Introduction
Located at the intersection of the sedentary millet agriculturalists to the south and the nomadic pastoralists to the north,northern China was not only the birthplace of various confederations of ancient tribes but also a melting pot for the exchanges of material culture, agriculture, and technology between the two distinct societies (Di Cosmo 1999). Since the Iron Age, a series of pastoral nomadic groups in the eastern Eurasia steppe established political tribes that resided in and around northern China, such as Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Rouran. Many of them migrated southward into the Central Plains of China and even established their own dynasties.Among these nomadic confederations, Xianbei was perhaps the most prominent who established the Northern Wei Dynasty
(386–534 AD), one of the longest-lived and most powerful dynasties in China’s northern border (Holcombe 2013).Xianbei first appeared in Chinese historical records, specifically the “Hou Han Shu,” in 49 AD (Hou han shu 1959) and ruled over a vast territory covering the entire Mongolia Plateau and northern China at its peak. As a non-literate society,most of the information available on the Xianbei is known only from external inscriptions, particularly from Chinese
historians; thus, the origins of Xianbei remain controversial. Historical accounts suggest that the Xianbei were descendants of the ancient nomadic Donghu tribe, the latter of which was defeated by Xiongnu around 206 BC and subsequently migrated northward to the “Great Xianbei Mountains,” which is now considered as the Great Khingan ranges in the Amur River Region (Hou han shu 1959; Holcombe 2013; Wei shu 1975). Therefore, it is hypothesized that the vast Great Khingan regions were the original homeland of Xianbei (Fig. 1).Besides, other theories, including the Shanrong and Dongyi hypotheses, have been proposed by other scholars, tracing the Xianbei’s origin to the eastern and northern China, respectively (Li 1993; Ma 2006). Anthropological evidence indicates that the Xianbei likely comprised multiple ethnic groups, suggesting a complex population structure (Chen et al. 2003; Chen 2002; Zeng 2009). Due to the absence of written records, little is known about the language spoken by Xianbei, and available evidence is mainly derived from a limited number of tribe names (e.g., Yuwen, Murong, and Tuyuhun) (Wei shu 1975),which is insufficient for definitively classifying the Xianbei language, despite that a large body of scholars believe it likely associated with the Pro-Mongolic language (Janhunen 2006).
