Hun:  in view of the old rivalry between Toba and Huns, this seemed to Fu Chien to be the best way of preventing any revival of the Toba.  However, a descendant of the old ruling family of the Toba succeeded, with the aid of related families, in regaining power and forming a small new kingdom.  Very soon many tribes which still lived in north China and which had not been broken up into military units, joined him.  Of these there were ultimately 119, including many Hun tribes from Shansi and also many Hsien-pi tribes.  Thus the question who the Toba were is not easy to answer.  The leading tribe itself had migrated southward in the third century from the frontier territory between northern Mongolia and northern Manchuria.  After this migration the first Toba state, the so-called Tai state, was formed (338-376); not much is known about it.  The tribes that, from 385 after the break-up of the Tibetan empire, grouped themselves round this ruling tribe, were both Turkish and Mongol; but from the culture and language of the Toba we think it must be inferred that the ruling tribe itself as well as the majority of the other tribes were Turkish; in any case, the Turkish element seems to have been stronger than the Mongolian.

Thus the new Toba kingdom was a tribal state, not a military state.  But the tribes were no longer the same as in the time of Liu Yuean a hundred years earlier.  Their total population must have been quite small; we must assume that they were but the remains of 119 tribes rather than 119 full-sized tribes.  Only part of them were still living the old nomad life; others had become used to living alongside Chinese peasants and had assumed leadership among the peasants.  These Toba now faced a difficult situation.  The country was arid and mountainous and did not yield much agricultural produce.  For the many people who had come into the Toba state from all parts of the former empire of Fu Chien, to say nothing of the needs of a capital and a court which since the time of Liu Yuean had been regarded as the indispensable entourage of a ruler who claimed imperial rank, the local production of the Chinese peasants was not enough.  All the government officials, who were Chinese, and all the slaves and eunuchs needed grain to eat.  Attempts were made to settle more Chinese peasants round the new capital, but without success; something had to be done.  It appeared necessary to embark on a campaign to conquer the fertile plain of eastern China.  In the course of a number of battles the Hsien-pi of the “Later Yen” were annihilated and eastern China conquered (409).

Now a new question arose:  what should be done with all those people?  Nomads used to enslave their prisoners and use them for watching their flocks.  Some tribal chieftains had adopted the practice of establishing captives on their tribal territory as peasants.  There was an opportunity now to subject the millions of Chinese captives to servitude to the various tribal chieftains in the usual way.  But