Sometime around the year 375 CE, approximately three centuries after the end of the Xiongnu Empire nomadic horsemen of the Mongolian steppes once again organized themselves into a confederation sometime in the beginning of the fifth century. This confederation known as the Juan-juan would last approximately one hundred and fifty years, and come to control a wide band of territory stretching from Manchuria in the east to Lake Balkhash (in modern Kazakhstan) in the west. The Juan-juan were the principle rivals of China's Northern Wei dynasty, and ironically, it may have been the policies of the Northern Wei that brought the formation of the confederacy in the first place. In the interest of protecting their borders, they harried the various nomadic groups on the fringe of their territory, driving them north into the lands of the Tujue, a Türkic-speakers people who controlled the north of Mongolia. It is believed that the various groups decided to join forces, after which they overcame and subjugated the Tujue. The Juan-juan then returned south, raiding, skirmishing and warring with the Northern Wei for several decades.

Wei-era records survive that describe the political organization, manners and customs of the Juan-juan:

"They plait their hair. They wear narrow-sleeved silk robes with woven patterns, tight trousers and high waterproof boots… They do not have towns surrounded with inner and outer walls, but herd livestock, going from place to place in search of water and grass. Their homes are felt tents, which they take to the place where they stop. There is no green grass in the steppes, the climate is cold, the horses and cattle chew dry grass and lick the snow, but are naturally fat and strong. The administration of the state is simple. There are no official written records, and they keep their records by making notches in wood."¹

It appears that once the Juan-juan established their empire, some began to settle at least semi-permanently, growing millet, gathering in urban centers (their first town was called Mumo-chen, and was surrounded by two walls), and invented a system of writing for themselves. They also seem to have embraced Buddhism; it is recorded that a Juan-juan Buddhist monk and teacher appeared in the Northern Wei court in 511 with an offering of a pearl-encrusted icon of the Buddha.²

Relations with China improved in the later years of the Juan-juan Empire, and with the Eastern Wei (534-550) and Western Wei (535-556) kingdoms that followed the split of the Northern Wei dynasty. In an impressive feat of statesmanship, A-na-kui, the last Juan-juan kaghan (as their ruler was called) managed to marry two of his daughters to the two Wei heads of state - one in the East and one in the West - and even took an Eastern Wei princess to be his own wife. But this peace soured within a decade, and when the Juan-juan faced a rebellion by the nomadic peoples they had subjugated (led by their old friends, the Tujue Türks), the Chinese took advantage and attacked from the south. In 552 A-na-kui suffered a humiliating defeat and killed himself.³ The Juan-juan were driven west, and some scholars believe that the Avars, first appearing in Russian steppes around 558, were remnants of the Juan-juan.

(1) L. R. Kyzlasov, "Northern Nomads," from Histories of Civilizations of Central Asia, vol. III (Paris: UNESCO, 1996), pp. 321-2.

(2) Ibid., p. 322.

(3) Ibid., p. 323.