Yuezhi
The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in 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.[1][2] Some scholars believe the Yuezhi were an Indo-European people.[1][5]
Origins in Gansu
Before 221 BCE, the Yuezhi were a powerful group located near Dunhuang at the western end of the Hexi Corridor.[1] They controlled the trade of jade from the Tarim Basin.[1] The philosophical tract Guanzi mentions nomadic pastoralists known as the Yúzhī or Niúzhī who supplied jade to the Chinese.[1] These accounts date to approximately 210 BCE.[1] They resided to the northwest of Qin China during this period.[1]
Migration to Central Asia
The Xiongnu began a campaign of raids against the Yuezhi in 207 BCE.[1] In approximately 176 BCE, the Xiongnu inflicted a major defeat on the Yuezhi.[1][3] The majority of the Yuezhi began migrating west to the Ili Valley in 165 BCE.[1][6] This faction was known as the "Great Yuezhi".[1]
The Greater Yuezhi initially migrated northwest into the Ili Valley.[1] They reportedly displaced elements of the Sakas in this region.[1] However, they were driven from the Ili Valley by the Wusun.[1] This forced the Greater Yuezhi to migrate southward toward Sogdia and eventually settle in Bactria.[1]
The Lesser Yuezhi migrated in a different direction, settling on the Tibetan Plateau.[1] Some members of this group are reported to have settled among the Qiang people in Qinghai.[1] Others were involved in the Liang Province Rebellion against the Eastern Han dynasty between 184 and 221 AD.[1]
Conquest of Bactria
The Greater Yuezhi are often identified with the groups described in classical European sources as having overran the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.[1] These groups are referred to in sources as the Tochari and Asii.[1] By the 1st century BC, one of five major tribes of the Greater Yuezhi, the Kushanas, began to subsume the other tribes and neighboring peoples.[1]
Formation of the Kushan Empire
One of the five tribes comprising the Great Yuezhi, the Kushanas, became dominant in the 1st century CE.[1] They formed the basis of the Kushan Empire.[1] At its peak in the 3rd century AD, the empire stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin in the north to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain of India in the south.[1] The empire encompassed much of what is now Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.[4]
Cultural and Religious Influence
The Yuezhi played an important role in the development of trade on the Silk Road.[1] They were instrumental in the introduction of Buddhism to China.[1] The empire also facilitated the spread of Hinduism to Central Asia.[1]
The Yuezhi practiced several religions, including Hinduism (Northern Shaivism), Jainism, Shamanism, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism.[1] The Bactrian language was used in the region during the 1st century AD.[1]