The Jié (Chinese: 羯; Wade–Giles: Chieh; Middle Chinese: [ki̯at]) were members of a small tribe in North China in the 4th century. Chinese sources state that the Jie originated among the Yuezhi. Under Shi Le, they established the Later Zhao state. The Jie were completely exterminated by Ran Min in the Wei–Jie war in 350 CE following the fall of the Later Zhao.
Contents
Name
According to the Book of Wei, their name derives from the Jiéshì area (羯室, modern Yushe County in Shanxi province) where they reside. The Chinese graphic pejorative 羯 literally means "wether" (i.e. a castrated male sheep). The dynastic surname of the state Later Zhao was Shi (石) ("stone") from a tribe Tsiantszüy (< khiang-gio). The tribe Tsiantszüy was one of 19 tribes of the southern Xiongnu but were Yuezhi in origin and were a part of the tribal group with a common name (羯 ) Tsze ( Jie) (< kiat). The existence of certain ties of the Tsze (Jie) tribes with the Central Asian princedoms Kangar(Kangju) is traceable: the names Tsyanizui and Kantszui are synonyms. To the same conclusion came Pulleyblank(using H.Bailey's consultation).
Jie phrase
The Jie are known for one phrase that reached us in their native language, uttered by the Kuchan Buddhist monk and missionary Fotudeng and recorded in the Book of Jin as 秀支 替戾剛 僕谷 劬禿當 in connection with Shi Le's fight against Liu Yao in 328 CE. The phrase was glossed with Chinese translation (Middle Chinese pronunciation provided below follows Pulleyblank):
秀支 [si̯u-ci̯e] means 軍 “army”; 替戾剛 [tʰei-let/lei-kɑŋ] means 出 “go out”; 僕谷 [bok/buk-kuk/yok] is 劉曜胡位 “Liu Yao's barbarian title”; 劬禿當 [ɡi̯u̯o-tʰuk-tɑŋ] means 捉 “capture”.
This phrase has been analyzed in a number of publications. Shiratori (1900), Ramstedt (1922), Bazin (1948), von Gabain (1950), and Shervashidze (1986) recognized Turkic lexicon, and gave their versions of the transcription and translation:
Edwin G. Pulleyblank (1963) remarked that the Turkic interpretations cannot be considered very successful because they conflict with the phonetic values of the Chinese text and to the Chinese translation. Instead, he suggested a connection with the Yeniseian languages.
Vovin listed the following translation based on Yeniseian:
History
In 319, Jie general Shi Le established the state of Later Zhao in North China, which supplanted the Xiongnu-led Han Zhao (304-329) state. However, the Later Zhao state collapsed in 351. In the period between 350 and 352, during the Wei–Jie war, General Ran Min ordered the complete extermination of the Jie, and their Europoid features (high noses and full beards) led to large numbers being killed. According to some sources more than 200000 of them were slain. Despite this, the Jie continue to appear occasionally in history over the next 200 years. Both Erzhu Rong and Hou Jing, two famous warlords of the Northern Dynasties, were identified as Qihu and Jiehu respectively and modern scholars have suggested that they could have been be related to the Jie.
Cultural influences
Fang Xuanling recorded in the Book of Jin chronicle that at around 340 CE a Jie state Later Zhao's scholar Xie Fei serving as a Head of Healing (Medicinal) Department in the Later Zhao State Chancellery, was a mechanical engineer who built a south-pointing chariot (also called south-pointing carriage), a directional compass vehicle which apparently did not use magnetic principle, but was operated by use of differential gears (which apply an equal amount of torque to driving wheels rotating at different speeds), or a similar angular differential principle.
For the great ingenuity shown in the construction of the device, the Later Zhao Emperor Shi Jilong granted Jie Fei the noble title of hou without land possessions and rewarded him generously.
Ethnic origins
There are widely differing accounts of the origins of the Jie.