Is it true that the Han Chinese originate from the Turkic people?

Is it true that the Han Chinese originate from the Turkic people?

Feng Xian, former Research Associate at Eurasian Center (2017-2018)

Answered Dec 7, 2018

No.

But it is true that there were many Turks who became Han. In fact, this number is much greater than that you could think of. In a sense, the majority of the original Turks were taken either by Han or Mongols (some of the Mongols were Turkified after they marched to the West where they encountered Turkified Central Asian and Indo European). Those who left only had a small population and mixed with others.

So, the majority of ancient Turkic are Han, not Turkish, nor other way around. The original Turks largely became Han (either by becoming Han or becoming Khitan who also became Han later on or even becoming Khitan who became Mongol and then became Han in the end) or Mongol. The small number of Turks left who ran Turkified the local they conquered, such as Anatolian, who also got Islamized. According to the historical record I read before, the last group of Turk left in Northern Asia came to China during the Ming Dynasty. They chose Liu as their family name and became Han.

This also happened to Southern Xiongnu (my mother’s ancestor) and Xianbei, Khitan. They are 100% assimilated into Han (maybe 0.1 percent left for Xianbei as Xibo people). China also has the largest number of Mongolian in the world. In Inner Mongolia, 80 percent population are Han based on Han peasants from Shanxi with Mongolian women.

Examples of famous Turkic Han in Chinese history: Li Keyong and Li Cunxu, the founder of the late Tang Dynasty.

Modern Turkish

As far as I can tell, they don’t look like each other. Most of the ancient Turkic descendants live in Hebei, Shanxi, Shan-an Xi provinces nowadays. The most common family names for them are either Li or Liu due to the influence and marriage with Tang Dynasty and Han Dynasty Emperors.

The Chinese President Xi Jinping (Han) looks actually closer to Turk than Turkish. I don’t know his gene but if I’m correct he is from Shaanxi province. Maybe his ancestors mixed a little bit with Turk or Xiongnu who settled there I dunno.