Abstract:
“The Five Barbarian Tribes” as a special term was originated from Fujian King of the Early Qin’s remark “You Qiang people does not rank among the five barbarian tribes.” “The order of the Five Barbarian Tribes” was a prophesy taboo of broad influence in the current society. The order meant “the place of the Five Barbarian Tribes in the Five Xings” or “the location of the Five Barbarian Tribes in the system of the Five Xings”, which actually theorized the legitimization of the barbarian rule. As a result, the Five Barbarian Tribes was borrowed to refer to those barbarian peoples who had migrated in inland China, which continued to be used till the Tang Dynasty. Wang Yinglin in the South Song Dynasty interpreted the Five Barbarian Tribes as five specific barbarian tribes, hence the special names for the Huns, the Xianbi, the Jie, the Di, and the Qiang.
