Chin T. Defamiliarizing the Foreigner. Sima Qian’s Ethnography and Han-Xiongnu Marriage Diplomacy

Article // Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Volume 70, Number 2, December 2010, pp. 311-354During the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.), relations between China and the Xiongnu confederacy to the north permanently transformed the politics and the cultural poetics of China’s imperial frontiers. Following the defeat of the Han imperial army in 200 B.C.E., marriage diplomacy with the Xiongnu introduced a new form of non-tributary imperial relations that later dynasties continued to use with foreign peoples.