Confucian norms and philosophy never caught hold in Inner Asia:
This explains why attempts to “corrupt” the Xiongnu and subordinate the Shanyu to the emperor failed so dismally. The nomads were eager to seize Chinese goods and luxury items, but were never economically dependent on them. Unlike in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the “barbarian” statelets of South China, the economic structure of the Xiongnu empire was radically different than agrarian China’s. There simply was not enough common ground between the two peoples for Chinese lifestyles to be grafted onto the Xiongnu people.
This is a recurring theme of Inner Asian history: nomadic elites could adopt the trappings of Chinese culture, but without moving off of the steppe they could never absorb its substance. The social worlds of the two peoples were simply too different. The ritualized and hierarchical relationships of the traditional Chinese family had no analogue in the egalitarian family life of the steppe. The first recorded Chanyu seized power by murdering his own father. The notion that “filial piety” — or any of the other civilized virtues China hoped to “tame” the barbarians with — could be instilled in the Xiongnu by giving them wives and clothes and toys was a political fantasy.