Claimant in a five-cornered civil war who took his adviser's advice and gave the Han his name. Ended with a title above every vassal king, a Han bride, and a Han guard left at his camp.
Let the border garrisons be withdrawn and the Son of Heaven's people rest. I will hold the wall for you from Shanggu west to Dunhuang, and pass it down to my sons without end.Huhanye Chanyu's memorial of 33 BCE, answered by Hou Ying's ten reasons and refused in one clause; Hanshu, juan 94 lower, Biography of the Xiongnu (relayed in Zizhi Tongjian)
Appears in
Relations
- Zhizhi Chanyu brother — Claimant against claimant in a civil war of five chanyus; he took his adviser's counsel and rode south, and his elder brother rode ten thousand li west rather than kneel.
- Xiao Wangzhi patron — The Han grandee who argued he be ranked above every vassal king and received as a guest, and so set the terms on which his submission was made.
- Wang Zhaojun wife — The palace woman given him as consort when the northern war was over, styled Queen Who Sets the Barbarians at Peace.
Myth vs record
Huhanye's submission made the Xiongnu a Han province.
It made him a client in an unusually expensive class. He was set above every vassal king and not administered as a subject; the edict's stated reason was that the rites of the five thearchs and three kings did not reach his people and the emperor's virtue could not cover them. The Han sent grain, gold, silk and sixteen thousand horse to guard his camp, and asked for the words of his address, not for the government of his people. When he offered to take over the frontier wall himself the court refused after one clerk listed the ten reasons the border would empty through the gap (Hanshu, juan 94 lower; juan 78).