Eurasian Nomads:
Part 2

Descriptions of Non-Mongolian Physiques

by Terry Gore


Non-Mongolian physiques did exist among Chinese as a result of Chinese interaction with Hunnic, Turkic and Mongol peoples during the course of history. As history had recorded, various steppe people, at certain points, had been recorded to be people carrying different features as to hair, nose, eye and skin. Hunnic, Turkic and Mongol peoples, however, should be considered more Mongoloid peoples than anything else, and they had acted as a kind of buffer in between Mongoloid and Caucasoid peoples since prehistory. To clarify Chinese ethnic continuity, there were four distinct groups: Guan-xiong-guo in the south, Chang-gu-guo (Chang-gong? long arm) in the west, Shen-mu-guo (deep eye socket) in the north, and Yuhu and Yujing as east-sea and north-sea sea gods.

Early Chinese historical accounts did record the difference in the physique of peoples in Chinese Turkestan and beyond. Earlier records said the people to the west of the ancient Gaochang (Turpan) possessed the features of high nose bridge and deep socket eyes. Records also stated that the people beyond the Pamir Mountains possessed high nose bridge and hairy skins. Later accounts mentioned the existence of 'blue-applied' people in southern Chinese Turkestan. (Chinese character for 'blue', namely, 'bi', could also mean 'dark green'.)

In Mongolia, Kirghiz people were recorded to include people with green eyes. Chinese history recorded that the northern Mongolians possessed 'chestnut-coloured eyes'. The Mongolians of 13-14th Centuries classify the rest of nomadic peoples as 'Se Mu Ren', namely, 'colour-eyed peoples'. It would be in Ming Dynasty's history book that gives descriptions of modern Europeans, namely, 'cat-eyed', 'eagle-mouthed', and 'red-haired'. Interestingly, Ming Chinese did not talk too much about the Portuguese who were known as 'Falangji' (a word mutated from 'Frank' and also meant for cannons that Arabs mimicked on basis of European inventions), while the Dutch was nicknamed 'Hongmaogui', namely, red-haired ghosts. In this sense, the Portuguese could appear much more different than the Dutch, and it made sense if the Portuguese sailors had relatively darker hair and skin than northern Europeans.

Tribal empires rose and fell, the conquered and the conquerors mixed up, and ethnic and linguistic dividing lines blurred. Notable would be the fact that the so-called Indo-European nomads, Skythians ('Sai Ren' or 'Sai Zhong' People) and Yueh-chih, had migrated to Oxus (ancient Kuei or Gui River) and the Iranian world a long time ago. It would be during the Western Jinn (265-316 AD) that historical accounts recorded extensively the difference of the physique of the nomads from the Chinese. Those descriptions are mostly to do with the Xianbei nomads whose ancestors were driven to Manchuria by the Huns.

The Qiang/Di people, northerners like Xianbei might also have possessed lighter skin. Today's Tibetans and Qiangs in Sichuan do possess darker-complexions. Using modern science, there is a shade difference among southern and northern Mongolians due to different levels of ultra-violet exposure. As to the Jiehu, they were said to have possessed higher nose bridge than the others. Shi Min, an adopted son of Jiehu's Posterior Zhao, had at one time killed about 200,000 Jiehu nomads. History said that Shi Min's armies killed those people who looked like Jiehu because of high nose bridge. Jiehu was an alternative race of the Huns, but they must have looked the same to other Huns and Chinese except for the high nose bridge. Jiehu founder, Shi Le, was said to have travelled out of his domain to seek for employment or career in his early years. Shi Le was later captured in modern Shandong Province when the local Jinn warlord was given advice to round up Hu nomads to fill the army ranks. This points to the kind of melting pot as existed in late Jinn time periods. History recorded that the criteria used for sorting out Jiehu was the nose bridge, only.

The Kirghiz possessed lighter skin, red hair, green eyes and taller height, and that those Kirghiz with black hair must be the descendants of Li Ling.

The Naimans are said to be a Mongol name for a group of the Turkic tribe called 'Sakiz Oghuz' or the Eight Oghuz. Gradually, the Naimans grew in strength and drove the Kirghiz to the River Yenesei and rooted the Keraits from their homeland on the Irtysch in the Altai and drove them towards Manchuria, hence indirectly causing the Khitans to move to northern China where they established the Liao Dynasty in 907-1125, a name associated with the Liao River in Manchuria. The Khitans changed their dynastic names back and forth between Liao and Khitan, several times. Khitans would conquer the Xi and Shiwei Tribes, the Dadan Tribes, the Bohai Tungus people and the Sino-Tibetan Tanguts.

The remaining Orkhon Turks were not heard from after China's Five Dynasties time period. Huihe (or Uighurs) took refuge in Ganzhou and Xinjiang after being replaced by the Kirghiz and expelled from Mongolia. The saga left by this time period would be the portraits of emperors and generals who invariably showed that those Turkic and Chinese people had very long beards, a feature not available to today's Chinese and Mongolians.

Genghis Khan was rumoured to have had red hair and green eyes. Genghis Khan reportedly differed from other Mongols in that he was tall and had long beard. According to Marco Polo, Kublai Khan did have black hair but fair complexion 'ringed with red'. Genghis Khan was apparently amazed that Kublai had black hair while the rest of their family had red hair and said his grandson must have taken 'his old uncles' features. Genghis Khan belonged to the Borjigid clan that was a branch of the Kiyats to which the Jurchens (Jurchids), Changsi'ut and the Kiyat-Sayar also belonged.

The importance of the Borjigids lies in the legend that after the death of Dobun-mergen, the alleged ancestress Alan-ko bore Bodunchar after being visited by a strange 'golden glittering man', described as having red hair and blue-green eyes. It may have been that mysterious visitor could be a Kirghiz since the Kirghiz people were said to be tall and possessed red hair and green eyes. The Yuan Shi (History of Yuan Dynasty) only recorded that Bodunchar had grey eyes compared to the chestnut-coloured eyes of his brothers and half-brothers.

Jiehu founder, Shi Le, was said to have travelled out of his domain to seek for employment or career in his early years. Shi Le was later captured in modern Shandong Province when the local Jinn warlord was given advice to round up Hu nomads to fill the army ranks. This points to the kind of melting pot as existed in late Jinn time periods. History recorded that the criteria used for sorting out Jiehu was the nose bridge, only.

The Kirghiz possessed lighter skin, red hair, green eyes and taller height, and that those Kirghiz with black hair must be the descendants of Li Ling.

The Naimans are said to be a Mongol name for a group of the Turkic tribe called 'Sakiz Oghuz' or the Eight Oghuz. Gradually, the Naimans grew in strength and drove the Kirghiz to the River Yenesei and rooted the Keraits from their homeland on the Irtysch in the Altai and drove them towards Manchuria, hence indirectly causing the Khitans to move to northern China where they established the Liao Dynasty in 907-1125, a name associated with the Liao River in Manchuria. The Khitans changed their dynastic names back and forth between Liao and Khitan, several times. Khitans would conquer the Xi and Shiwei Tribes, the Dadan Tribes, the Bohai Tungus people and the Sino-Tibetan Tanguts.

The remaining Orkhon Turks were not heard from after China's Five Dynasties time period. Huihe (or Uighurs) took refuge in Ganzhou and Xinjiang after being replaced by the Kirghiz and expelled from Mongolia. The saga left by this time period would be the portraits of emperors and generals who invariably showed that those Turkic and Chinese people had very long beards, a feature not available to today's Chinese and Mongolians.

Eurasian Nomads: Part 2

Eurasian Nomads: Part 1

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© Copyright 2004 by Terry Gore
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