The History of China - #35 - E. Han 2: Reclamation

Episode Date: August 17, 2014

It is a Golden Age for the Eastern Han. After decades of tumult, famine, and civil war, the Chinese Empire is poised once again to reclaim its status as preeminent East Asian power. Retaking the abandoned Western Vassal Kingdoms, sending envoys to India and even Rome, and at long last finishing the 200 year old war with the rapidly disintegrating Xiongnu Empire to the north. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 33, Reclamation. Before launching in today, I've got to say that I've just received my new microphone, a Blue Yeti, if you're curious, which was based on Popular Ascent, and I couldn't be happier with the upgrade. It's all thanks to the enthusiasm of you listeners that I put these episodes out week after week, and especially thanks to those of you who have donated to the show

that I'm now able to record on such high-grade equipment. I really cannot thank you all enough, and I hope that you can hear the difference. Last episode, the Han Dynasty, having resurged to overthrow the usurper Wang Meng by riding the tide of popular agrarian revolt, nearly tore itself to pieces right off the bat, when they couldn't decide just exactly which member of the Liu clan ought to be the emperor.

But in the end, it was Liu Xiu who had emerged victorious from the grisly civil war, having vanquished his rivals to power, and reunified the core provinces of the empire under his rule as Emperor Guangwu. He had followed that up by making peace with the Xiongnu and reconquering a rebellious Vietnam, but knew that the reinvigorated eastern Han would need more time to regain its strength before it could once again lay claim to the more far-flung regions to the west. This episode, we pick up with his son and heir, Grand Prince Liu Zhuang, as he ascends to the throne as Ming of Han in 57 CE, following the death of his 52-year-old father.

Ming, whose regnal name translates best as the Understanding, was 29 or 30 years old at the time of his enthronement at Luoyang. His accession to the throne had been somewhat surprising, because he had, after all, had an elder brother. You may remember from the end of last episode, though,

that Guangwu's first heir, Prince Liu Jiang, had literally begged his father to demote him from his position after his mother had been deposed as empress. Though his father had been uncomfortable with the idea

of deposing both his empress and his heir, Wang Wu had finally relented in 41 and swapped the titles of his two sons. An unintended consequence of this political switcheroo was that once he was named the heir of Han, the prince, then called Liu Yang, was forced to change his name. This was because of the naming taboo that we've talked about several times across the series, forbidding the common people from using the given names of the emperor or his heir. The problem was that the now-crowned Prince Yang's given name means the sun. Imagine trying to forbid people from using or writing the word for the sun.

Beautiful day, isn't it? Yes, the you-know-what is sure shining brightly. It was completely unfeasible, and so he was renamed to Zhuang to make forbidding the use of the word a little bit more practical. Just don't tell that to the entire Zhuang clan, who were themselves forced to take on a new family name to comply with the taboo, Yan. Although most did change back after the death of Ming, some took to their new surname and kept it. Ming had been married six years prior, in 51, to the youngest daughter of General Ma Yuan, a great honor for the Queller of the Deep who had stamped out the Cheng rebellion

in Nanyue. The girl, who we only know as consort and later empress ma, was 12 at the time of her wedding to the then 23-year-old crown prince. This is not at all out of character for political marriages throughout the pre-modern world, and indeed attitudes were quite different regarding womanhood two millennia ago, but rest assured that I join all of you in finding that age difference more than a little squeaky. Ming had been groomed by his father for rule, and took to the task with diligence and even-handed competence.

He is noted for actively rooting out official corruption, and punishing those found engaging in such practices harshly, often with death. To his family, however, he was unusually kind. When his half-brother Prince Jiang, the former crown prince, died just a year into Ming's reign, he ordered that all princes and major officials were to attend the Prince of Donghai's funeral at the capital of Donghai Prefecture, a highly exceptional honor for a merely regional lord. In year 60, he declared his now 20-year-old consort Ma, his first and still favorite wife, as his empress. Because she was and throughout her life would remain childless,

though, she had been directed by her husband to adopt her niece's son, another of Ming's consorts just to keep it all in the family, Prince Liu Da, as her own. The three-year-old was declared the crown prince the same year as his adoptive mother's promotion. At least legendarily, it is during the reign of Emperor Ming that Buddhism began to noticeably interact with Chinese culture. The spread of Buddhism out of what is today India, and particularly into China itself, is a long, complicated story riddled with ambiguity and uncertainty, however. By many accounts,

the philosophy-slash-religion didn't begin to significantly puncture the Chinese veil until the 2nd century CE. So, with that in mind, take the following with the appropriate dosage of salt. According to the legend, it was during Ming's reign that Buddhist thought began to notably creep into China from the south, but mostly from the west. The story tells us that one night, Ming dreamed of either one or several golden men. When he told his ministers the next day,

one of them, Zheng Hu, explained that it had probably been a vision of the Buddha. Determined to find the source, Emperor Ming sent a delegation of 18 west to see the source of his vision and bring him what they could learn from this Buddha. Years later, the delegation supposedly returned, bearing an image of Gautama Buddha, as well as the Sutra of 42ters and two eminent Buddhist monks to teach the Chinese emperor of their ways. The next year, Ming ordered the construction of the Bai Ma Si, the White Horse Temple, to commemorate the animal which bore the Sutra to him. Whether or not one buys the story,

the White Horse Temple is most often thought of as the earliest Buddhist temple constructed in China. Now, I'd be a fool to think that I could adequately explain Buddhism as a philosophy in any meaningful way, given all the time in the world, much less as part of a 30-minute podcast episode. Nevertheless, and perhaps in the spirit which founded this very podcast, the ever-bold spirit of foolishness itself, I feel compelled to at least give a cursory summation of the belief system, as I understand it, however deficient that may ultimately prove to be. Actual Buddhists listening, please feel absolutely free to go to thehistoryofchina.wordpress.com and tear me apart for any falsehood or misrepresentations I am about to make. The formalized philosophy is traced back about only a century

before the era of Emperor Ming, the latter half of the 1st century BCE. It arose largely as an ascetic challenge to the sacrifices and rituals of the Vedic Brahmanism that had been the dominant belief and social structure in the Indian subcontinent. The philosophies that would coalesce into that belief structure, however, are thought to have originated sometime between the 4th and 6th centuries BCE with a man known variously as Siddhartha, Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply Buddha, who was born on the western slopes of the Himalayas in what is now Nepal, but was then known as the Magadha Kingdom of ancient India.

The central tenets of Buddhism center around the ideas of impermanence, suffering, repeating cycles of life and death, and the ultimate goal of breaking free of that cycle through achieving attunement with the universe itself. The endless cycle of life, death, and involuntary rebirth is called samsara, and is brought about by individual fixation on self and experience. There are six possible realms an entity can be reborn into. The first is Naraka, a form of hell. The second, Preta, which are hungry ghosts who share space with but can only rarely

interact with humans. Third is animals, who share the world with but are considered fundamentally different from humanity. Fourth, humans, the lowest realm through which achieving enlightenment or nirvana is possible. Fifth, asuras, variously described as low-level deities, demons, or titans and finally, devas, which are higher gods, spirits, angels, brahmins, or deities which specific realm one is reborn into is determined by the sum total of one's karma which is essentially a running eternal tally of one's good and bad deeds a net positive might move an entity up the ladder of rebirth, but the ultimate goal is actually to break the cycle altogether

and leave the cycle of samsara for good, achieving enlightenment and becoming oneself a Buddha by achieving nirvana. The imperturbable stillness of mind, after the flames of desire, aversion, and delusion, have at last been extinguished. In spite of the physical proximity of India to China, the Himalaya Mountains provided a daunting barrier for philosophical transmission between the two cultures. And so it's somewhat ironic, but not terribly surprising, that Buddhist proselytizers are thought to have reached as far west as Athens and Alexandria, decades or even centuries before the philosophy became known in

Chang'an or Luoyang. Nevertheless, the philosophy had been spreading toward China through both Burma in Southeast Asia and the Tarim Basin, through which the Silk Road passed. When it at last did reach the Han Empire, it is not surprising that it was through the re-established trade route that was the ancient world's equivalent of an information superhighway, rather than through the densely jungled, largely unexplored and undocumented interior of Southern Asia. So, there is my quick, dirty, ten-cent version of Buddhism and its initial contact with the Chinese Empire. Before going much further into Ming's reign, it's going to be best to pull back and take a look at the larger picture,

particularly the Han Empire's semi-ongoing war with the Xiongnu Confederacy, which you'll remember had been on-again, off-again now for more than 190 years up to this point. Or rather, I should correct myself. They are now the steppe people formerly known as the Xiongnu Confederacy. Because as of 46 CE, it had split right down the middle. The instigating factor had been a breach of succession law, that only a reigning Chanyu's brother could be the lawful heir of the Xiongnu. But in 46, Hunun, the son of the recently deceased Hu Du'er She Chanyu, took up his father's mantle in violation of this order, and enraged the Prince of the West

and lawful heir, Bi. The confederations split into northern and southern factions, Punu Chanyu controlling the northern Xiongnu, and Bi Chanyu controlling the southern Xiongnu. To give a sense of population here, David Christian estimated in his book A History of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia that the southern Xiongnu probably had something like 30 to 40 thousand soldiers and an overall population perhaps twice or three times that size. Compare that, if you will, to the population of China, which you'll remember had been almost cut in half by the just-concluded famine and rebellion that marked the Xin Dynasty. China's population had dropped to about 38 million. In year 50, Bi had shrewdly submitted to the renewed authority

of Han and had begun a joint campaign against the northern Xiongnu tribes. In 65, Emperor Ming established what would become a permanent defense force to guard the border between north and south Xiongnu, called the Duliao Army. And while its primary task was to keep the northern Xiongnu out, it also had a secondary role, which was preventing potential defections to the north. Alright, so back to Ming himself for a few years before picking up the Xiongnu threat again. As I'd said, Ming was well-known and praised for the generosity and affection he showed his siblings early in his reign. Now that may sound natural to you or I, but it was unusual for an emperor because those siblings could well prove to be rivals,

rebels, or usurpers. As had been borne out time and again, sometimes the lure of power could be thicker than even blood. And in spite of the care Ming lavished on his own siblings, this would prove to be one of those instances. In 66, one of his brothers, Liu Jing, the prince of Guanglin, was found to have been plotting rebellion against the throne. In spite of his blatant treachery, Ming couldn't bring himself to harshly punish his brother, the prince of Guangling, was found to have been plotting rebellion against the throne. In spite of his blatant treachery, Ming couldn't bring himself to harshly punish his brother,

and so gave him a wrist slap, stripping him of most of his powers, but permitting Jing to retain his control of the Guangling principality. This, of course, wasn't the end of it. And the very next year, Prince Jing was discovered to be at it again, this time having hired warlocks to curse his brother emperor. Ming again hesitated, but it was clear that in the end, the empire was only going to be big enough for one of them. In 67, he had his brother arrested and forced him to commit suicide. Less than three years later, in 70, another troubling fraternal situation would once again spring up. This time, it was Liu Ying, the Prince of Chu,

who incidentally was the only one of Guangwu's sons not born of one of his empresses, but rather a consort. Prince Ying was found to have hired warlocks, though apparently not to curse his brother, but rather to create golden turtles and jade cranes, and then enchant them with forbidden runes and blessings. But just to compound the situation, in searching Prince Ying's effects, he was found to be in possession of revolutionary writings. Emperor Ming had learned his lesson, and knew that a wrist slap would not be suitable, but still did not order his brother's death.

Instead, he stripped Prince Ying of his powers and titles, exiled him, and declared him a commoner, though he was still kind enough to give him a small fife with about 500 households. Though Ying would commit suicide in exile, it was not compulsory, and his family was left alone. The same could not be said, however, for Ying's associates. The emperor ordered that they all be arrested and interrogated sharply, and anyone they named as co-conspirator was likewise dragged into the imperial dungeons to be tortured for information. It would seem that this imperial inquisition rapidly took on a life of its own, with the interrogators beginning to take huge liberties with the free reign Ming had given them. They began falsely accusing hundreds of people, political or personal enemies for instance,

of having conspired against the throne, and would often torture the unfortunates to death, or arrange their executions for the crime of treason. All in all, possibly tens of thousands were either tortured to death or executed in the frenzy, and the reign of terror only ended when Empress Ma herself interceded to put a stop to the grisly violence. A virtual repeat would happen once more in 73, with what had become all the usual bells and whistles. The prince of Huayang, Liu Yan, had, yes, hired warlocks to curse the emperor. True to form, Yan was demoted, while hundreds of others were tortured and killed in the ensuing purge. These last two incidents would prove to be the significant blemishes on Ming's otherwise fairly sterling reign.

All right, back to the international situation. By early 73, Emperor Ming had gotten fed up with the northern Xiongnus' constant incursions into Han-controlled territory. In response, he commissioned two of his generals, Gengbing and Dougu, to mount a major expedition to end the northern threat once and for all. The northern Xiongnu and Han armies would clash in February in a northwestern territory then called Yiwu Lu, which is now the Xinjiang city Kumul, or called in Mandarin Hami, and well known for its production of the eponymous Hami melons, which are very similar in texture and taste to cantaloupe. Once arrived, General Dou set up a series of garrisons to protect the farmers of the

area, and attempted to rally the local governments of three regions against the Xiongnu. They were the Shan Shan Kingdom, previously known as Luolan, but had been renamed after its king An Gui had been assassinated by a Han emissary back in episode 28, Yutian, or the Kingdom of Khatan, and the Shule Kingdom, today the city of Kashgar, the westernmost city in China on the border of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Dou's first target was the closest, Shanshan, on the eastern edge of the Taklamakan desert. General Dou sent his assistant, Ban Chao, to treat with the rulers of Shanshan, and though he was at first received warmly, the Shanshan's

demeanor unexpectedly turned cold. Ban discovered that the reason was that they had been visited by an ambassadorial delegation from northern Xiongnu, and it would have been more than a little awkward were they to be found harboring Han emissaries at the same time. Ban Chao and his men solved the problem readily enough, however. They simply found out where the Xiongnu emissaries were camped, waited until nightfall, and then massacred them all in their sleep. The king of Shanshan was understandably rather flustered, but happy enough to be once again offered the protection of Han, rather than have to deal with the far harsher Xiongnu.

And he submitted once again to the imperial throne. Ban was promoted by General Dou for his success and given a follow-up mission, this time to Khotan, a firm ally of the northern Xiongnu and the strongest of all the western kingdoms. The king of Khotan, Guangde, was known to hold in high regard his court warlock. And so when the conjurer demanded Ban offer up his horse as a tribute, Ban agreed and invited the warlock to come to his camp and pick up the horse. But when the sorcerer arrived, Ban Chao immediately executed him and sent his severed head back to King Guangde. The king of Catan, impressed by the boldness of the Han emissary and unmistakably aware that this meant the Han were back in force, submitted once again to Han vassaldom. Having subdued the biggest and baddest kingdom among them, the majority of Shiyu followed suit and submitted once more to Han suzerainty.

Only Cheshire, the last significant ally of the northern Xiongnu, remained unmoved. This time, there would be no trick to victory, just a straightforward large-scale military incursion led by the Han generals Dou and Geng to force the minor kingdom to heal. A counter-assault by the northern Xiongnu army in 75 to reclaim Cheshi would be repulsed by the protector general and his garrisons. With the region once again reunited under Han leadership, Ming was at last able to accomplish what his father had not been powerful enough to do, and reintegrated the Shiyu region with the Han Empire, under the jurisdiction of the recreated Protectorate of the Western

Regions. Sure, militarily it was a pretty minor victory for the empire, so what, they reclaimed a few desert outposts. But in terms of both morale, and a clear declaration to the northern Xiongnu that it was once again ready and able to project its military power, the retaking of Xiyu was a major step forward for Han. Emperor Ming wouldn't have long to celebrate his victory, however, because that same year he would die unexpectedly at the age of 47, after 17 years on the throne. In his will, he ordered that no temple be built for him, and that he be worshipped from the temple built for his mother, the Empress Dowager Yin. This would become customary for emperors of the Eastern Han, who in the future would slightly

modify the practice to be worshipped alongside the savior and revitalizer of the dynasty, Emperor Guangwu. In terms of cost, it was an enormous money saver for the empire compared to the tradition of the Western Han of building individual temples for every single dead emperor. Ming's son and heir, Crown Prince Da, would succeed his father to the throne in 75 as Emperor Zhang the Polite at age 18. Zhang would largely continue the policies laid out by his father and inherited his hardworking tendencies. He is, however, remembered as being significantly more lenient than his strict father.

Shortly after Ming's death, the northern Xiongnu sought to capitalize on the perceived weakness of the empire as it transitioned by assaulting the protectorates of Jiushi and Liuzhong. The northern Chanyu's bold attack would prove well-timed, as his armies were able to capture both regions, killing their protector general Chen Mu in the process. This seems to have rather unnerved Emperor Zhang, possibly thinking that his empire was not yet strong enough to contend directly with the northern Xiongnu, as his father had evidently felt. In 76, he agreed with the joint suggestion of his prime minister and

advisor to call off the reoccupation of the Shiyu regions and recall the garrisoned troops, and officially dissolved once again the office of the Protectorate General of the Western Regions. And it's here that something truly interesting happened. The Protector General himself, Ban Chao, yes, the same guy as earlier, who had been given this post as a reward for basically single-handedly reconquering the territory for Han, refused to back down, and rejected the imperial mandate to withdraw his forces. Ban understood the critical importance of maintaining a strong Han presence in Xiyu and knew that letting the northern Xiongnu reoccupy the region would only weaken Han further in the long term. It was fortunate indeed for Ban Chao that his post was so terribly far

away from the rest of the empire, as refusing an imperial edict is typically not terribly good for one's career prospects, or lifespan for that matter. But given that Zhang was planning on giving up the region in the first place, he certainly wasn't about to spend more gold and waste more men by forcing the issue. He essentially was forced to say, fine, stay there and see what happens, but we're not sending any more aid, and don't come crying to me when the barbarians kick down your door. General Ban, however, was prepared for this, and went to work shoring up his personal alliances with the various leaders of Xiyu under his military protection. For their part, they weren't in any hurry to return to Xiongnu occupation, certainly not so soon after just having thrown them out.

And things went… well. For the next four years, Ban Chao would hold down the fort, and even managed to expand his control of the far west by mounting a successful expedition to remove Xiongnu occupiers from the kingdom of Shecheng. In year 80, he wrote again to Emperor Zhao, informing him of his continued control, and even expansion, of the area, and requesting that Luoyang formally re-establish the Western Protectorate and send additional troops. Well, if they'd held out this long, maybe the situation wasn't nearly as hopeless as it had seemed back in 76. Emperor Zhang agreed to General Ban's request and retained the military statesman as the region's commander There he would remain for more than 30 years before finally retiring to Luoyang in 102

and dying the next year In addition to maintaining Han control of Xiyu he is also renowned for dispatching an emissary named Gan Ying to traverse the entire Silk Road and pay a visit to Rome called Daqin by the Han, at its far end. Emissary Gan made it as far as the Western Sea, which most likely refers to either the Black Sea or more likely the Persian Gulf.

In either case, though, that makes his journey the furthest west a Chinese had ever been up to that point. According to the Book of Later Han, quote, in the ninth month of Yongyuan year, during the reign of Emperor He, Protector General Ban Chao sent Gan Ying to Daqin, which is again the Roman Empire. He reached Charesin and Susiana, next to a large sea. He wanted to cross it, but the sailors of the western frontier of Anxi, which is Parthia, said to him, The ocean is huge. Those making the round trip can do it in three months, if the winds are favorable.

However, if you encounter winds that delay you, it can take you two years. This is why all the men who go to sea take stores for three years. The vast ocean urges men to think of their country country and get homesick, and some of them die. When Gan Ying heard this, he discontinued his trip. For reference, Tarrasin is modern Kuwait in southern Iraq, and Susiana, also called Elam, was situated along the modern border of Iraq and Iran. Though Gan did not make it to his destination, he nevertheless came back to China with a great deal of information about the great civilization on the far side of the world.

He had been told numerous stories, some of it rather fanciful and vague, by Persian traders and sailors along the Gulf Coast, and when he returned, he gave the following report. Quote, their kings are not permanent. They select and appoint the most worthy man. If there are unexpected calamities in the kingdom, such as frequent extraordinary winds or rains, he is unceremoniously rejected and replaced. The one who has been dismissed quietly accepts his demotion

and is not angry. The people of this country are all tall and honest. They resemble the people of the Middle Kingdom, and that is why this kingdom is called Daqin, or Great China. This country produces plenty of gold and silver, and of rare and precious things, they have luminous jade, bright moon pearls, high-g rhinoceroses, coral, yellow amber, opaque glass, whitish chalcedony, red cinnabar, green gemstones,

gold thread embroideries, rugs woven with gold thread, delicate polychrome silks painted with gold, and asbestos cloth. They also have a fine cloth, which some people say is made from the down of water sheep, but which is made, in fact, from the cocoons of wild silkworms. They blend all sorts of fragrances, and by boiling the juice make a compound perfume. They have all the precious and rare things that come from the various foreign kingdoms. They make gold and silver coins. Tin silver coins are worth one gold one. They trade with Parthia and northwest India by sea. The profit margin is 10 to 1. The king of this country always wanted to send envoys to Han,

but Parthia, wishing to control the trade in multicolored Chinese silks, blocked the route to prevent the Romans from getting through to China. Transitioning both back to Luoyang and back a few decades in time, in 77, Emperor Zhang took the daughter of his cousin, Princess Dou Piyang, as first his consort and then empress. In 79, his mother, Empress Dowager Ma died, but not before she had selected two sisters to be among Zhang's harem of consorts, the consorts Song. The eldest Song sister would give birth to Zhang's eldest son in 78, and as Empress Dou remained sonless,

the infant Liu Qing was declared the crown prince in 79. In response, Empress Dou adopted the son of another consort as her own and began to plot to make him the crown prince instead by collecting a dossier on all the faults of the Song clan, and bribing servants and eunuchs to bring her any negative information on the Song sisters. This less-than-friendly competition between imperial consorts, while certainly nothing new for imperial politics, would become a routine source of political instability for later Han, and a significant factor in its eventual second decline.

Empress Do saw her chance to strike in 82, when the eldest song sister took ill and ordered cascada brought to her. Cascada, incidentally, is a parasitic vine plant that is also called devil's hair, strangleweed, angel hair, and witch's hair. It's a rather insidious plant that burrows its roots into its host and drains it of nutrients, and can even infect multiple host plants and spread diseases between them. Kind of like the plant world's mosquito or tick. It has been used in traditional Chinese and East Asian medicines as a strengthener of the liver and kidneys, as well as its seeds used to prevent osteoporosis. Empress Diao, however, accused Consort Song of using the plant for witchcraft.

Emperor Zhang ordered the Song sisters arrested, and Crown Prince Liu Qing deposed and expelled from the palace. Facing interrogation, the Song sisters opted out, together drinking poison. Liu Qing was demoted to the prince of Qinghe, and Liu Zhao, Empress Dou's adoptive son, replaced him as the imperial heir. Later, the empress would turn her sights on Consort Liang, Crown Prince Zhao's birth mother, aiming to take out the only other person who might lay claim to the boy. She and her sister would be disgraced and lose imperial favor through Dou's machinations. Moreover, following the expulsion

of the late Empress Dowager Ma's cousin from the capital and back to their marches, it would be Empress Dou's brother, Dou Xian, who would take over the capital's power structure, marking the first time ever that the Empress's family, rather than the Empress Dowager's, was the most powerful consort clan in the empire. This would remain the case for the remainder of Eastern Han and prove to be an ominous source of corruption.

In 86, the Qiang people of northwestern Sichuan, the Tibetan Plateau, and Burma began to rebel against their frequent mistreatment by Han officials. You may recall, all the way back in Episode 9, there were a people called the Western Rong barbarians, against which the Hua Xia Empire warred, and among the fiercest of which were known as the White Wolf Clan. Well, the White Wolves were back, as they made up one of the hundreds of tribes that collectively formed the Chong Confederation. Though the uprising was quickly quelled, it too served as a dark cloud on the horizon of the dynasty, warning of things to come. Two years later, at the age of only 31, Emperor Zhang was struck dead for unknown reasons in 88, after 13 years on the throne. He would be succeeded by the nine-year-old Prince Zhao

as Emperor He, which is usually where I leave off, but today we're so tantalizingly close to the end of an era that it'd be a shame not to cover it. Only a year after Emperor Zhang's death, the Sino-Xiongnu War, which had been ongoing at some level of intensity or another since the breakdown of the He-Qin marriage alliance system in 133 BCE, would finally, conclusively, draw to a close. In June of 89, the Battle of Iqbayan would see General Douxian lead a force of 42,000 Han regulars alongside some 30,000 southern Xiongnu and 8,000 Qiang auxiliaries against the northern Xiongnu force reportedly numbering more than 213,000. Though a vastly smaller force, the Han army killed some 13,000 northern Xiongnu in battle

before accepting the other 200,000's surrender and forcing the northern Chanyu to sue for peace. But as embassies were still being exchanged, the southern Chanyu to sue for peace. But as embassies were still being exchanged, the southern Chanyu, Tan Tuhu, launched a surprise attack in an attempt to destroy his northern foe completely, and succeeded in capturing his seal, his wives, and his treasure. General Do concluded that the northern Chanyu was so weak as to no longer even be worth the effort of negotiations, and instead commenced his own campaign to kill, scatter, or drive off the remaining hostile Xiongnu tribes of the north. By 93, the campaign had successfully concluded, and for the first time in more than 300 years,

there was no longer a cohesive, hostile Xiongnu state along China's northern border. The long nightmare of the steppe horsemen beating down Chinese city gates was at last over. For now. Next time, we'll pick up with the rule of young Emperor He, and more importantly, the rising guerrilla war between the imperial court's consorts, eunuchs, and empresses. The Han Empire, so fresh off of finally securing its external borders, will begin to once again rot from within. Thank you for listening. Today's podcast is brought to you in part by Audible.com. By using the web address audibletrial.com slash china, you can receive a free

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