Rouran (
Chinese ??;&_160;
pinyin Róurán;&_160;literally "soft-like";
Wade-Giles Jou-jan),
Ruanruan/Ruru (
Chinese ??/??;&_160;
pinyin Ruanruan/Rúrú;&_160;literally "wriggling insects/fodder"),
Tan Tan[1] (
Chinese ??;&_160;
pinyin Tántán;&_160;literally "Tatar") or
Juan-Juan (
Turkish Avar) was the name of a confederation of
nomadic tribes on the northern borders of
Inner China from the late 4th century until the late 6th century.
[citation needed]It has sometimes been hypothesized that the Rouran are identical to the
Eurasian Avars who later appeared in Europe.
[2]The term Rouran is a Mandarin Chinese transcription of the pronunciation of the name the confederacy used to refer to itself.[citation needed] Ruanruan and Ruru remained in modern usage despite once being derogatory. They derived from orders given by the Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, who waged war against the Rouran and intended to intimidate the confederacy.
The power of the Rouran was broken by an alliance of Göktürks, the Chinese Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties and tribes in Central Asia in 552.
The Rouran were a confederation led by Mongolic Xianbei people who remained in the Mongolian steppes after most Xianbei migrated south to Northern China and set up various kingdoms. They were first noted as having defeated the Tiele and establishing an empire extending all the way to the Hulun, at the eastern Inner Mongolia. To the west of the Rouran was a horde known in the west as the Hephthalites who originally, until the beginning of the 5th century, were a vassal horde of the Rouran.[3]
