Battle of Ikh Bayan and the Yanran inscription
In 89 a Han army under Dou Xian, with Southern Xiongnu allies, routed the Northern Xiongnu at Mount Jiluo (the battle is also known as the Battle of Ikh Bayan), and on Mount Yanran in the Gobi he had a victory text by the historian Ban Gu carved in the rock. The campaigns of 89–91 ended the Northern Xiongnu state in Mongolia.
- Date
- 89year known
- Place
- Mount Yanran (Delgerkhangai Mountains)today: Delgerkhangai, Dundgovi Province, Mongolia · Central and Northern Asia
- Participants
- Han dynasty, Xiongnu, Dou Xian, Ban Gu
- Threads
- The Steppe and Central Asia (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Battle of the Altai Mountains; Battle of Jiluo Mountain; Inscription of Yanran; Битва у горы Цзило; Надпись на горе Яньжань
Weakened by famine and by a Xianbei attack in which their chanyu Youliu was killed (87), the Northern Xiongnu were attacked in 89 at the request of the Southern chanyu. Dou Xian, brother of the regent Empress Dowager Dou, led three columns — Han troops with Southern Xiongnu, Wuhuan and Qiang allies — out of the frontier forts. According to the Book of the Later Han, 13,000 Northern Xiongnu were killed and 200,000 people of 81 tribes surrendered. Dou Xian marched on to Mount Yanran and had a text composed by Ban Gu, a member of his staff, carved on a cliff; “to carve a stone on Yanran” became a Chinese byword for a great victory.
In 90–91 further attacks by the Han and the Southern Xiongnu drove the Northern chanyu from the Altai to the northwest, and his state in Mongolia came to an end. A northern chanyu still sent envoys to the Han in 104–105, and Northern Xiongnu remnants fought for the Western Regions until the 150s, while most of those who stayed on the steppe were absorbed by the Xianbei, the new masters of Mongolia.
The cliff with the inscription was noticed on 27 June 2001, and in 2016–2017 Mongolian and Chinese scholars identified on it the text preserved in the Book of the Later Han; it lies in the Delgerkhangai Mountains of Dundgovi Province, and about 220 of its 260 characters are legible. Where Mount Jiluo lay is not established (some reference works call the battle the Battle of Ikh Bayan); in English it is also called the Battle of the Altai Mountains, a name also given to Geng Kui’s victory of 91.
Connections
Related events
- The Xiongnu split into Northern and Southern48 · Central and Northern Asiathe Southern Xiongnu fought on the Han side in 89
- The Book of Han is writtenc. 54 – 111 · East AsiaBan Gu, author of the Book of Han, composed the Mount Yanran inscription
- Ban Chao’s campaigns in the Tarim Basin73–102 · Central and Northern Asiathe defeat of the Northern Xiongnu let Ban Chao complete the conquest of the Tarim Basin
- Tanshihuai’s Xianbei confederationc. 156 – 181 · Central and Northern Asiaafter the Northern Xiongnu state fell in 89–91 the Xianbei took over the Mongolian steppe
- The Huns conquer the Alans and the Greuthungic. 370 – 376 · Eastern Europewhether the Xiongnu who fled west were ancestors of the European Huns is debated
Same participants
- Ban Chao repels a Kushan army90 · Central and Northern Asiavia Han dynasty
- The Han abandon the Western Regions29 July 107 · Central and Northern Asiavia Xiongnu
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Balkans and Anatolia
- Domitian’s Dacian Warbetween 85 and 86 – 89
Middle East and Egypt
- Hero of Alexandria’s aeolipilebetween 50 and 100
South Asia
- Gautamiputra Satakarni defeats Nahapanabetween 71 and 130
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
- Gandharan art: the first images of the Buddhabetween 30 BC and AD 100
East Asia
- The Book of Han is writtenc. 54 – 111
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Founding of Funan: Kaundinya and Queen Liuyebetween 1 and 100
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
- Sa Huỳnh culturec. 1000 BC – c. 200
North America
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
Latin America
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Monte Albán II: the Zapotec state expandsc. 100 BC – c. 200
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Battle of the Altai Mountains
- Wikipedia (English): Inscription of Yanran
- Wikipedia (English): Dou Xian
- Wikipedia (Russian): Туньтухэ
- Wikipedia (Russian): Хэ-ди (Хань)
- de Crespigny R. Northern Frontier: The Policies and Strategy of the Later Han Empire. — Canberra: Australian National University, Faculty of Asian Studies, 1984.
- de Crespigny R. A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD). — Leiden: Brill, 2007.
- Wikidata: Q726485