by John Man
Empire of
Horses
The First Nomadic Civilization
and the Making of China
JOHN MAN
CONTENTS
List of Chanyus
Timeline
Maps
Introduction: A New Broom Sweeps the Chinese Skies
Part I: RISE
1Mastering the Steppes
2Into Ordos
3The Growing Threat of a Unified China
4Meng Tian and the Straight Road
Part II: PEAK
5The First Empire of the Steppes
6The Grand Historian’s Hidden Agenda
7A Phoney Peace, a Phoney War
8The War, the Wall and the Way West
Part III: COLLAPSE
9Decline and Fall
10Princesses
for Peace
11The Shock of Surrender
12A Crisis, a Revival and the End of the Xiongnu
13From Xiongnu to Hun, Possibly
Epilogue: A Lasting Legacy
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Picture Acknowledgements
Index
LIST OF CHANYUS
MONGOLIAN TRANSLITERATION
ALTERNATIVE SPELLING
REIGN DATES
BC
Tumen
Touman
c.230–209
Modun
Modu
209–174
Jizhu
Laoshang
174–161 (or 160)
Gunchen
Junchen
161 (or 160)–126
Ichise
Yizhixie
126–114
Uvei
Wuwei
114–105
Ushylu
Wushilu
105–102
Guilihu
Xulihu
102–101
Chedihou
Quedihou
101–97
Hulugu
97–85
Huandi
Huyandi
85–68
Hyului-Juankui
Xuluquanqu
68–60
Yuan-Guidi
Woyanqudi
60–58
Dispute between Yuan-Guidi, 4 pretenders and …
Huhanye
Zhizhi
Zishi
58–31
56–36
Fujulei-Jodi
Fuzhulei-Ruodi
31–20
Seuxie-Jodi
Souxie-Ruodi
20–12
Guia-Jodi
Cheya-Ruodi
12–8
Ujiuli-Jodi
Wuzhuliu-Ruodi
8–AD 13
AD
Ulei-Jodi
Wulei-Ruodi
13–18
Hudurshi
Huduershi
18–46
Wudadi-Hou
Wudalihou
46
NORTHERN CHANYUS
Punu
46–48
Youliu
c.48–??
Youchujian
91–93
Feng-Hou
94–118
SOUTHERN CHANYUS
Bi (born Khailoshi)
48–56
20 others
56–216
XIA (XIONGNU STATE IN CHINA)
Helian Bobo
407–425
Helian Chang
425–428
Helian Ding
428–431
TIMELINE
CHINA
(DYNASTIES)
DATES
STEPPES
ELSEWHERE
(approximately)
BC
XIA (legendary)
2205–1600
Middle East: Early cultures in Egypt and Indus Valley.
Sub-Saharan Africa: Spread of farming and pastoralism.
SHANG
1600–1122 c.1500
Pastoral nomadism develops.
ZHOU:
WESTERN ZHOU
1122–770 c.800
(–AD 200)
Ordos bronzes.
South America: Cultivation of maize.
EASTERN ZHOU: SPRING & AUTUMN PERIOD
770–480 c.750–650
Arzhan 1 and 2.
Mounted archers appear.
Greece: Democracy (of a sort).
Italy: Foundation of Roman republic.
WARRING STATES
480–221
c.350
Pazyryk culture.
Ordos golden coronet.
Xiongnu in Ordos.
Inner Asia: Alexander the Great builds empire.
First written mention of Xiongnu.
244
c.230
Tumen becomes chanyu of Xiongnu.
QIN
Zheng reigns 246–, from 221 as First Emperor of unified China.
221–206
Italy: Hannibal’s march over the Alps starts Second Punic War with Rome.
214–210
Meng Tian drives Xiongnu out of Ordos, and builds Great Wall and Straight Road.
Peru: Nazca culture flourishes.
Death of First Emperor.
210
209
Modun becomes chanyu.
QIN collapses.
206
Mexico: Teotihuacán founded.
Civil War.
206–202
WESTERN HAN
202–AD 9
He-qin policy starts.
198
He-qin policy starts.
176
Xiongnu take Loulan.
India: Fall of Mauryan dynasty.
174
Death of Modun.
162
Xiongnu expel Yuezhi from Gansu. Yuezhi migrate to Ili Valley.
Persia: Persians conquer Seleucids.
North Africa: Rome destroys Carthage.
Emperor Wu
(141–87 BC)
140S
Many Xiongnu attacks.
Zhang Qian starts expedition to west.
138
133–2
Pushed by the Wusun, the Yuezhi start migration to Bactria.
Wu starts Han-Xiongnu wars.
127
Wu starts Han-Xiongnu wars.
Zhang Qian returns.
126
Peru: Foundation of Moche state.
Great Wall heads west.
119
Great Wall heads west.
Li Ling defeated.
99
Li Ling defeated.
Sima Qian’s Shi Ji (Records of the Grand Historian) finished(?).
94
Northern Europe: Julius Caesar takes Gaul and invades Britain.
54
Xiongnu split between Huhanye and Zhizhi; Huhanye turns to Han China.
Huhanye visits
51
Huhanye visits Chang’an.
Chang’an
44
Zhizhi flees west.
36
Zhizhi killed at Talas.
Italy: Augustus becomes first Roman emperor.
AD
XIN
9–23
Possible start of élite graves (terrace tombs) by Xiongnu aristocracy.
Southern Africa: Arrival of nomadic pastoralists.
EASTERN HAN
25–220
American North-West: Hunter-gatherers form complex societies.
Middle East: Rise of Christianity.
48
Xiongnu split into northern and southern sections.
Southerners move into China.
87
Xianbei invade northern
Xiongnu.
89
Northern Xiongnu defeated by Han at Battle of Mount Yanran.
Mediterranean: Roman Empire reaches greatest size.
155
Northern Xiongnu fall to Xianbei, and many migrate westwards.
South-East Asia: Foundation of Champa empire.
THREE KINGDOMS
220–280
Disunion (six dynasties, including
265–581
Rome: Constantine adopts Christianity.
ZHAO dynasty set up by southern Xiongnu in north China (304–329).
376
Huns appear in west. Battle of Adrianople.
Peru: Rise of Tiahuanaco.
Italy: Visigoths seize Rome.
Southern Xiongnu chanyu Helian Bobo builds Tong Wan Cheng, capital of Da Xia (407–431)·
413–419
Introduction
A NEW BROOM SWEEPS THE CHINESE SKIES
IN THE SPRING OF 240 BC, ASTRONOMERS EMPLOYED BY THE nineteen-year-old King Zheng of Qin, deep in the heartland of modern China, reported the appearance of a comet. It was in fact the comet now named after Edmond Halley, the British astronomer who in the early eighteenth century discovered that it returned every seventy-six years. To Zheng’s astronomers this comet, like all comets, was a heaven-sent omen of change – possibly good, possibly disastrous. Comets were commonly called ‘broom stars’, because, wrote a sixth-century Chinese historian, ‘the tail resembles a broom … Brooms govern the sweeping away of old things and the assimilation of new ones.’1
As in the heavens above, so in the earth below: King Zheng, ruling with the Mandate of Heaven, was already something of a comet himself, the newest of brooms. In the course of five centuries of incessant warfare, states, mini-states and city-states had whittled themselves down to seven. Among them, Qin (pronounced ‘Chin’) was the hardest of the hard, with an army honed for conquest. Being the first among equals was not enough for Zheng. He wanted to be the one-and-only ruler. It took nine years of war. In 221 BC, Qin emerged as the core of today’s China, with Zheng as its First Emperor, ruling in this world and (he assumed) the next, as tourists by the million can see when they admire his spirit warriors, the Terracotta Army.
But the Great Comet of nineteen years earlier foreshadowed more than just change. Disaster also loomed, from beyond the borders of Zheng’s new empire. To the north, in the vast grasslands and semi-deserts of Inner Asia, were tribes with a very different lifestyle: no cities, no farms, an endless supply of horses, and fearsome skills with bows and arrows. For centuries, they had been little more than gangs, making pinprick raids on the Chinese heartland. But now they suddenly became a real danger.
Though famous in China and Mongolia, few westerners know about this people. To Mongolians, they are Hunnu or simply Huns. The Chinese for Hun is Xiongnu, pronounced ‘Shiung-noo’. Because Chinese written sources dominate the history of this relationship, that’s how they are generally known today, though mainly to specialists.
They deserve better. They lacked many elements that are in theory essential to statehood, yet they forged the first nomadic empire – the third greatest land empire in history before the rise of modern super-states (the first and second being the Mongol empire and the medieval Muslim empire). They are the reason China reaches so far westward. They inspired one of the world’s best-known monuments, the Great Wall. They were remarkably successful, lasting some three hundred years, making them the most enduring of the many successive nomadic empires. And they are possibly the ancestors of the tribe that under Attila helped destroy the Roman empire in the fifth century AD.
Finally, their emergence is evidence that opposition – in this case from China – inspires divided peoples to unify. Until recently, the explanation for the rise of the Xiongnu was based on Chinese xenophobia – that the nomads were dreadful people, the antithesis of everything civilized; that the violence was all on their side; and that China, the fount of civilization in Asia, was the innocent victim of their predatory habits. Today, many academics claim the opposite. They argue that the rise of the Xiongnu backs a great historical ‘truth’, an equivalent of Newton’s Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Let world historians argue about how generally true this may or may not be, but it seems to explain what happened around 200 BC, when Chinese force begot a counter-force on the grasslands of Inner Asia. Or, in human terms, a powerful charismatic leader on one side inspired a leader of similar qualities on the other. In this view, it was the First Emperor, China’s unifier, who started the confrontation. His empire-building acted like a hammer on heated iron fragments, forging the nomads together for the first time. For over three centuries, the two remained in a precarious and violent balance, despite the vast 40:1 difference in population, until China proved there was no law after all, by using overwhelming force to shatter and scatter the Xiongnu.
But their way of life remained. Over the next 2,000 years, it underpinned another seventeen nomadic and semi-nomadic ‘polities’ – chiefdoms, super-chiefdoms, kingdoms, empires – with an average duration of 157 years.2 The greatest was the Mongol empire (1206–1368), which at its height ruled all China and most of Inner Asia. Its founder, Genghis Khan, saw himself as the heir to a tradition of imperial nomadism reaching back over a thousand years to the Xiongnu. Mongolians today claim them as ancestors, with both cultural and genetic links.
This is the story of the Xiongnu: how they arose, how they affected history, how they vanished, how we know about them, and how archaeology is adding another dimension of understanding to the written sources.
1 Fang Xuan-Ling, Jin Shu (History of the Jin Dynasty AD 265–419), quoted in Joseph Needham et al., ‘“Spiked” Comets in Ancient China’, The Observatory, Vol. 77 (1957).
2 Claudio Cioffi-Revilla et al., ‘Computing the Steppes’, in Ursula Brosseder and Bryan K. Miller (eds), Xiongnu Archaeology (see Bibliography).
I
RISE
1
MASTERING THE STEPPES
IN THE SPRING OF 1913, A RUSSIAN GEOLOGIST NAMED Andrei Ballod, working for a newly established gold-mining company, was surveying among the pine-covered hills of northern Mongolia. He came across mounds that had been dug up some time in the past. Thinking these were old gold-workings, he organized a team to excavate one of them. Almost four metres down, his diggers hit a covering of wood and reeds. Underneath, they found an open space and a puzzling collection of objects – a jug, an axle-cap from a wagon wheel, bits of horse-harnesses, and some strangely shaped pieces of gold and bronze. Ballod realized this was a burial mound. The finds were obviously important, so he sent some of them to the Imperial Russian Geographical Society’s East Siberian branch in Irkutsk, with a covering letter headed ‘The Ancient Tombs of Unknown People’. The Russian scientists were as puzzled as Ballod, but there was nothing to be done, given the imminent chaos of the First World War and revolutions in both Russia and Mongolia.
Ballod died. His finds remained in limbo for eleven years.
Then, early in 1924, the famous Russian explorer Petr Kozlov arrived in what is today Ulaanbaatar on his way to Tibet. A member of Ballod’s team mentioned the finds to Kozlov, who despatched a colleague, Sergei Kondratiev, to check out the site. It was March and the ground frozen, but Kondratiev’s workers hacked further into Ballod’s mound and found a timber-lined shaft. Realizing this was a major discovery, Kozlov changed his plans – lucky for him, because he had been recalled to face charges of ‘anti-Bolshevik leanings’, which might have meant a death sentence. It turned out that Noyon Uul (Royal Hills) as it is now named was one huge burial site, covering almost 20 square kilometres, with 212 tumuli. A few test shafts revealed that the graves had been robbed, and had then become waterlogged and deep-frozen – which was fortunate, because everything the robbers had not taken had been deep-frozen as well.
Kozlov’s team excavated eight mounds. Under coverings of rock and earth, they found sloping approaches to 2-metre-hi
gh rooms made of pine logs, carpeted with embroidered wool or felt. Inside each was a tomb of pine logs, and inside that a silk-lined coffin of larch. The construction of the rooms was superb, with silk-covered wooden beams neatly inlaid into side walls and supports set in well-made footings.