Luandi


The Luandi was a clan and the ruling dynasty of the ancient Xiongnu that flourished between 3rd century BCE to 4th century CE. The form Luandi comes from Hanshu, while the form Xulianti comes from Hou Hanshu.
Anna Dybo reconstructed 攣鞮's Old Chinese pronunciation as *rwan-de & posits that the clan's name was an Iranic loanword, cognate with Khotanese runde, plural of rre from *rwant- "king". There were four other noble tribes: Huyan, Xubu, Qiulin and Lan. The Huyan belonged to the dominating left wing, and the Lan and the Xubu belonged to the right wing. A source also considered Lan and Luandi as two variants of the same word due to their phonetic similarity. This was also attributed to the way the name Lan was used to identify Xiongnu's supreme rulers.
The Luandi was a clan that held some of the highest positions in the Xiongnu society, including the title of chanyu within the Xiongnu confederacy. In the confederation, Luandi was a paternal dynastic tribe, Huyan was an initially maternal dynastic tribe, and Xubu was a subsequently maternal dynastic tribe. They were the three most prominent tribes in the Xiongnu.
The earliest prominent figure from the clan itself was perhaps their leader Touman. Later on, a branch of the Luandi changed their family name to Liu.