Greater 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 the hands of the Xiongnu in 176 BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups migrating in different directions: the Greater Yuezhi (''Dà Yuèzhī'' 大月氏) and Lesser Yuezhi (''Xiǎo Yuèzhī'' 小月氏). 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 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 '' Tókharioi'' (Greek ''Τοχάριοι''; Sanskrit ''Tukhāra'') and ''Asii'' (or ''Asioi''). During the 1st century BC, one of the five major Greater Yuezhi tribes in Bactria, 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 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 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. " must identify them ocharianswith the Yueh-chih of the Chinese sources... nsensus of scholarly opinion identifies the Yueh-chih with the Tokharians... e Indo-European ethnic origin of the Yuehchih = Tokharians is generally accepted... Yueh-chih = Tokharian people... Yueh-chih = Tokharians..."
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, the evidence for any such link is purely circumstantial.

Earliest references in Chinese texts

Three pre-Han texts mention peoples who appear to be the Yuezhi, albeit under slightly different names.
* The philosophical tract '' Guanzi'' (73, 78, 80 and 81) mentions nomadic pastoralists known as the ''Yúzhī'' 禺氏 (Old Chinese: *ŋʷjo-kje) or ''Niúzhī'' 牛氏 ( OC: *ŋʷjə-kje), who supplied jade to the Chinese. (The ''Guanzi'' is now generally believed to have been compiled around 26 BC, based on older texts, including some from the Qi state era of the 11th to 3rd centuries BC. Most scholars no longer attribute its primary authorship to Guan Zhong, a Qi official in the 7th century BC.) The export of jade from the Tarim Basin, since at least the late 2nd millennium BC, is well-documented archaeologically. For example, hundreds of jade pieces found in the Tomb of Fu Hao (c. 1200 BC) originated from the Khotan area, on the southern rim of the Tarim Basin. According to the ''Guanzi'', the Yúzhī/Niúzhī, unlike the neighbouring Xiongnu, did not engage in conflict with nearby Chinese states.
* The epic novel ''Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven'' (early 4th century BC) also mentions a plain of ''Yúzhī'' 禺知 (OC: *ŋʷjo-kje) to the northwest of the Zhou lands.
* Chapter 59 of the ''Yi Zhou Shu'' (probably dating from the 4th to 1st century BC) refers to a ''Yúzhī'' 禺氏 (OC: *ŋʷjo-kje) people living to the northwest of the Zhou domain and offering horses as tribute. A late supplement contains the name ''Yuèdī'' 月氐 (OC: *ŋʷjat-tij), which may be a misspelling of the name ''Yuèzhī'' 月氏 (OC: *ŋʷjat-kje) found in later texts.

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'' 烏氏 (OC: *ʔa-kje), led by a man named Luo. The ''Wūzhī'' traded these goods for Chinese silk, which they then sold on to other neighbours. This 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.

Nomadic artifacts in Gansu and Ningxia (5th-4th century BC)

Numerous nomadic artifacts are attributed to the areas of southern Ningxia and southeastern Gansu during the period of the 5th-4th century BC. They are quite similar to the works of the nomadic Ordos culture further east, and reflect strong Scythian influences. Some of these artifacts were sinicized by the neighbouring Qin state in China, probably also for nomadic consumption. Nomadic figures with long noses riding on a camel also appear regularly in southern Ningxia from the 4th century BC.

File:MET 2002 201 83 O1.jpg, Nomadic figure, typically with a long nose, on a Bactrian camel. Southern Ningxia, 4th century BC.
File:狼紋青銅車馬飾-Harness Ornament in the Shape of a Coiled Wolf MET 2002 201 61.jpg, Harness ornament in the shape of a coiled wolf, characteristic of nomadic artifacts of southern Ningxia and southeastern Gansu, 5th-4th century BC.
File:狼紋青銅帶飾-Belt Plaque in the Shape of a Standing Wolf MET DT5398.jpg, Belt plaque in the shape of a standing wolf, characteristic of nomadic artifacts of southern Ningxia and southeastern Gansu, and related to the Scythian styles of Pazyryk. 4th century BC.

Etymology

Hakan Aydemir, assistant professor at Istanbul Medeniyet University, reconstructs the ethnonym *''Arki'' ~ *''Yarki'' which underlay Chinese transcriptions 月氏 (Old Chinese *''ŋwat-tēɦ'' ~'' ��at-tēɦ'') and 月支 (Later Han Chinese *''ŋyat-tśe'') as well as various other foreign transcriptions and Tocharian A ethnonym ''Ārśi''. Aydemir suggests that *''Arki'' ~ *''Yarki'' is etymologically Indo-European. "based on various toponymic evidence, *''Arki'' and *''Yarki'' seem to be the oldest reconstructable forms. However, it is for the time being not quite clear which one is the primary form. In order to know this, we first need to know the etymology of the name. Without doing so, it would be difficult to determine the primary form. This, however, must be left to the specialists in Indo-European linguistics."

Account of Zhang Qian

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 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'' 月氏 (OC: *ŋʷjat-kje), 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''.H. W. Bailey, ''Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts'' (vol. 7). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 6–7, 16, 101, 116, 121, 133. Another modern Chinese pronunciation of the name is ''Ròuzhī'', based on the thesis that the character in the name is a scribal error for ; however Thierry considers this thesis "thoroughly wrong".

Yuezhi and Xiongnu

The account begins with the Yuezhi occupying the grasslands to the northwest of China at the beginning of the 2nd century BC:

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, 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 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 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 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 the 7th year of Modu era (203 BC). From 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 at 176 BC (or shortly earlier) 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 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 a drinking cup out of his skull." (''Shiji'' 123.)

Nevertheless, in about 173 BC, the Wusun were apparently defeated by the Yuezhi, who killed a Wusun king (''kunmi'' or ''kunmo'' ) known as Nandoumi ().

Exodus of the Great Yuezhi

After their defeat by the Xiongnu, the Yuezhi split into two groups. The Lesser or Little Yuezhi (''Xiao Yuezhi'') moved to the "southern mountains", believed to be the Qilian Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, to live with the Qiang.

The so-called Greater or Great Yuezhi (''Dà Yuèzhī'', 大月氏) 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 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

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