Empire of Horses Read online

  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.