Let's fight about the origins of the Xiongnu #2

Last time I was this early the Huns were still the Xiongnu

I'm kinda shook to find out that Huo Qubing was the same age as me currently (23) when he commanded tens of thousands of imperial Han troops to wreck the entire Xiongnu confederacy. o.O Makes me wonder what am I doing with my life currently..

Huo Qubing may be one of the most legendary generals in the whole China history. He died at only 23 years old. (Shit nowadays a 23-year-old boy can be only a fresh graduate) But before his death, he won so many battles, captured so many kings and conquered so much land. His successful expeditions, along with many other out-standing generals, laid the foundation of a significant part of today's northern China. If I can achieve this much in my life I would die as a happy man. ( Still 23 years is way too short XD)

The Han under Wudi chased the Xiongnu to the point of them using the Gobi desert as their defensive barrier against Huo's and Wei's pursuit. The Han was on a another level of badass when in their peak

Huo QuBing basically launched several covert military operations, travelling 1000 miles deep into Gobi desert and surprise attacked the Xiongnu. It is hard to imagine how could he be so precious in attacking spots and traveling in the desert...almost felt like he had a GPS at that time lol

Chinese history has always fascinated me, especially with regard to their advancements in technology that are still to be marveled at. And this video puts into perspective how incredibly resilient the Chinese people are.

18-years-old Huo Qubing's first battle, he and his 800 cavalries defeated Xiong Nu army and executed more than 2000 enemies.

hello everyone, I am the one who suggested this video.

Mods used in TW: Attila engine: Han army mod Aztec graphic mod Kavoo dust mod GEMFX That's it. :) Best wishes, Malay Archer.

Hou Qubing was so young when he died, only 23- 24 years old. But even by then he already won through many difficult battles. In the end the Han dynasty's commitment in their northern warpath paid off. Well guarded column of supplies and deep penetration into the heart of the steppe lands. Hard to think that before most people matured he already made his name and die. The ages of some of history's warriors and conquerors really astounds me sometimes.

I know almost nothing of the history of China, so it was with great pleasure that I watched this video ...As always informative, beautiflly done, well illustrated...👍👍👍

We need more video of Chinese history and battles!

What amazes me is that a non-Chinese document video can have such an accurate description of Chinese ancient records. Kudos to the the detailed research done by the video maker. Throughout the video I can only find one graphic map mistake: when Qinshihuang united China, the main area Qin Dynasty annexed from Xiong-Nu is called He-Tao area which is the part of land south to the Yellow River and surrounded by Yellow River to the East, North , and West. This is a particularly fertile land. Later when Han Dynasty annexed the South of the great Gobi desert, the Huns were forced to move to the North of Gobi desert which has temperature dropped to minus 50 degrees in winter. This meant that the Hun’s economy was doomed, because following each blizzard, massive animals raised by the Huns would die. And the famines then caused the Hun empire to split, and a weakened and split Hun empire collapsed under further invasions from all of its enemies. All in all, the Han Xiong-Nu war lasted for 200 years and was a particularly difficult one on both sides to fight. In comparison, the Tang Turkish war was relatively short. 10 years after the last Turkish invasion of Tang, the great Turkish Khan Ji-li Kahn was captured south to the Gobi desert. It was recorded that before Ji-Li Kahn was captured, he was hesitating if to follow the Hun steps and moved to the North of the desert, knowing that moving to the North he will face that minus 50 degree weather for his people. He did not have the chance because the Tang calvary surprise attacked him. The late Eastern Turkish did move to the North of the Gobi desert and was then also economically doomed. The Urgurs overrun the late Eastern Turks and occupied their land, soon found that they were also cursed by the terrible weather. After a huge winter storm and a huge famine, the Ughurs wrote to the Tang court, requesting permission to move to the “former Western Turkish Land”, today’s Xing Jiang.

I cannot wait to see the three kingdom era video :D

The Chinese were smart; in order to defeat Rome they sent the Xiongnu westward. Han China 1 - 0 Rome

Huo Qubing was only 23 when he commanded the decisive campaign against xiongnu

Huns came from among the Xiongnu probably, but it is fascinating how Xiongnu influenced so much more. Central Asia at the time was dominated by Indo-European speakers. Xiongnu themselves, and the tribes they displaced, liked Yuezhi began a westward push, and came to make the Turkic people. Before the Xiongnu Expansion, it was the Scythians who ruled Central Asia, having defeated the Greco-Bactrians(and pushing them to India). The Yuezhi now pushed the Scythians into India. After they formed the Kushan Empire, they themselves expanded into India. A few centuries later, when these outsiders had been assimilated into India, and it was ruled by Gupta Dynasty, the Huns themselves came knocking, and lead to the decline of the Gupta Empire. (A part of the Huns too were assimilated into India later)

Fantastic！Your documentary are more precise than most of Chinese documentary that about this period ！ and far more than the textbook. Since childhood we Chinese have learned Han-Xiongnu war through ways. But the history textbook provide few information and even the history of Han dynasty. What's worst, many soap opera have romantified its history, so your video really a Great Joy to me, thank you to you all. Tomorrow I will translate the subtitle to Chinese. It really joyful because my birthday is in this week.

Xiongnu, pretty much like all other ancient nomadic raiders, were most likely a combination of different cultural and lingustic groups who had gathered to have a share of the loot! We really shouldn't argue about that. I'm pretty sure that Uralic, Tunguskic, Scythian, Mongolian, Turkic and a lot of other no longer existing groups were involved in this.

Huo Qubing's short but glorious life needs its own documentary. Definitely one of my favorite Chinese generals

The battle tactics presented in the video are so well made! Thank you for the wonderful job.

It’s sad to see how quickly the comments section deteriorates into madness as soon as the words “turkic” or “turkish” are involved...

Such an exquisite documentary regarding the Han dynasty, I am astonished that you actually mentioned the three kingdoms period which is my favorite in Chinese history. I was surprised because I just started searching about them in the past 5 days and I wished that you would talk about it since you are one of the few channels that excel in battle documentaries. Now, there is hope. Subscribed

Han: Aight we beat up the Xiongnus and they are going your direction! Rome: what the fucking what

Weiqing and Huoqubing are those legendary kinds, they are born to be the one, the leader, the man that knows the art of war.

Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, two of the best generals in Chinese history. I love reading how they marched thousand of miles into Xiongnu territory.

In Han's perspective and records , the Han had a huge quality advantage in the war between the Huns , one China commander once said 一汉当五胡 ，means one Han can deal with 5 savages. The China cavalry armed with armor and lances ,crossbows , the advantage of weapon make them can easily kill the unprotected hun cavalry in combat. But the Han were also impressed by the horse arts and archery of Huns. So after hundreds years of this war , the north savages always used as light cavalry in the China's army.

This channel really knows how to make me feel the wrath of Han.

It was always more costly for the Chinese to attack the Nomads than the other way around, because the nomads are war focused people who lived on raiding goods rather than producing their own, they raid a village or town settle there for awhile eat up everything and leaves, the Chinese however need to constantly supply their front line with food, if the supply line is distrupted then the whole army would basically become paralysed and trapped. Therefore the Chinese built the Great Wall because it’s cheaper doing so then go to war with nomads in a long term war.

Thanks for regular upload of quality videos of different regions and different era.

Been waiting on you to make this video on the Han-Xiongnu war, and you did not disappoint. Yet another quality post my man, keep them coming!

As a Chinese, what really impress me is the man Hou Qubing. Became a general when he was only 17, achieved probably the highest military achievement in Chinese history when he was around 22. Only few could nearly match him accomplishment in Chinese history and i believe even in the world history. Also, this man dead when he was only 24 yrs old. The God offered him unlimited talent and power, in exchange God took away his time.

Emperor Han Wu Di is arguably the best emperor of the han dynasty. Unlike his predecessors before him who were forced to take defensive measures against the xiongnu, emperor Han Wu Di would do the insurmountable task of attacking his enemies. A cruel politician but also at the the same time a great ruler that will go down and remembered for ushering a golden age for the Chinese people.

I like all of your videos but this one was especially great. Love it guys!

Sinology research in Europe While the Mongol Empire was in the ascendancy, the power of the Catholic Church seemed to be fading, and the power of the Pope was somewhat shaky. At the same time, the Mongols opened the eastern roads for travel, and the Pope decided that there were now so many evident non-Christians that his power in the West was under severe threat. If he could convert these non-Christians he could regain power. As a result, Jesuit missionaries started to head east. Before spreading Christianity, they researched Chinese beliefs. They examined Chinese history and philosophy. There were some missioners who stayed twenty or thirty years in China, and built up healthy relations with Chinese scholars. They also started to translate Chinese books about both history and philosophy into Western languages. The first translations were made in Portuguese. Then this was translated to the other languages; Spanish, Italian and French. So the West started to learn about China from these Jesuit missionaries. Sin means China in Latin and Sinology means “sciences of China." Sinology mainly started with these translations in the sixteenth century, and Turk history became part of this study. Later, the number of Sinology studies increased with many travellers from the West heading to China. The book written by de Guinness in the eighteenth century is accepted as one of the important collected studies about Turkish history. De Guinness did not know Chinese but he wrote the history of the Turks, Mongols and Tartars by using Jesuit missionaries' translations. It was printed under the name of "General History of Turks, Tatars and Mongols." All the information obtained to this point by the researchers showed that the Huns were of Turkic origin. We learn nearly all our current knowledge on the Huns from the information left to us by their contemporary neighbours. For example. It is pretty definite that their language was Turkic. Chinese annals reveals that the Hunnic language was very close to that of the Töles, a Turkic tribe. The Byzantine Empire said that the language of the Huns was the same as the languages of the Bulgars, Avars, Szeklers (the last of whom were descended from the European Huns themselves - Ed.) and other tribes which were flooding into Eastern Europe from Central Asia. The historians of that period accepted that these Turkic-speaking tribes were no different from the Huns because their languages were the same. There are many words written in Chinese chronicles which were used by Huns in daily life. These are Turkic words. K Shiratoriy, reading a Hunnic sentence which has survived to the present day, has proven that it is Turkic. Hunnic-runic writings belonging to European Huns in Cafcasia [sic] has been read and has been proven to be of Turkic origin. One area for backing up this claim is that of Hunnic names. It is difficult to explain the names belonging to Asian Huns because of fact that they were translated into Chinese in the form of Chinese names. The meanings of the names of European Huns can be comfortably explained in Turkish. One of the most striking features related to European Hunnic names is that they can't be explained by any language but Turkish. Some of the names belonged to the German language due to cultural interaction, but the majority of them were Turkish. I will try to explain some of these: (a famous hunnic leader) Balamir = Bala (child, kid) + Mir (king) (the son of Attila) Dengizik = sea storm (a general) Oniki, known to Europeans as Onegesios, = the number 12 (the son of Attila) Csaba = shepherd (a Hunnic leader) Atakam = Ata (grandfather, father), Kam = the person who is responsible for the religious rituals (in shamanism) Eskam = Es = couple + Kam = (as above) Aybars = Ay = moon (and also the colour white in Turkish) + Bars (or Pars) = leopard, or a wild animal The author W Bang has proven the name of Attila's wife was Arikan in Turkish in the result on his researches. Some Hunnish Words English GOD POLITICAL POWER GIRL WOMAN HORSETAIL MAGIC ARMY IRANIAN GO WOLF STRONG/THICK SWORD COUNTRY Hunnish TENGRI* KUT KIZ KATUN TUG BÜYÜ ORDA TAT BAR BÖRI TOK KILIÇ EL Turkish TENGRI KUT KIZ KATUN/KADIN/HATUN TUG BÜYÜ ORDA/ORDU TAT BAR BÖRI/KURT TOK KILIÇ EL * Tengri also means "God" or "Heaven" in Mongolian.

Thank you for showing a good little documentary on Chinese history!

Thank you for sharing the history of my motherland.It is one of my favorite history piece.

A Three Kingdoms documentary video, nice! Oh how long I waited for this possibility...

It is always an amazing documentary!

Huo QuBing is a legendary general for sure.

Absolutely wonderful. Xiongnu = ultimate badasses, almost before badass-ary even existed.

awesome vid! i always love to listen to history stuff in my background, although i already know quite alot about ancient china and the warring states period, it's refreshing to hear someone else's perspective of it, i was worried that you only did ''modern'' history and not ancient history:P great job !

Great video! I am so glad you took the advice to address more on East Asia. Can't wait for Three Kingdoms 😄👍

10:25 It's Cao Wei

The Chinese subtitle alongside with the translation for title and brief introduction have been upload. It's a great honor for me to translate these documetries that talk one of our Chinese national epic back to Chinese !

Thanks. Very good video. Now hyped for the three kingdom one hinted at.

Thank you for such accurate video about Chinese history!

whooppps , china indirectly caused the downfall of the western roman empire...

Han “ 汉 ” is from 3000 years ago Chinese ancient book 《诗经》：“ 维天有汉，监亦有光 ” ， Han means Galaxy , 银河 . Xiongnu ' s ancestor was a Han Chinese the name 淳维 （Chun Wei），so whatever Mongols or Turks , both of them are descendants of Han Chinese , before Han dynasty ，we call ourself 华夏 （Hua Xia）.

Very nice episode! Please give us more of the glorious history of china and eastern asian kingdoms !

Fascinating! I'd love to see a video on the Three Kingdoms, it is one of the most interesting periods in my opinion!

The video author has done a lot of research work, this video is completely loyal to history, and the explanation is also very detailed.👌

I am still here waiting for that sweet sweet documentary about the China 's unification war (spring autumn war)

Amazing video! Thank you. Please do more videos on Ancient China. I can't wait for a series on the Three Kingdoms period. 😁

Yay ..Finally a video from you guys...Great video as always..Couldn't wait the documentary on the Three Kingdoms..(fingers crossed) ..xd..

The tang and han dynasties, the two most powerful dynasties in Chinese history, were also the most powerful countries in the world at that time.

Notification on my phone.. is it my crush? Nooo much better= kings and generals posted new video 😂👍🏻

Amazing! I hope you cover the Three Kingdoms period

Thank you for another great video! And thank you for delving in to Asian battles - the sources available to most people are pretty scant, so not many are as well versed in East Asian battles the way that Cannae, Guagamela, and Alesia are part of the amateur historian's lexicon.

Should definitely have Total War Three Kingdoms sponsor you guys, amazing quality btw!!!

The man himself Modu gets his part of the history in Turkic legend Oguz Khan. Similarities between Oguz and Modu(or as Turkic people say Mete) are quite some. Also Oguz Khan( or Mete) recognized as the father of Oguzh's. Oguzhs are 9 tribes that legendly created by 9 sons of Mete. If you wanna learn more I suggest you to read legend of Oguz Khan.

What a highly informative video. This battle was an interesting one. And what implications it had on the future. Impressive. My compliments to whoever made this video a reality.

The Han-Xiongnu war was a massive and fascinating but under rated conflict, glad to see t get the coverage it deserves.

The ancestors of the Huns.Great video guys.

After Huo Qubing, 'the sacrifice to the heaven on the mountain Langjuxu(封狼居胥)'has been used to symbolize the highest honor of a Chinese general. And the word 'Guanjun(冠军)' in Chinese from his title 'the Marquis of Guanjun (冠军侯)' has been also used to describe champions in sports competitions until today. There is no doubt that Huo Qubing is one of the most legendary generals in Chinese history.

these videos would be so interesting to show for classes. cheers !

I am such a big fan of History.....And you have done a service that would make the ancients proud!

Uploaded on my Birthday!

Modu was a legendary leader of the Xiongnu. His father Touman preferred Modu’s brother so he sent Modu to Yuezhi as a hostage. Touman then attacked Yuezhi, hoping they would kill Modu as a result. However Modu escaped back to Xiongnu. Modu then trained a group of loyal soldiers. He instructed them that to shoot arrows wherever he shot at. First Modu shot at his horse then his spouse. Whoever didn’t shoot at his horse and spouse were executed by him. Therefore when Modu finally shot at his father Touman, everyone did not hesitate to put an arrow in the old chanyu.

Excellent video !

Definitely you’re best History Channel

Another amazing video. Thank you very much. 𐰋𐰃𐰼 𐱃𐰣𐰼𐰢 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜𐰏 𐰚𐰇𐰔𐰓 𐰘𐰏𐰓

could you cover Chu-Han(Gaozu) period during Qin dynasty?? I was so fascinated by that period

Wow three kingdoms documentary out soon, can't wait for it.

Great video brothers!!!

I feel so sad that General Li Guang was completely forgotten.

Wei Qing and Huo Qubing are among the greatest generals in China. Together with Empress Wei Zifu, Crown Prince Ju (first-son of Empress Wei and Emperor Wu), and Princess Ping Yang (Emperor Wu's sister and later became Wei Qing's wife), they were called the Wei Family. I have to admit that Wei Qing got promoted in the very first beginning was because of his sister, who was a concubine of the Emperor and later became the Empress who had married the Emperor for 49 years and been an Empress for 38 years. Her son was the crown prince but later was killed by his father (by this time, Prince Ju has lost his biggest political support. His Uncle, Wei Qing and his cousin, Huo Qubing, had passed away for many years). However, her great-grandson, Emperor Xuan, later became one of the greatest emperors in China. It is another legend, a baby whose whole family had been killed by his great-grandfather survived. He was first raised in prison for several years, later became an ordinary person, then returned to his royal family, and became emperor when he was 17 years old. Wei Qing was a classic example from rags to the richest. Both he and his sisters were the slaves of Princess Ping Yang (later this princess married her previous "slave", what a story!!!) Wei Qing succeeded in a small war and gradually earned more and more power. He eventually became the highest general ruling all the armies in Han for many years. He was also a very low-key and generous person. In fact, you couldn't find any moral failures in him. Huo Qubing was a little bit different. When he was born, his auntie had become the favorite concubine and when he was 3 years old, his auntie became the Empress. We could say he was born super-rich! Emperor Wu and Empress Wei pretty much raised him in the palace. Emperor Wu liked him as he was his true son. When he was around 18, he followed his uncle, Wei Qing, to fight with Xiong Nu and win many battles with very innovative strategies. He was soon awarded as Marquess of Champion (yes, that's exactly how the word "Champion" in Chinese was created)! He was the first general to have a huge ceremony to heaven to memorize Han's victories in Xiong Nu's ruling area. Ever since having a ceremony to heaven in Mountain Lang Juxu (which is the Khentii Mountains in Mongolia) became the most romantic and heroic dream of every general in China. He was like a superstar who was so brilliant yet died so young. Born as rich, he was more free, bold, and proud than his uncle was. That's one of the reasons why he could think of things differently from his uncle and have priority when picking up troops. By the way, he had a half-brother, who later became one of the greatest ministers in China! The whole Wei Family is legendary and mysterious since their main family members including Wei Qing and Huo Qubing didn't want to have their own party and didn't want to leave behind biography! They might be born as low-key or they worried that their power and reputation were so strong that they might be doubted as unloyal to the Emperor! There was a saying at that time, "Don't be sad if you give birth to a girl! Don't you see Wei Zifu ruling the whole country!" Empress Wei, directly and indirectly, had brought many biggest figures to the Han Dynasty and to the whole Chinese history. Wei Qing (her brother) and Huo Qubing (her nephew) were among the greatest generals in China. Huo Guang (Huo Qubing's half-brother) was one of the top ministers in our history. Emperor Xuan (her great-grandson and Crown Prince Ju's grandson) was even greater than his great-grandfather and had totally defeated Xiong Nu!

I think this is a great Channel that what talks base on ancient Chinese history records ;

very impressive.thank your great efforts!

This is awesome

I am Indian .I love Chinese History very much. China's History is as Glorious as the History of our India.

Great video as always!

Wow, man, i just wrote under last video that you must do the Xiongnu - Chinese battles' episodes, and now i see that you upload first one! You're a magician! P.S. Love your channel. Thank you for this great work, bro :)

Very glad to see more Chinese history series. A few fun fact related to the video: - Qin Shi Huang did not build the entire Great Wall of china. There are already sections of the wall built by separate kingdoms in the Spring Autumn and Warring States period, from as early as 7th century BC. Qin Shi Huang was, however, credited with connecting these walls together into one Great Wall. - Even with just connecting this wall, the task was so monumental that it caused so many lives and arguably caused the downfall of the Qin dynasty. The wall was also hopelessly ineffective during many later Mongolian incursions and actually serves better for commerce, as it allows very convenient transportation for the Silk Road. - Gao Zu power struggle with Xiang Wu of Chu to create the Han Dynasty is an incredibly fascinating history. - There is a lot of "Emperor Wu" in Chinese history. That's because Wu means Martial and Wen means Literature. It is common for the first few emperors of a dynasty to have the title Wu or Wen because of the wisdom that one needs both the army and the scholars to have an effective government.

Our history books never told us the part 0:40 - 2:53 . Thank you very much for telling us this. Hoping to see Göktürks also.

In general, the history of China is complex, so the choice of K&G as a documentary video can be approved. I personally always liked the attitude of this channel to world history, regardless of region and chronology. Thank you!

Great video. Easy to understand and the animation looks cool. Upload more :^)

Huo Qubing was definitely the god of war for the ancient Chinese army. He was a genius and died in 23 years old because of drinking of poisoned river water by Xiongnu. The Emporer Wu of Han was so sad and titled him Marquis of Champion.

Your Chinese pronunciation is perfect :) Excellent video!

Excellent work here

Thanks mate!

The Xiongnu may related to Huns Xiong匈nu奴, this word consists of two Chinese characters, 奴Nu means slaves, and Xiong匈, This Chinese character in ancient Chinese accent is same as Hun(Latin)! But I don't mean that Xiongnu are the Huns, they were different, but the Xiongnu might have been part of them

Great documentary and thank you for finally doing an episode on the Han dynasty. Hope to see more.

Awesome, thanks

Thank you for covering this. Also good job with the pronunciations mate

Great video! I'd like to see a series on the Han-Xiongnu Wars to be honest, starting with the Battle of Baideng in 200 BC. Or, alternatively, you could focus on another proto-Mongolic people related to the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, who would fight the Eastern Han dynasty of China in the 2nd century AD. They remained present in the 3rd century AD during the Three Kingdoms and Jin dynasty, eventually conquering areas of northern China in the 4th-5th centuries, establishing their own Chinese-style dynasties.

Han Wudi is one of, if not the greatest Chinese emperors, it's a shame he isn't as well known in the west. Breaking free from being a Xiongnu tributary allowed China to focus its resources for expansion and consolidation in the west and south for the next few centuries. Were it not for the Xiongnu wars, China would be a lot smaller of a nation today, if it even survived.

Brilliant video.

I've been waiting for the Han Dynasty series! Nice work!