Noin-Ula burial site
The cultural affinity of the Xiongnu was with the peoples of southern Siberia and Central Asia; with the Chinese they exchanged arrows rather than culture: the Xiongnu shot with hand bows, while Chinese employed crossbows, although the Chinese had developed the crossbow from the traditional hand bows. Lev Gumilev elaborates the roots of the Chinese cultural influence found in the Noin-Ula cemetery. The Chinese culture was spread not only by material objects, but also by population admixture. There were populations of Xiongnu that have live under the Han rule as military allies. The Chinese migrated continuously to the steppes, the first big wave arriving in the 3rd century BC during the Tsin dynasty (Pin. "Qin"), when captured Chinese became subjects of the Chanuys, a process repeated during the following centuries. The numerous Han people who deserted and entered Chanuy service (for example, Vey Lüy, Li Lin) also taught the Xiongnu the subtlety of diplomacy and martial arts. Populations of the Xiongnu people also lived under Han rule, mostly serving as military allies under Han command. The capture of populations of Xiongnu by the Han forces in a series of Han versus Hun wars also contributed to additional ethnic integration of the north-central Asian neighbors.
Jiangqu
In 51 BCE a pretender to the Xiongnu's throne Huhanye re-established the "heqin" peace and kinship treaty with the Han empire, and fled to China with a fraction of the Xiongnu, partitioning the Xiongnu state into the Northern Xiongnu and Southern Xiongnu, and establishing a new polity allied with China. The Southern Xiongnu retained a title "Chanyu" for their leader, and started a new dynastic line beginning with Huhanye. Huhanye himself belonged to the 8th generation of the Maodun line of the dynastic paternal Luanti tribe, the tribe Qiang ("Kiyan") was a maternal dynastic tribe of the Southern Xiongnu. During the existence of the Southern Xiongnu state, its Xiongnu population greatly varied depending on the events in the steppe, at times it was swelling with numerous Xiongnu tribes fleeing trouble events, and at times it was losing Xiongnu tribes when they returned after return of peaceful times. The Chinese policies also affected the in and out flows. Until the event with Zhang Xiu in 179 CE, the Southern Xiongnu continued electing their Chanyus without explicit Chinese intervention, Jiangqu was the first Southern Xiongnu Chanyu who broke the traditional Xiongnu succession laws, undermining the integrity of the Southern fraction. Tribes that did not want to recognise a non-eligible leader either revolted against him, or left the area under his control.