Xirong

Xirong (Chinese: 西戎; pinyin: Xīróng; Wade–Giles: Hsi-jung; literally: "Western warlike people") or Rong were various ancient people who inhabited primarily in and around the extremities of ancient Huaxia known as early as the Shang dynasty 1765-1122 BCE, they were typically to the west of the later Zhou state (such as Gansu, etc.) from the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 221 BCE) onwards. They were mentioned in some ancient Chinese texts as perhaps related to the people of the Chinese civilization.

Etymology

The historian Li Feng says that during the Western Zhou period, since the term Rong "warlike foreigners" was "often used in bronze inscriptions to mean 'warfare', it is likely that when a people was called 'Rong' the Zhou considered them as political and military adversaries rather than as cultural and ethnic 'others'."

After the Zhou Dynasty, the term usually referred to various peoples in the west during early and late medieval times. Prusek suggests relations between the Rong of Zhou and the Ren (人) tribes known in Shang.