To formalize sinification, a number of actions were taken prior to the name changes.[2]
In 493, the capital was moved to
Luoyang, closer to the agricultural
Han and away from the nomadic roots.
In 494, nomadic style clothing were abandoned.
In 495, nomadic languages at court were abandoned.
Changes
Northern Wei ordered Xianbei family names that were two-to-three syllables to be shortened to one-to-two syllables, converting them to Han names. Later historians, including
Wei Shou, the author of the official history of
Northern Wei, Book of Wei, found shortened Han-style names to be easier to write about, and therefore used post-496 family names even where pre-496 events involving Northern Wei were described.
Later, after the division of Northern Wei into two in 534, the paramount general of
Western Wei,
Yuwen Tai, tried to reverse these name changes and restore Xianbei names. Yuwen Tai further had Han officials and generals change their names to Xianbei names. A number of generals and officials changed their names back to Xianbei names, but after the collapse of Western Wei, the
regentYang Jian near the end of
Northern Zhou permanently restored the use of Han names for both Han and Xianbei alike. As a compromise, there were some exceptions, for example, the clan of
Emperor Wen of Sui's wife
Empress Dugu kept their Xianbei name of Dugu and did not once again change the name into Liu. [1]
Name correspondence
Below is a list of the Xianbei names that are known to have been changed into Han names:
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abcBranner, David Prager. [2006] (2006). John Benjamins Publishing. The Chinese Rime Tables: Linguistic Philosophy And Historical-comparative.
ISBN90-272-4785-4