Four Barbarians

Four Barbarians
Zhou dynasty cosmography of Huaxia and the Four Barbarians: Dongyi in the east, Nanman in the south, Xirong in the west, and Beidi in the north.
Chinese name
Chinese	四夷
Literal meaning	four barbarians
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin sìyí Wade–Giles ssu-i
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	tứ di
Hán-Nôm	四夷
Korean name
Hangul	사이
Hanja	四夷
Transcriptions Revised Romanization sa-i McCune–Reischauer sa-i
Japanese name
Kanji	四夷
Hiragana	しい
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn shii

"Four Barbarians" (Chinese: 四夷; pinyin: sìyí) was a generic term used in Ancient China, particularly by subjects of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, referring to the various non-Sinitic peoples living outside the borders of the Huaxia civilization, who were pejoratively considered to be savage barbarians by the agrarian Chinese people. Each was named according to a cardinal direction relative to China proper:

• The "Eastern Barbarians" or Dongyi (simplified Chinese: 东夷; traditional Chinese: 東夷), referring to various peoples east of the Central Plain, particularly the Tungusic and Koreanic peoples from Northeast Asia;
• The "Southern Barbarians" or Nanman (simplified Chinese: 南蛮; traditional Chinese: 南蠻), referring to the Baiyue people from south of the Yangtze and the Burmic people beyond the Hengduan Mountains;
• The "Western Barbarians" or Xirong (Chinese: 西戎), referring to the highland peoples (especially the Qiang) from the Tibetan plateau, and;
• The "Northern Barbarians" or Beidi (Chinese: 北狄), referring to various steppe nomads from the Mongolian plateau.

Each of these terms had evolved to mean different ethnic groups during different periods of Chinese history as the Huaxia civilization expanded in both territory and culture influence. Ultimately, old "barbarians" were either displaced farther away from the Chinese heartland, or partly assimilated/naturalized into the Chinese culture through sinicization during later dynasties, and the changing frontiers brought contacts with various new culture groups, many of whom were bigotedly grouped into the same "barbarian" category. By the middle of Han dynasty, most regions in the northeast (including Gojoseon), south and southwest had been quelled, leaving only peoples to the north and west a significant threat. These remaining "barbarians" would later be often collectively designated as "Hu" (胡) in the north, or "Fan" (番) in the south, terms that had largely replaced the usage of "Four Barbarians". Since the Qin dynasty's expeditionary campaign against the nomads, especially after the Silk Road established contacts and trades with other Central and West Asian civilizations in the Western Regions, the word Hu had also become a synonym for "foreigner" (e.g. the term Donghu replacing Dongyi) throughout the Middle Ages until maritime trade with peoples outside the Sinosphere became frequent during the Age of Discovery, and the term Yangren (Chinese: 洋人; lit. 'ocean people') subsequently became the ubiquitous term for foreigners.