Of all sinologists in the world, perhaps none have such a special initial motive for studying China as the Hungarians. It is the search for their own roots.

How come Hungarians are searching for their roots via sinology?

Let's approach the answer by wondering why the Chinese term for Hungary, Hsiung-ya-li, begins with the same word as the Hsiung-nu, an ancient nomadic people once foes of the Han dynasty.

Is there a link between Hungary and the Hsiung-nu? It isn't beyond the bounds of possibility. How about this centuries-old legend from the great Hungarian plain of the Danube: Long, long ago there lived an old chief who had two sons. The elder was named Hunn and the younger Magyar. . . .

Here "Hunn" refers to the Hsiung-nu, a people who disappeared from Chinese history in the first century A.D. only to crop up later on in European history; "Magyar" refers to modern Hungary's major ethnic group.

Other facets of Hungarian language and life also suggest tantalizing parallels with this legend.

For example, the Magyars were once a horse-riding nomadic people, as were the Hsiung nu; Hungarian names have the surname followed by the given name, Chinese fashion. "Hungarians differ from all other Europeans in this respect," confirms Maria Ferenczy, chief curator of the Far-Eastern Collection at the Museum of Applied Arts.

Hungarian grammar differs from many other European languages in ways which suggest similarities with Chinese; one example is the use of the genitive. Whereas most European languages would say "the garden of my house," Hungarian uniquely reverses the order of words, like Chinese, so that the possessor comes before the thing possessed.

"When I'm doing simultaneous interpreting between Chinese and Hungarian I can start without waiting to hear the last word in the sentence," explains Hungarian National Planning Office and Economic Planning Institute head Barna Talas, an expert on mainland China's economic system.

With unconcealed excitement he points out that Chinese and Hungarian are the only languages in the world that each make an identical distinction between their two different words for "two." "We also have over 40 words with the same pronunciation as Mongolian," he concludes.

In historical terms too, Hungary really does have a close association with the Hsiung-nu.

According to Chinese historical accounts, the Hsiung-nu arose in northern China and were involved in conflicts with the Han Chinese for over three centuries beginning in the Warring States period. Under the Eastern Han dynasty they were split into two, with the Southern Hsiung-nu merging with the Han Chinese. The Northern Hsiung-nu were defeated in a military expedition led by Tou Hsien and Pan Ch'ao and driven away to "Ta-tse," but "no one knows what became of them eventually."

Having vanished from Chinese history around the first century A.D., the Hsiung-nu resurfaced in European history in the fourth century when they crossed the Don in pursuit of the westward-fleeing Alans and won complete victory in a great battle with the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, after which they established a kingdom on the Hungarian plain.

From their base in Hungary the Huns made repeated incursions to the west, driving the other barbarian tribes southwards to seek protection in the Roman Empire and causing huge migrations of people across Europe. In the first half of the fifth century Attila the Hun established a vast Kingdom stretching across modern Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Poland and parts of the Soviet Union. His triumphant campaigns visited immense death and destruction upon Europe and caused Attila to be known as "the Scourge of God" because he seemed to have been sent by God to punish the world for its sins.

A late eighteenth-century excavation of the site of Attila's base on the southern bank of the Maros River brought to light 23 large tubs of gold. Large copper pots and helmets worn by the Hunnish army in the fourth century were also found and are now preserved in the Hungarian Museum of Ethnology in Budapest.

After Attila's death, however, his kingdom was riven by internal power struggles. This encouraged attacks from other barbarians and the Eastern Roman Empire which resulted in the dispersal of the Huns and their final disappearance from the pages of history.

But their historical disappearance didn't mean that the Huns were totally wiped off the map. Author of A History of the Hsiung-nu Liu Hsueh-tiao points out that just as the Southern Hsiung-nu were assimilated into the Han Chinese race, the Northern Hsiung-nu who migrated westwards intermarried and became assimilated with barbarian tribes and with the Magyars who later founded a kingdom in Hungary.

"Anthropologically speaking, probably 30 percent of Hungarians have oriental features," points out Maria Ferenczy, meaning high cheekbones, heavy-lidded eyes and black hair. . . .

Recent research has tended to show that while the Huns are not the same as the Hungarians, the Huns and Magyars both came from Central Asia, the former in the fourth and fifth centuries, the latter in the tenth. But while reliable evidence is still lacking for a rational explanation to many doubtful issues, Professor Endre Galla, head of the Faculty of Chinese at Eotvos Lorand University at Budapest, jocularly points out that the Hungarians, always isolated like outsiders in Europe, are themselves only too happy to believe that they might be the Huns who once trampled over the continent; at least, they claim some fairly close relation to the Huns.

In the 1920s, inspired by romantic nostalgia of this kind, the Hungarian linguist Louis Ligeti spent three years in Inner Mongolia studying the language and religion of another branch of the Hsiung-nu, the Mongols. He also learnt Chinese, because he discovered that although the Hsiung-nu and the Mongols had no historical records of their own, detailed accounts survive in Chinese history down the centuries. So an ability to read Chinese sources was essential for further study of the subject.

"When Louis Ligeti returned to Hungary he began teaching Chinese, and the modern generation of sinological scholars are mostly his students," Maria Ferenczy says.

Hungary's economy has long been the most open and lively of any country in Eastern Europe, and the same is true of Hungarian sinology. Although the Hungarian sinological community has unavoidably been influenced by the status quo over the past several decades, with the accent on translating books on communism and the Chinese Communist Party and the works of Liu Shao-ch'i and Mao Tsetung, there have also appeared over one hundred translations of Chinese classical novels, Chinese philosophy, poetry. lyrics, drama, novels of the Thirties, and even children's literature and myths. Over 100,000 copies have been sold of translated works such as The Story of the Stone, The Golden Lotus and The Fortunate Union.

In a sense, then, it might be true to describe the flourishing state of twentieth century sinology in this one small European country as perhaps an unforeseen consequence of the Han dynasty's successful campaign against their troublesome northern neighbors, the Hsiung-nu!

[Picture Caption]

Archeological digs over the years have brought to light helmets and bronze pots used by the Huns in the fourth and fifth century.

Attila the Hun set up his court in the Hungarian Plain beside the River Danube.

The Hungarian Museum of Ethnology in Budapest has a valuable collection of archaeological materials on the Huns.

Attila the Hun set up his court in the Hungarian Plain beside the River Danube.

Archeological digs over the years have brought to light helmets and bronze pots used by the Huns in the fourth and fifth century.

The Hungarian Museum of Ethnology in Budapest has a valuable collection of archaeological materials on the Huns.