Yuezhi defeat by the Xiongnu and westward migration
- Date
- c. 176 BCE
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Central Asia (Gansu Corridor and the Ili River valley)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
Around 176 BCE the nomadic Yuezhi confederation, then dominant in the Gansu (Hexi) Corridor of northwestern China, was crushed by the rising Xiongnu under Modu Chanyu, whose forces overran their pastures and broke their power.
Modu boasted in a letter to the Han emperor in 174 BCE that he had succeeded in 'wiping out the Yuezhi,' and his son Laoshang Chanyu completed the conquest, reportedly killing the Yuezhi king and fashioning his skull into a drinking cup. The shattered confederation split: the Greater Yuezhi (Da Yuezhi) migrated west into the Ili River valley, while the Lesser Yuezhi (Xiao Yuezhi) retreated into the Qilian mountains and merged with Qiang populations. Driven onward by the Wusun around 132 BCE, the Greater Yuezhi pushed into Sogdiana and Bactria, toppling the remnants of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. This displacement set off a chain reaction of nomadic migrations across Central Asia, and from one of the five Yuezhi tribes there eventually arose the Kushan Empire, a major bridge of trade and Buddhist culture along the Silk Road.
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Empires active in c. 176 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Han Dynasty202 BCE – 220 CE
- Ptolemaic Kingdom305 BCE – 30 BCE
- Seleucid Empire312 BCE – 63 BCE
- Odrysian Kingdom480 BCE – 46 CE
- Shunga Empire185 BCE – 73 BCE
Related military & conflict events
- Battle of Gaixia and the founding of the Han dynasty202 BCE
- The Kalinga War and Ashoka's turn to Dhammac. 261 BCE
- Battle of Actium ends the Hellenistic age2 September 31 BCE
- Battle of Zama ends the Second Punic War19 October 202 BCE
- Destruction of Carthage and Corinth; Roman Mediterranean hegemony146 BCE
- Battle of Gaugamela destroys the Achaemenid Empire1 October 331 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present
Bold survey placing the Xiongnu at the centre of Eurasian history.
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