On "The Ma-nu-kuan and Iron Culture of the Hsiung-nu"

Abstract

In a previous paper "The Ma-nu-kuan and Iron Culture of the Hsiung-nu" (JJE Vol. 12, No, 3, 1948), Prof. Egami has advanced the theory that the Ma-nu-kuan (Horse-and-Bow Barrier) was the institutional barrier which prohibited the Chinese from exporting the horse, cross-bow (弩) and iron to the Hsiung-nu, and therefore the abolishment of this institution in 82 B.C. introduced the iron age to the Hsiung-nu. The author argues here that the Ma-nu-kuan was established by the Han Dynasty to prohibit their export not to the Hsiung-nu, but to other Chinese princedoms that might be hostile to the dynasty. It was not an international, but intra-national barrier, and its abolishment meant neither the removal of the embargo on the export of the horse and cross-bow to the Hsiung-nu, nor the cause of the beginning of the iron-age in the latter.