Wuhuan

thumb|right|Location of the Wuhuan in 87 BC thumb|right|Mural depicting horses and chariots from the tomb of a Wuhuan official and military commander from the Eastern Han dynasty in [[Inner Mongolia.]] The Wuhuan (, < Eastern Han Chinese: *ʔɑ-ɣuɑn, < Old Chinese (): *ʔâ-wân < *Awar) were a Proto-Mongolic or para-Mongolic nomadic people who inhabited northern China, in what is now the provinces of Hebei, Liaoning, Shanxi, the municipality of Beijing and the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.

== History== After the Donghu "Eastern Barbarians" were defeated by the Xiongnu around 209 BC, they split into two groups. The northern Donghu became the Xianbei while the southern Donghu living around modern Liaoning became the Wuhuan. According to the Book of the Later Han, "the language and culture of the Xianbei are the same as the Wuhuan". Until 121 BC, the Wuhuan were a tributary of the Xiongnu empire. The Book of the Later Han says: "From the time that Modu Chanyu crushed them the Wuhuan became weak. They were kept in constant subjugation to the Xiongnu and were forced to pay annual taxes of cow, horse and sheep skins. If anybody did not pay this tax his wife and children were taken from him."