the heritage of the Huns, and its regime was therefore
dated only from 352 (until 370), it failed either
to subjugate the whole realm of the “Later Chao”
or effectively to strengthen the state it had acquired.
This old Hun territory had suffered economically from
the anti-agrarian nomad tendency of the last of the
Hun emperors; and unremunerative wars against the
Chinese in the south had done nothing to improve its
position. In addition to this, the realm of the
Toba was dangerously gaining strength on the flank
of the new empire. But the most dangerous enemy
was in the west, on former Hun soil, in the province
of Shensi—Tibetans, who finally came forward
once more with claims to dominance. These were
Tibetans of the P’u family, which later changed
its name to Fu. The head of the family had worked
his way up as a leader of Tibetan auxiliaries under
the “Later Chao”, gaining more and more
power and following. When under that dynasty the
death of Shih Hu marked the beginning of general dissolution,
he gathered his Tibetans around him in the west, declared
himself independent of the Huns, and made himself
emperor of the “Earlier Ch’in dynasty”
(351-394). He died in 355, and was followed after
a short interregnum by Fu Chien (357-385), who was
unquestionably one of the most important figures of
the fourth century. This Tibetan empire ultimately
defeated the “Earlier Yen dynasty” and
annexed the realm of the Mu-jung. Thus the Mu-jung
Hsien-pi came under the dominion of the Tibetans;
they were distributed among a number of places as
garrisons of mounted troops.
The empire of the Tibetans was organized quite differently
from the empires of the Huns and the Hsien-pi tribes.
The Tibetan organization was purely military and had
nothing to do with tribal structure. This had
its advantages, for the leader of such a formation
had no need to take account of tribal chieftains;
he was answerable to no one and possessed considerable
personal power. Nor was there any need for him
to be of noble rank or descended from an old family.
The Tibetan ruler Fu Chien organized all his troops,
including the non-Tibetans, on this system, without
regard to tribal membership.
Fu Chien’s state showed another innovation:
the armies of the Huns and the Hsien-pi had consisted
entirely of cavalry, for the nomads of the north were,
of course, horsemen; to fight on foot was in their
eyes not only contrary to custom but contemptible.
So long as a state consisted only of a league of tribes,
it was simply out of the question to transform part
of the army into infantry. Fu Chien, however,
with his military organization that paid no attention
to the tribal element, created an infantry in addition
to the great cavalry units, recruiting for it large
numbers of Chinese. The infantry proved extremely
valuable, especially in the fighting in the plains
of north China and in laying siege to fortified towns.
Fu Chien thus very quickly achieved military predominance