In Search of a Fictional Kingdom (excerpt)
I have had parts of this book for a long time. It is about debunking the myth of a Christian civilization in ancient Asia. I had found that part uninteresting, and not read through it.
But while uploading Ancient RUS and the Great Steppe, I noticed this book was referred to in the footnotes many times. So evidentially, there is developed a great background on central Asia in these pages. It is again about the Great Steppe, but this excerpt is only one post. (9,500 words). (I have another book about Central Asia to translate: LEV GUMILEV, BLACK LEGENA, FRIENDS AND FOES ON THE GREAT STEPPE. It is 540 pages in the Russian. But that I’ll wait until this Autumn or next year.)
So here I have cut out the myth, and another big discussion of how to treat historical sources. This is just the Asian background material, and a good discussion on the alteration of climates (moisture and drought).
Chapter II. Access to geography Country and people
The wide steppe, bounded on the north and northeast by the Siberian taiga, and on the south by the Chinese wall and the mountain ranges of Alashan, Beishan, Kunlun, and Pamir, has long had a stable population. However, states in this territory began to arise relatively late, no earlier than the IV–III centuries BC. The impassable rocky Gobi-Desert separated the northern part of the steppe from the southern; relations between them were unthinkable until the full development of the horse had turned sedentary hunters and pastoralists into nomadic herders.
Before the advent of nomadic cattle breeding and agriculture, the development of various landscapes provided scope for human economic activity. The entire Sayan-Altai Highlands are dominated by a forest-steppe landscape, with the forest cutting deeply into the steppe, such as the famous Utuken black forest on the slopes of Khangai, or the steppe plunging north, like the Khakass steppes in the upper reaches of the Yenisei or the wide Trans-Baikal steppe. The abundance of animals on the forest edges, fish in wide rivers and deposits of copper and iron in the mountains allowed the ancient inhabitant of the Southern Siberia to get the excess product that is necessary for the growth of culture. The development of cattle breeding and, most importantly, horse breeding drew people to the steppe, where the widespread practice of round-up hunting compensated them for the loss of some trapping and mosquito control skills. The northern cattle ran towards the south{15}. In the south-east, the situation was somewhat different. From a large number of varieties-
The Chinese were especially prominent among the tribal groups that lived in the Yellow River basin{16} (Zhong, Di, yi, Hu). They gradually subjugated and partially exterminated the surrounding tribes, with the exception of those who managed to master nomadic cattle breeding and thus retreat to the steppe. These were the ancestors of the Dong-hu Mongols, the Turkic-speaking Huns and the "western Qiangs", the ancestors of the Tibetans10.
In a fierce struggle with the growing China; the Mongols, Turks and Tibetans managed to defend their freedom and create a culture adapted to their everyday life, while the "southern barbarians" – the forest and mountain tribes of Sichuan, Yunnan and Eastern China – were almost completely exterminated or colonized. The Turks and Mongols faced the same fate, but having mastered the techniques of horse fighting and long migrations, they found a way to avoid the destructive Chinese invasions by hiding behind the Gobi and resting in the grassy steppes of Khalkha or Barga, in order to throw themselves with renewed vigor into a mortal struggle with the Chinese for possession of their homeland - Ordos and the foothills of the Alashnya or Khingana.
The age-old struggle has tempered the nomads and allowed them to become a leading force in the entire territory. Asia{17} in the period of history we are interested in. Therefore, the main subject of our research will be the states they founded and their unique way of life.
In the southwest, on the slopes of the Tien Shan, we are witnessing a different situation from both previous ones. The Taklamakan desert, which occupies a vast territory, is completely uninhabitable. The central part of Dzungaria is covered with loose sands. The Balkhash regression led to the gradual desiccation of the adjacent steppe and the reduction of pastures. Life in this area is concentrated mainly in the oases, stretching over several chains from the ancient city of Shasha (Tashkent) to the oasis of Hami. However, the nomads still had a lot of land at their disposal, since they always owned the mountainous and foothill pastures of the Tien Shan, the valleys of the Ili, Chu, Black Irtysh, Tarim rivers and the hilly upland of Tarbagatai.
10 See: L. N. Gumilev of the Xiongnu.
Relations here were much more favorable for the nomads than in the east. The fragmented oases did not form a single state and became easy prey for the nomads. Moreover, the rulers of the oases sought help from them against the Chinese and Arabs who threatened them. Thus, in the west there were conditions for organizing nomadic offensives, but not for their development on that spot. Indeed, the tribes that were pushed here from the east or arose autochthonously, as a result of ethnogenesis, sought to develop a broad offensive to the south, with India and Persia becoming the targets of attacks alternately. This is where the Saks, Kushans, Seljuk Turkmens, Karluks, and Kipchaks came from. But the states founded by these conquerors are more connected with those countries of South Asia that came under their rule than with the steppe from which they emerged.
Masters of the steppes
Internally there were Turks and Mongols in Asia. Both of these ethnic and linguistic groups, which included many independent peoples, adapted so well to the steppe landscapes, and their economic activities were so closely linked to the processes taking place in nature that they became, in a certain sense, part of the landscape they had mastered, or the upper, final link of the steppe biocenosis. Their herds displaced wild ungulates, depriving them of pastures and water from a few springs. Steppe dogs and tamed eagles exterminated wolves, due to which sheep, the main nomadic cattle in the Eurasian steppe, multiplied intensively. Thus, man has replaced a large predator, which normally regulates the growth of herbivores in natural conditions.
But the nomad not only did not lose the ability to form collective dormitories, to perceive others and create his own culture and complex forms of organization – tribal, military-democratic and state, but developed these abilities so much that for 2 thousand years they successfully fought with their sedentary neighbors. The balance of power has changed repeatedly. The nomads weakened and fell under the rule of settled neighbors, then gained strength and, in turn, conquered neighboring states and peoples. There was a political balance between nomads and settled peoples.
Obviously, the reason here, as well as everywhere else, lies in the economy. But extensive nomadic farming depends only on natural conditions, which have not remained unchanged for two thousand years.
Water and air
The issue of the drying up of the Central steppes Asia caused a sharp controversy{19}. G. E. Grumm-Grzhimailo, N. V. Pavlov, V. A. Smirnov, V. M. Sinitsyn, and A.V. Shnitnikov spoke in favor of shrinking in the historical period, while L. S. Berg, K. N. Markov, and others opposed it.11
The arguments of the supporters of the theory of shrinkage were not convincingly refuted by L. S. Berg, but E. M. Murzaev gave some interesting instructions that allow us to pose and solve this issue in a different way. He noted: "Recent research by Zhou Ke-zheng, who extracted meteorological records from Chinese chronicles over the past 2,000 years. So far, we can only talk about the pulsation of China's climate, but not about its tendency to the arid type."12
11 See: E. M. Murzaev, People's Republic of Mongolia, p. 184. 12 Ibid., p. 188.
I. A. Efremov, who studied Gobi paleontology, writes:
"It is necessary to note the signs of a more complex course of the desertification of the Gobi regions than previously assumed. The onset of the arid climate seems to us to have occurred recently. This process, presumably, took place in two stages, with an interval of comparative moistening between them."13
It should be noted that all the researchers listed by us, speaking about the drying of the steppes, did not take into account the discrepancy between the humidification of the arid and humid zones and therefore did not achieve final results. The introduction of the principle of heterogeneity of humidification with an additional adjustment for the possible movement of cyclone paths to the Arctic zone made it possible to trace climatic fluctuations with much greater accuracy on historical and archaeological material.
The main impact on the climate of the northern hemisphere, in particular the Old World, is exerted by two air towers. One of them stands above the North Pole, which is the polar Barys maximum. The second aerial tower, the subtropical maximum, towers over the Sahara and Arabia. It is formed by purely mechanical means due to the rotation of the Earth, and its base is constantly eroded from below due to the heating of the desert surface. If the polar maximum as a whole remains stationary, then the tower of the subtropical maximum constantly moves to the north and then to the south, which also changes the area of low pressure, which is a kind of hollow through which the humid air of the Atlantic Ocean flows in the form of cyclones to the continent of Eurasia. These cyclones are the cause of precipitation in this area.
The direction of cyclones depends on the degree of activity of the subtropical maximum, which is directly proportional to fluctuations in solar activity, because the sun's rays with all their might rest precisely on the tropical zones of the globe. On the contrary, fluctuations in solar activity have almost no effect on the polar maximum, since the sun's rays only glide over the surface of the polar regions.
During the years of calm sun, i.e. with low solar activity, the path of cyclones passes through the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The North Caucasus and Kazakhstan up to the Altai and Tien Shan Mountain ranges. Here they linger, the moisture they carry from the expanses of Antarctica falls in rains. At this time, the steppe is moistened. Deserts are overgrown with grass. Steppe rivers flowing from the slopes of Altai and Tarbagatai. The Tien Shan and Pamirs are becoming water-rich. Balkhash and the Aral Sea are filling up with water and increasing in size. On the contrary, the Caspian Sea, which receives 81% of its water from the Volga River, whose basin occupies the central strip of European Russia, is drying up and shrinking in size. The amount of precipitation in the Volga basin, as well as in the entire middle zone, is greatly decreasing. Rivers become shallow and disappear here, lakes turn into swamps and peat bogs, and there are harsh winters with little snow, followed by dry, sultry summers. Further north, in the polar zone. The White and Barents Seas are covered with ice, permafrost is moving south, raising the level of lakes in the tundra.
With increased solar activity, the subtropical maximum begins to shift to the north, shifting the path of Atlantic cyclones in the same direction. Cyclones are rushing over the middle lane Europe and Siberia. The amount of precipitation in the steppe zone is falling significantly. The steppe begins to dry up. The Balkhash and Aral Seas are shallowing and shrinking. On the contrary, the Volga is becoming wide and full of water, the Caspian Sea is increasing in size, filling with water.
Winters in the forest strip become snowy, mild, with frequent thaws, and summers become cool and rainy.
During periods of the highest solar activity, cyclones shift even further north. They pass over Scotland and Scandinavia to the White and Kara Seas. The steppe turns into deserts and semi-deserts, and the border of its forest zone moves north. Volga
13 Ibid., p. 189.
The Caspian Sea is getting shallower and shrinking. The climate of the polar zone is becoming warmer and wetter. These are the three main variants of the path of Atlantic cyclones, on which the history of the Great Steppe directly and indirectly depends. Changes in the direction of cyclones are constantly taking place, and we now have the opportunity to chronologically date the periods of cooling and drying of the steppes Eurasia{20}. Let's leave aside ancient times and see how the climate of the steppe zone has changed during the period we are interested in.
In the IV–III centuries BC, which date back to the oldest more or less detailed written news about the peoples of Central Asia. In Asia, there was a period of humidification of the steppe associated with the southern version of the passage of cyclones. At that time, the level of the Caspian Sea was 8 m lower than the modern one, although Uzbek carried into it an excess of Amu Darya waters that could not fit into the Aral Sea. Then, gradually, the amount of precipitation in the steppe began to fall: cyclones began to move into the forest area. In the I–III centuries A.D., the era of steppe drying falls. The Balkhash and Aral Seas have shrunk significantly, and the level of the Caspian Sea has risen by 4 m.
In the fourth century, cyclones shifted south again, and the steppe bloomed again. This continued until the 13th century, with a short period of drying up in the 9th century. Since the middle of the 13th century, the path of cyclones has shifted to the middle band. By the beginning of the 14th century. The Caspian Sea has risen 8 m above the current level. The Great Steppe has entered a period of arid climate.
Over the following centuries, cyclones moved to the polar zone, then, in the XVIII–XIX centuries, returned to the middle band, and in the XX century, literally before our eyes, they went north again14.
It is not difficult to understand what a huge role such changes in the steppe climate played in the history of Eurasian nomads. Cattle cannot live without grass, grass cannot grow without water, and nomads cannot exist without livestock. Consequently, they all form a single system in which water is the key link. During a long-term drought, the Gobi Desert creeps onto the steppes, expands, and becomes an impassable barrier between the Ordos plains and the Orkhon, Onon, and Selenga valleys. With increased moisture, vegetation takes over. It moves towards the desert from both the south and the north, followed by wild ungulates, followed by sheep, cows and horses carrying riders. And these latter create warlike hordes and powerful nomadic powers.
The Road to Truth
The age-old droughts of the steppe zone took place in the III century and in the X century. The latter is especially important for our topic, and we will talk about it below. Now we are interested in the methodological issue of historical science. Is that why the epoch between the 9th and 13th centuries. was it left by the "dark ages" because natural phenomena that the authors of medieval sources could not notice and describe were not noticed and taken into account, and also because the same sources do not contain information about the nomads of the Great Steppe during this period?
It couldn't have been any other way! Periodic fluctuations in the moistening and drying of the steppe occur over the course of centuries and cannot be noticed during the lifetime of one or of three generations. Therefore, ancient authors wrote about natural phenomena either casually or based on the ideas of modern science. In both cases, the information they provide cannot be accepted without historical criticism, which can rarely be sufficient due to the fragmentary nature of the information and the isolation of sources from each other.
The answer here is not in the history of nations, but in historiography. Only a few, the most talented books on history were copied in large numbers of copies, but not everyone of them has reached us. The epoch of the VI–VIII centuries was the heyday of chronicling in China. Vivid writings are also devoted to the struggle against the Mongol yoke, which have been repeatedly copied and carefully preserved.
also 14 V. N. Abrosov The heterochrony of periods ...; L. N. Gumilev, Khazaria and Terek; his, The Discovery of Khazaria; his, The role climate fluctuations...; Les Fluctuations...; his own, New Data...
And in between, after the bloody spasm of the "Five Dynasties" period, during the heyday Chinese art and philology during the Song Dynasty{21} all the energy of the capable writers of the era was devoted to subjects far removed from history and geography. Figures of the direction that Academician N. I. Konrad{22} called it the "Chinese Renaissance", they devoted themselves to studying the classical books of Confucius and the works of his contemporaries. They wrote numerous commentaries and expositions in calligraphic handwriting, including on the chronicles of past dynasties, passed the exams for rank well and no less successfully brought their colleagues to trial or disgrace. And it never occurred to anyone that political geography and history with an ethnographic bias are a prerequisite for understanding the real situation of a state surrounded by neighbors with a different way of life and culture.
Therefore, no matter how poorly the Tang Empire coped with the tasks that the harsh reality set before it, it remained within the borders of China, using troops recruited among friendly nomads. For this, Chinese intellectuals of the X–XIII centuries called the Tang emperors barbarians who organized superstitious worship of the Buddha's bone, allegedly an accomplice to his thinking, although at the same time they admired their victories over the Turks. And during the Song Dynasty, diplomats and generals who studied the commentaries on Confucius and Trak-of Meng Tzu became a dead end when faced with hidden barbarians: Tibetans, Turks, Mongol-speaking Khitans and Tungusoid Jurchens. They cheerfully made mistake after mistake, got away with high-level connections and let the country and the people pay for everything with tears and blood. They managed to lose wars with a huge numerical advantage, advise the government to give up territories with a population to a weak enemy, just to save time and effort for the harem, and if they wrote history, then only the history of their superiors, in order to get a substantial bribe from him.
I. N. Boltin was right three times{24}, who wrote back in the XVIII century: "At every step of an historian who does not have geography in his hands, there is a stumbling block."15 The historical treatises of this period are incomplete. However, these disadvantages of the method are typical for many historical schools that neglect the study of nature and the characteristic features of the peoples inhabiting certain countries and applied to their landscapes and climate. Ignorance in the natural sciences always comes at a high price.
But knowledge of geography does not mean recognition of the concept of geographical determinism formulated by S. Montesquieu and several authors.16 The thesis that we have based our geographical analysis on is quite different, namely: the historical fate of a nationality (ethnos), which is the result of its (nationality's) economic activity, is not determined, but is related to the dynamic state of the surrounding landscape.17 This is not geographical determinism, but historical geography, which we need not for philosophical purposes, but, on the one hand, to fill in the gaps of authentic sources, and, on the other, to expose them in lies, in the very lies from which we hope to squeeze out the truth.
15 Cit.by: V. K. Yatsunsky Historical Geography, pp. 274-275. 16 L. N. Gumilev Discovery of Khazaria, pp. 146-148. 17 L. N. Gumilev Khazaria and Terek, pp. 78.
Chapter III. A Path through History at the Turn of the Chinese Wall
Although China came into contact with the nomadic peoples living north of the Yellow River in ancient times, we can trace the nature of these relationships only since the third century BC. During this era, China was united by Emperor Qin Shi-Huang-di (221 BC) and the formation of the Xiongnu nomadic state (209 BC about A.D.). At the same time, the Chinese wall was built, delimiting China and the Great Steppe. The wall was built not only along the geographical, but also along the ethnographic border of China.; The population living north of the wall was considered "barbaric" by the Chinese, alien both in origin and lifestyle, and politically hostile, for which there were very good reasons. It was there that the Xiongnu empire was formed.
The territory inhabited by the Huns. – modern Inner and Outer Mongolia, Dzungaria and Southern Siberia were extremely convenient for nomadic cattle breeding, since they could not be used for agriculture at the level of technology of that time. Therefore, the economy of the Huns was specialized: they had an abundance of meat, skins and furs, but, like all nomads, they needed bread and fabrics. The easiest way to get these products from China was through barter, which the Chinese population was very willing to do, but the imperial government and its advisers came between the peoples. The emperors of the Qin and Han dynasties needed funds to maintain an army of soldiers and officials, and they took trade with the Huns into their own hands, as a result of which the Huns began to receive significantly less cloth and bread than they needed.18 The Huns responded with war and by 152 BC had achieved the opening of barter markets. In 133, the Chinese resumed the war and, using a numerical advantage, pushed the Huns to the north of the Gobi Desert. However, the attempt to subjugate the Huns ended in 90 BC with the complete defeat of the Chinese expeditionary army.[19]
China's new offensive against the Xiongnu, which began in 72 BC, was conducted through diplomacy: the Chinese managed to split the nomadic tribes and rouse their neighbors against the Xiongnu: the Dzungarian Usuns, Sayan Dinlins, and Khingan Wuhuans. The tribal war that broke out among the Huns themselves in 58 BC facilitated China's victory. One of the pretenders to the throne allied with China, and the others died. The Xiongnu recognized the supreme authority of China in 52 BC.
As long as Chinese power in the steppe was nominal, peace persisted, but as soon as the usurper Wang Mang tried to interfere in the internal affairs of the Huns in 9 A.D., they rose up and, shackling government troops on the border, supported the uprising of the "red–browed" Chinese peasants who were brutally oppressed by Wang Mang. The Younger Han dynasty, which came to power in 25, once again faced the "Xiongnu problem." Only the disintegration of the Xiongnu empire into Northern and Southern, as well as an alliance with the Xianbian (ancient Mongol) tribes that lived in Manchuria and Eastern Transbaikalia until the third century. They allowed the Chinese to form a coalition that defeated the Northern Xiongnu in 93. But again, the Chinese did not get the steppe. The leader of the Xianbians, Tangshihai, won a number of victories over Chinese troops and even moved military operations to the southern side of the Chinese wall. All Chinese conquests had been lost by 177.
18 L. N. Gumilev Xiongnu, pp. 88-89. 19 Ibid., pp. 139-142.
Naturally, over the past time, Chinese political thought has been riveted to the "Xiongnu issue." Two solutions to the problem have been proposed! Historians Sima Qian and Ban Gu{25} were opposed to the expansion of aggression towards the north. Sima Qian considered the conquest of a country with a completely different climate and terrain from that in which the Chinese used to live to be impracticable; Ban Gu found the inclusion of a culturally alien people into the empire harmful, and the assimilation of nomads unnecessary for both sides.20 But the imperial government ignored the scientists' opinion, and they were arrested; Sima Qian was mutilated but released, and Ban Gu died in prison.
The second concept prevailed, which was consistently pursued by the emperors of the Dynasty of Han, starting with Wu Di (140-87 BC).
It was the desire to create a world empire by conquering neighboring peoples and planting Chinese culture in their midst in its Confucian version. In fulfillment of this program, Chaoxian (North Korea), Yue – north and south (in Guangdong and Indochina) – and nomadic Tibetan tribes near Lake Kukunor were conquered. However, the war in the north was not only unsuccessful, but also led to the complete economic exhaustion of China. Superbly equipped armies, manned by selected warriors, and often led by very capable generals, either suffered defeats or could not consolidate the hard-won success. In the second century A.D., Han China entered a period of severe socio-economic and political crisis and could not successfully fight the nomads.
The costs of the war increased the tax burden on the peasants, who finally responded with the uprising of the "yellow armbands", which undermined the strength of the Han Dynasty (184). The decayed Han troops could not cope with the rebels. The initiative was taken by the aristocrats, members of the "strong houses". After defeating the peasants, they split up and, standing at the head of separate armies, fought each other and most of them died in the internecine war. The three survivors founded three kingdoms in the north, southeast, and southwest, tearing apart China for half a century (220-280).
Thus fell the Han Empire, one of the four world empires (along with Rome, Parthia and the Kushan Empire) of antiquity{26}. It was a real disaster for China. Suffice it to say that its population is from 221 by 280, it had decreased from 50 million taxpayers to 7.5 million.21 Cities were in ruins. During Sima Yan's coup d'état, illiterate, morally decayed soldiers came to power instead of landowners and Confucian scholars, who understood their country's tasks even less.22 The conquered lands passed back into the hands of nomads, and bloody feuds between palace cliques brought China to the brink of a new catastrophe.
But maybe it wasn't China, but the Huns, that caused the brutal war that led to the demise of the Han Empire? There is a widespread preconceived notion that the Huns were savage bandits who offended their quiet, hardworking neighbors. This idea is based on the fact that in Europe the Huns led numerous tribes of Ugrians, Alans, Ants and Germans and marked the beginning of the "Great Migration of Peoples", during which the Western Roman Empire fell. However, even here the Romans were by no means sheep, having suffered-
Get rid of the villains of the Huns and other barbarians. The barbarians had something to avenge Rome for. The situation in Asia was somewhat different. First of all, we note that the Huns did not seek territorial seizures, but rather the organization of exchange trade on a parity basis.
20 Ibid., p. 4. 21 N. Ya. Bichurin Collection of information on historical geography ..., p. 658. 22 L. N. Gumilev The Three Kingdoms in China.
In 200 BC, they surrounded the village of Baiting (in Shanxi){28} The detachment escorting China-they released the emperor, concluding a treaty of "peace and kinship" with him without any territorial concessions. The Huns relied on the fact that, having seized Chinese lands, they would not be able to live on them23. They also reacted indifferently to the deposition of the Usunians, who had moved to Semirechye and Zapadny Tien Shan24. But they defended their lands fiercely, and after losing Yinshan, they "wept as they passed by it."25 Their wars with China were not offensive, but defensive.
In addition, the Huns managed to create much easier living conditions in the steppe than those that took place in ancient China. A report by official Hou Ying (1st century BC) indicated that border residents oppressed by Chinese officials, slaves, criminals, and families of political emigrants only dream of fleeing to the steppes, saying that "the Huns have fun living."26 There are so many such diverse populations in the Hun state that they formed an independent ethnic unit, which the Chinese historians considered the Zilu tribe.27 Assimilation with the indigenous Xiongnu population could not happen, since the newcomers were not part of the Xiongnu tribal system, but they lived in peace and friendship, helping each other in economic activities and the defense of their country.
It is wrong to think that technological progress is impossible in a nomadic society. The Nomads in general, and the Huns and Turks in particular, invented such objects that have now entered the everyday life of all mankind as something integral to man. This type of clothing, such as trousers, without which it is impossible for a modern European to imagine the male sex, was invented by nomads in ancient times. The stirrup first appeared in the Central Asia between 200 and 400.28. The first nomadic wagon on wooden stumps was replaced first by a carriage on high wheels,29 and then by a pack, which allowed the nomads to cross the mountainous, forested ridges.30 The nomads invented the curved saber, which replaced the heavy straight sword, and the improved long compound bow, which threw arrows up to 700 m away. Finally, a round yurt was considered the most perfect type of dwelling in those days. Not only in material culture, but also in spiritual culture, the nomads did not lag behind their settled neighbors, although their literature was oral. Of course, it would be absurd to look for scientific theories from the Huns: even the Greeks borrowed them from the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. The nomads created two genres of legends: the heroic tale and the demonological novel. Both were closer to mythology than to literature in our sense of the word, but they perceived reality in this way and expressed their feelings. In other words, mythology served them the same functions that literature does for us.
The nomads perceived history in a similar way, i.e. unlike us. It was presented to them in the form of a detailed genealogy of the family; the standard was not an event or an institution, but a dead ancestor. For Europeans, such a generation count seems meaningless, but it also reflects the passage of time, like any frame of reference accepted in science. It's just that it's adapted to other goals and needs that it fully satisfies
23 N. Ya. Bichurin Collection of information about peoples... vol. I, p. 51.
24 L. N. Gumilev Xiongnu, p. 86.
25 N. Ya. Bichurin Collection of information about peoples... vol. I, p. 95.
26 Ibid., p. 94.
27 E. Chavannes, Les pays d'Occident..., artpp. 522-526.
28 K. A. Wittfogel and Feng Hsia-sheng, History..., p. 505.
29 S. V. Kiselyov Ancient history of South Ossetia Siberia, p. 161; S. I. Rudenko Culture of the Altai Mountain population in the Scythian period, pp. 229, 232-234, fig. 143, 144, 145, 146.
30 G. E. Grumm-Grzhimailo Historical Atlas of Mongolia.
At the same time, it should be remembered that we have obtained data on the folklore and history of ancient nomads due to ethnographic analogies, fragmentary information, etc. and, therefore, are very approximate. But the works of fine art have come down to us in the originals and give an incomparably more complete picture of what really happened in the ancient steppes. The excavations of P. K. Kozlov, S. V. Kiselyov and S. P. Rudenko revealed magnificent monuments of art, the so-called "animal style", which allowed us to establish the cultural significance of- the relationship of the Huns with the peoples of Siberia and Central Asia Asia31. Chinese items are also often found in the mounds: silk fabrics, bronze finials and lacquer cups. These were everyday items that came to the Xiongnu as loot or tribute, and were also made by the Chinese who defected to the Xiongnu (Tsilu). However, such things by no means determine the direction of cultural development.32
We have dwelt on this topic in such detail in order to reject the philistine opinion about the notorious inferiority of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia. Asia, which was supposedly the Chinese periphery.33 In fact, these peoples developed independently and intensively, and only the Chinese aggression of the first century ended their existence, which, as we have already seen, was equally tragic for the Xiongnu and for China. But historical retribution was not long in coming.
In 304, the elders of the southern Huns, who became Chinese subjects, decided to return their lost rights with weapons. Taking advantage of the disorderly administration of the Jin Dynasty, they quickly took over both Chinese capitals – Luoyang and Chang'an – and the whole of Northern China. After the Huns, Tibetans, Xianbian Muyuns and Tabgachi (Toba) penetrated into China34. After a bloody struggle among themselves and with the Chinese, who were pushed back into the Yangtze basin, the Toba gained the upper hand and founded a powerful empire, which officially adopted the Chinese name – Wei. This state was Chinese in the eyes of the nomadic population of the steppes, and barbaric in the eyes of the Chinese. In essence, it opened up a special series of border formations that cannot be attributed to either culture, although all of them35 consisted of a combination of Chinese and nomadic elements. But it was no longer a tribal power, but a feudal empire with conditional land ownership, enslavement of the free population and separation of regions for service.
Since 495, in the state of Wei, Chinese has replaced Tobaish in government, and Xianbian clothing and hairstyle have been officially banned. However, all these measures did not reconcile the Chinese population, subdued by force of arms, with the foreign power. Being too weak to organize an uprising, the Chinese infiltrated the administration and the army. Gradually, the actual power was concentrated in the hands of the voivodes of Chinese origin, and in 550 They abolished the Wei Dynasty, whose members, including infants, were hacked into small pieces and thrown into the Yellow River. China became Chinese again, but the descendants of the Tabgach, who had already forgotten their native language, continued to live along the Chinese wall, on the border with the steppe.
At that time, a new power emerged in the steppe, much more powerful than the Xiongnu. In a short time, from 550 to 569, the Great Turkic Khaganate united the steppes from the Yellow Sea to the Black Sea and annexed Central Asia to them, however, with the consent of the Sogdians who inhabited it. The Sogdians grew rich due to the caravan trade in silk, which they transported from China to Europe. As soon as the Turkic Khans stopped internal wars and looting in the steppe, the Sogdians became their sincere friends and helpers{32}.
31 S. I. Rudenko The culture of the Huns and the Noinuli mounds.
32 S. I. Rudenko, L. N. Gumilev Archaeological research of P. K. Kozlov..., pp. 241-243.
33 See: Bulletin of Ancient History. 1962. No. 3, pp. 202-210; cf.: Peoples of Asia and Africa. 1962. No. 3, pp. 196-201.
34 See: N. Ya. Bichurin Collection of information on historical geography...pp. 658-662; Shang Yue. Essays on the History of China, pp. 142-143; R. Grousset L'Empire des steppes, pp. 95-103.
35 We include among them the empires of Tang and Liao (Khitan), which lost contact with the steppe, but not the Yuan and Qing, which relied on back to their native lands until the fall.
But they reacted quite differently to the formation of the Turkic khaganate in China, where in 581 the power went to a clique of Shaanxi magnate-landowners, whose leader was Yang Jian, the founder of the Sui Dynasty. The program of this dynasty was to restore the former power of the Han Empire. and consequently, the war with the Turks. In short, the conflict of the first century was repeated, with the only difference being that instead of tribal strife, Chinese infiltrators (Zhang-sun Sheng, Fei Gyu) fomented strife between the appanage princes of the Turkic ruling family.
The next three centuries were filled with events, the main content of which was the struggle of freedom-loving nomads against Chinese aggression. The Turks communicated with many of these peoples, but neither Byzantium, nor Iran, nor even the Siberian Ugrians{34} tried to subjugate them, limiting themselves to establishing diplomatic relations and protecting their own borders. In turn, the Turks, entering into armed clashes with the Persians or the Greeks, pursued economic and political goals related to the caravan trade. These clashes were historically inevitable, because by uniting the Great Steppe, the Turks assumed the political tasks of the peoples who entered the Great Khaganate.36
Relations between the Turks and China have developed quite differently, where anti-Turkic sentiments have become the dominant foreign policy trend since the sixth century. The main task of the Chinese feudal lords and officials was to establish power over Asia, which was once the goal of the Han Dynasty. They were not looking for compromise solutions and did not want them. Even the collapse of the Sui Dynasty and the disasters suffered by their country and people, did not force the Chinese feudal lords to abandon this crazy venture. Defeated in the civil war by their own border warriors, the descendants of the Tabgach, who established the Tang Dynasty regime acceptable at first to both the Turks and the Chinese people, they turned politics into their usual course through intrigues and conspiracies, which caused the uprisings of Kutlug Alteres Khan38 and An Lushan39, which again flooded China with blood. In the following century (764-861), the Chinese tried in vain to seize key positions in the Great Steppe and regain hegemony. The Uighurs defended the independence of their homeland, and the Tibetans, by taking Chinese fortresses in Shaanxi, destroyed the very possibility of revenge. Although neither the Uighur Khanate nor the Tibetan monarchy survived the Tang dynasty, but the Chinese aggression was stopped.
In this fierce struggle, there is an explanation for the alleged stagnation of the peoples of the Middle East. Asia. They were not inferior to the Europeans in talents, courage, or intelligence, but the Turks and Uighurs spent the forces (that other peoples used to develop culture) on defending their independence from a numerous, cunning, and cruel enemies. For 300 years, they did not have a moment's peace, but they emerged victorious from the war, defending their native land for their descendants.
No less remarkable is what is common to all the peoples of Central Asia. Rejection of Chinese culture in Asia. The Turks had their own ideological system, which they clearly opposed to the Chinese one. After the fall of the Second Khaganate, the era of a change of faith began in Asia. At that time, the Uighurs adopted Manichaeism, the Karluks adopted Islam, the Basmals and Onguts adopted Nestorianism, the Tibetans adopted Buddhism in its Indian form, and the Chinese ideology did not cross the Great Wall.
36 M. I. Artamonov History of the Khazars, p. 133 and
c. 37 Shang Yue. Essays on the History of China, pp. 188-197
38 It should be borne in mind that all the conquests of the Tang Empire in the west and east were carried out by nomads who called the actual founder of this dynasty "Tabgach (i.e. Tobas) Khan" (see: L. N. Gumilev Ancient Turks, p. 221), since he came from a Turkic family (N. Ya. Bichurin Collection of information about peoples ..., vol. I, p. 355). But his successor Gaozong (650-683) very soon lost what his father had so painstakingly achieved, returning to the policy of traditional Chinese arrogance. The consequence of this was the creation of the Second Turkic Khaganate (679-745) and the loss of Chinese hegemony in Eastern Turkey. Asia, which turned out to be ephemeral (G. E. Grumm-Grzhimailo Western Mongolia...vol. II, p. 218). 39
An Lushan, the son of a Sogdian and a Turkic princess, made a career in the Tang army from a soldier to a general. In 756, he led a mutiny of three corps manned by nomads who formed the shock unit of the army. After the suppression, in 763, China was unable to continue its policy of conquest and turned to defense.
Steppe Byzantium
When we pronounce the word "Byzantium" without any explanations or additions, the content of the concept can be different. It may turn out that Byzantium is the Eastern Roman Empire, a relic of its former greatness that has been rolling towards its decline for thousands of years. This is how Gibbon and Lebeau understood the term "Byzantium". This is the Bas-Empire state, as well as Vladimir Solovyov. Perhaps this term refers to the Greek kingdom, which arose as the antithesis of degenerate antiquity, which had its own rhythms of development, its bright and shadow sides. This is how Byzantium was seen.- Skii, Kulakovsky, and Charles Diehl{36}. Or maybe Byzantium is just a huge city, a hub of commerce and education.-
A city built on the shores of the blue sea and surrounded by scorched mountains, where the semi-rural population has been grazing goats and harvesting olives and grapes for centuries? This is also a natural understanding of the term, but in our work, we want to use its fourth meaning: Byzantium is a culture that is unique and diverse, spilling far beyond the state borders of the Constantinople Empire. Splashes of its golden radiance frozen on the green plains of Ireland (John Scott Erigena), in the dense forests of the Trans-Volga region (Nile Sorsky and Nestyazha- bodies){37}, in the tropical highlands around Lake Tsana (Aksum){38} and in the Great Eurasian Steppe, which will be discussed.
In this understanding of the term "Byzantium", not only the city of Constantinople and its subordinate country, and even not only the Chalcedonian confession, but an entity that includes both Orthodox and heretics: Monophysites and Nestorians, Christians and Gnostics (Marcionites and Manichaeans, which will also be mentioned). The fact that these currents of thought fought among themselves does not contradict the proposed meaning of the term, because ideological and political struggle is also a kind of connection, a form of development.
From the very moment of its origin, Christian religious thought has spread into many streams, most of which have dried up, and some have turned into powerful streams. A small group of Judeo-Christians, i.e. Jews, who recognized the coming of the Messiah, disappeared without a trace. But the preaching of the Apostle Paul, addressed to enlightened pagans, gained many neophytes. The Hellenes were particularly struck by the idea, hitherto alien to them, of the existence of the element of evil, and they began to interpret it in different ways: the most educated and able to think consistently blamed all the injustices and misfortunes of the world on the person who created it, and with irritation called her a "demiurge", i.e. an artisan. They believed that the demiurge was a small demon who created the world and man (Adam) so that Adam would live in ignorance and be a toy for him, the demiurge. But the wise serpent enlightened Adam and helped him achieve freedom, for which the demiurge torments the descendants of Adam and Eve.
This trend of thought marked the beginning of Gnosticism, a religious and philosophical concept designed for wise and educated people (gnosis – knowledge). We can omit the description of the three main directions of Gnosticism: Egyptian, Syrian and Marcionite (on behalf of the Christian gnostic Marcion) – and focus only on the elegant concept of the Persian thinker Mani (III century A.D.), who combined Christian, Zoroastrian and even Indian ideas. Mani taught that there is a "raging darkness" – a space of eternal darkness that has clumps even darker than their surrounding environment. These clusters of darkness move randomly, like molecules in Brownian motion, but one day they accidentally came close to the edge of their space, to the border of the "eternal Light" and tried to penetrate there to darken the "kingdom of Light". A bearer of the light principle, whom Mani calls the "First Man" and gives him the quality of Ormuzd, came out to fight against them. The forces of darkness are stronger-
They tortured, tore apart the "First Man" and clothed the particles of Light with darkness, which are now languishing in captivity. Christ came to the rescue of these particles, i.e. souls, and after him he, Mani, the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete of Consolation. The purpose of their arrival is the liberation of souls from matter – crystallized darkness; hence it follows that everything material, everything that binds a person to the world and life, is sinful.
Christians fought against this concept, claiming that the creator of the world is good, and the world he created is beautiful. In contrast, monistic thoughts arose: Neo-platonism, which claimed that matter is nothing (maon), and the world is an outflow from the divine Pleroma is the fullness of all things, and Christian monism is in the teachings of Origen, who preached that after the end of the world and the Last Judgment, by the mercy of God, the devil will be forgiven.
By the fourth century, Orthodox thought, having assimilated the individual elements of all these concepts, crystallized into a special philosophy. But then new difficulties began, already of a purely theological rather than philosophical nature, reflected in the fierce struggle at the ecumenical councils.
Four directions of Christian thought appeared: the ✓Arian, which spread among the Germanic tribes, the ✓Nestorian, which is the most important for our topic, and the ✓Monophysite – originated as the antithesis of Nestorianism, and ✓Chalcedonite (from the place where the Fourth Council took place) – which became the dominant confession of the Byzantine Empire.
The volcano of freethinking in the first centuries of our era was the Front East. At the beginning of the fourth century, the Alexandrian Presbyter Arius preached that Christ is the Logos less than his father, because he is the son and, therefore, was born. Archbishop Alexander and his deacon Athanasius objected to Arius, pointing out that the word "born" does not apply to the divine essence, and accused him of the heresy of Paul of Samosata, who taught that Christ was a man overshadowed by divine wisdom. The dispute quickly escalated into a civil war, with some emperors supporting the Arians, while others supported the Orthodox. At the same time, the Gnostics, Neoplatonists, and Mithraists preached their teachings, and everyone fought against everyone. One should not think that the representatives of these teachings were insincere in their attachment to the confessions of faith. At that time, the need for a logical and consistent worldview was very acute.40
Of course, it is no coincidence that the most rationalistic and literalistic interpretations of the dogma of religion were associated with the Antiochian school, philosophical ones with the Alexandrian school, and emotional and aesthetic ones with the Constantinople school, where the Hellenic element was predominant among the population. But we do not need to dwell further on the vicissitudes of the religious struggle in the Roman Empire, but rather focus on the penetration of this seething, incandescent thought into the Far East. East and into the vast expanses of the Great Steppe.41
After the thinker and writer Mani, who declared himself the heir of Christ and was martyred in 277 in Gundishapur, the residence of the Shah of Persia, and was tortured by the Mobeds and Zoroastrian clergy, his followers were forced to flee Persia, but in the West Manichaeism was constantly persecuted and went underground.42 In the east, the Manichaeans found refuge in Transoxania and in the oases along the great caravan route.43
40 "Both Arians and Orthodox Christians accused each other of being illogical; an appeal to reason was characteristic of their dispute" (History of Byzantium, I, p. 169).
41 Christianity was preached in the Middle Ages. Asia even before the Arian disputes, since the first mention of the bishopric of the city of Merv dates back to 334 (R.Grousset. Histoire de l'Extreme-orient, vol. I, p. 353). Since 420 she became a metropolitan.
42 F. Cumont La propagation...
43 V. V. Bartold On Christianity in Turkestan..., pp. 6, 18.
In 431, at the Ecumenical Council in Ephesus, Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople was anathematized for carelessly declaring that "God has no mother." His victors immediately entered into a struggle among themselves, but both Monophysites and Orthodox Chalcedonites were unanimously intolerant of Nestorianism. The feud became especially acute after 484, when Nestorianism was recognized as the dominant confession of the Persian faith at the Council in Bit Zapata.
Christians, including parishioners of the Archdiocese of Merv{41}. The support of the Persian Shah proved fatal for the Byzantine Nestorians. In 489, Emperor Zeno confirmed the condemnation of the Nestorians and closed the Edessa school, where Nestorians taught their teachings. The school moved to Nizib in Persia, and in 499 the Nestorian patriarchate arose in Ctesiphon, which flourished in the sixth century.44
From Persia, the Nestorians spread widely across Eastern Europe. Asia. In the sixth century, Christians preached their faith among the nomadic Turks with some success. Turks captured by the Byzantines in the Battle of Balarat in 591 had a tattoo of a cross on their foreheads and explained that this was done on the advice of Christians who lived among them in order to avoid pestilence.45 This fact by no means indicates the spread of Christianity among the nomadic Turks of the sixth century, but it allows us to state the presence of Christians in the steppe.
Nestorianism entered China in 635 and was received very kindly by the government.46 The first Tang emperors, Tai Tsong and Gaozong, patronized Christians and allowed them to build churches. During the usurpation of the throne by the Empress Tse-tian, associated with Buddhists, began to persecute Christians, but the usurper was quickly deprived of power by supporters of the Tang Dynasty. In 714, Emperor Xuanzong banned Buddhism in the Tang Empire by decree, and in 745 he allowed the preaching of Christianity.47 Since that time, Nestorianism began to spread in Dzungaria, which was under the control of the Tang Empire, and gained converts among nomads, mainly Basmals, but for quite a long time its successes were insignificant.
The spreading Nestorianism was met with resistance not from local religions that declined after the fall of the Turkic Khaganate, but from similar proselytic religions: Buddhism, Islam, Manichaeism, and Bon. The first two religions did not find followers in the steppe for a long time. Tonyukuk prevented the propaganda of Buddhism on the grounds that "The teachings of the Buddha make people weak and humane,"48 and the Turgesh Khan replied to the ambassador of Caliph Hisham (724-743) as follows: "There are no barbers, blacksmiths, or tailors among my soldiers.; if they become Muslims and follow the traditions of Islam, then where will they get their livelihood from?"49. Islam seemed to the nomads to be an exclusively urban religion, and they treated it the same way as the Bedouins of Arabia a century ago. But the Manichaeans, who were expelled from Chinese possessions by Emperor Xuanzong in 732, found supporters among the Uighurs and supported Khan Moyanchur in a severe internal war51.
Since the Christians turned out to be opponents of the Uighur Khan, after his victory he sided with the Manichaeans, who supported him. Soon, Uighuria quickly turned into to a theocratic power ruled by a Manichaean community52.
44 N. Pigulevskaya Mar Aba I.
45 Theophylact Simokatta. History, pp. 130-131.
46 P. Pelliot Chretiens...
47 See, for example: P.Hennig. Unknown Lands, p. 105; P.Y. Saeki. The neslorian documents..., p. 457.
48 N. Ya. Bichurin Collection of information about peoples...vol. I, p. 274.
49 V. V. Bartold On Christianity in Turkestan..., p. 9.
50 R. Grousset Histoire de l'Extreme-Orient, vol. I, p. 352.
51 L. N. Gumilev Ancient Turks, p. 382.
Khan was left only by the military affairs. Once in power, the Manichaeans displayed such religious intolerance 53 that they fell out with all their neighbors: Tibetan Buddhists and followers of the Bon religion, Siberian shamanists, Muslims, Chinese, and, of course, Nestorians. Here we will not trace the political history of Uighuria, but only note that when this country was crushed in 840-847 by the Kyrgyz{44}, and the Manichaean community perished with it54. The steppes, deserted after the departure of the Uighurs to the south, were gradually populated by Mongolian-speaking tribes. The cultural tradition was temporarily cut short, but as soon as some order was restored, Nestorianism literally flooded Central Asia.
But in China, where Nestorianism had been tolerated since 635-55, in 945, by a special decree of the Tang government, it was outlawed along with Buddhism and Manichaeism. This event coincided with the defeat of Uighuria, which China had hitherto needed as an ally and which protected the interests and lives of the nomads living within the borders of the Middle Empire.56 The persecution that followed the decree was much more strongly resisted by Christians than by Buddhists and Manichaeans. But the position of Christianity in China has been severely undermined. In 987 A Christian monk who returned to Constantinople from the Far East said that "Christians in China disappeared and were destroyed for various reasons and that he was the only one who hadn’t died."57 One can be sure that there is some exaggeration here and that fragments of Nestorianism remained on the northern border of China until the beginning of the XI century, when the second wave of Christian expansion in the Far East, which interests us, has begun.
Buddhism withstood the onslaught much more successfully than Christianity. And even Manichaeism was not completely suppressed, although in order to hold on, it resorted to deception. The Mani-hei started pretending to be Buddhists. At first, it was a conscious mimicry: it was impossible, indeed, to explain to every neophyte that he was joining a community forbidden by the government, which masqueraded as a Buddhist, being in fact Manichean! Such explanations could only alienate neophytes, and even run into traitors. Therefore, posing as Buddhists and observing the appropriate decorum, the Chinese gradually merged with the Buddhists, and even scholars such as Biruni stopped distinguishing between them58. This mixing was especially intense in those areas where the Tangut kingdom later arose: Manichaean deities of luminaries in Buddhist guise were found on the icons of Khara Khoto.59
Manichaeans
So, in terms of the struggle of worldviews, the influence of Chinese and Muslim cultures in the steppe was limited and stopped by Byzantine culture, understood in the broadest sense. And the most curious thing about this phenomenon was that the success of "steppe Byzantium", i.e. the penetration of Christianity and Manichaeism into the steppe, could not be summed up under the heading of "cultural influences". Any influence presupposes some form of coercion, at least moral, intellectual, emotional.
52 E. Chavannes et P. Pelliot? Un traite manicheen...Vol.1.
53 For example, they called the Buddha a demon (see E. Chavanneset et P. Pelliot. Un traite manicheen..., p. 193) and depicted in the idols a demon to whom the Buddha washes his feet (V. P. Vasiliev Chinese inscriptions in Orkhon monuments. vol. III, p. 23).
54 L. N. Gumilev Ancient Turks, pp. 428-431. Thus, ibn Bahr reports that in the middle of the 9th century, the Turks "Zoroastrians and Zindiks" lived in the capital of the Uighurs, and in the 10th century the Manichaean temple in Uighuria was considered an exceptional phenomenon (A. Y. Yakubovsky. Arabic and Persian sources on the Uighur Turfan Principality in the 9th–10th centuries, pp. 428, 435).
55 P. Pelliot? Chretiens...p. 624.
56 J. Marquart, Guwaini's Bericht..., p. 480; E. Chavannes et P. Pelliot Un traite manicheen..., p. 284 and cf.
57 A. Moule, Christians in China..., p. 76; P. Pelliot Chretiens... p.628.
58 K. A. Wittfogel and Feng Hsia-sheng, History..., p. 308.
59 S. M. Kochetova Deities of luminaries in Hara-hoto painting, pp. 471-502.
The nomads have always been very sensitive to any form of coercion and were able to fend them off very successfully. But the Byzantine Empire, being far from the steppes of the Central Asia, did not and could not put pressure on the nomads. In addition, the preaching of Christianity among the nomads was led by those who The Byzantines were considered heretics. Therefore, the spread of Christianity in the steppe was not a "cultural influence."-
I am a person", and the transfer of ideological values {46}. The universalism of Christianity, in which "there is neither a barbarian, nor a Scythian, nor a Greek, nor a Jew", took root in the nomadic world because it did not treat the nomads as inferior people and did not lead to submission to another khan, be it the "Son of Heaven" or the "Viceroy of the Prophet." On the contrary, the victory of "Chinese humanism"60
60 N. I. Konrad West and East, p. 127.
End of the introductory section.
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Thank you Librarian . Outstanding work.