merigazoi Creative Commons License 2023.04.29 0 1 5258

vannak pecsétek keleti hun méltóság-megnevezésekkel, amelyek nem léteztek a kínai társadalomban

azaz az állítólagosan kínának alávetett területen számontartották a hun méltóságokat

 

These higher titles, as well as the non-royal offices of lesser Rizhu, Danghu, Juqu 且渠 and Gudu Marquises 骨都侯, were not only mentioned in the Chinese court histories. They also appeared on small bronze seals with Chinese characters and Xiongnu titles37. Some of these seals show Han titles such as ‘lord’ 君, ‘chief’ 長, and ‘king’ 王, though the uses of many Han terms appear in the Chinese histories as if to represent social rankings of the Xiongnu that had no exact correlates in Han society. In contrast, the use of transliterated Xiongnu proper names and titles on seals bestowed by the Han court demonstrates the recognition and preservation of steppe social distinctions within the supposedly submitted Southern Xiongnu entity.

 

For the purposes of the present discussion, it is important to note the use of clearly non-Chinese proper names and title designations on the Chinese character seals given to local dignitaries in the Southern Xiongnu realms. These official seals, and even Chinese acounts of leaders subsumed within ‘affiliate states’, clearly recognize Xiongnu titles and thus imply that social integration into the Han system seems minimal, if at all. Despite the initial graph claiming their bearers to be “of the Han”, these seals may have merely functioned as a way for those associated with a Xiongnu-style regime to more acceptably interact with elite or bureaucratic constituents of the Han – a tool for structured mediation. One should therefore speak of degrees of partici - pation, rather than integration, in a particular regime by outside groups or individuals that might appear entwined within the social networks and systems of another.