Crossing the Hidaka Sea in 92 BC [033] Lake Khanka in the Pre-Christian Era
Chapter 2: Sogdian Merchants of the Fuyu Inlet
Section 4: The People Around Lake Khanka
[033] Episode 1: Lake Khanka in the Pre-Christian Era
Lake Khanka, one of the settings for this story, is a large lake spreading across the lowlands north of Vladivostok in the modern-day Russian Primorsky Krai.
In the middle of the first millennium BC, the Amur River basin and the area around Lake Khanka were covered in warm, fertile land suitable for growing grain. Many Caucasoid—white—people with high noses and tall statures lived there, practicing fishing and animal husbandry, and cultivating crops such as barley. How did the bearers of this early Iron Age culture, which modern cultural anthropologists have discovered in the Primorsky region and named the Krounovka culture, reach the eastern edge of the Eurasian continent, and what path did they take?
As Russian researchers have pointed out, these white people might be the Sushen—referred to in this story as the Suxin—who are recorded in the Shujing (Classic of History), considered the oldest book in China, as having come to offer congratulations when King Cheng, the second king of the Zhou Dynasty (who died in 1021 BC), pacified the Dongyi.
Alternatively, they might be the descendants of the Dongyi who were conquered by King Cheng of Zhou. It is indeed recorded that the Dongyi originally lived near the Shandong Peninsula and cultivated the five grains, which are resistant to cold and dryness.
As recently published DNA analysis results show, Caucasoids were included among the people grouped as Dongyi.
This suggests the possibility that around the time the Zhou Dynasty was established in ancient China, at least some of the Dongyi fled the chaos of war, crossed the border of Yan—an ancient state that controlled the northern part of Hebei Province, centered on modern-day Beijing—and moved north, becoming the bearers of the Krounovka culture in the middle and lower reaches of the Amur River and around Lake Khanka.
Qi, a vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty in ancient China that was later counted as one of the Seven Warring States, had its capital in Linzi (modern-day Zibo City) in Shandong Province from the 11th to the 3rd century BC. Qi was a state of the Qiang people, and it is estimated that its population at the time of this story was around 500,000.
To its southwest was the state of Lu, where the Duke of Zhou (Taigong Wang), also of the Qiang people and credited with establishing the ritual system of the Zhou Dynasty, was enfeoffed in the mid-11th century BC. Confucius, who compiled the old ritual system into Confucianism and passed it on to later generations, was born in this state of Lu.
In the modern era, in the year 2000, six researchers including Shintaro Ueda of the University of Tokyo published the results of an analysis of mitochondrial DNA obtained from ancient human bones unearthed and stored at the Linzi ruins in Shandong Province, as well as from modern Han Chinese residents living in Zibo City.
According to this analysis, ancient people from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods about 2,500 years ago have a close genetic relationship with modern European human populations in terms of genetic distance.
Furthermore, the genes of ancient bones from about 2,000 years ago, which is more recent, were very close to modern Central Asian human populations such as the Uyghurs, while the genes of modern Zibo City residents were no different from current East Asian populations.
These DNA samples from three different eras can be interpreted as belonging to the ancient Chinese Dongyi, the Qiang people who were also in ancient Qi, and the modern Han Chinese, respectively.
From this research, I think it is safe to assume that the Dongyi who were in modern-day Shandong and Jiangsu provinces during the Spring and Autumn period of China—a heterogeneous group in the sense of being a mixture of various peoples, and considered foreigners, or 'Eastern Barbarians' (Yi), from the perspective of the Han Chinese—included Caucasoids.
As the story unfolds in later chapters, I consider the Caucasoid people who were around Lake Khanka to be the descendants of the Saka people who moved east from north of the Altai Mountains over many years.
The Scythians, who operated nomadic states along the coasts of the Caspian and Black Seas and were described in detail by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus as having defeated the Persian King Darayavaush (Darius I) in the 6th century BC, are Caucasoids believed to be connected to modern Iranians (Persians).
Their origins are now estimated, through the analysis of artifacts found in tombs and other sites, to be in the Kazakh steppe north of the Altai Mountains or north of Lake Balkhash.
I believe that the Scythians themselves, or a branch of their descendants, the Saka, moved from there via the southern shore of Lake Baikal to the basin of the 'Black River' (Sahaliyan Ula), or the Amur River. The name Saka also appears in Herodotus's 'Histories' as Sakai. This Sakai is said to be the Persian name for the Scythians.
The Saka, a Caucasoid people originally from the west, introduced the widespread use of iron and the technology to create iron tools through forging to the shores of Lake Baikal and the Mongolian Plateau. This was transmitted to the land of Fuyu by the Donghu (who later split into the Xianbei), a horse-riding people who fled east after being chased by the Xiongnu.
In this story, I also consider that, separately, a different group of Saka people transmitted iron to the Amur River basin via a more northerly route, which later became the Krounovka culture and spread to the northern part of Fuyu.
The 1st century BC. The 'Kaisho' (meeting place) referred to in this story was originally established on the shore of Lake Khanka, where those ancient people lived in groups. Trading at this location in the shrubland by the lake had continued without interruption for hundreds of years.
The primary trade goods at the Kaisho were food. Grains such as millet, wheat, and rice were traded, as well as products made from the milk of goats, sheep, horses, cows, and camels brought by nomadic peoples of various backgrounds. In modern terms, these were cream, butter, and dairy products classified as natural cheese.
Other items brought to the Kaisho included textiles, fur clothing, gloves, hats, boots, sheep's wool felt, and woolen fabrics.
Later, materials such as stone and timber began to be traded, followed by woodwork, rare stones and shells and jewelry made from them, earthenware and metal vessels and pots, sharp tools such as knives and axes made of steel produced in Fuyu, and eventually weapons were added.
Most of it was barter, but as Sogdians and Xiongnu began to gather, transactions mediated by silver and gold also began. The place where this was done had come to be called the Kaisho for several decades.
Drinks were also traded.
Among nomadic peoples like the Xiongnu, there is a beverage called airag. It is said to be called arjan in Manchu. In modern times, it is written with the Chinese characters for 'mare's milk wine,' but historians of the Han Dynasty in China recorded it as 'laojiang' (milk paste). As for its taste, if I were to describe it as modern Mongolians do, it might be easy to understand if I call it a 'lactic acid drink if you drink it sweet right after making it.'
Airag (mare's milk wine), which is still commonly drunk among nomads, is originally made by putting mare's milk into a large bag made of cowhide and stirring it by hitting it with a stick many times or hanging it up and rotating it.
Even though it is written as 'wine' (sake), it is actually a low-alcohol, filling beverage.
It is said that when that airag is preserved for years and turned into aged wine, it becomes almost like a distilled spirit. There is also a strong distilled spirit itself called arkhi. Mare's milk wine as an everyday drink, as well as wine made from sheep, cow, or camel milk and grains, were important trade goods at the Kaisho.
The nomadic peoples like the Xiongnu who appear in this story mainly eat dairy products for their evening meal during the summer when the grass is lush.
However, in situations where it is difficult to obtain fresh cheeses like aourul or shimeen, or slightly salty and easy-to-preserve eden or ezgii, I assume, based on the dietary habits of modern Mongolians, that they often made do with only mare's milk wine, and I refer to this as a 'meal' in the story.
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