Yiqu

Yiqu (simplified Chinese: 义渠; traditional Chinese: 義渠; pinyin: Yìqú; Wade–Giles: I-ch'ü; Old Chinese (444 BCE): *ŋaih-ga > Eastern Han Chinese: *ŋɨɑiᴴ-gɨɑ, or simplified Chinese: 仪渠; traditional Chinese: 儀渠; pinyin: Yíqú), was an ancient Chinese state which existed in the Hetao region and what is now Ningxia, eastern Gansu and northern Shaanxi during the Zhou dynasty, and was a centuries-long western rival of the state of Qin. It was inhabited by a semi-sinicized people called the Rong of Yiqu (Chinese: 義渠之戎), who were regarded as a branch of western Rong people by contemporary writers, whom modern scholars have attempted to identify as one of the ancestors of the minority people in Northwest China.