YUE-CHI or YUEH-CHIH, the Chinese name of a central Asiatic tribe who ruled in Bactria and India, are also known as Kushans (from one of their subdivisions) and Indo-Scythians (q.v.). They appear to have been a nomad tribe, inhabiting part of the present Chinese province of Kan-suh, and to have been driven W. by Hiung-nu (q.v.) tribes of the same stock. They con quered a tribe called the Wusun, who lived in the basin of the Ili river, and settled for some time in their territory (c. 175-140 B.c.). They then attacked another tribe known as Sakas (q.v.) and drove them to Persia and India. For about twenty years it would seem that the Yue-Chi were settled in the country between the rivers Chu and Syr-Darya, but here they were attacked again by the Hiung-nu, their old enemies, with whom was the son of the de feated Wusun chieftain. The Yue-Chi then occupied Bactria (q.v.), and little is heard of them for a hundred years. During this period they became a united people, having previously been a con federacy of five tribes, the principal of which, the Kushans (or Kwei-Shwang), supplied the new national name.
The chronology of this invasion and of the history of the Kushans in India is uncertain ; available evidence seems to show that a king called Kozulokadphises, Kujulakasa or Kieu-tsieu-k'io A.D. 45-85) united the five tribes, conquered the Kabul valley and annihilated the remnants of Greek dominion. He was suc ceeded, possibly after an interval, by Ooemokadphises (Himaka pisa or Yen-kao-tsin-tai), who completed the annexation of N.
India. Then followed Kanishka ( ?c. A.D. 123-53), who is cele brated throughout eastern Asia as a patron of the Buddhist church and convener of the third Buddhist council. He is also said to have conquered Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan. His successors were Huvishka and then Vasudeva, who may have died c. A.D. 225. After Vasudeva's reign the power of the Kushans gradually de cayed, and they were driven back into the valley of the Indus and N.E. Afghanistan. Here, according to Chinese authorities, their royal family was supplanted by a dynasty called Ki-to-lo (Kidara), who were also of Yue-Chi stock, but belonged to one of the tribes who had remained in Bactria when the Kushans marched to India. The subsequent migration of the Kitolo S. of the Hindu Kush was due to the movements of the Jwen-Jwen, who advanced W. from the Chinese frontier. Under this dynasty a state known as the Little Kushan kingdom flourished in Gandha.ra (E. Afghanistan) about A.D. 43o, but was broken up by the attacks of the Hiinas.