The Perilous Frontier Nomadic Empires and

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 neighbors and ultimately, under Chingis 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, Uighurs 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 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.

Thomas Barfield has written numerous articles and reviews on Inner Asia and Afghanistan and is the author of The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan.

Editor's Preface	p. vii
Preface	p. x
Acknowledgements	p. xiv
Notes on Transliterations	p. xv
Introduction: The Steppe Nomadic World	p. 1
Steppe Political Organization and Frontier Relations	p. 5
Cycles of Power	p. 8
Cultural Ecology	p. 16
Nomadic Pastoralism in Inner Asia	p. 20
Tribal Organization	p. 24
The Rise of Steppe Pastoralism	p. 28
The Steppe Tribes United: The Hsiung-nu Empire	p. 32
The Imperial Confederacy	p. 36
Foreign Affairs--The Han Connection	p. 45
The Hsiung-nu Civil War	p. 60
Wang Mang: China Tries a New Approach	p. 67
The Outer Frontier Strategy in Times of Turmoil	p. 70
The Second Hsiung-nu Civil War	p. 71
The Collapse of Central Order: The Rise of Foreign Dynasties	p. 85
The Hsien-pi "Empire"	p. 85
The Outer Frontier Strategy Returns	p. 87
The Fall of Han--An End of Two Imperial Traditions	p. 90
Hsiung-nu Military States	p. 101
Manchurian Borderlands--The Rise of Dual Organization	p. 104
The Hsien-pi States	p. 105
The Other Northern States: Ch'in and Liang	p. 114
The T'o-pa: Third Wave Conquest	p. 118
The Jou-jan: Foreign Dynasties and the Steppe	p. 120
The Sinification of the T'o-pa Wei	p. 124
The Turkish Empires and T'ang China	p. 131
The First Turkish Empire	p. 131
A Chinese Khaghan	p. 139
The Rise and Fall of the Second Turkish Empire	p. 145
The Uighur Empire	p. 150
A Steppe Civilization	p. 157
The Manchurian Candidates	p. 164
The Collapse of Central Authority on the Steppe and in China	p. 164
The Khitan Liao Dynasty	p. 167
The Jurchen Chin Dynasty Conquers North China	p. 177
The Steppe Divided	p. 182
The Mongol Empire	p. 187
The Rise of Chinggis Khan	p. 187
Mongol Political Organization	p. 191
The Mongol Conquests	p. 197
Mongol Strategy and Policy	p. 202
Political Succession in the Mongol Empire	p. 206
The Yuan Dynasty	p. 219
The Dissolution of Yuan China	p. 222
Steppe Wolves and Forest Tigers: The Ming, Mongols, and Manchus	p. 229
Cycles of Power	p. 229
Mongolia in the Post-Yuan Era	p. 231
The Oirats and the Ming	p. 238
Return of the Eastern Mongols	p. 242
Altan Khan and the Ming Capitulation	p. 245
The Rise of the Manchus	p. 250
The Early Ch'ing State	p. 258
The Last of the Nomad Empires: The Ch'ing Incorporation of Mongolia and Zungharia	p. 266
The Manchu Conquest of China	p. 266
Ch'ing Frontier Policy	p. 275
The Zunghars--Last of the Steppe Empires	p. 277
Epilogue: On the Decline of the Mongols	p. 297
Bibliography	p. 304
Index	p. 313
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Perilous Frontier Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757

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