The Rouran Khaganate (Chinese: ), also known as Ruanruan or Juan-juan () (or variously Jou-jan, Ruruan, Ju-juan, Ruru, Ruirui, Rouru, Rouruan or Tantan), was a tribal confederation and later state. The Rouran state was undoubtedly multi-ethnic,History of Civilizations of Central Asia The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. UNESCO. 2006. p. 317. . The Juan-juan state was undoubtedly multi-ethnic most of the historical sources state that they were the descendants of the Xiongnu or a collateral branch of the Xiongnu. Some others state that they were descendants of the Donghu or mixed barbarians beyond the northern border of China Proper.Litvinsky (2006). History of Civilizations of Central Asia The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. p. 317. The Book of Song and Book of Liang connected Rourans to the earlier XiongnuSongshu vol. 95 Archived 2020-06-06 at the Wayback Machine. "芮芮一號大檀，又號檀檀，亦匈奴別種。" tr. "Ruìruì, one appellation is Dàtán, also called Tántán; they were also a separate stock of the Xiōngnú."Liangshu vol. 54 Archived 2018-11-22 at the Wayback Machine. quote: "芮芮國，蓋匈奴別種。" translation: "The Ruìruì nation, possibly a separate stock of the Xiōngnú." while the Book of Wei connected them to Proto-Mongolic Donghu. The Rouran supreme rulers used the title of , a popular title borrowed from the Xianbei. The Rouran Khaganate lasted from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century with territory that covered all of modern-day Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, as well as parts of Manchuria in Northeast China, Eastern Siberia, Xinjiang, and Kazakhstan. The Hephthalites were vassals of the Rouran Khaganate until the beginning of the 5th century, with the royal house of Rourans intermarrying with the royal houses of the Hephthalites. The Rouran Khaganate ended when they were defeated by a Göktürk rebellion.
Their Khaganate overthrown, some Rouran remnants possibly became Tatars while others possibly migrated west and became the Pannonian Avars (known by such names as Varchonites or Pseudo Avars), who settled in Pannonia (centred on modern Hungary) during the 6th century.Findley (2005), p. 35. These Avars were pursued into the Byzantine Empire by the Göktürks, who referred to the Avars as a slave or vassal people, and requested that the Byzantines expel them. While this Rouran-Avars link remains a controversial theory, a recent DNA study has confirmed the genetic origins of the Avar elite as originating from the Mongolian plains. Other theories instead link the origins of the Pannonian Avars to peoples such as the Uar.
An imperial confederation, the Rouran Khaganate was based on the "distant exploitation of agrarian societies", although according to Nikolay Kradin the Rouran had a feudal system, or "nomadic feudalism". The Rouran controlled trade routes, and raided and subjugated oases and outposts such as Gaochang. They are said to have shown the signs of "both an early state and a chiefdom". The Rouran have been credited as "a band of steppe robbers", because they adopted a strategy of raids and extortion of Northern China. The Khaganate was an aggressive militarized society, a "military-hierarchical polity established to solve the exclusively foreign-policy problems of requisitioning surplus products from neighbouring nations and states."
Name Nomenclature Róurán 柔然 is a Classical Chinese transcription of the endonym of the confederacy; meanwhile, 蠕蠕 Ruǎnruǎn ~ Rúrú (Book of Wei), which connoted something akin to "wriggling worm", was used derogatorily in Tuoba-Xianbei sources. Other transcriptions are 蝚蠕 Róurú ~ Róuruǎn (Book of Jin); 茹茹 Rúrú (Book of Northern Qi, Book of Zhou, Book of Sui); 芮芮 Ruìruì (Book of Qi, Book of Liang, Book of Song), 大檀 Dàtán and 檀檀 Tántán (Book of Song). However, Baumer (2018), while acknowledging that Ruanruan (蠕蠕) was a "derogatory pun" on Rouran (柔然), proposes that the ethnonym Rouran (柔然) is indeed derived from the name Ruru (茹茹) or Ruirui (芮芮) of a "tribal father".
Mongolian Sinologist Sükhbaatar suggests Nirun Нирун as the modern Mongolian term for the Rouran, as Нирун resembles reconstructed Chinese forms beginning with *ń- or *ŋ-. Rashid-al-Din Hamadani recorded Niru'un and Dürlükin as two divisions of the Mongols.
Etymology Klyastorny reconstructed the ethnonym behind the Chinese transcription 柔然 Róurán (LHC: *ńu-ńan; EMC: *ɲuw-ɲian > LMC: *riw-rian) as *nönör and compares it to Mongolic нөкүр nökür "friend, comrade, companion" (Khalkha нөхөр nöhör). According to Klyashtorny, *nönör denotes "stepnaja vol'nica" "a free, roving band in the steppe, the 'companions' of the early Rouran leaders". In early Mongol society, a nökür was someone who had left his clan or tribe to pledge loyalty to and serve a charismatic warlord; if this derivation were correct, Róurán 柔然 was originally not an ethnonym, but a social term referring to the dynastic founder's origins or the core circle of companions who helped him build his state.Golden, Peter B. (2016) "Turks and Iranians: Aspects of Türk and Khazaro-Iranian Interaction" in Turcologica 105. p. 5
However, Golden identifies philological problems: the ethnonym should have been *nöŋör to be cognate to nökür, & possible assimilation of -/k/- to -/n/- in Chinese transcription needs further linguistic proofs. Even if 柔然 somehow transmitted nökür, it more likely denoted the Rouran's status as the subjects of the Tuoba. Before being used as an ethnonym, Rouran had originally been the byname of chief Cheluhui (車鹿會), possibly denoting his status "as a Wei servitor".
History Origin The Book of Song and Book of Liang, which are primary sources connected Rouran to the earlier Xiongnu while the Book of Wei traced the Rouran's origins back to the Donghu, generally agreed to be Proto-Mongols. Xu proposed that "the main body of the Rouran were of Xiongnu origin" and Rourans' descendants, namely Da Shiwei (aka Tatars), contained Turkic elements, besides the Mongolic Xianbei. Even so, the Xiongnu's language is still unknown and Chinese historians routinely ascribed Xiongnu origins to various nomadic groups, yet such ascriptions do not necessarily indicate the subjects' exact origins: for examples, Xiongnu ancestry was ascribed to Turkic-speaking Göktürks and Tiele as well as Para-Mongolic-speaking Kumo Xi and Khitans. According to Savelyev and Jeong (2020), the Xiongnu resulted from the admixture of two groups, a Turkic-origin group of an eastern Eurasian genetic substratum and an Iranian Saka group (like the Chandman). They further write The predominant part of the Xiongnu population is likely to have spoken Turkic and Arguably, these Iranian-speaking groups were assimilated over time by the predominant Turkic-speaking part of the Xiongnu population.
Kwok Kin Poon additionally proposes that the Rouran were descended specifically from Donghu's Xianbei lineage, i.e. from Xianbei who remained in the eastern Eurasian Steppe after most Xianbei had migrated south and settled in Northern China.Hyacinth (Bichurin), Collection of information on peoples lived in Central Asia in ancient times, 1950. p. 209 Genetic testing on Rourans' remains suggested Donghu-Xianbei paternal genetic contribution to Rourans.: "We conclude that F3889 downstream of F3830 is an important paternal lineage of the ancient Donghu nomads. The Donghu‐Xianbei branch is expected to have made an important paternal genetic contribution to Rouran. This component of gene flow ultimately entered the gene pool of modern Mongolic‐ and Manchu‐speaking populations."
Khaganate
The founder of the Rouran Khaganate, Yujiulü Shelun, was descended from Mugulü, a slave of the Xianbei. Rouran women were commonly taken as wives or concubines by the Xianbei.
After the Xianbei migrated south and settled in Chinese lands during the late 3rd century AD, the Rouran made a name for themselves as fierce warriors. However they remained politically fragmented until 402 AD when Shelun gained support of all the Rouran chieftains and united the Rouran under one banner. Immediately after uniting, the Rouran entered a perpetual conflict with Northern Wei, beginning with a Wei offensive that drove the Rouran from the Ordos region. The Rouran expanded westward and defeated the neighboring Tiele people and expanded their territory over the Silk Roads, even vassalizing the Hephthalites which remained vassals until the beginning of the 5th century.
The Hepthalites migrated southeast due to pressure from the Rouran and displaced the Yuezhi in Bactria, forcing them to migrate further south. Despite the conflict between the Hephthalites and Rouran, the Hephthalites borrowed much from their eastern overlords, in particular the title of "Khan" which was first used by the Rouran as a title for their rulers.
The Rouran were considered vassals () by Tuoba Wei. By 506 they were considered a vassal state (). Following the growth of the Rouran and the turning of Wei into a classical Chinese state, they were considered partners of equal rights by Wei (lindi gangli).
In 424, the Rouran invaded Northern Wei but were repulsed.
In 429, Northern Wei launched a major offensive against the Rouran and killed a large number of people.
In 434, the Rouran entered a marriage alliance with Northern Wei. In 443, Northern Wei attacked the Rouran. In 449, the Rouran were defeated in battle by Northern Wei. In 456, Northern Wei attacked the Rouran. In 458, Northern Wei attacked the Rouran.
In 460, the Rouran subjugated the Ashina tribe residing around modern Turpan and resettled them in the Altai Mountains. The Rouran also ousted the previous dynasty of Gaochang (the remnants of the Northern Liang) and installed Kan Bozhou as its king.
In 492, Emperor Tuoba Hong sent 70 thousand horsemen against the Rouran. The outcome of the expedition does not appear in Chinese sources. According to Nikolay Kradin, since Chinese sources don't mention the outcome of the expedition, it is probable that it was unsuccessful. Kradin notes that, possibly strained after the battle with Wei, the Rourans were not able to prevent the Uighur chief Abuzhiluo from heading "a 100 thousand tents" west, in a series of events that led to the overthrowing and killing of Doulun Khan. Two armies were sent in pursuit of the rebels, one led by Doulun, the other by Nagai, his uncle. The Rouran emerged victorious. In the war against the Uighurs, Doulan fought well, but his uncle Nagai won all the battles against the Uighurs. Thus, the soldiers thought that Heaven didn't favor Doulan anymore, and that he should be deposed in favor of Nagai. The latter declined. Nonetheless, the subjects killed Doulan and murdered his next of kin, installing Nagai on the throne. In 518, Nagai married the sorceress Diwan, conferring her the title of khagatun for her outstanding service.
Between 525 and 527, Rouran was employed by Northern Wei in the suppression of rebellions in their territory, with the Rourans then plundering the local population.
The Rouran Khaganate arranged for one of their princesses, Khagan Yujiulü Anagui's daughter Princess Ruru, to be married to the Han Chinese ruler of the Eastern Wei, Gao Huan.
Heqin
The Rouran were involved in many royal intermarriage (also known as heqin in China), with the Northern Yan as well as the Northern Wei dynasty and its successors Eastern and Western Wei, which were fighting each other, and each seeking the support of the Rouran to defeat the other. Both parties, in turn, took the initiative of proposing such marriages to forge important alliances or solidify relations.