page_title: History of Xinjiang
section_title: Xiongnu rule (2nd–1st c. BCE)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Xinjiang / Xiongnu rule (2nd–1st c. BCE)
caption_attribution_description: Español: Turfán (Turpan/Tulufán) es una ciudad-oasis en la Región Autónoma Uigur de Xinjiang en la República Popular China. Ruinas de la antigua ciudad de Jiaohe.English: Turfan (Turpan/Tulufan) is an oasis city in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Jiaohe ruins.
context_page_description: Xinjiang historically consisted of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names: Dzungaria north of the Tianshan Mountains; and the Tarim Basin south of the Tianshan Mountains, currently mainly inhabited by the Uyghurs. They were renamed Xinjiang in 1884, meaning "new frontier," when both regions were reconquered by the Chinese Qing dynasty after the Dungan revolt.
  The first inhabitants came from the west. The oldest Tarim mummies, found in the Tarim Basin, are dated to the 2nd millennium BCE, when the Indo-European Tocharians inhabited the Tarim Basin. In the first millennium BCE the Tarim Basin was inhabited by the Indo-European Yuezhi nomads. In the second century BCE the region became part of the Xiongnu empire, a confederation of nomads centered on present-day Mongolia.
  The Tarim Basin was first referred to as "Xiyu" under the Han dynasty, which drove the Xiongnu out of the Tarim Basin in 60 BCE in an effort to build and secure the profitable Silk Road, maintaining a variable military presence until the early 3rd century CE. From the 2nd to the 5th century local rulers controlled the region.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220), the region was subservient to the Xiongnu, a powerful nomadic people based in modern Mongolia. The Xiongnu were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Chinese sources report that Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 BC, founded the Xiongnu Empire.
  In 209 BC, three years before the founding of Han China, the Xiongnu were brought together in a powerful confederation under a new chanyu, Modu Chanyu. This new political unity transformed them into a more formidable state by enabling formation of larger armies and the ability to exercise better strategic coordination. After their previous rivals, the Yuezhi, migrated into Central Asia during the 2nd century BC, the Xiongnu became a dominant power on the steppes of north-east Central Asia, centered on an area known later as Mongolia. The Xiongnu were also active in areas now part of Siberia, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. Their relations with adjacent Chinese dynasties to the south east were complex, with repeated periods of conflict and intrigue, alternating with exchanges of tribute, trade, and marriage treaties (heqin).
  The reason for creating the confederation remains unclear. Suggestions include the need for a stronger state to deal with the Qin unification of China that resulted in a loss of the Ordos region at the hands of Meng Tian or the political crisis that overtook the Xiongnu in 215 BC when Qin armies evicted them from their pastures on the Yellow River.
  After forging internal unity, Modu Chanyu expanded the empire on all sides. To the north he conquered a number of nomadic peoples, including the Dingling of southern Siberia. He crushed the power of the Donghu people of eastern Mongolia and Manchuria as well as the Yuezhi in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu, where his son, Jizhu, made a skull cup out of the Yuezhi king. Modu also reoccupied all the lands previously taken by the Qin general Meng Tian.
   
  Under Modu's leadership, the Xiongnu threatened the Han dynasty, almost causing Emperor Gaozu, the first Han emperor, to lose his throne in 200 BC. By the time of Modu's death in 174 BC, the Xiongnu had driven the Yuezhi from the Hexi Corridor, killing the Yuezhi king in the process and asserting their presence in the Western Regions.
caption: Stupa ruins of Jiaohe, capital of the Jushi Kingdom (108 BC to 450 AD)
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