Touman ( zh, 頭曼), from

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...

(220 BCE): *''do-mɑnᴬ'', is the earliest named '' chanyu'' (leader) of the

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...

tribal confederation, reigning from , directly preceding the formation of the Xiongnu empire.

Life

Competing with the Xiongnu for supremacy were the ''Dōnghú'' or 'Eastern Barbarians' and the

Yuezhi The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...

. In 215 BCE, Qin Shi Huang, the founding emperor of the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...

, sent a 300,000-strong army headed by General Meng Tian into the Ordos region and drove the Xiongnu northward for 1000 ''li'' (about ).Watson (1993), p. 133. "Touman, unable to hold out against the Qin forces, had withdrawn to the far north, where he held out for over ten years."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 the Xiongnu across the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

to regain their previous territory.Sima Qian, '' Records of the Grand Historian''
"Account of the Xiongnu"
quote: "又度河據陽山北假中。" A legend says that Touman favoured a younger son from another concubine. To get rid of his eldest son, Modu, 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 was impressed by his bravery and put Modu in command of a force of 10,000 horsemen. Modu was very successful in training and his men obeyed him absolutely. In 209 BCE, Modu commanded his men to shoot his father, killing him as well as his stepmother, younger brother, and high officials who refused to take orders from him. Thereafter, Modu became ''chanyu''.

Footnotes

References

* Watson, Burton. (1993). '' Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian''. Translated by Burton Watson. Revised Edition. Columbia University Press. . * Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009): ''Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. . * Yap, Joseph P. (2009). ''Wars With The Xiongnu, A Translation from

Zizhi tongjian The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' (1084) is a chronicle published during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) that provides a record of Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning almost 1400 years. The main text is ...

''. AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. . Introduction and Chapter 2. * Doerfer, Gerhard (1963-1975). ''Türkische und Mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen''. 4 vols. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner. OCLC accession number 01543707 on Worldcat.org, where no ISBN found. * Ban Gu 班固. (89 AD). ''Han shu'' 漢書. * * *

Steingass, Francis Joseph Francis Joseph Steingass (March 16, 1825, Frankfurt am Main – January 1903) was a Great Britain, British linguist and oriental studies, orientalist. Biography Steingass completed his education, including a PhD, in Munich, Germany. Later, he ...

. (1892; Fifth Impression, 1963; ...)
''A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary''
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.

External links

All Empires: The Xiongnu Empire
{{s-end Xiongnu Chanyus 3rd-century BC monarchs in Asia Founding monarchs in Asia Leaders ousted by a coup 209 BC deaths 3rd-century BC murdered monarchs Deaths by arrow wounds