Qiangqui

Who is Qiangqui?

Qiangqui, whose full title is unknown, was a Chanyu of the Southern Huns, a successor to Huzheng of the Southern Huns. Qiangqui was a head of the maternal dynastic tribe Qiang with a title Western Tuqi-Prince not eligible for the throne, he was appointed by the Chinese Bailiff for Souther Hun affairs Zhang Xiu, who on his own whim executed Huching Chanyu. Although Zhang Xiu was himself executed for his transgression, Qiangqui was confirmed in the Great Chanyu post by the reigning Han Emperor Ling.

In 51 BCE a pretender to the Hun's throne Huhanye re-established the heqin peace and kinship treaty with the Han empire, and fled to China with a fraction of the Huns, partitioning the Hun state into the Northern Huns and Southern Huns, and establishing a new polity allied with China. The Southern Huns retained a title "Chanyu" for their leader, and started a new dynastic line beginning with Huhanye. Huhanye himself belonged to the 8th generation of the Maodun line of the dynastic paternal Luanti tribe, the tribe Qiang was a maternal dynastic tribe of the Southern Huns. During the existence of the Southern Huns state, its Hunnic population greatly varied depending on the events in the steppe, at times it was swelling with numerous Hunnic tribes fleeing trouble events, and at times it was losing Hunnic tribes when they returned after return of peaceful times. The Chinese policies also affected the in and out flows. Until the event with Zhang Xiu in 179 CE, the Southern Huns continued electing their Chanyus without explicit Chinese intervention, Qiangqui was a first Southern Huns' Chanyu who broke the traditional Hunnic succession laws, undermining the integrity of the Southern fraction. Tribes that did not want to recognise a non-eligible leader either revolted against him, or were leaving the area under his control.