The Sanguozhi is the history of the Three Kingdoms, the Wei, the Shu and the Wu, which divided China after the fall of the Han. Chen Shou compiled it in the third century. Pei Songzhi added a commentary in 429. Chapter 30 treats the Wuhuan, the Xianbei and the peoples of the east.[1] Its preface says that the Wuhuan and the Xianbei grew strong because China was in disorder at the end of the Han.[1]
Chen Shou’s own text on the Wuhuan begins at the end of the Han and follows their chiefs and the campaigns against them. On the Xianbei it follows Kebineng and the other great chiefs of the Wei period.[1] The customs of both peoples stand in the commentary.[1] Pei Songzhi quotes there at length from an earlier history of the Wei. The quotation covers the origin of both peoples among the Donghu, their herding, hunting and food, their marriage and burial, and the life of Tanshihuai.[1] The work is usually identified as the Wei history of Wang Chen. At the end of the chapter Pei Songzhi adds the account of the western peoples from the Weilüe.[1]
The Weilüe is a history of the Wei dynasty written between 239 and 265 by Yu Huan. It is preserved in this long extract from its account of the western peoples.[2] The extract counts the roads into the Western Regions from the Jade Gate of Dunhuang. There had formerly been two, and there were now three.[1] The southern road went past the Qiang country over the Pamirs to the Great Yuezhi. The middle road went past the Longdui dunes to old Loulan, on to Kucha and over the Pamirs. A new northern road ran north-west from the Jade Gate to Gaochang, the seat of the Wuji colonel in the land of Jushi. There it turned west and joined the middle road at Kucha.[1]
The Hou Han Shu, compiled in the fifth century, gives the same account of the Wuhuan and the Xianbei, often word for word. It leaves out some sentences that the commentary keeps. Among them are the cuckoo that gave the Wuhuan the sign for sowing, the grain they took from China, and the white wine they made without knowing the ferment. Where the two agree, they are one witness.
The passage
常推募勇健能理決鬥訟相侵犯者爲大人，
邑落各有小帥，不世繼也。
數百千落自爲一部，
大人有所召呼，刻木爲信，邑落傳行，無文字，而部衆莫敢違犯。
They regularly chose as great man one who was brave and strong and could settle fights, lawsuits and encroachments among them,
Each camp had its small leader, and the office did not pass by inheritance.
Some hundreds or thousands of camps formed a tribe of their own.
When the great man had a summons to make, he cut a piece of wood as the token and it was passed from camp to camp. They had no writing, and none of the tribe dared disobey.
貴兵死，斂屍有棺，
始死則哭，葬則歌舞相送。
肥養犬，以采繩嬰牽，
並取亡者所乘馬、衣物、生時服飾，皆燒以送之。
特屬累犬，使護死者神靈歸乎赤山。
赤山在遼東西北數千里，如中國人以死之魂神歸泰山也。
They honoured death in battle. When they laid out the corpse, there was a coffin.
At the death they wept, and at the burial they sent the dead off with song and dance.
They fattened a dog and led it on a coloured cord,
and they took the horse the dead man had ridden, his clothes and goods, and the ornaments he had worn in life, and burned them all to send them off with him.
The dead man was entrusted especially to the dog, which was to guard his spirit on its return to the Red Mountain.
The Red Mountain lies several thousand li north-west of Liaodong, just as the Chinese hold that the souls of their dead go back to Mount Tai.
烏丸者，東胡也。
漢初，匈奴冒頓滅其國，
餘類保烏丸山，因以爲號焉。
俗善騎射，隨水草放牧，居無常處，以穹廬爲宅，皆東向。
日弋獵禽獸，食肉飲酪，以毛毳爲衣。
The Wuhuan were the Donghu.
At the beginning of the Han, Modu of the Xiongnu destroyed their state,
and the remnant kept to Mount Wuhuan and took its name from it.
By custom they were good at riding and archery. They herded their animals wherever there was water and grass, had no fixed dwelling, and made their homes in domed tents, all facing east.
Every day they shot and hunted birds and beasts. They ate meat and drank soured milk, and wore wool and fur.
自其先爲匈奴所破之後，人衆孤弱，爲匈奴臣服，
常歲輸牛馬羊，過時不具，輒虜其妻子。
至匈奴壹衍鞮單于時，烏丸轉強，
發掘匈奴單于塚，將以報冒頓所破之恥。
壹衍鞮單于大怒，發二萬騎以擊烏丸。
After their ancestors had been broken by the Xiongnu, their people were isolated and weak and submitted as subjects of the Xiongnu.
Every year they regularly delivered oxen, horses and sheep, and when the time passed and these were not ready, the Xiongnu at once took their wives and children captive.
In the time of the Xiongnu chanyu Yiyandi, the Wuhuan grew stronger,
dug up the tombs of the Xiongnu chanyus and meant by this to avenge the shame of the defeat by Modu.
The chanyu Yiyandi was greatly angered and sent out twenty thousand horsemen to attack the Wuhuan.
鮮卑亦東胡之餘也，別保鮮卑山，因號焉。
其言語習俗與烏丸同。
其地東接遼水，西當西城。
常以季春大會，作樂水上，
嫁女娶婦，髠頭飲宴。
鮮卑自爲冒頓所破，遠竄遼東塞外，不與餘國爭衡，未有名通於漢，而自與烏丸相接。
The Xianbei too were a remnant of the Donghu. They kept apart at Mount Xianbei and took their name from it.
Their language and customs were the same as those of the Wuhuan.
Their land adjoined the Liao river in the east and reached Xicheng in the west.
Regularly, in the last month of spring, they held a great assembly and made music by the water,
gave daughters in marriage and took wives, shaved their heads, and drank and feasted.
Since the Xianbei had been broken by Modu, they had fled far to beyond the frontier of Liaodong. They did not contend with the other states, had no name that reached the Han, and were in contact only with the Wuhuan.
References
Sources
- Sanguozhi, juan 30
- Hou Han Shu, juan 90
Literature
- Albert Herrmann, Die alten Seidenstrassen zwischen China und Syrien. Beiträge zur alten Geographie Asiens, Bd. 1 (1910)
Articles resting on this source 15
Bride-Price in Livestock · Chinese Weaponsmiths among the Xianbei · Culture of the Turkic Peoples · Five Divisions of the Xiongnu · Jade Gate · Millet · Millet Beer · Shanshan · Steppe Diet · Tarim Basin · The Xianbei Spring Assembly · Women among the Turkic Peoples · Wuhuan · Wuhuan Funeral Songs · Xianbei
What links here7
- States
- Shanshan
- Places
- Jade Gate
- Foods
- Millet · Millet Beer · Steppe Diet
- Customs & Pastimes
- The Xianbei Spring Assembly · Wuhuan Funeral Songs
Cite this article
Yavuz, Emre-E. “Sanguozhi.” Turkic Atlas, revised 28 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/sanguozhi/
Last revised: 28 October 2026
