When a chanyu of the Xiongnu came to the Han court, the court gave him a fixed set of gifts. The set held regalia and clothing, horses, gold and cash, grain, and silk in bolts. The two Han histories list it for 51 BC and for AD 50. They give the later increases in a few words.[1] The record shows the gifts growing with each visit, and the Han official debates of the period show the cost being counted.[2]

The audience of 51 BC

In the first month of 51 BC the chanyu Huhanye had his audience at the Sweet Springs palace. The Han ranked him above the vassal kings and called him a subject without speaking his name.[2] The gifts were the following.[2]

  • Cap, sash and robes, and a gold seal with its ribbon.
  • A sword with jade fittings, a belt knife, a bow and arrows.
  • A light carriage, a saddle and bridle, and fifteen horses.
  • Twenty catties of gold and 200,000 cash.
  • Seventy-seven suits of clothing and quilts.
  • 8,000 bolts of brocade, embroidery, figured silk, gauze and other silks.
  • 6,000 catties of silk floss.

The Han also moved grain from the frontier, 34,000 hu in all, to feed the chanyu’s people.[2] When the emperor Yuan came to the throne, Huhanye wrote that his people were in want. The court then ordered Yunzhong and Wuyuan to send 20,000 hu of grain.[2]

The later visits

In 33 BC Huhanye came again. The ceremony and the gifts were as before, and the Han added clothing, brocade, silk and floss, all of them double the quantity given in the Huanglong period (49 BC).[2] In the same year the emperor gave him Wang Zhaojun.[2]

In 3 BC the chanyu Wuzhuliu wrote that he wished to come to court. The emperor Ai was ill, and the court hesitated. A saying went round that each visit since the Huanglong and Jingning years had been followed by a calamity. The officials also called the visit a waste of the treasury and thought it could be refused.[2] The gentleman Yang Xiong sent in a memorial against the refusal. The emperor was persuaded, recalled the envoys of the Xiongnu and agreed. He rewarded Yang Xiong with fifty bolts of silk and ten catties of gold.[2]

The visit took place in 1 BC. The emperor lodged the chanyu in the Grape Palace in the Shanglin park. Custom set the chanyu’s suite at a little over 200 people, kings included. Wuzhuliu asked to bring 500, and the emperor agreed.[2] The Han Shu gives the additional gifts: 370 suits of clothing, 30,000 bolts of brocade, embroidery and silk, and 30,000 catties of floss. Everything else, it says, was as in the Heping years (28 to 25 BC).[2] The text leaves open whether these sums were the whole gift or an addition to the gifts of the Heping years. Either way, they exceed the 8,000 bolts and 6,000 catties of 51 BC.

AD 50 and the yearly gift

The Southern Xiongnu chanyu received a larger set of gifts in AD 50. They included a gold seal, a carriage, a sword and a bow, and instruments, together with gold, brocade, embroidery, silk and cloth to the number of 10,000, 10,000 catties of floss, 25,000 hu of rice and dried grain from Hedong, and 36,000 head of cattle and sheep to supply the chanyu’s people.[3]

The same passage fixes a yearly exchange. At the end of each year the chanyu sent a memorial and a hostage son to court. At the new year the court sent his envoy home with 1,000 bolts of coloured silk, four lengths of brocade, ten catties of gold, food from the imperial kitchen and fruit. It also gave gifts to the chanyu’s mother, consorts, sons, kings and chiefs, which together came to 10,000 bolts of coloured silk. The history says that this became the custom every year.[3] Together these gifts come to about 11,000 bolts of silk a year.

Other gifts followed events at the chanyu’s court. When the Southern chanyu Bi died after nine years, the Han envoy confirmed his successor with a seal, a cap and robes, and 4,000 bolts of coloured silk for the new chanyu to hand out to the kings and chiefs. From then on every death was marked by condolences and gifts of the same kind.[3] In AD 53 the court gave the chanyu tens of thousands of sheep.[3] In AD 143 the chanyu Doulouchu, who had lived in the capital, was installed there with gifts of 2,000 bolts of coloured cloth, carriages and a banquet with music.[3]

Equal return for the Northern Xiongnu

The Han also paid the Northern chanyu, and it did so by a rule. In AD 52 the Northern Xiongnu sent horses and furs and asked for a marriage alliance and for music. The official Ban Biao advised the court to answer with rewards roughly equal to the gifts presented.[3] His reason was that the Northern chanyu made his offers more generous as his state grew weaker.[3] The court accepted the advice, and in AD 55 it replied with a sealed letter and coloured silks, without sending an envoy.[3]

The view from the Xiongnu court

In 88 the Southern chanyu Tuntuhe wrote to the throne that he and his people had been born on Han land and lived on Han food. The yearly and seasonal bestowals, he said, ran to sums beyond reckoning.[3] He proposed an attack on the north with his own horsemen.[3]

The histories list the goods in detail and say little about what the chanyus did with them. For the way the Han and the Xiongnu each named the exchange, see Heqin.

References

  1. ^ Han Shu, juan 94; Hou Han Shu, juan 89
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Han Shu, juan 94
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hou Han Shu, juan 89

Sources

Related

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Institutions and Titles
Diplomacy of the Steppe Empires · Gold of the Xiongnu Court · The Economy of the Steppe Empires · Tribute Missions and Bestowals

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Han Bestowals on the Chanyu.” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/institutions/han-bestowals-on-the-chanyu/

Last revised: 7 November 2026