Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fine girls from the imperial clan were married in yurts, and good palace
men were consigned to the desert. Sir, offering men, girls, and local
products as tribute is the conduct of vassals and servants!
Arrivals
from the desolate zones are announced, but there should be no talk of
[eminent Chinese] going there.
...
What are we to make of the Son of
Heaven, in his dignity, entering into alliance with the Xiongnu as
“brothers”? of the emperor's daughter, designated as such, being tamed
as a shrew along with barbarian hags? of steamy mothers embracing
their sons and [eminent Chinese] following their filthy customs? The
difference between China and the barbarians is our distinction between
father and son, man and woman. For the pleasant and seductive beauty
[of these Chinese women] to be destroyed and curtailed among the alien
brood—this is foul disgrace in the extreme! But none of the Han rulers
or ministers were ashamed of it.
(Wright 2002, 382)
...
The same condescending attitude about pastoral nomads is found in
the works of European historians writing about the Huns after the fifth
century A.D., when elements of the Xiongnu had migrated westward
into Hungary, emerged as the Huns of Attila, and threatened the secu-
rityofthelateRomanEmpire.SomeChinesetodaystillsharethese
attitudes about the Huns, Turks, and Mongols, who harried and
threatened their civilization. Traditionally, a significant number of pre-
modern historians in China argued that the moral and cultural influ-
ence of Chinese civilization would eventually subdue and assimilate
the pastoral nomad and his animal-like way of life.
For the last century or so, European and modern Chinese historians
have been attempting to find alternate explanations for the Sino-
nomadic conflict. (“Sino” simply means Chinese.) Some scholars have
suggested that famine or drought might have been a cause for the
fighting: when there was little rainfall on the steppe, the pastoral
nomads' animals had little grass to eat and became thin and unable
to give much milk. The pastoral nomads then had little to eat and
were driven by desperation to attack China and other civilized soci-
eties for the food they needed. There may be something to this theory,
but it cannot be proven or disproven. Others have argued that power
relationships determined whether the pastoral nomads attacked or
not: when China was strong, the nomads stayed away, and when
China was weak, the pastoral nomads were attracted to it like
vultures and took what they wanted. This theory is not credible,
however, because just the opposite seems to have been true during
much of imperial Chinese history; often when China was strong and
internally unified, a powerful nomadic empire emerged on its
northern borders.
