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Wusun
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The Wusun were a nomadic steppe people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived to the northwest of China near the Yuezhi people but fled circa 176 BCE to the region of the Ili river and (lake) Issyk Kul and formed a powerful force there after being defeated by the Xiongnu where they remained for at least five centuries.
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The Wusun were a nomadic steppe people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived to the northwest of China near the Yuezhi people but fled circa 176 BCE to the region of the Ili river and (lake) Issyk Kul and formed a powerful force there after being defeated by the Xiongnu where they remained for at least five centuries. The last reference to the Wusun in the Chinese historical sources is in 436 CE, when a Chinese envoy was sent to their country and the Wusun reciprocated.
Their later fate is connected with the Turkic Kaganates and the sudden reversals of fortune that fell on Central Asia and, specifically, the Jeti-su area. Considerable remains of their traces and their impact on the events and surrounding peoples were left in the Persian, Muslim, Turkic, and Russian sources extending from the 6th century AD to the present (see Uysyn). At present, their descendants number approximately 250,000 people, about a half of their number in the 1st century AD, Uysyns have two branches, Dulat and Sary Uysyn ("Yellow Uysyn").
Anthropology and archeology
According to Chinese archaeologists the excavated skeletal remains of the presumed Wusun people are short-headed Europoid type of the Central Asian, Transoxanian type.
Wusun women were first described in a Western Han dynasty book of divination, the Jiaoshi Yilin, as "ugly and dark colored people with deep eye sockets," who probably resembled Indians, as suggested from the reported skin complexion. However, a very brief pejorative quote from an ancient book of divination is hardly a reliable source for determining ethnic characteristics.
The Wusun were described later in the Chinese historical annals as having "green [or blue] eyes and red beard [or hair], and are like a macaque." (This commentary was added by Yan Shigu in the 7th century to the Hanshu).
History
At the beginning of what is known about the history of the Wusun, they lived near the Yuezhi people. According to Zhang Qian, the Yuezhi were defeated by the rising Xiongnu empire and fled westward. En route they drove away the Sai (which is presumed to be the Chinese name for Saka). Earlier to this event, they overran the Wusun, and the Wusun ruler (kunmo), Nandoumi, lost his life. His infant son, Liejiaomi, was left in the wild, then miraculously saved from hunger by sucking from a she-wolf and being fed meat by ravens. The Xiongnu ruler (Chanyu) was impressed and adopted the child. When the child grew up the Chanyu gave him command in the west and as an act of revenge, the Wusun attack the Yuezhi, who had taken refuge in the Ili Valley. The Yuezhi were crushed completely and fled further west to Ferghana, and finally settled in Bactria. The Wusun took over the Ili Valley and then expanded to occupy a large area and tried to keep away from the Xiongnu. They were said to number 630,000 with 188,000 men capable of bearing arms and so became a powerful force in Central Asia (Hanshu, ch.61 & 96).
When the Han empire began their counter-offensive against the Xiongnu, the Wusun, after getting series of threats from them, had become a bitter enemy of the Xiongnu. So the Wusun were won over to the Chinese side in a martial alliance, sealed by a political marriage. After Han retreat from Central Asia, not much was recorded about the Wusun anymore. They were pressured by the Rouran, and may have migrated to the Congling Mountains (Pamir Mountains) in the 5th century (Weishu, ch.102). From the 6th century onward the former habitat of the Wusun formed a part of the western empire of the Göktürks. After this event the Wusun seem to disappear from history, though their name was last mentioned on an offering to the court of Liao Dynasty on September 22, 938 (Liaoshi, ch.4).
Culture and characteristics
According to the Shiji (c.123) and the Hanshu (c.96), a daughter from the Han prince, Liu Jian, was sent to the ruler (kunmo or kunmi) of the Wusun between 110 BCE and 105 BCE. She describes them as nomads who lived in felt tents, ate raw meat and drank fermented mare's milk.
On the other hand, the Wusun were notable for their harmony towards neighbours, even though they were constantly raided by the Xiongnu and Kangju. In 71 BCE, a Chinese envoy cooperated with the Wusun and lent an army of 50,000 to attack the Xiongnu for them, which ended in a great victory. However, a dispute took place soon after the death of their ruler, Nimi, in 53 BCE; the Wusun were divided into two kingdoms, under a little kunmi and greater kunmi, both of whom recognised Chinese supremacy and remained faithful vassals. In 2 CE, Wang Mang issued a list of four regulations to the allied Xiongnu that the entry onto their territory of any hostages of vassals, i.e. Wusun, Wuhuan and the statelets of Western Regions, would not be tolerated; the Xiongnu obeyed.
Phonetics and etymology
Previously, Wusun sounded probably more like Asman (*ah-sman < *asman), or *o-s?n, *uo-sen or ?ah-swe depending on the authors, suggesting that they may have been the Osians of Geographica. The modern phonetics of the Wusun is a modern pronunciation of the hieroglyphs ??. Chinese annals contain a translation of Asman, around 107 BC a Han princess married to the Usun Hunmo composed a song that called Wusun country a Sky (Tian) country, and in China the Wusun horses (Ch. Usun ma) were called heavenly horses (Ch. Tian ma). Ptolemy (VI, 14, 177 AD) knew Asman tribe, it was located east from Rha-Itil-Volga.
The Chinese name Wusun ?? literally means, wu = 'crow' or 'raven' + sun = 'grandson'. Through the legend of an infant son, left in the wild, miraculously saved from hunger by sucking from a she-wolf, and being fed meat by ravens, they shared a similar ancestor myth with the ruling Ashina clan of the Göktürks (Asena legend), and many other Eurasian peoples. See, for example, the legend of Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome.
Language
For some time, it was theorized by some that the Wusun spoke an Altaic language, perhaps Proto-Turkic. Some scholars, including Chinese scholar Han Rulin, as well as G. Vambery, A. Scherbak, P. Budberg, L. Bazin and V.P. Yudin, noted that the Wusun king's name Fu-li, as reported in Chinese sources and translated as "wolf", is identical to Bori, resembling Proto-Turkic "böri" = "wolf". Other words listed by these scholars include, for example, the title "bag/beg" = "lord". However, this theory is contradicted by some leading Turkologists, including Peter B. Golden and Carter V. Findley, who point out that none of the mentioned words were Turkic in origin. Carter V. Findley notes that the term böri is most likely derived from one of the Indo-European Iranian languages of Central Asia, while the title beg is certainly derived from Sogdian baga ("lord"), a cognate of Middle Persian ba? (as used by the rulers of the Sassanid Empire), as well as Sanskrit bhaga and Russian bog. It is evident from Chinese sources that Indo-European Sai (Saka) and Yuezhi (Tokharians) were among the people of the Wusun state Jeti-su, and some scholars have also tried to identify the Wusun with the Issedones of Herodotus, an Iranian tribe related to the Scythians of antiquity. But this remains uncertain (see below), as it is very difficult to identify the Wusun with the "Tokharian category of Indo-European". Most likely, the Wusun formed a multi-lingual confederation of nomadic tribes of the steppe, much similar to other steppe confederencies of the region, such as the Xiongnu or the Scythians.
Wusun and Issedones connection
There are theories that the Wusun may have been identical with the people described by Herodotus (IV.16-25) and in Ptolemy's Geography as Issedones. The exact location of their country in Central Asia is unknown; the Issedones are "placed by some in Western Siberia and by others in Chinese Turkestan," according to E. D. Phillips.
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