224 Chinese Clay Figures 



sham-flight to deceive and exhaust their opponents, and they did not 

 fail during this manoeuvre of retreat to send their arrows backward. 

 Their cuirass (kid) was of leather obtained from the skins of their 

 domestic animals, from which also their ordinary clothing was prepared; 

 in addition to leather garments, they had coats of felt. 



The re-organizer of the military power of the Huns was the famed 

 Moduk 1 (Mau-tun), who at the end of the third century b.c. welded the 

 sca'tered tribes into a compact unit. Moduk was the son of the 

 Shan-yu 2 T'ou-man, who afterwards had a younger son by a favorite 

 consort. Wishing to disinherit Moduk, and to place this younger 

 son on the throne, he sent Moduk as hostage to the old enemies of the 

 Huns, the Yiie-chi (Indoscythians), and then went on the war-path 

 against the latter. Moduk, his life being thus imperilled, thought of 

 his safety, and, stealing one of the swiftest horses of the Yiie-chi, fled 

 homeward. His father, who thought this was an heroic deed, placed 

 him in command of ten thousand horsemen. The ambitious Moduk 

 then plotted against his father's life and throne. The Chinese historian 

 Se-ma Ts'ien 3 narrates the story of how he achieved his scheme, in a high- 

 ly anecdotal form, from which important events are apparently omitted. 

 The story is that Moduk, making sounding arrows, 4 trained his equestrian 



a way that is quite astonishing. Thus they fight to as good purpose in running away 

 as if they stood and faced the enemy, because of the vast volleys of arrows that they 

 shoot in this way, turning round upon their pursuers, who are fancying that they have 

 won the battle. But when the Tartars see that they have killed and wounded a good 

 many horses and men, they wheel round bodily, and return to the charge in perfect 

 order and with loud cries, and in a very short time the enemy are routed. . . . And 

 you perceive that it is just when the enemy sees them run, and imagines that he has 

 gained the battle, that he has in reality lost it, for the Tartars wheel round in a mo- 

 ment when they judge the right time has come. And after this fashion they have won 

 many a fight." This picture holds good as well of the Scythians, Huns, and T'u-kue. 

 From the numerous representations of the mounted archer shooting backward on the 

 relief bands of the Han pottery we see how deeply impressed the Chinese were by 

 this feat of military skill. 



1 This is the correct Turkish restoration of the name, as based on the data of the 

 Chinese commentators, according to O. Franke (Beitrage aus chinesischen Quellen 

 zur Kenntnis der Turkvolker und Sky then Zentralasiens, Abhandlungen der preus- 

 sischen Akademie, 1904, p. 10). He reigned B.C. 201 to 177. 



2 Title of the sovereigns of the Huns. Compare Plate XXII for a Chinese pictorial 

 representation of one of the Shan-yu. 



3 Shi ki, Ch. 1 10, p. 3 b. Compare A. Wylie, History of the Heung-noo in their 

 Relations with China (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. Ill, 1874, P- 4°8) '< 

 E. H. Parker, The Turco-Scythian Tribes (China Review, Vol. XX, p. 7); and F. 

 Hirth (Sinologische Beitrage zur Geschichte der Tiirk-Volker, p. 254, St. Petersburg, 

 1900), who very well characterizes Moduk as a hero. 



4 He did not invent them, as Wylie translates. Also Giles (No. 10.Q28; ming 

 ti) states that the sounding arrows were "invented by Mao-tun or Meghaer" (simi- 

 larly Palladius, Vol. I, p. 174). Aston (Nihongi, Vol. I, p. 87) makes Parker say 

 that the sounding arrows are not Chinese, but an invention of the Huns; but Parker 

 (China Review, Vol. XX, p. 7), referring to the nari-kabura of the ancient Japanese, 

 observes only that the latter seem to have imitated the Huns. In my opinion it is. 



