Brick Relief with Market Scene, Eastern Han Dynasty 25-220 CE
"When reading documents from different cultures and time periods, it is important to remember that words and concepts can mean very different things than would first be assumed by a modern reader. An adviser to Emperor Wen called Jia Yi spelled out what was meant by a foreign policy based on “virtue” in his book Xin Shu (New Writings).
He recommended a change in policy, away from Heqin (marriage alliance) to one based on culturally undermining the Xiongnu confederacy. He called his new policy the “Three Demonstrations and the Five Baits”: 'If you follow my policy, then distrust will grow among the Xiongnu . . . The nobles will look at the Chanyu as though he is a vicious tiger or wolf, and they will come south to China like little children returning to their mother. When their warriors see their own leaders, it will seem that they are facing a fierce enemy, and they will turn towards the south and will come to China like water running downhill. This will cause the Chanyu to lose his ministers and people. Will he not suffer, and thus be cowed, and ask to submit? This is what is called “striving for virtue.”'
Emperor Wen’s focus on virtue in foreign relations did not refer to simply being a good person or being nice to people as a way to achieve peace. China still uses such policies today, referring to it as “soft power” diplomacy. Jia Yi went on, describing exactly how his application of “virtue” would defeat the Xiongnu:
If the Xiongnu see through the plan . . . there are several solutions. With regards to frontier markets, their cunning won’t help them, and they will yearn for the markets. Your Majesty . . . can promise the Xiongnu large markets . . . There will be so many Xiongnu visitors flocking through the narrow passes that we will have to chisel them open . . . Give generously to them . . . and the many bribes will make them reliant. They will admire and be grateful to China… Showing our splendor is a means of beckoning their people. In a matter of three to five years the Xiongnu can be obliterated. This is called “the triumph of virtue.”
There is a common misconception that the Han Dynasty established border markets because of Xiongnu demands for Chinese goods, which has grown into the “trade or raid hypothesis.” Basically, this idea states that the Xiongnu needed Chinese goods, and if they could not get them by trading, they would get them by raiding. The assumption is that Xiongnu invasions of Chinese occurred because they could not survive without their agricultural products. In fact, the Xiongnu usually took livestock and prisoners, and almost never took grain, etc. The border markets were a Chinese idea aimed at luring the Xiongnu closer to culturally assimilate them. Jia Yi himself compared his policy to a Chinese device, the yao chan, in which a flame was burned to lure cicadas (i.e., in English idiom, they would be attracted “like moths to a flame”).
This formed the basis of much future Chinese diplomacy with the steppe peoples, and at least some of them would come to see through this Chinese stratagem. Most pastoralists peoples were illiterate, and we seldom get direct evidence of what they thought. The Kul Tigin inscriptions from the Second Kok Turk Empire (680–744 CE) are a rare primary source from the pastoralists themselves. They are inscribed on stone pillars sticking out of the surrounding grasslands, written in a runic script. On one of these stone pillars, their chieftain warned against Chinese schemes: 'The words of the Chinese people are sweet and silk of the Chinese people is soft. They attract remote people, luring them [closer]. . . . When the Chinese have settled remote people nearby, they devise schemes to create discontent . . . If a man turns against them, they show no mercy towards his family, his people, nor even towards babes in the cradle. In this way, enticed by the sweet words and soft silk of the Chinese, many of you Turk people perished . . . Ill-intentioned people give counsel in this way, saying, ‘If you are far from the Chinese people, they give you poor quality silk; if you are near, they give you fine quality silk.’ In this way, ignorant people were taken in, moved near the Chinese people, and many of you perished.'
A common assumption is that the Chinese wished pastoralist peoples to stay far away from the Great Wall, but in fact, Chinese policy was often aimed at inducing them to come closer and to become dependent on Chinese goods. The Chinese themselves came to refer to “cooked” versus “raw” barbarians. The “cooked” ones had been partially assimilated and could be dealt with more easily. The “raw” barbarians were those who had avoided this fate and thus were far more difficult to handle."
-China Versus the Barbarians: The First Century of Han-Xiongnu Relations by Jonathan Markley
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| Brick Relief with Market Scene, Eastern Han Dynasty 25-220 CE. National Museum of China. |
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