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[This is a guest post by Penglin Wang]

            Identification of the Xiongnu word ninghu (寧胡) as meaning ‘six’ in the phrase ninghu yanshi ‘the sixth consort’ (Wang 2024) and its connection with Jurchen ninggu (寧谷) and Manchu ninggun ‘six’ has opened up the possibility for thinking about the Xiongnu official title danghu (當戶) in relation to Jurchen tanggu (倘古) and Manchu tanggū ‘hundred’. Xiongnu used gradient decimal numerals as the echelons for its military and administrative organization, in which a century stands between a decad tier and a chiliad tier and is commanded by a centurion. Presumably, the centurion was gradually generalized as an official in addition to their regular low-ranking position and hence promoted to a mid and mid-high rank bearing the prefix da (大) ‘grand’.

            Chinese records may serve to illustrate where the Xiongnu official titles grand danghu and danghu fit in the government system. According to Shiji (110.2890f), there are wise kings of the left and right, guli (谷蠡) kings of the left and right, grand generals of the left and right, grand commandants of the left and right, grand danghu of the left and right, and gudu (骨都) marquises of the left and right; From wise kings of the left and right down to danghu, the big one is ten thousand horsemen, the small ones are several chiliads; All the twenty-four chiefs have their own chiliad chiefs, century chiefs, decad chiefs, small kings, ministers, commandants, danghu, qiequ (且渠) and the like. Having paid attention to the title danghu used in Hanshu, the ancient commentators such as Yan Shigu (顏師古 581-645, Hanshu 8.266, 17.650) and Meng Kang (孟康 Hanshu 8.271) living in the third century were united in their opinion that danghu and danghu of the left and right were Xiongnu official titles.

            Ancient authors and transcribers cannot always be expected to recognize what native Xiongnu words meant. For this reason, while the Chinese baizhang (百長Shiji 110.2891) ‘century chief’ represented a Xiongnu title semantically translated by some Chinese authors, the title danghu was a phonetically transcribed Xiongnu title in coindexation with that of baizhang because the transcribers were unable to understand what danghu meant in Xiongnu. It should be inferred through the records in Shiji that baizhang was an officer in the military whereas danghu appeared to be a civilian administrator. Furthermore, the ordered low or mid-low ranking for both baizhang and danghu in Shiji are comparable to each other and reminiscent of each other’s linguistic doublet. As for the semantic shift from ‘hundred’ to ‘chief of a hundred fighters’, Latin centurion derived from century can serve as a good example in support of it. Seen in the Chinese transcriptions, phonetically, the Xiongnu velar fricative h in ninghu and danghu corresponds to the Jurchen velar stop g in ninggu and danggu.

            The study of Xiongnu words should be considered as one of the most important aspects of genealogical and ethnographic understanding of the Xiongnu people and their language. Ancient Chinese literary works, especially Shiji and Hanshu, are the sources of Xiongnu lexical elements. Of those, quite a portion have been studied to help to determine the linguistic affiliation of the Xiongnu language. In other words, there is still a portion of words there that await further scrutiny and that could hold a key to solving a lingering genealogical problem with the Xiongnu language. Deciphering of the Xiongnu ninghu and danghu as meaning ‘six’ and ‘hundred’, respectively, and of their reflection in Jurchen represents a key move to strengthen the membership of Xiongnu in the Altaic family. As basic cardinal numbers, the Xiongnu ninghu and danghu could not be isolated numerals and were indicative of the use of other basic cardinal numbers in Jurchen in particular and in Tungusic in general. Moreover, the use of ninghu was explicitly recorded as spoken by the Xiongnu royal family, and danghu had been an integral part of the Xiongnu official titles.

References

Hanshu (漢書 Book of Han) compiled by Ban Gu in 82. http://hanchi.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ihp/hanji.htm.

Shiji (史記 Records of the Grand Historian) written by Sima Qian in 91 BCE. http://hanchi.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ihp/hanji.htm.

Wang, Penglin. 2024. The Xiongnu Phrase Ninghu Yanshi Means ‘the Sixth Consort’. American Oriental Society Western Branch Annual Meeting. Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA. https://www.aos-site.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=510948&module_id=527820.

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Additional references

Christopher Atwood, “Huns and Xiōngnú: New Thoughts on an Old Problem", Dubitando: Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski, Brian J. Boeck, Russell E. Martin, and Daniel Rowland, eds. (Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2012): 27–52 and his follow up: “The Qai, Khongai, and the Names of the Xiōngnú”, International Journal of Eurasian Studies 2 (2015): 035-063 (attached).

Penglin Wang, "Indo-European Loanwords in Altaic", Sino-Platonic Papers, 65 (February, 1995), 1-28.

__________, Linguistic Mysteries of Ethnonyms in Inner Asia (Lanham MD: Lexington Books, 2018).

In Linguistic Mysteries of Ethnonyms in Inner Asia, Penglin Wang focuses on semantics as a central theme in onomastics and strives to unravel the origin and meaning of a series of influential ethnonyms such as Xianbei, Rouran, Tabγač, Tatar, Shiwei, Mongol, Merkid, Nüzhen, Jušen, and Nikan. Since much of modern research has dealt with issues of Inner Asian ethnonyms within a regional framework, Wang’s exploration of the early Indo-European and Altaic influence on the ethnonymic designations of Mongol-Tungusic and Turkic groups opens up a new horizon for transcontinental approaches, which represent an important thrust in Inner Asian and Eurasian studies. Wang has based this comprehensive study on textual, cross-linguistic, and patterned analysis of the ethnonyms found primarily in ancient Chinese sources.

Selected readings

• "Xiongnu (Hunnic) Shanyu" (7/16/21)
• "Heavy Velar vs Meager Bilabial Articulations in Xiongnu Language" (4/15/22)
• "Sogdians and Xiongnu / Huns" (2/21/22)
• "Tocharian, Turkic, and Old Sinitic 'ten thousand'" (4/23/19) — lengthy, essential, documented study

VHM:

Along with Elling Eide, who studied the problem for decades, but never published his findings, I've always felt that Iranian peoples constituted an important component of the Xiongnu confederation.  I am not keen on the idea that there were formative Yeniseic elements in the Xiongnu confederation, as promoted by Pulleyblank.

[Thanks to Peter Golden, who stresses the multiple ethnolinguistic strands in the Xiongnu / Hunnic confederation]

January 13, 2025 @ 4:09 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Borrowing, Numbers, Titles

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