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74-596: The House of Huyan emerged during the political organization that came under Modun 's reign which saw the Xiongnu reach its apogee . It is an earlier maternal lineage name subsequently replaced by Xubu , much as the Ashina and Yujiulu (郁久閭). The Mongol Khiyad tribe's name is probably derived from Huyan. By the 3rd century BCE, the upper stratum of the Xiongnu was made up of five aristocratic houses, Luandi (house of

148-515: A drinking cup out of his skull." ( Shiji 123. ) The wife of the murdered king became the new monarch of Greater Yuezhi. Nevertheless, in about 173 BC, the Wusun were apparently defeated by the Yuezhi, who killed a Wusun king known as Nandoumi. After their defeat by the Xiongnu, the Yuezhi split into two groups. The Lesser or Little Yuezhi moved to the "southern mountains", believed to be

222-462: A crushing victory. Modu boasted in a letter (174 BC) to the Han emperor that due to "the excellence of his fighting men, and the strength of his horses, he has succeeded in wiping out the Yuezhi, slaughtering or forcing to submission every number of the tribe." The son of Modu, Laoshang Chanyu (ruled 174–166 BC), subsequently killed the king of the Yuezhi and, in accordance with nomadic traditions, "made

296-581: A fraction of a cent. Women are held in great respect, and the men make decisions on the advice of their women. Zhang Qian also described the remnants of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom on the other side of the Oxus River (Chinese Gui ) as a number of autonomous city-states under Yuezhi suzerainty: Daxia is located over 2,000 li southwest of Dayuan, south of the Gui river. Its people cultivate

370-560: A hunting trip, killing him in a shower of arrows. With none of his followers failing to shoot at his command and the removal of his father, Modu proclaimed himself Chanyu of the Xiongnu. After his self-proclaimed ascension as Chanyu, Modu began to eliminate those who would prove a threat to his newly acquired power. Thus, he proceeded to execute his rival half-brother, his step-mother and other Xiongnu officials who refused to support his rule. Modu's Xiongnu Empire aggressively protected and expanded their territory. When their eastern neighbors,

444-526: A mountain in the Tian Shan , and that Qilian should be interpreted as a name for the Tian Shan. They have thus placed the original homeland of the Yuezhi 1,000 km further northwest in the grasslands to the north of the Tian Shan (in the northern part of modern Xinjiang ). Other authors suggest that the area identified by Sima Qian was merely the core area of an empire encompassing the western part of

518-462: A number of Turkic languages . The Turkish Land Forces claims the beginning of his reign in 209 BCE as its symbolic founding date. Yuezhi The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu , during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat at

592-695: A powerful figure and becomes a king. The name of Modu has been associated with Oghuz Khagan , a legendary ancestor of Oghuz Turks . The reason for that is a striking similarity of the Oghuz Khagan biography in the Turco-Persian tradition ( Rashid-al-Din Hamadani , Husayni Isfahani , Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur ) with the Modu biography in the Chinese sources (feud between the father and son and murder of

666-606: A revolt by the king of Kashgar . In around AD 85, the Kushanas also assisted the Chinese in an attack on Turpan , east of the Tarim Basin. Following the military support provided to the Han, the Kushan emperor requested a marriage alliance with a Han princess and sent gifts to the Chinese court in expectation that this would occur. After the Han court refused, a Kushan army 70,000 strong marched on Ban Chao in 86 AD. The army

740-454: A steady flow of luxury and staple tribute they could pass down to the aristocracy supporting them. Without that tribute, the Xiongnu might not have been able to expand and maintain control. Christopher I. Beckwith has pointed out that the story of the young Modu resembles a widespread class of folk tales in which a young hero is abandoned, goes on a quest, proves his worth, gains a group of trusted companions, returns to his home country, slays

814-548: A time when the Yuezhis had not yet encountered Buddhism. The area of the Hindu Kush ( Paropamisadae ) was ruled by the western Indo-Greek king until the reign of Hermaeus (reigned c.  90 BC –70 BC). After that date, no Indo-Greek kings are known in the area. According to Bopearachchi , no trace of Indo-Scythian occupation (nor coins of major Indo-Scythian rulers such as Maues or Azes I ) have been found in

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888-705: A war against the Tochari in 124 BC. Several relationships between these tribes and those named in Chinese sources have been proposed, but remain contentious. After they settled in Bactria, the Yuezhi became Hellenized to some degree – as shown by their adoption of the Greek alphabet and by some remaining coins, minted in the style of the Greco-Bactrian kings, with the text in Greek. According to Sergey Yatsenko,

962-717: A year in Transoxiana and Bactria , wrote a detailed account in the Shiji , which gives considerable insight into the situation in Central Asia at the time. Zhang Qian also reported: the Great Yuezhi live 2,000 or 3,000 li [832–1,247 kilometers] west of Dayuan , north of the Gui [ Oxus ] river. They are bordered on the south by Daxia [ Bactria ], on the west by Anxi [ Parthia ], and on

1036-527: Is called the city of Lanshi and has a market where all sorts of goods are bought and sold. The next mention of the Yuezhi in Chinese sources is found in chapter 96A of the Book of Han (completed in AD 111), relating to the early 1st century BC. At this time, the Yuezhi are described as occupying the whole of Bactria, organized into five major tribes or xīhóu . These tribes were known to the Chinese as: The Book of

1110-424: Is now alone and living in solitude. Since both of us are not happy and have nothing to entertain ourselves, I'm willing to use what I possess to exchange for what you lack. Lü Zhi was infuriated at the rude proposition, and in a heated court session, her generals advised her to rally an army and exterminate the Xiongnu immediately. As she was about to declare war, an outspoken attendant named Ji Bu pointed out that

1184-728: Is probably the first reference to the Yuezhi as a lynchpin in trade on the Silk Road , which in the 3rd century BC began to link Chinese states to Central Asia and, eventually, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Europe. The earliest detailed account of the Yuezhi is found in chapter 123 of the Records of the Great Historian by Sima Qian , describing a mission of Zhang Qian in the late 2nd century BC. Essentially

1258-609: The Kushanas , began to subsume the other tribes and neighbouring peoples. The subsequent Kushan Empire , at its peak in the 3rd century AD, stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin in the north to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain of India in the south. The Kushanas played an important role in the development of trade on the Silk Road and the introduction of Buddhism to China . The Lesser Yuezhi migrated southward to

1332-581: The heqin policy of marrying so called "princesses" to Xiongnu chieftains and paying tribute to the Xiongnu in exchange for peace between both sides. As Nicola Di Cosmo summarizes the sequence of events, the Qin invasion of the Ordos Plateau (the area within the bend of the Yellow River ) came at the same time as a leadership crisis within the loose Xiongnu confederation. Modu took advantage of

1406-555: The Battle of Baideng . Gaozu's narrow escape from capture by the Xiongnu convinced him to make peace with his nomadic enemy. He sent a "princess" to the Chanyu ( heqin , marriage alliance) and offered him silk, wine, and food stuffs. The Chanyu accepted the offer and restricted himself to minor raids throughout the duration of Gaozu's reign. The Han dynasty sent random unrelated commoner women falsely labeled as "princesses" and members of

1480-666: The Chanyu and the Tuqi King of the east and west), Huyan, Xubu , Qiulin and Lan . Both the Huyan and Xubu settled in the east, Qiulin and Lan in the west and Luandi in modern-day central Mongolia . Around the first century BCE, a supreme administrative council dominated the upper Xiongnu hierarchy and this was composed of six top-ranking nobles, which included the "Rizhu kings" of the Left and Right. These titles were later transferred to

1554-678: The Donghu , expressed desire to occupy uninhabited land that lay between them, Modu reacted by attacking them. By 208 BCE, the Donghu had been defeated and their remnants split into the Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes. Modun went on to subdue the Dingling and other peoples to the north, and defeat the Yuezhi in 203 BCE. After these conquests, all Xiongnu lords submitted to him. With these victories, he

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1628-777: The Han call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi. A later Chinese annotation in Zhang Shoujie's Shiji (quoting Wan Zhen 萬震 in Nánzhōuzhì 南州志 ["Strange Things from the Southern Region"], a now-lost 3rd-century text from the Wu kingdom ), describes the Kushans as living in the same general area north of India, in cities of Greco-Roman style, and with sophisticated handicraft. The quotes are dubious, as Wan Zhen probably never visited

1702-686: The Jie people of Shanxi , who established the Later Zhao state of the 4th century AD (although this remains controversial). Many scholars believe that the Yuezhi were an Indo-European people. Although some scholars have associated them with artifacts of extinct cultures in the Tarim Basin, such as the Tarim mummies and texts recording the Tocharian languages , there is no evidence for any such link. Three pre-Han texts mention peoples who appear to be

1776-732: The Liao River , the western borders of the empire reached the Pamir Mountains , whilst the northern border reached Lake Baikal . Modu's raids into China resulted in the dynasty agreeing to pay an annual tribute alongside other goods such as silk, grain and rice. Modu was succeeded by his son Laoshang . His name is reconstructed as * mǝk-tuən in Later Han Chinese and mək-twən in Middle Chinese . The name's Old Chinese pronunciation might have represented

1850-575: The Mahayana sutras into Chinese. They went to China and established translation bureaus, thereby being at the center of the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism . In the Records of the Three Kingdoms (chap. 3), it was recorded that in 229 AD, "The king of the Da Yuezhi [Kushanas], Bodiao 波調 ( Vasudeva I ), sent his envoy to present tribute, and His Majesty (Emperor Cao Rui ) granted him

1924-587: The Old Chinese pronunciation of his name 冒頓 ( *mək-tuən), and his clan Dulo with the Xiongnu ruling house 屠各 Tuge (in Old Chinese d'o-klâk ). It has been suggested that his name, as Beztur, appears in the genealogy as the ancestor of Attila , in the Chronica Hungarorum of Johannes de Thurocz . Modu Chanyu is also known as Mete Khan (particularly, Mete Han in Turkish ) across

1998-534: The Oxus , in the region of northern Bactria , or Transoxiana (modern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan ). The Yuezhi were visited in Transoxiana by a Chinese mission, led by Zhang Qian in 126 BC, which sought an offensive alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu. His request for an alliance was denied by the Yuezhi, who now had a peaceful life in Transoxiana and had no interest in revenge. Zhang Qian, who spent

2072-548: The Paropamisade and western Gandhara . The Hindu Kush may have been subsumed by the Yuezhi, who by then had been dominated by Greco-Bactria for almost two centuries. As they had done in Bactria with their copying of Greco-Bactrian coinage, the Yuezhi copied the coinage of Hermeaus on a vast scale, up to around 40 AD, when the design blends into the coinage of the Kushan king Kujula Kadphises . Such coins may provide

2146-778: The Qilian Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau , to live with the Qiang . The so-called Greater or Great Yuezhi began migrating north-west in about 165 BC, first settling in the Ili valley , immediately north of the Tian Shan mountains, where they defeated the Sai (Sakas): "The Yuezhi attacked the king of the Sai who moved a considerable distance to the south and the Yuezhi then occupied his lands" ( Book of Han 61 4B). This

2220-681: The Sakas . They were driven from the Ili Valley by the Wusun and migrated southward to Sogdia and later settled in Bactria . The Greater Yuezhi have consequently often been identified with peoples mentioned in classical European sources as having overrun the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom , like the Tókharoi and Asii . During the 1st century BC, one of the five major Greater Yuezhi tribes in Bactria,

2294-693: The Tarim Basin . There they introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and Greco-Buddhist art , which developed into Serindian art . Following this territorial expansion, the Kushanas introduced Buddhism to northern and northeastern Asia, by both direct missionary efforts and the translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. Major Kushan missionaries and translators included Lokaksema (born c.  147 CE ) and Dharmaraksa ( c.  233  – c.  311 ), both of whom were influential translators of

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2368-604: The 1st and 2nd centuries, the Kushan Empire expanded militarily to the north and occupied parts of the Tarim Basin , putting them at the center of the lucrative Central Asian commerce with the Roman Empire . The Kushanas collaborated militarily with the Chinese against their mutual enemies. This included a campaign with the Chinese general Ban Chao against the Sogdians in 84 CE, when the latter were trying to support

2442-744: The 3rd century BC, Bactria had been conquered by the Greeks under Alexander the Great and since settled by the Hellenistic civilization of the Seleucids . The resulting Greco-Bactrian Kingdom lasted until the 2nd century BC. The area came under pressure from various nomadic peoples and the Greek city of Alexandria on the Oxus was apparently burnt to the ground in about 145 BC. The last Greco-Bactrian king, Heliocles I , retreated and moved his capital to

2516-418: The 7th year of the Modu era (203 BC). In this war, a large area of the territory originally belonging to the Yuezhi was seized by the Xiongnu and the hegemony of the Yuezhi started to shake. The third war probably was in 176 BC (or shortly before), and the Yuezhi were badly defeated. Shortly before 176 BC, led by one of Modu's tribal chiefs, the Xiongnu invaded Yuezhi territory in the Gansu region and achieved

2590-411: The Han imperial family multiple times when they were practicing heqin marriage alliances with the Xiongnu in order to avoid sending the emperor's daughters. After his Chinese campaign, Modu forced the Yuezhi and the Wusun to become vassals of the Xiongnu. In 195 BCE, Lu Wan King of Yan, fled to the Xiongnu after he was defeated by the Han general Zhou Bo . In 178 BCE, the Xiongnu overran

2664-421: The Huyan clan, which became influential due its close relationship with the royal family by way of marriage. Historical record also cited a Huyan tribe called Barkol, which attacked and demolished the Yiwu garrison of the Han dynasty in 151. This Asian history–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Modu Chanyu Modu (c. 234 – c. 174 BCE) was the son of Touman and

2738-406: The Kabul Valley. In about 140–130 BC, the Greco-Bactrian state was conquered by the nomads and dissolved. The Greek geographer Strabo mentions this event in his account of the central Asian tribes he called " Scythians ": All, or the greatest part of them, are nomads. The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks of Bactriana : the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who came from

2812-440: The Kushanas as the Yuezhi. The Kushanas expanded to the east during the 1st century AD. The first Kushan emperor, Kujula Kadphises , ostensibly associated himself with King Hermaeus on his coins. The Kushanas integrated Buddhism into a pantheon of many deities and became great promoters of Mahayana Buddhism , and their interactions with Greek civilization helped the Gandharan culture and Greco-Buddhism flourish. During

2886-407: The Later Han (5th century CE) also records the visit of Yuezhi envoys to the Chinese capital in 2 BC, who gave oral teachings on Buddhist sutras to a student, suggesting that some Yuezhi already followed the Buddhist faith during the 1st century BC (Baldev Kumar 1973). Chapter 88 of the Book of the Later Han relies on a report of Ban Yong , based on the campaigns of his father Ban Chao in

2960-450: The Mongolian plain, the upper reaches of the Yellow River , the Tarim Basin and possibly much of central Asia, including the Altai Mountains , the site of the Pazyryk burials of the Ukok Plateau . By the late 3rd century the Xiongnu monarch Touman even sent his eldest son Modu as a hostage to the Yuezhi. The Yuezhi often attacked their neighbour the Wusun to acquire slaves and pasture lands. Wusun originally lived together with

3034-658: The Xiongnu army was much more powerful than the Chinese. At Ji Bu's words, the court immediately fell into a fearful silence. Rethinking her plans, Lü Zhi rejected Modu's proposition humbly, as follows: Your Lordship does not forget our land and writes a letter to us, we fear. I retreat to preserve myself. I'm old and frail, I'm losing hair and teeth, and I struggle to maintain balance when I move. Your Lordship has heard wrongly, you shouldn't defile yourself. Our people did not offend you, and should be pardoned. We've two imperial carriages and eight fine steeds, which we graciously offer to Your Lordship. However she continued implementing

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3108-451: The Xiongnu militarization process that came in response to the Qin invasion, and ably created a newly centralized political structure that made possible his empire. He was aided by the rapid fall of Qin and the fact that the Han initially set up independent "kingdoms", whose leaders, like Xin, King of Han , were as likely to ally with Xiongnu and attack Han as the other way around. Han weakness meant that it supplied Modu and his successors with

3182-449: The Xiongnu. As their soldiers numbered more than a hundred thousand, they were strong and despised the Xiongnu. In the past, they lived in the region between Dunhuang and Qilian . The area between the Qilian Mountains and Dunhuang lies in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu , but no archaeological remains of the Yuezhi have yet been found in this area. Some scholars have argued that "Dunhuang" should be Dunhong ,

3256-486: The Yuezhi and Wusun in Gansu and the Tarim Basin . Modu died in 174 BCE and was succeeded by his son, Jiyu, who became Laoshang Chanyu . In 192 BC Empress Dowager Lü Zhi (widow of Emperor Gaozu of Han ) received a marriage proposal from Modu, who wrote as follows in a letter meant to intimidate and mock her: I'm a lonesome ruler born in marshes and raised in plains populated by livestock. I've visited your border numerous times and wanted to tour China. Your Majesty

3330-408: The Yuezhi in the region between Dunhuang and Qilian Mountain. The Yuezhi attacked the Wusuns, killed their monarch Nandoumi and took his territory. The son of Nandoumi, Kunmo fled to the Xiongnu and was brought up by the Xiongnu monarch. Gradually the Xiongnu grew stronger, and war broke out with the Yuezhi. There were at least four wars according to the Chinese accounts. The first war broke out during

3404-419: The Yuezhi kingdom through the Silk Road , though he might have gathered his information from the trading ports in the coastal south. Chinese sources continued to use the name Yuezhi and seldom used the Kushan (or Guishuang ) as a generic term: The Great Yuezhi are located about seven thousand li [2,910 km] north of India. Their land is at a high altitude; the climate is dry; the region is remote. The king of

3478-421: The Yuezhi, albeit under slightly different names. In the 1st century BC, Sima Qian – widely regarded as the founder of Chinese historiography – describes how the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) bought jade and highly valued military horses from a people that Sima Qian called the Wūzhī , led by a man named Luo. The Wūzhī traded these goods for Chinese silk , which they then sold on to other neighbours. This

3552-428: The carpets with vivid embroidered scenes discovered in Noin-Ula were made by the Yuezhi in Bactria , and were obtained by the Xiongnu through commercial exchange or tributary payment, as the Yuezhi may have remained tributaries of the Xiongnu for a long time following their defeat. Embroidered carpets were among the highest-prized luxury items for the Xiongnu. The figures depicted in the carpets are believed to reflect

3626-400: The clothing and customs of the Yuezhi while they were in Bactria in the 1st century BCE-1st century CE. The graves of Tillya Tepe , complete with numerous artifacts, dated to the period between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, probably belonged to the Yuezhis/early Kushans after the fall of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and before the rise of the Kushan Empire . They correspond to

3700-456: The conquerors of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom during the 2nd century BC, and are widely believed to have originated as a dynastic clan or tribe of the Yuezhi. The area of Bactria they settled came to be known as Tokharistan . Because some inhabitants of Bactria became known as Tukhāra (Sanskrit) or Tókharoi (Τοχάριοι; Greek), these names later became associated with the Yuezhi. The Kushana spoke Bactrian , an Eastern Iranian language . In

3774-411: The country on the other side of the Jaxartes [Syr Darya], opposite the Sacae and Sogdiani . Writing in the 1st century BC, the Roman historian Pompeius Trogus attributed the destruction of the Greco-Bactrian state to the Sacaraucae and the Asiani "kings of the Tochari". Both Pompeius and the Roman historian Justin (2nd century AD) record that the Parthian king Artabanus II was mortally wounded in

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3848-450: The direction of the sound in synchrony. To be sure of his men's loyalty, Modu commanded the warriors to shoot his favourite horse, any who refused to do so being summarily executed. He later repeated this test of loyalty, but with one of his favourite wives and once again executed those who hesitated to carry out his order. Only when he was convinced of the absolute loyalty of his remaining warriors did he order them to shoot his father during

3922-421: The earliest known names of Yuezhi yabgu (a minor royal title, similar to prince), namely Sapadbizes and/or Agesiles , who both lived in or about 20 BC. After that point, they extended their control over the northwestern area of the Indian subcontinent, founding the Kushan Empire , which was to rule the region for several centuries. Despite their change of name, most Chinese authors continued to refer to

3996-404: The edge of the Tibetan Plateau . Some are reported to have settled among the Qiang people in Qinghai , and to have been involved in the Liang Province Rebellion (184–221 AD) against the Eastern Han dynasty . Another group of Yuezhi is said to have founded the city state of Cumuḍa (now known as Kumul and Hami ) in the eastern Tarim. A fourth group of Lesser Yuezhi may have become part of

4070-412: The former, the direction and sequence of conquests, etc.), which was first noticed by Hyacinth (Compilation of reports, pp. 56–57). Another suggestion connects it with the name of the Magyar royal tribe of the Hungarians and with their distant relatives the Mators , now extinct. Modu has been linked with the name вихтунь mentioned in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian Khans , corresponding to

4144-433: The founder of the empire of the Xiongnu . He came to power by ordering his men to kill his father in 209 BCE. Modu ruled from 209 BCE to 174 BCE. He was a military leader under his father Touman and later Chanyu of the Xiongnu Empire, based on the Mongolian Plateau . He secured the throne and established a powerful Xiongnu Empire by successfully unifying the tribes of the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland in response to

4218-471: The hands of the Xiongnu in 176 BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups migrating in different directions: the Greater Yuezhi and Lesser Yuezhi . This started a complex domino effect that radiated in all directions and, in the process, set the course of history for much of Asia for centuries to come. The Greater Yuezhi initially migrated northwest into the Ili Valley (on the modern borders of China and Kazakhstan), where they reportedly displaced elements of

4292-416: The influence the Xiongnu had on his vassals, Gaozu marched north with a 320,000 strong army to confront them. However his men suffered from inadequate clothing to ward off the cold and a lack of supplies, so Gaozu left them behind and advanced to Pingcheng with only 40,000 men. Modu Chanyu saw his chance to turn the tide and immediately surrounded the city with only 40.000 cavalry, cutting the emperor off from

4366-448: The land and have cities and houses. Their customs are like those of Ta-Yuan. It has no great ruler but only a number of petty chiefs ruling the various cities. The people are poor in the use of arms and afraid of battle, but they are clever at commerce. After the Great Yuezhi moved west and attacked the lands, the entire country came under their sway. The population of the country is large, numbering some 1,000,000 or more persons. The capital

4440-421: The late 1st century AD. It reports that one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi, the Guishuang , had managed to take control of the tribal confederation: More than a hundred years later, the xihou of Guishuang, named Qiujiu Que attacked and exterminated the four other xihou . He set himself up as king of a kingdom called Guishuang (Kushan). He invaded Anxi ( Parthia ) and took the Gaofu region. He also defeated

4514-421: The latter of which, according to Pulleyblank (1999), "does not make sense" phonologically. According to Sima Qian , Modu was a gifted child but his father Touman wanted the son of another of his wives to succeed him. To eliminate Modu as a competitor to his chosen heir, Touman sent the young Modu to the Yuezhi as a hostage; then he attacked the Yuezhi in the hope that they would kill Modu as retribution. Modu

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4588-422: The loss of Xiongnu pasture lands to invading Qin forces commanded by Meng Tian in 215 BCE. While Modu rode and then furthered the wave of militarization and effectively centralized Xiongnu power, the Qin quickly fell into disarray with the death of the first emperor in 210 BCE, leaving Modu a free hand to expand his Xiongnu Empire into one of the largest of his time. The eastern border stretched as far as

4662-409: The name is Ròuzhī , based on the thesis that the character 月 in the name is a scribal error for 肉 ; however Thierry considers this thesis "thoroughly wrong". The account begins with the Yuezhi occupying the grasslands to the northwest of China at the beginning of the 2nd century BC: The Great Yuezhi was a nomadic horde. They moved about following their cattle, and had the same customs as those of

4736-618: The north by Kangju [beyond the middle Jaxartes /Syr Darya]. They are a nation of nomads , moving from place to place with their herds, and their customs are like those of the Xiongnu. They have some 100,000 or 200,000 archer warriors. In a sweeping analysis of the physical types and cultures of Central Asia, Zhang Qian reports: Although the states from Dayuan west to Anxi (Parthia), speak rather different languages, their customs are generally similar and their languages mutually intelligible. The men have deep-set eyes and profuse beards and whiskers. They are skilful at commerce and will haggle over

4810-473: The pronunciation of the foreign word *baɣtur , a relative of the later attested Central Eurasian culture word baɣatur "hero". According to Gerard Clauson , bağatur , transcribed by Chinese with -n for foreign -r , was by origin almost certainly a " Hunnic " (Xiongnu) proper name. His name was also read as MC mək-tuən ( 墨頓 ; following Sima Zhen 's commentary on Shiji ) and MC mək-duok ( 墨毒 ; following Song Qi 's commentary on Hanshu ),

4884-434: The reign of the Xiongnu monarch Touman (who died in 209 BC) who suddenly attacked the Yuezhi. The Yuezhi wanted to kill Modu, the son of the Xiongnu king Touman kept as a hostage to them, but Modu stole a good horse from them and managed to escape to his country. He subsequently killed his father and became ruler of the Xiongnu. It appears that the Xiongnu did not defeat the Yuezhi in this first war. The second war took place in

4958-426: The rest of his army. It's not clear why, but the Chanyu eventually withdrew some of his men. Sima Qian suggests his consort persuaded him to let the emperor escape. However a prolonged siege would have been impractical anyway since Xin's infantry never made it on time. Seeing the Chanyu's thinned lines, Gaozu sortied out and broke the siege. When Han reinforcements arrived, the Xiongnu withdrew. This came to be known as

5032-423: The same text appears in chapter 61 of the Book of Han , though Sima Qian has added occasional words and phrases to clarify the meaning. Both texts use the name Yuèzhī , composed of characters meaning "moon" and "clan" respectively. Several different romanizations of this Chinese-language name have appeared in print. The Iranologist H. W. Bailey preferred Üe-ṭşi . Another modern Chinese pronunciation of

5106-497: The state calls himself "son of heaven". There are so many riding horses in that country that the number often reaches several hundred thousand. City layouts and palaces are quite similar to those of Daqin [the Roman Empire]. The skin of the people there is reddish white. People are skilful at horse archery. Local products, rarities, treasures, clothing, and upholstery are very good, and even India cannot compare with it. The Central Asian people who called themselves Kushana , were among

5180-400: The whole of the kingdoms of Puda and Jibin. Qiujiu Que (Kujula Kadphises) was more than eighty years old when he died. His son, Yan Gaozhen ( Vima Takto ), became king in his place. He returned and defeated Tianzhu (Northwestern India) and installed a General to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang (Kushan) king, but

5254-417: Was "the first historically recorded movement of peoples originating in the high plateaus of Asia." In 132 BC the Wusun , in alliance with the Xiongnu and out of revenge from an earlier conflict, again managed to dislodge the Yuezhi from the Ili Valley, forcing them to move south-west. The Yuezhi passed through the neighbouring urban civilization of Dayuan (in Ferghana ) and settled on the northern bank of

5328-404: Was able to escape this fate by stealing a fast horse and returned to the Xiongnu, who welcomed him as a hero. As reward for this show of bravery, his father appointed him the commander of 10,000 horsemen. Due to his reputation for bravery, Modu began to gather a group of extremely loyal warriors. He invented a signaling arrow that made a whistling sound in flight and trained his men to shoot in

5402-486: Was able to gain control of the important trade routes, which later supplied the Xiongnu with a large income. In 200 BCE, Xin, King of Han , surrendered to the Xiongnu at Mayi, Shuofang , Dai Commandery , and joined them in raiding Han territory. Emperor Gaozu of Han led an army against them and scattered their forces, defeating them several times before they retreated. Later Xin set up Zhao Li as King of Zhao and marched south against Gaozu. They too were defeated. Seeing

5476-467: Was apparently exhausted by the time it reached its objective and was defeated by the Chinese force. The Kushanas retreated and later paid tribute to the Chinese emperor Han He (89–106). In about 120 AD, Kushan troops installed Chenpan—a prince who had been sent as a hostage to them and had become a favorite of the Kushan Emperor—on the throne of Kashgar , thus expanding their power and influence in

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