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 term used by subjects of the Zhou and Han dynasties to refer to the four major people groups living outside the borders of China. Each was named for a cardinal direction: the Dongyi ("Eastern Barbarians"), Nanman ("Southern Barbarians"), Xirong ("Western Barbarians"), and Beidi ("Northern Barbarians"). Ultimately, the four barbarian groups either emigrated away from the Chinese heartland or were partly assimilated through sinicization into Chinese culture during later dynasties. After this early period, "barbarians" to the north and the west would often be designated as "Hu" (胡).