Uysyn - Society

Society

The Usuns and Yuezhi formed one state with two ethnically different and opposing halves. It was a Matriarchal state of a lunar clan "As" (Uti, Ati, Asi, Yuezhi), with a Matrilinear principle of inheritance, including dynastic succession. This caused their separation from the Usuns (initially called in the Chinese annals As-mans) in the transition to a patriarchal form. The matrilinear form of community was a "brotherly family" with the inheritance principle "senior brother - younger brother (from the same mother) - nephew (from a female line, the son of the senior brother)", combining male and female lines.

After 160 BCE, the Usun state in Zhetysu incorporated the remains of the Saka and Yuezhi. Usun growth created conditions for a state independent from the Chuban. Political hierarchy was simple, the army of 188,800 men had only 16 officers. The Usun family was small, and unlike the Chuban, women did not have an equal status anymore. Social inequality became accepted, rich owners had herds with thousands of horses.

References to the Usuns in the Chinese annals allude to the tri-partite division of the state. This was typical for the Turkic nomadic states, based on a military principle of attacking with left (tolos) and right (tardush) wings or flanks, led by the center, as in multi-group encircling hunts. Members of the tribes belonging to each wing were positioned in exact hierarchical order, depending on their place in the traditional structure. The left (eastern) wing had a privileged status, with a successor to the throne, and the queen's residence. Two dominant (royal) tribes are known from the Chinese annals, Ashina (Oshin) and Ashide (Ashtak, tamga ).

In the 7th century a ten-arrow (Ten tribes, On-ok) Western Turkic Kaganate was located "on the lands of the former Usun state". The Kaganate backbone consisted of ten tribes, five in each wing. The first tribe in the list of the left (eastern) wing tribes is Ulug-ok, a conjugal tribe of the Kagans who belonged to the western branch of the "celestial-blue" Ashina tribe. The term ulug belongs to the Ashide tribe, of the co-ruler chancellor and katun queen, a spouse of the Kagan from the Ashina tribe. Only offspring of Ashina on the paternal side and Ashtak on the maternal side could inherit the Kagan throne. Succession to the throne followed the established "brotherly family" along the avuncular line "senior brother - younger brother - nephew (son of the senior brother)", with compulsory participation of the queen's Ashtaks at each succession.

The Queen and chancellor held a decisive vote in the election of the Kagan, performed in accordance with the norms of the "brotherly family". The Queen tribe Ashtak represented lands and people of the state. The bearers of the title Ulug had a position of "chancellor", "vizier", "state elder" in the later times too, like in the archaic text of the "Turkmen’s Family Tree" (17th century), the "ruler of the state" was Il Ulugy, or the Ulug Beg of the Timurids. In the old Usun state, the second man after the supreme ruler was called chancellor (Ch. syan), the combination Da lu "Great Lu" is a Chinese translation of the Turkic Ulug.

In the old Usun state a son could not inherit from his father. When Hunmo ostensibly "out of pity for the dying successor to the throne" agreed to transfer this post to his son, it caused a fury of the Great Ulug, his relatives, and people, who took to arms. The arbitrary decision of the supreme ruler to institute a new principle of inheriting the throne by the line "father - son", bypassing the queen (maternal) Ulug tribe did not gain support and was rejected at that time.