Yancai
Yancai (
History
Yancai is first mentioned in Chapter 123 of the
Yancai lies some 2,000 li [832 km][10] northwest of Kangju. The people are nomads and their customs are generally similar to those of the people of Kangju. The country has over 100,000 archer warriors, and borders on a great shoreless lake.[11]
The people of Yancai are usually considered an
The Later
The kingdom of Yancai [lit. ‘Vast Steppe’] has changed its name to the kingdoms of Alan [and] Liao. They occupy the country and the towns. They are dependencies of Kangju [the Talas basin, Tashkent and Sogdiana]. The climate is mild. Wax trees, pines, and ‘white grass’ [aconite] are plentiful. Their way of life and dress are similar to those of Kangju.[14]
Y. A. Zadneprovskiy writes that the subjection of Yancai by the Kangju occurred in the 1st century BC.[12] The westward expansion of the Kangju obliged many of the Sarmatians to migrate westwards, and this contributed significantly to the Migration Period in Europe, which played a major role in world history.[15] The name Alanliao has been connected by modern scholars with that of the Alans.[12]
Yancai is last mentioned in the 3rd century Weilüe:
Then there is the kingdom of Liu, the kingdom of Yan [to the north of Yancai], and the kingdom of Yancai [between the Black and Caspian Seas], which is also called Alan. They all have the same way of life as those of Kangju. To the west, they border Da Qin [Roman territory], to the southeast they border Kangju [the Chu, Talas, and middle Jaxartes basins]. These kingdoms have large numbers of their famous sables. They raise cattle and move about in search of water and fodder. They are close to a large shoreless lake. Previously they were vassals of Kangju [the Chu, Talas, and middle Jaxartes basins]. Now they are no longer vassals.[16][17]
In the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, the Alans emerged as the dominant people of the Sarmatians either through conquering or absorbing other tribes.[13] At this time they migrated westwards to Southern Russia and frequently raided the Parthian and Roman Empire.
See also
Notes
References
Citations
- ^ Schuessler, Axel (2014). "Phonological Notes on Hàn Period Transcriptions of Foreign Names and Words" (PDF). Studies in Chinese and Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Dialect, Phonology, Transcription and Text. Language and Linguistics Monograph Series. Taipei, Taiwan: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica (53). p. 268
- text: "師古曰:「胡廣云康居北可一千里有國名奄蔡,一名闔蘇。然則闔蘇即奄蔡也。」"
- ^ Yu, Taishan (July 1998). "A Study of Saka History" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers (80).
Yan Shigu's 顏師古 commentary says: "Hu Guang 胡廣 adds: "Some 1,000 li to the north of Kangju was a state named Yancai, which also was named Hesu. Hence Hesu was identical with Yancai." This shows that the Yancai were also called the Hesu in the Han times.
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History IV page 365
- ^ Hulsewé. A. F .P. (1979) China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC - AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. p. 129, n. 316. cited in John E. Hill. Translator's Notes 25.3 & 25.4 to draft translation of Yu Huan's Weilüe. quote: "Chavannes (1905), p. 558, note 5, approves of the identification of Yen-ts’ai with the ‘Αορσοι mentioned by Strabo, as proposed by Hirth (1885), p. 139, note 1 ; he believes this identification to be strengthened by the later name Alan, which explains Ptolemy’s “Alanorsi”. Marquart (1905), pp. 240-241, did not accept this identification, but Pulleyblank (1963), pp. 99 and 220, does, referring for additional support to HSPC 70.6b where the name Ho-su 闔蘇, reconstructed in ‘Old Chinese’ as ĥa̱p-sa̱ĥ, can be compared with Abzoae found in Pliny VI, 38 (see also Pulleyblank (1968), p. 252). Also Humbach (1969), pp. 39-40, accepts the identification, though with some reserve."
- ^ Yu Huan, Weilüe. draft translation by John E. Hill (2004). Translator's Notes 11.2 quote: "Yăncài, already mentioned in the text as a country northwest of Kāngjū (at that time in the region of Tashkend), has long been identified with the Aorsoi of western sources, a nomadic people out of whom the well-known Alans later emerged (Pulleyblank [1962: 99, 220; 1968:252])".
- ^ Weilüe: "Western Regions", quoted in Sanguozhi vol. 30
- ^ Houhanshu, Vol. 88: Xiyu zhuan Yancai" quote: "奄蔡國,改名阿兰聊國,居地城,屬康居。土气温和,多桢松、白草。民俗衣服與康居同。"
- ^ Hill, John E. (translator). The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu: The Xiyu juan “Chapter on the Western Regions” from Hou Hanshu 88 2nd Ed "Section 19 – The Kingdom of Alanliao 阿蘭聊 (the Alans)"
- li of the Han period differs from the modern SI base unitof length; one li was equivalent to 415.8 metres.
- ISBN 0-231-08167-7(pbk.)
- ^ a b c d e f Zadneprovskiy 1994, pp. 465–467
- ^ a b Brzezinski & Mielczarek 2002, pp. 7–8
- ^ Hill, John E. 2015. Through the Jade Gate - China to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. 2nd Edition. Volume I, p. 33.
- ^ Zadneprovskiy 1994, pp. 464–465
- ^ For an earlier version of this translation
- ^ Weilüe: "Western Regions", quoted in Sanguozhi vol. 30. quote: "又有柳國,又有岩國,又有奄蔡國一名阿蘭,皆與康居同俗。西與大秦東南與康居接。其國多名貂,畜牧逐水草,臨大澤,故時羈屬康居,今不屬也。"
Sources
- Brzezinski, Richard; Mielczarek, Mariusz (2002). The Sarmatians, 600 BC-AD 450. ISBN 184176485X. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- Zadneprovskiy, Y. A. (1 January 1994). "The Nomads of Northern Central Asia After The Invasion of Alexander". In ISBN 9231028464. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- Hill, John E. 2015. Through the Jade Gate - China to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. 2nd Edition. Volume I. CreateSpace. Charleston, S.C.