page_title: Dingling
section_title: Origin and migration
hierarchical_section_title: Dingling / Origin and migration
caption_attribution_description: English: Turks
context_page_description: The Dingling were an ancient people mentioned in Chinese historiography in the context of the 1st century BCE who lived in Siberia.
  They are assumed to have been an early Proto-Turkic or related to Na-Dené and Yeniseian speakers.
  They originally lived on the bank of the Lena River in the area west of Lake Baikal, gradually moving southward to Mongolia and northern China. They were a huge independent horde for centuries, but later been defeated and temporary became subject of the Xiongnu Empire, and thus presumably related to the invaders known as Huns in the west.
  Around the 3rd century they were assimilated into the Tiele, also named Di, Dili, Gaoche or Chile, who gradually expanded westward into Central Asia. Some, known as the West Dingling, remained in an area that would become Kazakhstan, while others – expelled from Mongolia by the Rouran – settled in the Tarim Basin during the 5th century and took control of Turpan.
context_section_description: The early Han Classic of Mountains and Seas mentioned a fantastical Dingling nation (釘靈國) where people possessed below their knees hairy shins and horse hooves and ran deftly. This is echoed in a Wusun's account, recorded in Weilüe (compiled 239-265 CE), that "north of the Dingling is the kingdom of Majing (‘Horses Shanks’). These men make sounds like startled wild geese. From above the knee, they have the body and hands of a man, but below the knees, they grow hair, and have horses’ legs and hooves. They don’t ride horses as they can run faster than horses. They are brave, strong, and daring fighters". Weilüe mentioned three Dingling groups: one group was located south of Majing, north of Kangju, and west of Wusun, another south of Lake Baikal, and another north of Xiongnu and neighbouring the Qushi, Hunyu, Gekun, and Xinli, all of whom had once been conquered by the Xiongnu. 
  The Dingling was a warlike group, formed by traders, hunters, fishers, and gatherers, having half-nomadic life in the southern Siberian mountain taiga region from Lake Baikal to northern Mongolia. Chinese records did not mention the physical appearance of the Dingling, suggesting general homogeneity with people of the Asiatic region, and their name appears rarely, such as Di or Zhai (翟), an example of the family name that been translated based on their group name or the last name of the top ruling class (see: Zhai Liao). Some ancient source claims that Di or Zhai (翟) was adopted as the group name because the Zhai family had been the ruling house for centuries.  
  Other source claims that they might have been correlated with the Guifang, a northern tribe that appears in the oracle bone inscriptions from Yinxu.
  According to the History of the Gaoche of Wei Shou (6th century), the origin of the Dingling can be traced to the Chidi (赤狄) (lit. Red Di), who lived in northern China during the Spring and Autumn period. The Mozi mentions a total of eight related Di groups, of whom only "Red Di" (赤狄, Chidi), the "White Di" (白狄, Baidi), and "Tall Di" (長狄, Changdi) are known.
  To the north of the Xiongnu empire and Dingling territories, at the headwaters of the Yenisei around Tannu Uriankhai, lived the Gekun (鬲昆), also known as the Yenisei Kirghiz in later records. Further to the west near the Irtysh river lived the Hujie (呼揭). Other tribes living north of the Xiongnu, such as the Hunyu (浑庾), Qushe (屈射), and Xinli (薪犁), were only mentioned once in Chinese records, and their exact location is unknown.
  During the 2nd century BCE, the Dingling became subjects of Modu Chanyu along with 26 other tribes, including the Yuezhi and Wusun.
caption: Lineage of the Dingling
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