Visual history of an empire
The tribes who filled the vacuum left by the Xiongnu, ruled the steppe under Tanshihuai, and later founded dynasties inside China.
- Existed
- 93 to 234
- Duration
- 141 years
- Existed
- 93 to 234 (as a steppe confederation)
- Peak area
- About 4.5 million km2 (under Tanshihuai)
- Peak ruler
- Tanshihuai (c. 156-181)
- Origin
- Greater Khingan range, Manchuria
- Successors
- Northern Wei, Former Yan, Northern Zhou and others
The Xianbei were proto-Mongolic pastoralists from Manchuria who moved into the Mongolian steppe after the northern Xiongnu were destroyed in the 90s AD. Around 156 the chieftain Tanshihuai united them into a confederation stretching from Manchuria to the Ili valley and raided the Han frontier for two decades. The confederation broke up after his death, but Xianbei clans such as the Murong, Tuoba and Yuwen went on to found the Northern Wei and other dynasties that ruled north China from the fourth to sixth centuries.
When it existed: the era ribbon
The bold bar is Xianbei state. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.
Xianbei confederation reach
Timeline of the Xianbei state
- 93Northern Xiongnu collapseThe Xianbei occupy their lands.
- 156Tanshihuai unites the tribes
- 177Han expedition defeatedThree Han armies routed.
- 181Tanshihuai diesThe confederation fragments.
- 220Kebineng's revival
- 235Kebineng assassinated
- 386Northern Wei foundedBy the Tuoba Xianbei.
Filling the steppe
Chinese sources describe the Xianbei as descendants of the Donghu whom Modu Chanyu had defeated in 209 BC. When the Han and their southern Xiongnu allies smashed the northern Xiongnu in 89-93 AD, some 100,000 Xiongnu households reportedly adopted the Xianbei name and the Xianbei took over the empty pastures.
Tanshihuai
Tanshihuai, said to be born after his father had been away for three years, rose by his judgement and courage and was elected chieftain. He divided the confederation into eastern, central and western wings, refused a Han princess and marquisate, defeated a Han punitive expedition in 177 and raided the frontier every year. He died around 181; his son Helian lacked his authority and the confederation split.
Into China
Kebineng briefly rebuilt Xianbei power in the 220s until his assassination in 235. Thereafter the Xianbei mattered less as a steppe empire than as founders of Chinese states: the Murong Yan kingdoms, the Tuoba Northern Wei that unified the north in 439, and the Yuwen Northern Zhou whose Sui and Tang successors were part-Xianbei by descent.
Related empires and wars
Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.
Empires of the same era and region
- Xiongnu Empire (209 BC to 93)
- Northern Xiongnu (48 to 155)
- Eastern Han dynasty (25 to 220)
- Cao Wei (220 to 266)
- Northern Wei (386 to 535)
- Rouran Khaganate (330 to 555)
- Former Qin (351 to 394)
Wars of the same era and region
- Three Kingdoms period (184 to 280)
8 surprising things about the Xianbei state
- The Xianbei probably spoke an early Mongolic language, making them ancestors, linguistically, of the Mongols.
- Tanshihuai reportedly settled fishermen from a country to the east on a lake to feed his people.
- The Xianbei ruling house of Northern Wei later ordered its own people to adopt Chinese surnames and dress.
- The Tang imperial family had Xianbei ancestry through the maternal line, and Tang court culture kept steppe habits like women riding.
- The Mulan ballad is set among the Xianbei-ruled Northern Wei, and the ruler in it is called 'khan'.
- Xianbei burial mounds and gilded horse ornaments are found across Inner Mongolia and Liaoning.
- The Xianbei name lives on in the Xibe (Sibe) people of Xinjiang and Manchuria, though the link is disputed.
- The Rouran who ruled the steppe after them were probably a Xianbei offshoot.