Records of the Historian, Dawan Liezhuan

This is one of the central Chinese passages for the movement of peoples across Inner Asia. The Great Yuezhi are strong, mounted, mobile, and numerous; then Xiongnu pressure drives them west, past Dawan, against Daxia.

For the Scythian shelf, the passage belongs with the Saka and Central Eurasian materials because it records the eastern shock that rearranged the western steppe and Bactrian world.

The translation below is from the Classical Chinese text of the Dawan liezhuan.

Translation

The Great Yuezhi lie two or three thousand li west of Dawan and dwell north of the Gui River. To their south is Daxia; to their west, Anxi; to their north, Kangju. They are a mobile state, moving with their herds, and their customs are the same as those of the Xiongnu. They have perhaps one or two hundred thousand who draw the bow.

In former times they were strong and looked lightly on the Xiongnu. When Modu rose, he attacked and broke the Yuezhi. In the time of the Xiongnu Chanyu Laoshang, the Xiongnu killed the Yuezhi king and made his head into a drinking vessel.

At first the Yuezhi lived between Dunhuang and Qilian. When they were defeated by the Xiongnu, they went far away, passed beyond Dawan, struck Daxia in the west, and made it subject. Then they established their royal court north of the Gui River. Those small remnants who could not leave took refuge among the Qiang of the southern mountains and were called the Lesser Yuezhi.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Scythian shelf by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the source text printed below. The English is an independent rendering from the source-language Chinese, with existing public translations used only as controls for difficult or conventional passages.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Shiji, Dawan Liezhuan, Great Yuezhi

Classical Chinese source text from the Shiji. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

大月氏在大宛西可二三千里，居媯水北。其南則大夏，西則安息，北則康居。行國也，隨畜移徙，與匈奴同俗。控弦者可一二十萬。故時彊，輕匈奴，及冒頓立，攻破月氏，至匈奴老上單于，殺月氏王，以其頭為飲器。始月氏居敦煌、祁連閒，及為匈奴所敗，乃遠去，過宛，西擊大夏而臣之，遂都媯水北，為王庭。其餘小眾不能去者，保南山羌，號小月氏。

Source Colophon

Classical Chinese text inspected from Chinese Text Project, Shiji, Dawan Liezhuan, paragraph 10. The English rendering above is newly prepared from the Chinese, with the CTP English display used only as a control.

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