Tuoba

Tuoba (Chinese: 拓拔; pinyin: Tuòbá; Wade–Giles: T'o-pa) was a clan of the Xianbei in ancient China. In the Old Turkic language, they were referred to as Tabgach.

The Tuoba founded the Northern Wei (386–535) around the Yellow River delta and became increasingly sinicized. As a result, from 496, the name "Tuoba" disappeared by an edict of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei, who adopted the Chinese language surname of Yuan (元) instead. A surviving branch of the Tuoba established the state of Tuyuhun before submitting as a vassal of the Tang dynasty; they later established the later Western Xia, whose rulers adopted the Chinese surname Li (李). The ruling families of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties that followed the fall of Northern Wei were also of Tuoba ethnicity.

The distribution of the Xianbei people ranged from present day Northeast China to Mongolia, and the Tuoba were one of the largest clans among the western Xianbei, ranging from present day Shanxi province and westward and northwestward. They established the state of Dai from 310-376 CE and ruled as the Northern Wei from 386-536. The Tuoba states of Dai and Northern Wei also claimed to possess the quality of earth in the Chinese Wu Xing theory. All the chieftains of the Tuoba were revered as emperors in the Book of Wei and the History of the Northern Dynasties. Some scholars suggest that the Tuoba were proto-Mongols (and spoke a proto-Mongolic language) or belonged to their own branch of Ural-Altaic language family, although some also suggest that instead of being related to the Mongols, they were perhaps related to the Turkic peoples (and spoke a proto-Turkic language). In the opinion of Peter Boodberg, much of the Tuoba vocabulary was "essentially Turkish with a certain admixture of Mongolian elements". On the other hand, Edwin Pulleyblank "concluded that it was Mongolian." Chen Sanping observes that the Tuoba language "had both" elements. On the other hand, Liu Xueyao stated that Tuobas may have had their own language which should not be assumed to be identical with any other known languages. The Rourans considered that Tuoba and Rourans descended from common ancestors. Also a historian of the Northern Wei noted that Rourans descended from Xianbei.

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