The history of the Kirghiz people, one of the fifty-five ethnic groups in China, is long. In Chinese, the Kirghiz people call themselves “Keerkezi.” Records of the Kirghiz can be traced back more than two millennia. The earliest of these are found in Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji) and the Book of Han (Han Shu), in which the Kirghiz who lived during China’s Western and Eastern Han dynasties (202 BCE–220 CE) and the Three Kingdoms period (220–280) are referred to as “Jiankun” and “Gekun,” Chinese-language transliterations of the word “Kirghiz.” According to the records of following dynasties, the Kirghiz people were historically known as “Hugushi” during the Western and the Eastern Jin dynasties (265–420), “Qigu” during the Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589), “Hegu” during the Sui dynasty (581–618), “Jiankun” and “Xiajiasi” during the Tang dynasty (618–907), “Xiajiasi” and “Geligesi” during the Liao and Song dynasties (907–1279), and “Jilijisi” and “Qierjisi” during the Yuan and Ming dynasties (1271–1644), all of which are Chinese transcriptions, transliterations, or translations of the word “Kirghiz” in its own language derived at different points in history. During the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), the Kirghiz people were given the name “Bulut,” believed to be coined by Junggarian Mongolians and meaning “mountainous residents.” This name was widely used by the Manchurians and the Han people of the time. These substantial historical records offer insight into the ancestry of the Kirghiz clans and tribes from which today’s Kirghiz people are descended. In other words, Kirghiz history in Chinese written records dates back more than 2200 years—more precisely, to 202 BCE, when Liu Bang founded the Western Han dynasty and became its first emperor.