"Your Majesty, I have no objection to saying the Xiongnu are descendants of the Xia, and I can accept saying the Qiang were a domain of the Shang and Zhou, but these Xianbei... how have they become legitimate successors too??"
At that moment, two renowned scholars of Wei sat opposite Cao Mao, utterly bewildered.
One of these two great scholars was called Ma Zhao-yes, just one character, 'death,' away from the name of that departed acquaintance-and the other was called Zhang Rong.
It was worth mentioning that both were staunch supporters of Zheng Learning.
Although the imperial court had always championed Wang Learning, the influence of Zheng Learning still could not be underestimated. Famous scholars emerged one after another; with Sun Yan absent, there were others to fill his place.
When Cao Mao heard that these two wanted to see him, he had thought it concerned the Bamboo Annals. He had not expected them to come over Ruan Ji's affairs.
Ruan Ji had gathered the Gentlemen of Writing and begun compiling books tracing the past and evolution of the various peoples within the country.
Naturally, this could not be kept secret.
Ruan Ji had made a great show of it, while also inviting a large number of famous scholars from the various peoples.
They included Shamohan of the Xianbei, Liu Xuan of the Xiongnu, Li Mu of the Di, and Yao Kehui of the Qiang, among others.
As for why there were no Jie-
In fact, at this time, the Jie were merely one tribe of the Xiongnu, and one of relatively low status at that.
They had once been used as slave soldiers by Xiongnu nobles.
Their later leader, Shi Le, had a father and grandfather who were both tribal commanders, yet he still had to go to Luoyang