Empire of Horses: The First Nomadic Civilization and the Making of China

by John Man

Overview

An authoritative and rich history of the remarkable Xiongnu culture—a lost empire which preceded the Mongols and even China itself.

The author of landmark histories such as Genghis Khan, Attila, and Xanadu invites us to discover a fertile period in Asian history that prefigured so much of the world that followed.

The people of the first nomadic empire left no written records, but from 200 bc they dominated the heart of Asia for four centuries, and changed the world in the process. The Mongols, today’s descendants of Genghis Khan, see these people as ancestors. Their rise cemented Chinese identity and inspired the first Great Wall. Their descendants helped destroy the Roman Empire under the leadership of Attila the Hun.

We don’t know what language they spoke, but they became known as Xiongnu, or Hunnu, a term passed down the centuries and surviving today as “Hun,” and Man uncovers new evidence that will transform our understanding of the profound mark they left on half the globe, from Europe to Central Asia and deep into China.

Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, Empire of Horses traces this civilization’s epic story and shows how this nomadic cultures of the steppes gave birth to an empire with the wealth and power to threaten the order of the ancient world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643136912
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	03/09/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	422,671
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Man is a historian specializing in Asia and the nature of leadership. John's books have been published in over twenty languages around the world and include bestselling biographies of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, and Attila the Hun, as well as histories of the Great Wall of China and the Mongolian Empire. He lives in England.

Table of Contents

List of Chanyus ix

Timeline x

Maps xii

Introduction: A New Broom Sweeps the Chinese Skies 1

Part I Rise

1 Mastering the Steppes 7

2 Into Ordos 30

3 The Growing Threat of a Unified China 46

4 Meng Tian and the Straight Road 60

Part II Peak

5 The First Empire of the Steppes 81

6 The Grand Historian's Hidden Agenda 111

7 A Phoney Peace, a Phoney War 121

8 The War, the Wall and the Way West 143

Part III Collapse

9 Decline and Fall 189

10 Princesses for Peace 215

11 The Shock of Surrender 225

12 A Crisis, a Revival and the End of the Xiongnu 247

13 From Xiongnu to Hun, Possibly 265

Epilogue: A Lasting Legacy 291

Bibliography 293

Acknowledgements 301

Picture Acknowledgements 303

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

"One could ask for no better storyteller or analyst than John Man."

Simon Sebag Montefiore