The term "Qiang" appears in the Shi Jing

Shi Jing

The Classic of Poetry , translated variously as the Book of Songs, the Book of Odes, and often known simply as its original name The Odes, is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems and songs. It comprises 305 poems and songs, with many range from the 10th to the 7th centuries BC...

in reference to Tang of Shang

Tang of Shang

King Cheng Tang of Shang was the first ruling king of the Shang dynasty in Chinese history. He overthrew Jie, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty.-Early life:...

 (1675 BC-1646 BC). They seem to have lived in a diagonal band from northern Shaanxi

Shaanxi

' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...

 to northern Henan

Henan

Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...

, somewhat to the south of the later Beidi

Beidi

Beidi or Northern Di were groups of people who lived to the north of what was then China during the Zhou Dynasty. By the end of the dynasty they were mostly conquered or absorbed by the Chinese....

. They were skilled in making oracle bones and had a close relation to Zhou. One of their groups was called the 'Many-Horse-Qiang'. Edwin G. Pulleyblank

Edwin G. Pulleyblank

Edwin George Pulleyblank FRSC is a sinologist and professor emeritus of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia...

 connects them with the later Rong people. Not until the rise of the state of Qin

Qin (state)

The State of Qin was a Chinese feudal state that existed during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods of Chinese history...

 under Duke Mu was the Qiang expansion effectively halted. A Qiang leader, Yao Chang

Yao Chang

Yao Chang , courtesy name Jingmao , formally Emperor Wuzhao of Qin , was the founding emperor of the Chinese/Qiang state Later Qin...

, founded the Later Qin

Later Qin

The Later Qin was a state of Qiang ethnicity of the Sixteen Kingdoms during the Jin Dynasty in China. Note that the Later Qin is entirely distinct from the ancient Qin Dynasty, the Former Qin, and the Western Qin....

 kingdom (384-417) during the Sixteen Kingdoms

Sixteen Kingdoms

The Sixteen Kingdoms, or less commonly the Sixteen States, were a collection of numerous short-lived sovereign states in China proper and its neighboring areas from 304 to 439 AD after the retreat of the Jin Dynasty to South China and before the establishment of the Northern Dynasties...

period of Chinese history.