
[[Image:Yueh-ChihMigrations.jpg|thumb|320px|The migrations of the Yuezhi through Central Asia, from around 176 BCE to 30 BCE.]] Yuezhi (Chinese language 月氏; Wade-Giles: Yüeh-Chih) or Da Yuezhi (Chinese language 大月氏, "Great Yuezhi") is the Chinese name for an ancient Central Asian people. They are believed to have been the same as or closely related to the Tocharians, who spoke an Indo-European languages called Tocharian languages. They were originally settled in the Tarim Basin area, in what is today Gansu and Xinjiang, in China, before they migrated to Transoxiania, Bactria and then northern India, where they formed the Kushan Empire. ==Origins== The first known reference to the Yuezhi was made in 645 BC by the Chinese economist Guan Zhong. He described the Yuezhi, or Niuzhi, as a people from the Tarim Basin who supplied jade to the Chinese. The supply of jade from the Tarim Basin from ancient times is indeed well documented archeologically: "It is well known that ancient Chinese rulers had a strong attachment to jade. All of the jade items excavated from the tomb of Fuhao of the Shang dynasty, more than 750 pieces, were from Khotan in modern Xinjiang. As early as the mid-first millennium BCE the Yuezhi engaged in the jade trade, of which the major consumers were the rulers of agricultural China." (Liu (2001), pp. 267-268) [[Image:YuezhiIdeograms.jpg|thumb|150px|Yuezhi (lit. "Moon People") was the name used continuously by ancient Chinese historians to designate the tribe throughout its migrations, from the time it was in the Tarim Basin (7th to 2nd century BCE) to the time it ruled the Kushan Empire in India (1st-3th century CE).]] The Yuezhi are also documented in detail in Chinese historical accounts, in particular the 1st century BCE "Records of the Great Historian", or Shiji, by Sima Qian. According to these accounts, "the Yuezhi originally lived in the area between the Qilian, or Heavenly Mountain (Tian Shan) and Dunhuang" (Shiji, 123), corresponding to the eastern half of the Tarim Basin. The Yuezhi were apparently a Caucasoid people, as indicated by the portraits of their kings on the coins they struck following their exodus to Transoxonia (2nd-1st century BCE), and especially the coins they struck in India as Kushans (1st-3rd century CE). Ancient Chinese sources do describe the existence of "white people with long hair" (The ''Bai'' people of the Shanhai Jing) beyond their northwestern border, and the very well preserved Tarim mummies with Caucasian features, often with reddish or blond hair, today displayed at the Urumqi Museum and dated to the 3rd century BCE, have been found in precisely the same area of the Tarim Basin. The Indo-European Tocharian languages also have been attested in the same geographical area, and although the first known epigraphic evidence dates to the 6th century CE, the degree of differentiation between Tocharian A and Tocharian B, and the absence of Tocharian language remains beyond that area, tends to indicate that a common Tocharian language existed in the same area of Yuezhi settlement during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE. The Yuezhi were probably part of the large migration of Indo-European speaking peoples who were settled in eastern Central Asia at that time. Another example is that of the Caucasian mummies of Pazyryk, probably Scythian in origin, located around 1,000 kilometers north of the Yuezhi, and dated also to around the 3rd century BCE. According to Han accounts, the Yuezhi "were flourishing" during the time of the first great Chinese Qin Shi Huang, but were regularly in conflict with the neighbouring tribe of the Xiongnu to the northeast. ==The Yuezhi exodus== The Yuezhi sometimes practiced the exchange of hostages with the Xiongnu, and at one time were hosts to Maodun, the son of the Xiongnu leader. Maodun stole a horse and escaped when the Yuezhi tried to kill him in retaliation for an attack by his father. Maodun subsequently became ruler of the Xiongnu after killing his father. Around 177 BCE, the Xiongnu, led by one of Maodun's tribal chiefs, invaded the Yuezhi territory in the Gansu region, leading them to a crushing defeat. Maodun boasted in a letter 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 Maodun, Jizhu, further killed the king of the Yuezhi, and "made a drinking cup out of his skull". Following the Chinese sources, a large part of the Yuezhi people therefore fell under the domination of the Xiongnu, and these may have been the ancestors of the Tocharian speakers attested for the 6th century CE. A very small group of Yuezhi also fled south to the territory of the Proto-Tibetan Qiang, and came to be known to the Chinese as the "Small Yuezhi". According to the Hanshu, they only numbered around 150 famillies. [[Image:PazyrikHorseman.JPG|thumb|170px|A Scythian horseman from the area invaded by the Yuezhi, Pazyryk, c.300 BCE.]] Finally, a large group of the Yuezhi fled from the Tarim Basin towards the northwest, first settling in the Ili valley, immediately north of the Tian Shan mountains, where they confronted and defeated the Sai (Sakas or Scythians): "The Yuezhi attacked the king of the Sai who moved a considerable distance to the south and the Yuezhi then occupied his lands" (Han Shu 61 4B). The Sai undetook their own migration, which was to lead them as far as Kashmir, after travelling through a "Suspended Crossing' (probably the Khunjerab Pass between present-day Xinjiang and northern Pakistan). The Sakas ultimately established an Indo-Scythian kingdom in northern India. After 155 BCE, the Wusun, in alliance with the Xiongnu and out of revenge from an earlier conflict, managed to disloge the Yuezhi, forcing them to move south. The Yuezhi crossed the neighbouring urban civilization of the Ta-Yuan in Ferghana, and settled on the northern bank of the Oxus, in the region of Transoxonia, in modern-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, just north of the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The Greek city of Alexandria on the Oxus was apparently burnt to the ground by the Yuezhi around 145 BCE. ==Settlement in Transoxonia== [[Image:Zhang Qian.jpg|thumb|300px|The Chinese mission of Zhang Qian to the Yuezhi in 126 BCE, Mogao Caves, 618-712 CE mural painting.]] The Yuezhi were visited by a Chinese mission, led by Zhang Qian in 126 BCE, that was seeking an offensive alliance with the Yuezhi to counter the Xiongnu threat to the north. Although the request for an alliance was denied by the Yuezhi son of the slain king, who preferred to maintain peace in Transoxiana rather than to seek revenge, Zhang Qian made a detailed account, reported in the Shiji, that gives a lot of insight into the situation in Central Asia at that time. Zhang Qian, who spent a year with the Yuezhi and in Bactria, relates that "the Great Yuezhi live 2,000 or 3,000 ''li'' (1,000-1,500 kilometers) west of Dayuan (Ferghana), north of the Gui (Oxus) river. They are bordered on the south by Daxia (Bactria), on the west by Anxi (Parthia), and on the north by Kangju (Sogdiana). They are a nation of nomads, moving from place to place with their herds, and their customs are like those of the Xiongnu. They have some 100,000 or 200,000 archer warriors." (Shiji 123, trans. Burton Watson). Although they remained north of the Oxus for a while, they apparently obtained the submission of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom to the south of the Oxus. The Yuezhi were organized into five major tribes, each led by a ''yabgu'', or tribal chief, and known to the Chinese as ''Xiūmì'' (Ch:休密) in Western Wakhān and Zibak, ''Guishang'' (Ch:貴霜) in Badakhshan and the adjoining territories north of the Oxus, ''Shuangmi'' (Ch:雙靡) in the region of Shughnan, ''Xidun'' (Ch:肸頓) in the region of Balk, and ''Dūmì'' (Ch:都密) in the region of Termez. In a sweeping analysis of the physical types and cultures of Central Asia that he visited in 126 BCE, Zhang Qian reports that "although the states from Dayuan west to Anxi (Parthia), speak rather different languages, their customs are generally similar and their languages mutually intelligible. The men have deep-set eyes and profuse beards and whiskers." (Shiji 123, trans. Burton Watson), clearly describing Indo-European types. A later Chinese account of the 3rd century (the ''Nanzhouzhi'') also describes the Yuezhi as a Caucasoid people of "reddish-white color". ==Invasion of Bactria== [[Image:YuezhiHeliocles.jpg|thumb|300px|right|One of the first Yuezhi coins, imitative, in crude style, of the coins of the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles, circa 120 BCE.
Obv: Bust of a Yuezhi chief with Greek royal headband.
Rev: Zeus with thunderbolt and sceptre. Misspelled Greek legend BASILEO HELIOLEEU "(of) King Heliocles".]] Some time after 126 BCE the Yuezhi, possibly disturbed by further incursions of rivals from the north, moved south to Bactria, that had been conquered by the Greece under Alexander the Great in 330 BCE, and since settled by the Greek dynasties of the Seleucids and the Greco-Bactrians for two centuries. The last Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles I retreated and moved his capital to the Kabul valley. The eastern part of Bactria was occupied by Pashtun people. As they settled in Bactria from around 125 BCE, the Yuezhi became Hellenized to some degree, as suggested 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. Commercial relations with China also flourished, as many Chinese missions were sent throughout the 1st century BCE: "The largest of these embassies to foreign states numbered several hundred persons, while even the smaller parties included over 100 members... In the course of one year anywhere from five to six to over ten parties would be sent out." (Shiji, trans. Burton Watson). The Hou Hanshu also records the visit of Yuezhi envoys to the Chinese capital in 2 BCE, who gave oral teachings on Buddhist sutras to a student, suggesting that some Yuezhi already followed the Buddhist faith during the 1st century BCE (Baldev Kumar (1973)). ==Expansion into the Hindu-Kush== [[Image:HermaeusPosthumous.jpg|thumb|300px|A posthumus, slightly barbarized, coin of King Hermaeus, minted in the Paropamisadae between 50 BCE and 25 BCE.
Obv: Bust of Hermaeus. Greek legend BASILEOS SOTIROS ERMAIOU "Saviour King Hermaeus".
Rev: Zeus, non-radiating, making a benediction gesture. Kharoshti legend: MAHARAJASA TRATARASA HERAYAMASA "Saviour King Hermaeus".]] The area of the Hindu-Kush (Paropamisadae) was ruled by the western Indo-Greek king until the reign of King Hermaeus (reigned c. 90 BCE–70 BCE). After that date, no Indo-Greek kings are known in the area, which was probably overtaken by the neighbouring Yuezhi, who had been in relation with the Greeks for a long time. According to Bopearachchi, no trace of Indo-Scythians occupation (nor coins of major Indo-Scythian rulers such as Maues or Azes I) have been found in the Paropamisadae and western Gandhara. As they had done in Bactria with their copying of Greco-Bactrian coinage, the Yuezhi copied the coinage of King Hermaeus on a vast scale, up to around 40, when the design blends into the coinage of the Kushan king Kujula Kadphises. [[Image:Sapalbizes.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Coin of Sapadbizes:
Obv: Bust of Sapadbizes (c 20 BCE). Greek legend CAΠAΛBIZHC "Sapallizes".
Rev: Lion with Greek legend NANAIA repeated left and right (name of a goddess). Tamgha of hill & crescent. Qunduz mint, in Afghanistan.]] The first documented Yuezhi prince, Sapadbizes, ruled around 20 BCE, and minted in Greek and in the same style as the western Indo-Greek kings. ==Founders of the Kushan empire== By the end of the 1st century BCE, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi, the Kui-Shan (Ch: 貴霜, ''Guishang'', origin of name ''Kushan'' adopted in the West), managed to take control of the Yuezhi confederation. From that point, the Yuezhi extended their control over the northwestern area of the Indian subcontinent, founding the Kushan Empire, which was to rule the region for several centuries. The Yuezhi came to be known as ''Kushan'' among Western civilizations, however the Chinese kept calling them Yuezhi throughout their historical records over a period of several centuries. The Yuezhi expanded to the east during the 1st century CE, to found the Kushan Empire. The first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises ostensibly associated himself with King Hermaeus on his coins, suggesting that he may have been one of his descendants by alliance, or at least wanted to claim his legacy. [[Image: Heraios.jpg|thumb|300px|The first self-declared Kushan ruler Heraios (1-30) in Greco-Bactrian style.
Obv: Bust of Heraios, with Greek royal headband.
Rev: Horse-mounted King, crowned with a wreath by the Greek goddess of victory Nike (mythology). Greek legend: TVPANNOVOTOΣ HΛOV - ΣΛNΛB - KOÞÞANOY "The Tyrant Heraios, Sanav (meaning unknown), of the Kushans".]] The unification of the Yuezhi tribes and the rise of the Kushan is documented in the Chinese Historical chronicle Hou Hanshu: :"More than a hundred years later, the ''xihou'' (Ch:翖侯, "Allied Prince") of Guishuang (Badakhshan and the adjoining territories north of the Oxus), named Qiujiu Que (Ch: 丘就卻 "Ch’iu-chiu-ch’üeh", Kujula Kadphises) attacked and exterminated the four other xihou ("Allied Princes"). He set himself up as king of a kingdom called Guishang (Kushan). He invaded Anxi (Parthia) and took the Gaofu (Ch:高附 "Kao-fu", Kabul) region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puta (Parthuaia, 55 CE) and Kipin (Ch: 罽賓 "Chi-pin", Kapisa-Peshawar). Qiujiu Que (Kujula Kadphises) was more than eighty years old when he died. :His son, ''Yan Gaozhen'' (Ch:閻高珍) (Vima Takto), became king in his place. He returned and defeated Tianzhu (Northwestern India) and installed a General to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang (Kushan) king, but the Han dynasty call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi." (Hou Hanshu, trans. John Hill). The Yuezhi/Kushan integrated Buddhism into a pantheon of many deities, became great promoters of Mahayana Buddhism, and their interactions with Greek civilization helped the Gandharan culture and Greco-Buddhism flourish. During the 1st and 2nd century, the Kushan Empire expanded militarily to the north and occupied parts of the Tarim Basin, their original grounds, putting them at the center of the lucrative Central Asian commerce with the Roman Empire. They are related to have collaborated militarily with the Chinese against nomadic incursion, particularly when they collaborated with the Chinese general Ban Chao against the Sogdians in 84, when the latter were trying to support a revolt by the king of Kashgar. Around 85, they also assisted the Chinese general in an attack on Turfan, east of the Tarim Basin. In recognition for their support to the Chinese, the Yuezhi requested, but were denied, a Han Chinese princess, even after they had sent presents to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in 86 with a force of 70,000, but, exhausted by the expedition, were finally defeated by the smaller Chinese force. The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute to the Chinese Empire during the reign of the Chinese emperor Emperor He of Han China (89-106). Later, the Yuezhi/Kushans established a kingdom centered on Kashgar around 120, and introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and Greco-Buddhist art which developed into Serindian art. Benefiting from this territorial expansion, the Yuezhi/ Kushans were among the first to introduce Buddhism to northern and northeastern Asia, by direct missionary efforts and the translation of Buddhism scriptures into Chinese. Major Yuezhi missionary and translators included Lokaksema and Dharmaraksa, who went to China and established translation bureaus, thereby being at the center of the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism. ==Yuezhi monarchs== *Sapadbizes (c. 20 BCE) *Agesiles (c. 20 BCE) ==References== * "Records of the Great Historian, Han Dynasty II", Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231081677 * "The Tarim Mummies", J.P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair. Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0500051011 ==External links== *[http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/hhshu/hou_han_shu.html#sec13 The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu, trans. John Hill] *[http://reference.allrefer.com/country-guide-study/mongolia/mongolia14.html Overview of Xiongnu history] and their wars with the Yuezhi *[http://www.transoxiana.com.ar/Eran/Articles/benjamin.html Craig Benjamin] on Yuezhi migrations *[http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/programmes/2004/abstracts/asia-abdullaev.html Kasim Abdullaev] on Yuezhi migrations in Central Asia *[http://ignca.nic.in/ks_41023.htm Lokesh Chandra] on Yuezhi translators * [http://home.comcast.net/~pankajtandon/home.html Yuezhi Sapadbizes coins] * [http://home.comcast.net/~pankajtandon/home.html Yuezhi Agesiles coins] Kushan empire Ancient peoples of China Eurasian nomads Mandarin terms
Using modern Korean reading for Central Asia-related terms is ridiculous. Korean reading is one of important sources to reconstruct ancient Chinese reading, but it has nothing to do with Yuezhi! Why don't you use reconstructed sounds? --User:Nanshu 01:00, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC) Hello Nanshu. Because it was removed from the article for reader-reference Yuezhi is pronounced WOLSHI in Korean. Why not give us the Japanese pronunciations Nanshu and if you have any info about the reconstructed sounds suggested by scholars like Liu Qiyu (who used Korean & Japanese pronunciations in his reconstructions) why not let us know how much you know. I didn't add information of the reconstructed sounds only because I feared my data was out-of-date. I referred to a book by Dr. Todo Akiyasu, who died in 1985. According to Todo, Yuezhi was pronounced like "ŋïuǎt dhieg", but I'm not sure this is still supported. --User:Nanshu 23:13, 2 Dec 2003 (UTC) == Title Change == I propose a title change from Yuezhi to Rouzhi. In modern Mandarin the character "月" is pronounced ''yuè'', and "氏" as ''shì''; but when it comes to the phrase "月氏", the two characters should be pronounced as ''roù zhī'', its ancient pronunciation. In this kind of situations where one character has two or multiple pronunciations, they are called "破音字". It should be noted that a certain amount of ordinary Chinese speakers do often mistaken in these pronunciations. Hence a change in the title should be done, either from the linguistics point of view or the historical one.--User:Gsklee 08:09, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC) :The aknowledged name in English is definetely "Yuezhi", or sometimes "Yueh-Chi", which therefore should remain for the article name, but you are pointing to an interesting point of ancient phonetic that would deserve mention in the article. User:PHG 11:17, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC) If someone is going to discuss ancient phonetics in the main entry, it needs to be done properly: "Rouzhi" IS the proper MODERN pronunciation, but it won't have necessarily been how the Han pronounced the characters: didn't fourth tone words still have consonantal stops in the Han? If anyone's got a copy of Karlgren, the Chinese pronunciation could be easily figured out. (I don't at the moment). ==Judging dead people by appearance is not alway accurate== mtDNA of Scytho-Siberian skeleton Human Biology 76.1 (2004) 109-125 Genetic Analysis of a Scytho-Siberian Skeleton and Its Implications for Ancient Central Asian Migrations François-X. Ricaut et al. Abstract The excavation of a frozen grave on the Kizil site (dated to be 2500 years old) in the Altai Republic (Central Asia) revealed a skeleton belonging to the Scytho-Siberian population. DNA was extracted from a bone sample and analyzed by autosomal STRs (short tandem repeats) and by sequencing the hypervariable region I (HV1) of the mitochondrial DNA. The resulting STR profile, mitochondrial haplotype, and haplogroup were compared with data from modern Eurasian and northern native American populations and were found only in European populations historically influenced by ancient nomadic tribes of Central Asia. ... The mutations at nucleotide position 16147 C→A, 16172 T→C, 16223 C→T, 16248 C→T, and 16355 C→T correspond to substitutions characteristic of the Eurasian haplogroup N1a (Richards et al. 2000). The haplotype comparison with the mtDNA sequences of 8534 individuals showed that this sequence was not found in any other population. ... The N1a haplogroup was not observed among the native American, east Asian, Siberian, Central Asian, and western European populations. The geographic distribution of haplogroup N1a is restricted to regions neighboring the Eurasian steppe zone. Its frequency is very low, less than 1.5% (Table 6), in the populations located in the western and southwestern areas of the Eurasian steppe. Haplogroup N1a is, however, more frequent in the populations of the southeastern region of the Eurasian steppe, as in Iran (but only 12 individuals were studied) and southeastern India (Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh territories). More precisely, in India haplogroup N1a is absent from the Dravidic-speaking population and is present in only five Indo-Aryan-speaking individuals, four of whom belonged to the Havik group, an upper Brahman caste (Mountain et al. 1995). ... The absence of the Eurasian haplogroup N1a in the 490 modern individuals of Central Asia (Shields et al. 1993; Kolman et al. 1996; Comas et al. 1998; Derenko et al. 2000; Yao et al. 2000; Yao, Nie et al. 2002) suggests changes in the genetic structure of Central Asian populations, probably as a result of Asian population movements to the west during the past 2500 years. AAPA 2004 East of Eden, west of Cathay: An investigation of Bronze Age interactions along the Great Silk Road. B.E. Hemphill. The Great Silk Road has long been known as a conduit for contacts between East and West. Until recently, these interactions were believed to date no earlier than the second century B.C. However, recent discoveries in the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang (western China) suggest that initial contact may have occurred during the first half of the second millennium B.C. The site of Yanbulaq has been offered as empirical evidence for direct physical contact between Eastern and Western populations, due to architectural, agricultural, and metallurgical practices like those from the West, ceramic vessels like those from the East, and human remains identified as encompassing both Europoid and Mongoloid physical types. Eight cranial measurements from 30 Aeneolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and modern samples, encompassing 1505 adults from the Russian steppe, China, Central Asia, Iran, Tibet, Nepal and the Indus Valley were compared to test whether those inhabitants of Yanbulaq identified as Europoid and Mongoloid exhibit closest phenetic affinities to Russian steppe and Chinese samples, respectively. Differences between samples were compared with Mahalanobis generalized distance (d2), and patterns of phenetic affinity were assessed with cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, and principal coordinates analysis. Results indicate that, despite identification as Europoid and Mongoloid, inhabitants of Yanbulaq exhibit closest affinities to one another. No one recovered from Yanbulaq exhibits affinity to Russian steppe samples. Rather, the people of Yanbulaq possess closest affinities to other Bronze Age Tarim Basin dwellers, intermediate affinities to residents of the Indus Valley, and only distant affinities to Chinese and Tibetan samples
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[[Image:Yueh-ChihMigrations.jpg|thumb|320px|The migrations of the Yuezhi through Central Asia, from around 176 BCE to 30 BCE.]] Yuezhi (Chinese language 月氏; Wade-Giles: Yüeh-Chih) or Da Yuezhi (Chinese language 大月氏, "Great Yuezhi") is the Chinese name for an ancient Central Asian people. They are believed to have been the same as or closely related to the Tocharians, who spoke an Indo-European languages called Tocharian languages. They were originally settled in the Tarim Basin area, in what is today Gansu and Xinjiang, in China, before they migrated to Transoxiania, Bactria and then northern India, where they formed the Kushan Empire. ==Origins== The first known reference to the Yuezhi was made in 645 BC by the Chinese economist Guan Zhong. He described the Yuezhi, or Niuzhi, as a people from the Tarim Basin who supplied jade to the Chinese. The supply of jade from the Tarim Basin from ancient times is indeed well documented archeologically: "It is well known that ancient Chinese rulers had a strong attachment to jade. All of the jade items excavated from the tomb of Fuhao of the Shang dynasty, more than 750 pieces, were from Khotan in modern Xinjiang. As early as the mid-first millennium BCE the Yuezhi engaged in the jade trade, of which the major consumers were the rulers of agricultural China." (Liu (2001), pp. 267-268) [[Image:YuezhiIdeograms.jpg|thumb|150px|Yuezhi (lit. "Moon People") was the name used continuously by ancient Chinese historians to designate the tribe throughout its migrations, from the time it was in the Tarim Basin (7th to 2nd century BCE) to the time it ruled the Kushan Empire in India (1st-3th century CE).]] The Yuezhi are also documented in detail in Chinese historical accounts, in particular the 1st century BCE "Records of the Great Historian", or Shiji, by Sima Qian. According to these accounts, "the Yuezhi originally lived in the area between the Qilian, or Heavenly Mountain (Tian Shan) and Dunhuang" (Shiji, 123), corresponding to the eastern half of the Tarim Basin. The Yuezhi were apparently a Caucasoid people, as indicated by the portraits of their kings on the coins they struck following their exodus to Transoxonia (2nd-1st century BCE), and especially the coins they struck in India as Kushans (1st-3rd century CE). Ancient Chinese sources do describe the existence of "white people with long hair" (The ''Bai'' people of the Shanhai Jing) beyond their northwestern border, and the very well preserved Tarim mummies with Caucasian features, often with reddish or blond hair, today displayed at the Urumqi Museum and dated to the 3rd century BCE, have been found in precisely the same area of the Tarim Basin. The Indo-European Tocharian languages also have been attested in the same geographical area, and although the first known epigraphic evidence dates to the 6th century CE, the degree of differentiation between Tocharian A and Tocharian B, and the absence of Tocharian language remains beyond that area, tends to indicate that a common Tocharian language existed in the same area of Yuezhi settlement during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE. The Yuezhi were probably part of the large migration of Indo-European speaking peoples who were settled in eastern Central Asia at that time. Another example is that of the Caucasian mummies of Pazyryk, probably Scythian in origin, located around 1,000 kilometers north of the Yuezhi, and dated also to around the 3rd century BCE. According to Han accounts, the Yuezhi "were flourishing" during the time of the first great Chinese Qin Shi Huang, but were regularly in conflict with the neighbouring tribe of the Xiongnu to the northeast. ==The Yuezhi exodus== The Yuezhi sometimes practiced the exchange of hostages with the Xiongnu, and at one time were hosts to Maodun, the son of the Xiongnu leader. Maodun stole a horse and escaped when the Yuezhi tried to kill him in retaliation for an attack by his father. Maodun subsequently became ruler of the Xiongnu after killing his father. Around 177 BCE, the Xiongnu, led by one of Maodun's tribal chiefs, invaded the Yuezhi territory in the Gansu region, leading them to a crushing defeat. Maodun boasted in a letter 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 Maodun, Jizhu, further killed the king of the Yuezhi, and "made a drinking cup out of his skull". Following the Chinese sources, a large part of the Yuezhi people therefore fell under the domination of the Xiongnu, and these may have been the ancestors of the Tocharian speakers attested for the 6th century CE. A very small group of Yuezhi also fled south to the territory of the Proto-Tibetan Qiang, and came to be known to the Chinese as the "Small Yuezhi". According to the Hanshu, they only numbered around 150 famillies. [[Image:PazyrikHorseman.JPG|thumb|170px|A Scythian horseman from the area invaded by the Yuezhi, Pazyryk, c.300 BCE.]] Finally, a large group of the Yuezhi fled from the Tarim Basin towards the northwest, first settling in the Ili valley, immediately north of the Tian Shan mountains, where they confronted and defeated the Sai (Sakas or Scythians): "The Yuezhi attacked the king of the Sai who moved a considerable distance to the south and the Yuezhi then occupied his lands" (Han Shu 61 4B). The Sai undetook their own migration, which was to lead them as far as Kashmir, after travelling through a "Suspended Crossing' (probably the Khunjerab Pass between present-day Xinjiang and northern Pakistan). The Sakas ultimately established an Indo-Scythian kingdom in northern India. After 155 BCE, the Wusun, in alliance with the Xiongnu and out of revenge from an earlier conflict, managed to disloge the Yuezhi, forcing them to move south. The Yuezhi crossed the neighbouring urban civilization of the Ta-Yuan in Ferghana, and settled on the northern bank of the Oxus, in the region of Transoxonia, in modern-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, just north of the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The Greek city of Alexandria on the Oxus was apparently burnt to the ground by the Yuezhi around 145 BCE. ==Settlement in Transoxonia== [[Image:Zhang Qian.jpg|thumb|300px|The Chinese mission of Zhang Qian to the Yuezhi in 126 BCE, Mogao Caves, 618-712 CE mural painting.]] The Yuezhi were visited by a Chinese mission, led by Zhang Qian in 126 BCE, that was seeking an offensive alliance with the Yuezhi to counter the Xiongnu threat to the north. Although the request for an alliance was denied by the Yuezhi son of the slain king, who preferred to maintain peace in Transoxiana rather than to seek revenge, Zhang Qian made a detailed account, reported in the Shiji, that gives a lot of insight into the situation in Central Asia at that time. Zhang Qian, who spent a year with the Yuezhi and in Bactria, relates that "the Great Yuezhi live 2,000 or 3,000 ''li'' (1,000-1,500 kilometers) west of Dayuan (Ferghana), north of the Gui (Oxus) river. They are bordered on the south by Daxia (Bactria), on the west by Anxi (Parthia), and on the north by Kangju (Sogdiana). They are a nation of nomads, moving from place to place with their herds, and their customs are like those of the Xiongnu. They have some 100,000 or 200,000 archer warriors." (Shiji 123, trans. Burton Watson). Although they remained north of the Oxus for a while, they apparently obtained the submission of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom to the south of the Oxus. The Yuezhi were organized into five major tribes, each led by a ''yabgu'', or tribal chief, and known to the Chinese as ''Xiūmì'' (Ch:休密) in Western Wakhān and Zibak, ''Guishang'' (Ch:貴霜) in Badakhshan and the adjoining territories north of the Oxus, ''Shuangmi'' (Ch:雙靡) in the region of Shughnan, ''Xidun'' (Ch:肸頓) in the region of Balk, and ''Dūmì'' (Ch:都密) in the region of Termez. In a sweeping analysis of the physical types and cultures of Central Asia that he visited in 126 BCE, Zhang Qian reports that "although the states from Dayuan west to Anxi (Parthia), speak rather different languages, their customs are generally similar and their languages mutually intelligible. The men have deep-set eyes and profuse beards and whiskers." (Shiji 123, trans. Burton Watson), clearly describing Indo-European types. A later Chinese account of the 3rd century (the ''Nanzhouzhi'') also describes the Yuezhi as a Caucasoid people of "reddish-white color". ==Invasion of Bactria== [[Image:YuezhiHeliocles.jpg|thumb|300px|right|One of the first Yuezhi coins, imitative, in crude style, of the coins of the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles, circa 120 BCE.
Obv: Bust of a Yuezhi chief with Greek royal headband.
Rev: Zeus with thunderbolt and sceptre. Misspelled Greek legend BASILEO HELIOLEEU "(of) King Heliocles".]] Some time after 126 BCE the Yuezhi, possibly disturbed by further incursions of rivals from the north, moved south to Bactria, that had been conquered by the Greece under Alexander the Great in 330 BCE, and since settled by the Greek dynasties of the Seleucids and the Greco-Bactrians for two centuries. The last Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles I retreated and moved his capital to the Kabul valley. The eastern part of Bactria was occupied by Pashtun people. As they settled in Bactria from around 125 BCE, the Yuezhi became Hellenized to some degree, as suggested 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. Commercial relations with China also flourished, as many Chinese missions were sent throughout the 1st century BCE: "The largest of these embassies to foreign states numbered several hundred persons, while even the smaller parties included over 100 members... In the course of one year anywhere from five to six to over ten parties would be sent out." (Shiji, trans. Burton Watson). The Hou Hanshu also records the visit of Yuezhi envoys to the Chinese capital in 2 BCE, who gave oral teachings on Buddhist sutras to a student, suggesting that some Yuezhi already followed the Buddhist faith during the 1st century BCE (Baldev Kumar (1973)). ==Expansion into the Hindu-Kush== [[Image:HermaeusPosthumous.jpg|thumb|300px|A posthumus, slightly barbarized, coin of King Hermaeus, minted in the Paropamisadae between 50 BCE and 25 BCE.
Obv: Bust of Hermaeus. Greek legend BASILEOS SOTIROS ERMAIOU "Saviour King Hermaeus".
Rev: Zeus, non-radiating, making a benediction gesture. Kharoshti legend: MAHARAJASA TRATARASA HERAYAMASA "Saviour King Hermaeus".]] The area of the Hindu-Kush (Paropamisadae) was ruled by the western Indo-Greek king until the reign of King Hermaeus (reigned c. 90 BCE–70 BCE). After that date, no Indo-Greek kings are known in the area, which was probably overtaken by the neighbouring Yuezhi, who had been in relation with the Greeks for a long time. According to Bopearachchi, no trace of Indo-Scythians occupation (nor coins of major Indo-Scythian rulers such as Maues or Azes I) have been found in the Paropamisadae and western Gandhara. As they had done in Bactria with their copying of Greco-Bactrian coinage, the Yuezhi copied the coinage of King Hermaeus on a vast scale, up to around 40, when the design blends into the coinage of the Kushan king Kujula Kadphises. [[Image:Sapalbizes.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Coin of Sapadbizes:
Obv: Bust of Sapadbizes (c 20 BCE). Greek legend CAΠAΛBIZHC "Sapallizes".
Rev: Lion with Greek legend NANAIA repeated left and right (name of a goddess). Tamgha of hill & crescent. Qunduz mint, in Afghanistan.]] The first documented Yuezhi prince, Sapadbizes, ruled around 20 BCE, and minted in Greek and in the same style as the western Indo-Greek kings. ==Founders of the Kushan empire== By the end of the 1st century BCE, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi, the Kui-Shan (Ch: 貴霜, ''Guishang'', origin of name ''Kushan'' adopted in the West), managed to take control of the Yuezhi confederation. From that point, the Yuezhi extended their control over the northwestern area of the Indian subcontinent, founding the Kushan Empire, which was to rule the region for several centuries. The Yuezhi came to be known as ''Kushan'' among Western civilizations, however the Chinese kept calling them Yuezhi throughout their historical records over a period of several centuries. The Yuezhi expanded to the east during the 1st century CE, to found the Kushan Empire. The first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises ostensibly associated himself with King Hermaeus on his coins, suggesting that he may have been one of his descendants by alliance, or at least wanted to claim his legacy. [[Image: Heraios.jpg|thumb|300px|The first self-declared Kushan ruler Heraios (1-30) in Greco-Bactrian style.
Obv: Bust of Heraios, with Greek royal headband.
Rev: Horse-mounted King, crowned with a wreath by the Greek goddess of victory Nike (mythology). Greek legend: TVPANNOVOTOΣ HΛOV - ΣΛNΛB - KOÞÞANOY "The Tyrant Heraios, Sanav (meaning unknown), of the Kushans".]] The unification of the Yuezhi tribes and the rise of the Kushan is documented in the Chinese Historical chronicle Hou Hanshu: :"More than a hundred years later, the ''xihou'' (Ch:翖侯, "Allied Prince") of Guishuang (Badakhshan and the adjoining territories north of the Oxus), named Qiujiu Que (Ch: 丘就卻 "Ch’iu-chiu-ch’üeh", Kujula Kadphises) attacked and exterminated the four other xihou ("Allied Princes"). He set himself up as king of a kingdom called Guishang (Kushan). He invaded Anxi (Parthia) and took the Gaofu (Ch:高附 "Kao-fu", Kabul) region. He also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puta (Parthuaia, 55 CE) and Kipin (Ch: 罽賓 "Chi-pin", Kapisa-Peshawar). Qiujiu Que (Kujula Kadphises) was more than eighty years old when he died. :His son, ''Yan Gaozhen'' (Ch:閻高珍) (Vima Takto), became king in his place. He returned and defeated Tianzhu (Northwestern India) and installed a General to supervise and lead it. The Yuezhi then became extremely rich. All the kingdoms call [their king] the Guishuang (Kushan) king, but the Han dynasty call them by their original name, Da Yuezhi." (Hou Hanshu, trans. John Hill). The Yuezhi/Kushan integrated Buddhism into a pantheon of many deities, became great promoters of Mahayana Buddhism, and their interactions with Greek civilization helped the Gandharan culture and Greco-Buddhism flourish. During the 1st and 2nd century, the Kushan Empire expanded militarily to the north and occupied parts of the Tarim Basin, their original grounds, putting them at the center of the lucrative Central Asian commerce with the Roman Empire. They are related to have collaborated militarily with the Chinese against nomadic incursion, particularly when they collaborated with the Chinese general Ban Chao against the Sogdians in 84, when the latter were trying to support a revolt by the king of Kashgar. Around 85, they also assisted the Chinese general in an attack on Turfan, east of the Tarim Basin. In recognition for their support to the Chinese, the Yuezhi requested, but were denied, a Han Chinese princess, even after they had sent presents to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in 86 with a force of 70,000, but, exhausted by the expedition, were finally defeated by the smaller Chinese force. The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute to the Chinese Empire during the reign of the Chinese emperor Emperor He of Han China (89-106). Later, the Yuezhi/Kushans established a kingdom centered on Kashgar around 120, and introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and Greco-Buddhist art which developed into Serindian art. Benefiting from this territorial expansion, the Yuezhi/ Kushans were among the first to introduce Buddhism to northern and northeastern Asia, by direct missionary efforts and the translation of Buddhism scriptures into Chinese. Major Yuezhi missionary and translators included Lokaksema and Dharmaraksa, who went to China and established translation bureaus, thereby being at the center of the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism. ==Yuezhi monarchs== *Sapadbizes (c. 20 BCE) *Agesiles (c. 20 BCE) ==References== * "Records of the Great Historian, Han Dynasty II", Sima Qian, translated by Burton Watson, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231081677 * "The Tarim Mummies", J.P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair. Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0500051011 ==External links== *[http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/hhshu/hou_han_shu.html#sec13 The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu, trans. John Hill] *[http://reference.allrefer.com/country-guide-study/mongolia/mongolia14.html Overview of Xiongnu history] and their wars with the Yuezhi *[http://www.transoxiana.com.ar/Eran/Articles/benjamin.html Craig Benjamin] on Yuezhi migrations *[http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/programmes/2004/abstracts/asia-abdullaev.html Kasim Abdullaev] on Yuezhi migrations in Central Asia *[http://ignca.nic.in/ks_41023.htm Lokesh Chandra] on Yuezhi translators * [http://home.comcast.net/~pankajtandon/home.html Yuezhi Sapadbizes coins] * [http://home.comcast.net/~pankajtandon/home.html Yuezhi Agesiles coins] Kushan empire Ancient peoples of China Eurasian nomads Mandarin terms
Yuezhi
Using modern Korean reading for Central Asia-related terms is ridiculous. Korean reading is one of important sources to reconstruct ancient Chinese reading, but it has nothing to do with Yuezhi! Why don't you use reconstructed sounds? --User:Nanshu 01:00, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC) Hello Nanshu. Because it was removed from the article for reader-reference Yuezhi is pronounced WOLSHI in Korean. Why not give us the Japanese pronunciations Nanshu and if you have any info about the reconstructed sounds suggested by scholars like Liu Qiyu (who used Korean & Japanese pronunciations in his reconstructions) why not let us know how much you know. I didn't add information of the reconstructed sounds only because I feared my data was out-of-date. I referred to a book by Dr. Todo Akiyasu, who died in 1985. According to Todo, Yuezhi was pronounced like "ŋïuǎt dhieg", but I'm not sure this is still supported. --User:Nanshu 23:13, 2 Dec 2003 (UTC) == Title Change == I propose a title change from Yuezhi to Rouzhi. In modern Mandarin the character "月" is pronounced ''yuè'', and "氏" as ''shì''; but when it comes to the phrase "月氏", the two characters should be pronounced as ''roù zhī'', its ancient pronunciation. In this kind of situations where one character has two or multiple pronunciations, they are called "破音字". It should be noted that a certain amount of ordinary Chinese speakers do often mistaken in these pronunciations. Hence a change in the title should be done, either from the linguistics point of view or the historical one.--User:Gsklee 08:09, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC) :The aknowledged name in English is definetely "Yuezhi", or sometimes "Yueh-Chi", which therefore should remain for the article name, but you are pointing to an interesting point of ancient phonetic that would deserve mention in the article. User:PHG 11:17, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC) If someone is going to discuss ancient phonetics in the main entry, it needs to be done properly: "Rouzhi" IS the proper MODERN pronunciation, but it won't have necessarily been how the Han pronounced the characters: didn't fourth tone words still have consonantal stops in the Han? If anyone's got a copy of Karlgren, the Chinese pronunciation could be easily figured out. (I don't at the moment). ==Judging dead people by appearance is not alway accurate== mtDNA of Scytho-Siberian skeleton Human Biology 76.1 (2004) 109-125 Genetic Analysis of a Scytho-Siberian Skeleton and Its Implications for Ancient Central Asian Migrations François-X. Ricaut et al. Abstract The excavation of a frozen grave on the Kizil site (dated to be 2500 years old) in the Altai Republic (Central Asia) revealed a skeleton belonging to the Scytho-Siberian population. DNA was extracted from a bone sample and analyzed by autosomal STRs (short tandem repeats) and by sequencing the hypervariable region I (HV1) of the mitochondrial DNA. The resulting STR profile, mitochondrial haplotype, and haplogroup were compared with data from modern Eurasian and northern native American populations and were found only in European populations historically influenced by ancient nomadic tribes of Central Asia. ... The mutations at nucleotide position 16147 C→A, 16172 T→C, 16223 C→T, 16248 C→T, and 16355 C→T correspond to substitutions characteristic of the Eurasian haplogroup N1a (Richards et al. 2000). The haplotype comparison with the mtDNA sequences of 8534 individuals showed that this sequence was not found in any other population. ... The N1a haplogroup was not observed among the native American, east Asian, Siberian, Central Asian, and western European populations. The geographic distribution of haplogroup N1a is restricted to regions neighboring the Eurasian steppe zone. Its frequency is very low, less than 1.5% (Table 6), in the populations located in the western and southwestern areas of the Eurasian steppe. Haplogroup N1a is, however, more frequent in the populations of the southeastern region of the Eurasian steppe, as in Iran (but only 12 individuals were studied) and southeastern India (Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh territories). More precisely, in India haplogroup N1a is absent from the Dravidic-speaking population and is present in only five Indo-Aryan-speaking individuals, four of whom belonged to the Havik group, an upper Brahman caste (Mountain et al. 1995). ... The absence of the Eurasian haplogroup N1a in the 490 modern individuals of Central Asia (Shields et al. 1993; Kolman et al. 1996; Comas et al. 1998; Derenko et al. 2000; Yao et al. 2000; Yao, Nie et al. 2002) suggests changes in the genetic structure of Central Asian populations, probably as a result of Asian population movements to the west during the past 2500 years. AAPA 2004 East of Eden, west of Cathay: An investigation of Bronze Age interactions along the Great Silk Road. B.E. Hemphill. The Great Silk Road has long been known as a conduit for contacts between East and West. Until recently, these interactions were believed to date no earlier than the second century B.C. However, recent discoveries in the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang (western China) suggest that initial contact may have occurred during the first half of the second millennium B.C. The site of Yanbulaq has been offered as empirical evidence for direct physical contact between Eastern and Western populations, due to architectural, agricultural, and metallurgical practices like those from the West, ceramic vessels like those from the East, and human remains identified as encompassing both Europoid and Mongoloid physical types. Eight cranial measurements from 30 Aeneolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and modern samples, encompassing 1505 adults from the Russian steppe, China, Central Asia, Iran, Tibet, Nepal and the Indus Valley were compared to test whether those inhabitants of Yanbulaq identified as Europoid and Mongoloid exhibit closest phenetic affinities to Russian steppe and Chinese samples, respectively. Differences between samples were compared with Mahalanobis generalized distance (d2), and patterns of phenetic affinity were assessed with cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, and principal coordinates analysis. Results indicate that, despite identification as Europoid and Mongoloid, inhabitants of Yanbulaq exhibit closest affinities to one another. No one recovered from Yanbulaq exhibits affinity to Russian steppe samples. Rather, the people of Yanbulaq possess closest affinities to other Bronze Age Tarim Basin dwellers, intermediate affinities to residents of the Indus Valley, and only distant affinities to Chinese and Tibetan samples
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