Category: Culture/Art>> Historical Topics
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I don’t know about ancient nations or countries, and I want to know the specific content
< p> Analysis:Yuezhi (pronounced "Yue Zhi", yuèzhī) is the name of an ethnic group from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. In the early days, they lived as nomads and lived in northern Asia. They often had conflicts with the Xiongnu, and then moved west to Central Asia. At this time, the monthly branch began to develop and gradually took the shape of a country. Since the Great Yuezhi was located on the Silk Road, they controlled the east-west trade, making it slowly become stronger. Later, they were attacked by the Xiongnu and split into two: those who moved west to Yili were called the Dayuezhi; those who moved south to today's Gansu and Qinghai areas in China were called the Xiaoyuezhi.
History
Regarding the origin of Yuezhi, Chinese and foreign historians have quite different opinions. According to the textual research of Chinese scholar Wang Guowei, the Yue family is the "Yu Di" in "Yi Zhou Shu·Wang Hui Jie" and the "Yu Zhi" or "Yu family" in "The Biography of Emperor Mu". European scholars have also searched for records equivalent to the Yuezhi in ancient Western documents, and there are no fewer than six or seven different theories. Regarding the Yuezhi clan, ancient Chinese books such as "Wei Lue" call it Qiang, and "Old Tang Book" calls it Rong. In the past hundred years or so, there have been even more divergent opinions in the academic world: there are Tibetan theory, Turkic theory, Indo-European theory, Persian theory, etc. Since they have no written language, and the records of the Yuezhi themselves are incomplete, we can only understand them through partial records in Chinese history books. As we know from Chinese history books, the Yuezhi lived in the Hexi Corridor from the west of Lanzhou in Gansu Province to Dunhuang. Around the early Warring States Period, the Yuezhi lived a nomadic life in this area. During the Qin Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty, the Yuezhi were so powerful that they and the Donghu in the eastern part of the Mongolian Plateau coerced the Huns who were nomadic in the central Mongolian Plateau from two aspects. The Huns once sent protons to the Yuezhi. At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Xiongnu hostage escaped from the Yuezhi, killed his father and established himself as Maodun Chanyu. About 205 to 202 BC, he raised troops to attack the Yuezhi, and the Yuezhi was defeated. Perhaps from this time on, the Yuezhi began to abandon the Hexi Corridor and migrate westward. In 177 or 176 BC, Maodun Shanyu defeated the Yuezhi again. According to a letter written by Maodun Shanyu to Emperor Liu Heng of the Han Dynasty in 174 BC: "Therefore, King Youxian was punished and sent to the west to ask the Yuezhi to attack him. With the blessing of heaven, good officials and strong horses, the Yuezhi were destroyed by barbarians. , behead them all and surrender them. Loulan, Wusun, Hujie and the twenty-six neighboring countries have all become Xiongnu, and all the people who lead the bow are united as one family, and Beizhou will be determined. "After the Yue clan was defeated this time, they moved westward. Moved to Junggar Basin. At the time of Lao Shanyu (174 BC - 161 BC), the Xiongnu defeated the Yuezhi again, and the Yuezhi moved further west to the Ili River Basin. When the Yuezhi abandoned Hexi, a small group crossed the Qilian Mountains, "Baonan Mountain Qiang, named Xiao Yueshi". This part of the Yuezhi people stayed in this area for a long time in the future and gradually integrated with the Qiang people of Qinghai.
The Ili River Basin was originally inhabited by the Serbs. "Book of Han? Biography of Zhang Qian": "The Yueshi have been defeated by the Xiongnu, and they attacked the King of Sai in the west. The King of Sai moved far south, and the Yueshi lived there." The Serbs are the Sacae recorded in ancient Iranian inscriptions and ancient Greek documents. (Sakas). After the Yuezhi drove away the Serbs, the Serbs migrated southwest, crossed the Syr Darya River, and reached Sogdiana in the river area. Wusun, who had moved to the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and submitted to the Huns, under the leadership of his king Kunmo, "attacked the Dayue clan from the west", forcing the Dayue clan, like the Serbs, to abandon the Ili area and migrate to the southwest, and Wusun then From then on they occupied their place. The time of this migration was approximately between 139 BC and 129 BC. Some of those who failed to migrate westward, like the few Sai people, still stayed in their original place and belonged to Wusun. Therefore, "Hanshu" said that "there are Sai people and Da Yueshi people in Wusun country". In the 2nd century BC, the Dayue clan left the "Sedi" from the Hexi Corridor, and were later expelled by the Wusun of the same kind. They went south to Tokhorostan and traveled as far as Northern Tianzhu. The "Yuchi" clan of the Khotan royal family in the Tang Dynasty, the "Yu clan" of the Xixia clan in the Song Dynasty, the "Waza" and "Wohezha" clans of the Gansu and Qinghai Tibetans are all descendants of the "Yue clan" or "Wuzhe". The pattern of ethnic groups spread throughout Hexi, Central Asia, and South Asia was formed through multiple migration activities over a long period of time.
Dayuezhi
In 162 BC, Dayuezhi was attacked by the Xiongnu again. At that time, Maodun Shanyu's son Laoshang Shanyu also killed the king of Dayuezhi, cut off the king's head and brought it back to the Huns, and used his skull as a cup. The Yuezhi people deeply hated the Xiongnu, but they suffered from the lack of support. The defeated Dayue clan only moved further west and came to Sogdia. Here, the Yuezhi conquered Daxia and established a country there. After the founding of the country, it became prosperous due to trade. (Bactria is Bactria established by the Greeks in Central Asia. Regarding the demise of Bactria, Da Yuezhi is only one of the theories. Another theory means that they were destroyed by the Scythians.)
In 138 BC, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty heard the news that King Yuezhi had been killed, he immediately sent a message to recruit people who could send envoys to Yuezhi, because envoys to Yuezhi had to go through the Xiongnu. Zhang Qian came to apply for the army, but he took only more than a hundred people with him and headed west. After leaving Longxi, they encountered the Huns cavalry. Zhang Qian and his party were all captured alive and brought to Shan Yu.
When Chanyu learned that Zhang Qian was going to send an envoy to the Yuezhi, he said angrily: "The Yuezhi is to the north of me, and you, the Han Dynasty, want to send an envoy over my head? I want to send an envoy to South Vietnam, will the Emperor of the Han agree?" So the Chanyu general Zhang Qian detained the Xiongnu for ten years, forcing him to take a wife and have children, hoping to weaken his will, but Zhang Qian always remembered his mission.
Finally one day Zhang Qian escaped while the guard was lax, walked over the mountains and ridges westward for dozens of days, and came to Dawan. The king of Dawan heard about his experience and the richness of the Central Plains. , was very happy and wanted to have a good relationship with the Han Dynasty, so he sent a guide to lead Zhang Qian to Kangju, and then transferred to Yuezhi. However, at this time, the Yuezhi Kingdom had already appointed a new lady as its king. They surrendered to the Great Xia Kingdom and got a land with fertile water and grass to live and work in peace and contentment. They no longer had any desire to take revenge on the Huns. What's more, they felt that the Han Dynasty was too far away from them, making it harder to help them. Zhang Qian stayed in Yuezhi for a year, but was unable to successfully complete his mission and had to return home.
According to legend, the Da Yuezhi were the people who brought Buddhism to China. At that time, in 2 BC, there was Yicun, the envoy of King Dayuezhi, who introduced oral classics such as "Buddha Sect". However, some people say that this statement is rather hasty.
Xiaoyuezhi
As for the Xiaoyuezhi who moved southeast to Gansu and Qinghai in today's China, because Gansu and Qinghai were still outside China at that time and were governed by the Xiongnu, This group of Yuezhi people living among the Huns gradually integrated with the Xiongnu themselves and were called Lu Shuihu, a separate tribe of the Xiongnu. Among them, the Juqu family mainly pushed back the Han officialdom in Liang and established Northern Liang in what is now Gansu. Later, Mengxun of Juqu killed Duan Ye and established himself as the Lord of Northern Liang. Later, it was destroyed by the Tuoba clan of Xianbei in the Northern Wei Dynasty.
The Dayuezhi and the Kushan Dynasty
In the past, historians always believed that the Kushan Dynasty was founded by the Dayuezhi people. But later, as more past historical artifacts were unearthed and more ancient documents were interpreted, this view was proved to be wrong.
Problems with the pronunciation of the word "月" in Yuezhi
The word "月" in Yuezhi was originally pronounced as "肉", which is the result of miscommunication and misunderstanding. "Yue" and "肉" in "Shuowen Jiezi" are two radicals with similar but different shapes, but they are often confused. The new version of "Cihai" has corrected the pronunciation of "Yue Zhi" to "Yue". The "Yueshi" country has long been recorded in pre-Qin historical records, that is, the "Yushi" country recorded in "Yi Zhou Shu" and "Guan Zi". Yu and Yue are different translations of the same foreign pronunciation and should not be read as "肉".
In the Mandarin Dictionary of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Yuezhi is also pronounced "ㄩㄝˋ ㄓ" (yùezhī). But it also has two pronunciations: "ㄖㄡˋ ㄓ" (ròuzhī) and "ㄖㄨˋ ㄓ" (rùzhī).