Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 ...

Wusun The Wusun (; Eastern Han Chinese *''ʔɑ-suən'' <

Old Chinese

(140 BCE < 436 BCE): *''Ɂâ-sûn'') were an ancient semi-

and migrated southward to

Sogdia Sogdia (Sogdian language, Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also ...

and later settled in

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

. The Greater Yuezhi have consequently often been identified with peoples mentioned in classical European sources as having overrun the

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Hellenistic Greece, Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Helleni ...

, 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 The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

, at its peak in the 3rd century AD, stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin in the north to Pataliputra on the

Gangetic plain The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain encompassing northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, including most of northern and eastern India, around half of Pakistan, virtually all of Bangla ...

of India in the south. The Kushanas played an important role in the development of trade on the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

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 The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

. Another group of Yuezhi is said to have founded the city state of

Cumuḍa Hami (Kumul) is a prefecture-level city in Eastern Xinjiang, China. It is well known as the home of sweet Hami melons. In early 2016, the former Hami county-level city was merged with Hami Prefecture to form the Hami prefecture-level city with t ...

(now known as ''Kumul'' and Hami) in the eastern Tarim. A fourth group of Lesser Yuezhi may have become part of the

Jie people Jie or JIE may refer to: * Jie of Xia, last ruler of the Xia Dynasty of China * Jie Zhitui or Zitui (7th centuryBC), a famed minister of Zhou China * Jie (ethnic group), tribe in the Xiongnu Confederation in the 4th and 5th centuries * Jie (Uganda ...

of

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

, who established the

Later Zhao The Later Zhao (; 319–351) was a dynasty of the Sixteen Kingdoms in northern China. It was founded by the Shi family of the Jie ethnicity. The Jie were most likely a Yeniseian people and spoke next to Chinese one of the Yeniseian languages.Vov ...

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 The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BC to the first centuries BC, with a new group of individuals recently dated to between c. 2100 and 1700 BC.School of Li ...

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 Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...

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 The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 ...

, did not engage in conflict with nearby Chinese states. * The epic novel ''

Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven The ''Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven'' ()Literally "Mu(,) Heaven('s) Son('s) Tale". "Son of Heaven" is a designation for a sovereign of China, and the word used for tale is often a biography or history. is a fantasy version of the travels of King ...

'' (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 Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

– widely regarded as the founder of

Chinese historiography Chinese historiography is the study of the techniques and sources used by historians to develop the recorded history of China. Overview of Chinese history The recording of events in Chinese history dates back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 ...

– 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 The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

, 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 Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

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

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

n 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 Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

, 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 Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

, and related to the Scythian styles of

Pazyryk Pazyryk may refer to: *Pazyryk Valley, a valley of Ukok Plateau, Siberia *The Iron Age Pazyryk burials found there *The wider Pazyryk culture The Pazyryk culture (russian: Пазырыкская культура ''Pazyrykskaya'' kul'tura) is ...

. 4th century BC.

Etymology

Hakan Aydemir, assistant professor at

Istanbul Medeniyet University Istanbul Medeniyet University ( tr, İstanbul Medeniyet Üniversitesi) is a public university in Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (Europea ...

, 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 ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

'' by

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

, 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 Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

name have appeared in print. The Iranologist

H. W. Bailey Sir Harold Walter Bailey, (16 December 1899 – 11 January 1996), who published as H. W. Bailey, was an English scholar of Khotanese, Sanskrit, and the comparative study of Iranian languages. Life Bailey was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, and ra ...

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 Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

lies in the western part of the modern Chinese province of

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

, 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 Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...

, the site of the Pazyryk burials of the Ukok Plateau. By the late 3rd century the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 ...

monarch Touman even sent his eldest son

Modu Modu was an Israeli mobile phone company founded in 2007 by Dov Moran. The company invented the Modu, a modular cellular device which could be used in various other devices. Modu held the record for the world's lightest mobile phone, and it was ...

as a hostage to the Yuezhi. The Yuezhi often attacked their neighbour the

Wusun The Wusun (; Eastern Han Chinese *''ʔɑ-suən'' <

Old Chinese

(140 BCE < 436 BCE): *''Ɂâ-sûn'') were an ancient semi-

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. Noin-Ula carpet

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 Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

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 The Wusun (; Eastern Han Chinese *''ʔɑ-suən'' <

Old Chinese

(140 BCE < 436 BCE): *''Ɂâ-sûn'') were an ancient semi-

, 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 Fergana ( uz, Fargʻona/Фарғона, ), or Ferghana, is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 420 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km west of Andijan, and less than 20 km fr ...

) and settled on the northern bank of the Oxus, in the region of northern

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

, or Transoxiana (modern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).

Visit of Zhang Qian

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. Zhang Qian, who spent a year in Transoxiana and

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

, wrote a detailed account in the ''Shiji'', which gives considerable insight into the situation in Central Asia at the time. The request for an alliance was denied by the son of the slain Yuezhi king, who preferred to maintain peace in Transoxiana rather than seek revenge. Zhang Qian also reported: In a sweeping analysis of the physical types and cultures of Central Asia, Zhang Qian reports: Amudaryamap

Zhang Qian also described the remnants of the

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Hellenistic Greece, Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Helleni ...

on the other side of the

Oxus River The Amu Darya, tk, Amyderýa/ uz, Amudaryo// tg, Амударё, Amudaryo ps, , tr, Ceyhun / Amu Derya grc, Ὦξος, Ôxos (also called the Amu, Amo River and historically known by its Latin name or Greek ) is a major river in Central Asi ...

(Chinese ''Gui'') as a number of autonomous city-states under Yuezhi suzerainty:

Later Chinese accounts

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'' (Ch:翖侯, "Allied Prince"). These tribes were known to the Chinese as: * ''Xiūmì'' (休密) in Western

Wakhān Wakhan, or "the Wakhan" (also spelt Vakhan; Persian and ps, واخان, ''Vâxân'' and ''Wāxān'' respectively; tg, Вахон, ''Vaxon''), is a rugged, mountainous part of the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Karakoram regions of Afghanistan. Wakha ...

and

Zibak Zebak ( fa, زيباك or زیباک) (also Zibak or Zebok) is the capital of the Zebak District in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. The city is based in the delta of the Sanglich river. It lies at the foot of the Daliz Pass on one of th ...

; * ''Guìshuāng'' (貴霜) in Badakhshan and adjoining territories north of the Oxus; * ''Shuāngmí'' (雙靡) in the region of Shughnan or

Chitral Chitral ( khw, , lit=field, translit=ćhitrār; ur, , translit=ćitrāl) is situated on the Chitral River in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It serves as the capital of the Chitral District and before that as the capital of Chitral ...

. * ''Xīdùn'' (肸頓) in the region of

Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...

, and; * ''Dūmì'' (都密) in the region of Termez. The ''

Book of the Later Han The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...

'' (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 The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...

'' relies on a report of Ban Yong, based on the campaigns of his father

Ban Chao Ban Chao (; 32–102 CE), courtesy name Zhongsheng, was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military general of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in Fufeng, now Xianyang, Shaanxi. Three of his family members—father Ban Biao, elder brother ...

in 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: 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 the Yuezhi kingdom through the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

, though he might have gathered his information from the trading ports in the coastal south.Yu Taishan (2nd Edition 2003). ''A Comprehensive History of Western Regions''. Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Guji Press. Chinese sources continued to use the name Yuezhi and seldom used the Kushan (or ''Guishuang'') as a generic term:

Kushana

The Central Asian people who called themselves ''Kushana'', w were among the conquerors of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom during the 2nd century BC, and re 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 Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...

. 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.

Bactria

In 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 The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Hellenistic Greece, Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Helleni ...

lasted until the 2nd century BC. The area came under pressure from various nomadic peoples and the Greek city of

Alexandria on the Oxus Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

was apparently burnt to the ground in about 145 BC. The last Greco-Bactrian king, Heliocles I, retreated and moved his capital to the Kabul Valley. In about 140–130 BC, the Greco-Bactrian state was conquered by the nomads and dissolved. The Greek geographer

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

mentions this event in his account of the central Asian tribes he called " Scythians": 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 Artabanus II (also spelled Artabanos II or Ardawan II; xpr, 𐭍𐭐𐭕𐭓 ''Ardawān''), incorrectly known in older scholarship as Artabanus III, was King of Kings of the Parthian Empire from 12 to 38/41 AD, with a one-year interruption. He wa ...

was mortally wounded in 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 Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in the ...

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.

Noin-Ula carpets

According to Sergey Yatsenko, the carpets with vivid embroidered scenes discovered in

Noin-Ula The Noin-Ula burial site ( mn, Ноён уулын булш, , also Noyon Uul) consist of more than 200 large burial mounds, approximately square in plan, some 2 m in height, covering timber burial chambers. They are located by the Selenga River ...

were made by the Yuezhi in

Bactria Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...

, and were obtained by the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 ...

through commercial exchange or tributary payment, as the Yuezhi may have remained tributaries of the Xiongnu a long time following their defeat. Embroidered carpets were one of the highest prized luxury items for the Xiongnu. The figures depicted in the carpets are believed to reflect the clothing and customs of the Yuezhi while they were in Bactria in the 1st century BCE-1st century CE.

Tillya Tepe

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 The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Hellenistic Greece, Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Helleni ...

and before the rise of the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

. They correspond to a time when the Yuezhis had not yet encountered Buddhism.

In the Hindu Kush

The area of the Hindu Kush ( Paropamisadae) was ruled by the western Indo-Greek king until the reign of

Hermaeus Hermaeus Soter or Hermaios Soter ( grc, Ἑρμαῖος ὁ Σωτήρ; epithet means "the Saviour") was a Western Indo-Greek king of the Eucratid Dynasty, who ruled the territory of Paropamisade in the Hindu-Kush region, with his capital in Alex ...

(reigned c. 90 BC–70 BC). After that date, no Indo-Greek kings are known in the area. According to

Bopearachchi Osmund Bopearachchi (born 1949) is a Sri Lankan historian and numismatist who has specialized notably standardized the coinage of the Indo-Greek and Greco-Bactrian kingdoms. He is currently Emeritus Director of the CNRS at the École Normale Supé ...

, no trace of Indo-Scythian occupation (nor coins of major Indo-Scythian rulers such as Maues or Azes I) have been found in the

Paropamisade Paropamisadae or Parapamisadae (Greek: Παροπαμισάδαι) was a satrapy of the Alexandrian Empire in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan, which largely coincided with the Achaemenid province of Parupraesanna. It consisted of the districts ...

and western

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

. The Hindu Kush may have been subsumed by the Yuezhi, who by then had been dominated by

Greco-Bactria The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic-era Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world in Central Asia and the India ...

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 The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

king Kujula Kadphises. Such coins may provide 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.

Kushan Empire

After that point, they extended their control over the northwestern area of the Indian subcontinent, founding the

Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...

, which was to rule the region for several centuries. Despite their change of name, most Chinese authors continued to refer to 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 ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...

, and their interactions with Greek civilization helped the

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

n culture and Greco-Buddhism flourish. During 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 Ban Chao (; 32–102 CE), courtesy name Zhongsheng, was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military general of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in Fufeng, now Xianyang, Shaanxi. Three of his family members—father Ban Biao, elder brother ...

against the Sogdians in 84 CE, when the latter were trying to support a revolt by the king of

Kashgar Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan ...

. In around AD 85, the Kushanas also assisted the Chinese in an attack on Turpan, east of the Tarim Basin. YuezhiKingAndAttendants

Following the military support provided to the Han, the Kushan emperor requested a marriage alliance with a

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

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 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 Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan ...

, thus expanding their power and influence in the Tarim Basin. There they introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and

Greco-Buddhist art The Greco-Buddhist art or Gandhara art of the north Indian subcontinent is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between Ancient Greek art and Buddhism. It had mainly evolved in the ancient region of Gandhara. The s ...

, which developed into Serindian art. Buddha triad monk layman Guimet MG21157

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 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 Buddhism entered Han China via the Silk Road, beginning in the 1st or 2nd century CE. The first documented translation efforts by Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE via the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory bordering the ...

. In the ''

Records of the Three Kingdoms The ''Records or History of the Three Kingdoms'', also known by its Chinese name as the Sanguo Zhi, is a Chinese historical text which covers the history of the late Eastern Han dynasty (c. 184–220 AD) and the Three Kingdoms period (220– ...

'' (chap. 3), it was recorded that in 229 AD, "The king of the Da Yuezhi

ushanas Shukra (Sanskrit: शुक्र, IAST: ) is a Sanskrit word that means "clear" or "bright". It also has other meanings, such as the name of an ancient lineage of sages who counselled Asuras in Vedic history. In medieval mythology and Hindu as ...

Bodiao 波調 ( Vasudeva I), sent his envoy to present tribute, and His Majesty (Emperor Cao Rui) granted him the title of King of the Da Yuezhi Intimate with the

Wei Wei or WEI may refer to: States * Wey (state) (衛, 1040–209 BC), Wei in pinyin, but spelled Wey to distinguish from the bigger Wei of the Warring States * Wei (state) (魏, 403–225 BC), one of the seven major states of the Warring States per ...

(Ch: 親魏大月氏王, ''Qīn Wèi Dà Yuèzhī Wáng'')." Soon afterwards, the military power of the Kushanas began to decline. The rival

Sasanian Empire The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

of Persia extended its dominion into Bactria during the reign of

Ardashir I Ardashir I (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭥𐭲𐭧𐭱𐭲𐭥, Modern Persian: , '), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new emp ...

around 230 CE. The Sasanians also occupied neighboring

Sogdia Sogdia (Sogdian language, Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also ...

by 260 AD and made it into a

satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...

y. During the course of the 3rd and 4th centuries, the Kushan Empire was divided and conquered by the Sasanians, the

Hephthalite The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...

tribes from the north, and the

Gupta Gupta () is a common surname or last name of Indian origin. It is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means 'guardian' or 'protector'. According to historian R. C. Majumdar, the surname ''Gupta'' was adopted by se ...

and Yaudheya empires from India.

Later references to the Lesser Yuezhi

''Xiao Yuezhi'' refers to the less militarized Yuezhi who settled in northern China (following the migration of the Greater Yuezhi). The term is used of peoples in locations as diverse as Tibet, Qinghai,

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

and the Tarim Basin. Some of the Lesser Yuezhi settled among the Qiang people of

Huangzhong Huangzhong District () is a district of Xining, Qinghai Province, China. It is located about east of Qinghai Lake and about southwest of downtown Xining. In 2020 the district had a population of 463,900, of which 153,000 belonging to minorities. ...

, Qinghai, according to archaeologist Sophia-Katrin Psarras. Yuezhi and Qiang were said to be among members of the Auxiliary of Loyal Barbarians From Huangzhong that mutinied against the Han dynasty, in the Liangzhou Rebellion (184–221 CE). Elements of the Lesser Yuezhi are said to have been a component of the

Jie people Jie or JIE may refer to: * Jie of Xia, last ruler of the Xia Dynasty of China * Jie Zhitui or Zitui (7th centuryBC), a famed minister of Zhou China * Jie (ethnic group), tribe in the Xiongnu Confederation in the 4th and 5th centuries * Jie (Uganda ...

, who originated from

Yushe County Yushe County () is a county in the east of Shanxi province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Jinzhong. Cao Shui Cao Shui () born June 5, 1982, also known as Shawn Cao, courtesy name Yaou (Eurasian), pseudonym ...

in Shanxi. Other theories link the Jie more strongly to the Xiongnu, Kangju, or the Tocharian-speaking peoples of the Tarim. Led by Shi Le (Emperor Ming of Later Zhao), the Jie people established the Later Zhao dynasty (319–351). The Jie populations were later massacred by Ran Min of the short-lived Ran Wei dynasty during the Wei–Jie war. In Tibet, the ''Gar'' or ''mGar'' – a clan name associated with

blacksmiths A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grill ...

- may have been descended from tbe Lesser Yuezhi who resettled in Qiang in 162 BC. A Chinese monk named Gao Juhui, who traveled to the Tarim Basin in the 10th century, described the ''Zhongyun'' (仲雲; Wade–Giles ''Tchong-yun'') as descendants of the Lesser Yuezhi. This was the city state of

Cumuḍa Hami (Kumul) is a prefecture-level city in Eastern Xinjiang, China. It is well known as the home of sweet Hami melons. In early 2016, the former Hami county-level city was merged with Hami Prefecture to form the Hami prefecture-level city with t ...

(also ''Cimuda'' or ''Cunuda''), south of

Lop Nur Lop Nur or Lop Nor (from a Mongolian name meaning "Lop Lake", where "Lop" is a toponym of unknown origin) is a former salt lake, now largely dried up, located in the eastern fringe of the Tarim Basin, between the Taklamakan and Kumtag deserts ...

in the eastern Tarim. (Following the subsequent settlement of Uyghur-speaking people in the area, Cumuḍa became known as ''Čungul'', ''Xungul'' and ''Kumul''. Under subsequent Han Chinese influence, it became known as Hami.) Whatever their fate may have been, the ''Xiao Yuezhi'' ceased to be identifiable by that name and appear to have been subsumed by other ethnicities, including Tibetans, Uyghurs and

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

.

Proposed links to other groups

The relationship between the Yuezhi and other Central Asian peoples is unclear. Based on claimed similarities of names, different scholars have linked them to several groups, but none of these identifications is widely accepted. Mallory and Mair suggest that the Yuezhi and Wusun were among the nomadic peoples, at least some of whom spoke Iranian languages, who moved into northern Xinjiang from the Central Asian steppe in the 2nd millennium BC. Scholars such as Edwin Pulleyblank,

Josef Markwart Josef Markwart (originally spelled Josef Marquart: December 9, 1864 in Reichenbach am Heuberg – February 4, 1930 in Berlin) was a German historian and orientalist. He specialized in Turkish and Iranian Studies and the history of the Middle ...

, and

László Torday László () is a Hungarian male given name and surname after the King-Knight Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary (1077–1095). It derives from Ladislav, a variant of Vladislav. Other versions are Lessl or Laszly. The name has a history of being freque ...

, suggest that the name '' Iatioi''—a Central Asian people mentioned by Ptolemy in '' Geography'' (AD 150)—may also be an attempt to render Yuezhi. There has been only limited scholarly support for a theory developed by

W. B. Henning Walter Bruno Henning (August 26, 1908 – January 8, 1967) was a German scholar of Middle Iranian languages and literature, especially of the corpus discovered by the Turpan expeditions of the early 20th century. __TOC__ Biography Walter Henning ...

, who proposed that the Yuezhi were descended from the

Guti José María Gutiérrez Hernández (born 31 October 1976), known as Guti, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, currently a manager. During his career, he played almost exclusively for Real Madrid ...

(or Gutians) and an associated, but little known tribe known as the Tukri, who were native to the Zagros Mountains (modern Iran and Iraq), during the mid-3rd millennium BC. In addition to phonological similarities between these names and ''*ŋʷjat-kje'' and Tukhāra, Henning pointed out that the Guti could have migrated from the Zagros to

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

, by the time that the Yuezhi entered the historical record in China, during the 1st millennium BC. However, the only material evidence presented by Henning, namely similar ceramic ware, is generally considered to be far from conclusive. Proposed links with the Abhira, Aorsi, Asii,

Getae The Getae ( ) or Gets ( ; grc, Γέται, singular ) were a Thracian-related tribe that once inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania. Both the singular form ''Get'' an ...

, Goths, Gushi,

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subse ...

, Massagetae, and other groups have also gathered little support.

Yuezhi-Tocharian hypothesis

When manuscripts dating from the 6th to 8th centuries AD written in two hitherto-unknown Indo-European languages were discovered in the northern Tarim Basin, the early 20th-century linguist

Friedrich W. K. Müller Friedrich W. K. Müller (January 21, 1863 in Dębno, Neudamm – April 18, 1930 in Berlin) was a German scholar of oriental cultures and languages. He is best remembered for his decipherment of manuscript fragments collected on the German Turf ...

identified them with the enigmatic "''twγry'' ("Toγari") language" used to translate Indian Buddhist Sanskrit texts and mentioned as the source of an Old Turkic ( Uyghur) manuscript. Müller then proposed to connect the name "Toγari" (Togar/Tokar) to the ''Tókharoi'' people of

Tokharistan Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...

(themselves associated with the Yuezhi) described in early Greek histories. He thus referred to the newly discovered languages as " Tocharian", which became the common name for both the languages of the Tarim manuscripts and the people who produced them. Most historians have been rejecting the identification of the Tocharians of the Tarim with the ''Tókharoi'' of Bactria, mainly because they are not known to have spoken any languages other than Bactrian, a quite dissimilar Eastern Iranian language. Other scholars suggest that the Yuezhi/ Kushanas may previously have spoken Tocharian before shifting to Bactrian on their arrival in Bactria, an example of an invading or colonising elite adopting a local language (as also seen for the Greeks, the Turks or the Arabs upon their successive settlements in Bactria)., p. 5, footnote 16, as well as pp. 380–383 in appendix B, but also see : "He equates the Tokharians with the Yuezhi, and the Wusun with the Asvins, as if these are established facts, and refers to his arguments in appendix B. But these identifications remain controversial, rather than established, for most scholars." However, while Tocharian contains some loanwords from Bactrian, there are no traces of Tocharian in Bactrian. Another possible

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

of the Yuezhi was put forward by

H. W. Bailey Sir Harold Walter Bailey, (16 December 1899 – 11 January 1996), who published as H. W. Bailey, was an English scholar of Khotanese, Sanskrit, and the comparative study of Iranian languages. Life Bailey was born in Devizes, Wiltshire, and ra ...

, who claimed that they were referred to, in 9th and 10th century Khotan Saka Iranian texts, as the ''Gara''. According to Bailey, the ''Tu Gara'' ("Great Gara") were the Great Yuezhi. This is consistent with the Ancient Greek Τόχαροι ''Tokharoi'' (Latinised ''Tochari'') in reference to the faction of the Kushans that conquered Bactria, as well as the Tibetan language name ''Gar'' (or ''mGar''), for the members of the Lesser Yuezhi who settled in the Tibetan Empire.

References

Works cited

* * * * * Dorn'eich, Chris M. (2008). ''Chinese sources on the History of the Niusi-Wusi-Asi(oi)-Rishi(ka)-Arsi-Arshi-Ruzhi and their Kueishuang-Kushan Dynasty. Shiji 110/Hanshu 94A: The Xiongnu: Synopsis of Chinese original Text and several Western Translations with Extant Annotations''. Berlin. To read or download go to

* * * * *Hill, John E. (2003)
''The Peoples of the West from the Weilüe'' 魏略
''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE.'' Draft annotated English translation * * * * * * * * * * *Ricket, W.A. (1998). ''Guanzi: Political, Economic, and Philosophic Essays from Early China'', vol. 2. Princeton: Princeton University Press * * * (pbk.) Translated from the '' Shiji'' of

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

* *Yap, Joseph P. (2009). ''Wars With The Xiongnu, A Translation From Zizhi tongjian'' Chapters 2 & 4, AuthorHouse. *

External links

"Section 13 – The Kingdom of the Da Yuezhi"
The Western Regions according to the ''Hou Hanshu'', trans. John Hill

– Linguistic analysis of the connection between ''Yuezhi'' and ''Kushan''

– Overview of Xiongnu history and their wars with the Yuezhi

by Craig Benjamin.

– nomad migration in Central Asia, by Kasim Abdullaev

Lokesh Chandra

– online text from National Sun Yat-sen University
"Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age"
Li et al. ''BMC Biology'' 2010, 8:15. {{Authority control Ancient history of Afghanistan Ancient peoples of China Ancient peoples of Pakistan Former countries in Chinese history Historical Iranian peoples History of India History of Kyrgyzstan History of Tajikistan History of Uzbekistan Indo-European peoples Iranian nomads Kushan Empire Nomadic groups in Eurasia

Earliest references in Chinese texts

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

Etymology

Account of Zhang Qian

Yuezhi and Xiongnu

Exodus of the Great Yuezhi

Visit of Zhang Qian

Later Chinese accounts

Kushana

Bactria

Noin-Ula carpets

Tillya Tepe

In the Hindu Kush

Kushan Empire

Later references to the Lesser Yuezhi

Proposed links to other groups

Yuezhi-Tocharian hypothesis

See also

References

Works cited

External links