According to the earliest known references to the Shiwei in Chinese records dating to the fifth century CE, they occupied the Hulun Buir, Ergüne, Nonni, Middle Amur, and Zeya watersheds, they were divided into between five and twenty tribes, they lived on agriculture and pastoralism, and they traded sable skins. They may have been the ancestors to the Mongols.
[1]
Population and political organization
Sources do not provide clear descriptions of Shiwei political organization, but it is worth noting that the Wuluohou, one of the Shiwei peoples, was believed by Chinese record-keepers to have no supreme leader, only tribal chiefs.
[2]
Similarly, sources do not provide clear population estimates for the Shiwei.
[1]: (Atwood 2004, 502)
[2]: (Xu 2005, 127)
| Year Range | Shiwei (mn_shiwei) was in: |
|---|---|
| (841 CE 907 CE) | Orkhon Valley |
"Tatar : (Chin. Ta-ta172) a confederation of 30 clans, the Otuz Tatars or perhaps 9 tribes, the Toquz Tatar. Later, a grouping within the Cinggisid confederation, their ethnic affiliation is, in all likelihood, Mongolic. They have recently been identified with the Shih-wei. Probably located East and Southeast of Lake Baikal." [1]
[1]: (Golden 1992, 145)
"Tatar : (Chin. Ta-ta172) a confederation of 30 clans, the Otuz Tatars or perhaps 9 tribes, the Toquz Tatar. Later, a grouping within the Cinggisid confederation, their ethnic affiliation is, in all likelihood, Mongolic. They have recently been identified with the Shih-wei. Probably located East and Southeast of Lake Baikal." [1]
[1]: (Golden 1992, 145)
" From the end of the 9th Century onward, the Shiwei tribes underwent a process of a tribal re-combination and a gradual assimilation with stronger ethnic peoples, the Khitan, Jurchen, Mongols and Han Chinese.127" [1] Subjugated by the Khitans in 942 CE. [2]
[1]: (Xu 2005, 183)
[2]: (Sneath 2007, 29)
"Productive activities were organized by the tribal leaders, as described in the Xin Tangshu, "in hunting (the tribes) were banded together, and dispersed afterward; the tribes did not rule over one another or submitted to one another".103 It can be seen that no united tribal confederation had been formed yet by the Shiwei. " [1]
[1]: (Xu 2005, 180)
Describing the Shiwei: "Their language is variously described as similar to Kitan and Qai (Chinese, Xi), that is, Mongolic, or as similar to Mohe (Malgal or Mukri), that is, Manchu-Tungusic."
[1]
"According to the Wei Shu, Sui Shu and Jiu Tangshu, it seems that the Shiwei were of Khitan origin, since the Shiwei and Khitan shared the similar ethnic stock and the same language as recorded in the above three dynastic histories."
[2]
[1]: (Atwood 2004, 502)
[2]: (Xu 2005, 176)
levels.
1. Tribal leaders
"The Wuluohou, who were believed a component part of the Shiwei tribal complex, inhabited the northwestern part of Manchuria. The Wuluohou’s pattern of succession in the period of northern Wei (383-534) is recorded in the Wei Shu. It reads, "They had no supreme leader. The position of the tribal chieftain Mofu (Mufuhe) was succeeded hereditarily".95"
[1]
"The productive activities were organized by the tribal leaders, as described in the Xin Tangshu, "in hunting (the tribes) were banded together, and dispersed afterward; the tribes did not rule over one another or submitted to one another".103 It can be seen that no united tribal confederation had been formed yet by the Shiwei. Compared with their southern neighbors the Khitan, and the eastern neighbors, the Mohe, in the same period, the social organization of the Shiwei was not as developed. On account of their lower level of social organization, as declared in the Xin Tangshu, "they finally could not become a strong power, although they were valiant and belligerent".104"
[2]
[1]: (Xu 2005, 127)
[2]: (Xu 2005, 180)
Based on the following, seems likely that any adult male of a certain age could be called on to engage in military conflict. “The Shiwei, in the periods of the Sui and Tang, were relatively weak in the northwestern Manchuria. Their form of social organization appeared fairly loose and still remained at tribal level. Clans and tribes were the basic social patterns. The productive activities were organized by the tribal leaders, as described in the Xin Tangshu, "in hunting (the tribes) were banded together, and dispersed afterward; the tribes did not rule over one another or submitted to one another".” [1]
[1]: (Xu 2005, 180)
The following description suggests that professional roles likely did not exist among the Shiwei. “The Shiwei, in the periods of the Sui and Tang, were relatively weak in the northwestern Manchuria. Their form of social organization appeared fairly loose and still remained at tribal level. Clans and tribes were the basic social patterns. The productive activities were organized by the tribal leaders, as described in the Xin Tangshu, "in hunting (the tribes) were banded together, and dispersed afterward; the tribes did not rule over one another or submitted to one another".” [1]
[1]: (Xu 2005, 180)
The "tribal leaders" mentioned in the following quote likely served as the non-professional equivalent to military officers. “The Shiwei, in the periods of the Sui and Tang, were relatively weak in the northwestern Manchuria. Their form of social organization appeared fairly loose and still remained at tribal level. Clans and tribes were the basic social patterns. The productive activities were organized by the tribal leaders, as described in the Xin Tangshu, "in hunting (the tribes) were banded together, and dispersed afterward; the tribes did not rule over one another or submitted to one another".” [1]
[1]: (Xu 2005, 180)
Before the modern era of cannonball warfare
Majemir culture from 900 BCE is an example of one of the first iron-using cultures in the Altai region. [1] and by 300 BCE in the Ordos region of Mongolia iron was becoming much more frequently used for weapons and horse fittings. [2]
[1]: (Baumer 2012) Baumer, Christoph. 2012. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. I.B.Tauris. London.
[2]: (Di Cosmo 2002, 84) Nicola Di Cosmo. 2002. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
long been in use in the region. Majemir culture from 900 BCE is an example of one of the first iron-using cultures in the Altai region. [1] and by 300 BCE in the Ordos region of Mongolia iron was becoming much more frequently used for weapons and horse fittings. [2]
[1]: (Baumer 2012) Baumer, Christoph. 2012. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. I.B.Tauris. London.
[2]: (Di Cosmo 2002, 84) Nicola Di Cosmo. 2002. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
long been in use in the region. Majemir culture from 900 BCE is an example of one of the first iron-using cultures in the Altai region. [1] and by 300 BCE in the Ordos region of Mongolia iron was becoming much more frequently used for weapons and horse fittings. [2]
[1]: (Baumer 2012) Baumer, Christoph. 2012. The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors. I.B.Tauris. London.
[2]: (Di Cosmo 2002, 84) Nicola Di Cosmo. 2002. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
not in use until much later
"The first composite bow with bone reinforced ’ears’, a major development, may have been used around Lake Baikal, c.500 BC. Despite many individual external differences, across the steppe, and across time, the composite bow would remain essentially uniform in construction method." [1]
[1]: (Karasulas 2004, 19)
"The so-called ’Sword of Charlemagne’ is probably an example of an 8th-century Avar sabre, and a similar blade in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is also believed to have been made among Turkic or Mongol steppe people some time between the 9th and 12th centuries AD." [1]
[1]: (Karasulas 2004, 27-28)
Horses were the means of travel for mobile nomadic warriors since the establishment of cavalry forces by the mid-first millennium BCE