YUEH-CHIH

Pinyin Yuezhi, also called Indo-scyth, ancient people who ruled in Bactria and India from about 128 BC to about AD 450. The Yeh-chih are first mentioned in Chinese sources at the beginning of the 2nd century BC as nomads living in the western part of Kansu province, northwest China. When Lao Shang (reigned c. 174161 BC), ruler of the Hsiung-nu (a powerful people of North China), defeated them and killed their king, the main body of Yeh-chih moved westward into Sogdiana and Bactria, putting an end to Greek rule there. They and related tribes are the Asi (or Asiani) and Tocharians (Tochari) of Western sources. About 128 BC the Yeh-chih were recorded living north of the Oxus River (Amu Darya), ruling Bactria as a dependency, but a little later the Great Yeh-chih kingdom was in Bactria, and Sogdiana was occupied by the Ta-yuan (Tocharians). The remnant in Kansu were called Little Yeh-chih. A new dynasty, that of the Kushans (see Kushan dynasty), was subsequently founded by one of the five chieftains among whom Bactria was divided. The Kushan kingdom extended its power southward and eastward into India and northward into Central Asia. From the 3rd century, however, Kushan power declined, and about AD 400 the Kidara dynasty arose in Gandhara; it survived only to about AD 450, when it was overwhelmed by the Hephtalites (originally a Yeh-chih tribe). Missionaries from the Great Yeh-chih played an important part in the propagation of Buddhism in China. The spread of Indian culture into Central Asia as far as the borders of China probably also resulted from Kushan influence.