HIUNG-NU, HIONG-NU, HEUNG-NU, a people who about the end of the 3rd century B.C. formed, according to Chinese records, a powerful empire from the Great Wall of China to the Caspian. A theory which seems plausible is that which assumes them to have been a heterogeneous collection of Mongol, Tungus, Turki and perhaps even Finnish hordes under a Mongol military caste, though the Mongolo-Tungus element probably predomi nated. Towards the close of the 1st century of the Christian era the Hiung-nu empire broke up. Their subsequent history is ob scure. De Guiques suggests that they were the ancestors of the Huns, and many ethnologists hold that the Hiung-nu were the ancestors of the modern Turks.
See Journal Anthropological Institute for 1874; Sir H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols (1876-8o) ; 6th Congress of Orientalists, Ley den, 1883 (Actes, part iv. pp. 177-195) ; de Guiques, Histoire generale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mongoles, et des autres Tartares occidentaux (1756-58) ; F. Hirth, The Ancient History of China (191I) .