Around 800 BC, the Eurasian steppe underwent a profound cultural transformation that was to shape world history for the next 2,500 years: the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Asia invented cavalry which, with the use of the compound bow, gave them the means to terrorize first their neighbours and ultimately, under Chinggis Khan and his descendants, the whole of Asia and Europe. Why and how they did so, and to what effect, are the themes of this history of the nomadic tribes of Inner Asia — the Mongols, Turks, Hsiung-nu and others — collectively dubbed the Barbarians by the Chinese and the Europeans.
This two thousand year history of the nomadic tribes is drawn from a wide range of sources and told with unprecedented clarity and pace. The author shows that to describe the tribes as barbaric is and was then seriously to underestimate their complexity and underlying social stability. He argues that their relationship with the Chinese was as much symbiotic as parasitic, and that they understood their dependence on a strong and settled Chinese state. He makes sense of the apparently random rise and fall of these mysterious, obscure and fascinating nomad confederacies.
Author(s): Thomas J. Barfield
Series: Studies in Social Discontinuity
Publisher: Blackwell Publishers
Year: 1992
Language: English
Commentary: scantailor made
Pages: 350
City: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Tags: asian history;chinese history;mongols;perilousfrontier0000barf
The Perilous Frontier
Contents
Editor’s Preface
Preface
Acknowledgements
Notes on Transliterations
Maps
The Steppe Nomadic World
The Mongol Empire
1 Introduction: The Steppe Nomadic World
Steppe Political Organization and Frontier Relations
Cycles of Power
Cultural Ecology
Nomadic Pastoralism in Inner Asia
Tribal Organization
The Rise of Steppe Pastoralism
2 The Steppe Tribes United: The Hsiung-nu Empire
The Imperial Confederacy
Foreign Affairs - The Han Connection
The Hsiung-nu Civil War
Wang Mang: China Tries a New Approach
The Outer Frontier Strategy in Times of Turmoil
The Second Hsiung-nu Civil War
3 The Collapse of Central Order: The Rise of Foreign Dynasties
The Hsien-pi “Empire”
The Outer Frontier Strategy Returns
The Fall of Han — An End of Two Imperial Traditions
Hsiung-nu Military States
Manchurian Borderlands — The Rise of Dual Organization
The Hsien-pi States
The Other Northern States: Ch’in and Liang
The T’o-pa: Third Wave Conquest
The Jou-jan: Foreign Dynasties and the Steppe
The Sinification of the T’o-pa Wei
4 The Turkish Empires and T’ang China
The First Turkish Empire
A Chinese Khaghan
The Rise and Fall of the Second Turkish Empire
The Uighur Empire
A Steppe Civilization
5 The Manchurian Candidates
The Collapse of Central Authority on the Steppe and in China
The Khitan Liao Dynasty
The Jurchen Chin Dynasty Conquers North China
The Steppe Divided
6 The Mongol Empire
The Rise of Chinggis Khan
Mongol Political Organization
The Mongol Conquests
Mongol Strategy and Policy
Political Succession in the Mongol Empire
The Yüan Dynasty
The Dissolution of Yüan China
7 Steppe Wolves and Forest ‘Tigers: The Ming, Mongols, and Manchus
Cycles of Power
Mongolia in the Post-Yüan Era
The Oirats and the Ming
Return of the Eastern Mongols
Altan Khan and the Ming Capitulation
The Rise of the Manchus
The Early Ch’ing State
8 The Last of the Nomad Empires: The Ch’ing Incorporation of Mongolia and Zungharia
The Manchu Conquest of China
Ch’ing Frontier Policy
The Zunghars — Last of the Steppe Empires
9 Epilogue: On the Decline of the Mongols
Bibliography
Index
