Wusun

Wusun is a modern pronunciation of the Chinese Characters '烏孫'. The Chinese name '烏孫' (Wūsūn) literally means wū 'crow, raven' + sūn 'grandson, descendant'. There are several theories about the origin of the name: • Canadian Sinologist Edwin Pulleyblank reconstructs the pronunciation of '烏孫' Wūsūn as in Middle Chinese as ou-suən, from Old Chinese aĥ-smən and linked the Wusun to the Άσμίραιοι Asmiraioi, who inhabited modern Issyk-Kul and Semirechiye and were mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography (VI.16.3). • Several scholars (e.g. Hudson, Bernshtam, Hambly, Lindegger) link them to the Issedones. • Sinologist Victor H. Mair compared Wusun with Sanskrit áśva 'horse', aśvin 'mare' and Lithuanian ašvà 'mare'. The name would thus mean 'the horse people'. Hence he put forward the hypothesis that the Wusun used a satem-like language within the Indo-European languages. However, the latter hypothesis is not supported by Edwin G. Pulleyblank. Christopher I. Beckwith's analysis is similar to Mair's, reconstructing the Chinese term Wusun as Old Chinese *âswin, which he compares to Old Indic aśvin 'the horsemen', the name of the Rigvedic twin equestrian gods. • Étienne de la Vaissière identifies the Wusun with the ''wδ'nn'p, mentioned on Kultobe inscriptions as enemies of the Sogdian-speaking Kangju confederation. Wδ'nn'p contains two morphemes n'p "people" and *wδ'n [wiðan], which is cognate with Manichaean Parthian wd'n and means "tent". Vaissière hypothesizes that the Wusun likely spoke an Iranian language closely related to Sogdian, permitting Sogdians to translate their endonym as *wδ'n'' [wiðan] and Chinese to transcribe their endonym with a native Chinese /s/ standing for a foreign dental fricative. Therefore, Vaissière reconstructs Wusun's endonym as *Wəθan "[People of the] Tent(s)". ==History==

Early history The Wusun were first mentioned by Chinese sources as living together with the Yuezhi between the Qilian Mountains and Dunhuang (Gansu). although different locations have been suggested for these toponyms. Around 210–200 BC, prince Modu Chanyu, a former hostage of the Yuezhi and prince of the Xiongnu, who were also vassals of the Yuezhi, became leader of the Xiongnu and conquered the Mongolian Plain, subjugating several peoples. Around 176 BC Modu Chanyu launched a fierce raid against the Yuezhi. killing their king Nandoumi. The Wusun ancestor myth shares striking similarities with those of the Hittites, the Zhou Chinese, the Scythians, the Romans, the Goguryeo, Turks, Mongols and Dzungars. Based on the similarities between the ancestor myth of the Wusun and later Turkic peoples, Denis Sinor has suggested that the Wusun, Sogdians, or both could represent an Indo-Aryan influence, or even the origin of the royal Ashina Türks. In 162 BC, the Yuezhi were finally defeated by the Xiongnu, after which they fled Gansu. The Sai would subsequently migrate into South Asia, where they founded various Indo-Scythian kingdoms. When the Xiongnu ruler died, Liejiaomi refused to serve the Xiongnu. Chinese sources name the Scythian Sai (Saka), and the Yuezhi who are often identified as Tocharians, among the people of the Wusun state in the Zhetysu and Dzungaria area. The Wusun realm probably included both Yuezhi and Saka. Qian estimated the Wusun to number 630,000, with 120,000 families and 188,000 men capable of bearing arms. The Book of Han described them as occupying land that previously belonged to the Saka (Sai). To their north-west the Wusun bordered Kangju, in modern Kazakhstan. To the west was Dayuan (Ferghana), and to the south were various city states. The Royal Court of the Wusun, the walled city of Chigu, was located in a side valley leading to Issyk Kul. Lying on one of the branches of the Silk Road Chigu was an important trading centre, but its exact location has not been established. The Xiongnu had however also sent a princess to marry Liejiaomi, and the Xiongnu princess was declared his senior consort, with Xijun becoming his junior wife. In 64 BC another Han princess was sent to Kunmi Wengguimi, but he died before her arrival. Han emperor Xuan then permitted the princess to return, since Jieyou had married the new Kunmi, Nimi, the son of Cenzou. Jieyou bore Nimi the son Chimi. Prince Wujiutu later killed Nimi, his half-brother. Fearing the wrath of the Han, Wujiutu adopted the title of Lesser Kunmi, while Yuanguimi was given the title Greater Kunmi. The Han accepted this system and bestowed both of them with the imperial seal. After both Yuanguimi and Chimi were dead, Jieyou asked Emperor Xuan for permission to return to China. She died in 49 BC. Over the next decades the institution of the Greater and Lesser Kunmi continued, with the Lesser Kunmi being married to a Xiongnu princess and the Greater Kunmi married to a Han princess. In 2 AD, Wang Mang issued a list of four regulations to the allied Xiongnu that the taking of any hostages from Chinese vassals, i.e. Wusun, Wuhuan and the statelets of the Western Regions, would not be tolerated. In 74 AD the Wusun are recorded as having sent tribute to the Han military commanders in Cheshi. They are last mentioned in Chinese historical sources in 436 AD, when a Chinese envoy was sent to their country and the Wusun reciprocated. ==Physical appearance==

'', 18th century. The Book of Han and Shiji do not make any special note of the physical appearance of the Wusun. The first description of the Wusun's physical appearance is found in a Western Han dynasty book of divination, the Forest of Changes by Jiaoshi Yilin, which describes the women of the Wusun as "with deep eyesockets, dark, ugly: their preferences are different, past their prime [still] without spouse." A later 7th century commentary to the Book of Han by Yan Shigu says: Initially, when only a few number of skulls from Wusun territory were known, the Wusun were recognized as a Caucasoid people with slight Mongoloid admixture. ==Language==

The Wusun are generally believed to be an Indo-European people and speak a language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch. They are thought to be Iranian-speaking by the archaeologist Elena Kuzmina, linguist János Harmatta, Joseph Kitagawa, David Durand-Guédy, Turkologist Peter B. Golden and Central Asian scholar Denis Sinor. Yan Shigu (581–645) described the Wusun's descendants with the exonym Húrén "foreigners, barbarians", Colin Masica and David Keightley also suggest that the Wusun were Tocharian-speaking. Sinor found it difficult to include the Wusun within the Tocharian category of Indo-European until further research was done. Central Asian scholar Christopher I. Beckwith suggests that the Wusun were Indo-Aryan-speaking. Beckwith specifically suggests an Indo-Aryan etymology of the title Kunmi. Other words listed by these scholars include the title bag, beg 'lord'. This theory has been criticized by modern Turkologists, including Peter B. Golden and Carter V. Findley, who explain that none of the mentioned words are actually Turkic in origin. Meanwhile, Findley considers the title beg as certainly derived from the Sogdian baga 'lord', a cognate of Middle Persian baγ (as used by the rulers of the Sassanid Empire), as well as Sanskrit bhaga and Russian bog. According to Encyclopædia Iranica: "The origin of beg is still disputed, though it is mostly agreed that it is a loan-word. Two principal etymologies have been proposed. The first etymology is from a Middle Iranian form of Old Iranian baga; though the meaning would fit since the Middle Persian forms of the word often mean 'lord,' used of the king or others. The second etymology is from Chinese 伯 (MC pˠæk̚ > bó) 'eldest (brother), (feudal) lord'. Gerhard Doerfer on the other hand seriously considers the possibility that the word is genuinely Turkish. Whatever the truth may be, there is no connection with Turkish berk, Mongolian berke 'strong' or Turkish bögü, Mongolian böge 'wizard, shaman.'" ==Economy==

According to the Shiji (c. 123) and the Book of Han (c. 96), Liu Xijun, a daughter of the Han prince Liu Jian, was sent to the ruler (kunmi or kunmo) of the Wusun between 110 BC and 105 BC. She describes them as nomads who lived in felt tents, ate raw meat and drank fermented mare's milk. Some early Chinese descriptions of the people were pejorative, describing them as "bad, greedy and unreliable, and much given to robbery", but their state was also described as very strong. However, the Wusun were also noted for their harmony towards their neighbours, even though they were constantly raided by the Xiongnu and Kangju. The principal activity of the Wusun was cattle-raising, but they also practiced agriculture. Since the climate of Zhetysu and Dzungaria did not allow constant wandering, they probably wandered with each change of season in the search of pasture and water. Numerous archaeological finds have found querns and agricultural implements and bones of domesticated animals, suggesting a semi-nomadic pastoral economy. ==Social structure==

The social structure of the Wusun resembled that of the Xiongnu. They were governed by the Great Kunmi, whose power was hereditary. The Great Kunmi and his two sons, who commanded the east and left flanks of the Wusun realm, each commanded a force of 10,000 men. The Wusun also fielded a regular army, with each freeman being considered a warrior. Their administrative apparatus was fairly sophisticated, consisting of sixteen officials. The Great Kunmi was assisted by a council of elders, which limited his power to some degree. The Wusun elite maintained itself through tribute from conquered tribes, war booty and trading profits. The booty acquired by the Wusun in their frequent conflicts enabled the administrative elite and members of the Kunmi's guard to amass enormous riches. Wusun society seems to have been highly stratified. The main source of this stratification seems to have been property ownership. The wealthiest Wusuns are believed to have owned as many as 4,000 to 5,000 horses, and there is evidence pointing to privileged use of certain pastures. Typical of early patriarchal stratified societies, Wusun widows were obliged to remain within the family of their late husband by marrying one of his relatives, a concept known as levirate marriage. Y. A. Zadneprovskiy writes that the social inequality among the Wusun created social unrest among the lower strata. Wusun society also included many slaves, mostly prisoners of war. The Wusun are reported as having captured 10,000 slaves in a raid against the Xiongnu. Wusun slaves mainly laboured as servants and craftsmen, although the freemen formed the core of the Wusun economy. ==Archaeology==

, where the Wusun grave of a shaman woman was discovered Numerous sites belonging to the Wusun period in Zhetysu and the Tian Shan have been excavated. Most of the cemeteries are burial grounds with the dead interred in pit-graves, referred to as the Chil-pek group, which probably belong the local Saka population. Another find at Tenlik in eastern Zhetysu () contained the grave of a high-ranking warrior associated with the Wusun, whose clothing had been decorated with around 100 golden items. ==Connection to Western histography==

Some scholars such as Peter B. Golden have proposed that the Wusun may have been identical with the people described by Herodotus (IV. 16–25) and in Ptolemy's Geography as Issedones (also Issedoni, Issedoi or Essedoni). Their exact location of their country in Central Asia is unknown. The Issedones are "placed by some in Western Siberia and by others in Chinese Turkestan," according to E. D. Phillips. French historian Iaroslav Lebedynsky suggests that the Wusun may have been the Asii of Geographica. ==Genetics==

A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of four Wusun buried between 300 BC and 100 BC. The only Y-DNA of the Wusun culture belongs to the haplogroup R1a1a-Z93. The samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to C4a1, HV6, J1c5a and U5b2c. The authors of the study found that the Wusun and Kangju had less East Asian mixture than the Xiongnu and the Saka. Both the Wusun and Kangju were suggested to be descended from Western Steppe Herders of the Late Bronze Age who admixed with Siberian hunter-gatherers and peoples related to the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex. An admixture analysis suggested that Tian Shan Wusun derived the major ancestry from Western Steppe Herders at a proportion of 47%, the remainder from Khövsgöl LBA herders (21%) and BMAC (32%). One theory has suggested that the Uissun tribe of Kazakhstan is descended from the Wusun, based on the superficial similarity of the ethnonym 'Uissun' to Wusun. A 2020 study could not find support for this theory, as the Uissun have a very low frequency of Haplogroup R1a (6%), most of it belonging to the Z94 clade rather than the Iranian Z93 clade. Most of the Uissun lineages were typical of Mongols, supporting their historically attested Mongolian origin. ==See also==