The Di or Beidi (Northern Di) were various ethnic groups who lived north of the Chinese (Huaxia) realms during the Zhou dynasty. Although initially described as nomadic, they seem to have practiced a mixed pastoral, agricultural, and hunting economy and were distinguished from the nomads of the Eurasian steppe (Hu) who lived to their north. Chinese historical accounts describe the Di inhabiting the upper Ordos Loop and gradually migrating eastward to northern Shanxi and northern Hebei, where they eventually created their own states like Zhongshan and Dai. Other groups of Di seem to have lived interspersed between the Chinese states before their eventual conquest or assimilation.
Name
The ancient Chinese, whose Xia, Shang, and Zhou states flourished along the Fen, Yellow, and Wei valleys, discussed their neighbors according to the cardinal directions. The "Four Barbarians" (Siyi) were the Di to the north, the Man to the south, the Yi to the east, and the Rong to the west. These came to be used as generic chauvinistic pejoratives for different peoples long after the conquests of the original tribes and so are all usually translated as "barbarian" in English.
Beidi tribes, ethnic groups, or states were sometimes distinguished as belonging to the "Red Di" (赤狄, Chidi), the "White Di" (白狄, Baidi), or "Tall Di" (長狄, Changdi). The Xianyu (Old Chinese (B-S): *s[a]r[ŋ]ʷ(r)a), Fei, Zhongshan, and Dai kingdoms were founded by White Di. According to Eastern Wu scholar Wei Zhao, Xianyu's founders dwelt among the Di yet shared the same ancestral surname Ji 姬 with the Zhou kings.
William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart (2014) reconstruct the Old Chinese pronunciation of as *lˤek; sometimes was written as , whose pronunciation was reconstructed as *lˤewk. Paul R. Goldin, professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at University of Pennsylvania, proposes that 狄/翟 was a pejorative "pseudo-ethnonym" made by Chinese for the northern "barbarians" and it meant "feathered".
History
Surviving accounts of the culture and history of China's early neighbors mostly date from the late Zhou. The Book of Rites notes: The people of those five regions—the Middle states, and the [Rong], [Yi], (and other wild tribes round them)—had all their several natures, which they could not be made to alter. The tribes on the east were called [Yi]. They had their hair unbound, and tattooed their bodies. Some of them ate their food without its being cooked. Those on the south were called Man. They tattooed their foreheads, and had their feet turned in towards each other. Some of them (also) ate their food without its being cooked. Those on the west were called [Rong]. They had their hair unbound, and wore skins. Some of them did not eat grain-food. Those on the north were called [Di]. They wore skins of animals and birds, and dwelt in caves. Some of them also did not eat grain-food. The people of the Middle states, and of those [Yi], Man, [Rong], and [Di], all had their dwellings, where they lived at ease; their flavours which they preferred; the clothes suitable for them; their proper implements for use; and their vessels which they prepared in abundance. In those five regions, the languages of the people were not mutually intelligible, and their likings and desires were different. To make what was in their minds apprehended, and to communicate their likings and desires, (there were officers)—in the east, called transmitters; in the south, representationists; in the west, [Di-dis]; and in the north, interpreters.
The Di were often associated with the Rong; both were considered more warlike and less civilized than the Yi or Man. According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the ancestors of the Zhou lived in lands near the Rong and Di for fourteen generations, until Gugong Danfu led then away to the mid-Wei River valley where they built their capital near Mount Qi.
During the Eastern Zhou, the Chinese states—particularly Jin—expanded into Di territories, after which the Di were often their enemies. The "White Di" lived north of Qin and west of the Yellow River in what is now northern Shaanxi through the first half of the Spring and Autumn Period; tribes began crossing the river into northern Shanxi in the second half.
676-651 BC: Duke Xian of Jin conquered a number of Rong and Di groups. 662 BC: The Di drove the Rong out of Taiyuan. 662-659 BC: The state of Xing was nearly destroyed by the Red Di until it was rescued by the State of Qi. 660 BC: The Red Di took the capital of the State of Wey and killed its ruler, but were driven out by Qi. 660 to 507 BC: Jin fought many wars with the Di.
