Chizhishizhuhou Chanyu
The southern Xiongnu were a branch of the eastern Xiongnu that followed the rebellious pretender Huhanye and in 51-53 BC moved en masse within the Han borders under protection of Chinese. Since the times of Huhanye, the status of the southern Xiongnu was loyal allies of the Han Dynasty. The southern Xiongnu enjoyed material support of the old "heqin" treaty, and in return guarded the Chinese northern borders and participated in the Chinese external and internecine conflicts as long as the Chinese court respected their independence. However, when the Han imperial court attempted to appoint an ineligible for the crown Western Jükü-Prince Yufuluo from ineligible Right Wing as a Chanyu, instead of respecting the traditional election, the southern Xiongnu dissented and elected a lawful alternate Hyuibu Gudu-heu. Later they expelled Yufuluo, who had to seek safety in exile at the Han imperial court.
Xiongnu
Chinese sources link the Tiele people and Ashina to the Xiongnu, not all Turkic peoples. According to the "Book of Zhou" and the "History of the Northern Dynasties", the Ashina clan was a component of the Xiongnu confederation, but this connection is disputed, and according to the "Book of Sui" and the "Tongdian", they were "mixed nomads" () from Pingliang. The Ashina and Tiele may have been separate ethnic groups who mixed with the Xiongnu. Indeed, Chinese sources link many nomadic peoples ("hu"; see "Wu Hu") on their northern borders to the Xiongnu, just as Greco-Roman historiographers called Avars and Huns "Scythians". The Greek cognate of "Tourkia" () was used by the Byzantine emperor and scholar Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in his book "De Administrando Imperio", though in his use, "Turks" always referred to Magyars. Such archaizing was a common literary "topos", and implied similar geographic origins and nomadic lifestyle but not direct filiation. Some Uyghurs claimed descent from the Xiongnu (according to Chinese history "Weishu", the founder of the Uyghur Khaganate was descended from a Xiongnu ruler), but many contemporary scholars do not consider the modern Uyghurs to be of direct linear descent from the old Uyghur Khaganate because modern Uyghur language and Old Uyghur languages are different. Rather, they consider them to be descendants of a number of people, one of them the ancient Uyghurs.