Wei Dynasty attacked Houyan and won a great victory. The tribesmen were disbanded on a large scale in Dai area, so that they "divided their lands for settlement and did not listen to migration." The tribal leaders "all registered households together."

Shortly after Tuoba Gui was renamed Queen of Wei in the first year of his ascendance to the Kingdom (386), the Northern Wei Dynasty implemented the policy of "scattering tribes and uniting them as common people", and later implemented similar policies for different groups several times.

This policy attempts to separate the tribal leaders from their tribesmen, transforming them from tribal members into national households, where they can settle down and be allocated land for farming or settled herding, and are not allowed to move at will.

The clan based on blood was transformed into the household based on geography.

As a result, the Northern Wei Dynasty strengthened the centralization of power, opened up financial and military resources, and reorganized the old social relations of the Hu people of various ethnic groups, making it possible for the former Qin Fu Jian, who was about to go to his own tribe and become an independent king after losing a battle. The situation will never happen again.

　　At the legal level, the Wei and Jin Dynasties achieved significant progress in terms of jurisprudence and legal system.

During the reign of Emperor Ming of the Wei Dynasty, 18 chapters of the Wei Code were made, incorporating all the criminal law provisions. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Jin Dynasty, 20 chapters of the "Taishi Code" were formulated, thus focusing the content of the "Law" on criminal law, and the content of the administrative system was separately placed. In "Ling", that is, in the 40th volume of "Jin Ling".

Therefore, "law" is criminal law and "order" is administrative law, and the nature of the two is clearly defined.

The "separation of laws and orders" in the Wei and Jin Dynasties is of great significance in the history of Chinese legal system.

In terms of the rule of law, the laws of the Northern Wei Dynasty were also deeply influenced by the trend of the merger of Confucianism and Legalism since the Han Dynasty. They followed the spirit of the combination of ritual and law since the Han and Wei dynasties. They had a distinctive color of rituals and were in line with the typical characteristics of the Wei and Jin Confucian systems of systematically introducing rituals into the laws.

For example, it stipulates the preservation of the system of foster care and the prohibition of marriage with the same surname for the crime of "immorality", etc., which reflects the integration of Hu and Han in the construction of the legal system.

　　In terms of music and dance, Hu music, which has both military and Chinese characteristics, has a profound influence on the Central Plains region.

Hu instruments such as Hujia, Qiang flute, pipa, vertical harp, Jiegu and other Hu instruments and music are widely popular among the people in the Central Plains.

After the Jin Dynasty moved south, the music of Qing Dynasty and Shang Dynasty changed, forming the phenomenon of "old music of Chen and Liang Dynasty, mixed with the sounds of Wu and Chu, and old music of Zhou and Qi Dynasties, mostly involving the techniques of Hu music".

Qiuci music and Xiliang music have a great influence on the music of northern my country.

The royal family and nobles all loved Kucha music and dance. Emperor Wenxuan Gao Yang of the Northern Qi Dynasty even played drums to accompany him when he played Kucha music.

The Northern Qi Dynasty's "Lanling King Entering the Battle Song" and the Northern Zhou Dynasty's "City Dance" are the artistic crystallization of the fusion of northern ethnic groups, which had a certain influence on later dramas.

In addition, the influence of Hu dance and Hu opera on the culture of the Central Plains is also obvious.

　　At the language level, the daily speech of Han people in the north and south is sometimes mixed with Hu dialects or Yiyue sounds.

In terms of calligraphy, the Wei stele inherited the Han Li tradition and inspired the new Tang Kai style, laying a solid foundation for the structure and brushwork of modern Chinese characters.

In the art of sculpture and painting, Buddhist statues and murals such as Datong Yungang Grottoes, Luoyang Longmen Grottoes, and Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, as well as murals from the tombs of Hu people in the Northern Dynasties, combine Central Plains Confucian and Taoist culture, Central Plains architectural style, green landscape painting style and nomadic life. Scenes, Buddhist beliefs and other elements.

For example, various ethnic groups jointly created the Yungang Grottoes, a unique temple of Buddhist art.

The Buddhist sculpture art of Yungang Grottoes integrates the essence of Xianbei, Han and Central Asian cultures, becoming the crystallization of the exchanges and blending of all ethnic groups.

　　Going back to the question itself, what behind the "Five Barbarians" and "Five Barbarians Entering China" are different historical cognitions and theoretical paradigms. One way to regard the Five Barbarians as the source of chaos in China is actually to regard the "Five Barbarians" as the source of the chaos in China. " is the "other"; while the historical narrative of the Chinese nation community that emphasizes the origin of Yi and Xia and the unity of the world regards the "Five Hu" as a supplement and integration of the constantly developing Chinese culture, and realistically describes the development of the Chinese nation and Chinese culture. The integration process also truly reflects the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization, especially continuity, unity and inclusiveness.

It is particularly worth pointing out that the process of "the entry of five barbarians into China" is the process of increasing the commonality of the Chinese nation, and it is also the process of the Chinese nation's continuous development and growth.

　　(About the author: Peng Qingqing, dean and doctoral supervisor of the School of Political Science and Law, Xinjiang Normal University; Wang Yinghao, doctoral candidate, School of Marxism, Xinjiang Normal University.)

　　(Daozhonghua WeChat public account)