This chapter of the course textbook immediately started off with compelling information. The Xiongnu, a nomadic shepherds inhabiting China’s northwestern borders (Mongolia), were so annoying and irritating to their Chinese farming neighbours (with their constant raids) that they actually provoked the construction of the first part of the Great Wall in Gansu. The Xiongnu name is often translated to ‘Huns’ which (as juvenile as it may sound) I immediately recognized and put into ‘context’ from Disney’s motion picture movie Mulan.
This perception of the Huns as deviants is made clear in the Chinese two-character name for them, literally meaning “fierce slaves’. This description of ‘fierce’ seems almost too passive when in Zhang Quan’s (envoy for the Wudi [Martial Emperor] of the Han) biography; he tells us that the Huns made a drinking vessel out of the king of the Yuezhi’s skull. Zhang was ironically imprisoned by the Huns for 10 years when on his mission to enlist support to drive the Huns back.
The sense of a ‘tribute relationship’ is a very interesting concept, because though the Huns demonstrated power over the Chinese, they were compliant with trade as well as in methods of balance with the Han. In order to avoid frontier war, the Han administration made arrangements with the Huns for each side to send ’hostages’ - princesses from the Han and sons of rulers from outside states (50)
What I really find intriguing is the diplomatic efforts of the Han in dealing with Loulan and Xiongnu relations. Hostages are frequently used, and a central feature of Han diplomacy was to use spare princesses to organize matrimonial alliances.
In addition to matrimonial arrangements, China sent out ten percent of the states revenue in ‘gifts’ such as silk, alcohol, rice and other foodstuffs to the Huns. These were called gifts only so that the Chinese could save face and not consider them ‘tributes’. The resentment towards the Hans is evident in a contemporary Chinese account that described them as good-for-nothing; a people abandoned by heaven.
Returning to the Han shu, the official history of the western Han (in which Zhang’s biography is found) there is a Chapter (96 to be exact) that is entitled ‘Description of the Western Regions’. This provided census information included amount of civilians, households, people able to bear arms, etc. This also showed the Han Chinese bureaucracy at work as it had information on registration for taxes as a vital part of the economy (52). Another intriguing development during the Han dynasty was establishment of custom posts and passports to prevent smuggling (59)
Besides these interesting origins, some other key points in this chapter that I found to be of importance were the great value and importance of horses, and the practice of passing a widowed wife on to someone else in the family.
Okay, that’s it for my Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia blog… now onto find the online reading!
p.s....
sorry I just had to youtube this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz38PkCWxqU
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