Modu Chanyu

Maodun/Modun/Modu
Hunnu Chanyu
Chanyu of the Xiongnu Empire
Reign 209–174 BCE
Predecessor Touman
Successor Laoshang
Born c. 234 BCE
Modern-day Mongolia
Died 174 BCE
Dynasty Maodun
Father Touman

Modu, Modun, or Maodun (simplified Chinese: 冒顿单于; traditional Chinese: 冒頓單于; pinyin: Mòdú Chányú, c. 234 – c. 174 BCE) was the fourth known Xiongnu ruler and the founder of the empire of the Xiongnu. He became the Xiongnu ruler after he ordered the execution of his father Touman in 209 BCE.[1][2]

Modu ruled from 209 BCE to 174 BCE. He was a military leader under his father Touman, and later Chanyu of the Xiongnu, centred in modern-day Mongolia.[3] He secured the throne and established a powerful Xiongnu Empire by successfully unifying the tribes of the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland in response to the crisis of the loss of Xiongnu pasture lands to invading Qin forces commanded by Meng Tian in 215 BCE. While Modu rode and then furthered the wave of militarization and effectively centralized Xiongnu power, the Qin quickly fell into disarray with the death of the first emperor in 210, leaving Modu a free hand to expand his Xiongnu Empire into one of the largest of his time.[4] The eastern border stretched as far as the Liao River, the western borders of the empire reached the Pamir Mountains, whilst the northern border reached Lake Baikal.

Modu was succeeded by his son Laoshang.

Name

Several scholars have suggested the reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation of Mòdùn (冒頓) is IPA: [mək-twən].[5] His name is also written as Motun in some sources. Ultimately, the Old Chinese pronunciation might have represented the pronunciation of the foreign word *baγtur, a relative of the later attested Central Eurasian culture word baγatur ‘hero’.[5] The etymology of this word is uncertain, although the first syllable is very likely the Iranian word *baγ ‘god, lord’, which is an element in the titles of many later Central Eurasian people.[5] Clauson claims the word to be an original Xiongnu name/title.[6]

Origins and rise to power

According to Sima Qian, Modu was a gifted child but his father Touman wanted the son of another of his wives to succeed him.[2] To eliminate Modu as a competitor to his chosen heir, Touman sent the young Modu to the Yuezhi as a hostage; then he attacked the Yuezhi in the hopes that they would kill Modu as retribution.[2] Modu was able to escape this fate by stealing a fast horse and returned to the Xiongnu, who welcomed him as a hero.[2] In reward for this show of bravery, his father appointed him the commander of 10,000 horsemen.[2]

Due to his reputation for bravery, Modu began to gather a group of extremely loyal warriors.[1] To be sure of their loyalty, Modu ordered the warriors to shoot his favourite horse. Those who refused were executed.[1] He later repeated this test of loyalty, but with one of his favourite wives, and once again executed those who hesitated to obey his order. After he was sure of the loyalty of his remaining warriors, he ordered them to shoot at his father, killing him in a shower of arrows. With none of his followers failing to shoot at his command and the elimination of his father, Modu proclaimed himself Chanyu of the Xiongnu.

After his self-proclaimed ascension as Chanyu, Modu began to eliminate those who would prove a threat to his newly acquired power. Thus, he proceeded to execute his rival half-brother, his step-mother, and other Xiongnu officials who refused to support his rule.[2]

After coming to power in 209 BCE, Modu began to act on his ambitions to become the sole ruler over the Central Asian steppes, finding substantial success through both military strength and clever strategy.[2]

Rise of the Xiongnu Empire

Domain and influence of the Xiongnu under Modu at the start of his rule.

First he marched on the Donghu, the Xiongnu’s eastern neighbours, and brought them under his rule in 208 BCE. After his Donghu campaign (the Donghu split into Xianbei and Wuhuan); he defeated the Dingling and other peoples living in northern Mongolia, and finally he brought the Yuezhi under his rule in 203 BCE. After these conquests, all Xiongnu lords submitted to him.[1]

With these victories, he was able to gain control of the important trade routes, which later supplied the Xiongnu with a large income. In 200 BCE, Modu fought a three-year campaign against Han China and decisively defeated Emperor Gaozu of Han; when Gaozu advanced against him, Modu and his 40,000 soldiers lured the Han army into a trap, ambushed the emperor, reputedly with 300,000 elite Xiongnu cavalry, and encircled them for seven days at the Battle of Baideng. The emperor was cut off from supplies and reinforcements.[2] The siege was only relieved when the Han royal court sent spies to bribe Modu's wife. The result of this campaign resulted in Han China resorting to the humiliating heqin (marriage alliance) strategy with the Xiongnu for the next seventy years.[2] From the Chinese perspective though, it was a case of a "poor 'partridge' delivered over to the 'wild bird of Mongolia'."[7]

After his Chinese campaign, Modu forced the Yuezhi and the Wusun to become vassals of the Xiongnu.[1]

Despite the violent circumstances by which Modu came to power, the Xiongnu leadership passed on with relatively few problems for 150 years after the beginning of his rule.[2]

As Nicola Di Cosmo summarizes the sequence of events, the Qin invasion of the Ordos Plateau (the area within the bend of the Yellow River) came at the same time as a leadership crisis within the loose Xiongnu confederation. Modu took advantage of Xiongnu militarization process that came in response to the Qin invasion, and ably created a newly centralized political structure that made possible his empire. He was aided by the rapid fall of Qin and the fact that the Han initially set up independent "kingdoms," whose leaders, like Xin, King of Han, were as likely to ally with Xiongnu and attack Han as the other way around. Han weakness meant that it supplied Modu and his successors with a steady flow of luxury and staple tribute they could pass down to the aristocracy supporting them. Without that tribute, the Xiongnu might not have been able to expand and maintain control.[8]

Later legends

Christopher I. Beckwith has pointed out that the story of the young Modu resembles a widespread class of folk tales in which a young hero is abandoned, goes on a quest, proves his worth, gains a group of trusted companions, returns to his home country, slays a powerful figure and becomes a king.[9]

The name of Maodun has been associated with Oghuz Khagan, a mythological ancestor of the Turkic peoples. The reason for that is a striking similarity of the Oghuz Khagan biography in the Turco-Persian tradition(Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, Husayni Isfahani, Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur) with the Maodun biography in the Chinese sources (feud between the father and son and murder of the former, the direction and sequence of conquests, etc.), which was first noticed by Hyacinth (Compilation of reports, pp. 56–57).[10][11]

Another suggestion connects it with the name of the Magyar royal tribe of the Hungarians and with their distant relatives the Mators, now extinct.[12] He has been linked with the Dulo clan known from the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans[13] and this, in the form *Duh-klah Tuqi King, with the Hungarian Gyula clan.[14] It has been suggested that his name, as Bixtun or Beztur, appears in the genealogy as the ancestor of Attila, in the Chronica Hungarorum of Johannes de Thurocz.[15]

Memorial

  • The Turkish Land Forces claims the beginning of his reign in 209 BCE as its symbolic founding date.[16]
  • Modun Resources, was Australia-listed coal company operating in Mongolia, named after Modu Chanyu.[17]

See also

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Di Cosmo, Nicola (2002). Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77064-5.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Barfield, Thomas (1989). The Perilous Frontier. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 1-55786-043-2.
  3. ↑ "Bambooweb Dictionary: Huns". Bambooweb. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  4. ↑ Nicola di Cosmo, Ancient China and its Enemies: the Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History (Cambridge UP, 2002), 174-76
  5. 1 2 3 Beckwith 2009, p. 387
  6. ↑ Clauson, Gerard: An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish, Clarendon Press (Oxford), 1972. Entry: Bagatur
  7. ↑ Grousset, Rene (1970). The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-8135-1304-9.
  8. ↑ Cosmo, Nicola Di (2004). Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge University Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-521-54382-8.
  9. ↑ Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road, 2009, Chapter One.
  10. ↑ Bichurin N.Ya., "Compilation of reports on peoples inhabiting Central Asia in ancient times", vol. 1, Sankt Petersburg, 1851, pp. 56–57
  11. ↑ Taskin V.S., "Materials on history of Sünnu", transl., 1968, Vol. 1, p. 129
  12. ↑ E. Helismki – Die Matorische Sprache, 1997, Studia Uralo-Altaica 41, pg. 64.
  13. ↑ O. Pritsak: Die bulgarische Fürstenliste und die Sprache der Proto-Bulgaren, Wiesbaden, 1955.
  14. ↑ O. Pritsak, 1955.
  15. ↑ Friedrich Hirth (1900). "Die Ahnentafel Attila's nach Johannes von Thurócz" (PDF). Bulletin de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  16. ↑ "History of Turkish Land Forces". Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2016. </ref Nihal Atsız, "Türk Karaordusunun Kuruluşu Meselesi", Ötüken, Sayı: 4 (1973)
  17. ↑ "Modun Shanyu". Archived from the original on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2016.

Sources

  • Beckwith, Christopher I. (16 March 2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691135894. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
Preceded by
Touman		 Modu Chanyu of the Xiongnu Empire
209–174 BC		 Succeeded by
Laoshang Chanyu
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