The dynasty also had to deal with the Qiang and Di on the western border, who had constantly been involved in skirmishes against the dynasty since the middle of Western Han Dynasty (around mid-first century BCE).
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The Xiongnu were a people who had migrated in and out of China proper, especially during times of turmoil, apparently at least since the days of the Qin.
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Even fragments of the Northern Xiongnu migrated well within the border to the Xihe plain, west of the Huang He and south of the Ordos Desert).
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They are mostly defined as: Xiongnu (匈奴), Xianbei (鮮卑), Di (氐), Qiang (羌), and Jie (羯); although different groups of historians and historiographers have their own definitions.
Founded by the Fu family of the Di ethnicity, it completed the unification of North China in 376.
His Han state attracted the support of some chieftains of other non-Chinese Xianbei and Di and certain bandit forces including those of an ex-slave Shi Le of the Jie ethnicity.