Chinese Xianbei

The Xianbei were a significant nomadic people residing in Manchuria and eastern Mongolia, or . They were descendants of Donghu before migrating into areas of the modern Chinese provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, and Liaoning. Possibly some tribes of these people also lived in ancient Eastern Heilongjiang or Hulun Manchu Imperial province, currently Khabarovsk and Amur regions in the Russian Far East.

The Xianbei people actually consisted of a federation of sizeable non-Han groups of which the most important was the Tuoba . They first became a significant part of during the Han Dynasty, where they occupied the steppes in Mongolia, Hebei and Liaodong. After the fall of the Han dynasty, the Xianbei formed a number of empires of their own, including the Yan Dynasty, Western Qin, Southern Liang and most significantly, the Northern Wei . By the time of the Tang dynasty they had largely merged with populace by adopting its customs, administration and language. The emperors Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty and Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty were born of Xianbei mothers and therefore half-Xianbei.

A Xianbei ruler was recorded as having had fair hair as were later some Tatars from the same area, as well as some other peoples.

Mongol and may have descended from Xianbei according to Chinese historical records.

The Xibe people is believed themselves to be descendants of the Xianbei. The name of Russia's Siberia is a direct phonetic translation to the ancient tribe of "Xianbei". There is a city wall in Siberia today that remains from the Xianbei tribe.

Historical sources

*Hanshu
*Sanguozhi