1.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
China
–
Yinxu, ruins of an ancient
palace dating from the
Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)
China
–
Flag
China
–
Some of the thousands of life-size
Terracotta Warriors of the
Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE
China
–
The
Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the
Chinese interior from incursions by
nomadic pastoralists of the northern
steppes.
2.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
3.
Simplified Chinese characters
–
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
Simplified Chinese characters
–
Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese characters
–
The slogan 战无不胜的毛泽东思想万岁 (Zhàn wúbù shèng de Máo Zédōng sīxiǎng wànsuì; Long live the invincible
Mao Zedong Thought) on
Xinhua Gate in Beijing.
Simplified Chinese characters
–
The first batch of Simplified Characters introduced in 1935 consisted of 324 characters.
4.
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Job announcement in a Filipino Chinese daily newspaper written in Traditional Chinese characters.
Traditional Chinese characters
–
A Series of Reading workbook in Traditional Chinese used in some Elementary schools in the Philippines.
5.
Pinyin
–
Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
Pinyin
–
A school slogan asking elementary students to speak
Putonghua is annotated with pinyin, but without tonal marks.
Pinyin
–
In
Yiling,
Yichang,
Hubei, text on road signs appears both in Chinese characters and in Hanyu Pinyin
6.
Uyghur language
–
Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other countries have Uyghur-speaking expatriate communities. Uyghur belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family, like many other Turkic languages, Uyghur displays vowel harmony and agglutination, lacks noun classes or grammatical gender, and is a left-branching language with subject–object–verb word order. More distinctly Uyghur processes include, especially in dialects, vowel reduction. In addition to influence of other Turkic languages, Uyghur has historically been influenced strongly by Persian and Arabic, the modified Arabic-derived writing system is the most common and the only standard in China, although other writing systems are used for auxiliary and historical purposes. Unlike most Arabic-derived scripts, the Uyghur Arabic alphabet has mandatory marking of all due to modifications to the original Perso-Arabic script made in the 20th century. Two Latin and one Cyrillic alphabet are used, though to a much lesser extent. The Arabic and Latin alphabets both have 32 characters, the Middle Turkic languages are the direct ancestor of the Karluk languages, including Uyghur and the Uzbek language. Kagan Arik wrote that Modern Uyghur is not descended from Old Uyghur, rather, according to Gerard Clauson, Western Yugur is considered to be the true descendant of Old Uyghur, and is also called Neo-Uyghur. Modern Uyghur is not a descendant of Old Uyghur, but is descended from the Xākānī language described by Mahmud al-Kashgari in Dīwānu l-Luġat al-Turk, the Western Yugur language, although in geographic proximity, is more closely related to the Siberian Turkic languages in Siberia. Robert Dankoff wrote that the Turkic language spoken in Kashgar and used in Kara Khanid works was Karluk, robert Barkley Shaw wrote, In the Turkish of Káshghar and Yarkand. This would seem in many case to be a misnomer as applied to the language of Kashghar. Other Kara-Khanid writers wrote works in the Turki Karluk Khaqani language, yusuf Khass Hajib wrote the Kutadgu Bilig. Ahmad bin Mahmud Yukenaki wrote the Hibat al-ḥaqāyiq, after Chaghatai fell into extinction, the standard versions of Uyghur and Uzbek were developed from dialects in the Chagatai-speaking region, showing abundant Chaghatai influence. Uyghur language today shows considerable Persian influence as a result from Chagatai, Modern Uyghur religious literature includes the Taẕkirah, biographies of Islamic religious figures and saints. The Taẕkirah is a genre of literature written about Sufi Muslim saints in Altishahr, the shrines of Sufi Saints are revered in Altishahr as one of Islams essential components and the tazkirah literature reinforced the sacredness of the shrines. Anyone who does not believe in the stories of the saints is guaranteed hellfire by the tazkirahs and it is written, And those who doubt Their Holinesses the Imams will leave this world without faith, and on Judgement Day their faces will be black. In the Tazkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imams, Shaw translated extracts from the Tazkiratul-Bughra on the Muslim Turki war against the infidel Khotan. The Turki-language Tadhkirah i Khwajagan was written by M. Sadiq Kashghari, historical works like the Tārīkh-i amniyya and Tārīkh-i ḥamīdi were written by Musa Sayrami
Uyghur language
–
A signboard in front of the Military Museum of Xinjiang written in Uyghur (using Arabic script) and
Standard Chinese
Uyghur language
–
Geographical extent of Uyghur in China
Uyghur language
–
A sign in
Ghulja, Xinjiang, written in Uyghur (using Arabic script) and Chinese (both
Hanzi and
Pinyin)
Uyghur language
–
Internet café in
Khotan oasis city in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Address written in Uyghur Language/
Arabic script
7.
Uyghur Latin alphabet
–
The Uyghur Latin alphabet is an auxiliary alphabet for the Uyghur language based on the Latin script. Uyghur is primarily written in an Arabic alphabet and sometimes in a Cyrillic alphabet, in January 2008, the ULY project was amended and identified by Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Working Committee of Minorities Language and Writing. The letters in the ULY are, in order, The creators of ULY strongly emphasized that “the proposed alphabet should not replace nor should its introduction represent a new reform of the writing system and it is to be used solely in computer-related fields as an ancillary writing system”. The importance of having one-to-one correspondence between both Latin and Arabic is noteworthy, the different orthographies are compared in the following table. Below follows an example of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Uyghur, Uyghur Ereb Yëziqi Uyghur alphabets An Introduction to LSU
Uyghur Latin alphabet
–
Comparative alphabets: Arabic-Script Uyghur, Latin-Script Uyghur; Uyghur Ereb Yëziqi, Uyghur Latin Yëziqi sëlishturma ëlipbesi
8.
Oasis
–
In geography, an oasis is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source, such as a pond or small lake. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even if the area is big enough. The location of oases has been of importance for trade and transportation routes in desert areas, caravans must travel via oases so that supplies of water. Thus, political or military control of an oasis has in many cases meant control of trade on a particular route. For example, the oases of Awjila, Ghadames, and Kufra, oases are formed from underground rivers or aquifers such as an artesian aquifer, where water can reach the surface naturally by pressure or by man-made wells. Occasional brief thunderstorms provide subterranean water to sustain natural oases, such as the Tuat, substrata of impermeable rock and stone can trap water and retain it in pockets, or on long faulting subsurface ridges or volcanic dikes water can collect and percolate to the surface. Any incidence of water is used by migrating birds, which also pass seeds with their droppings which will grow at the waters edge forming an oasis. It can also be used to plant crops, the word oasis came into English via Latin, oasis from Ancient Greek, ὄασις óasis, which in turn is a direct borrowing from Demotic Egyptian. The word for oasis in the later attested Coptic language is wahe or ouahe which means a dwelling place, people who live in an oasis must manage land and water use carefully, fields must be irrigated to grow plants like apricots, dates, figs, and olives. The most important plant in an oasis is the date palm and these palm trees provide shade for smaller trees like peach trees, which form the middle layer. By growing plants in different layers, the farmers make best use of the soil, many vegetables are also grown and some cereals, such as barley, millet, and wheat, are grown where there is more moisture. Great Man-Made River – the worlds largest irrigation project, developed in Libya to connect cities with fossil water. Guelta Mirage Oasification Qanat Wadi Water supply référence, Jardins au désert |Battesti, Jardins au désert, Evolution des pratiques et savoirs oasiens, Jérid tunisien, Paris, Éditions IRD, coll. À travers champs,2005,440 p. ISBN 2-7099-1564-2 Open Archives, book in free access / in French The dictionary definition of oasis at Wiktionary
Oasis
–
Oasis in the
Libyan part of the
Sahara Desert
Oasis
–
Taghit,
Algeria
Oasis
–
Ein Gedi,
Israel
Oasis
–
Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge,
Utah.
9.
Silk Road
–
While the term is of modern coinage, the Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk carried out along its length, beginning during the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty expanded Central Asian sections of the routes around 114 BCE, largely through missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy. The Chinese took great interest in the safety of their trade products, though silk was certainly the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were traded, as well as religions, syncretic philosophies, and various technologies. Diseases, most notably plague, also spread along the Silk Routes, in addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network. The main traders during antiquity included the Chinese, Arabs, Turkmens, Indians, Persians, Somalis, Greeks, Syrians, Romans, Georgians, Armenians, Bactrians, in June 2014, UNESCO designated the Changan-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site. The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative Eurasian silk and horse trade, the German terms Seidenstraße and Seidenstraßen were coined by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872. The term Silk Route is also used, although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th century. The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938, the fall of the Soviet Union and Iron Curtain in 1989 led to a surge of public and academic interest in Silk Road sites and studies in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Use of the term Silk Road is not without its detractors and he notes that traditional authors discussing East-West trade such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon never labelled any route as a silk one in particular. From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand, some remnants of what was probably Chinese silk dating from 1070 BCE have been found in Ancient Egypt. The Great Oasis cities of Central Asia played a role in the effective functioning of the Silk Road trade. This style is reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze, with other versions in jade. The tomb of a Scythian prince near Stuttgart, Germany, dated to the 6th century BCE, was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese silks. Scythians accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, soghdian Scythian merchants played a vital role in later periods in the development of the Silk Road. By the time of Herodotus, the Royal Road of the Persian Empire ran some 2,857 km from the city of Susa on the Karun to the port of Smyrna on the Aegean Sea. It was maintained and protected by the Achaemenid Empire and had postal stations, by having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages the entire distance in nine days, while normal travellers took about three months. The next major step in the development of the Silk Road was the expansion of the Greek empire of Alexander the Great into Central Asia and this later became a major staging point on the northern Silk Route. They continued to expand eastward, especially during the reign of Euthydemus, there are indications that he may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan, leading to the first known contacts between [China and the West around 200 BCE
Silk Road
–
Main routes of the Silk Road
Silk Road
–
Woven
silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at
Mawangdui,
Changsha,
Hunan province, China,
dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd century BCE.
Silk Road
–
A
Scythian horseman from the
Ili river,
Pazyryk, c. 300 BCE.
Silk Road
–
Chinese
jade and
steatite plaques, in the
Scythian -style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE.
British Museum.
10.
Lop Desert
–
It is an almost perfectly flat expanse with no topographic relief. Lake Bosten in the northwest lies at an altitude of 1,030 m to 1,040 m and these formed, at one time or another, the terminal lakes of the Tarim-Konque-Qarqan river system. In the past Lop Nur was a marsh in the eastern part of Xinjiang. Now the region is a broad, unbroken expanse of clay intermingled with sand, the clay, mostly of a yellow or yellow-grey color, is hard and thickly sprinkled with fine gravel. The formations themselves are separated by parallel gullies or wind furrows,6 to 20 feet deep, there is no drifting sand or sand dunes, except in the south towards the outlying foothills of the Altyn-Tagh. The climate of Lop Desert is extremely arid, a study in 1984 gives an annual precipitation of generally less than 20 mm. In the depression centre below 800 m in elevation, aridity can be expected to be more extreme. Relative humidity of the atmosphere frequently dropped to zero, with air temperature as high as 50 °C, in 2008 the annual evaporation was reported as 2,901 mm. Historically they were periods when the area was more favorable to farming, studies showed that the area experienced seven major climate changes since the end of the Pleistocene. There are numerous indications that suggest the presence of a lake in this region. In Hanshu, where it was called Puchang Hai, the lake was suggested to be a great size and it was also called Yan Ze in Shiji, which means salt marsh, indicating that the lake was salty. However, the building of dams by Chinese garrisons in the century have blocked the water from the rivers feeding in to Lop Nor. The dried-up Lop Nur basin is covered with a salt crust from 30 cm to 1 m thick, natural vegetation is sparse in the region and poor in the number of species. A scientific expedition to the Lop Nor region in 1979-1982 collected only 36 species of plants, the expedition also collected only 127 species of animals. Archaeologist Sven Hedin who travelled in the region in the late nineteenth as well as the century was able to travel by boat up the rivers to the lake. However, many animals, such as tiger, wolf. Nevertheless, it is still the one of the last refuges of Wild Bactrian camel in the world and these wild camel may be found in the reed oases on the north edge of the desert. The Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve was created in 2001 to preserve Bactrian camels, the whole of this region is swept bare of sand by the terrific sand storms of the spring months and the particles of wind-blown sand act like a sand blast
Lop Desert
–
Satellite picture of the Lop Desert with the basin of the formerly sea Lop Nur. In the left Kuruk-tagh, in the right Astin-tagh.
Lop Desert
–
Satellite picture of the Lop Desert with the basin of the former
Lop Nur Sea. The ear-shaped depression is the Lop Nor dried basin.
11.
Shanshan
–
Shanshan was a kingdom located at the north-eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert near the great, but now mostly dry, salt lake known as Lop Nur. The kingdom of Shanshan included the walled town of Kroran near the northwest corner of Lop Nur. The site of Kroran covered about 10.8 hectares with a Buddhist pagoda about 10 metres high, numerous houses and it also include Charklik which is located near the modern town of Ruoqiang to the south-west of Lop Nur. It also includes the kingdoms of Cherchen, as well as Niya further to the south-west and it has been suggested that the name Cherchen may have been derived from Shanshan. In 126 BCE, the Chinese envoy, Zhang Qian described Loulan as a city near Lop Nur. The Xiongnu repeatedly contested the Han Chinese for control of the region well into the 2nd century CE. In 77 BCE, the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi was sent to kill the Loulan king, named Chang Gui or An Gui, after several Han envoys were kidnapped and killed. He arrived on the pretext of carrying gold and valuables to the states and intending to give a presentation to the king. The kings younger brother Wei-tu-qi was then installed as the king of Loulan by the Han ruler, the newly installed king requested the presence of Han forces in Yixun, due to his fear of retribution from the sons of the assassinated king in Loulan. Chinese army officers were sent to colonise the area. In 25 CE it was recorded that Shanshan was in league with the Xiongnu, in 73 AD, the Han army officer Ban Chao went to Shanshan with a small group of followers, which was also receiving a delegation from the Xiongnu. Ban Chao killed the Xiongnu envoys and presented their heads to the King, Loulan was later recorded as a dependent kingdom of Shanshan in the 3rd century Weilüe. An inscription in the Kharoṣṭhī script was found at Endere, originally written around in the middle of the 3rd century CE, the inscription describes the king of Shanshan as a follower of Mahāyāna Buddhism — one who has set forth in the Great Vehicle. The king who this refers to was probably Aṃgoka, who was the most powerful king of Shanshan, according to Richard Salomon, there is every reason to believe that Mahāyāna Buddhism was prominent in Shanshan at this time and enjoyed royal patronage. More evidence of adoption of Mahāyāna Buddhism in Shanshan is seen in a letter inscribed in wood which dates to several decades later. The letter describes the Great Cozbo Ṣamasena as one who is, beloved of men and gods, honoured by men and gods, blessed with a good name, a military colony of 1,000 men was established at Loulan in 260 CE by the Chinese General So Man. The site was abandoned in 330 CE due to lack of water when the Tarim River, which supported the settlement, changed course, the fort of Yingpan to the northwest remained under Chinese control until the Tang Dynasty. Chinese rule continued into the Western Jin Dynasty and intermittently in later centuries and it was recorded that in 283 the son of the king was sent as a hostage to the Chinese court during the reign of Emperor Wu of Jin Dynasty
Shanshan
–
Loulan silk fragment
Shanshan
–
Tarim Basin in the 3rd century
12.
Han dynasty
–
The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period. Spanning over four centuries, the Han period is considered an age in Chinese history. To this day, Chinas majority ethnic group refers to itself as the Han people and it was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han, and briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum separates the Han dynasty into two periods, the Western Han or Former Han and the Eastern Han or Later Han, the emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society. He presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the gentry class. The Han Empire was divided into areas controlled by the central government using an innovation inherited from the Qin known as commanderies. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States, from the reign of Emperor Wu onward, the Chinese court officially sponsored Confucianism in education and court politics, synthesized with the cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu. This policy endured until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 AD, the Han dynasty was an age of economic prosperity and saw a significant growth of the money economy first established during the Zhou dynasty. The coinage issued by the government mint in 119 BC remained the standard coinage of China until the Tang dynasty. The period saw a number of limited institutional innovations, the Xiongnu, a nomadic steppe confederation, defeated the Han in 200 BC and forced the Han to submit as a de facto inferior partner, but continued their raids on the Han borders. Emperor Wu of Han launched several campaigns against them. The ultimate Han victory in these wars eventually forced the Xiongnu to accept vassal status as Han tributaries, the territories north of Hans borders were quickly overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation. Imperial authority was seriously challenged by large Daoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion. When Cao Pi, King of Wei, usurped the throne from Emperor Xian, following Liu Bangs victory in the Chu–Han Contention, the resulting Han dynasty was named after the Hanzhong fief. Chinas first imperial dynasty was the Qin dynasty, the Qin unified the Chinese Warring States by conquest, but their empire became unstable after the death of the first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Within four years, the authority had collapsed in the face of rebellion. Although Xiang Yu proved to be a commander, Liu Bang defeated him at Battle of Gaixia. Liu Bang assumed the title emperor at the urging of his followers and is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu, Changan was chosen as the new capital of the reunified empire under Han
Han dynasty
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History of China
Han dynasty
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Han dynasty in 1 AD.
Han dynasty
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A
silk banner from
Mawangdui,
Changsha,
Hunan province. It was draped over the coffin of
Lady Dai (d. 168 BC), wife of the Marquess Li Cang (利蒼) (d. 186 BC), chancellor for the Kingdom of Changsha.
Han dynasty
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A
gilded bronze
oil lamp in the shape of a kneeling female servant, dated 2nd century BC, found in the tomb of
Dou Wan, wife of the Han prince
Liu Sheng; its sliding shutter allows for adjustments in the direction and brightness in light while it also traps smoke within the body.
13.
Lop Nur
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Administratively, the lake is in Lop Nur township of Ruoqiang County, which in its turn is part of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. The lake system into which the Tarim River and Shule River empty is the last remnant of the historical post-glacial Tarim Lake, Lop Nur is hydrologically endorheic— it is landbound and there is no outlet. The lake measured 3,100 km2 in 1928, but has dried up due to construction of dams blocked the flow of water feeding into the lake system. The dried-up Lop Nur Basin is covered with a salt crust ranging from 30 cm to 1 m in thickness. Lop Nur has been used as a testing site. From around 1800 BC, until the 9th century the lake supported a thriving Tocharian culture, archaeologists have discovered the buried remains of settlements, as well as several of the Tarim mummies, along its ancient shoreline. Former water resources of the Tarim River and Lop Nur nurtured the kingdom of Loulan since the second century BC, an ancient civilization along the Silk Road, Loulan became a client-state of the Chinese empire in 55 BC, renamed Shanshan. Marco Polo in his travels passed through the Lop Desert, and it is also likely that Swedish soldier Johan Gustaf Renat had visited the area when he was helping the Zunghars to produce maps over the area in the eighteenth century. The lake was given names in ancient Chinese texts. In Shiji it was called Yan Ze, indicating its saline nature, in Hanshu it was called Puchang Hai and was given a dimension of 300 to 400 li in length and breadth, indicating it was once a lake of great size. These early texts also mentioned the belief, mistaken as it turns out and this shift of the terminal lake caused some confusion amongst the early explorers as to the exact location of Lop Nur. The change in the course of the river, which resulted in Lop Nur drying up, was suggested by Hedin as the reason why ancient settlements such as Loulan had perished. In 1921, due to intervention, the terminal lake shifted its position back to Lop Nur. The lake measured 2400 km2 in area in 1930-31, in 1934 Sven Hedin went down the new Kuruk Darya in a canoe. He found the delta to be a maze of channels and the new lake so shallow that it was difficult to even in a canoe. In 1900 he had walked the dry Kuruk Darya in a caravan, in 1952 the terminal lake then shifted to Taitema Lake when the Tarim River and Konque River were separated through human intervention, and Lop Nur dried out again by 1964. In 2000, in an effort to prevent further deterioration of the ecosystem, the Taitema Lake however had shifted 30 to 40 kilometres westwards during the past 40 years due in part to the spread of the desert. Another cause of the destabilization of the desert has been the cutting of poplars and willows for firewood, in response, the Kara-Koshun dried basin may be considered part of the greater Lop Nur
Lop Nur
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Satellite picture of the Basin of the former sea of Lop Nur.
Lop Nur
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Basin of Lop Nur by satellite.
Lop Nur
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Satellite picture of the Lop Desert with the basin of the formerly sea Lop Nur. In the left Kuruk-tagh, in the right Astin-tagh.
Lop Nur
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Satellite image of a
potassium chloride factory in Lop Nur.
14.
Niya (Tarim Basin)
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The ruins of Niya, is an archaeological site located about 115 km north of modern Minfeng Town on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin in modern-day Xinjiang, China. The ancient site was known in its language as Caḍ́ota. Numerous ancient archaeological artifacts have been uncovered at the site, Niya was once a major commercial center on an oasis on the southern branch of the Silk Road in the southern Taklamakan Desert. During ancient times camel caravans would cut through, carrying goods from China to Central Asia. In Hanshu, an independent oasis state called Jingjue, generally thought to be Niya, is mentioned, The seat of the government is the town of Jingjue. There are 480 households,3,350 individuals with 500 persons able to bear arm, the commandant of Jingjue, the leaders of the left and the right and an interpreter-in-chief. Niya became part of Loulan Kingdom by the third century, towards the end of the fourth century it was under Chinese suzerainty, later it was conquered by Tibet. In 1900, Aurel Stein set out on an expedition to western China, in Niya he excavated several groups of dwellings, and found 100 wooden tablets written in 105 CE. These tablets bore clay seals, official orders and letters written in Kharoshthi, Aurel Stein visited Niya four times between 1901 and 1931. Official approval for joint Sino-Japanese archaeological excavations at the site was given in 1994, researchers have now found remains of human habitation including approximately 100 dwellings, burial areas, sheds for animals, orchards, gardens, and agricultural fields. They have also found in the dwellings well-preserved tools such as axes and sickles, wooden clubs, pottery urns. The human remains found there have led to speculation on the origins of these peoples, some archeological findings from the ruins of Niya are housed in the Tokyo National Museum. Others are part of the Stein collection in the British Museum, the British Library, ancient texts showed some king names
Niya (Tarim Basin)
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Textile from Niya, showing influences from the East and the West.
Niya (Tarim Basin)
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Niya site where Aurel Stein found wooden tablets
Niya (Tarim Basin)
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Wooden tablet inscribed with
Kharosthi characters
15.
Miran (Xinjiang)
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Miran is an ancient oasis town located on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the China. It lies on the trade route known as the Silk Road where the Lop Nur desert meets the Altun Shan mountains. Two thousand years ago a river flowed down from the mountain, now the area is a sparsely inhabited dusty spot with poor roads and minimal transportation. Lionel Giles has recorded the names for Miran, Yuni, old capital of Loulan Old Eastern Town, Little Shanshan Qitun Cheng. During the period of Tibetan occupation, the area was known as Nop Chungu and they went by going around its north or south rim. It was also a center of Buddhism with many monasteries. Buddhist devotees would have walked around the covered circular stupas, whose central pillar contained relics of the Buddha, Miran was one of the smaller towns in Kroraina, which was brought under the control of the Chinese Han Dynasty in the third century. After the fourth century the center declined. In the mid century, Miran became a fort town because of its location at the mouth of a pass on one of the routes into Tibet. This is where the Tibetan forces crossed when the Chinese army withdrew to deal with rebels in central China, the Tibetans remained there, using the old irrigation system, until the Tibetan Empire lost its territories in Central Asia around the middle of the ninth century. The many artifacts found in Miran demonstrate the extensive and sophisticated trade connections these ancient towns had with places as far away as the Mediterranean Sea, archaeological evidence from Miran shows the influence of Buddhism on artistic work as early as the first century BC. This Romanesque style is thought to be the work of a Buddhist painter known as Tita, several artefacts have been found at the Miran site, including bows and arrows. 1876, The first person to mention the ancient site was Nikolay Przhevalsky, after his second expedition to the region, he wrote about a very large ruined city near the Lopnor lake, which, judging from its geographical position on his map, must have been Miran. 1906-1907, Aurel Stein visited and excavated Miran fort and surrounding sites during his expedition to Central Asia, carrying out a thorough excavation of the fort. He excavated other sites in the area, mainly to the north and west of the fort,1902 and 1910, Count Ōtani Kōzui sent missions from Kyoto to some Taklamakan sites, among them Miran, to bring back Buddhist texts, wall paintings and sculptures. 1914, Aurel Stein returned to Miran on his expedition, excavating other sites in the area. The objects found in these included more images and wooden carved objects. 1959, A team from Xinjiang Museum spent ten days in Miran examining the fort, temple site, a report of their considerable findings was published in 1960
Miran (Xinjiang)
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Stupa at Miran
Miran (Xinjiang)
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Fresco from an ancient
stupa, Miran
16.
Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
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It is the largest prefecture-level division nationally, with an area of 462,700 km2, even larger than its neighbouring province of Gansu. According to the 2000 census, Bayingolin has 1,056,970 inhabitants, when Bayingolin was first established in 1954, it was an area with the Mongols comprising 35% of the prefectures population. However, in 1960, the Chinese government annexed to it a neighbouring Uyghur area, after which the prefecture occupied one-third of Xinjiangs, due to steady immigration, the Han Chinese population has also increased significantly. In 1947, there were reportedly only 1,682 Han Chinese in Xinjiangs Eighth District, population by ethnicity Bayingholin directly controls 1 county-level city,7 counties and 1 Hui autonomous county. Torghut Makan Map Government website of Bayingholin Government website of Bayingholin Government website of Bayingholin
Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
–
Bayanbulak grassland in
Hejing County.
Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
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Bayingolin Mongol prefecture (red) in Xinjiang (orange)
17.
Tarim mummies
–
The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BCE to the first centuries BCE. Victor H. Mairs team concluded that the mummies are Caucasoid, since then, numerous other mummies have been found and analysed, many of them now displayed in the museums of Xinjiang. Most of these mummies were found on the end of the Tarim Basin. Also found at Subeshi was a man with traces of an operation on his abdomen. Many of the mummies have been found in good condition, owing to the dryness of the desert. The mummies share many typical Caucasian body features, and many of them have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown, and generally long, curly and braided. Their costumes, and especially textiles, may indicate an origin with Indo-European neolithic clothing techniques or a common low-level textile technology. Chärchän man wore a red tunic and tartan leggings. Textile expert Elizabeth Wayland Barber, who examined the tartan-style cloth, in 2007 the Chinese government allowed a National Geographic Society team headed by Spencer Wells to examine the mummies DNA. Wells was able to extract undegraded DNA from the internal tissues, between 2009-2015, the remains of 92 individuals found at the Xiaohe Tomb complex were analyzed for Y-DNA and mtDNA markers. Genetic analyses of the mummies showed that the Xiaohe people were an admixture from populations originating from both the West and the East, the maternal lineages of the Xiaohe people originated from both East Asia and West Eurasia, whereas the paternal lineages all originated from West Eurasia. Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that maternal lineages carried by the people at Xiaohe included mtDNA haplogroups H, K, U5, U7, U2e, T and R*, also found were haplogroups common in modern populations from East Asia, B5, D and G2a. Haplogroups now common in Central Asian or Siberian populations included, C4, haplogroups later regarded as typically South Asian includedM5 and M*. The geographic location of this admixing is unknown, although south Siberia is likely, in trying to trace the origins of these populations, Victor Mairs team suggested that they may have arrived in the region by way of the Pamir Mountains about 5,000 years ago. Scholars have traditionally scoffed at these accounts, but it now seems that they may be accurate, Chinese historian Ji Xianlin says China supported and admired research by foreign experts into the mummies. However, within China a small group of separatists have taken advantage of this opportunity to stir up trouble and are acting like buffoons. Some of them have even styled themselves the descendants of these ancient white people with the aim of dividing the motherland, but these perverse acts will not succeed. Barber addresses these claims by noting that The Loulan Beauty is scarcely closer to Turkic in her anthropological type than she is to Han Chinese
Tarim mummies
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Taklamakan Desert in the
Tarim Basin.
Tarim mummies
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Satellite image of the
Taklamakan Desert
Tarim mummies
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Sir
Aurel Stein in the Tarim Basin, 1910
Tarim mummies
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The
Taklamakan Desert is very dry, which helped considerably in the preservation of the mummies.
18.
Dunhuang
–
For the 2005 full-length documentary Dunhuang, directed by Zhou Bing. Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. The 2000 Chinese census reported a population of 187,578 in this city, Dunhuang was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road and is best known for the nearby Mogao Caves. It has also known at times as Shazhou and, in Uyghur. Dunhuang is situated in a rich oasis containing Crescent Lake and Mingsha Shan, named after the sound of the wind whipping off the dunes, administratively, the county-level city of Dunhuang is part of the prefecture-level city of Jiuquan. There is evidence of habitation in the Dunhuang area as early as 2,000 BC. Its name was mentioned in relation to the homeland of the Yuezhi in the Records of the Grand Historian. By the third century BC, the area dominated by the Xiongnu. Dunhuang was one of the four garrison towns established by the Emperor Wu after the defeat of Xiongnu. The name Dunhuang, meaning Blazing Beacon, refers to the beacons lit to warn of attacks by marauding nomadic tribes, Dunhuang Commandery was probably established shortly after 104 BC. Located in the end of the Hexi Corridor near the historic junction of the Northern and Southern Silk Roads. The Great Wall was extended to Dunhuang, and a line of fortified beacon towers stretched westwards into the desert, Dunhuang prospered on the heavy flow of traffic. The first Buddhist caves in the Dunhuang area were hewn in 353, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was the main stop of communication between ancient China and the rest of the world and a major hub of commerce of the Silk Road. Dunhuang was the city of all three main silk routes during this time. From the West also came early Buddhist monks who had arrived in China by the first century AD, the caves carved out by the monks, originally used for meditation, developed into a place of worship and pilgrimage called the Mogao Caves or Caves of a Thousand Buddhas. A number of Christian, Jewish, and Manichaean artifacts have also found in the caves. During the time of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Li Gao established the Western Liang here in 400 AD, in 405 the capital of the Western Liang was moved from Dunhuang to Jiuquan. In 421 the Western Liang was conquered by the Northern Liang, as a frontier town, Dunhuang was fought over and occupied at various times by non-Han Chinese people
Dunhuang
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Dunhuang
Dunhuang
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The ruins of a
Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) Chinese
watchtower made of
rammed earth at Dunhuang.
Dunhuang
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White Horse Pagoda, Dunhuang
Dunhuang
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Tang Period (618-907) Buddhist sutra fragment from Dunhuang
19.
Korla
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Korla is known for its fragrant pears. Korla is approximately 200 kilometres southwest from Ürümqi, although, due to the intervening Tian Shan, the Kaidu River, also known as the Konqi River or Kongque River, flows through the center of Korla, a unique feature amongst cities in Xinjiang. Korla has a desert climate with extreme seasonal variation in temperature. Precipitation totals only 57 millimetres annually, and mostly falls in summer, as compared to an annual rate of about 2,800 mm. The frost-free period averages 210 days, the period between April and October closely resemble subtropical climates, but the continental nature is facilitated by the rapid drop of temperatures going into winter. Korla has long been the biggest centre in the region after Karashahr itself, having abundant water and extensive farmlands, as well as controlling the routes to the south. Due to the discovery of oil in the Taklamakan Desert, Korla is now more populous and far more developed than Karashar. Korla is home to an operational center for PetroChinas exploration in Xinjiang. Korla is known for its production of fragrant pears, which are known in the region for their sweetness. Korla is served by the national highways G218, G314, the Southern Xinjiang Railway, as of July 7,2009, there was no internet connections and all international telephone communication was cut within the entire province of Xinjiang, including the city of Korla. On October 1,2009, a relaxing of the internet allowed some Chinese websites to function. In May,2010, internet access was restored to the province. The city had 430,000 inhabitants in 2007, increasing with 20,000 people every year, majority of whom were Han Chinese, with a minority of Uyghurs and smaller numbers of Mongols. Korla was known as Weili during the Han Dynasty, Weili is said in the Hanshu or History of the Former Han, to have had 1,200 households,9,600 individuals and 2,000 people able to bear arms. It also mentions that it adjoined Shanshan and Qiemo to the south, in 61 CE, the Xiongnu led some 30,000 troops from 15 kingdoms including Korla, Karashahr, and Kucha in a successful attack on Khotan. In 94 CE, the Chinese general Ban Chao sent soldiers to punish the kingdoms of Yanqi, Weixu, Weili, and Shanguo. He then sent the heads of the two kings of Yanqi and Weili to the capital where they were hung in front of the residences of the Man, Chao then appointed Yuan Meng, who was the Yanqi Marquis of the Left, king. The kings of Weili, Weixu, and Shanguo were all replaced, after the rebellion of the Western Regions, only the kings of Korla and Hoxud refused to submit to the Chinese
Korla
–
Korla 库尔勒市 · ᠬᠣᠷᠣᠯ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ · كورلا شەھىرى
Korla
–
Old and new live side-by-side in Korla
Korla
–
A panorama of Korla
20.
Ruoqiang County
–
Ruoqiang County is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China under the administration of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. It covers an area of 198,318 square kilometres, making it the largest county-level division in the country, as of 2005, the county had a population of 31,877, of which 18,957 were of Han ethnicity, while Uyghurs numbered 11,761. The county seat is in Ruoqiang Town and this is the location which less-detailed maps will label as Ruoqiang. It lies at an altitude of 848 metres, the ancient settlement of Charklik was located in what is today Ruoqiang County. The Charkhlik Revolt took place here in 1935 when Uyghurs revolted against the Hui-dominated Tunganistan, the county was established in 1902 but it was written as 婼羌 until 1959, when the present written form of 若羌 was adopted. The Uyghur name of the county, Çakilik, is transliterated in Chinese as 卡克里克, Ruoqiang County ranges in latitude from 36°00 to 41°23 N and in longitude from 86°45 to 93°45 E. It borders Qiemo County to the west, Yuli County, Piqan County, and Kumul to the north, the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai to the east, the populated areas are located mostly along the northern foothills of the Altyn-Tagh mountain range. North of this strip of irrigated agricultural settlement is the Taklamakan Desert, south, the Altyn-Tagh and Kunlun Mountains. The well known Lop Lake, these days usually dry, is located in the part of the county - the section officially known as Luobu Po Town. The southern part of the county, and Lake Jingyu and these lakes are among the few noticeable bodies of water in this extremely arid area, the area around them is officially protected as the Altun Shan Nature Reserve. Ruoqiang has a desert climate with extreme seasonal variation in temperature. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −7.4 °C in January to 27.5 °C, precipitation totals only 29 millimetres annually, and mostly falls in summer. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 63% in March to 82% in October, China National Highway 218 China National Highway 315 Makan Map A Tourism Guide to Charklik / Ruoqiang - Ancient Kingdom and Outpost Gateway
Ruoqiang County
–
Ruoqiang County (red) within Bayingolin Prefecture (yellow) and Xinjiang
21.
Khotan
–
Hotan, also transliterated from Chinese as Hetian, is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in western China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an area in its own right in August 1984. It is the seat of Hotan Prefecture, with a population of 322,300, Hotan is situated in the Tarim Basin some 1,500 kilometres southwest of the regional capital, Ürümqi. It lies just north of the Kunlun Mountains, which are crossed by the Sanju, Hindutash, the town, located southeast of Yarkant County and populated almost exclusively by Uyghurs, is a minor agricultural center. The White Jade River still provides water and irrigation for the town and it provided a convenient meeting place where not only goods, but technologies, philosophies, and religions were transmitted from one culture to another. Tocharians lived in this region over 2000 years ago, several of the Tarim mummies were found in the region. At Sampul, east of the city of Hotan, there is a series of cemeteries scattered over an area about 1 kilometre wide and 23 km long. The excavated sites range from about 300 BCE to 100 CE, the tapestry had been cut up and fashioned into trousers worn by one of the deceased. An Anthropological study of 56 individuals showed a primarily Caucasoid population, DNA testing on the mummies found in the Tarim basin showed that they were an admixture of Western Europeans and East Asian. There is an abundance of information on Hotan readily available for study. The ancient Kingdom of Khotan was one of the earliest Buddhist states in the world and its capital was located to the west of the modern city of Hotan. The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Khotan, like those of early Kashgar and Yarkant, spoke Saka, khotans indigenous dynasty governed a fervently Buddhist city-state boasting some 400 temples in the late 9th/early 10th century—four times the number recorded by Xuanzang around 630. The kingdom was independent but was intermittently under Chinese control during the Han, after the Tang dynasty, Khotan formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang. Through the 10th century, Khotanese royal portraits were painted in association with an number of deities in the caves. In the 10th century, Khotan began a struggle with the Kara-Khanid Khanate, some Khotanese Buddhist works were unearthed. The rulers of Khotan were aware of the menace they faced since they arranged for the Mogao grottoes to paint a number of divine figures along with themselves. Yūsuf Qadr Khān was a brother or cousin of the Muslim ruler of Kashgar and Balasagun, Khotan lost its independence, later it fell to the Kara-Khitan Khanate, after which it was ruled by the Mongols. When Marco Polo visited Khotan in the 13th century, he noted that the people were all Muslim and he wrote that, Khotan was a province eight days’ journey in extent, which is subject to the Great Khan
Khotan
–
Hotän 和田市 · خوتەن شەھىرى
Khotan
–
Bronze coin of
Vima Kadphises found in Khotan.
Khotan
–
Khotan
Melikawat ruins
Khotan
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Map of
Central Asia (1878) showing Khotan (near top right corner) and the
Sanju Pass,
Hindutash, and Ilchi passes through the
Kunlun Mountains to
Leh,
Ladakh. The previous border of the
British Indian Empire is shown in the two-toned purple and pink band.
22.
Yarkant County
–
Shache County or Yarkand County is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, located on the southern rim of the Taklamakan desert in the Tarim Basin. It is one of 11 counties administered under Kashgar Prefecture, Yarkant, usually written Yarkand in English, was the seat of an ancient Buddhist kingdom on the southern branch of the Silk Road. The county sits at an altitude of 1,189 metres, the fertile oasis is fed by the Yarkand River which flows north down from the Karakorum mountains and passes through Kunlun Mountains known historically as Congling mountains. The oasis now covers 3,210 square kilometres, but was far more extensive before a period of desiccation affected the region from the 3rd century CE onwards. Today, Yarkant is a predominantly Uyghur settlement, the irrigated oasis farmland produces cotton, wheat, corn, fruits, and walnuts. Yak and sheep graze in the highlands, mineral deposits include petroleum, natural gas, gold, copper, lead, bauxite, granite and coal. The territory of Yārkand is first mentioned in the Book of Han as Shaju, descriptions in the Hou Hanshu contain insights into the complex political situation China faced in attempting to open up the Silk Routes to the West in the 1st century CE. According to the Chapter on the Western Regions in the Hou Hanshu, Going west from the kingdom of Suoju, to the east, it is 10,950 li from Luoyang. The Chanyu of the Xiongnu took advantage of the caused by Wang Mang. Only Yan, the king of Suoju, who was powerful than the others. Previously, during the time of Emperor Yuan, he was a hostage prince and he admired and loved the Middle Kingdom and extended the rules of Chinese administration to his own country. He ordered all his sons to serve the Han dynasty generation by generation. Yan died in the fifth Tianfeng year and he was awarded the posthumous title of Faithful and Martial King. His son, Kang, succeeded him on the throne, at the beginning of Emperor Guangwus reign, Kang led the neighbouring kingdoms to resist the Xiongnu. He escorted, and protected, more than a people including the officers, the soldiers. He sent a letter to Hexi to inquire about the activities of the Middle Kingdom, and personally expressed his attachment to, and admiration for, in the ninth year Kang died. He was awarded the title of “Greatly Accomplished King. ”His younger brother, Xian. Xian attacked and conquered the kingdoms of Jumi and Xiye and he killed both their kings, and installed two sons of his elder brother, Kang, as the kings of Jumi and Xiye
Yarkant County
–
A street in Yarkant
Yarkant County
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Street scene in Yarkand in the 1870s
Yarkant County
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Yarkand official, 1870s
Yarkant County
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Andijani Taifurghis of the Yarkand Governor's Guard. 1870s
23.
Xiongnu
–
The Xiongnu, were a confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Asian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Chinese sources report that Modu Chanyu, the leader after 209 BC. The Xiongnu were also active in areas now part of Siberia, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and their relations with adjacent Chinese dynasties to the south east were complex, with repeated periods of conflict and intrigue, alternating with exchanges of tribute, trade, and marriage treaties. Attempts to identify the Xiongnu with later groups of the western Eurasian Steppe remain controversial, Scythians and Sarmatians were concurrently to the west. The identity of the core of Xiongnu has been a subject of varied hypotheses, because only a few words, mainly titles. The name Xiongnu may be cognate with that of the Huns and/or the Huna, other linguistic links – all of them also controversial – proposed by scholars include Iranian, Mongolic, Turkic, Uralic Yeniseian, or multi-ethnic. Ancient China often came in contact with the Xianyun and the Xirong nomadic peoples, in later Chinese historiography, some groups of these peoples were believed to be the possible progenitors of the Xiongnu people. These nomadic people often had repeated confrontations with the Shang and especially the Zhou. During the Warring States period, the armies from the Qin, Zhao, qins campaign against the Xiongnu expanded the Qin dynastys territory at the expense of the Xiongnu. In 215 BCE, Qin Shi Huang sent General Meng Tian to conquer the Xiongnu and drive them from the Ordos Loop, after the catastrophic defeat at the hands of General Meng Tian, the Xiongnu leader Touman was forced to flee far into the Mongolian Plateau. The Qin empire became a threat to the Xiongnu, which led to the reorganization of the many tribes into a confederacy. Chubei Huyan Lan Luandi Qiulin Suibu In 209 BCE, three years before the founding of Han China, the Xiongnu were brought together in a confederation under a new chanyu. This new political unity transformed them into a formidable state by enabling formation of larger armies. The Xiongnu adopted many of the Chinese agriculture techniques such as labor for heavy labor, wore silk like the Chinese. The reason for creating the confederation remains unclear, to the north he conquered a number of nomadic peoples, including the Dingling of southern Siberia. He crushed the power of the Donghu people of eastern Mongolia and Manchuria as well as the Yuezhi in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu, Modu also reoccupied all the lands previously taken by the Qin general Meng Tian. Under Modus leadership, the Xiongnu threatened the Han Dynasty, almost causing Emperor Gaozu, the first Han emperor, to lose his throne in 200 BCE. By the time of Modus death in 174 BCE, the Xiongnu had driven the Yuezhi from the Hexi Corridor, killing the Yuezhi king in the process and asserting their presence in the Western Regions
Xiongnu
–
Xiongnu
Xiongnu
–
Asia in 200 BCE, showing the early Xiongnu state and its neighbors.
Xiongnu
–
Xiongnu among other people in Asia around 1 AD.
Xiongnu
–
Bronze seal says "To Han obedient, friendly and loyal chief of Xiongnu of Han (漢 匈奴歸義親 漢 長)"．Bronze seal conferred by the Eastern Han government on a Xiongnu chief.
24.
Yuezhi
–
After a major defeat by the Xiongnu, during the 2nd century BCE, the Yuezhi split into two groups, the Greater Yuezhi and Lesser Yuezhi. Following their defeat, the Greater Yuezhi initially migrated northwest into the Ili Valley and they were driven from the Ili Valley by the Wusun and migrated southward to Sogdia and later settled in Bactria, where they the defeated the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The Greater Yuezhi have consequently often been identified with Bactrian peoples mentioned in classical European sources, like the Tókharioi, during the 1st century BCE, one of the five major Greater Yuezhi tribes in Bactria, the Kushanas, began to subsume the other tribes and neighbouring peoples. The subsequent Kushan Empire, at its peak in the 3rd century CE, the Kushanas played an important role in the development of trade on the Silk Road and the introduction of Buddhism to China. Most of the Lesser Yuezhi appear to have migrated southward into Tibet, however, some are reported to have settled among the Qiang people in Qinghai, and to have been involved in the Liangzhou Rebellion. Others are said to have founded the city state of Cumuḍa in the eastern Tarim, a fourth group of Lesser Yuezhi may have become part of the Jie people of Shanxi, who established the 4th Century CE Later Zhao state. The philosophical tract Guanzi is now believed to have been compiled around 26 BCE, based on older texts. In the Guanzi, nomadic pastoralists known as the Yúzhī 禺氏 or Niúzhī 牛氏 and they are described as supplying jade to the Chinese. The export of jade from the Tarim Basin, since at least the late 2nd Millennium BCE, is well-documented archaeologically, for example, hundreds of jade pieces found in the Tomb of Fu Hao originated from the Khotan area, on the southern rim of the Tarim Basin. According to the Guanzi, the Yúzhī/Niúzhī, unlike the neighbouring Xiongnu, in the early 4th Century BCE, the Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven also mentions the Yúzhī 禺知. The Yi Zhou Shu makes separate references to the Yúzhī 禺氏 and Yuèdī 月氐, trading the jade and horses for Chinese silk, the Wūzhī were then selling these goods to other neighbours. The earliest detailed account of the Yuezhi is found in chapter 123 of the Records of the Great Historian by Sima Qian, essentially the same text appears in chapter 61 of the Book of Han, though Sima Qian has added occasional words and phrases to clarify the meaning. Both texts use the Chinese name Yuezhi, written with the characters yuè moon and shì clan, some scholars have argued that Dunhuang should be Dunhong, a mountain in the Tian Shan, and have placed the original homeland of the Yuezhi 1,000 km further west. The Yuezhi were so powerful that the Xiongnu monarch Touman even sent his eldest son Modu as a hostage to the Yuezhi, the Yuezhi often attacked their neighbour the Wusun to acquire slaves and pasture lands. Wusun originally lived together with the Yuezhi in the region between Dunhuang and Qilian Mountain, the Yuezhi attacked the Wusuns, killed their monarch Nandoumi and took his territory. The son of Nandoumi, Kunmo fled to the Xiongnu and was brought up by the Xiongnu monarch, gradually the Xiongnu grew stronger and war broke out between them and the Yuezhi. There were at least four wars between the Yuezhi and Xiongnu according to the Chinese accounts, the first war broke out during the reign of the Xiongnu monarch Touman who suddenly attacked the Yuezhi. The Yuezhi wanted to kill Modu, the son of the Xiongnu king Touman kept as a hostage to them and he subsequently killed his father and became ruler of the Xiongnu
Yuezhi
–
The migrations of the Yuezhi through Central Asia, from around 176 BCE to 30 CE
Yuezhi
–
The Yuezhi were settled to the northwest of
Qin China in the 3rd century BCE.
Yuezhi
–
A Scythian horseman from the area invaded by the Yuezhi,
Pazyryk, c.300 BCE.
Yuezhi
–
The Chinese mission of
Zhang Qian to the Yuezhi in 126 BCE,
Mogao Caves, 618–712 CE mural painting
25.
Wusun
–
The Wusun were an Indo-European semi-nomadic steppe people mentioned in Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. The Wusun originally lived between the Qilian Mountains and Dunhuang near the Yuezhi, around 176 BC the Yuezhi were raided by the Xiongnu, subsequently attacking the Wusun, killing their king and seizing their land. The Wusun prince was subsequently adopted by the Xiongnu ruler and made a Xiongnu general, after the Yuezhi around 162 BC were driven into the Ili Valley of Zhetysu, Dzungaria and Tian Shan formerly inhabited by the Sai, the Wusun resettled Gansu as vassals of the Xiongnu. In 133-132 BC, the Wusun drove the Yuezhi from the Ili Valley and they subsequently became close allies of the Han dynasty and a powerful force in the region for several centuries. Pressured by the Rouran, the Wusun are last mentioned by the Chinese as having settled the Pamir Mountains in the 5th century AD and they possibly became subsumed into the later Hephthalites. Wusun is a pronunciation of the Chinese Characters 烏孫. The Chinese name 烏孫 literally means wū ‘crow, raven’ + sūn ‘grandson, there are several theories about the origin of the name. Sinologist Victor H. Mair compared Wusun with Sanskrit áśva ‘horse’, aśvin ‘mare’, the name would thus mean ‘the horse people’. Hence he put forward the hypothesis that the Wusun used a language within the Indo-European languages. However, the hypothesis is not supported by Edwin G. Pulleyblank. Beckwith suggests that the Wusun were a remnant of the Indo-Aryans. Around 176 BC Mody Chanyu launched a raid against the Yuezhi. Around 173 BC, the Yuezhi subsequently attacked the Wusun, at time a small nation. According to legend Nandoumis infant son Liejiaomi was left in the wild and he was miraculously saved from hunger being suckled by a she-wolf, and fed meat by ravens. The Wusun ancestor myth shares striking similarities with those of the Hittites, the Zhou Chinese, the Scythians, the Romans, in 162 BC, the Yuezhi were finally defeated by the Xiongnu, after which they fled Gansu. According to Zhang Qian, the Yuezhi were defeated by the rising Xiongnu empire and fled westward, driving away the Sai from the Ili Valley in the Zhetysu, the Sai would subsequently migrate into South Asia, where they founded various Indo-Scythian kingdoms. After the Yuezhi retreat the Wusun subsequently settled the province of Gansu, in the valley of the Ushui-he. It is not clear whether the river was named after the tribe or vice versa, the Xiongnu ruler was impressed with Liejiaomi, considering him a supernatural being, and adopted the child
Wusun
–
Rider burial mound Tenlik (III.-II. B.C.) The Tenlik kurgan is associated with the Wusun.
Wusun
–
Wusun and their neighbours around 200 AD.
26.
Zhang Qian
–
Zhang Qian was a Chinese official and diplomat who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the 2nd century BC, during the time of the Han dynasty. Today Zhang Qians travels are associated with the route of transcontinental trade. In essence, his missions opened up to China the many kingdoms, Zhang Qians accounts of his explorations of Central Asia are detailed in the Early Han historical chronicles, Records of the Grand Historian, compiled by Sima Qian in the 1st century BC. The Central Asian sections of the Silk Road routes were expanded around 114 BC largely through the missions and explorations of Zhang Qian, today Zhang Qian is considered a national hero and revered for the key role he played in opening China to the world of commercial trade. Zhang Qian was born in Chenggu district just east of Hanzhong in the central province of Shaanxi. He entered the capital, Changan, todays Xian, between 140 BC and 134 BC as a Gentleman, serving Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. At the time the nomadic Xiongnu tribes controlled what is now Inner Mongolia and dominated the Western Regions, Xiyu, the Han emperor was interested in establishing commercial ties with distant lands but outside contact was prevented by the hostile Xiongnu. He was accompanied by a guide named Ganfu, a Xiongnu who had captured in war. The objective of Zhang Qians first mission was to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi. However to get to the territory of the Yuezhi he was forced to pass through land controlled by the Xiongnu who captured him, during this time he married a Xiongnu wife, who bore him a son, and gained the trust of the Xiongnu leader. The Yuezhi were agricultural people who produced strong horses and many unknown crops including alfalfa for animal fodder, however, the Yuezhi were too settled to desire war against the Xiongnu. On his return trip he was captured by the Xiongnu who again spared his life because they valued his sense of duty. Two years later the Xiongnu leader died and in the midst of chaos, of the original mission of just over a hundred men, only Zhang Qian and Ganfu managed to return to China. Zhang Qian returned in 125 BC with detailed news for the Emperor, showing that sophisticated civilizations existed to the West, all these states, he was told, were militarily weak and prized Han goods and wealth. Upon Zhang Qians return to China he was honoured with a position of palace counselor, on his mission Zhang Qian had noticed products from an area now known as northern India. However, the task remained to find a route not obstructed by the Xiongnu to India. Zhang Qian set out on a mission to forge a route from China to India via Sichuan. In 119–115 BC Zhang Qian was sent on a mission by the emperor
Zhang Qian
–
Zhang Qian taking leave from emperor
Han Wudi, for his expedition to
Central Asia from 138 to 126 BC,
Mogao Caves mural, 618 - 712.
Zhang Qian
–
Statue of Zhang Qian in
Shaanxi History Museum,
Xi'an
Zhang Qian
–
Countries described in Zhang Qian's report. Visited countries are highlighted in
blue.
Zhang Qian
–
Mogao Caves 8th-century mural depicting the
pseudohistorical legend of
Emperor Wu of Han worshipping "golden man" Buddha statues captured in 121 BC.
27.
Book of Han
–
The Book of Han or History of the Former Han is a history of China finished in 111, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. It is also called the Book of Former Han, the work was composed by Ban Gu, a court official, with the help of his sister Ban Zhao, continuing the work of their father, Ban Biao. They modeled their work on the Records of the Grand Historian, a universal history and it is the best source, sometimes the only one, for many topics in this period. A second work, the Book of the Later Han covers the Eastern Han period from 25 to 220, and was composed in the fifth century by Fan Ye. This history developed from a continuation of Sima Qians Records of the Grand Historian, initiated by Ban Gus father, Ban Biao and this work is usually referred to as Later Traditions, which clearly indicates that the elder Bans work was meant to be a continuation. After Ban Biaos death, his eldest son Ban Gu was dissatisfied with what his father had completed and this distinguished it from Sima Qians history, which had begun with Chinas earliest legendary rulers. In this way, Ban Gu initiated the Jizhuanti format for dynastic histories that was to remain the model for the official histories until modern times. For the periods where they overlapped, Ban Gu adopted nearly verbatim much of Sima Qians material and he also incorporated at least some of what his father had written, though it is difficult to know how much. The completed work ran to a total of 100 fascicles 卷, and included essays on law, science, geography, Ban Gus younger sister Ban Zhao finished writing the book in 111,19 years after Ban Gu had died in prison. An outstanding scholar in her own right, she is thought to have written volumes 13–20 and 26, the Annals section and the three chapters covering the reign of Wang Mang were translated into English by Homer H. Dubs. Other chapters have been rendered into English by A. F. P, sargent, Nancy Lee Swann, and Burton Watson. Ban Gus history set the standard for the writings of later Chinese dynasties and it is regarded as one of the Four Histories 四史 of the Twenty-Four Histories canon, together with the Records of the Grand Historian, Records of the Three Kingdoms and History of the Later Han. Emperors biographies in strict annal form, which offer an overview of the most important occurrences. Each treatise describes an area of effort of the state, the biographies confine themselves to the description of events that clearly show the exemplary character of the person. Two or more people are treated in one article, as they belong to the same class of people. The last articles describe the relations between China and the various peoples beyond the frontiers and it is later recorded that in 57, the southern Wa kingdom of Na sent an emissary named Taifu to pay tribute to Emperor Guangwu and received a golden seal. The seal itself was discovered in northern Kyūshū in the 18th century, according to the Book of Wei, the most powerful kingdom on the archipelago in the third century was called Yamatai and was ruled by the legendary Queen Himiko. Dorneich, Chris M. Chinese sources on the History of the Niusi-Wusi-Asi-Rishi-Arsi-Arshi-Ruzhi, shiji 110/Hanshu 94A, The Xiongnu, Synopsis of Chinese original Text and several Western Translations with Extant Annotations
Book of Han
–
Book of Han
Book of Han
–
History
28.
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu of Han, born Liu Che, courtesy name Tong, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of China, ruling from 141–87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years — a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later. His reign resulted in vast territorial expansion, development of a strong and centralized state resulting from his governmental re-organization and it was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly or indirectly. Many new crops and other items were introduced to China during his reign, Emperor Wu successfully repelled the nomadic Xiongnu from systematically raiding northern China, and dispatched his envoy Zhang Qian in 139 BC to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi of Kangju. This resulted in further missions to Central Asia, michael Loewe called the reign of Emperor Wu the high point of Modernist policies, looking back to adapt ideas from the pre-Han period. His policies and most trusted advisers were Legalist, favoring adherents of Shang Yang and these reforms had an enduring effect throughout the existence of imperial China and an enormous influence on neighboring civilizations. Emperor Wu was also known for his employment of shaman advisers, the personal name of Emperor Wu was Liu Che. The use of Han in referring to emperor Wu is a reference to the Han dynasty of which he was a part. His family name is Liu, the family or clan of the Han dynasty shared the family name of Liu, the family name of Liu Bang. The character Di is a title, this is the Chinese word which in imperial history of China means emperor, the character Wu literally means martial or warlike, but is also related to the concept of a particular divinity in the historical Chinese religious pantheon existing at that time. Combined, Wu plus di makes the name Wudi, the posthumous name used for historical and for religious purposes. One of Han Wudis innovations was the practice of changing names every so many years. Thus, the practice for dating years during the reign of Wudi came to be the nth year of the, when they got close to Han borders, She assassinated the general and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle. Emperor Wu, unaware of his deception, made him the commander of the Commandery of Liaodong. King Ugeo, offended, made a raid on Liaodong and killed She, in response, Emperor Wu commissioned a two-pronged attack against Joseon. Initially, Joseon offered to become a vassal, but peace negotiations broke down by the Chinese forces refusal to let a Joseon force escort its crown prince to Changan to pay tribute to Emperor Wu, Han took over the Joseon lands in 108 BC and established four commanderies. Also in 109 BC, Emperor Wu sent a force against the Kingdom of Dian. When the King of Dian surrendered, it was incorporated into Han territory with the King of Dian being permitted to keep his traditional authority, Emperor Wu established five commanderies over Dian and the other nearby kingdoms
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu of Han
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu dispatching
Zhang Qian to
Central Asia from 138 to 126 BCE,
Mogao Caves mural, 618–712 CE.
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu sent ambassadors to the
Dian Kingdom in
Yunnan. Bronze sculpture depicting Dian people, 3rd century BCE.
Emperor Wu of Han
–
Emperor Wu worshipping two statues of Golden Man (or
Buddha?) in 121 BC,
Mogao Caves,
Dunhuang, ca. 8th century CE.()
29.
Dayuan
–
Dayuan was a country in Ferghana valley in Central Asia, described in the Chinese historical works of Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han. It is mentioned in the accounts of the famous Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE, the country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to the Ferghana Valley, and its Greek city Alexandria Eschate. The Dayuan are also described as manufacturers and great lovers of wine and it appears that the name Yuan was simply a transliteration of Pali Yona or Sanskrit Yavana, used throughout antiquity in Asia to designate Greeks, so that Dayuan would mean Great Ionians. The region of Ferghana was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE, Alexander built a 6 kilometer long brick wall around the city and, as similarly in the cases of the other cities he founded, had a garrison of his retired veterans and wounded settle there. The whole of Bactria, Transoxiana and the area of Ferghana remained under the control of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire until 250 BCE, the region then wrested independence under the leadership of its Greek governors Diodotus of Bactria, to become the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The Greco-Bactrians held their territory, and according to the Greek historian Strabo even went beyond Alexandria Eschate and extended their empire as far as the Seres and the Phryni. There are indications that they may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in Xinjiang, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BC. Various statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been north of the Tien Shan. Around 160 BC, the area of Ferghana seems to have been invaded by Saka tribes, according to W. W. Dayuan had probably by then become a kingdom of nomadic people exacting tribute from the local urbanized Hellenistic population. Also in 106–101 BCE, during their conflict with China, the country of Dayuan is said to have been an ally with the tribes of Kangju. The Chinese also record the name of the king of Dayuan as Mu-Kua, the Yuezhi would further expand southward into Bactria around 125 BCE, and then going on to form the Kushan Empire in the 1st century CE. The Dayuan remained a healthy and powerful civilization which had numerous contacts, around 130 BCE, at the time of Zhang Qian’s embassy to Central Asia, the Dayuan were described as inhabitants of a region corresponding to the Ferghana, far to the west of the Chinese empire. “The capital of the kingdom of Dayuan is the city of Guishan, the kingdom contains 60,000 families, comprising a population of 300,000, with 60,000 trained troops, a Viceroy, and a National Assistant Prince. The seat of the Governor General lies to the east at a distance of 4,031 li. ”To their south-west were the territories of the Yuezhi, with the Greco-Bactrians further south still, beyond the Oxus. “The great Yueh-chih is situated about 2000 or 3000 li west of Dayuan, to the south of them there is Daxia, to the west, Anxis, to the north Kangju. Urbanized city-dwellers The customs of the Dayuan are said by Zhang Qian to be identical to those of the Bactrians in the south, “Their customs are the same as those of Dayuan. The people have fixed abodes and live in walled cities and regular houses like the people of Dayuan. They have no great kings or heads, but everywhere in their cities and settlements they have installed small kings. ”They are described as town-dwellers, as opposed to other populations such as the Yuezhi
Dayuan
–
The Dayuan (in
Ferghana) was one of the three advanced civilizations of
Central Asia around 130 BCE, together with
Parthia and
Greco-Bactria, according to the Chinese historical work
Book of Han.
Dayuan
–
Probable Greek soldier, woollen wall hanging,
Sampul tapestry, 3rd-2nd century BCE, Sampul,
Urumqi Xinjiang Museum.
Dayuan
–
The
Greco-Bactrian king
Euthydemus I (230–200 BC)
Dayuan
–
Silver tetradrachm of King
Eucratides I, who probably lost the territory of Ferghana to the Sakas.
