Modu (c. 234 – c. 174 BCE) was the son of Touman and the founder of the empire of the Xiongnu . He came to power by ordering his men to kill his father in 209 BCE.
39-629: Modu ruled from 209 BCE to 174 BCE. He was a military leader under his father Touman and later Chanyu of the Xiongnu Empire, based on the Mongolian Plateau . He secured the throne and established a powerful Xiongnu Empire by successfully unifying the tribes of the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland in response to the loss of Xiongnu pasture lands to invading Qin forces commanded by Meng Tian in 215 BCE. While Modu rode and then furthered
78-600: A four-year-long power struggle for supremacy over China between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu , historically known as the Chu–Han Contention . At that time, the Hán kingdom was ruled by Zheng Chang , who had been appointed King of Hán ( 韓王 ) by Xiang Yu. Liu Bang promised to help Hán Xin become the King of Hán, and appointed him as a general before sending him to attack Zheng Chang. By the following year, Hán Xin conquered more than ten cities in
117-576: A number of Turkic languages . The Turkish Land Forces claims the beginning of his reign in 209 BCE as its symbolic founding date. Touman Touman ( Chinese : 頭曼 ), from Old Chinese (220 B.C.E.): * do-mɑnᴬ , is the earliest named leader ( chanyu ) of the Xiongnu , reigning from c. 220–209 BCE . Competing with the Xiongnu for supremacy were the Dōnghú (東胡) or 'Eastern Barbarians' and
156-667: A powerful figure and becomes a king. The name of Modu has been associated with Oghuz Khagan , a legendary ancestor of Oghuz Turks . 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 Modu biography in the Chinese sources (feud between the father and son and murder of
195-458: A show of strength and ordered that he have command of 10,000 riders. Modu managed to make whistling arrowheads, and used them to train his riders to shoot. He gave an order, saying: "Those who do not always shoot at something shot at by an arrow with a whistling arrowhead will be beheaded." He conducted hunting for game-animals. He had with him some who were not shooting at the things the whistling arrowhead(s) were shot at, and he beheaded them on
234-453: 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. 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
273-425: A whistling arrowhead, he shot at one of the chanyu's good horses. At [his] left and right, all shot at it. Modu thereupon knew that his left and right could be used [for the task]. He went along, on a hunt of his father, the chanyu Touman, and shot at Touman with a whistling arrowhead. Those at his left and right, all following the whistling arrowhead, shot and killed Touman. They put to death both his stepmother and
312-423: Is now alone and living in solitude. Since both of us are not happy and have nothing to entertain ourselves, I'm willing to use what I possess to exchange for what you lack. Lü Zhi was infuriated at the rude proposition, and in a heated court session, her generals advised her to rally an army and exterminate the Xiongnu immediately. As she was about to declare war, an outspoken attendant named Ji Bu pointed out that
351-564: The heqin policy of marrying so called "princesses" to Xiongnu chieftains and paying tribute to the Xiongnu in exchange for peace between both sides. 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
390-544: The Battle of Baideng . Gaozu's narrow escape from capture by the Xiongnu convinced him to make peace with his nomadic enemy. He sent a "princess" to the Chanyu ( heqin , marriage alliance) and offered him silk, wine, and food stuffs. The Chanyu accepted the offer and restricted himself to minor raids throughout the duration of Gaozu's reign. The Han dynasty sent random unrelated commoner women falsely labeled as "princesses" and members of
429-655: The Donghu , expressed desire to occupy uninhabited land that lay between them, Modu reacted by attacking them. By 208 BCE, the Donghu had been defeated and their remnants split into the Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes. Modun went on to subdue the Dingling and other peoples to the north, and defeat the Yuezhi in 203 BCE. After these conquests, all Xiongnu lords submitted to him. With these victories, he
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#1733115571224468-563: The Old Chinese pronunciation of his name 冒頓 ( *mək-tuən), and his clan Dulo with the Xiongnu ruling house 屠各 Tuge (in Old Chinese d'o-klâk ). It has been suggested that his name, as Beztur, appears in the genealogy as the ancestor of Attila , in the Chronica Hungarorum of Johannes de Thurocz . Modu Chanyu is also known as Mete Khan (particularly, Mete Han in Turkish ) across
507-606: The Qin dynasty . After the fall of the Qin dynasty in 206 BC, Xiang Yu divided the former Qin Empire into the Eighteen Kingdoms and granted Liu Bang the title of "King of Hàn" ( 漢王 ) and relocated him to the remote Ba and Shu regions around present-day Chongqing and Sichuan . In late 206 BC, Liu Bang led his army out of Bashu to attack the Three Qins . This marked the beginning of
546-531: The Yuezhi . In 215 BCE, Qin Shi Huang , the founding emperor of the Qin dynasty , sent a 300,000-strong army headed by General Meng Tian into the Ordos region and drove the Xiongnu northward for 1,000 li (about 416 km). "Touman, unable to hold out against the Qin forces, had withdrawn to the far north, where he held out for over ten years." After the death of the Qin general Meng Tian in 210 BCE, Touman led
585-525: The Han army to attack Hán Xin and forced him to retreat to Xiongnu territory. However, the Han army lost to the Xiongnu at the Battle of Baideng and retreated. Hán Xin and the Xiongnu constantly raided the northern border in the following years. In 197 BC, Hán Xin sent Wang Huang ( 王黃 ) to convince Chen Xi to rebel, which he did. In 196 BC, Hán Xin allied with the Xiongnu again to attack the Han Empire, and occupied
624-500: The Han imperial family multiple times when they were practicing heqin marriage alliances with the Xiongnu in order to avoid sending the emperor's daughters. After his Chinese campaign, Modu forced the Yuezhi and the Wusun to become vassals of the Xiongnu. In 195 BCE, Lu Wan King of Yan, fled to the Xiongnu after he was defeated by the Han general Zhou Bo . In 178 BCE, the Xiongnu overran
663-554: The Hán kingdom and forced Zheng Chang to surrender. Liu Bang recognised Hán Xin as the new King of Hán. In 204 BC, after Liu Bang was defeated by Xiang Yu at the Battle of Xingyang , Hán Xin was captured by Xiang Yu and forced to surrender. Later, he managed to escape and return to Liu Bang's side. Hán Xin was reinstated as the King of Hán and became a vassal of the Han dynasty after Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu in 202 BC and became Emperor of China . He
702-656: The Xiongnu army was much more powerful than the Chinese. At Ji Bu's words, the court immediately fell into a fearful silence. Rethinking her plans, Lü Zhi rejected Modu's proposition humbly, as follows: Your Lordship does not forget our land and writes a letter to us, we fear. I retreat to preserve myself. I'm old and frail, I'm losing hair and teeth, and I struggle to maintain balance when I move. Your Lordship has heard wrongly, you shouldn't defile yourself. Our people did not offend you, and should be pardoned. We've two imperial carriages and eight fine steeds, which we graciously offer to Your Lordship. However she continued implementing
741-451: The 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
780-412: The Xiongnu people to cross the Yellow River back to regain their previous territory. The legend says, that Touman favored a younger son from another concubine. To get rid of his eldest son, Modu (冒頓), Touman sent him to the Yuezhi as a hostage, and then made a sudden attack on them. In retaliation the Yuezhi prepared to kill Modu, but he managed to steal a horse and escape back to the Xiongnu. Touman
819-584: The Yuezhi and Wusun in Gansu and the Tarim Basin . Modu died in 174 BCE and was succeeded by his son, Jiyu, who became Laoshang Chanyu . In 192 BC Empress Dowager Lü Zhi (widow of Emperor Gaozu of Han ) received a marriage proposal from Modu, who wrote as follows in a letter meant to intimidate and mock her: I'm a lonesome ruler born in marshes and raised in plains populated by livestock. I've visited your border numerous times and wanted to tour China. Your Majesty
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#1733115571224858-570: The commander of 10,000 horsemen. Due to his reputation for bravery, Modu began to gather a group of extremely loyal warriors. He invented a signaling arrow that made a whistling sound in flight and trained his men to shoot in the direction of the sound in synchrony. To be sure of his men's loyalty, Modu commanded the warriors to shoot his favourite horse, any who refused to do so being summarily executed. He later repeated this test of loyalty, but with one of his favourite wives and once again executed those who hesitated to carry out his order. Only when he
897-647: The dynasty agreeing to pay an annual tribute alongside other goods such as silk, grain and rice. Modu was succeeded by his son Laoshang . His name is reconstructed as * mǝk-tuən in Later Han Chinese and mək-twən in Middle Chinese . The name's Old Chinese pronunciation might have represented the pronunciation of the foreign word *baɣtur , a relative of the later attested Central Eurasian culture word baɣatur "hero". According to Gerard Clauson , bağatur , transcribed by Chinese with -n for foreign -r ,
936-485: The end of Touman's life in vivid language, as follows: ... The chanyu (Touman) had a son and heir called Modu. Later, he had a beloved queen, who gave birth to a younger son. Touman wanted to cast aside Modu to install the young son. He managed to send Modu as a hostage to the Yuezhi. Upon Modu having become a hostage, Touman quickly attacked the Yuezhi. The Yuezhi wanted to kill Modu. Modu stole their good horses, rode, went away, and returned home. Touman took it as
975-666: The former, the direction and sequence of conquests, etc.), which was first noticed by Hyacinth (Compilation of reports, pp. 56–57). Another suggestion connects it with the name of the Magyar royal tribe of the Hungarians and with their distant relatives the Mators , now extinct. Modu has been linked with the name вихтунь mentioned in the Nominalia of the Bulgarian Khans , corresponding to
1014-416: The influence the Xiongnu had on his vassals, Gaozu marched north with a 320,000 strong army to confront them. However his men suffered from inadequate clothing to ward off the cold and a lack of supplies, so Gaozu left them behind and advanced to Pingcheng with only 40,000 men. Modu Chanyu saw his chance to turn the tide and immediately surrounded the city with only 40.000 cavalry, cutting the emperor off from
1053-455: The new Hán capital. Hán Xin requested to have his capital at Mayi (present-day Shuozhou , Shanxi) instead and the emperor approved. When the Xiongnu attacked Mayi, Emperor Gaozu suspected Hán Xin of secretly conspiring with the Xiongnu so he sent an imperial edict to Hán Xin to reprimand him. Hán Xin was afraid of being exterminated so he formed an alliance with the Xiongnu against the Han Empire. In late 200 BC, Emperor Gaozu personally led
1092-426: The rest of his army. It's not clear why, but the Chanyu eventually withdrew some of his men. Sima Qian suggests his consort persuaded him to let the emperor escape. However a prolonged siege would have been impractical anyway since Xin's infantry never made it on time. Seeing the Chanyu's thinned lines, Gaozu sortied out and broke the siege. When Han reinforcements arrived, the Xiongnu withdrew. This came to be known as
1131-417: The son of another of his wives to succeed him. 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 hope that they would kill Modu as retribution. Modu was able to escape this fate by stealing a fast horse and returned to the Xiongnu, who welcomed him as a hero. As reward for this show of bravery, his father appointed him
1170-469: The spot. That being done, Modu, with a whistling arrowhead, shot at one of his own good horses. At his left and his right, some did not dare to shoot at all. Modu straightaway beheaded them. [Next,] he waited, a while passed, and, again with a whistling arrowhead, he shot at his own beloved wife. At his left and his right, there were some who were quite afraid, and did not dare shoot, and he again beheaded them. A while passed, and Modu went out hunting. With
1209-526: The title of "King of Hán" ( 韓王 ). In 201 BC, Hán Xin was suspected of conspiring with the Xiongnu to attack the Han Empire and decided to defect to the Xiongnu. He was killed in action during a battle against the Han army in 196 BC. Hán Xin was a grandson of King Xiang of the Hán state of the Warring States period . Around 207 BC, Hán Xin joined Liu Bang 's rebel army in Henan and joined him in overthrowing
Modu Chanyu - Misplaced Pages Continue
1248-502: The town of Canhe ( 參合 ; possibly the place where a decisive battle occurred 600 years later). Chai Wu ( 柴武 ), the Han general assigned to fend off the invasion, wrote a letter to Hán Xin, asking him to surrender to the Han Empire. Chai Wu also told Hán Xin that he had a chance of being pardoned since his betrayal was not as serious as others' so the emperor would be more inclined to forgive him. However, Hán Xin refused, claiming he had already committed high treason three times by allying with
1287-565: The wave of militarization and effectively centralized Xiongnu power, the Qin quickly fell into disarray with the death of the first emperor in 210 BCE, leaving Modu a free hand to expand his Xiongnu Empire into one of the largest of his time. 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's raids into China resulted in
1326-429: The younger brother and even some important retainers who did not obey and go along. Modu thereupon installed himself and became chanyu. Xin, King of Han Xin, King of Hán (died 196 BC), also known as Hán Xin and as Hán Wang Xin , was a descendant of the royal family of the state of Hán during the Warring States period of China. After the establishment of the Han dynasty , Emperor Gaozu granted Hán Xin
1365-486: Was able to gain control of the important trade routes, which later supplied the Xiongnu with a large income. In 200 BCE, Xin, King of Han , surrendered to the Xiongnu at Mayi, Shuofang , Dai Commandery , and joined them in raiding Han territory. Emperor Gaozu of Han led an army against them and scattered their forces, defeating them several times before they retreated. Later Xin set up Zhao Li as King of Zhao and marched south against Gaozu. They too were defeated. Seeing
1404-417: Was by origin almost certainly a " Hunnic " (Xiongnu) proper name. His name was also read as MC mək-tuən ( 墨頓 ; following Sima Zhen 's commentary on Shiji ) and MC mək-duok ( 墨毒 ; following Song Qi 's commentary on Hanshu ), the latter of which, according to Pulleyblank (1999), "does not make sense" phonologically. According to Sima Qian , Modu was a gifted child but his father Touman wanted
1443-667: Was convinced of the absolute loyalty of his remaining warriors did he order them to shoot his father during a hunting trip, killing him in a shower of arrows. With none of his followers failing to shoot at his command and the removal 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. Modu's Xiongnu Empire aggressively protected and expanded their territory. When their eastern neighbors,
1482-500: Was granted the lands around Yingchuan ( 穎川 ; in present-day Henan ) as his fief and built his capital at Yangzhai ( 陽翟 ; present-day Yuzhou City , Henan). In 201 BC, Liu Bang (Emperor Gaozu) felt that Hán Xin's fief was in a strategic location and was worried that Hán might pose a threat to the Han Empire. Hence, under the pretext of sending him to defend the northern border, the emperor had Hán Xin relocated to Taiyuan Commandery , with Jinyang ( 晉陽 ; present-day Taiyuan , Shanxi ) as
1521-417: Was impressed of his bravery and put Modu in command of a force of 10,000 horsemen. Modu was very successful in training his men to obey him absolutely. In 209 BCE, Modu commanded his men to shoot his father, killing him as well as his stepmother, younger brother, and the high officials who refused to take orders from him. Thereafter Modu became chanyu. The Book of Han ( juan 94's "upper" section) recounts
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