Chanyu in the context of Central State Museum of Kazakhstan

Modu (c. 234–174 BCE) was the son of Touman and the founder of the empire of the Xiongnu. He came to power by ordering his men to kill his father in 209 BCE.

Modu ruled from 209 to 174 BCE. He was a military leader under his father Touman and later chanyu of the Xiongnu Empire, based on the Mongolian Plateau. He secured the throne and established a powerful Xiongnu Empire by successfully unifying the tribes of the Mongolian–Manchurian grassland in response to the loss of Xiongnu pasture lands to invading Qin forces commanded by Meng Tian in 215 BCE.

Khanum, Qanysham, Kanysham, Khanym, Hanum, Hanım, Hanem, Khanom, or Khanoum (Uzbek: Xonim/Хоним, Kyrgyz: Канышам/Qanysham and Каныш/Qanysh or Каныша/Qanysha, Kazakh: Ханым/Hanym, Mongolian: Ханым; Azerbaijani: Xanım; Turkish: Hanım; Egyptian Arabic: هانم; Levantine Arabic, Persian, Urdu: خانم; Hindi: ख़ानुम; Bengali: খাঁনম/খানম) is a female royal and aristocratic title that was originally derived through a Central Asian title, and later used in the Middle East and South Asia. It is the feminine equivalent of the title Khan for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turkic peoples living in Asia and Europe and also Mongol tribes living north and northwest of modern-day China. In the construction of words of the Turkic languages, the suffix "-um / -ım" adds "my", making the word "Khanum" as "my Khan". This arises from the tale, depicting a Khan announcing to his subjects I am your Khan, and She is my Khan (Khanum). "Khan" is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289. The Rourans were the first people who used the titles Khagan and Khan for their emperors, replacing the Chanyu of the Xiongnu, whom René Grousset and others assume to be Turkic.

In Modern Turkish, it is spelled Hanım and is used similarly to the titles of "lady" or "mrs." or "miss" in the English language. The title of Hanımefendi is a combination of the words Khanum (tr. Hanım) and efendi, and is a more formal title to address women in the modern age.

Touman (Chinese: 頭曼), from Old Chinese (220 BCE): *do-mɑnᴬ, is the earliest named chanyu (leader) of the Xiongnu tribal confederation, reigning from c. 220–209 BCE, directly preceding the formation of the Xiongnu empire.

Helian Bobo (Chinese: 赫連勃勃; Middle Chinese Guangyun: [xɐk-li̯ɛn˩ bʰuət-bʰuət]; 381 – c. September 425), né Liu Bobo (劉勃勃), with the epithet Qujie (屈孑), was the founder of the Xiongnu state of Xia, which rose to prominence during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. He belonged to the Tiefu (鐵弗) branch of the Xiongnu, was a descendant of the southern chanyu Liu Qubei, and the son of Liu Weichen, its chieftain. After his father was killed by Northern Wei and the tribe collapsed, Liu Bobo sought refuge with Moyigan, a Xianbei chieftain of Later Qin, and married Moyigan's daughter. As an adult, noted for his imposing stature, eloquence, and intelligence, he won the favor of Emperor Yao Xing of Later Qin, who appointed him a general and placed more than thirty thousand men from the Tiefu and other tribes under his command.

In 407, after Later Qin made peace with Northern Wei, Liu Bobo rebelled. Claiming descent from the Xia dynasty royal line, he styled himself Heavenly King of Great Xia and Grand Chanyu and adopted the era name Longsheng (龍昇), marking the establishment of the Xia state. He spent the following years roaming the northern steppe, deploying cavalry offensives against Later Qin and Southern Liang in the Shuofang region.

Li Guang (184–119 BCE) was a Chinese military general of the Western Han dynasty. Nicknamed "Flying General" by the Xiongnu, he fought primarily in the campaigns against the nomadic Xiongnu tribes to the north of China. He was known to the Xiongnu as a tough opponent when it came to fortress defense, and his presence was sometimes enough for the Xiongnu to abort a siege.

Li Guang committed suicide shortly after the Battle of Mobei in 119 BC. He was blamed for failing to arrive at the battlefield in time (after getting lost in the desert), creating a gap in the encirclement and allowing Ichise Chanyu to escape after a confrontation between Wei Qing and the Chanyu's main force, which the Han army narrowly managed to defeat. Refusing to accept the humiliation of a court-martial, Li Guang killed himself.

The Xubu (Chinese: 須卜; pinyin: Xūbǔ; Wade–Giles: Hsü-pu; LHC: *sio-pok) was a tribe of the Xiongnu that flourished between 3rd century BCE and the 4th century CE. Chinese annals noted that the Xubu tribe replaced the Huyan tribe, which was an earlier maternal dynastic tribe of the dynastic union with the paternal dynastic tribe Luandi. The traditional system of conjugal unions is a form of the nomadic exogamic society. The male members of the maternal dynastic line were not eligible to be chanyu, only the male members of the Luandi line, whose father was a Luanti Chanyu, and mother was a Xubu Khatun (Queen) were eligible to be chanyu. A Xubu could only become a chanyu after a palace coup.

The Huyan tribe moved from the Right (Western) Wing, where the maternal dynastic tribe is traditionally assigned, to the Left (Eastern) Wing. The Book of the Later Han (chapter 89, l. 7b) stated that of the noble tribes other than Luanti, Huyan, Xubu, Qiulin and Lan, Huyan already belonged to the dominating Left Wing, and Lan and Xubu belonged to the Right Wing. The Book of the Later Han also names the dynastic Luandi tribe with a composite name Xulianti, implying a merger of the two dynastic lines.

The Han dynasty (201 BCE – 220 CE) was the second imperial dynasty of China. It followed the Qin dynasty, which had unified the Warring States of China by conquest. It was founded by Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu). The dynasty is divided into two periods: the Western Han (202 BCE – 9 CE) and the Eastern Han (25–220 CE), interrupted briefly by the Xin dynasty (9–23 CE) of Wang Mang. These appellations are derived from the locations of the capital cities Chang'an and Luoyang, respectively. The third and final capital of the dynasty was Xuchang, where the court moved in 196 CE during a period of political turmoil and civil war.

The Han dynasty ruled in an era of Chinese cultural consolidation, political experimentation, relative economic prosperity and maturity, and great technological advances. There was unprecedented territorial expansion and exploration initiated by struggles with non-Chinese peoples, especially the nomadic Xiongnu of the Eurasian Steppe. The Han emperors were initially forced to acknowledge the rival Xiongnu Chanyus as their equals, yet in reality the Han was an inferior partner in a tributary and royal marriage alliance known as heqin.