Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
this case princesses, as mere chattel or pawns for exchange with the
great pastoral nomadic empires in Mongolia. Chinese literature is full
of melancholy poetry about the sad lots of imperial princesses who left
their homelands forever and lived out dreary, lonely lives in the bland,
cold felt tents of their barbarian husbands.
The intermarriage policy worked well until the reign of Wudi. Wudi
was fed up with the system and, as part of his general program of
territorial expansion and military assertion, sought to replace it with
asystemimplyingamuchmoresubordinaterolefortheXiongnu
vis-
`
-vis the Han: the so-called “tributary system.” In 133 B.C. he abol-
ished the intermarriage system altogether and broke off diplomatic
relations with the Xiongnu. He then launched a war against the
Xiongnu that endured for almost half a century and nearly bankrupted
the Han treasury. His military strategy against the Xiongnu had four
main objectives:
1. Reoccupying all areas once occupied by the Qin
2. Establishing an entente with the enemies of the Xiongnu
3. Expanding far into Central Asia and controlling the Turkic oasis states
there, thus depriving the Xiongnu of their control over them and the
protection fees they charged
4. Launching military raids into Mongolia to weaken and divide the
Xiongnu
These policies did not work immediately, and the Han realized that
defeating the Xiongnu would be no easy matter. When attacked, the
Xiongnu often simply packed up and moved, and Wudi's troops
exhausted themselves chasing them and were frustrated by their fail-
ure to engage the enemy in combat. Wudi also learned that he did
not actually have to engage the Xiongnu in combat to weaken them;
springtime raids into the steppes of Mongolia kept the Xiongnu on
the move and weakened their animals, which had endured wintertime
shortages of fodder. A stalemate was in the making, and in spite of
some minor victories the Han achieved in 119 and 102, an uneasy
detente between the states had developed by 90 B.C.
In the long run, however, the biggest loser turned out to be the
Xiongnu. The constant Han raids eventually took their toll, and
Xiongnu tribesmen were restless for the material benefits they had
enjoyed from China during the era of the intermarriage system.
Xiongnu weakness tempted their enemies and led to attacks by non-
Xiongnu pastoral nomads. Civil war among the Xiongnu themselves
