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SECTION III. THE GREAT KUSHANS..
We are informed by the Chinese historians that the Kushāns (chiefs of the Kuei-shuang or Kouei-chouang principality) were a section of the Yueh-chi (Yue-chi) race. The modern Chinese pronunciation of the name according to Kingsmill is said to be Yue-ti. M. Le vi and other French scholars write Yue-tchi or Yue -tchi.
We learn from Ssu-ma-ch'ien (the Chinese annalist, who recorded the story of the travels of Chang-k'ien, the famous envoy), that between B.C. 174 and 165 the Yuechi were dwelling between the Tsenn-hoang (Tun-huang) country and the K'i-lien mountains, or Tien-chan Range, south and east of Lake Issykul in Chinese Turkestan.1 At that date the Yue-chi were defeated and expelled from their country by the Hiung-nu who slew their king and made a drinking vessel out of his skull. The widow of the slain ruler succeeded to her husband's power. Under her guidance the Yue-chi in the course of their westward migration attacked the Wu-sun whose king was killed. 2 After this exploit the Yue-chi attacked the Sakas in the plains of the Jaxartes or the Syr Darya and compelled their king or 'lord' to seek refuge in Kipin (KāpisaLampaka-Gandhāra).3
Meantime the son of the slain Wu-sun king grew up to manhood and, with the assistance of the Hiung-nū
1 Smith says (EHI, p. 263) that they occupied land in the Kansuh Province in North-Western China. See also CHI, 565.
2 The main section of the Yue-chi passed on westwards beyond Lake Issykkul, the rest diverged to the South and settled on the frontier of Tibet. The latter came to be known as the "Little Yue-chi". Eventually they established their capital at Purushapura in Gandhara. Smith, EHI, 264; Konow, Corpus, II. i. lxxvi.
3 A part of the Saka horde apparently seized Ferghana (Ta Yuan) c. 128 B.C. (Tarn, Greeks, 278 n 4, 279).
