Origin of the Alans

[Michael Kerr]

Hi Alanus, I must admit I am a bit confused and curious regarding who the Wusun defeated in the taking of the Ili Valley. 

 I know Sima Qian’s  Shi ji claims that the Hsiung-nu attacked the Wusun but the later Han Shou states that the Ta Yueh-shih attacked the Wusun and killed the king. Even Shi ji 110 mentions that Mao-tun wrote to the then Han emperor Wen-ti in 176 BC that he defeated the Yueh-shih and wrote that 

“We have killed them and conquered them (which resulted in) the surrender of Lou-lan, Wusun, Hu-chieh and twenty six countries in their neighbourhood, all of which have become subjects of the Hsiung-nu.) Thus all the people who use the bow have been unified into one family.” 

This piece of the letter indicates to me that the Wusun and many other tribes surrendered to the Hsiung-nu and became part of the Hsiung-nu confederation as outer tribes and not part of the inner circle. Mao-tun also bragged that he had destroyed the Yueh-shih but that could be a bit of bluff and bravado as it took his son the “Old Shanyu” to defeat the Yueh-shih and turn the skull of the defeated Yueh-shih king into a drinking cup.  The Yueh-shih must have been tough. But it seems that the Yueh-shih were the sole enemies of the Hsiung-nu as they did not surrender. 

 After 166 BC after their defeat in battle the Yueh-shih split into two groups with the Ta Yueh-shih or “greater” Yueh-shih, as the Han Shou called them, turning west and defeating the Saka, driving them out of the Ili Valley and according to the Han Shou, also attacked the Wusun while the Siao Yueh-shih or “lesser” turned south of  the Tarim Valley and settled on the borderlands of Han China. Are there any other sources which dispute this theory other than Shi ji 123? It seems that the Ta Yueh-shih were lucky in that the Old Shanyu was more interested in attacking the Han than chasing them west.    

Regards

Michael Kerr