View source for Guifang

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| header=Guifang<br>鬼方
| image1   = Anthropomorphic axe, bronze, excavated in Baicaopo, Lingtai County, Western Zhou period (1045-771 BCE) 人头形銎（qióng）青铜戟, 灵台县白草坡出土, 西周.jpg
| caption1 =Anthropomorphic axe, bronze, excavated in the tomb of Heibo (潶伯), a military noble in charge of protecting the northern frontier, at [[Commons:Category:Baicaopo|Baicaopo]], [[Lingtai County]], [[Western Zhou]] period (1045–771 BCE). [[Gansu Provincial Museum|Gansu Museum]]. This is considered as a possible Chinese depiction of a [[Xianyun]] or Guifang.<ref>{{cite web |title=灵台白草坡 西周墓葬里的青铜王国 |url=http://www.kaogu.net.cn/cn/kaoguyuandi/kaogusuibi/2016/0729/54843.html |website=www.kaogu.net.cn |publisher=The Institute of Archaeology ([[CASS]] Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) |quote=There is research on the ethnic image of the northern nomadic people of the Altaic language family. It may be that this is the image of the Xianyun tribe that once posed a serious military threat to the northern border of the Zhou Dynasty. They were called "Ghost people" (Guifang) because they looked different from the Chinese. 有考证系阿尔泰语系的北方游牧民族人种形象。可能是曾经对周朝北方边境构成严重军事威胁的猃狁部族，因相貌异于华夏，被称作“鬼方”。 |access-date=2023-11-06 |archive-date=2019-09-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190916002510/http://www.kaogu.net.cn/cn/kaoguyuandi/kaogusuibi/2016/0729/54843.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| image2   = Shang and Guifang.png
| caption2 = Respective areas of the Shang (<small>{{Colorsample|rgba(50, 205, 50, 0.25)|0.6}}</small>) and Guifang
}}
'''Guifang''' ({{zh|c= 鬼方||w=Kuei-fang|l=Demon Territory}}<ref>Creel, Herrlee G. (1970). ''The Origins of Statecraft in China''. The University of Chicago Press. p. 232.</ref>) was an ancient [[ethnonym]] for a northern people that fought against the [[Shang dynasty]] (1600–1046 BCE). Chinese historical tradition used various names, at different periods, for northern tribes such as Guifang, [[Xirong|Rong]], [[Beidi|Di]],<ref name = "old-bamboo">Old Text Bamboo Annals. [https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%8F%A4%E6%9C%AC%E7%AB%B9%E6%9B%B8%E7%B4%80%E5%B9%B4%E8%BC%AF%E6%A0%A1#%E6%AD%A6%E4%B9%99 "Wu Yi"] quote: "三十五年，周王季伐西落'''鬼戎'''，俘二十'''翟'''王。"</ref> [[Xunyu]], [[Xianyun]], or [[Xiongnu]] peoples.<ref>[[Book of Jin]] [https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%99%89%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7097#%E5%8C%97%E7%8B%84 "Vol. 97, section Northern Di"] quote: "'''匈奴'''之類，總謂之'''北狄'''。…… 夏曰：'''薰鬻'''，殷曰'''鬼方'''，周曰'''獫狁'''，漢曰'''匈奴'''。"</ref><ref>Taskin V.S., ''"Materials on history of nomadic tribes in China 3rd-5th cc"'', Issue 3 ''"Mujuns"'', "Science", Moscow, 1992, p.10, {{ISBN|5-02-016746-0}}</ref> This Chinese [[exonym]] combines ''gui'' ([[wikt:鬼|鬼]] "ghost, spirit, devil") and ''fang'' ([[wikt:方|方]] "side, border, country, region"), a suffix referring to "non-Shang or enemy countries that existed in and beyond the borders of the Shang polity."<ref>Loewe M. and Shaughnessy E.L., eds., The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., New York, Cambridge, 1999, {{ISBN|978-0-521-47030-8}}, p. 269.</ref>

==Overview==
Chinese annals contain a number of references to the ''Guifang''. Earliest sources mentioning the Guifang are the [[Oracle Bones]].<ref name = "Yu106109">Yu Taishan. (2000). "A Hypothesis about the Source of the Sai Tribes" in ''Sino-Platonic Papers'' '''106'''. Ed. Victor Mair. p. 106-109</ref><ref>Khayutina, Maria. (2016). "The Tombs of the Rulers of Peng and Relationships between Zhou and Northern Non-Zhou Lineages (Until the Early Ninth Century B.C.)" in Shaughnessy, Edward L. (ed.) ''Imprints of Kinship: Studies of Recently Discovered Bronze Inscriptions from Ancient China Publisher: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press''. pp. 71-132. p. 26 of [http://www.sinits.com/Publications/Khayutina_Peng_tombs_final.pdf pdf]</ref><ref name = "anderson105106">Anderson, Matthew Mccutchen. (2015). "Change and Standardization in Anyang: Writing and Culture in Bronze Age China". ''Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations''. 1589. [https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1589 https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1589] p. 106</ref> Extant oracle bones record no military action between Shang and Guifang, yet Guifang have been interpreted as hostile towards Shang<ref>Shima Kunio 島邦男, ''Yinxu buci yanjiu'' 殷墟卜辞研究, tr. Pu Maozuo 濮茅左 and Gu Weiliang 顧偉良 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji chubanshe, 2006), pp. 802-04; Wang Yuzhe, “Guifang kao buzheng” 鬼方考補正, in Wang Yuzhe, ''Gu shi jilin'', pp. 309-17. cited in Khayutina (2016) p. 26</ref><ref name = "Yu106109"/> or not hostile.<ref name = "anderson105106"/>{{efn|Anderson (2015) interprets oracle bone inscriptions wherein the Shang divined about whether disasters would happen to Guifang Tang (鬼方昜) (either a Guifang person named Tang or the polities named Guifang and Tang) as possible proofs for the viewpoint that Guifang were not hostile; even so, Anderson admits that " the context is too limited and incomplete for this to serve as solid evidence".<ref name = "anderson105106"/> Yu (2000) interprets the same inscriptions as the Shang's wish that disasters would happen to the Guifang & other hostile polities.<ref name = "Yu106109"/>}}

The [[Bamboo Annals]], interred with [[King Xiang of Wei]] (died 296 BC) and re-discovered nearly six centuries later in 281 AD ([[Western Jin dynasty]]) in the [[Jizhong discovery]], state that:

* In the thirty-second year of Shang King [[Wu Ding]] (fl. 1200s BCE), he attacked the Guifang, and stationed at Jing (荊);{{efn|Identified as either Jing Canyon (井經) north of [[Taihang Mountains]] and near [[Mount Heng (Shanxi)|Heng Mountains]], "about 500 km from Wu Ding’s [[Yinxu|capital]] at [[Anyang]]" or in the same location as the polity Jingfang (井方) and the Ji-surnamed [[Xing (state)|Xing state]] (邢國) "on the [[North China Plain|Huabei 華北 Plain]] near present-day [[Xingtai]] 邢臺 in the southern part of [[Hebei province]], only 125 km north of Anyang"<ref>Khayutina (2016) p. 26-27</ref>}} and in the thirty-fourth year, after a campaign of three years, the King's armies subdued the Guifang, and the [[Di (Five Barbarians)|Di]] and [[Qiang (historical people)|Qiang]] came as guests.<ref>''Current Text Bamboo Annals'' "[https://ctext.org/zhushu-jinian/wu-ding Wu Ding]" quote: "三十二年，伐'''鬼方'''。次于荊。三十四年，王師克'''鬼方'''。氐、羗來賓。"</ref> Wu Ding's conquests against the Guifang are also mentioned in the [[I Ching|Yi Jing]] "Book of Changes".<ref>Creel (1970), p. 232.</ref><ref>''Yijing'' [https://ctext.org/book-of-changes/ji-ji#n26134 "䷾既濟 - Ji Ji"] quote: "高宗伐'''鬼方'''，三年克之" James Legge's translation: "[Gao Zong], who attacked the '''Demon region''', but was three years in subduing it."</ref><ref>Theobald, U. (2011) "Wu Ding 武丁" ''ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art'' quote: "Wu Ding was a great warrior and was able to defeat the Guifang 鬼方 (or Gongfang [𢀛]方) in the north [...] Wu Ding's dynastic temple name is Gaozong 高宗."</ref>

The oracle bones indicate that, following Wu Ding's conquest, the Guifang became Shang's subjects and even assisted the Shang against other polities, e.g. the [[Qiang (historical people)|Qiang]]. Gui officials even managed to achieve high statuses in the Shang court; for examples, a Gui official, Geng, was ordered to perform the ''gang'' sacrifice 剛 in the ''xiang'' 亯 sacrificial temple.<ref name = "Yu106109"/>

* In the thirty-fifth year of the Shang King [[Wu Yi (ruler)|Wu Yi]] (i.e. 1119 BCE), [[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] leader [[King Ji of Zhou|Jili]] attacked the ''Gǔi[[Xirong|róng]]'' ({{zh|c=鬼戎}}) in Xiluo (西落) and captured twenty ''[[Beidi|Dí]]'' kings.<ref>''Current Text Bamboo Annals'' [https://ctext.org/zhushu-jinian/wu-yi "Wu Yi"] quote: "三十五年，周公季歷伐西落'''鬼戎'''。"</ref><ref name= "old-bamboo"/> Historians believe that the ''Guirong'' were identical to the Guifang.<ref name="diCosmop919">Nicola Di Cosmo, ''The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China'', p. 919</ref>

[[File:Shang dynasty curved bronze knives with turquoise inlays and animal pommel. 12th-11th century BCE.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Shang dynasty]] curved bronze knives with turquoise inlays and animal pommel. 12th-11th century BCE. Such knives may be the result of contacts with northern people.<ref name="BM">{{cite web |title=Shang knife British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1973-0726-30 |website=www.britishmuseum.org |language=en |quote=In subsequent centuries such knives were more popular with peoples of the northern zone than with the Shang and Zhou inhabitants of Shaanxi and Henan. It is, therefore, possible that even in the Erlitou period such knives illustrate contact with northern peoples. Alternatively, the spread of Erligang culture may have taken such knives from central Henan to the periphery.}}</ref><ref name="JFS">{{cite book |last1=So |first1=Jenny F. |last2=Bunker |first2=Emma C. |title=Traders and raiders on China's northern frontier: 19 November 1995 - 2 September 1996, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery |date=1995 |publisher=Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Inst. [u.a.] |location=Seattle |isbn=978-0295974736 |pages=35–36 |url=https://ia601307.us.archive.org/28/items/tradersraiderson00soje/tradersraiderson00soje.pdf |quote=Enough northern bronze knives, tools, and fittings have been recovered from royal burials at the Shang capital of Anyang to suggest that people of northern heritage mingled with the Chinese in their capital city. These artifacts must have entered Shang domain through trade, war, intermarriage, or other circumstances.}}</ref>]]
[[File:Shang dynasty Bronze ibex-headed knife 13th-11th century.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Shang dynasty Bronze ibex-headed knife with ring, 13th-11th century BCE.<ref name="BM"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Linduff |first1=Katheryn M. |last2=Sun |first2=Yan |last3=Cao |first3=Wei |last4=Liu |first4=Yuanqing |title=Ancient China and its Eurasian Neighbors: Artifacts, Identity and Death in the Frontier, 3000–700 BCE. Chapter Three - Identity and Artifacts on the North Central and Northeastern Frontier during the Period of State Expansion in the Late Second and the Early First Millennium BCE |date=2017 |pages=89–91 |doi=10.1017/9781108290555.004 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108290555.004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |quote=Parallels with bronze-using cultures further to the north and west in eastern and central Eurasia. (...) Frontier-style bronze weapons and tools dominated the findings from caches at Chaodaogou and Xiaohe’nan. They include straight-bladed bronze daggers, curve-bladed knives with animal head terminals or mushroom-shaped jingle pommels and socketed yue axes. (...) The eyes of the animals are often highlighted with turquoise. Hilts on these knives and daggers were bordered with diagonal or parallel striations, a northern decorative tradition. (...) Knives with animal pommels were likely inspired by daggers with such terminals, while jingle-headed knives have been argued to have originated on the Inner Asia Frontier. (...) In general, bronze weapons and tools found in the Yan mountainous region show stylistic analogies to those found in the Jin-Shaan Plateau west of the Taihang Mountains, in the Transbaikal in Buryatia and in Karasuk sites in the Minusinsk Basin (c. 1500–800 BCE). (...) A very recent study proposed that trade between the Shang and Zhou in the Central Plain and bronze cultures in north central Mongolia brought artifacts to the Chinese northern frontier}}</ref> These weapons, already found in the tomb of [[Fu Hao]] at the time of the [[Shang dynasty|Shang]] Emperor [[Wu Ding]] (died c. 1190 BCE), are similar to [[Karasuk culture|those of the steppes]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rawson |first1=Jessica |title=Steppe Weapons in Ancient China and the Role of Hand-to-hand Combat |journal=故宮學術季刊 (The National Palace Museum Research Quarterly) |date=2015 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=38–39 |url=https://www.academia.edu/20315661 |quote=We can immediately recognise the engagement of the Shang with their neighbours by looking at the nearly two hundred weapons buried with Fu Hao, who, as consort of the powerful Shang king, Wu Ding (c. 1200 BC), is mentioned in oracle bone inscriptions as a leader in battle. In her tomb were large axes (fig. 1a), derived from the shapes of ancient jade examples, standard spearheads and dagger-axes, ge, for an accompanying fighting force, and knives (fig. 1b) similar to those used in the steppe.}}</ref>]]
Up to the time of Shang king Di Xin ({{zh|帝辛|l=Thearch [[Heavenly Stems|Xin]]}}),{{efn|who was posthumously derided as 紂王 [[King Zhou of Shang|King Zhòu]]}} Gui chiefs had been long-enfeoffed vassals of Shang and even participated in the Shang royal government.<ref name = "Yu106109"/> In [[Zhan Guo Ce|Stratagem of the Warring States]], [http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Zhou/personsluzhonglian.html Lu Zhonglian] ([[:zh:魯仲連|魯仲連]]) related that the Marquis of Gui (鬼侯) ranked among Di Xin's [[Three Ducal Ministers]] (along with the Marquis of E (鄂侯) and the Western Count [Ji] Chang (西伯昌){{efn|aka [[King Wen of Zhou|King Wen of Zhōu]] (周文王)}}) and married his beloved daughter to Di Xin. However, Di Xin considered her detestably ugly (惡), so he killed her and boiled alive the Marquis of Gui; the Marquis of E sharply criticized Di Xin and was butchered.<ref>''Zhanguo Ce'' [https://ctext.org/zhan-guo-ce/qin-wei-zhao-zhi-han-dan#n50095 "Stratagems of Zhao 3 - Qin besieged Zhao's Handan"] quote: "昔者，鬼侯之鄂侯、文王，紂之三公也。鬼侯有子而好，故入之於紂，紂以為惡，醢鬼侯。鄂侯爭之急，辯之疾，故脯鄂侯。"</ref> A parallel account in ''Shiji'' features Marquis of Jiu (九侯), his daughter (九侯女), and Marquis of E (鄂侯);<ref>''Shiji'', "[https://ctext.org/shiji/yin-ben-ji#n4571 Annals of Yin]" quote: "以西伯昌、九侯、鄂侯為三公。九侯有好女，入之紂。九侯女不喜淫，紂怒，殺之，而醢九侯。鄂侯爭之彊，辨之疾，并脯鄂侯。"</ref> Marquis of Jiu was identified with Marquis of Gui.<ref name = "Yu106109"/>{{efn|The [[Bamboo Annals]]' "current text" version (今本) also mentions Marquis of Jiu instead of Marquis of Gui.<ref>''Current Text Bamboo Annals'' [https://ctext.org/zhushu-jinian/di-xin "Di Xin"] quote: "元年己亥，王即位，居殷。命九侯、周侯、邘侯。" translation: "[Thearch Xin's] first year was [[Sexagenary cycle#Sexagenary years|Jihai]]; when the king was just enthroned, he dwelt at [[Yinxu|Yin]]; he commanded the Marquis of Jiu, Marquis of Zhou, and Marquis of Yu [scribal error for ''Xing'' (邢/刑)?]."</ref>}} Another parallel account in [[Taiping Yulan]] states Marquis of Gui's daughter disapproved of Di Xin's debaucheries so Di Xin killed her and her father; and Di Xin had Marquis of Xing butchered instead of Marquis of E.<ref>''Taiping Yulan'', [https://ctext.org/text.pl?node=368236&if=en#n368241 Sovereigns and Kings - Part 8]" quote: "以西伯昌、鬼侯、邢侯為三公。鬼侯有好女，入之紂。鬼侯女不僖淫，紂殺之，而醢鬼侯。刑侯爭之，并脯之。"</ref>{{efn|[[Yuanhe Maps and Records of Prefectures and Counties]] also mentions that "Marquis of Xing had been [one of] King Zhòu's Three Ducal Ministers; because he'd loyally admonished [King Zhòu] he was executed",<ref>''Yuanhe junxian tuzhi'' "vol. 19" Zhejiang University Library's version [https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&file=59279&page=24 p. 24 of 124] quote: "侯為紂三公以忠諫被誅"</ref>}}

Among the succeeding [[Zhou dynasty]]'s [[bronze inscriptions]], the ''Xiao Yu Ding'' (小盂鼎) –cast in the twenty-fifth year (976 BCE) of [[King Kang of Zhou]] (r. 1005/03–978 BCE)– mentioned the ''Guifang'', probably located northeast of the initial Zhou domain. After two successful battles against the ''Guifang'', the Zhou victors brought captured enemies to the Zhou temple and offered to the king. The prisoners numbered over 13,000 with four chiefs who were subsequently executed. Zhou also captured a large amount of booty.<ref name="NDC919">{{cite book |last1=Cosmo |first1=Nicola Di |title=Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China (Cambridge History of Ancient China) |date=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press, 2008 |pages=919 |url=https://www.academia.edu/5191670}}</ref>

No events involving the Guifang are reported after 650 BCE, which is also the last mention of the Northern Rong (北戎). They were replaced by a new group of Northern foreigners, the ''[[Di (Five Barbarians)|Di]]'' (狄).<ref name="NDC919"/>

The Guifang do not seem to have seriously challenged Chinese rule, they did not invade China, and on the contrary were the victims of Chinese expeditions. They may only have been an early people which was conquered by the Western Zhou, and ultimately disappeared from history.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cosmo |first1=Nicola Di |title=Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China (Cambridge History of Ancient China) |date=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press, 2008 |pages=919 |url=https://www.academia.edu/5191670| quote=In general the Guifang do not seem to have posed any serious threat to the Zhou frontier and must have been either conquered by the Zhou at an early stage or dissolved politically, since their name soon disappears from the patchy sources at our disposal.}}</ref>

===Interpretations===
As a result of phonetical studies and comparisons based on the inscriptions on bronze and the structure of the characters, [[Wang Guowei]] came to the conclusion that the tribal names in the annalistic sources ''Guifang, [[Xunyu]], [[Beidi#Name|Xianyu]], [[Xianyun]], [[Xirong|Rong]], [[Beidi|Di]]'',{{efn|Specifically, Wang connected the 鬼方 ''Guifang'' with the leaders of the Red Di (赤狄, ''Chidi'') who were surnamed 隗 ~ 媿 ''Kuí'',<ref>Wang Guowei 王國維, “Guifang Kun Yi Xianyun kao” 鬼方昆夷獫狁考, in Peng Lin 彭林 ed. ''Guantang jilin'' 觀堂集林, (1923; rpt. Shijiazhuang: Hebei Jiaoyu chubanshe, 2001), pp. 296-307, esp. p. 300. cited in Khayutina (2016). p. 26</ref> a connection also later noticed by Sinologist Ulrich Theobald.<ref>Theobald, U. (2012) [http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/di1.html Di 狄] ''ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art''</ref>}} and ''[[Donghu people|Hu]]'' designated one and the same people, who later entered history under the name ''Xiongnu''.<ref>Taskin V.S., ''"Materials on history of nomadic tribes in China 3rd-5th cc"'', Issue 3 ''"Mujuns"'', p. 10</ref><ref>Wang Guowei, ''"Guantang Jilin"'' (觀堂集林, Wang Guowei collection of works), Ch.2, Ch. 13</ref><ref>Taskin V.S., 1968, ''"Materials on history of Sünnu"'', "Science", Moscow, p.10</ref>

Likewise, using Sima Qian's [[Records of the Grand Historian]] and other sources, Vsevolod Taskin proposes that in the earlier pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary [[Yellow Emperor]]) the Xiongnu were called ''Hunyu''; and in the late pre-historic period (i.e. the time of the legendary [[Emperor Yao]] and [[Emperor Shun]]) they were called ''Rong''; in the literate period starting with the [[Shang dynasty]] (1600–1046 BC) they were called ''Guifang'', in the [[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] period (1045–256 BC) they were called ''Xianyun'', and starting from the [[Qin dynasty|Qin]] period (221–206 BC) the Chinese annalists called them ''Xiongnu''.<ref>[[Sima Qian]], ''Shiji'', [https://ctext.org/shiji/wu-di-ben-ji Ch. 1], l. 4b; [https://ctext.org/shiji/xiong-nu-lie-zhuan Ch. 110], l. 1a, notes</ref><ref>in Taskin V.S., ''"Materials on history of Sünnu"'', p.10</ref><ref>''[[Classic of Poetry]]'' "Major Hymns - Decade of Dang - [https://ctext.org/book-of-poetry/dang Dang]" quote: "文王曰咨、咨女殷商。……內奰于中國、覃及'''鬼方'''。" Legge's translation: "King Wen said, 'Alas! Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, [...] Indignation is rife against you here in the [[Names of China#Zhongguo|Middle kingdom]], and extends to the '''demon regions'''."</ref>

Even so, Paul R. Goldin (2011) reconstructs the [[Old Chinese]] pronunciations of 葷粥 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 獯鬻 ~ 薰育 as *''xur-luk'', 獫狁 as ''hram′-lun′'', and 匈奴 as *''xoŋ-NA''; and comments all three names are "manifestly unrelated". He further states that [[sound change]]s made the names more superficially similar than they really had been, and prompted later commentators to conclude that those names must have referred to one same people in different epochs, even though people during the [[Warring States period]] would never have been thus misled.<ref>Goldin, Paul R. [https://www.academia.edu/24999420/Steppe_Nomads_as_a_Philosophical_Problem_in_Classical_China "Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China"] in ''Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present''. Penn Museum International Research Conferences, vol. 2. Ed. Paula L.W. Sabloff. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 2011. p. 225-226; p. 237, n.22</ref>

===Other fang-countries===
{{multiple image|perrow=3/2|total_width=350|caption_align=center
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| image1   = Artefacts_Seima-Turbino_GIM_(head).jpg
| image2   = Moscow_State_Historical_Museum_-_IMG_3472.JPG
| image3   =Shang Jade Human Figure.jpg
| footer=''Left'' and ''center'': [[Seima-Turbino]] bronze figurines. ''Right'': possible Chinese jade adaptation (tomb of [[Fu Hao]]).<ref name="LM"/>
}}
The Shang state had a system of writing attested to by bronze inscriptions and [[oracle bone]]s, which record Shang troops fighting frequent wars with neighboring nomadic herdsmen from the inner Asian steppes. In his oracular divinations, a Shang king repeatedly showed concern about the ''fang'' (方, likely meaning "border-region"; the modern term for them is [[:zh:方国|方国]] ''fāngguó'' "fang-countries"),<ref>Anderson, Matthew Mccutchen. (2015). "Change and Standardization in Anyang: Writing and Culture in Bronze Age China". ''Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations''. 1589. [https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1589 https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1589] pp. 94-95</ref> groups of barbarians outside his inner ''tu'' (土) regions in the center of Shang territory. A particularly hostile tribe, ''Tufang'' ([[:zh:土方]]) from the [[Yan Mountains]] region, is regularly mentioned in divinatory records.<ref name=Sun>{{Cite journal|last=Sun|first=Yan|title=Colonizing China's Northern Frontier: Yan and Her Neighbors During the Early Western Zhou Period|date=June 2006|journal= International Journal of Historical Archaeology|volume=10|issue=2|pages=159–177(19)|doi=10.1007/s10761-006-0005-3}}</ref> Another Chinese ethnonym for the animal husbandry nomads was ''ma'' (馬) or "horse" barbarians mentioned at the Shang western military frontier in the [[Taihang Mountains]], where they fought and may have used [[Chariot (Ancient China)|chariot]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shaughnessy |first=Edward L. |title=Historical Perspectives on The Introduction of The Chariot Into China |journal= Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume=48 |issue=1 |year=1988 |pages=189–237 |doi=10.2307/2719276 |jstor=2719276 }}</ref>

===Seima-Turbino culture as "Guifang"===
[[File:Seima-Turbino socketed spearheads with single side hook.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Seima-Turbino socketed spearheads with single side hook started to appear in China circa 2100 BCE<ref name="LM"/>]]
The Guifang may also correspond to the [[Seima-Turbino culture]] of the [[Altai Mountains]].<ref name="LM"/> Several of the [[Shang dynasty]] artifacts of the [[Yinxu|Yin Ruins]] and from the tomb of [[Fu Hao]] (died {{Circa|1200 BCE}}), excavated in Shang capital of [[Anyang]], are similar to Seima-Turbino culture artifacts, such as socketed spearheads with a single side hook, jade figurines and knives with deer-headed pommel.<ref name="LM"/> These Late Shang artifacts, visibly derived from the Seima-Turbino culture to the north, were made precisely at the same time the Shang reported intense protracted conflicts with the northern tribes of the "Guifang". This would suggest that the Guifang were the Altaic Seima-Turbino culture itself, and that their century-long conflict with the Shang led to the transfer of various object and manufacturing techniques.<ref name="LM">{{cite journal |last1=Lin |first1=Meicun |title=Seima-Turbino Culture and the Proto-Silk Road |journal=Chinese Cultural Relics |date=2016 |volume=3 |issue=1–002 |pages=256–257 |url=https://www.academia.edu/45055541 |issn=2330-5169 |quote=The report on the archaeological excavation of the Yin (Shang) ruins published in 2011 shows a Seima-Turbino style bronze socketed spearhead with a single side hook. (...) It is worth noting that a jade figurine (Figure 15:5) that resembles a Seima-Turbino-style bronze figurine (Figure 15:3) and a knife with deer-head pommel (Figure 15:6) were unearthed from the tomb of Fu Hao at the Yin ruins. A similar knife with deer-head pommel is also in the collection of the Baoji Museum of Bronze Collections (Figure 12:4). These discoveries and collected artifacts reveal the cultural transmission between ancient inhabitants of the Yellow River region and nomads of the Eurasian Steppe.(...) The Illustrious Ancestor [King Gaozong of Yin] disciplines the Devil’s Country. After three years he conquers it.” (...) Seima-Turbino-style artifacts unearthed at the Yin ruins, including the bronze socketed spearhead with a single side hook, the jade figurine and the knife with deer-head pommel, indicate that the “Devil’s Country” refers to the far-away Altai Mountains.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meicun |first1=Lin |last2=Liu |first2=Xiang |title=The origins of metallurgy in China |journal=Antiquity |date=October 2017 |volume=91 |issue=359 |pages=e6 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.177 |language=en |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Particularly, the introduction of the socketed spearheads with a single side hook seems to date back to the period of the [[Taosi|Taosi culture]], when the earliest and most faithful Seima-Turbino types start to appear in China, circa 2100-2000 BCE.<ref name="LM"/> These early artifacts suggest that [[History of metallurgy in China|Chinese bronze metallurgy]] initially derived from the cultures of the Eurasian steppes.<ref name="LM256">{{cite journal |last1=Lin |first1=Meicun |title=Seima-Turbino Culture and the Proto-Silk Road |journal=Chinese Cultural Relics |date=2016 |volume=3 |issue=1–002 |pages=256–257 |url=https://www.academia.edu/45055541 |issn=2330-5169 |quote=The discovery of the Seima-Turbino culture in  China is of great importance, as it demonstrates with material evidence that Chinese metallurgy derives from the cultures of the Eurasian Steppe.}}</ref> Soon however, China was able to appropriate this technology and refine it, particularly through its mastery of bronze casting, to create a highly sophisticated and massive bronze industry.<ref name="LM256"/>

===Northern tribes in the Late Shang period===
{{multiple image|perrow=3|total_width=350|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| image1   = Anthopomorphic_deer_stone_(portrait).jpg
| image2   = Anthropomorphic deer stone in Mongolia.jpg
| image3   = Chariot images on central Mongolian Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex (DSK) monuments, including a two-horse and a four-horse vehicle (vertical layout).png
| footer=Nomadic leaders depicted in [[Deer stones]] in [[Mongolia]] (1400-700 BCE), leading large-scale organized nomadic groups, may have affected the late [[Shang dynasty|Shang]] and early [[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] dynasties of China to their south.<ref name="JR59"/> Their chariot technology may have stimulated the development of Shang chariots.<ref name="WTTT">{{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=William T. T. |last2=Cao |first2=Jinping |last3=Fan |first3=Wenquan |last4=Ma |first4=Xiaolin |last5=Hou |first5=Yanfeng |last6=Wang |first6=Juan |last7=Li |first7=Yue |last8=Zhang |first8=Chengrui |last9=Miton |first9=Helena |last10=Chechushkov |first10=Igor |last11=Bayarsaikhan |first11=Jamsranjav |last12=Cook |first12=Robert |last13=Jones |first13=Emily L. |last14=Mijiddorj |first14=Enkhbayar |last15=Odbaatar |first15=Tserendorj |last16=Bayandelger |first16=Chinbold |last17=Morrison |first17=Barbara |last18=Miller |first18=Bryan |title=Understanding early horse transport in eastern Eurasia through analysis of equine dentition |journal=Antiquity |date=December 2021 |volume=95 |issue=384 |page=3  |doi=10.15184/aqy.2021.146 |language=en |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free }}</ref>}}
The nomadic leaders depicted in [[Deer stones]] in [[Mongolia]], dated to 1400-700 BCE, leading large-scale organized nomadic groups, may have affected the late [[Shang dynasty|Shang]] and early [[Zhou dynasty|Zhou]] dynasties of China to their south.<ref name="JR59"/>

They were equipped with weapons and instruments of war, such as daggers, shafted axes, or curved rein holders for their horses. They may not have ridden on horseback, but they are documented to have possessed horse-drawn charriots, with two or four horses, as shown in the drawings on Deer Stones and multiple finds of horse skeletons with heavy wear.<ref name="WTTT"/> These powerful nomadic leaders, leading large-scale organized nomadic groups capable of building monumental decorated stone tombs, may have being part of the nomadic challenge to the early Chinese dynasties.<ref name="JR59">{{cite journal |last1=Rawson |first1=Jessica |title=Steppe Weapons in Ancient China and the Role of Hand-to-hand Combat |journal=故宮學術季刊 (The National Palace Museum Research Quarterly) |date=2015 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=59–60 |url=https://www.academia.edu/20315661 |quote=We can look first at Mongolia to explain this shift, for a new development, the creation of large stone monuments, khirigsuurs (fig. 19) and deer stones (fig. 20), marks significant on-going changes in steppe societies. These impressive structures are widespread across western and central Mongolia, dating from 1400-700 BC. It would have taken a large labour force to create the mounds of stones that make up khirigsuurs, which seem to have been both burial and ceremonial sites for central figures of the many small groups of Mongolian mobile pastoralist societies. (...) In some tombs are horse fittings, such as bits. Parts of hundreds of horses might be interred over time around a major khirigsuur. (...) Deer stones tell the same story (fig 20). Although the majority are stylised, a few of these tall, originally standing, stones have a human head carved on one side at the rounded top, sometimes with temple rings shown on two of the other three sides, perhaps representing a powerful individual, or the more general concept of powerful leaders. (...) Then comes a horizontal belt and from this hang weapons, especially knives or daggers, and shafted axes, with curved rein holders below. A shield is often shown higher up. Not only do these deer stones represent people, they memorialise the achievements of warriors with their personal weapons. (...) These developments had probably had an impact on the peoples in the arc who had then interacted with the late Shang and early Zhou states.}}</ref> They may also be connected to the rise of the horse chariot during the Shang dynasty.<ref name="WTTT"/>

===Siwa culture (1300–600 BCE)===
The [[Siwa culture]] culture is sometimes proposed as being connected to the northern tribes which challenged the Shang and Zhou dynasties, but questions are raised against this theory because the Siwa sites are small with low subsistence levels, whereas the northern tribes, particularly the [[Xianyun]], seem to have been more advanced, using bronze weapons and chariots.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045–771 BC|last=Feng|first=Li|date=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-45688-3|location=Cambridge|pages=187}}</ref> According to Feng Li, the archaeological remains of the Siwa culture suggest that they could not have sustained an advanced society capable of rivalizing with contemporary Chinese armies.<ref name=":1" /> The debate remains open.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shelach |first1=Gideon |author1-link=Gideon Shelach-Lavi |title=Review of Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045-771 BC |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |date=2008 |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=281–284 |doi=10.1017/S0021911808000259 |jstor=20203333 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20203333 |issn=0021-9118 |quote=Li argues that the Xianyun cannot be identified with the archaeological remains of the Siwa culture because all the sites that are associated with this archaeological culture are small and simple, whereas the activities of the Xianyun suggest a much more complex society (p. 187). While this observation makes sense, it may have more to do with the problematic definition of the archaeological "culture" rather than with Xianyun society. Pushing the location of the Xianyun further north and identifying them with a vaguely defined "Northern Zone" tradition (p. 188) certainly does not advance our under standing of the Xianyun society.}}</ref>

==Epigraphy==
Comments about the conflicts against the Guifang appear in bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou. 
{| class = "wikitable center" 
|+ Guifang inscriptions
! scope = "col" width = "10%" |Name !! scope = "col" | Artifact !! scope = "col" | Inscription !! scope = "col" | Translation
|-
|''Xiaoyu ding''<br><br>小盂鼎<br>979 BCE<br>([[King Kang of Zhou|King Kang]])<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Minford |first1=John |title=The Triumph: A Heritage of Sorts|journal=CHINA HERITAGE QUARTERLY China Heritage Project, China Heritage Quarterly. The Australian National University |date=2009 |volume=19 |url=http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/articles.php?searchterm=019_triumph.inc&issue=019}}</ref>
|Lost in the [[Taiping Rebellion]] (19th century)<br><br><br>{{center|The ''Xiaoyu ding'' was probably similar to the ''[[Da Yu ding]]'' made two years before, in 981 BCE:}}
{{multiple image|border=infobox|width=150|align=center|image1=Da Yu ding.jpg|footer=}}
|[[File:Xiao Yu ding.jpg|200px]]
|{{smalldiv|"It was the eighth month, after the full moon, the day was on jiashen [day 21]; in the morning dusk, the three officials of the left and the three officials of the right and the many rulers entered to serve the wine. When it became light the king approached the Zhou temple and performed the guo-libation rite. The king's state guests attended. The state guests offered their travel garments and faced east."

"Yu with many flags with suspended Guifang...entered the Southern Gate, and reported saying: 'The king commanded Yu to take... to attack the Guifang and shackle chiefs and take trophies. [I] shackled two chiefs, took 482 trophies, captured 13,081 men, captured...horses, captured 30 chariots, captured 355 oxen and 38 sheep.'"

"The king called out to...to command Yu with his trophies to enter the gate and present them in the Western Passageway... [He] entered and performed a burnt offering in the Zhou temple,... [He] entered the Third Gate, assumed a position in the central court, facing north. Yu reported..."

"The guests assumed position. [He] served the guests. The king called out: 'Serve!' Yu in their...presented guests... At mid-morning, three Zhou...entered to serve wine. The king entered the temple. The invocator...the state guests grandly toasted...used a victim in ancestral sacrifice to the king of Zhou [i.e. King Wen], to King [Wu] and to King Cheng...divination cracks have pattern. The king toasted. Toast followed toast: the king and the state guests. The king called out to...to command Yu with the booty to enter. All of the booty was registered."}}<ref>Edward Shaughnessy, in Loewe and Shaughnessy, eds., Cambridge History of Ancient China, 1999, p.320ff, in {{cite journal |last1=Minford |first1=John |title=The Triumph: A Heritage of Sorts|journal=CHINA HERITAGE QUARTERLY China Heritage Project, China Heritage Quarterly. The Australian National University |date=2009 |volume=19 |url=http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/articles.php?searchterm=019_triumph.inc&issue=019}}</ref><ref>See another translation at {{cite journal |last1=Eno |first1=Robert |title=INSCRIPTIONAL RECORDS OF THE WESTERN ZHOU |pages=25–26 |date=2012 |url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/23466/3.10-WZhou_Bronzes-2010%20%28updated%29.pdf?sequence=6&isAllowed=y}}</ref>
|}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last = Wang |first = Zhonghan |title = Outlines of Ethnic Groups in China |location = Taiyuan |publisher = Shanxi Education Press |year = 2004 |page = 133 |isbn = 7-5440-2660-4 }}
{{refend}}

===Further reading===
*Fang Shiming & Wang Xiuling (1981). ''[https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&chapter=894435 古本竹書紀年輯證] (Old Text Bamboo Annals - Collected Proofs)'' (in Chinese)

== See also ==
* [[Ethnic groups in Chinese history]]

{{Historical Non-Chinese peoples in China}}

[[Category:Ancient peoples of China]]
[[Category:Shang dynasty]]
[[Category:Xiongnu]]