In Chinese history, there have been countless incidents of nomads invading the Central Plains, and many incidents of nomads destroying dynasties in the Central Plains. Among these events, the first one with clear historical records was undoubtedly the destruction of the Quanrong in the Western Zhou Dynasty in 771 BC. So what kind of nation is the Inurong, what is its origin, what has it done, and where did it end up? Who is Quanrong? The Quanrong are actually an ethnic group that appeared very early in Chinese history. According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", Emperor Yao's father, Gao Xin, had been invaded repeatedly during his time. The Gao Xin family conquered the Quan Rong many times but failed to win. During the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou tribes who originally lived in the area around southern Ningxia today were frequently harassed by the Quan Rong. When their 13th generation leader Gong Danfu was unable to withstand the fierce offensive of the Quan Rong, he was forced to move eastward. , and finally moved to the Zhouyuan area east of Qishan. So in fact, as early as the cradle of Chinese civilization, Quanrong was already one of the oldest opponents accompanying the farming civilization of the Central Plains. So who exactly is Inurong? In the ancient Chinese view of the world, different ethnic groups located in the west of the Central Plains in the early days were called "Rong". Regarding the identity of the Quan Rong, the "Book of Mountains and Seas: The Great Wilderness Bei Jing" said that they were descendants of the Yellow Emperor, and also listed the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. From the Yellow Emperor to the "" lineage" where the name Quanrong appeared for several generations. In addition, the word ""Rong" was often used to refer to different ethnic groups in the west of the Central Plains in ancient times. In addition to being called Rong, these ethnic groups were often called Rong. From a modern point of view, those who are usually called descendants of the Yellow Emperor in ancient Chinese books are basically ethnic groups of the same yellow race as the predecessors of the Han people, and the Qiang people in later generations basically refer to Han and Tibetan people. The language family belongs to various ethnic groups of the Tibeto-Burman language family, so from this perspective, there is a high probability that Quanrong is an ethnic group that mainly speaks the Tibeto-Burman language. ""Rong" was a general term for all ethnic groups in the west of the Central Plains in ancient times. The nation itself usually does not have a particularly fixed place of residence, and often exists in the form of tribal alliances. Moreover, the word "Rong" itself is a general term for all Western nations in the ancient books of the Central Plains. So if we use a more rigorous method to say it, I'm afraid we can only say that the Quanrong are a nomadic group that mainly lives in today's Shaanxi and Gansu areas and mainly speaks the Tibeto-Burman language. As for the name ""Quurong", the mainstream theory recorded in ancient books is that it is because of the Quanrong themselves. They believe that their ancestors are two white dogs, so they call them Quanrong. Of course, this statement is based on legend. If viewed from a modern perspective, it can be understood that most tribes in Quanrong may regard white dogs as their own tribe. And if we consider that dogs have not been domesticated for a long time when the Inurong were active, it can be said that they are a new species that just emerged from the wolf, and are still very close to the wolf, then we can see that the totem of the Inurong is very similar to that of the wolf. Some nomads in later generations actually used wolves as their totems. What did Quan Rong do? Of course, Quan Rong is so famous in Chinese history, not just because of its bizarre origin legend, but because of its real existence. It has changed the course of Chinese history. In addition to the series of offensives we mentioned just now, it forced the ancestors of the Zhou people to move eastward to Qishan, laying the groundwork for the Zhou Dynasty's destruction of the Shang Dynasty a few generations later. , Quan Rong can be said to be the primary enemy that poses the greatest threat to the Western Zhou Dynasty. During the reign of King Zhou Mu, the fifth monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Quan Rong's strength became stronger again. At that time, Quan Rong deliberately did not bring tribute when paying homage to King Zhou Mu. It also hindered the exchanges between the Zhou Dynasty and other neighboring countries. Therefore, King Zhou Mu decided to attack it. In October 965 BC, King Zhou Mu personally led an army to march to the northwest. In the spring of 964 BC, the Zhou army. A battle broke out with the Quanrong in a place called Yangxuan, and the final result should be that the Zhou army won. According to historical records, the Zhou army captured 5 chiefs of the Quanrong, and also obtained 4 white deer and 4 white wolves. Some scholars believe that the four white deer and four white wolves mentioned in the records at that time should refer to some tribes in Quanrong that used white deer and white wolves as totems at that time, because history books also record that the Zhou Dynasty later moved some Quanrong tribes to In the area around Guyuan, Gansu today, these tribes were probably the Quanrong tribe that surrendered to the Zhou Dynasty during King Zhou Mu's Western Expedition. The image of the Queen Mother of the West also has something to do with Quan Rong. In July of that year, Quan Rong sent an envoy to meet the Emperor of Zhou, which shows that King Mu of Zhou's Western Expedition may indeed have achieved certain military results. However, the "Historical Records" also said that after this battle, "no one will be able to conquer the desert", which shows that the Zhou Dynasty army did have an advantage on the battlefield at that time, but after this battle, the relationship between some tribes around Quanrong and the Zhou Dynasty became more serious. It got worse. According to some historical records, four years after this battle, King Mu of Zhou once again went on an expedition to the west. This time he went westward to the "Kunlun Qiu", where he also met the Queen Mother of the West. At that time, this record was very legendary. Strong, so this record was later adapted into the literary work "The Biography of Emperor Mu", which also made King Mu of Zhou a figure with special symbolic significance in Chinese culture. This actually explained from another perspective how the Western Expedition Dogs at that time The Rong was of great political and military significance to the Zhou Dynasty. After King Mu of Zhou's Western Expedition, the Quan Rong seemed to have been relatively quiet for a while. However, in 771 BC, the Quan Rong took advantage of the civil strife in the Western Zhou Dynasty and launched an army in one fell swoop. The dynasty monarch of the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Zhou You, was killed and the Western Zhou Dynasty was completely destroyed.
Regarding this period of history, there are actually two versions existing in modern times. The first version is of course the familiar version of Fenghuo Opera. In this version, King You of the Zhou Dynasty used a beacon tower to send out false alarms to tease the princes in order to smile favorably at the beautiful beauty Bao Si. In the end, the praise of Bao Si triggered a dispute over the heir, which led to the queen's father Shenhou joining forces with the state of Zian and Quan Rong to rebel against the Zhou Dynasty. Eventually, King You and Bao Si were killed, and the Western Zhou Dynasty was destroyed. One of the protagonists of the "Feng Huo Opera" is Quan Rong. The second version is reconstructed based on some new historical data discovered through archaeology in recent years and combined with relatively non-mainstream historical data in the past. In this version, there is no mention of Bao Si and Fenghuo Xi princes. The direct cause of the incident was the dispute over the throne. At that time, the Marquis of Shen and others made King Ping, the eldest son of King You of Zhou, king without authorization. King You of Zhou was furious and immediately sent troops to attack the Marquis of Shen and King Ping of Zhou. But at this time, Quan Rong saw the civil strife in the Zhou Dynasty, and took the opportunity to send troops to attack the vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty, Zeng State, and finally succeeded in forcing the state of Zeng to surrender. Afterwards, Quan Rong and the state of Zeng joined forces and jointly attacked King Zhou You, causing King Zhou You to be Killed, the Western Zhou Dynasty perished. According to this version, Quanrong actually played a greater role in the destruction of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the establishment of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, because it can be said to have directly supported the first king of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, King Zhou Ping, and was the key to the entire process of the destruction of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the establishment of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. part of the core. Of course, this statement is somewhat controversial in modern times, but no matter which version you look at above, the attacks of the Quanrong were the direct cause of the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty. There is no problem with this. Where did Quanrong go in the end? After the destruction of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Quanrong used the captured part of the Western Zhou Dynasty territory as a base and began to expand to the surrounding areas. During this period, a vassal state named Guo had many wars with Quanrong. Although it achieved some victories, it severely depleted the country's power and was destroyed by Jin soon after. This is also a familiar idiom. "The origin of "Fake Way to Defeat Guo". So from this point of view, "Fake Way to Defeat Guo" actually has the shadow of Quanrong behind it. In the process of the Zhou royal family moving eastward, Hao Hao left the seat of the Western Zhou royal family. The State of Qin, which was not far from Beijing (near today's Xi'an, Shaanxi), sent troops to escort him, so King Ping of Zhou conferred the title of Qin Xianggong as a prince and promised to give these lands to Qin if he could regain the land taken away by the Quanrong. I just hope that Qin will resist the Quan Rong for the Zhou royal family. After that, the war between Qin and the Quan Rong began for more than 100 years, especially in 627 AD, Qin's attempt to expand eastward. After being blocked by Jin, Qin put almost all its expansion efforts on the western front. Four years later, Qin Mugong sent troops to raid Quanrong and captured a large number of their chiefs. After that, more than 20 Quanrong tribes surrendered to Qin. The incident was later called "Qin Overlord Xirong". It can be said that since then, the Quanrong tribes have begun to enter the process of being assimilated by the Qin people. This map shows the general directions of Quanrong and Yiqu Kingdom. However, at that time, in In the northwest region, there is also a Fang State called Yiqu State, and it was founded by a Xirong tribe called Yiqurong. As we said at the beginning of this article, the word "Rong" is the ancient Chinese name for the Central Plains. It is a general name for different tribes in the northwest, so there is no conclusion in modern times on the connection between Yiqurong and Quanrong. However, the activity ranges of Yiqurong and Quanrong are relatively close, and it is highly probable that there are some Quanrong tribes within their jurisdiction. Starting from 444 BC, the Qin State, which had determined to dominate the northwest, broke out in a war with the Yiqu State that lasted for more than 100 years. By 331 BC, the Qin State forced Yiqu to surrender to Qin. But after that, Yiqu State. He rebelled many times, and the Qin State also sent troops to pacify it many times. Finally, in 272 BC, the Qin State completely destroyed the Yiqu State, and the main political power established by the Rong people in the northwest came to an end. Later, they were completely integrated with the Central Plains people and became part of the Han nationality. However, there are also some records showing that after the demise of the Yiqu Kingdom, some Yiqu people moved north into the grasslands, and this part of the Yiqu people may later become the Han people. Some people believe that the Xiutu and Kunxie tribes of the later Xiongnu may be descendants of the Yiqu people, and there may also be some Quanrong elements among them. However, modern views generally believe that the main body of the Xiongnu is not Han. It is a Tibetan language, so it does not belong to the same system as Quanrong. In addition, during the Ming Dynasty of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a Fang state named Xirong Bailang Kingdom in Quanrong's hometown, and this Fang state was also Rong. It was established by a branch of human beings, and it also used the white wolf as its totem, and the white wolf and the totem white dog of Quanrong can be said to be very similar, so this Fang country is also very likely to have a close connection with Quanrong. Taking this into account, it can be said that it is a historical fact with a high probability that the main body of the Quanrong will eventually integrate into the Han people.