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Revision as of 10:18, 13 June 2006 by Guss2 (talk | contribs) (→History)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Wusun (烏孫) --- information about this historic people can be found in Chinese historical annals.
Geography
Originally, the Wusun people lived near the Yuezhi people, probably in the region of Gansu Mts. Later they moved to the Ili valley and the Issyk Kol basin.
Anthropology and archeology
They may have been identical with the ethnoi described by Herodotus and by Ptolemaios as Issedones. According to Ptolemaios they lived in the western part of Tarim Basin and although Herodotus does not give an exact location, he might place them around Lake Balkhash.
According to Chinese archeologists are the excavated skeletal remains of the presumed Wusun people short-headed Europoid of the Central Asian, Transoxanian type.
The Wusun were stereotypically described by the Chinese as "barbarians", having "green eyes and red beards with a macaque physical shape" (referred to a Chinese expression commentary added by Yan Shigu during the 7th-century on Hanshu, 96), This means of Caucasoid appearance.
According to both the Shih chi and the Hanshu (c.61), a Han princess was sent to the ruler (k'un-mo or k'un-mi) of the Wusun. She describes them as nomads who lived in felt tents, ate meat and drank fermented mare's milk.
History
At the beginning of what is known about the history of the Wusun, they lived near the Yuezhi people. The Yue-zhi were defeated by the rising Xiongnu empire and fled westward. En route they overran the Wusun. The Wusun ruler, Kunmo (mo < MC mak = Kun Beg?) Nan-tou-mi, lost his life. According to legend his infant son was left in the wild, then miracelously saved from hunger by sucking from a she-wolf. The Xiongnu Shan-yu (ruler) was impressed and adopted the child. When the child grew up the Shan-yu gave him command of his tribe (reconstituted?) and ordered, as an act of revenge, the Wusun to attack the Yuezhi, who had taken refuge in the Ili Valley. The Yuezhi were crushed completely and fled further to Ferghana, and finally settled in Bactria. The Wusun took over the Ili Valley and then expanded to occupy a large area. They were said to number 630,000 and became a powerful force in Central Asia.
When the Han empire began the counter-offensive against the Xiongnu, the Wusun were won over to the Chinese side in a martial alliance, sealed by a political marriage. The Wusun became a bitter enemy of the Xiongnu. After Han retreat from Central Asia, not much was recorded about the Wusun anymore. They were said to be pressed by the Rouran (柔然), also named as Juan Juan (蠕蠕), and migrated to the Congling (葱嶺) Mountains (Pamir Mountains). After this event the Wusun continued to be mentioned until 11th-century. There is a theory that they re-emerged as the Pechenegs, who in the 8th and 9th centuries inhabited the region between the lower Volga, the Don, and the Ural Mountains. From the 6th century onward the former habitat of the Wusun formed a part of the western empire of the Göktürks.
Language
It is possible the Wusun spoke a Turkic language.
Through the legend of an infant son, left in the wild, miracelously saved from hunger by sucking from a she-wolf, the Wusun shared a similar ancestor myth with the ruling Ashin (Asena) clan of the Göktürks. So they might be a Turkic people.
There was a Wusun king called Fu-li, and the Chinese scholar Han Rulin suggested a likeness to Turkic "bori = wolf".
The Pechenegs, who according to one theory originated from the Wusun, spoke a Turkic language.
On the other hand, there might have been Sai (Saka) and Yuezhi (Tocharian?) peoples among the Wusun, since they probably formed a confederation of tribes. They spoke Tocharian or an Iranian-based language.
The rather unsupported theory that they may have originated as a stranded unit of Romans also exists somewhere.
References
- Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu." 2nd Draft Edition.
- Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE (sic.). Draft annotated English translation.
- Mallory, J.P. and Mair, Victor H. 2000. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. Thames & Hudson. London.
- Stein, Aurel M. 1921. Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980.
- Watson, Burton. Trans. 1961. Records of the Grand Historian of China: Translated from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien. Chap. 123. The Account of Ta-yüan. Columbia University Press.