Five Barbarians

Wu Hu ( Pinyin 五胡 Wu3 Hu2)

Summary

The term literarily means "five non-Chinese races". Traditionally "Hu" was interpreted as barbarians as a parallel to those in Western Europe; however Shiji explained it as the "gifted son of heaven" (天之驕子). Wu Hu conposed of five nomads: Xiongnu (sometimes identified with the Huns), Xianpei, Di, Qiang and Jie. The term was first used in Cui Hong's Shiliuguochunqiu which recorded the history of those five nomads raging the Northern China from early 4th century to mid 5th century. As later historians found out, the term has become a collective noun of all non-chinese nomad residing in Northern China at the time. The five nomads were the major ones. The period of the rage is phrased as The Period of Wu Hu (五胡時代) or Wu Hu flustering Chinese (五胡亂華)。

How they started raging