Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin, better known under his archimandrite monastic name Hyacinth, sometimes Joacinth or Iakinf, was one of the founding fathers of Russian Sinology. He translated many works from Chinese into Russian, which were then translated into other European languages.

Various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei state, the Rouran Khaganate (330–555), the First (552–603) and Second Turkic Khaganates (682–744) and others, ruled the area of present-day Mongolia. The Khitan people, who used a para-Mongolic language, founded an empire known as the Liao dynasty (916–1125), and ruled Mongolia and portions of North China, northern Korea, and the present-day Russian Far East.