The missing Huns / 远去的匈奴

匈奴是中国历史上另一个强大的国家，曾经驰骋在现今的蒙古大草原。然而这个曾经令汉人无比头痛的民族却在一夜之间消失得无影无踪，史书上始终找不到关于他们迁移的记载，只是提到在他们消失了四百年后，东欧草原突然出现了被称作‘Hun’的人，中国史书称之为匈人，然而这匈人是否就是匈奴人，他们与匈牙利人有没有关系？如果是的话，在那杳无音信的四百年内他们究竟去了哪里？为什么在他们一路迁徙过程中竟没有一个国家的历史提到他们？为什么西方学者把他们称作‘Hun’?为什么他们的称呼如此接近我们？（西方人称我们为‘Han’）是因为西方人觉得他们像是东方人，而唯一的他们所知道的东方人就是汉(han)的原因吗？还是在他们自己的语言中匈奴的发音就是‘Hun’？抑或他们与匈奴根本毫不相干，他们的族名用他们自己的语言说来就是Hun？如果他们跟匈奴毫无关系，那他们有来自哪里？他们到底是谁？

Xiongnu （匈奴）is another powerful country in Chinese history. It used to occupy the Mongolian grassland. But this powerful group of people who used to create lots of headaches for our Han （汉,dominant race in China）, mysteriously disappeared overnight. There is not a single trace left in the history books. After 400 years, suddenly there was a group called the Huns who appeared on the East Europe prairie. Chinese history books called them 匈 and now the majority of the scholars worldwide believe they are Xiongnu. Are they really Xiongnu(匈奴)? Or could they relate to todays’s Hungarians? If yes, where were they within that 400 years? How come when they migrated from northern China to Eastern Europe, having passed through so many countries, there is not even one mentioned in their history books? Why do western scholars call them the ‘Hun’? How come it’s so close to our name Han (汉)? Is this because they looked like eastern people and the only eastern group the western people knew at that time was Han? Or perhaps it was just the way in which they addressed themselves? Or maybe they were not Xiongnu at all, Hun was the name translated by the sound of their own language? If they are not Xiongnu, who are they? Where were they from?