Chapter 3 Central Asia, Xinjiang, and Tibet 95Whereas the great no-
madic cultures and empires
celebrated horsemanship and
martial prowess, the Chinese
elite celebrated the achieve-
ments of the pen. While the
founder of a dynasty may
have conquered on horseback,
he could only rule with the
writing brush. For centuries,
Confucian culture favored lit-
erary merit and scholarly
achievement high above the
skills of war, and this persis-
tent denigration of the soldier
is captured in the sneering
and elitist Chinese phrase
“good men are not made for
soldiering just as good iron is
not made for nails” (haonan
bu dang bing, hao tie bu da
ding). Exceptional military he-
roes in Chinese history are
notable, but this trend is un-
avoidable, certainly into the
nineteenth century, and even
into the twentieth. For centu-
ries, the relations between a
succession of Chinese empires
and their neighbors to the
north were contested and reg-
ularly marked by violence.
Sometimes the peace was
kept along the frontier through trade and intermarriage, but the greatest threat
perceived to Qin and then Han integrity was the Xiongnu.
Genghis Khan (Chinggis Qa’an) and the Mongol Empire
One of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia, perhaps descended from the
ancient Xiongnu, were the Mongols, originally a hunting and herding people
whose economy was based on the “five snouts”—sheep, goats, yaks, horses,
and camels. A traveler moving through their lands in the eleventh or twelfth
century would never have guessed that these people were about to create the
largest empire the world has ever known. They had few crafts; they could not
weave cloth. They could not write their own language. They were surrounded
This bronze deer finial or decorative top piece
for a tent or pole reflects the early advanced
bronze work of the Xiongnu and dates to
between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C.E.
Like their Mongol descendants, the Xiongnu
valued fine craftsmanship.