1.
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.
2.
Prefecture-level City
–
Prefectural level cities form the second level of the administrative structure. Administrative chiefs of prefectural level cities generally have the rank as a division chief of a national ministry. Since the 1980s, most former prefectures have been renamed into prefectural level cities, a prefectural level city is a city and prefecture that have been merged into one unified jurisdiction. The larger prefectural level cities span over 100 kilometres, prefectural level cities nearly always contain multiple counties, county level cities, and other such sub-divisions. To distinguish a prefectural level city from its urban area. The first prefectural level cities were created on 5 November 1983, over the following two decades, prefectural level cities have come to replace the vast majority of Chinese prefectures, the process is still ongoing. Most provinces are composed entirely or nearly entirely of prefectural level cities, shijiazhuang and Zhengzhou are the largest prefectural level cities with populations approaching or exceeding some sub-provincial cities. A sub-prefecture-level city is a city with powers approaching those of prefectural level cities. There are total of three classification of prefecture-level city, Regular prefectural level city which consist of counties, county level cities, consolidated district-governed prefectural level city which only consist of districts as it subdivisions. Thus, Bloomington, Indiana is indicated on the map by a point, which is distinct from, and enclosed by, in China, however, large cities such as City of Xianning may, in reality, contain both urban and rural elements. Moreover, they may enclose counties or other cities, on a less detailed map, City of Xianning would be indicated by a point, more or less corresponding to the coordinates of its city government. Other populous areas may also be exhibited as points, such as County of Tongshan, with no indication that County of Tongshan is, in fact, enclosed by City of Xianning. On a more detailed map, City of Xianning would be drawn as an area, similar to a county of the United States and this convention may lead to difficulty in the identification of places mentioned in older sources. For example, Guo Moruo writes that he was born in Town of Shawan, within Prefecture of Leshan, and attended primary school in Town of Jiading. A modern map is unlikely to show either town, Shawan, because it is too small, and Jiading, because it is the seat of City of Leshan, and is therefore indicated on the map by a point labelled Leshan. A more detailed map would show Shawan as a district within City of Leshan, statistics of China such as population and industrial activity are generally reported along prefectural city lines. Thus, the relatively unknown City of Huangshi has 2.5 million residents, more than most European capitals, but upon closer inspection, furthermore, Huangshi contains several other cities, such as City of Daye. If a person wished to calculate the population of the area of Huangshi, and had a map of Huangshi, and a table of its population by district
Prefecture-level City
–
A road sign shows distance to the "Huangshi urban area" (黄石市区) rather than simply "
Huangshi " (黄石). This is a useful distinction, because the sign is located already within Huangshi prefectural level city (immediately upon entering its
Yangxin County from the neighboring
Xianning), but still 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the Huangshi main urban area.
Prefecture-level City
–
Prefecture-level city Prefectural-level city
3.
Emin Minaret
–
The Emin Minaret or Emin Tower stands by the Uyghur mosque located in Turfan, Xinjiang, China. At 44 meters it is the tallest minaret in China, the Qing Empire conquered this largely Muslim region in the 1750s by defeating the Dzungar Mongols with their superior weaponry in a series of battles. The Uyghurs under Emin Khoja 額敏和卓 joined the Qing Empire for protection against the Dzungars, the minaret was started in 1777 during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor and was completed only one year later. It was financed by local leaders and built to honor the exploits of a local Turpan general, Emin Khoja, the Emin Minaret is located along the ancient Silk Route. Nearby is the site of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, the area has long served as a conduit for cultural exchange between different ethnic and religious groups. The Emin Minaret, like other Uyghur mosques and minarets, reflects this in its combination of traditional Islamic features, the Emin Minaret was constructed by local craftsmen using local materials. The structure itself is made of wood and brick and it is an elegant, circular, tapered Islamic dome, with a diameter over 14 meters at its base and tapering to 2.8 meters at the top. The exterior is of sun-dried yellow bricks that narrow in shape as the tower rises, the richly textured bricks are carved into intricate, repetitive, geometric and floral mosaic patterns, such as stylized flowers and rhombuses. This mixture of Chinese and Islamic features is only in minarets in China. The unique geometric patterns are characteristic of Islamic architecture and have no counterparts in the architecture of China other than in Muslim structures, positioned in the tower are several long, narrow windows at different heights and facing different directions that provide light and ventilation. Inside, the internal support serves as a winding 72-step staircase to the top. The mosque is divided into a hall for use in colder months. The outer halls are built with elegant, tall, thin, wooden pillars and beams supporting its exposed timber frame, unlike Chinese structures, there are no images. The towering architectural shape of a minaret, always taller than it is wide, is a sign of the presence of Islam as are the abstract. Although the minaret has served many functions over time, in Islam its primary function has always been as the main lookout around which to draw members of the community. The ground floor of a minaret is always square while the parts may be of varying shapes, including round, square. The minaret is the most distinctive feature of any mosque and this is no different in the case of the Emin Minaret, Chinese mosques Islamic Architecture in Xinjiang Amin Mosque - Emin Minaret The Turban Emin Minaret Asian Historical Architecture, Emin Minaret
Emin Minaret
–
Emin Minaret and Mosque
4.
Gaochang District
–
Gaochang, is a district in the oasis city of Turpan, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. Its population was 254,900 at the end of 2003, according to the municipal government of Turpan, the district is named after the ancient city of Gaochang. It was also proposed that the district be named after Ayding Lake, the district was created on 12 April 2015 after Turpan was upgraded from a county-level city into a prefecture-level city. The district has the size and population as the former Turpan county-level city. Karahoja is divided into 3 subdistricts,2 towns,7 townships and 3 other township-level divisions
Gaochang District
–
Emin Minaret
5.
China Standard Time
–
The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08,00, despite China spanning five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called Beijing Time domestically and China Standard Time internationally, daylight saving time has not been observed since 1991. The special administrative regions maintain their own authorities, with standards called Hong Kong Time. These have been equivalent to Beijing time since 1992, in addition, a second time standard is used in Xinjiang, two hours less than the Beijing Time, which is called Ürümqi Time or Xinjiang Time. In 1912, the Republic of China established five standard time zones, namely Kunlun, Sinkiang-Tibet, Kansu-Szechwan, Chungyuan, and Changpai. The unified time zone policy was adopted by the Communist Party of China or the Central People’s Government some time between 27 September 1949 and 6 October 1949, the date is unknown. However, recent research suggests that the policy was most likely adopted on 27 September 1949, daylight saving time was observed from 1986 to 1991. In 1997 and 1999, Hong Kong and Macau were transferred to China from the United Kingdom and Portugal, although the sovereignty of the SARs belongs to China, they retain their own policies regarding time zones for historical reasons. Due to their locations, both are within the UTC+08,00 time zone, which is the same as the national standard — Beijing time. Xinjiang Time, also known as Ürümqi Time, is set due to its location in the westernmost part of the country. The time offset is UTC+06,00, which is two hours behind Beijing, and is shared with neighbouring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Currently, timezone usage within Xinjiang is roughly split along the divide, with most ethnic Han following Beijing time. Some local authorities are now using both time standard side by side, the coexistence of two timezones within the same region causes some confusion among the local population, especially when inter-racial communication occur. Some ethnic Han in Xinjiang might not be aware of the existence of the UTC+6 Xinjiang Time because of language barrier, regardless, Beijing Time users in Xinjiang usually schedule their daily activities two hours later than those who live in eastern China. As such, stores and offices in Xinjiang are commonly opening from 10am to 7pm Beijing Time and this is known as the work/rest time in Xinjiang. Hong Kong maintains its own time authority after transfer of sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong Time is UTC+08,00 all year round, and daylight saving time has not been used since 1979. Greenwich Mean Time was adopted as the basis in 1904, before that, local time was determined by astronomical observations at Hong Kong Observatory using a 6-inch Lee Equatorial and a 3-inch Transit Circle. Macau maintains its own time authority after transfer of sovereignty in 1999, the Macau Standard Time is the time in Macau
China Standard Time
–
Obsoleted time zones used from 1918 to 1949
6.
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.
7.
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.
8.
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
9.
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
10.
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
11.
Uyghur alphabets
–
Uyghur is a Turkic language with a long literary tradition spoken in Xinjiang, China by the Uyghurs. The Old Uyghur language and Modern Uyghur are distinct Turkic languages and are not different stages of the same language, the Old Uyghur language is ancestral to Western Yugur, while modern Uyghur is descended from one of the Karluk languages. In the 5th century Old Uyghur was written for the first time using the Sogdian alphabet and this fell out of use during the 10th century, when it evolved into the Old Uyghur alphabet, although it was taken into use again between the 15th and 16th century. While the Sogdian alphabet was still in use, it was written with the Old Turkic alphabet from the 6th-9th centuries, the Old Uyghur language evolved into the modern Western Yugur, and remained in use until the 18th century among the Yugur. An Arabic alphabet introduced along with Islam in the 10th century to the Karluk Kara Khanids, the Chagatai alphabet was known as Ⱪona Yeziⱪ. The Syriac alphabet has also used for writing Old Uyghur at some time between the 5th century and 19th century. The writing of Uyghur saw many changes during the 20th century mostly to do political decisions, in 1982 Uyghur new script was abolished, the Arabic alphabet was reinstated in a modified form as the Uyghur Arabic alphabet. However, due to the importance of information technology, there have been requests for a Latin alphabet. This resulted in five conferences between 2000 and 2001, where a Latin-derived auxiliary alphabet was devised known as the Uyghur Latin alphabet, today the Uyghur language is being written using four different alphabets. It is only grouped by phonemic proximity, each alphabet has its own sort order, some letter forms used for words borrowed from other languages, or kept occasionally from older orthographic conventions, are shown between parentheses. As it can be seen, the Uyghur Arabic alphabet, Uyghur New Script, some words may still use the Cyrillic soft sign. Also, loanwords of Russian origin are spelled as they are in Russian. Another notable feature of the Uyghur New Script was the use of the letter ⟨ƣ⟩ to represent /ʁ/ and this letter has erroneously been named LATIN LETTER OI in Unicode, although it is correctly referred to as gha and replaced by the digraph ⟨gh⟩ in the newer Uyghur Latin alphabet. In the Uyghur Latin alphabet, only the Basic Latin base alphabet is needed, with the common diaeresis being the only diacritic added above vowels, and supported in many fonts and encoding standards. The /ʒ/ may be represented in two ways, either as ⟨zh⟩ or as ⟨j⟩, although the latter is also used for /dʒ/. In the Arabic and Cyrillic orthographies, the distinction of /dʒ/ is only seen as a variant of /ʒ/. This variation is due to several opposing arguments, and therefore it was accepted that both are acceptable, as long as no semantic distinction is necessary, one of the major differences among the four alphabets is the rules of when the glottal stop /ʔ/ is written. In Uyghur Arabic alphabet it is written, using the hamza on a tooth ⟨ﺋ⟩
Uyghur alphabets
–
Comparative current alphabets: Arabic-Script Uyghur, Latin-Script Uyghur; Uyghur Ereb Yëziqi, Uyghur Latin alphabet sëlishturma ëlipbesi.
Uyghur alphabets
–
A monument in
Niya (Minfeng) with inscriptions in Chinese and Romanized Uyghur
12.
Prefecture-level city
–
Prefectural level cities form the second level of the administrative structure. Administrative chiefs of prefectural level cities generally have the rank as a division chief of a national ministry. Since the 1980s, most former prefectures have been renamed into prefectural level cities, a prefectural level city is a city and prefecture that have been merged into one unified jurisdiction. The larger prefectural level cities span over 100 kilometres, prefectural level cities nearly always contain multiple counties, county level cities, and other such sub-divisions. To distinguish a prefectural level city from its urban area. The first prefectural level cities were created on 5 November 1983, over the following two decades, prefectural level cities have come to replace the vast majority of Chinese prefectures, the process is still ongoing. Most provinces are composed entirely or nearly entirely of prefectural level cities, shijiazhuang and Zhengzhou are the largest prefectural level cities with populations approaching or exceeding some sub-provincial cities. A sub-prefecture-level city is a city with powers approaching those of prefectural level cities. There are total of three classification of prefecture-level city, Regular prefectural level city which consist of counties, county level cities, consolidated district-governed prefectural level city which only consist of districts as it subdivisions. Thus, Bloomington, Indiana is indicated on the map by a point, which is distinct from, and enclosed by, in China, however, large cities such as City of Xianning may, in reality, contain both urban and rural elements. Moreover, they may enclose counties or other cities, on a less detailed map, City of Xianning would be indicated by a point, more or less corresponding to the coordinates of its city government. Other populous areas may also be exhibited as points, such as County of Tongshan, with no indication that County of Tongshan is, in fact, enclosed by City of Xianning. On a more detailed map, City of Xianning would be drawn as an area, similar to a county of the United States and this convention may lead to difficulty in the identification of places mentioned in older sources. For example, Guo Moruo writes that he was born in Town of Shawan, within Prefecture of Leshan, and attended primary school in Town of Jiading. A modern map is unlikely to show either town, Shawan, because it is too small, and Jiading, because it is the seat of City of Leshan, and is therefore indicated on the map by a point labelled Leshan. A more detailed map would show Shawan as a district within City of Leshan, statistics of China such as population and industrial activity are generally reported along prefectural city lines. Thus, the relatively unknown City of Huangshi has 2.5 million residents, more than most European capitals, but upon closer inspection, furthermore, Huangshi contains several other cities, such as City of Daye. If a person wished to calculate the population of the area of Huangshi, and had a map of Huangshi, and a table of its population by district
Prefecture-level city
–
A road sign shows distance to the "Huangshi urban area" (黄石市区) rather than simply "
Huangshi " (黄石). This is a useful distinction, because the sign is located already within Huangshi prefectural level city (immediately upon entering its
Yangxin County from the neighboring
Xianning), but still 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the Huangshi main urban area.
Prefecture-level city
–
Prefecture-level city Prefectural-level city
13.
Area
–
Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional figure or shape, or planar lamina, in the plane. Surface area is its analog on the surface of a three-dimensional object. It is the analog of the length of a curve or the volume of a solid. The area of a shape can be measured by comparing the shape to squares of a fixed size, in the International System of Units, the standard unit of area is the square metre, which is the area of a square whose sides are one metre long. A shape with an area of three square metres would have the area as three such squares. In mathematics, the square is defined to have area one. There are several formulas for the areas of simple shapes such as triangles, rectangles. Using these formulas, the area of any polygon can be found by dividing the polygon into triangles, for shapes with curved boundary, calculus is usually required to compute the area. Indeed, the problem of determining the area of plane figures was a motivation for the historical development of calculus. For a solid such as a sphere, cone, or cylinder. Formulas for the areas of simple shapes were computed by the ancient Greeks. Area plays an important role in modern mathematics, in addition to its obvious importance in geometry and calculus, area is related to the definition of determinants in linear algebra, and is a basic property of surfaces in differential geometry. In analysis, the area of a subset of the plane is defined using Lebesgue measure, in general, area in higher mathematics is seen as a special case of volume for two-dimensional regions. Area can be defined through the use of axioms, defining it as a function of a collection of certain plane figures to the set of real numbers and it can be proved that such a function exists. An approach to defining what is meant by area is through axioms, area can be defined as a function from a collection M of special kind of plane figures to the set of real numbers which satisfies the following properties, For all S in M, a ≥0. If S and T are in M then so are S ∪ T and S ∩ T, if S and T are in M with S ⊆ T then T − S is in M and a = a − a. If a set S is in M and S is congruent to T then T is also in M, every rectangle R is in M. If the rectangle has length h and breadth k then a = hk, let Q be a set enclosed between two step regions S and T
Area
–
A square metre
quadrat made of PVC pipe.
Area
–
The combined area of these three
shapes is
approximately 15.57
squares.
14.
Gaochang
–
The site is also known in published reports as Chotscho, Khocho, Qocho, or Qočo. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Gaochang was referred to as Halahezhuo, the ruins are located 30 km southeast of modern Turpan. The archaeological remains are just outside the town of Gaochang. Artistic depictions of the city have been published by Albert von Le Coq, Gaochang is considered in some sources to have been a Chinese colony, that is, it was located in a region otherwise occupied at the time by West Eurasian peoples. A busy trading center, it was a point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road. It was destroyed in wars during the 14th century, and old palace ruins, near Gaochang is another major archeological site, the Astana tombs. The earliest people known to have lived in the area were the Gushi, the region around Turfan was described during the Han dynasty as being occupied by the Jūshī, while control over the region swayed between the Han-Chinese and the Xiongnu. Gaochang was built in the 1st century BC, it was an important site along the Silk Road and it played a key role as a transportation hub in western China. The Jushi leaders invited the Chinese Han dynasty to take over, in 327, the Gaochang Commandery was created by the Former Liang under the Han Chinese ruler Zhang Gui. The Chinese set up a military colony/garrison, organized the land into multiple divisions and Han Chinese colonists from the Hexi region, after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, northern China split into multiple states, including the Central Asian oases. Gaochang was ruled by the Former Liang, Former Qin, in 383 The General Lu Guang of the Former Qin seized control of the region. In 439, remnants of the Northern Liang, led by Juqu Wuhui and Juqu Anzhou, six Dynasties Turfan tombs contained dumplings. From the mid-5th century until the mid-7th century, there existed four independent statelets in the narrow Turpan basin and these were controlled by the Kan clan, Zhang clan, Ma clan, and Qu clan. A the time of its conquest by the Rouran Khaganate, there were more than ten thousand Han Chinese households in Gaochang. The Rouran Khaganate, which was based in Mongolia, appointed a Han Chinese named Kan Bozhou to rule as King of Gaochang in 460, Kan was dependent on Rouran backing. Yicheng and Shougui were the last two kings of the Chinese Kan family to rule Gaochang, at this time the Gaoche was rising to challenge power of the Rouran in the Tarim Basin. The Gaoche king Afuzhiluo killed King Kan Shougui, who was the nephew of Kan Bozhou. and appointed a Han from Dunhuang, named Zhang Mengming, Gaochang thus passed under Gaoche rule. Later, Zhang Mengming was killed in an uprising by the people of Gaochang, in 501, Ma Ru himself was overthrown and killed, and the people of Gaochang appointed Qu Jia of Jincheng as their king
Gaochang
–
The
Buddhist stupa of Gaochang ruins.
Gaochang
–
Gaochang's location (close to
Turpan) on the
Silk Road.
Gaochang
–
Manichaean priests, writing at their desks. Manuscript from Qocho. 8th/9th century
Gaochang
–
Wall painting from a Nestorian Christian church, Qocho 683–770 CE
15.
Qocho
–
The Kingdom of Qocho, also called the Idiqut state, was a Uyghur state created during 856–866 and centered in Qocho, Jimsar County, Hami City, and Kucha. Qocho served as its winter capital with Beshbaliq its summer capital and this Uyghur Kingdom played a vital role in the Turkification of Xinjiang. The Yenisei Kirghiz had driven the people of the Uyghur Khaganate into Turfan, mainly Turkic and Tocharian, but also Chinese and Iranian peoples such as the Sogdians were assimilated into the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho. Chinese were among the population of Qocho, the Uyghurs of Qocho continued to produce the Chinese Qieyun rime dictionary and developed their own pronunciations of Chinese characters, left over from the Tang influence over the area. Professor James A. Buddhist Uyghurs created the Bezeklik murals, besides the jihad against Yutian, the Uygur Karakhoja Kingdom was also subjected to Jihad in which Buddhist temples were razed and Islam spread by the Karakhanid ruler Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan. The Compendium of the Turkic Dialects by Kashgari, included among the infidels, the identities of Buddhist and Uyghur were intertwined with each other. The Buddhist Uighurs were subjected to an attack by the Muslim Turks, Mahmud Kaşgaris works contained poetry stanzas and verses which described fighting between Buddhist Uighurs and Muslim Karakahnids. Qatun Sini, at the hands of the Tangut Khan, Mahmud Kashgari insulted the Uyghur Buddhists as Uighur dogs and called them Tats, which referred to the Uighur infidels according to the Tuxsi and Taghma, while other Turks called Persians tat. Buddhist origin words like toyin and Burxān or Furxan had negative connotations to Muslim Turks, the wars against the Buddhist, Shamanist, and Manichean Uighurs were considered a Jihad by the Kara-Khanids. Islam was the enemy of the Christian and Buddhist Turfan Uyghur Kingdom, the Imams and soldiers who died in the battles against the Uyghur Buddhists and Khotan Buddhist Kingdom during the Tarim Basins Islamification at the hands of the Karakhanids are revered as saints. It was possible the Muslims drove some Uighur Buddhist monks towards taking asylum in the Western Xia dynasty, the kingdom was a Buddhist state, with both state-sponsored Mahayana Buddhism and Manichaeism, and was a center of Uyghur culture. The Uyghurs sponsored the construction of many of the temple-caves in what is now Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves and they abandoned the Old Turkic alphabet and adopted and modified the Sogdian alphabet, which later came to be known as the Old Uyghur alphabet. The Idiquts ruled independently until they become a state of the Qara Khitai. In 1209, the Kara-Khoja ruler Baurchuk Art Tekin declared his allegiance to the Mongols under Genghis Khan, after submitting to the Mongols, the Uyghurs went into the service of the Mongol rulers as bureaucrats, providing the expertise that the initially illiterate nomads lacked. Qocho continued exist as a vassal to the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty, a hybrid court was used when Han Chinese and Uighurs were in involved in legal issues. The Buddhist Uyghurs of the Kingdom of Qocho and Turfan were converted to Islam by conquest during a ghazat at the hands of the Muslim Chagatai Khanate ruler Khizr Khoja, Qocho and Turfan were viewed as part of Khitay, which was a name for China. The 1390s war by Kizir Khojas against the Uigurs of Qoco is also considered a Jihad, as a consequence of the Jihad, the religion of Islam was forced on Qocho and this resulted in the city of Jiaohe being abandoned. The mujahideen of the Islamic Chagatai Khanate conquered the Uyghur and Hami was purged of the Buddhist religion which was replaced with Islam, the Islamic conversion forced on the Buddhist Hami state was the final event in the Islamization
Qocho
Qocho
–
History of the Turkic peoples Pre-14th century
Qocho
–
Uygur Khan Successor (8th and 9th century wall painting)
Qocho
16.
Karakhoja
–
The site is also known in published reports as Chotscho, Khocho, Qocho, or Qočo. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Gaochang was referred to as Halahezhuo, the ruins are located 30 km southeast of modern Turpan. The archaeological remains are just outside the town of Gaochang. Artistic depictions of the city have been published by Albert von Le Coq, Gaochang is considered in some sources to have been a Chinese colony, that is, it was located in a region otherwise occupied at the time by West Eurasian peoples. A busy trading center, it was a point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road. It was destroyed in wars during the 14th century, and old palace ruins, near Gaochang is another major archeological site, the Astana tombs. The earliest people known to have lived in the area were the Gushi, the region around Turfan was described during the Han dynasty as being occupied by the Jūshī, while control over the region swayed between the Han-Chinese and the Xiongnu. Gaochang was built in the 1st century BC, it was an important site along the Silk Road and it played a key role as a transportation hub in western China. The Jushi leaders invited the Chinese Han dynasty to take over, in 327, the Gaochang Commandery was created by the Former Liang under the Han Chinese ruler Zhang Gui. The Chinese set up a military colony/garrison, organized the land into multiple divisions and Han Chinese colonists from the Hexi region, after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, northern China split into multiple states, including the Central Asian oases. Gaochang was ruled by the Former Liang, Former Qin, in 383 The General Lu Guang of the Former Qin seized control of the region. In 439, remnants of the Northern Liang, led by Juqu Wuhui and Juqu Anzhou, six Dynasties Turfan tombs contained dumplings. From the mid-5th century until the mid-7th century, there existed four independent statelets in the narrow Turpan basin and these were controlled by the Kan clan, Zhang clan, Ma clan, and Qu clan. A the time of its conquest by the Rouran Khaganate, there were more than ten thousand Han Chinese households in Gaochang. The Rouran Khaganate, which was based in Mongolia, appointed a Han Chinese named Kan Bozhou to rule as King of Gaochang in 460, Kan was dependent on Rouran backing. Yicheng and Shougui were the last two kings of the Chinese Kan family to rule Gaochang, at this time the Gaoche was rising to challenge power of the Rouran in the Tarim Basin. The Gaoche king Afuzhiluo killed King Kan Shougui, who was the nephew of Kan Bozhou. and appointed a Han from Dunhuang, named Zhang Mengming, Gaochang thus passed under Gaoche rule. Later, Zhang Mengming was killed in an uprising by the people of Gaochang, in 501, Ma Ru himself was overthrown and killed, and the people of Gaochang appointed Qu Jia of Jincheng as their king
Karakhoja
–
The
Buddhist stupa of Gaochang ruins.
Karakhoja
–
Gaochang's location (close to
Turpan) on the
Silk Road.
Karakhoja
–
Manichaean priests, writing at their desks. Manuscript from Qocho. 8th/9th century
Karakhoja
–
Wall painting from a Nestorian Christian church, Qocho 683–770 CE
17.
Jiaohe Ruins
–
The Jiaohe Ruins is a Chinese archaeological site found in the Yarnaz Valley,10 km west of the city of Turpan in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is a fortress located atop a steep cliff on a leaf-shaped plateau between two deep river valleys. The Hou Hanshu says, The king of Nearer Jushi 1 lives in the town of Jiaohe, a river divides into two and surrounds the town, which is why it is called Jiaohe. Lionel Giles recorded the names for Ruoqiang Town, Jiaohe. Jushi Qianwangting Gaochang Jun Xi Zhou Yarkhoto, Aurel Stein has suggested that the name Yarkhoto is a combination of Turkic and Mongolian words, being derived from yar and khoto. Among the earliest settlers of this area are the Indo-European speaking Tocharians, from the years 108 BC to 450 AD the city of Jiaohe was the capital of the Anterior Jushi kingdom, concurrent with the Han Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, and Southern and Northern Dynasties in China. Jiaohe is a bit less than 2000 years old It was an important site along the Silk Road trade route leading west, and was adjacent to the Korla and Karasahr kingdoms to the west. From 450 AD until 640 AD it became Jiao prefecture in the Tang Dynasty, from 640 AD until 658 AD it was also the seat of the Protector General of the Western Regions, the highest level military post of a Chinese military commander posted in the west. Since the beginning of the 9th century it had become Jiaohe prefecture of the Uyghur Khaganate, Jiaohe was also built on a plateau and this plateau is 30m high. The city was built on an islet in the middle of a river which formed natural defenses. Instead, steep cliffs more than 30 metres high on all sides of the acted as natural walls. The layout of the city had eastern and western districts, while the northern district was reserved for Buddhist sites of temples. Along with this there are notable graveyards and the ruins of a government office in the southern part of the eastern district. It had a population of 7,000 according to Tang dynasty records and it was finally abandoned after its destruction during an invasion by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. The site was excavated in the 1950s and has been protected by the PRC government since 1961. There are now attempts to protect this site and other Silk Road city ruins, both the Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute and the Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau have been cooperating in a joint venture to preserve the ruins of the site since 1992. In 2014, the Jiaohe Ruins became part of the Silk Road UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the ruins of Jiaohe are mentioned in the mystery novel Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station, by Dorothy Gilman. Gaochang Ruins Tocharian languages Silk Road transmission of Buddhism Gushi culture Major national historical and cultural sites Bonavia, the Silk Road, Xian to Kashgar
Jiaohe Ruins
–
Buddhist stupa at Jiaohe Ruins.
Jiaohe Ruins
–
Model of the plateau on which Jiaohe is located
18.
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.
19.
Turpan water system
–
The Turpan water system or Turfan water system in Turpan, located in the Turpan Hollow, Xinjiang, China, is a vertical tunnel system adapted by the Turpan people. The word karez means well in the local Uyghur language, Turpan has the Turpan Water Museum dedicated to demonstrating its karez water system, as well as exhibiting other historical artifacts. Turpans well system was crucial in Turpans development as an important oasis stopover on the ancient Silk Road skirting the barren, Turpan owes its prosperity to the water provided by its karez well system. The canals channel the water to the surface, taking advantage of the current provided by the gravity of the slope of the Turpan Depression. The canals are mostly underground to reduce water evaporation, the system has wells, dams and underground canals built to store the water and control the amount of water flow. Vertical wells are dug at various points to tap into the groundwater flowing down sloping land from the source, the water is then channeled through underground canals dug from the bottom of one well to the next well and then to the desired destination, Turpans irrigation system. This irrigation system of connected wells has been claimed to originate in Iran, to have originated indigenously. Both historical and archaeological research convincingly point to the origins of this technology as arriving from more western regions along with indigenous innovations. In Xinjiang, the greatest number of wells are in the Turpan Depression. The local geography makes karez wells practical for agricultural irrigation and other uses, Turpan is located in the second deepest geographical depression in the world, with over 4,000 km2 of land below sea level and with soil that forms a sturdy basin. Water naturally flows down from the mountains during the rainy season in an underground current to the low depression basin under the desert. The Turpan summer is hot and dry with periods of wind. The water from the channels provides a stable water source year round. Ample water was crucial to Turpan, so that the city could service the many caravans on the Silk Route resting there near a route skirting the Taklamakan Desert. The caravans needed pastures for their animals, resting facilities, trading bazaars for conducting business, qanat Taklamakan Desert Tarim Basin Cities along the Silk Road Satellite map showing deep basin from Google Link to Silk Road map Turpan – Ancient Stop on the Silk Road Karez close to Turfan
Turpan water system
–
A model of the Turpan water system in Turpan Water Museum: Water is collected from mountains and channeled underground to agriculture fields
Turpan water system
–
Karez gallery near
Turpan,
Xinjiang,
China
20.
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.
21.
Korla
–
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
22.
Karashahr
–
The town is well connected, being located on the Kaidu River, China National Highway 314 and the Southern Xinjiang Railway, and is an important material distribution center and regional business hub. The town has a notable Muslim population and contains many mosques, the modern town of Yanqi is situated about 24 kilometres west of the shallow Lake Bosten. The lake is about 81 kilometres east to west and 48 kilometres north to south with an area of about 1,000 square kilometres. It has been noted since Han times for its abundance of fish, the lake is fed by the Kaidu River and the Konqi River flows out of it past Korla and across the Taklamakan Desert to Lop Nur. There are numerous small lakes in the region. The city, referred to in classical Chinese sources as Yanqi, was located on the branch of the Silk Route that ran along the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin. The earliest known inhabitants of the area were an Indo-European people who referred to themselves. Their language, since it was rediscovered in the early 20th century, has known as Tocharian A. The people and city were also known as Agni, although this may have been an exonym, the Buddhistmonk Xuanzang transliterated Agni into Chinese as O-ki-ni. Ārśi was bordered by related Tocharian cultures, many of which also spoke related languages, Kuča, Gumo to the west, Turfan to the east and to the south, in China, Han dynasty sources describe Yanqi as a relatively large and important neighboring kingdom. From the 1st Century BCE onwards, many populations in the Tarim Basin, including the Ārśi underwent conversion to Buddhism and, consequently, the city of Ārśi became commonly known by the name Agnideśa. The king of Yanqi was decapitated and his head displayed in the capital, Later rebellions were subdued by Ban Chaos son Ban Yong in 127. It has 15,000 households,52,000 individuals and it has high mountains on all four sides. There are hazardous passes on the route to Qiuci that are easy to defend, the water of a lake winds between the four mountains, and surrounds the town for more than 30 li. Agnideśa became a state of Tang China in 632. In 644, during the Tang expansion into the Tarim Basin, the Four Garrisons of Anxi was established with one based at Yanqi. All the deceased are cremated and then buried and they wear mourning for seven full days, after which they put it off. The adult men all trim their hair to make a head decoration and their written characters are the same as those of India
Karashahr
–
Yanqi Downtown Mosque
Karashahr
–
This 17th-century map shows Cialis (Karashar) as of one the cities in the chain stretching from
Hiarcan to
Sucieu
Karashahr
–
Kaidu River in Yanqi
23.
Loulan Kingdom
–
The term Loulan is the Chinese transcription of the native name Krorän and is used to refer to the city near Lop Nur as well as the kingdom. The kingdom included at various times such as Niya, Charklik, Miran. It was intermittently under Chinese control from the early Han dynasty onward until its abandonment centuries later, the ruins of Loulan are near the now-desiccated Lop Nur in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, and they are now completely surrounded by desert. A number of mummies, now known as the Tarim mummies, have found in Loulan. One female mummy has been dated to c.1800 BCE, in 126 BCE, the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian described Loulan as a fortified city near Lop Nur. In the Book of Han, the interactions of Loulan with the Han court were described in some detail. In the 2nd century BCE, Emperor Wu of Han was interested in extending contact with Dayuan after receiving reports of the country from Zhang Qian, however, according to Chinese sources, Han envoys to Fergana were harassed by Loulan and Gushi. In 108 BCE, Loulan was attacked by a Han force led by Zhao Ponu and its king captured, the Xiongnu, on hearing of these events, also attacked Loulan. The king of Loulan therefore elected to one of his sons as a hostage to the Xiongnu. The king of Loulan was then taken to the Han court, the Book of Han records, The Emperor commanded Wen to lead the troops by a suitable route, to arrest the king of Lou-lan and to bring him to the palace at the capital city. The Han emperor was satisfied with the statement and released the king, in 92 BCE, the king of Loulan died, and his countrymen requested that the kings son be returned to Loulan. However, the Han court had castrated his son for infringement of Han laws and so it refused the request, another king was installed in Loulan, and again a son was sent as hostage when demanded by the Han court. After the death of king, the Xiongnu returned the hostage son sent to them, named Chang Gui or An Gui. The Han, on hearing this, demanded that the new king present himself to the Han court and this, on his wifes advice, the king refused, on account of the fact that neither of the hostage sons sent to the Han court had been returned. In 77 BCE, the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi was sent to kill the Loulan king after several Han envoys were intercepted and killed, the kings younger brother Weituqi was then installed as the king of Loulan by the Han court, and the kingdom was renamed Shanshan. After the Han dynasty had gained control of Loulan, the kingdom of Shanshan became a Chinese puppet state. The newly installed king, fearing retribution from the sons of the assassinated king, Chinese army officers were sent to colonise the area and an office of commandant was established at Yixun. A number of settlements in the Tarim Basin such as Qiemo and Niya were described in the Book of Han as independent states, while the name of the kingdom was changed to Shanshan by the Chinese, the Loulan region continued to be known as Kroran by the locals
Loulan Kingdom
–
A carved wooden beam from Loulan, 3rd-4th century. The patterns show influences from ancient western civilizations.
Loulan Kingdom
–
Loulan silk fragment
Loulan Kingdom
–
Oxhide boots from Loulan.
Former Han dynasty 220 BCE-8 CE.
Loulan Kingdom
–
Fragment of carpet discovered by Aurel Stein in a refuse pit at Loulan. 3rd–4th century.
24.
Tocharian language
–
Tocharian, also spelled Tokharian, is an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family. It is known from manuscripts dating from the 6th to the 8th century AD, identifying the authors with the Tokharoi people of ancient Bactria, early authors called these languages Tocharian. Although this identification is now considered mistaken, the name has stuck. The documents record two closely related languages, called Tocharian A and Tocharian B, a body of loanwords and names found in Prakrit documents have been dubbed Tocharian C. These languages became extinct after Turkic Uyghur tribes expanded into the Tarim Basin, Prakrit documents from 3rd-century Krorän on the southeast edge of the Tarim Basin contain loanwords and names that appear to come from another variety of Tocharian, dubbed Tocharian C. The discovery of Tocharian upset some theories about the relations of Indo-European languages, in the 19th century, it was thought that the division between Centum and Satem languages was a simple west–east division, with centum languages in the west. The theory was undermined in the early 20th century by the discovery of Hittite, a language in a relatively eastern location. Most scholars reject Walter Bruno Hennings proposed link to Gutian, a language spoken on the Iranian plateau in the 22nd century BC, Tocharian probably died out after 840 when the Uyghurs, expelled from Mongolia by the Kyrgyz, moved into the Tarim Basin. The theory is supported by the discovery of translations of Tocharian texts into Uyghur, during Uyghur rule, the peoples mixed with the Uyghurs, to produce much of the modern population of what is now Xinjiang. A colophon to a Buddhist manuscript in Old Turkish from 800 AD states that it was translated from Sanskrit via a twγry language, in 1907, Emil Sieg and Friedrich W. K. Müller guessed that this referred to the newly discovered language of the Turpan area. Sieg and Müller, reading this name as toxrï, connected it with the ethnonym Tócharoi, itself taken from Indo-Iranian, ptolemys Tócharoi are often associated by modern scholars with the Yuezhi of Chinese historical accounts, who founded the Kushan empire. It is now clear that people actually spoke Bactrian, an Eastern Iranian language, rather than the language of the Tarim manuscripts. Nevertheless, it remains the term for the language of the Tarim Basin manuscripts. In 1938, Walter Henning found the term four twγry used in early 9th-century manuscripts in Sogdian, Middle Iranian and he argued that it referred to the region on the northeast edge of the Tarim, including Agni and Karakhoja but not Kucha. He thus inferred that the referred to the Agnean language. Although the term twγry or toxrï appears to be the Old Turkic name for the Tocharians, the apparent self-designation ārśi appears in Tocharian A texts. Tocharian B texts use the adjective kuśiññe, derived from kuśi or kuči, the historian Bernard Sergent compounded these names to coin an alternative term Arśi-Kuči for the family, recently revised to Agni-Kuči, but this name has not achieved widespread usage. Samples of the language have been discovered at sites in Kucha and Karasahr, most of the script in Tocharian was a derivative of the Brahmi alphabetic syllabary and is referred to as slanting Brahmi
Tocharian language
–
Tocharian B manuscript, c. 7th century AD
Tocharian language
–
"
Tocharian donors", 6th-century AD fresco,
Qizil,
Tarim Basin. These frescoes are associated with annotations in Tocharian and
Sanskrit made by their painters.
Tocharian language
–
Wooden tablet with an inscription showing Tocharian B in its Brahmic form.
Kucha,
China, 5th–8th century (
Tokyo National Museum)
25.
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
–
History of China
Han dynasty
–
Han dynasty in 1 AD.
Han dynasty
–
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
–
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.
26.
Xiongnu Empire
–
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 Empire
–
Xiongnu
Xiongnu Empire
–
Asia in 200 BCE, showing the early Xiongnu state and its neighbors.
Xiongnu Empire
–
Xiongnu among other people in Asia around 1 AD.
Xiongnu Empire
–
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.
27.
Jimsar
–
Jimsar County is a county in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. It contains an area of 8,149 km2, according to the 2002 census, it has a population of 130,000. Near the town of Jimsar are the ruins of the ancient city of Beiting or Tingzhou, later, as Beshbalik, it was one of the capitals of the Uyghur Khaganate and then the Kingdom of Qocho. The name Beshbalik first appears in history in the description of the events of 713 in the Turkic Kul Tegin inscription and it was one of the largest of 5 towns in the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia. The Tibetans briefly held the city in 790, established in 1902 as a county, it was known as Fuyuan until 1952, when its name was changed to Jimsar. The modern city Jimsar is located at 43°59N, 89°4East, it is a location of the Uyghur ancient southern capital Beshbalik or Beshbalyk and it became the Uyghur main capital after a disastrous results of the Yenisei Kirghiz attack on the Uyghur northern capital Karabalgasun. After the attack, a significant part of the Uyghur Khaganate population fled to the area of the present Jimsar County and Tarim Basin in general in 840, the Uyghurs submitted to Genghis Khan in 1207. Beshbalik consisted of five parts, a town, the northern gate of the outer town, the extended town of the west, the inner town. At first, the city was the center of the Uyghur Idiquit and his Mongol queen, Altalun. Due to military struggles between the Chagatai Khanate and the Yuan Dynasty during the reign of Kublai Khan, the city was abandoned, the History of Yuan records the name as both Wu-cheng 五城 and Bie-shi-ba-li 别失八里. Jimsar city was established in the south of the ruins of Beshbalik, empires of the Silk Road, A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present
Jimsar
–
Location of Jimsar County (pink) in Changji Prefecture (yellow) and Xinjiang (grey)
28.
Jiaohe ruins
–
The Jiaohe Ruins is a Chinese archaeological site found in the Yarnaz Valley,10 km west of the city of Turpan in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is a fortress located atop a steep cliff on a leaf-shaped plateau between two deep river valleys. The Hou Hanshu says, The king of Nearer Jushi 1 lives in the town of Jiaohe, a river divides into two and surrounds the town, which is why it is called Jiaohe. Lionel Giles recorded the names for Ruoqiang Town, Jiaohe. Jushi Qianwangting Gaochang Jun Xi Zhou Yarkhoto, Aurel Stein has suggested that the name Yarkhoto is a combination of Turkic and Mongolian words, being derived from yar and khoto. Among the earliest settlers of this area are the Indo-European speaking Tocharians, from the years 108 BC to 450 AD the city of Jiaohe was the capital of the Anterior Jushi kingdom, concurrent with the Han Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, and Southern and Northern Dynasties in China. Jiaohe is a bit less than 2000 years old It was an important site along the Silk Road trade route leading west, and was adjacent to the Korla and Karasahr kingdoms to the west. From 450 AD until 640 AD it became Jiao prefecture in the Tang Dynasty, from 640 AD until 658 AD it was also the seat of the Protector General of the Western Regions, the highest level military post of a Chinese military commander posted in the west. Since the beginning of the 9th century it had become Jiaohe prefecture of the Uyghur Khaganate, Jiaohe was also built on a plateau and this plateau is 30m high. The city was built on an islet in the middle of a river which formed natural defenses. Instead, steep cliffs more than 30 metres high on all sides of the acted as natural walls. The layout of the city had eastern and western districts, while the northern district was reserved for Buddhist sites of temples. Along with this there are notable graveyards and the ruins of a government office in the southern part of the eastern district. It had a population of 7,000 according to Tang dynasty records and it was finally abandoned after its destruction during an invasion by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan in the 13th century. The site was excavated in the 1950s and has been protected by the PRC government since 1961. There are now attempts to protect this site and other Silk Road city ruins, both the Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute and the Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau have been cooperating in a joint venture to preserve the ruins of the site since 1992. In 2014, the Jiaohe Ruins became part of the Silk Road UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the ruins of Jiaohe are mentioned in the mystery novel Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station, by Dorothy Gilman. Gaochang Ruins Tocharian languages Silk Road transmission of Buddhism Gushi culture Major national historical and cultural sites Bonavia, the Silk Road, Xian to Kashgar
Jiaohe ruins
–
Buddhist stupa at Jiaohe Ruins.
Jiaohe ruins
–
Model of the plateau on which Jiaohe is located
29.
Han Chinese
–
The Han Chinese, Han people or simply Han are an ethnic group native to East Asia. They constitute approximately 92% of the population of China, 95% of Taiwan, 76% of Singapore, 23% of Malaysia, Han Chinese are the worlds largest ethnic group with over 1.3 billion people. Similarly, the Chinese language also came to be named the Han language ever since, in the Oxford Dictionary, the Han are defined as The dominant ethnic group in China. In the Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, the Han are called the dominant population in China, as well as in Taiwan, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the Han are the Chinese peoples especially as distinguished from non-Chinese elements in the population. The name Hanzhong, in turn, was derived from the Han River, which flows through the regions plains. The river, in turn, derives its name from such as Tianhan, Yinhan, Xinghan or Yunhan, all ancient Chinese poetic nicknames for the Milky Way. This gave rise to a commonly used nowadays by overseas Chinese for ethnic identity – Huaren. The term is used in conversation and is also an element in the Cantonese word for Chinatown. The vast majority of Han Chinese – over 1.2 billion of them – live in areas under the jurisdiction of the Peoples Republic of China, where they constitute about 92% of its population. Han Chinese also constitute the majority in both of the administrative regions of the PRC—about 95% and 96% of the population of Hong Kong and Macau. There are over 22 million Han Chinese in Taiwan, they began migrating from the coastal provinces of mainland China to Taiwan during the 13th to 17th century. At first, these migrants chose to settle in locations that bore a resemblance to the areas they had left behind in mainland China, hoklo immigrants from Quanzhou settled in coastal regions, and those from Zhangzhou tended to gather on inland plains, while the Hakka inhabited hilly areas. Clashes between these groups over land, water, and cultural differences led to the relocation of some communities, of about 40 million overseas Chinese worldwide, nearly 30 million live in Southeast Asia. They are collectively called Nanyang Chinese, according to a population genetic study, Singapore is the country with the biggest proportion of Hans in Southeast Asia. Up until the past few decades, overseas Han communities originated predominantly from areas in southern China, christmas Island has a Chinese majority at 70%, large Chinese populations also live in Malaysia and Thailand. Prior to the 1965 split, Malaysia and Singapore used to have the largest overseas Chinese population in the world and this position has since been taken by Thailand. The prehistory of the Han ethnic group is closely intertwined with both records and mythology. Han Chinese trace their ancestry from a confederation of late neolithic/early bronze-age agricultural tribes that lived along the Guanzhong, the Yellow Emperor is traditionally credited to have united with the neighbouring Shennong tribes after defeating their leader, Flame Emperor, at the Battle of Banquan
Han Chinese
–
1983 Map of ethnolinguistic groups in
mainland China and
Taiwan (Han is in olive green)
Han Chinese
–
A female servant and male advisor dressed in
silk robes, ceramic figurines from the Western Han era
Han Chinese
–
Han Chinese man wears a
queue in compliance with Manchu custom during the Qing dynasty
Han Chinese
–
Zhang Zeduan 's painting
Along the River During the Qingming Festival captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's
Kaifeng.
30.
Sogdia
–
Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. In the Avesta, Sogdiana is listed as the second best land that the supreme deity Ahura Mazda had created and it comes second, after Airyanem Vaejah, homeland of the Aryans, in the Zoroastrian book of Vendidad, indicating the importance of this region from ancient times. Sogdiana was conquered by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great in 328 BC and later formed part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Sogdian states, although never politically united, were centred on the main city of Samarkand. Sogdiana lay north of Bactria, east of Khwarezm, and southeast of Kangju between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, embracing the valley of the Zeravshan. Sogdian territory corresponds to the provinces of Samarkand and Bokhara in modern Uzbekistan as well as the Sughd province of modern Tajikistan. During the High Middle Ages, Sogdian cities included sites stretching towards Issyk Kul such as that at the site of Suyab. Sogdian, an Eastern Iranian language, is no longer a spoken language and it was widely spoken in Central Asia as a lingua franca and even served as one of the Turkic Khaganates court languages for writing documents. Sogdians also lived in Imperial China and rose to prominence in the military. Sogdian merchants and diplomats traveled as far west as the Byzantine Empire and they played an important part as middlemen in the trade route of the Silk Road. The Sogdian conversion to Islam was virtually complete by the end of the Samanid Empire in 999, coinciding with the decline of the Sogdian language, as it was largely supplanted by Persian. The restored Scythian name is *Skuda, which among the Pontic or Royal Scythians became *Skula, according to Szemerényi, Sogdiana was named from the Skuda form. This large-scale migration included Eastern Iranian speaking peoples such as the Sogdians, Achaemenid ruler Cyrus the Great conquered Sogdiana while campaigning in Central Asia in 546–539 BC, a fact mentioned by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus in his Histories. Darius I introduced the Aramaic writing system and coin currency to Central Asia, in addition to incorporating Sogdians into his army as regular soldiers. A contingent of Sogdian soldiers fought in the army of Xerxes I during his ultimately failed invasion of Greece in 480 BC. A Persian inscription from Susa claims that the palace there was adorned with lapis lazuli, given the absence of any named satraps for Sogdiana in historical records, modern scholarship has concluded that Sogdiana was governed from the satrapy of nearby Bactria. The satraps were often relatives of the ruling Persian kings, especially sons who were not designated as the heir apparent, Sogdiana likely remained under Persian control until roughly 400 BC, during the reign of Artaxerxes II. Rebellious states of the Persian Empire took advantage of the weak Artaxerxes II, persias massive loss of Central Asian territory is widely attributed to the rulers lack of control. However, unlike Egypt, which was recaptured by the Persian Empire
Sogdia
–
Sogdians, depicted on a Chinese Sogdian sarcophagus of the
Northern Qi era.
Sogdia
–
Sogdiana, c. 300 BC.
Sogdia
–
Gold coin of
Diodotus c. 250 BC.
Sogdia
–
Barbaric copy of a coin of
Euthydemus I, from the region of Sogdiana. The legend on the reverse is in
Aramaic script.
