There were two arguments against this course, one of which was already out of date.  The Chinese had for many centuries set down the Huns as uncultured barbarians; but the inferiority complex thus engendered in the Huns had virtually been overcome, because in the course of time their upper class had deliberately acquired a Chinese education and so ranked culturally with the Chinese.  Thus the ruler Liu Yuean, for example, had enjoyed a good Chinese education and was able to read all the classical texts.  The second argument was provided by the rigid conceptions of legitimacy to which the Turkish-Hunnic aristocratic society adhered.  The Huns asked themselves:  “Have we, as aliens, any right to become emperors and rulers in China, when we are not descended from an old Chinese family?” On this point Liu Yuean and his advisers found a good answer.  They called Liu Yuean’s dynasty the “Han dynasty”, and so linked it with the most famous of all the Chinese dynasties, pointing to the pact which their ancestor Mao Tun had concluded five hundred years earlier with the first emperor of the Han dynasty and which had described the two states as “brethren”.  They further recalled the fact that the rulers of the Huns were closely related to the Chinese ruling family, because Mao Tun and his successors had married Chinese princesses.  Finally, Liu Yuean’s Chinese family name, Liu, had also been the family name of the rulers of the Han dynasty.  Accordingly the Hun Lius came forward not as aliens but as the rightful successors in continuation of the Han dynasty, as legitimate heirs to the Chinese imperial throne on the strength of relationship and of treaties.

Thus the Hun Liu Yuean had no intention of restoring the old empire of Mao Tun, the empire of the nomads; he intended to become emperor of China, emperor of a country of farmers.  In this lay the fundamental difference between the earlier Hun empire and this new one.  The question whether the Huns should join in the struggle for the Chinese imperial throne was therefore decided among the Huns themselves in 304 in the affirmative, by the founding of the “Hun Han dynasty”.  All that remained was the practical question of how to hold out with their small army of 50,000 men if serious opposition should be offered to the “barbarians”.

Meanwhile Liu Yuean provided himself with court ceremonial on the Chinese model, in a capital which, after several changes, was established at P’ing-ch’eng in southern Shansi.  He attracted more and more of the Chinese gentry, who were glad to come to this still rather barbaric but well-organized court.  In 309 the first attack was made on the Chinese capital, Loyang.  Liu Yuean died in the following year, and in 311, under his successor Liu Ts’ung (310-318), the attack was renewed and Loyang fell.  The Chin emperor, Huai Ti, was captured and kept a prisoner in P’ing-ch’eng until in 313 a conspiracy in his favour was brought to light in the Hun empire,