Journal paper

Issue No.	No. 73
Title	The Southward Migration Legend of the Tuoba Xiabbei: Historical Consciousness in the Northern Wei
Author	Kenichi Matsushita, Chen, Shih-jen (trans.)
Page	231-266
Abstract	Scholars remain uncertain regarding the original homeland of the Tuoba people, founders of the Wei dynasty. The Wei Shu (Book of Wei), in particular the sections “Li Zhi” (Treatise on Rituals), “Wuluohu Guo Zhuan” (Account of the Wuluohu Nation), “Xu Ji” (The Preface), contains valuable information. Drawing on this material, scholars have hypothesized that the Tuoba originally lived in the Greater Khingan Range. Subsequent archaeological discoveries, including Tuoba Xianbei sites in Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia, as well as the 1980 unearthing of the Gaxian Cave inscription, have supported the identification of the northern segment of the Greater Kingan Range as the Tuoba ancestral homeland. This conclusion corresponds with the southward migration route described in the Wei Shu and has gradually become the dominant theory in scholarly circles. As might be expected, this dominant view has not gone unchallenged. This paper seeks to shed new light on the origins of the Tuoba by reexamining the relevant entries in the Wei Shu. In doing so, it also explores the authorial intent behind the text and considers what it reveals about the historical consciousness of the Northern Wei dynasty.
Keyword	Touba Xianbei, The Legend of Southward Migration, Wei Shu(Book of Wei), Historical Conciousness
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