Naturally the decree for the surrender of weapons remained a dead-letter.  The discharged soldiers kept their weapons at first and then preferred to sell them.  A large part of them was acquired by the Hsiung-nu and the Hsien-pi in the north of China; apparently they usually gave up land in return.  In this way many Chinese soldiers, though not all by any means, went as peasants to the regions in the north of China and beyond the frontier.  They were glad to do so, for the Hsiung-nu and the Hsien-pi had not the efficient administration and rigid tax collection of the Chinese; and above all, they had no great landowners who could have organized the collection of taxes.  For their part, the Hsiung-nu and the Hsien-pi had no reason to regret this immigration of peasants, who could provide them with the farm produce they needed.  And at the same time they were receiving from them large quantities of the most modern weapons.

This ineffective disarmament was undoubtedly the most pregnant event of the period of the western Chin dynasty.  The measure was intended to save the cost of maintaining the soldiers and to bring them back to the land as peasants (and taxpayers); but the discharged men were not given land by the government.  The disarmament achieved nothing, not even the desired increase in the money in circulation; what did happen was that the central government lost all practical power, while the military strength both of the dangerous princes within the country and also of the frontier people was increased.  The results of these mistaken measures became evident at once and compelled the government to arm anew.

2 Effect on the frontier peoples

Four groups of frontier peoples drew more or less advantage from the demobilization law—­the people of the Toba, the Tibetans, and the Hsien-pi in the north, and the nineteen tribes of the Hsiung-nu within the frontiers of the empire.  In the course of time all sorts of complicated relations developed among those ascending peoples as well as between them and the Chinese.

The Toba (T’o-pa) formed a small group in the north of the present province of Shansi, north of the city of Tat’ungfu, and they were about to develop their small state.  They were primarily of Turkish origin, but had absorbed many tribes of the older Hsiung-nu and the Hsien-pi.  In considering the ethnical relationships of all these northern peoples we must rid ourselves of our present-day notions of national unity.  Among the Toba there were many Turkish tribes, but also Mongols, and probably a Tungus tribe, as well as perhaps others whom we cannot yet analyse.  These tribes may even have spoken different languages, much as later not only Mongol but also Turkish was spoken in the Mongol empire.  The political units they formed were tribal unions, not national states.