Wuwei Chanyu

Wuwei succeeded his father Yizhixie in 114 BC. He held the throne for ten years.^[1] During these years the Han armies were busy in the south and the east. The Shiji says that Wuwei used the time to rest his men and horses, to hunt and shoot, and to ask the Han again and again for heqin.^[1] He refused the one thing the Han asked in return: his heir as a hostage.^[1]

Accession and the quiet frontier

Wuwei was installed in the third year of Yuanding, 114 BC. That was the year in which the Han emperor Wudi first went out to tour the commanderies.^[2] The Han then turned south to punish the two Yue. They did not strike at the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu, for their part, did not enter the frontier.^[2]

The annals of the Han Shu record one break in this quiet. In the year of the revolt in Nanyue, a hundred thousand Western Qiang rose against the Han. They exchanged envoys with the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu entered Wuyuan and killed its grand administrator.^[3]

In the third year of Wuwei’s reign, the Han had destroyed Nanyue. It sent Gongsun He with fifteen thousand horse out of Jiuyuan to Fuju Well, a distance of more than two thousand li. Zhao Ponu went with more than ten thousand horse out of Lingju to the Xiongnu river, a distance of several thousand li. Both turned back. Neither had seen a single Xiongnu.^[2]

Guo Ji at Shuofang

The emperor then toured the frontier himself. He went north through Shang, Xihe and Wuyuan, left the Long Wall and climbed the Chanyu Terrace. He came to Shuofang, where he drew up a hundred and eighty thousand horse to show his strength.^[4] He sent Guo Ji to warn the chanyu.^[1]

At the Xiongnu court, the officer who received guests asked Guo Ji his errand. Guo Ji spoke humbly. He said that he would give his message to the chanyu himself. The chanyu received him. Guo Ji told him that the head of the king of Nanyue already hung at the northern gate of the Han. If the chanyu could now come forward and fight the Han, the Son of Heaven would await him at the frontier with his own army. If he could not, he should turn south and become a subject of the Han. He should not run far away and hide north of the desert, in a cold land without water or grass.^[2]

The chanyu was very angry. He had the officer who had brought Guo Ji in killed on the spot. He kept Guo Ji and banished him to the Northern Sea.^[2] Even so, he refused to raid the Han frontier. He rested his men and horses and practised archery and hunting. Again and again he sent envoys with courteous words to ask for heqin.^[1]

Wang Wu and Yang Xin

The Han sent Wang Wu and others to look into the Xiongnu. By Xiongnu law, a Han envoy could not enter the chanyu’s felt tent unless he had given up his tally and tattooed his face with ink. The tally was the staff that marked him as the emperor’s envoy. Wang Wu was a man of Beidi who knew the ways of the Hu. He put away his tally, tattooed his face and went in. The chanyu liked him. He falsely promised to send his heir to the Han as a hostage in return for heqin.^[2]

Meanwhile the Han was closing in on the Xiongnu from the east and west. In the east it took Huimo and Chaoxian and made them commanderies. In the west it set up Jiuquan commandery to cut the road between the Hu and the Qiang. It also opened the way to the Yuezhi and Daxia. To split off the Xiongnu’s allies in the west, it gave a princess to the king of the Wusun. It extended its fields and forts north as far as Xuanlei. The Xiongnu did not dare to protest.^[2] The Han Shu adds that the Xiongnu sent a woman of their own to the Wusun king. He made her his left wife and the Han princess his right. The chanyu who sent her is not named.^[5] The Han Shu places the marriage in the Yuanfeng years of Wudi. These fall almost wholly in Wuwei’s reign.

In the year of Yang Xin’s mission, the Marquis of Xi, Zhao Xin, died. The Han officials in charge thought the Xiongnu weak enough to be made subjects.^[2] The envoy was Yang Xin, a blunt and stubborn man of no high rank. The chanyu did not like him. The chanyu wanted him brought in. Yang Xin would not give up his tally, so the chanyu received him sitting outside the tent. Yang Xin said that if the Xiongnu wanted heqin, they must send the chanyu’s heir to the Han as a hostage. The chanyu answered that this was not the old agreement. Under the old agreement, the Han regularly sent a princess. For heqin it supplied silk, floss and food in set amounts. The Xiongnu did not trouble the frontier. Now, he said, the Han wanted to reverse the old ways and make his heir a hostage.^[2]

The Shiji describes how the Xiongnu treated envoys who were not close favourites of the emperor. If the envoy was a scholar, they took him for a persuader and broke his argument. If he was a young man, they took him for an assassin and broke his nerve. Whenever a Han envoy came into the Xiongnu country, the Xiongnu paid him back. When the Han kept Xiongnu envoys, the Xiongnu kept Han envoys. They would stop only when the numbers matched.^[2]

A Xiongnu envoy’s death

After Yang Xin returned, the Han sent Wang Wu again. The chanyu tried flattery once more, since he wanted a great deal of Han goods. He told Wang Wu that he wished to enter Han territory himself, see the Son of Heaven and swear brotherhood with him face to face. The Han built a residence for the chanyu in Chang’an. The Xiongnu replied that they would speak honestly only to a Han noble.^[2]

The Xiongnu sent a noble of their own to the Han. He fell sick. The Han gave him medicine to cure him, but he died. The Han envoy Lu Chongguo escorted the coffin. He wore the seal and ribbon of an official of two thousand bushels. The Shiji speaks of a costly burial, and the Han Shu speaks of rich gifts. In both accounts, the value was several thousand in gold. The chanyu concluded that the Han had killed his noble envoy. He kept Lu Chongguo.^[2] The Shiji says that everything he had said to Wang Wu was meant to deceive him. He had no thought of going to the Han or of sending his heir.^[2]

After this the Xiongnu sent raiding parties more often against the frontier. The Han made Guo Chang general Who Attacks the Hu. It sent him with the Marquis of Zhuoye, Zhao Ponu, to hold the country east of Shuofang.^[6] Lu Chongguo stayed in the Xiongnu country for three years, until the chanyu died.^[1]

Death and descent

Wuwei died after ten years on the throne. His son Wushilu was installed as chanyu. The Shiji says that he was young and was called the Child Chanyu.^[1] When the Child Chanyu died, his son was too young. The Xiongnu therefore set up Wuwei’s younger brother, the Right Worthy King Xulihu.^[1]

A descendant of Wuwei, Woyanqudi, became chanyu in 60 BC. By the reign years of the Han Shu, this was the year of Xulüquanqu’s death. The Han Shu calls him an erxun of Wuwei, a remote descendant. It says that he succeeded his father as Right Worthy King.^[7] Some scholars hold that his claim was contested because he stood far from the direct royal line. According to them, his family were leaders of groups outside the inner circle of the imperial nobility.^[8]

Other scholars hold that the Xiongnu had begun to explore a renewed heqin toward the end of Yizhixie’s reign. According to them, Wuwei held the raids down in the hope of getting one. They add that the Han tributary terms again stood in the way.^[9] Seven chanyus ruled from Wuwei to Xulüquanqu, from 114 to 60 BC. Only two of them held the throne for more than ten years. By contrast, Bagatur and Junchen had long reigns.^[10]

Name

The Shiji and the Han Shu write the name 烏維. No Xiongnu form is recorded. Nothing in the sources fixes its language. The Han commandery of Wuwei (武威) was made in 121 BC out of the land of the Hunye king. It is written with other characters and has nothing to do with the chanyu.^[3]

References

^ a b c d e f g h Shiji, juan 110
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 94
^ a b Han Shu, juan 6
^ Han Shu, juan 6; Shiji, juan 110
^ Han Shu, juan 96
^ Shiji, juan 110; Han Shu, juan 6
^ Han Shu, juan 94
^ Miller 2014, p. 21
^ Sinor 1990, p. 139
^ Sinor 1990, p. 136

Sources

Shiji, juan 110
Han Shu, juan 6, 94, 96 (after Shiji)

Literature

Denis Sinor (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (1990)
Bryan K. Miller, Xiongnu “Kings” and the Political Order of the Steppe Empire (2014)