A Thousand Years of the Tartars

Preface

. ' I following pages are intended to give, in (it is hoped) readable form, the substance of all the Chinese have to say about the nomad Tartars previous to the conquests of Genghis Khan. Specialists and critics will doubtless find much which at first sight may seem to require further explanation ; but wdien I say that I have translated, word for word, all the original Chinese authorities I can find, and that the explanatory references and manuscript notes attached to the translations reach to over seven thousand, it will be admitted that there is some ground for adopting the new course of omitting all justificatory matter whatever. There is one exception. As, in order to make the narrative more readable, I have endeavoured throughout to substitute Tartar sounds for Chinese transliterations of those sounds ; and have almost uniformly used modern place names instead of the names they bore at the time each event is described ;

PREFACE.

. II I have thought it well to place the original Chinese sounds of all proper names in the margin, so that those who are competent to consult the originals may be able to search out the desired reference for themselves. I have done this in the Pekingese dialect. This, being a mere Tartar-corrupted jargon of standard Chinese, is about the worst that could have been chosen, so far as the chance of any resemblance to the Tartar sounds intended is concerned ; but it is the dialect best known to those students in China who are likely to require the references. Cantonese would have been the best of all, but few Europeans know Cantonese. To explain the grounds upon which 1 arrive at my conclusions in this excepted department would require a separate treatise. I therefore enter into no further justifications. Armed with the original authorities, I am prepared to give satisfaction to all who can shew that they merit it. E.^H. PARKER. CONTENTS. Page,

Book I

— The Empire of the Hiung-nu. Chapter I. — Earliest Notices of the Hiung-nu - - 1 Chapter II. — The Reign of the Conqueror Meghder - - lo Chapter 111.— The Period of Contest for Mastery with China 25 Chapter IV.— The Period of Defeat and Decline - - 41 Chapter V.— The Period of Semi-Independence - - 5G Chapter VI. — Dependence, Disintegration, and Collapse - 8S Chapter VII. — Hiung-nu Adventurers become Emperors of North China 103

Book II

— The Empire of the Sien-pl Chapter I. — Earliest Notices of the Wu-hwan 'funguses - 117 Chapter II. — The Empire of the Sien-pi Conqueror Dardjegwe - 12G Chapter III. — Sien-pi Adventurers become King and Emperors in North China .... 138 Chapter IV. — The Tukuhun Sien-pi of Koko-nor - - 150

Book III

— The Empire of the Jwen-jwen or Jeu-jen. Chapter I. — Their Obscure Rise and their Precipitate Fall 159 Chapter II. — Their Struggle with the Kankalis. Description of the High Carts - - . -

Book IV

— The Empire of the Turks or Assen a Family. Page. Chapter I.— Earliest Notices of the Turks : Period of Peace with China 177 Chapter II. — Period of War with China, and Collapse of Gheri's Empire 191 Chatter III. — The Rise and Fall of Mercho's Empire - 210 Chapter IV. — Resuscitation and Final Collapse - - 223

Book V

— The Empire of the Western Turks. Chapter 1. — Temporary Brilliance and Final Disappearance of the Assena Family ... 231 Chapter 11. — The Turgis and Karluks Rule the West and Lose Touch with China - 243 Chapter III. — Turkish Emperors of North China - - 216 Chapter IV.— Ths Kirghiz 252 Chapter V. — Miscellaneous Turkish Vassal Tribes - - 260

Book VI

— The Empire of the Ouigours. Chatter I. — Rise and Fall of the First Dominion in the North 2G5 Chapter 1 1. — The Period of Wandering .... 282 Chapter III.— The Later Ouigours of the West - - - 285

Book VII

— The Empire of the Cathayans. Chapter I.— The Kingdom of the Founder Apaoki - - 297 Chapter H.— Conquest of the Turko- Chinese Empire by Cathay 313 Chapter III.— Period of Comparative Peace - - - 328 Chapter IV. — General Description of Cathay in the Eleventh Century 343 Chapter V. — Insolence, Tyranny, Rebellion of the Niichens, and Collapse

Chapter I

Earliest Notices of the Hiung-nu. ' I XHE real history of the nomads of Eastern Asia -*- begins about the same time and very much in the same way as the history of the northern tribes ot Europe. The Chinese Empire, like the Roman Empire, began a career of discovery and conquest, which resulted in closer and more frequent contact with and blending of races, incessant frontier wars, subversion of the Empire, and a general shifting of political centres. More ancient than the experiences of China and Rome were those of Greece and Persia ; but the account of the Scythians given by Herodotus differs from the later Chinese and Roman records in being rather a vivid picture of life and manners than au exact political history. Yet there is very Hsiung-uu little in the descriptions of Herodotus which does not perfectly accord with the Chinese portrayal of the Hiung-nu on the one hand and the Roman narrative of the Huns on the other.

Whether the Hiung-nu of China are to be etymologically connected with the Ouwot, Hunnen, and Huns of the west, is a question which is scarcely susceptible of positive proof either one way or the other. We confine ourselves to giving a plain record of facts as gathered from Chinese history, leaving each reader free to form theories for himself, and avoiding speculation unless we are tolerably sure of our ground. At the time when our narrative begins, nothing whatever was known by the Chinese of the Japanese, Burmese, Siamese, Hindoos, Turkestan races, or Southern Seas; and there was only the very faintest knowdedge of Corea, the Tungusic tribes, the An namese, the various tribes south of the Great River or Yangtsze, the Tibetan nomads, or others. China's foreign relations were practically confined to the horse-riding freebooters of the north.

In the oldest times they had been known by different names more or less similar in sound to the above-mentioned appellation so familiar to general history : but it is a mistake to suppose, as most European writers have done, that the term Hiung-nu only dates from the second century before Christ. The historian Ma Twan lin himself combats this idea, and cites two instances to prove not only that, long previous to this, the national designation was in use, but also that under the same name the power in question had already become a considerable one. In nearly every case the Chinese trace the political beginnings of their frontier kingdoms to some Chinese exile or adventurer who, accommodating himself to local circumstances, and doubtless easily gaining paramount influence through his acquaintance with the all-important art of writing, succeeded in welding a series of homo geneous tribes into a nation.

It is quite certain that this was later the case in Corea, Foochow, Canton, Yun Nan, Kan Sub, and Formosa ; and, this being so, there seems no good reason for reject ing the traditions that the same thing took place with the nomadic races of Tibet, Mongolia, and Man churia. The Chinese themselves do not make too much of the Hiung-nu tradition, (which, however, is there,) to the effect that about B.C. 1200 a royal personage, who had most probably been misconduct ing himself, fled to the nomads of the north and founded among them a sort of dynasty. But, although for many centuries previous to B.C!. 200 the northern states of the Chinese Empire had trouble with these nomads, there was never any record of the generations and successions of the latter, and the amount of knowledge possessed concerning them was about on a par with that recorded in the pages Ta-lun : Ta ta ; Ta-tzsi. of Herodotus concerning the Scythians.

As yet nothing positive was known of the Tungusic or eastern branch of nomads, with whom the Chinese were not brought into close contact until several centuries later. It was only the great and pre dominant nomad nation of the Hiung-nu of which they had any satisfactory knowledge. In later times the word ■•Turkish" or " Turko- Scythian " has been applied to distinguish the various homogeneous tribes which formed the Empire of the Hiung-nu ; but this word was totally unknown previous to the 5th century of our era, and it would therefore be an anachronism for us to speak of " Turks " just yet. So with the word " Tartar," — which, singularly enough, is also used by the Chinese in the same vague way as with us ; — this word was certainly unknown to history in any form previous to the second century of our era, and even then, as in the subsequent case of " Turk," it was at first only applied to one petty tribe.

So, whatever we may think of the identity between the word Hiung-nu and the word Hun, it is as certain that the Chinese had no other name for the horse-riding, flesh-eatino and kumiss-drinking nomads of North Asia as it is that the Europeans had no other name for the horse riding, flesh-eating, and kumiss-drinking nomads of North Europe, who only appeared there after the ruling castes of the Hiuug-nu power had been driven from China. Moreover the Scythians of Herodotus who were brought into contact with the Greeks and Persians seem to have possessed exactly the same manners as the Hiung-nu of China and the Huns of Europe, so that we may reasonably conclude that each of the three had some ethnographical connection one with the other. The Hiung-nu lived on horseback ; " then country was the back of a horse."

They moved from place to place with their flocks and herds, always in search of fresh pasture. Horses, cattle, and sheep were their usual possessions ; but they also occa sionally had camels, asses, mules, and other peculiar breeds of the equine family which it is not easy for us now to identify. They had no cities or towns of any description ; but, though their residence in one place never lasted long, each tribe had reserved to it a certain range of territory ; and, though they had no agricultural occupations, each tent or house hold seems to have had a share of land for its own exclusive use. They possessed no written character, and all orders and administrative acts were conveyed bv word of mouth only. When mere babies, they were taught to ride on sheep and to shoot rats or birds wdth a tiny bow and arrow ; as they grew older, they practised their skill upon foxes and hares.

Every grown-up man strong enough to bend an ordinary bow was a trooper. Every one, from the highest to the lowest, fed upon flesh and milk ; used the skins of the animals slaughtered as clothing, and wore an overcoat of felt made out of the hair. The fighting men were always conceded the best enter tainment, the old and feeble were despised, and had to pick up wdiat was left. A universal custom, which, as we shall see, extended for a thousand years over the whole of Tartary, was for the son to take over his deceased father's wives, (with the exception of his own natural mother), and for younger brothers to take over the widows of their elder brethren. It does not appear quite certain whether the son or the brother had first choice : perhaps the brother only took when there was no son : possibly vice versa.

In times of peace, besides tending their herds, they kept their hands in training by hunting and shooting: at other times every man was ready for a fight or a raid. It was not considered shameful to retreat before an enemy : in fact, their system of warfare seems to have been one of sudden ill -concerted rushes, feints, and ambushes. They were destitute of any considerations of mercy or justice : force was their only law ; and, when hand-to-hand combats did take place, they possessed swords and daggers as well as their bows. Some of the oldest accounts seem to shew that in winter there were cave-dwellers amongst them : but perhaps this statement has special reference to the Tungusic Tartars of the East, Chan-kuo BC. 700-200, Prince Wil ling of Cha It is unnecessary to go into the earliest accounts of Tartar wars, which are of the vaguest description.

Suffice it to say that from B.C. 1400 to B.C. 200 there are laconic notices of Chinese fights with the nomads, with dates given in each case, so that they may fairly be accepted as history. The Northern parts of the provinces now known as Shen Si, Shan Si, and Chih Li were then in possession of the nomads. For many centuries, during wdiat is known as the " Conflicting State Period," the nomad power stood on terms of equality with China. Both the Emperor of China and his restless vassal kings at different times formed marriage alliances with the nomad powers, and at least one Chinese king deliberately adopted the Tartar costume and mode of life. Another etymological question now appears, and that is whether the Chinese word Tung-hu or " Eastern Tartars," (a term which is as regularly applied to the ancestors of the Cathayans or Kitans, Manchus, and Coreans as the term Hiung-nu is regularly applied to the ancestors of the Turks, Ouigours, Khirgiz, etc.), has any etymological connection with the European word Tungusic or Tunguz.

I have not the means of tracing back a careful enquiry into this point, which is discussed again in Book II : if the two words are in no way connected by etymology, it is a remarkable instance of coincidence, for they both serve to indicate exactly the same idea. There is another incident tlœ Tartars. 8 General Li M u of Chao, mentioned which tends to shew that the frontier states of China must have been deeply impregnated with Tartar ideas. One of the vassal princes had a beaker fashioned out of the skull of a rival satrap, a proceeding as contrary to Confucian ideas of propriety as it is consonant with all we know of Hiung-nu and Scythian customs. Towards the end of the third century before Christ, and just before the menacing Western power of Ts'in succeeded in destroying the old feudal system and reducing the whole of China under one direct imperial sway, the vassal state which then ruled over the Northern parts of what are now called Shan Si and Chih Li carried out a systematic policy of resistance, on Fabian principles, to the nomad incursions, and at last succeeded in decoying the Tartar king into the open, where he was utterly defeated with the loss of 100,000 men.

After Ts'in had amalgamated this state together with the others, the celebrated general Meng T'ien was sent at the head of several hundred thousand men to attack the Tartars ; the wdiole line of the Yellow River was recovered, including the Loop portion now known as the Ordous country. The Tartars were driven away to the north of the Great Desert ; enormous numbers of criminals and othjr unfortunate people were drafted northwards, in order to construct a military road and do garrison duty ; over forty citadels or fortified towns were built along the line of the Kao-ch'ueh, Chao Wu ling. frontier ; and, finally, the so-called Great Wall was carried continuously from the sea to a point near the modern provincial capital of Lan-chou Fu in Kan Sub. This Great Wall still exists in a more or less complete state throughout nearly its entire length ; and, as it is distinctly marked upon almost every modern map of China, the reader of the following pages will find his task much facilitated if he keeps this line well before his mind ; for it not only enables us to dispense with the necessity of introducing multitudinous strange Chinese names of places, — names, too, which often vary as to locality with each succeeding dynasty, — but it marks in a vivid way the blood-line along which millions of human skeletons are to lie bleaching without intermission during a thousand years' struggle.

It is proper, however, to remark that Meng T'ien with his half million of slaves did not do more than improve and consolidate already existinowalls ; for we are told that the Chinese king who adopted Tartar costume had already built a Great Wall from north-east Shan Si to the western most extremity of the Loop country, and a little before that the rising power of Ts'in had built another wall still further west. To the east, again, the frontier state of Yen, which roughly speaking may he taken to represent the plain of modern Peking, had con structed a Great Wall from about the longitude of Peking to the sea, so that it is evident very little Mao-tun or Me-t'e. remained for Meng T'ien to do but to improve and strengthen the already existing fortifications. In later times, too, various northern dynasties added to or laterally extended the line of the Great Wall in the east, more especially near Peking ; so that the magnificent and almost perfect structure which modern visitors make a point of going to see at a distance of about thirty miles from that capital is very far from being the ancient Great Wall of two thousand years ago.

Chapter II

The Reign of the Conqueror Meghder. As we have seen, the Hiung-nu were obliged to retire before the formidable power of the great Chinese Imperator, who was a man of the most uncompromis ing and grandiose ideas. It is not improbable that his eternally execrated act of destroying all the literature and learned men he could lay his hands on worked some good in an indirect way ; for the necessity of reproducing this literature and of having some means of written communication for the immediate necessities of government probably stimu lated the Chinese to invent objects less cumbrous than the old bamboo tablets and iron styles, and soniethinor more potentially rapid of production than the clumsy old characters of innumerable strokes. Be that as it Yueh-chih Ch'in Shih Huang. Shan-yii. T'ou-man, may, Meng T'ien has not only the reputation of having been the original builder of the Great Wall, but also the equally unmerited one of having been the original inventor of the modern hair writing pencil : but competent Chinese critics prove that the utmost he did was to improve the hair pencil which had already been in use for some time.

The Hiung nu had to contend with another formidable power as well as with the Chinese. This was a nomadic nation known to the Chinese as the Yiieb-chi', and then in possession of the western half of the long straggling province now known as Kan Sub. The Chinese seem to have been almost totally ignorant of this people previous to the absorption of the feudal states in the new Empire of Ts'in ; and indeed this is no wonder ; for, previous to that important event, the state of Ts'in was the only one which could have conveniently had any relations with the West at all. At the time the Hiung-nu were forced to retire before the all-pervading power of the Imperator, the nomad Emperor (or Zenghi as he styled himself) was called Deuman, and with the Zenghi Deuman the history of the nomad empires may be said to begin.

The new (Jhinese Universal Empire fell to pieces almost immediately after the death of its able founder, and during the anarchy which followed Deuman was able to recover and develop his reduced power. The northern frontier was necessarily neming-ti, glected during the mortal struggle which took place between rival ( Ihinese military adventurers. Deuman gradually moved southwards from his inaccessible stronghold north of the Desert, aud ended by crossing the Yellow River, repossessing himself of the Ordous territory, and resuming his old boundaries with China : in other words, he once more occupied the eastern part of modern Kan Sub province. Deuman was now an old man, and unfortunately in the hands of a much-beloved young queen. Listening to the voice of this female charmer, he allowed himself to be persuaded into accepting her son as his heir, to the prejudice of the legitimate aspirant, who was an able captain named Meghder.

In order to encom pass Meghder' s destruction, Deuman sent him as a hostage to the neighbouring state of Yueb-eh'i and then attacked that power, hoping that in their indig nation the Yiieh-chii would murder his son. But Meghder was too alert for them, and, mounting one of their fleetest steeds, succeeded in making his way safely home. Deuman was so pleased at this act of prowess that he at once placed his valiant son in command of ten thousand troopers. Meohder however, was by no means so ready to forgive the uxorious father's initial display of feebleness and treachery, so he carefully matured a scheme for Deuman's destruction. First of all he invented a new species of " singing-arrow," — the nari-kabura of the Wu-hwan early Japanese, — the use of oue of which by him upon any victim was to be a signal for all his attendants to fire instantly at the same object.

After having tried their mettle, first upon his best horse, and next upon his favourite wife, with the result that several troopers were in each case executed for dis obedience, he watched his opportunity one day when old Deuman was out hunting, and fired a singing-arrow at him. The result was that the Zenghi fell dead pierced through and through, and Meghder was immediately proclaimed in his place. A general massacre of his late father's family and household followed, but Meghder seems to have reserved at least one paternal widow to be his own wdfe. At this time it would appear that the Tunguses were a consolidated power, little inferior to the Hiung-nu, and that a 300 mile stretch of desert lay between the two dominions as a sort of neutral zone. Hearing of Meghder's unfilial behaviour and usurped succession, they sent envoys to him to demand a present of the finest horses as the price of their non-interference.

Meghder, wdio was as wary a diplomat as he was dashing a captain, affected to censure those of his council wdio were in favour of war, and feigned anxiety to conciliate the Tunguses by granting their request. As he had anticipated, the latter now grew more presuming, and demanded one of his favourite wives. But Meghder's policy was to give them plenty of rope before hanging them with it, and so off the queen went too, much to the consternation of the warlike council. The Tunguses now began to mass troops on their western frontier, and, having come to the conclusion that Meghder had not the courage of his position, boldly demanded the cession to them of the hitherto neutral strip. Meghder's councillors were some of them inclined to give up what they termed a useless piece of land, but they paid the penalty of their failure to penetrate their master's policy with their heads, and war was promptly declared.

Immediate decapitation was to be the lot of every able soldier in the kingdom who should fail to present himself promptly at head quarters. Meghder's calculations were perfectly successful : the Tunguses, having come to the con clusion that he was a craven spirit, had neglected all precautions ; their nation was utterly broken in one short campaign ; their flocks and herds were driven off, and the majority of the population were made slaves. A miserable remnant of them took refuge in the now Mongol plateaux north-east of modern Peking, where, as we shall see later on, they gra dually developed into a formidable power. It is as well here to direct attention to a. phenomenon in nomad history which at once explains how each successive dominion of Huns, Tunguses, Turks, Ouigours, Kitans or Cathayans, Mongols, and Manchus were formed, and at the same time proves how utterly impossible it is to provide a definite locality for or clothe with an exclusive nationality any particular horde.

The result of a great battle was that many of the women passed over to new masters ; the captive youths became warriors, usually under their own chiefs, but subject to the supreme control of the conqueror ; the old men were turned out to tend the flocks and herds, and the flocks and herds simply changed masters for a few years until another revolution occurred. Slave and master lived very much in the same way, the only difference being that one did the menial work whilst the other enjoyed himself ; meanwhile the women, habituated to the idea of passing from one man to the other even in their own tribes, only had to undergo the rough excitement of an extra embrace from a man who was not of their own particular choice. Under such circumstances, though the main distinctions of Hiung-nu and Tungus are always preserved, it is not to be wondered at that languages get intermingled, tribes hopelessly mixed up, and customs interchanged.

For the present the Tungusic power utterly dis appears. Up to this date the Chinese knew little of it as apart from that of the Hiung-nu, and for a couple of centuries at least this ignorance of their manners and customs continues. They had no relations .with China of any kind, and we are told so. t Meghder was one of the great conquerors of the world's history, and may fairly be called the Hannibal of Tartary. It is the practice even amongst our most highly educated men in Europe to deliver sonorous sentences about being "master of the world," '• bringing all nations of the earth under her sway," and so on, when in reality only some corner of the Mediterranean is involved, or some ephemeral sally into Persia or Gaul. Cyrus and Alexander, Darius and Xerxes, Cæsar and Pompey all made very in teresting excursions, but they were certainly not on a larger scale or charged with greater human interest than the campaigns which were going on at the other end of Asia.

Western civilization possessed much in art and science for which China never cared, but on the other hand the Chinese developed a historical and critical literature, a courtesy of de meanour, a luxury in clothing, and an administrative system of which Europe might have been proud. In one word the history of the Far East is quite as interesting as that of the Far West. It only requires to be able to read it. When we brush away con temptuously from our notice the tremendous events which took place on the plains of Tartary, we must not blame the Chinese too much for declining to interest themselves in the doings of what to them appear insiguificant states dotted round the Medi terranean aud Caspian, which, at this time, was Ting-ling, Ke k'un, etc. Ch'eng-li Ku tu Shan-yu. practically all the world of which we knew iu Europe.

Meghder, having thus disposed of the Tunguses, now turned his attention to the Yiieh-chi, who found it necessary to move farther away to the south and west. He recovered all the disputed territory which had been annexed by Meng T'ien, and also considerably advanced his frontiers farther east in the neigh bourhood of modern Kalgan and Jehol. As he had 300,000 troopers under his command, it would be fair to estimate his population at about the same number of tents. All the northern tribes in the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal and the Amur were under his sway ; but, as the Chinese knew nothing of these remote peoples at this time, we can only judge by slender indications that the Kirghiz, the future High Carts or Ouigours, and the Oruuchun or Fish skin Tartars were certainly amongst those he had subdued.

It is certain the Kirghiz were. A few words regarding the Hiung-nu adminis trative system will not be uninteresting. The full title of the king or Emperor was Tengri Kudu Zenghi, which we are distinctly told means "Heaven's Son Immense." The word tengri is still both Turkish and Mongol for " heaven," and it is not at all unlikely that the Genghis or Zenghiz Khan of the Mongols © n c* may be the old word Zenghi in a slightly changed form. It certainly was not his personal name. It is a t'u-ch'i, ku-li or lu-H ku-tu, ku-tu-lu, for Turkish scholars to exercise their wits upon the word kudu. The next in rank to the Zenghi were the two Dugi, one for the East and one for the West, the Zenghi himself ruling the central portion of the nomad Empire. The Chinese tell us that the word dugi meant "virtuous" or "worthy," and as East and West are equivalent to Left and Right in Chinese parlance, they almost invariably translate instead of using the Tartar words, and say " Left and Right Worthy Princes."

Of the two the Eastern Dugi was of the higher rank, and was usually h6ir to the throne. Then came the Left and Right Rukle, Left and Right Marshals, Left and Right Chamberlains, and Left and Right Kuttu Marquesses with a few others in similar pairs. The Left Rukle ranked before the Right Dugi. There were twenty-four in all who had deca-chiliarch rank, that is, the right to command ten thousand troopers. The Right and Left Dugi and Rukle formed the "Four Horns." Then came three other pairs called "Six Horns." All these were agnates of the Zenghi, aud the " white horn " of Genghis Khan and the Great Mogul is perhaps in some way connected with the idea. 1 cannot even guess at the word rukle, but the word kuttu which, in this form and the form kutiduk, endures through the history of the Turks for a thousand years, is un doubtedly the same etymologically as the modern Turkish word kutluk, " felicitous.