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QIANG 羌 REFERENCES IN THE BOOK OF HAN 汉书 PART 2

(Chapter 79 to Chapter 99)

Rachel Meakin www.qianghistory.co.uk / qianghistory@gmail.com

See Qiang 羌 References in the Book of Han, Part 1, for an introduction to Part 1 and Part 2.1

Abbreviations: WQB: the Western Qiang Biography in the Book of the Later Han.2 HHS: Hou Han Shu (Book of the Later Han)3 NAHS: New Annotated Han Shu4 CICA: China in Central Asia (Hulsewé and Loewe, 1979) The Chinese text of the Book of Han can be found at: http://www.xysa.net/a200/h350/02qianhanshu/s-index.htm

Chapter 79: The Biography of Feng Fengshi (冯奉世传第四十九) In the autumn of the 2nd Yongguang year of Emperor Yuan (42 BC), the Xianjie Pang type5 of the Longxi Qiang rebelled and the prime minister, Wei Xuancheng, the Imperial Censor, Zheng Hong, the General of the Left, Xu Jia, and the General of the Right, Feng Fengshi, were summoned by imperial order to offer their view of the situation. At that time, not much of the grain had been harvested and a ‘dan’ of grain cost over 200 cash in the capital, 400 cash in the border commanderies and 500 cash to the east of the passes. There was starvation from crop failure everywhere, the court was very worried, and there were Qiang disturbances. Fengshi said: "The Qiang enemies have recently revolted within the borders and this is not because they are sometimes punished. They are fleeing because of the violent suppression of the distant Man (蛮) peoples.6 I am willing to lead a punitive attack against them.” The emperor asked how many troops he would need. He replied, “Your humble servant is good at directing military operations. It won’t be necessary to increase conscripts and we will need less than three loads of supplies…. Today’s rebellious enemies (i.e. the Qiang) number approximately 30,000 people and with the methods they use that is equal to double - the same as 60,000. However, the Qiang Rong only have soldiers armed with bows and spears and their weapons are not sharp so we can use 40,000 people and the matter will be resolved within a month.” The prime minister, the imperial censor and the two generals all thought that it would not be possible to send many

1 Available at http://www.qianghistory.co.uk/qiang-references-in-the-han-shu-part-1.php or at www.slideshare.com. 2 For an English translation of this see Qiang References in the Book of the Later Han, Chapter 117: The Biography of the Western Qiang at http://www.qianghistory.co.uk/western-qiang-biography.php or at www.slideshare.com. 3 For Qiang references in the HHS see: Qiang References in the Book of the Later Han. http://www.qianghistory.co.uk/qiang-references-in-the-hou-han-shu.php or www.slideshare.com. 4 This is an annotated version of the Han Shu in Chinese. Shi, Ding. 1994-7. 汉书新注, 1-4. (New Annotated

Han Shu, Vols 1-4) 三秦出版社 (San Qin Publishers). (See bibiography for online details.) 5彡姐旁种: To my knowledge this name only occurs in this context. The Xinhua on-line dictionary notes

the usual pronunciation of 彡 as ‘shān’ but in this context as ‘xiǎn’, describing ‘Xianjie’ as a two-character

surname used by the Western Qiang. http://xh.5156edu.com/html5/137922.html. ‘Páng (旁)’ in the Han period could mean extensive or numerous but seems to be a name here. (In Chapter 99 of the Xin Tang Shu there is a Qiang chieftain called Pang Xiandi 旁屳地.) 6 蛮: mainly used for peoples in the southwest. Presumably the Qiang had heard how the Han were treating other non-Han and were afraid they would receive the same treatment.

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because the people were harvesting and reckoned 10,000 from the garrison would be sufficient for the task. Fengshi said, “No way. Everyone is starving, the soldiers and horses are weak, we are not prepared for war, the Yi Di (夷狄)7 all disrespect the border officials and the Qiang are the first to rise in revolt.8 Today, if we use 10,000 divided among the garrisons with some outside, the enemy will see that the soldiers are few and they will be fearless, in which case the battle will humiliate the troops and be difficult and detrimental to the commanders and the garrisons won’t be able to save the common people. In this way the Qiang will see our weakness and use it to their advantage. The various types9 of Qiang will unite together, inciting each other and rising up and then I fear that China’s conscripts will not prevent this even with 40,000 and it won’t be solved with money. …” This was strongly disputed and he was only provided with an extra 2,000 men. So Fengshi was dispatched in command of 12,000 cavalry …. They reached Longxi and set up garrisons in three places. Qu Shuguo led the ‘Army of the Right’ and set up White Stone Garrison,10 Han Chang led the advance army and set up the Lintao Garrison,11 and Fengshi led the Central Army and set up a garrison in the far west of Shouyang.12 When the advance troops arrived at Jiangtong Slope (降同阪), they sent a colonel ahead to contend with the Qiang for

favourable territory13 and also sent a colonel to rescue the people in Guangyang Valley (广阳谷). The Qiang enemies were numerous and defeated them all, killing the two colonels. Fengshi calculated what troops he would need to hold the high ground and requested another 36,000 troops as sufficient to solve the situation. The emperor responded to his appeal with more than 60,000 men and appointed the Taichang official, Ren Qianqiu, as Fenwu General to assist him. Fengshi responded saying, “I would like to have his people but there is no need to trouble a senior general.” … In his response, the emperor describes the situation of the Qiang and makes it clear that news of the Qiang victories was travelling far and wide, doing great damage to China’s prestige. It had been a grave error to underestimate the number of troops needed to resist them.

“… The Qiang enemy has invaded the borders, killing the officials and people, completely going against the ‘way of heaven.’ Therefore I am dispatching senior military commanders and scholar officials to carry out the ‘punishment of heaven.’ Using the fine qualities of the generals to prepare the crack troops, the punishment will be out of the ordinary, hundred upon hundred fully-trained in every way. Today reports of the traitorous enemy have travelled far, which brings great shame on China. Can we use the excuse of former times that we are not familiar with the enemy? Using kindness and generosity doesn’t help, do they not understand trust? I (the emperor) find this very strange. In your missive you say that the Qiang enemies live deep in the mountains where there are many paths so it will be necessary to divide the troops and block strategic points, after which the battalion soldiers must be sent in and this should settle the

7 A broad term for non-Chinese. 8 A suggestion that the Qiang were the more troublesome of the non-Chinese. Fengshi’s earlier comment that 30,000 Qiang were equivalent to 60,000 on the battlefield also points to them being a formidable fighting force, despite their apparently inferior weaponry. 9 诸种: this is an expression often used of the Qiang but not of other groups like the Xiongnu or Wusun, and seems to stress the diversity of the Qiang groups. 10 白石: Possibly in the area of today’s Qingping township between Lintao and Longxi. 11 临洮: Lintao is south of Lanzhou on the Tao River. It was the southwestern end of a Qin dynasty extension of the Great Wall. See n.62 regarding ‘foreign giants’ seen at Lintao in 221 BC, the year Qin Shi Huang united China. 12 首阳: west of Longxi county. These three garrisons would have been in a NW-SE line roughly from today’s Lintao down to Longxi with the Qiang west of the line in southwestern Gansu and southeastern Qinghai. 13 Taking land for an agricultural garrison would have displaced the Qiang from valuable pasture land.

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issue…. We must prepare military generals and troops and jointly attack the Qiang enemies.” In the tenth month, all the troops had reached Longxi. In the eleventh month they joined forces and advanced. The Qiang enemy were severely defeated, with several thousand beheaded. The remainder all fled beyond the borders… The Han sent 10,000 more enlisted recruits, appointing the governor of Dingxiang,14 Han Anguo, as Jianwei General. He had not yet advanced when he heard that the Qiang had been defeated so he went back. The emperor said, “The Qiang enemy are defeated and scattered, full of fear because of the punishment they have received. They have fled far beyond the borders. The officers and men can be dismissed but we must keep many of the agricultural garrisons and defend the strategic places.”15 The following paragraph says about 8,000 Qiang were killed or captured which suggests roughly 22,000 of the original 30,000 Qiang combatants and their dependents fled west from Longxi into southeastern Qinghai with a terrible loss of people and livestock. Han-controlled Jincheng, which extended into eastern Qinghai, was to the north of Longxi, so to go beyond the borders these Qiang could only go west and southwest towards today’s Tongde–Guinan region and the Anyemachen mountains.

In the second month of the following year (41 BC), Fengshi went back to the capital … to his old post. He was given noble rank and an imperial edict was issued: “The Qiang enemies were crafty and cruel, causing harm to officials and the people, attacking official residences in Longxi, burning the horse relay stations, cutting off roads and bridges, and utterly rebelling against the ‘way of heaven.’ The meritorious Guanglu General of the Left, Fengshi, advanced with his troops to mount a punitive attack on them, beheading and capturing over 8,000 of the enemy and seizing several ten thousand horses, cattle, and sheep. Fengshi was ennobled as a ‘marquis within the passes’ with 60 jin of gold and a settlement of 500 households.” More than thirty of the subordinate generals and colonels were given honours. Further on in the chapter is a summary of Fengshi’s life which includes his victory over the Qiang: “Fengshi’s eldest son was called Tan… when Fengshi attacked the Western Qiang,16 Tan was a colonel and followed his father into successful military service but died of illness before he could be honoured…” Chapter 84: The Biography of Zhai Fangjin (翟方进传第五十四) This chapter is during the period of Wang Mang, r. 9-23 AD, known as the Xin Dynasty, at the end of the Western Han period and 40 – 50 years after the time of Fengshi in Chapter 79 above. Wang Mang was particularly hostile towards the Qiang.

The first Qiang reference in this chapter is in the title given to Dou Kuang, the Zhonglang General, who was the ‘Terrifying the Qiang’ Marquis’ (震羌侯). In the second month of the third Jushe year (8 AD) … the Man Yi (蛮夷) of Yizhou (益州)17 and the Qiang beyond the border of Jincheng had earlier rebelled and at that time the provincial commanderies (州郡) attacked and defeated them. (For a fuller account see Chapter 99 below: the

Biography of Wang Mang.) Chapter 86: The Biography of He Wu, Wang Jia and Shi Dan (何武王嘉师丹传第五十六)

14 定襄: in Shanxi province, east of Shaanxi. 15 I.e. a key defeat of the Qiang in and west of Longxi. It seems from the above that the Han actually pursued them into their mountain areas, which would have pushed them even further back. 16 Despite these Qiang of Longxi having previously submitted to Han rule they are still referred to as Western Qiang. 17 益州: the borders of Yizhou varied but in the Western Han period it extended from Sichuan up to Hanzhong in the Gansu-Sichuan-Shaanxi border region. It was established by Emperor Wu in 106 BC.

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This chapter just has a general comment that there was a year of famine in the Yongguang period (43-39 BC), added to which there was a Western Qiang uprising. Chapter 87: The Biography of Yang Xiong18 (扬雄传第五十七) Two brief references within a quotation describing the early Han period: “After this, the Xunyu19 were cruel, the eastern Yi rebelled, the Qiang Rong were glaring angrily at us…” Later in the same paragraph: “the Qiang and Bo were rapidly spreading eastwards.” Chapter 90: The Biography of Cruel Officials (酷吏传第六十) In the middle of the Shenjue reign (61-58 BC) the Western Qiang rebelled…and were defeated.20 Chapter 94: The Biography of the Xiongnu (匈奴传第六十四) The first sentence of this chapter states that the Xiongnu were descendants of Chun Wei (淳维). Chun Wei was the son of a concubine of Jie, the ruler of the Xia dynasty (c.1600 BC). King Jie had a reputation of great cruelty so this supposed ancestry was perhaps chosen with care by the Han who also considered the Xiongnu to be violent and cruel. The first actual reference to a people called Xiongnu by the Chinese only occurs in the 4th century BC. There is a similarity here to the Western Qiang biography (HHS) which indirectly connects the Qiang back to the early Xia dynasty. This points less to reliable history and more to Han inclusion or assimilation policies, absorbing the Xiongnu and Qiang into Chinese ancestry and strengthening the perceived mandate of the Chinese to rule over them. There are only three Qiang references in this chapter but there is much of relevance because the Xiongnu and Qiang were neighbours and oscillated between enmity and alliance. The Xiongnu also had Qiang captives as slaves.21

There were Xiongnu kings of the right (west) and of the left (east). The first reference says that “the King of the Right lives on the western side, westwards from Shangjun22 adjoining the Di and the Qiang. The Han sent Yang Xin as an envoy to the Xiongnu. At that time, the Han…had established Jiuquan commandery in the west in order to cut off the route of communication between the Hu (Xiongnu) and the Qiang.23 The third Qiang reference is in a speech by a Zhonglang Marquis called Ying who was studying affairs on the border. Having described the Xiongnu as violent and cruel ever since the Zhou and Qin periods, he then says: “Recently, the Western Qiang have been protecting the border passes and are interacting with the Han people. The low-level (Han) officials and people are greedy for profit and violate the rights of the Qiang, stealing their livestock and their wives, which makes them hate and bear grudges and then they rise up and rebel continually from generation to generation. …”

18 A Han scholar and poet (53 BC – 18 AD). 19 熏鬻: Xunyu was another name for the Xiongnu, or possibly just a different transliteration of ‘Xiongnu’. 20 A reference to the conflict between the Qiang and General Zhao Chongguo in Chapter 69 (see Part 1). 21 In the Weilue excerpt in Chapter 30 of the Wei Shu in the Three Kingdoms Annals there is a reference to the Zilu (赀虏) who were a mixed group, including Qiang, who had been slaves of the Xiongnu. See Hill (2004:15). 22 上郡: In the Yulin region of northern Shaanxi. West beyond Shangjun was today’s Tengger desert and to the west of this lay the Gansu corridor. The Xiongnu extended west and the Qiang were to their south in the Qilian mountains and beyond. 23 胡与羌: This is a clear example of Hu indicating Xiongnu. According to Chapter 28 (Part 1), the Gansu corridor commanderies of Jiuquan and Zhangye were established in 104 BC, Wuwei in 101 BC, and Dunhuang was split off from Jiuquan to form a new commandery in 88 BC. The Xiongnu had previously controlled the corridor.

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One other reference in this chapter is to a ruler called Tangdou, also mentioned in Chapter 96, who may or may not be Qiang. As mentioned in the overview at the beginning of Part 1, the ruler of the Er Qiang to the southwest of the Yang Pass had the title ‘Quhulai’. This title is also used for Tangdou but he is not described as Qiang or clearly connected with the Er Qiang.24

“In the western regions at that time (c. 2 AD), Guju, king of Further Jushi, and Tangdou, the Quhulai king (or ‘king of Quhulai’)25 both held resentment against the Protector Colonel and with their wives and children fled and surrendered to the Xiongnu, as is told in the Western Regions account (Ch 96). The Shanyu (Xiongnu ruler) received them and established them in the territory of the Guli of the Left (a Xiongnu official).” The Shanyu then informed the Han, who then sent envoys to tell the Shanyu that because the western regions had submitted to the Han, he should hand over Guju and Tangdou, in accordance with an earlier agreement between the Han and Xiongnu. The Shanyu recalls what his father had said on his deathbed, that in the time of Emperors Xuan and Yuan it was agreed that the Xiongnu would keep to the territory north of the Great Wall and the Han would control the regions to the south. His father told him, “Do not receive anyone who surrenders to you from China (the Middle Kingdom). Send them immediately to the border in response to the emperor's great kindness." At that time, however, it was acceptable to receive foreigners who were not under Chinese control. The Shanyu handed Guju and Tangdou over to the Chinese but requested mercy on their behalf. Wang Meng, the Zhonglang general who had been sent to receive them, reported this but was told to show no mercy. On the contrary, the other western region kings were assembled and

24 See Joseph P. Yap (2009:493-494) for an English translation of Sima Guang’s version of this story in the Zizhi Tongjian. He equates Tangdou with the Er Qiang but without explanation. 25 Tangdou is referred to here as ‘去胡来王唐兜’ alongside the king of Further Jushi who is referred to as

车师后王姑句. A direct translation of the latter could be ‘Guju, the king of Further Jushi’ with Further Jushi known to be a place name. Similarly, Tangdou could be ‘the king of Quhulai’ but Quhulai is not recognised today as the name of a place or people. In Ch 96 the ruler of the Er Qiang is referred to as ‘Quhulai’ but with a clearer indication that it is an assumed name or title: ‘婼羌国王号去胡来王’ which

can be translated “the king of the Er Qiang state is called (or ‘bears the title of’) Quhulai king. ‘Quhulai 去

胡来’ can be translated as one who has ‘come over from the Hu’ indicating a change of allegiance from the Xiongnu to the Han. This may well be true of Tangdou, considering the Han-Xiongnu agreement mentioned in the next paragraph, but if ‘quhulai’ is a descriptive title it is surprising not to find it more frequently used for other petty rulers, considering that several states who were previously under Xiongnu domination had yielded to the Han. For example, when King Rizhu of the Xiongnu (Ch 96, see n.70) submitted to the Han he received the title ‘Submitted to Virtue Marquis’ (归德侯). A Han-period seal

found in Shaya (沙雅), south of Kucha and north of the west-east flowing Tarim River, bears the

characters ‘汉归义羌长’ meaning ‘the Qiang chief who has submitted to the Han’, rather than any reference to ‘quhulai’ (see Zhao and He, 1996). It also seems strange that the Han would refuse to help Tangdou if he had submitted to them, although this is the period of Wang Mang who was hostile to the Qiang and failing to control them. An alternative suggestion has been made that ‘quhulai’ is connected with ethnic identity, being similar phonetically to the 4th century AD ‘Tuhuluo 吐呼罗’ found in Ch 108 of the Wei Shu (Northern Wei) which is seen as a transliteration of ‘Tocharian’. (See Xu Wenkan, 2003:117 and Yu Taishan 2010:55.) Craig Benjamin mentions a reference by Ptolemy (d.168 AD) to a group called the Tagouraioi in Gansu, a name which Benjamin says is “clearly a variation on Tocharian, the Indo-European language spoken by the core Yuezhi.” (Benjamin, 2003) This is problematic because it would suggest that the Er Qiang ruler and Tangdou were both Tocharian rather than Qiang. The problem is compounded rather than elucidated in Chapter 96 because Tangdou’s grievance with the Han and subsequent flight to the Xiongnu is connected with him being troubled by the Chi Shui Qiang, so if he is Qiang he is not in unity with other Qiang nearby. (See n.166).

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Guju and Tangdou were beheaded as a warning to other rulers not to go over to the Xiongnu.26 Four new regulations were then issued to the Xiongnu: that they must not receive anyone fleeing to them from the Chinese, or surrendering to them from the Wusun (乌孙) or the

Wuhuan (乌桓) people, nor should they receive anyone from the western regions who had received the seal and silk ribbon of the Han (indicating official rank given on submission to the Han).27 At this time Wang Mang also issued a highly significant edict which would have affected the Qiang: no-one under Chinese rule was to have a name of two or more syllables (不得有二名).

For example, the Shanyu, whose name was Nangzhiyasi (囊知牙斯) was strongly advised by the

envoys to submit an official request asking to be known as Zhi (知). He did so and was richly rewarded for his obedience. This would have been a major contributor to loss of distinctive ethnic names in Chinese historiography. Chapter 95: The Biography of the Southwestern Yi, the two Yue and Chaoxian.28 (西南夷两

粤朝鲜传第六十五) The section on the southwestern non-Chinese in this chapter is significant for its lack of Qiang references. There is only one reference which is the name, Dang Qiang (当羌),29 of a King of Dian (part of today’s Yunnan). This reference is in the period when Zhang Qian30 had advocated trying to reach Daxia (Bactria) via Yunnan to avoid the Qiang and the Xiongnu so it would have been late 2nd century BC. The envoys were asking permission from Dang Qiang to pass through his territory. The introductory paragraph is very informative regarding the location of various peoples. I have followed this with information about modern equivalents. “There were several dozen tribal chiefs31 of the southern Yi, with Yelang (夜郎) being the largest.

On their west, there were several dozen submitted to Mimo (靡莫), with Dian (滇) being the

largest. North from Dian, there were several dozen tribal groups, Qiongdu (邛都) being the largest. These people all had their hair rolled up into a hammer-shaped top-knot, farmed the land and had village settlements. Apart from these, from Tongshi (桐师) in the west going

eastwards, one reaches Yeyu (叶榆) to the north, also known as Sui (巂), and Kunming (昆明), whose people braid their hair, move around with their livestock and don't have permanent settlements. They don't have rulers and their territory covers several thousand li. Northeast of Sui, there are several dozen tribal groups, of which Xi and Zedu (徙, 莋都)32 are the largest.

Northeast from Ze (莋) are several dozen tribal groups, Ran and Mang (冉駹) being the largest. As seen by their customs, some of these people are local and some are migrants.33 They are west

26 Wang Mang’s rejection of the Shanyu’s request for mercy would also have emphasised the Shanyu’s inferior and impotent position in the Xiongnu-Han relationship at this time. 27 It seems Tangdou was in this latter category and was therefore allied with the Han but not welcome with his people to actually move into China. 28 This contains content similar to Chapter 116 of the Shiji. 29 This may not indicate any connection with the Qiang people. The MDBG dictionary (www.mdbg.net) defines Qiang as (a) an ethnic group of northwestern Sichuan, (b) a surname, (c) a muntjac deer and (d) a grammar particle indicating nonsense (classical). In the context here it may have been used to transliterate a non-Chinese name. 30 See Chapter 61 (Part 1). 31 The characters here are 君长, meaning tribal chiefs, but the names that follow include the whole tribal groups. 32 See Part 1, n.91, regarding Ze 莋. 33 The Ran and Mang are sometimes taken to be one group called Ranmang but we are told here that the Baima are northeast of the Mang, which implies that the Mang are separate from the Ran. The Ran and Mang were in the Wenshan area, which included the northern part of today’s Qiang area in Aba prefecture.

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of Shu. Northeast from Mang, there are several dozen tribal groups, Baima (白马) being the

largest, and they are all of the Di type.34 These are all the southwestern Man Yi (蛮夷) in the southwest beyond the borders of Ba and Shu.” The second paragraph mentions the people of Ba and Shu sometimes stealing from merchants, taking the horses of the Ze (莋), the boys of the Bo (僰), and the yak, and because of this Ba and Shu were very prosperous. This highlights how many independent tribes were scattered throughout this large area covering southern and western Sichuan and northern Yunnan. It also shows that no Qiang were specifically recorded in this area at this time by the compilers of the Han Shu, even though the Qiang territory in Aba prefecture today is thought to overlap with that of ancient Ran and Mang. Yelang included today’s northern and western Guizhou, northeastern Yunnan and southern Sichuan. Dian was centred on today’s Jinning county south of Kunming. Qiongdu was southeast of today’s Xichang in southern Sichuan. From Dian to Qiong were settled farming peoples. Tongshi was in the region around Baoshan and Fengqing near the Myanmar border, southwest of today’s Dali. The Sui (Yeyu) and Kunming stretched from northwestern Yunnan up into southwestern Sichuan. The nomadic customs may indicate a link with the current Tibetan tribes of these areas who still braid their hair into many small braids.35 Nomadic customs also suggest more mountainous terrain which would be to the west of the agricultural area mentioned as stretching from Dian to Qiong.

Chapter 96: The Biography of the Western Regions (西域传第六十六) The presence of Qiang to the west beyond today’s Qinghai and Gansu is sometimes overlooked in histories of the Xinjiang region.36 However, this chapter has fifteen Qiang references and indicates a ‘Qiang route’ from west of the Karakoram range over to the Kunlun, Altun and Qilian ranges and into Qinghai and western Gansu. Since the whole of chapter 96 can be read with detailed annotations in China in Central Asia (Hulsewé and Loewe, 1979), I have limited the excerpts below to some of the general background followed by entries either directly relating to the Qiang or which help to explain the wider context within which they were located.37

It is clear here that the migrants and the locals had different customs. Archaeological finds in the Qiang area of Maoxian in Aba prefecture, have revealed “the most startlingly heterogeneous archaeological assemblage in East Asia to date.” Von Falkenhausen (1996:29). HHS Ch 116 (Biography of the Southern Man and Southwestern Yi) also mentions a mix of locals and nomadic migrants in the Ran-Mang area and makes a broad comment that there are six Yi, seven Qiang and nine Di in the mountains, each with their own tribes. 34 The Baima (White Horse) are included in the Di peoples here. In the Weilue excerpt in Ch 30 of the Wei Shu (Three Kingdoms period) a Baima Qiang group is mentioned which seems to be west of Dunhuang although the text lacks clarity. Whether or not there is a connection between these two groups is unclear. Chapter 1 of the HHS places Baima in Guanghan, which lay between Shu and Wudu. Today’s Baima are in the Gansu-Sichuan border region around Pingwu and Wenxian and were registered in the 1950s as Tibetans although many do not see themselves as Tibetan. Their language displays some Qiangic features (Chirkova, 2012:139) and DNA findings show a closer genetic link to the Qiang than to the Tibetans (Sun Hongkai, 2003:62). In chapter nine of the Shiji, the first Han emperor, Gaozu, is said to have sacrificed a white horse when he made an oath that only members of the Liu family could become princes (王). White horses were particularly esteemed by the Medes and Persians and were associated with the sun god. Herodotus (Ch 7) mentions the Magi sacrificing white horses before Xerxe’s troops crossed the Strymon River. (See also http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asb-horse-equus-cabullus-av#pt2) 35 The Tibetan empire gradually absorbed various nomadic groups as it expanded. 36 For example, the Qiang are not mentioned in Millward’s Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang (2007) nor do Valerie Hansen’s The Silk Road: A New History (2012) or Liu Xinru’s The Silk Road in World History (2010) contain Qiang references despite many references to the Xiongnu and Xinjiang. 37 See Through the Jade Gate to Rome (2009) by John Hill for a much wider discussion of this region. Although Hill’s focus is the Eastern Han period, he includes extensive and valuable insights about many places and peoples mentioned in this chapter with discussions referring to a wide variety of authors.

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Di Cosmo highlights the multi-cultural environment that the Qiang would have been a part of in late BC: “The presence of so many different physical types demonstrates the occurrence of various migrations into Eastern Central Asia, coming from west, southwest, north and east, some of which seem to have occurred during the first millennium B.C. These migrations, and the presence of so many racial types, show that Xinjiang had become the meeting point of different cultures before the historical opening of communication between East and West.” (2000:405) The last three centuries BC was a tumultuous time in Central Asia and northwest China. In 329 BC, Alexander the Great defeated Bessus, satrap of Bactria, bringing Persian rule in the region to an end. Alexander then pushed east along the Kabul River into the northern Indus region where he dealt ruthlessly with tribes such as the Aspasioi and Assakenoi, who chose to oppose him rather than submit. Some eventually submitted, many were killed, and some fled eastwards. Although the Indian Mauryans under Chandragupta soon wrested these eastern territories from the Greeks, Greek influence continued in the region. In the mid 3rd century BC, Diodotus declared himself ruler of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. In around 180 BC Demetrius, ruler of Greco-Bactria, invaded the Indian territories Alexander had previously subdued, initiating a series of Indo-Greek rulers whose influence in northern India, interspersed with or co-existing with Saka rule (e.g. Maues c.85 BC), extended through much of the Western Han period. While these events were happening west of China, the Xiongnu were emerging as a problematic power to the north of China. They are referred to by the Chinese as early as 318 BC, just five years after Alexander’s death. A century later they were pushed north out of the Ordos region by Chinese forces under the Qin emperor but by 198 BC they had returned and forced Gaozu, the first emperor of Western Han, to recognise their dominance of the Mongolian steppe, including the Ordos and areas to the north of the Gansu corridor and northeastern Xinjiang. In c.176 BC, the Xiongnu pushed the Yuezhi west out of the Dunhuang region towards Ili, which caused upheaval among other tribes in the region, such as Wusun and Saka peoples. Some Saka moved to the Alai valley (see Juandu and Xiuxun entries below) and some moved south into areas which had been under Greek control (e.g. Jibin in the region of Peshawar). The Yuezhi were later forced even further west resulting, in around 130 BC, in their conquest of the territory north and south of the Amu Darya, and the defeat of the last Greco-Bactrian king, Heliocles. In the last two centuries BC, the southern part of the Tarim basin was dominated by the various oasis states from Qiemo west to the Pamirs, with groups of Er Qiang to their south in the Kunlun foothills. These Er Qiang apparently extended from Baltistan in the west, beyond which lay the Indo-Greeks and Saka, to south-eastern Xinjiang in the east, beyond which lay the various Qiang tribes of the Qaidam/Qinghai Lake region and the Qilian mountains. Emperor Wu (r.140-87 BC) was determined to prevent any alliance between the Xiongnu to the north and the Qiang to the south which would block Han access to the western regions. On his return journey from the Yuezhi in c.126 BC, the Han envoy, Zhang Qian, had the choice of travelling via the Qiang or via the Xiongnu. In Ch 61 (see Part 1, p19) he describes the Qiang region as “difficult to access and the Qiang hate us going through their territory.” It seems most likely this reference referred to a route from southeastern Xinjiang over the Altun mountains and via Qinghai to Gansu.38 We don’t know when the Qiang entered the southern Tarim or which direction they came from, although the fact that Qiang are always noted as foreigners west of the Chinese suggests a west to east trajectory is more likely. They were China’s ‘westerners.’ With Qiang being used as an umbrella term for a ‘type’ to the west which was clearly different from the Chinese and the Xiongnu, although possibly with similarities to the Yuezhi, it is also not known if all the tribes known as Qiang had close ethnic affinities with each other or not. Their lack of unity and the fact that they never seem to have formed a strong confederation like the Xiongnu, suggests they were perhaps various groups of a similar type but without strong enough bonds to unite for long. There are few clues as to what appellation any neighbours further west would have used for them, although see n.80 below regarding pronunciation of the ‘Er’ of Er Qiang. The first part of Chapter 96 is a useful chronological summary of the western regions during the Western Han period:

38 For a detailed account of this route see Tong (2013): The Silk Roads of the Northern Tibetan Plateau during the Early Middle Ages (from the Han to Tang Dynasty).

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Communication with the western regions39 started in the time of Emperor Wu. There were originally 36 states,40 which later divided into more than 50 states, all to the west of the Xiongnu and south of the Wusun. There are large mountains to the north and south and a river in the centre and the region measures more than 6,000 li from east to west and more than 1,000 li from north to south. On the east it connects with the Han and the strategic Yumen and Yang Passes, with the western border being the Congling.41 Its southern mountains come out of Jincheng in the east, where they adjoin the southern mountains of the Han.42 Its river has two river sources, one coming from the Congling and one from Yutian.43 Yutian is below the southern mountains44 and its river flows north and joins with the river from the Congling. In the east it flows into Puchang Lake.45 Puchang Lake is also called ‘the Salt Swamp’ and is over 300 li from Yumen and Yang Passes and measures 3-400 li in length and breadth. Its water stays the same, not increasing or decreasing in winter or summer, and everyone believes it goes underground and emerges further south at Jishi, becoming the river of China.46 From the Yumen and Yang Passes there are two routes through the western regions. From Shanshan along the northern edge of the southern mountains (Kunlun) following the river47 westwards to Shache,48 the southern route goes west beyond the Congling to the Greater Yuezhi and Anxi.49 The northern route goes from the court of the king of Nearer Jushi50 and follows the

39 I have chosen not to capitalise ‘western regions’ because capitalisation suggests a named region with clearly defined territory, which is not the case here, it is simply anything to the west beyond China’s full control. 40 國 (simplified: 国): the character for ‘state’ used to be 或 which depicted territory 口 defended by a wall

一 and with weapons 戈. The outer frame 囗 surrounding 或 was a later addition representing the borders of a nation. The earlier character seems much more appropriate for many of these states which would have been loosely defined territories defended by weapons and sometimes with walled towns. 41 葱岭: Often equated with the Pamirs, this Congling range also seems to have extended into the western end of the Kunlun. In Chapter 108 of the Wei Shu (Northern Wei), Yutian (today’s Hetian/Khotan) is said to be north of the Congling. 42 The southern mountains of the Han would be the Qinling range between Shaanxi and Sichuan which extends into Gansu. Jincheng was a commandery which straddled today’s Qinghai-Gansu border west of Lanzhou. These southern mountains of the western region would be the Qilian range extending from Jincheng in the east, followed by the Altun Mountains and the Kunlun range which form an almost unbroken series of mountains running south of the Gansu corridor and along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin into Central Asia. Where the Kunlun and Altun meet just south of Qiemo, an extension of the Kunlun runs south of Qinghai’s Qaidam basin while the Altun and then the Qilian ranges border the northern edge of Qinghai. 43 于阗: the region of today’s Hetian (和田, Khotan), not today’s Yutian (于田, Keriya) which is to the east of Hetian. The headwaters of the main Tarim River are the Kashgar (Kizil) River which rises in the Pamirs and the Yarkand which rises in the Karakoram. The Hetian River, formed by the Yurungkash and Karakash rivers, flows north from Hetian through the Tarim Basin, joining the Tarim River further downstream. 44 The southern mountains in this context are the Kunlun to the south of the Tarim Basin. 45 蒲昌海: another name for Lopnor Lake. 46 Jishi (积石) is associated with the Anyemachen mountain range of SE Qinghai and SW Gansu around which flow the upper reaches of the Yellow River. The ancient assumption was that Lopnor Lake was the source of the Yellow River. 47 This seems to be the “river in the centre” mentioned in the first paragraph, i.e. the Tarim River, the middle and lower sections of which have changed course many times. The reference here may simply be stressing that the route ran parallel with the river. Ancient Niya, which was on the southern route, was considerably further north than today’s Niya (Minfeng), so it would have been closer to the Tarim River. 48 莎车: Shache (Yarkand). 49 The Da Yuezhi (大月氏) migrated from western China into today’s southern Uzbekistan and southern Tajikistan in the 2nd century BC, eventually also taking control of ancient Bactria (northern Afghanistan). Anxi (安息) is associated with Parthia.

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northern mountains to Shule51 and then goes west beyond the Congling where it reaches Da Yuan, Kangju and Yancai.52 A large proportion of the inhabitants of the various states of the western regions are long-term residents. They have city walls, fields and livestock and have different customs from the Xiongnu and the Wusun, which is why they have become forced vassals of the Xiongnu.53 King Rizhu of the Xiongnu on the western side established a Tongpu commander54 to oversee the western regions. The Tongpu commander was generally stationed in the area between Yanqi, Weixu and Yuli55 and required taxes from all the states, thus gaining great wealth.56 From when the Zhou dynasty weakened,57 miscellaneous Rong Di58 occupied territory north of the Jing and Wei rivers.59 Emperor Qin Shi Huang60 then pushed the Rong Di back, built the Great Wall and united China61 but went no further than Lintao62 in the west. 50 车师前王庭: west and north of today’s Turpan. See Hill (2009:442ff) for details regarding Nearer and Further Jushi. 51 疏勒: Kashgar. The northern mountains were today’s Tian Shan. 52 Da Yuan (大宛) was the Ferghana region. Kangju (康居) was associated with Sogdia. Yancai (奄蔡) was associated with the Yenisei. Many of these names refer to people groups and the territory they held at that time rather than any firmly fixed borders. 53 These peoples didn’t have enough military strength or unity to resist Xiongnu advances. Although groups like the Wusun and Xiongnu are named, the Han Shu gives no indication of the identity of many people, giving only the names of their settlements. Harmatta suggests both Saka and Indo-European and that the wealth of their settlements attracted the Xiongnu: “Urbanization in the Tarim basin had begun in the third century B.C. when the population still consisted of Saka tribes … But the Saka population was driven towards the west, and the eastern part of the Tarim basin was occupied by an Indo-European people... Both the ancient Saka population and the later Indo-European immigrants continued to develop cities and formed small city-states in Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Kucha, Qarashahr and Lou-lan. The wealth and prosperity of the petty kingdoms in the Tarim basin from agriculture, handicrafts and transit trade aroused the interest of the Hsiungnu [Xiongnu], who took over the territory.” Harmatta also mentions Graeco-Bactrian kings (c.250-125 BC) developing trade links to China via the Phryni and Seres and comments that “the rise of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom as a Central Asian power upgraded the importance of the region.” (1994:488) 54 僮仆都尉: this Xiongnu official seems to have had a role somewhat similar to the Han Protector General. 55 Between today’s Yanqi and Yuli on the northern route. 56 The Xiongnu clearly held a strong position in this area of today’s eastern Xinjiang so it is understandable that the Han would want to break any alliance between the Xiongnu and the Qiang to their south. 57 This was at the start of the Eastern Zhou period in the early 8th century BC when Zhou nobles retreated eastwards from Shaanxi’s Wei River valley. 58 戎狄: a general term for non-Chinese to the west and north of China. A passage in the Book of Rites, quoted by Mu-Chou Poo, says, “the tribes on the east were called Yi,… those on the south were called Man, … those on the west were called Rong, … those on the north were called Di.” Poo emphasises that these were directional terms rather than indicating any specific ethnicity (2005:46). The Qiang were at times referred to as Qiang Rong (羌戎) and were always to the west of central China. 59 The Jing (泾) River rises in Ningxia, crosses Gansu and enters the Wei (渭) River in Shaanxi. The Wei River flows from eastern Gansu across Shaanxi’s Guanzhong plain and enters the Yellow River east of Xi’an. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Weirivermap.png 60 秦始皇: ruler of the Qin state (246-221 BC), unifier of China, and the first Qin emperor (220-210 BC). Contemporary with the first Greco-Bactrian kings. 61中国: which literally translates as the ‘Central Kingdom.’ It is still the modern Chinese name for China. The English term ‘China’ derives from Qin, which was a state from the 9th century BC and then became a short-lived dynasty under Qin Shi Huang from 221-207 BC. 62 临洮: Lintao is south of Lanzhou in Gansu. The name ‘Lintao’ means ‘adjacent to or overlooking the Tao’, the Tao being a river which forms part of Lintao county’s western border today. Ch 28 of the Han Shu says: “The area of Lintao which has the Tao River. This river emerges from among the Western Qiang” (see Part 1, p14). Lintao had marked the western extent of the Qin empire and was a Qiang–Chinese border region.

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The Han flourished in the time of Emperor Wu (r.140-87 BC), who engaged in attacks on the non-Chinese to north, south, east and west. His reign was widespread, powerful and benevolent and it was during his reign that Zhang Qian began to open tracks in the western regions.63 After this the (Han) Piaoqi General attacked and defeated the Xiongnu of the Right. The Hunye and the Xiutu kings surrendered and then their territory was empty.64 Emperor Wu began building westwards from Lingju,65 first establishing Jiuquan prefecture and sending people to inhabit it. He then established Wuwei, Zhangye, and Dunhuang, setting up four prefectures altogether and seizing the two passes (Yumen and Yang).66 After the (Han) Ershi General defeated Da Yuan

Ch 27 of the Han Shu has a curious entry which states that in 221 BC, twelve giants appeared in Lintao measuring about 50 feet tall, with feet about 2 meters long, wearing foreign (夷狄) clothing. Because this was the year Qin Shi Huang united China, he viewed their appearance as auspicious and had weapons melted down from across his empire and made into 12 golden statues (金人十二) resembling them, despite a taboo regarding emulation of foreign ways. The Han Shu attributes the demise of Qin in 207 BC to this incident (Ch 27: 故大人见于临洮，明祸乱之起). Christopoulos (2012) and Nickel (2013) both suggest these giants which appeared in Lintao were probably statues and Christopoulos, noting that the number 12 is not a particularly significant Chinese number, suggests a possible link with the “the twelve Olympian gods venerated by the Greeks of Bactria.” (2012:11) Although he acknowledges the presence of the Qiang in the Tarim Basin and the Lintao region, he assumes they wouldn’t have had the skill to create such statues and instead suggests that Greek sculptors had reached Lintao (2012:12-13). Nickel points to Greek influence in the Qin period, in particular the life-size figures in pit K9901 of Qin Shi Huang’s terracotta warriors, which, unlike to the regular warriors, show “exceptional anatomical accuracy”, a reflection of Greek sculptural tradition (2013:422). The state of Qin was centred around Tianshui in Gansu and Qin Shi Huang began his rule in 246 BC, only a few decades after the Greeks established the highly Hellenistic settlements of Ai Khanoum and Takhti-Sangin in today’s Tajikistan. The tribesmen to the west of Qin, which were often referred to as Western Rong by the Chinese and included Qiang, would have been key intermediaries between Greek influence to the west and the Qin state to the east. (See Nickel 2013:436.) The Khotanese jade trade of the Yuezhi with China in the mid 1st millennium BC attests to well-established west-east trade routes, as do the multi-ethnic cemetery finds in Xinjiang.

Another indication of Greek influence on Qin Shi Huang’s replication of these giants is the size of the statues and his recasting of weapons from the conquered states, which was a Greek tradition. The Colossus of Rhodes statue, over 30m tall and made from recast enemy weapons, was erected in 280 BC, and as far back as the Greek defeat of the Persians in 479 BC, statues of Zeus and Poseidon were created by the Greeks from the booty of the Persians (Herodotus, 1996:712). When Alexander reached the Beas (Hyphasis) River in northern India he created 12 gigantic altars to the gods, marking the easternmost extent of his campaign and impressing on the locals the greatness of his power. It seems Qin Shi Huang adopted a similar tactic having united China and drawn inspiration from these ‘giants of Lintao.’ The Guanzhong Records (关中记) tell us ten of the bronze statues were smashed with a hammer by Dong

Zhuo (190 AD) and the remaining two were melted down by Fu Jian of the Di (氐) state of Former Qin. (See n. 129 for Indo-Greek influences.)

While Greek influence seem likely, Christopoulos’s assumption that the Qiang would not have had the skill to create statues tends to assume pastoral nomads lack such artistry, which is not necessarily the case, particularly if they have migrated from areas where such skills were practiced. The very fact that the Qiang are so often referred to as ‘the various Qiang’ suggests that the different Qiang groups may have been quite diverse, and they were known to be skilled users of iron (see n.86). Whether or not they had any connection to the ‘giants,’ it seems they would have been aware of such a notable phenomenon in relatively close proximity to their territory bordering Lintao. 63 The story of Zhang Qian’s travels as a Han envoy in the late 2nd century BC has been told many times and the term ‘Silk Road’ is well-worn but although Zhang Qian initiated new contacts between the Han and Central Asia, he was a newcomer to a multi-cultural environment with a long history, as evidenced by archaeological finds. 64 See Part 1, n.74 for Hunye and Xiutu. This left the Gansu corridor open to Han control, separating the Xiongnu to the north from the Qiang in the Qilian to the south of the Gansu corridor. 65 令居: in the region of Yongdeng and Tianzhu between Lanzhou and Wuwei in Gansu. 66 This would have been a major turn of events for the Qiang. Not only did it mean Han forces and Han immigrants were now adjacent to the Qiang of the Qilian mountains which lined the southern edge of the

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(Ferghana),67 the western regions were terrified and dispatched envoys to bring tribute. The Han gave the people of the western regions the benefit of (Han) official posts. So from Dunhuang west to the Salt Swamp,68 frequent outposts were built and Luntai and Quli69 both had several hundred agricultural soldiers, and envoy colonels70 were installed for management and defence and to serve as envoys to foreign states. In the time of Emperor Xuan (74-49 BC), a Sima defence official was dispatched to protect several states to the west of Shanshan. Although he defeated Gushi71 it was not completely wiped out but was divided between the kings of Nearer and Further Jushi and six states north of the mountains.72 At that time the Han only protected the southern route and were not able to completely annex the northern route.73 The Xiongnu were not peaceful. Later King Rizhu betrayed the Shanyu and surrendered to the Han with many people. He was welcomed by Zheng Ji, the Han protector of envoys to the west of Shanshan. King Rizhu was then made ‘Submitting to Virtue’ Marquis74 whilst Zheng Ji became ‘Pacifying the Remote Regions’ Marquis. This was in the 2nd Shenjue year (60 BC).75 Because Zheng Ji had managed to annex and protect the northern route he was given the title of Protector General (都护), a title and position which began with him. From this time on there was no longer a Xiongnu Tongpu commander and the Xiongnu gradually weakened and were unable to get near to the western regions. As a result the agricultural garrisons were moved and garrison cultivation sites extended from Beixujian across to the area of Shache.76 The officials in charge of these agricultural garrisons were under the Protector General who kept an eye on the various foreign states of the Wusun and Kangju,

Gansu corridor, it also meant that the Han who were now controlling the Yang Pass were closer to the Er Qiang in the Altun region of southeastern Xinjiang. 67 The story of this defeat is told in Sima Qian’s Shiji (trans. Watson 1961:280ff.). Ershi was Sutrishna in Ferghana. Li Guangli was appointed (Han) Ershi general and led a military expedition in 104 BC to Ferghana. En route, the Tarim settlements closed their gates, denying provisions, and thousands of General Li’s men died. He later returned with a much stronger force, upon which the oasis states opened their doors to provide supplies for the men, and they were able to advance and defeat Ferghana (Da Yuan). An account of this is also told in Joseph Yap’s Wars with the Xiongnu: A Translation from Zizhi Tongjian (2009:222ff). 68 盐泽: the Lopnor region. 69 Today’s Luntai (轮台) is between Korla and Kucha on the northern Tarim rim. Quli (渠犁) was in today’s Korla-Yuli region. This was roughly where the Xiongnu Tongpu commander had been stationed so it was clearly a good position from which to control the western regions. Even today route 218 runs south from here between the Taklamakan and Kumtag deserts to Ruoqiang (Charkilik) and the southern route. 70 The term xiaowei (校尉), translated here as ‘colonel’, was a military rank just below the level of general.

A more specific role was often reflected in the title, for example, Colonel Protector of the Qiang (护羌校

尉). 71 姑师: an old name for the Jushi region. See n.50. 72 Gushi must have been a large state to have been divided into 8 parts. North of the mountains would have been north of the Tian Shan. 73 Because the various Er Qiang groups south of the Tarim Basin were located to the south of this southern route, the Han would have been in relatively close proximity to them. The southern route led west to today’s eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. 74 归德侯: although ‘gui 归’ can mean ‘to return’ it frequently occurs in titles given to non-Chinese who were submitting to the Han for the first time and is also used today to indicate submitting to authority, e.g. 归服 (to come over and pledge allegiance, 归附 (to submit). 75 This was also when Zhao Chongguo was confronting the Qiang in eastern Qinghai (see Part 1, Ch 69). The huge effort the Han were expending on their expansion to the north and west would have been of great concern to the various Qiang groups, who in the Qin period were apparently free to roam with their livestock quite close to Gansu’s Lintao region. 76 北胥鞬: this should be Bixujian (比胥鞬), as recorded on at least two Han period bamboo slips used for

record keeping. Bixujian was the name of an agricultural garrison (屯田) established by the Han. Liu Guofang suggests it was in the Nearer Jushi region (2006:23-24). The establishment of agricultural garrisons from here across to Shache was a huge advance in Han control of the western regions.

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listening for sounds of activity that meant changes were happening. Those states that could be pacified were dealt with peacefully but those who resisted were dealt with militarily. The Protector General’s seat of government was Wulei77 town, 2,338 li from Yang Pass and close to the official post of the Quli agricultural garrison. This was a fertile area in the centre of the western regions and therefore became the seat of the Protector General. In the time of Emperor Yuan (r.48-33) … Zilizhi, the Xiongnu king of eastern Pulei,78 submitted to the Protector General with 1,700 people and settled in Wutanzili79 to the west of Further Jushi… After the reigns of Emperors Xuan and Yuan, the Xiongnu Shanyu became a vassal subject and the western regions submitted… Following the above chronological account, the individual peoples and places are then described one by one, beginning with the Er Qiang. For the sake of brevity, in the selected entries below I have usually omitted details of the Han-appointed officials in each place.

Leaving the Yang Pass80 and beginning with the nearest, they are called the Er Qiang (婼羌).81

77 乌垒: in the Luntai region on the northern Tarim route. 78 蒲类: the Barkol region north of Hami 79 乌贪訾离: In the region of Shihezi and Manas, northwest of Urumqi. 80 The Yang and Yumen Passes were key Han frontier posts. The Yang Pass was c.70 km southwest of today’s Dunhuang city in the area of the grape-producing Nanhu (南湖) oasis. Its importance is stressed in the Han Shu, with distances to places in the western regions often measured in relation to the Yang Pass, as well as to the Protector General in Wulei and to the capital, Chang’an (Xi’an). The entry here notes that the Er Qiang were the group nearest to the Yang Pass and in Ch 69 (see Part 1, p22) we read of the Qiang leader, Langhe, southwest of the Yang Pass and planning with the Xiongnu to attack Dunhuang. Stein points out how strategic the Yang Pass was for the Han with regard to Qiang raids: “Nan-hu, for those wishing to approach Tun-huang [Dunhuang] by this route from the side of Lop [Lopnor (west)] or Tsaidam [Qaidam in Qinghai (south)], is the first place where water and grazing are obtainable in abundance, and by holding Nan-hu it would be possible to ward off practically any raid which might be attempted upon Tun-huang from the Ältin-tāgh [Altun Mts]. … Considering what we know about the Jo Ch’iang [Er Qiang] … the importance for the Chinese of controlling this route by the ‘barrier’ established at Nan-hu is obvious.” (Stein 1921a:622-623, cited in Hill 2009:136) 81 Er Qiang: the ‘婼’ character used for the Er Qiang has three modern pronunciations: ‘chuo’, ‘ruo’ and ‘er’. (Stein used Jo Ch’iang, see n.80.) However, according to the commentary of Fu Qian of the Eastern Han it was pronounced the same as ‘儿’ (er in modern Chinese). Two later commentators, Su Lin (c. 3rd

century AD) and Yan Shigu (541 – 645 AD) represented the sound with 儿遮 and 而遮 respectively (both

today are ér + zhē), using a technique called ‘fanqie’(反切) whereby the initial sound of the first character is combined with the second character minus the latter’s initial consonant – a useful technique when transliterating foreign terms. With pronunciation changes over the centuries it is not clear quite how ér + zhē would have been pronounced but Daf ina suggests n z i a n i a g (982a + 804d) (1982:331-2). (Later婼 representations, including from the 11th century, are found in the 18th century Kangxi dictionary. See for example: http://hanyu.iciba.com/wiki/467792.shtml)

Fu Qian also states clearly that 婼 was a Qiang name (羌名也) so although the character, which means recalcitrant or defiantly unsubmissive, may have been chosen as descriptive by the Han, the pronunciation seems to derive from a Qiang autonym. It was not used to describe any other unsubmissive non-Chinese and it was such a rare character that the Shuowen Jiezi dictionary of 121 AD only gives one example of its usage – the proper name of a male in the Spring and Autumn annals.

The term Er Qiang is used for all the Qiang groups extending west from the group to the southwest of the Yang Pass to the westernmost Er Qiang south of Nandou, in today’s northern Pakistan. There are two other occurrences in the Han Shu. One is in Chapter 69 (Part 1, p23) where Er (婼) and Yuezhi fighters under Marquis Fengshi of Jiuquan in the Gansu corridor are going to fight against the Han Qiang (罕羌) in Qinghai. From the account concerning Marquis Langhe in chapter 69, it seems these were submitted Er Qiang (but sometimes rebellious) who had been southwest of Dunhuang alongside some Yuezhi. The other, in Chapter 73, describes the Qiang south of the Gansu corridor whom Emperor Wu

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The king of the Er Qiang state is called ‘Quhulai’.82 They are 1,800 li from the Yang Pass and 6,300 li from Chang’an, tucked away to the southwest with no easy access.83 There are 450 households with 1,750 people including 500 fighters.84 They connect with Qiemo in the west. They accompany their livestock seeking water and pasture and do not cultivate the land, relying on Shanshan and Qiemo for grain.85 The mountains have iron and they make their own weapons, later having bows, spears, daggers, swords, and armour.86 Shanshan is to the northwest of the Er

wanted to separate from the Xiongnu but in all other contexts these latter Qiang are simply described as Qiang or Western Qiang, not as Er Qiang.

‘Er Qiang’ is not a term found in the WQB or the HHS generally but it is found twice in the Three Kingdoms Annals (Wei Shu, Ch 30) in a remnant of an earlier 3rd century text called the Weilue by Yu Huan (see Hill, 2004, for translation and notes). In both instances the term refers to Qiang of the southern mountains west of Dunhuang along the southern route, which seems to confirm that it was the westernmost Qiang who were particularly of the name ‘Er.’ Today’s Qiang in Sichuan have no written language but an autonym of sorts has survived which is often recorded as ‘erma’ (尔玛, 日玛) or ‘rma, rme’. This is sometimes taken just to mean ‘us’ as opposed to ‘them’ (see Wang 2008:72) and its origin is unclear. Whether it has any connection with the ‘Er’ of the Er Qiang is not known. Zeisler (2010:412) suggests that the Tibetan name for the Yellow River, ‘Rmachu’ might refer to the Rma (or Rmu) tribe whom she connects with ancient Zhangzhung. (For further discussion of ‘rma’ (also ‘rmu’) see Zeisler forthcoming Chapter 4 § 2.4). Bailey, in his study of Khotanese texts, found a reference to “the city among the Erma”, a reference which comes between Yanqi and Bulayiq (north of Turpan) in a long list of place names. He also gives a reference to “travellers to Erma” and to people who “carried woollen cloth to the Erma” (2009 (1985):18). 82 去胡来: this most likely indicated one who had ‘come over from the Xiongnu’ but see Ch 94, n.25 above regarding the suggestion that it is a transcription of Tochari. 83 This ‘southwest’ is in relation to the Yang Pass, which is also how Langhe’s location is described in Chapter 69 (Part 1) although we don’t know how far Langhe was from this frontier pass. 1,800 li is roughly equivalent to 750km and would probably have been in the mountains south and southeast of today’s Ruoqiang and east of Qiemo. ‘No easy access’ and the following reference to them moving around with their livestock and having iron in the mountains suggests they were pastoral nomads on the slopes of the Altun mountains on the Qinghai-Xinjiang border. Just south of Qiemo there is a bifurcation with the Altun mountains extending northeast towards the Qilian while the Kunlun continues east along the southern edge of the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai. For a description of the region see Thubron’s account of his journey from Dunhuang south to the Qaidam Basin and then west over the Altun to Charklik (Ruoqiang) and Cherchen (Qiemo). (2007:96-103) 84 户: household / family. The Er Qiang were nomadic and most probably tent-dwellers. Four people per family unit seems quite low. It may just be unreliable statistics, or perhaps related to a low rate of infant survival? The ratio of fighters to population is high compared to some of the following settlements. 85 The Er Qiang clearly had considerable interaction with the peoples of Qiemo to the west and Shanshan to the northwest, both of which lay on the main southern route so trading with these places would also have brought the Er Qiang into contact with people travelling along the route and stopping in Qiemo or Shanshan (Loulan, see n.87.) Pastoral nomads relying on others for grain was still practiced in the Kunlun in the late 19th century. Younghusband comments that Shahidulla (Xaidulla) in the western Kunlun had to get grain from “the villages of Turkestan.” (1896:223-4) 86 后有弓、矛、服刀、剑、甲. The Kunlun range is rich in high-grade iron ore and the Er Qiang clearly knew how to extract and use it. Qiemo has mining remains from roughly the Han era, as does the Khotan region which had Qiang to the south. Rhie points out that Lopu, just east of Khotan, was “a centre of iron ore and iron making, a factor which undoubtedly contributed to the prosperity of the region and to international trade.” (1999:273, n.57.) If the Er Qiang were particularly skilled in the use of iron, this would have been a key trading element in their relationship with neighbouring peoples and settlements. In ‘The Earliest Use of Iron in China’ Wagner (1999) points to the use of iron by the northern nomadic neighbours of Zhou, while the Zhou were still using bronze. “Available evidence now shows that smelted iron was used in northwest China long before it was used in the south. A direct implication is that the technique of iron smelting came to northwest China from the West through Scythian intermediaries connected with Siberia.” Guo also suggests that “the appearance of iron in Xinjiang around the 9th-8th century BC could have resulted from cultural interaction between Xinjiang and western Asia.” (2009:107) Wu gives several examples of items found in cemeteries in Xinjiang (e.g. Yanghai and Subeixi in the Turpan region) with notable Neo-Assyrian (935-612 BC) similarities. For an English series on the Yanghai

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Qiang and on reaching there, as is said, one is on the main route. Shanshan state (鄯善国):87 this was originally called Loulan and its king governed from Yuni town.88 It is 1,600 li from Yang Pass and 6,100 li from Chang’an. It had 1,570 households and 14,100 people, with 2,912 able to fight. Official positions include a ‘Repulsing the Hu (Xiongnu)’ Marquis and an ‘Attacking Jushi’ Commander.89 … It is 1,890 li northwest to Jushi. The ground is sandy and salty with few fields and they rely on neighbouring states for agricultural land.90 Their state produces jade91and there are many reeds, Chinese tamarisk, Euphrates poplar and white grass.92 They accompany and lead their livestock seeking water and pasture. They have donkeys, horses and many camels. They are trained for warfare, just like the Er Qiang.93

cemetery by China Network Television (CNTV) see: http://so.cntv.cn/language/english/?qtext=Journeys%20in%20time%20Yanghai%20tombs 87 Shanshan (鄯善) occupied a very significant location with access to the northern and southern routes. Today’s Shanshan county stretches from west of Turpan southwards towards Lopnor Lake. However, in the Han period it extended quite far south and included today’s Ruoqiang region. Hill suggests it was controlled by the Yuezhi until the Xiongnu defeated them in 176 BC (2009:86). It was known as Kroraina (Kroran,) in Kharosthi documents, transcribed as Loulan 楼兰 in Chinese. Han Kangxin described his findings at the Loulan cemetery: “Among six skulls from the cemetery five belong to males and one is that of a female. Only one skull shows Mongoloid characteristics and the rest possess clear European characteristics; elongated and high cranial vaults, narrow nasal aperture, high arched nasal bones, and high orbits. These characteristics are similar to that of the Saka population of the south Pamir within the former USSR about the sixth century B.C.E. In other words, they are close to that of the East Mediterranean in morphological character.” (Han, 1994:3) Han suggests an Eastern Han dating for the cemetery but radio-carbon dating indicates it dates from the Western Han period (Mallory and Mair, 2000:335), so it is quite possible that Er Qiang would have traded with these very people for grain.

Hansen also comments on these corpses: “The extreme dryness of the Niya and Loulan sites has preserved about one hundred ancient corpses of the residents. At Loulan Stein found one corpse with “fair hair,” while another had a “red moustache.” Both he and Hedin sensed that these desiccated corpses did not look either Chinese or Indian. All subsequent excavators in the region have marveled at the excellent state of preservation of corpses whose light skin, fair hair, and heights nearing six feet (1.8 m) mark them as Caucasoid. It seems most likely that the original inhabitants of the Kroraina Kingdom, like many others living in Central Asia, originally came from somewhere on the Iranian plateau.”(Hansen, 2012, Kindle location 758.) Among the fabrics found at Loulan “from the time of Christ and before”, Stein noted that there were “fragments of exquisitely worked tapestries in wool which display a style unmistakably Hellenistic” (1933:153), an indication of the cultural variety of the region. 88 扜泥城: thought to be in the region of today’s Ruoqiang. 89 These titles are a strong indication of the role the Han expected the people of Shanshan to play. 90 寄田: this was an old term for a practice whereby those who didn’t have enough agricultural land would arrange with neighbouring peoples to use their land for crops. It’s surprising that Shanshan had to use other people’s agricultural land and yet were able to supply the Er Qiang with grain. However, although the people of Shanshan sought water and food for their animals, they seem only to have had camels, horses, and donkeys, so perhaps they traded their grain for sheep-related or cattle-related produce from the Qiang and possibly iron goods. What kind of livestock the Qiang had is not specified in this chapter but those further east in Qinghai had sheep and cattle. Felt hats, woollen clothing, and leather/lambskin footwear were all found in burials of the Loulan area and it seems that nomads with sheep had been in the region a considerable time: “The presence of woollen textiles in the Tarim Basin indicates that by the early 2nd millennium BC domestic sheep from the west (along with domestic wheat, possibly barley) had been introduced to the Tarim Basin.” Mallory and Mair (2000:184-187, 213). 91 Jade, iron and many other deposits are mined in the Ruoqiang and Altun region today. For a list of sites and deposits see http://www.mindat.org/loc-157181.html. 92 胡桐 (Hutong): the Euphrates poplar. It is also called 胡杨 (Huyang) or ‘the poplar of the Hu,’ which suggests the Chinese saw it as coming from non-Chinese in the northwest. The Euphrates poplar, common to the Middle East, still grows in the Tarim basin today. 白草 (white grass): Pennisetum centrasiaticum Tzvel or perennial whitegrass. 93 The fact that this is remarked on for Shanshan and the Er Qiang suggests that they were better trained and equipped militarily than some other states.

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In the beginning, Emperor Wu was impressed by Zhang Qian’s reports and wanted to connect with the various states of Da Yuan (Ferghana)… The route via Loulan and Gushi (Jushi) was tough and the Han envoy, Wang Hui, was attacked and robbed. The locals often spied for the Xiongnu, telling the Shanshan soldiers to block the Han envoys. … The next part of the Shanshan section tells of the struggle between the Han and Xiongnu for control of Loulan, a state whose loyalty vacillated between the two for some time. In 77 BC the name of Loulan was changed by the Han to Shanshan and Wei Tuqi was installed as king and given a seal and a wife from the

palace as well as chariots and wagons.94 Shanshan served as a very important thoroughfare for the Han route, connecting with Qiemo 720 li to the west. From Qiemo onwards there were all kinds of crops and

good vegetation95 and livestock products as well as weapon-making, quite similar to the Han. The authors are careful to state that they have noted anything out of the ordinary, for example, they note that Qiemo has grapes, which presumably were a rarity at that time within China proper.

Qiemo state (且末国):96 the king governs from Qiemo town which is 6,820 li from Chang’an and has 230 households with 1,610 people and 320 able to fight. … The protector general is 2,258 li to the northwest.97 It connects with Yuli in the north and Xiao Yuan in the south. It has grapes and various fruits. Jingjue is 2,000 li to the west.

94 A useful insight into how the Han forged alliances with these non-Chinese rulers. 95 This is indicative of how much the climate has changed since the Han period. As Daniel Waugh explains, “The first centuries CE witnessed a rise in temperatures and precipitation, creating the favorable conditions in which the towns of the southern Silk Road could flourish. But then beginning around the end of the third century, the climate shifted to one of lower temperatures and less moisture. While work is still needed to see whether the correlations can be made more precise, this shift seems to have precipitated the demise of cities such as Loulan and Niya.” (Waugh, 2008.) 96 Qiemo (Khotanese: Calmadana). The Er Qiang connected with Qiemo to the west and traded with them for grain. The Zaghunluq (扎滚鲁克) cemetery just west of today’s Qiemo may eventually provide more information about this relationship. This cemetery, which has several hundred tombs, existed before the walled settlement of Qiemo was established. It would have provided a watering hole for migrants on the southern route and may well have been used by nomads who had summer pastures for their flocks and herds in the Altun and Kunlun foothills. Qiemo lies just north of the western end of the Altun mountains at a significant junction of the southern route and a route which led up into the Altun past Ayakkum Lake and into Qinghai’s Qaidam region. Earlier finds at Zaghunluq include horse-riding equipment, bovine drinking horns and a baby’s ‘bottle’ made using a sheep’s teat (dating to c.800 BC), indicating cattle, sheep, riders and pastoral nomadism. Dating estimates vary. Zhang et al, referring to three different excavations there, suggest “a broad range of dates within these three groups of excavated burials, from as early as 1400 BC down to the Western Han period of c. 200 BC.” (2007:6) Cui et al suggest a later end date of c. 100 AD (2009:3917).

Cultural links were surprisingly broad in the Qiemo region. Lawergren (2010:123) comments on ‘steppe harps’ found at Zaghunluq and notes the presence of two similar harps in the Pazyryk region dated c.350 BC and of similar harps in Assyrian art. He suggests that Scythians who had served as Assyrian mercenaries provide the link: “I surmise such equestrian people brought the harp to Xinjiang. The small size and light weight of these harps facilitated this migration.” According to Lu Enguo of the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology these harps or konghou (箜篌), which were made of a single piece of poplar and sheep’s gut strings, spread from the Middle East to the Central Plains and were popular at the Han court. (Yanghai TV series, Part 4, see n.86. See also n.119 for the steppe harp found at Jirzankal.)

One early male found in Zaghunluq was wearing white deerskin boots. The WQB mentions a people called the Quanrong (犬戎) who, like the Qiang, were to the west of the Chinese. The WQB and chapter 10 of the Shiji of Sima Qian both record that King Mu of Zhou (d. c.920 BC), who is reputed to have gone as far as the Kunlun, went west and attacked the Quan Rong and returned with four white deer and four white wolves. No direct link can be assumed but white deer seem to have featured in the lives of the early inhabitants of the Qiemo oasis and of the Quan Rong. The presence of Khotanese jade in the c.1200 BC tomb of Fu Hao, consort of the Shang king, in Anyang, Henan, is testimony to early links along this southern route into the heartland of ancient China. 97 The protector general was in Wulei (乌垒) which was in the Luntai region between Kucha and Korla on the northern rim of the Tarim basin.

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Xiao Yuan state (小宛国):98 the king governs from Yuling town and it is 7,210 li to Chang’an. There are 150 households with 1,050 people and 200 able to fight. … It is 2,558 li northwest to the protector general. It adjoins the Er Qiang on the east and there is no route to the south. Jingjue state (精绝国):99 the king governs from Jingjue town which is 8,820 li from Chang’an. It

98 Xiao Yuan was south of Qiemo, possibly today’s Aqqan (阿羌) which has the Kunlun mountains immediately to its south. With Qiang to the east and Qiang to the southwest (south of Ronglu), Xiao Yuan may have interrupted Qiang east-west continuity because no route went south from it. Hulsewé and Loewe (1979:93 n.130) suggest Xiao Yuan (Lesser Yuan) may contrast in some way with Da Yuan (大宛, Greater Yuan, i.e. Ferghana). Zeisler notes an “ancient convention, attested in Indian, Chinese and Tibetan nomenclature, by which Lesser means Closer to a particular reference point.” (2010:372) The Xiao (Lesser) Yuezhi were closer to China and also fewer in number than the Da (Greater) Yuezhi but there is no such clarity about any small Ferghanian group associated with Xiao Yuan. However, the Da Yuan account in Sima Qian’s Shiji (Ch 123) says Yumi and Yutian (i.e. today’s Keriya and Hetian regions on the southern route) were to the east of Da Yuan, which is a surprising choice of locations seeing as Kashgar or settlements on the northern route would have been closer to Ferghana. Perhaps this is because the southern route was more frequented than the northern route in this period but might it suggest an established route between Da Yuan and the southern Tarim, including Xiao Yuan? Brough hesitantly allows that Pulleyblank’s suggestion of Da Yuan being a transcription of Tochari ( Taχwār) (1962:90), and the possibility of Xiao Yuan being the Tuhuluo country mentioned by Xuanzang, may point to Ferghana and Xiao Yuan having a Tocharian connection (1996:593). (See n.25 re Tuhuluo.) Lebedynsky points out that Ferghana’s population included Greek settlers and suggests that, “The Chinese name [Da Yuan] could conceal the Iranian or Indian name for the “Greeks” (Yawana, preceded by Chinese da “big”?).” (2006:61, cited in Hill 2009:167.) This raises the possibility of Xiao Yuan being a Greek settlement closer to China than Da Yuan. If either of these are correct, the Qiang east of Xiao Yuan would have had either Tocharian or Greek-related neighbours. 99 Jingjue (Khotanese: Cadota) was ancient Niya, about 100 km north of today’s Niya (Minfeng) town in Minfeng county (Hill 2009:80). South of Jingjue was Ronglu and some Er Qiang were further south beyond Ronglu. Finds in ancient Niya include a robe “cut in a non-Chinese style, with narrow cuffs and a wide skirt, that is more convenient for horseback-riding than the straight Chinese cut, suited to a more sedentary lifestyle.” (Sheng, 2010:41-42.) Sheng suggests that the oases were inhabited by both pastoral nomads and settlers who often embellished their clothing with woven tapestry strips. She describes “stylized flora in a tapestry weave as the central decoration of a cosmetic bag with strap.” (2010:38-39, photo p40.) One of the main cultural symbols of the Qiang today is the floral embroidery on their shoes and aprons and on the edges of their robes, although this is not woven tapestry. The Niya bag’s floral design includes pink flowers on a black background which is also a feature of today’s Qiang embroidery. (For examples of Qiang embroidery see: http://image.baidu.com/i?tn=baiduimage&ct=201326592&lm=-1&cl=2&fr=ala0&word=%C7%BC%D7%E5%B4%CC%D0%E5) The nomads, be they Qiang or others, would probably have been seasonal visitors to the oases, perhaps trading goods for agricultural produce, as the Er Qiang did with Shanshan and Qiemo.

Hansen, referring to early AD information from the Kharosthi wooden tablets found mainly at Niya, also emphasises a mixed society in Niya with locals, immigrants from India, Chinese traders, refugees from Khotan, and “the elusive hill people” all having their own religious practices (2001:297-8, cited in Hill 2009:78-79). I assume this reference to “elusive hill people” indicates pastoral nomads in the Kunlun foothills. The Kharosthi wooden tablets found on the southern route and dating to roughly 230-325 AD (Brough, 1996:297, n.772) mention a people called the Supi or Supiya who were making raids on Niya and Qiemo. People known as Supi don’t appear in Chinese documents until the Sui-Tang period. In the Sui Shu a Supi clan with a female leader lives south of the Congling mountains (Pamirs and western Kunlun) and in the Xin Tang Shu (western regions chapter) the Supi (苏毘) are described, without explanation, as originating from the Western Qiang. The Supi of the Kharosthi documents are, in the 3rd – 4th century AD, in similar locations to the Er Qiang of the Western Han period and are feared by those of the oasis settlements because of their raids. This suggests either that these Supi are descendants of the Er Qiang of the Han Shu or that the Supi were later arrivals who displaced the Er Qiang. We don’t know if the name, apparently written down for the first time in Kharosthi, was transcribed from a Supi autonym, was a name applied to them by the migrants who brought the Kharosthi script, or was learned from the earlier occupants of the southern route. Bailey suggests the name Supiya is connected with “‘strong’ from a Northern Iranian sau-p-“ (2009:80). (As they are clearly skilled horsemen it is tempting to try and find

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has 480 households with 3,360 people and 500 able to fight. … It is 2,723 li north to the protector general. It is four days journey south to the Ronglu state (戎卢), a narrow area. Yumi

(扜弥) is 460 li to the west. Ronglu state (戎卢国):100 the king governs from Beipin town which is 8,300 li to Chang’an. It has 240 households with 1,610 people and 300 able to fight. It is 2,850 li northeast to the protector general. Xiao Yuan is to the east and the Er Qiang101 are to the south. Qule is to the west. Ronglu is tucked away off the beaten track to the south. Yumi state (扜弥国):102 the king governs from Yumi town which is 9,280 li to Chang’an. It has

some kind of parallel with the Iranian ‘aspa’ for horse, as found in the Aspasioi who had resisted Alexander in the Swat region.)

A fragment of a brocade armguard found at Niya bears the characters ‘讨南羌’, meaning ‘a military expedition against the southern Qiang.’ This dates to the late Eastern Han (Pankenier, 2000:16) or early Jin period (Zhang et al, 2013). Zhang et al suggest this might be connected with soldiers from Niya joining Chinese troops led by officers of the Han state of Former Liang in a mid 4th century campaign against the southern Qiang (2013:109). (See Jin Shu, Ch 7: “张骏遣其将和驎、谢艾讨南羌于阗和，大破

之。”) This indicates that some Qiang were still a force to be reckoned with in northwestern China. It may even be that this refers to those called Supiya on the Kharosthi documents who were simply known as Qiang by the Chinese. 100 Ronglu. Hill (2009:82) equates Ronglu with the region of modern Niya (Minfeng), which would have been roughly a four day journey from Jingjue. Stein (1921a:1323) suggested Ronglu may have been near modern Aqqan 阿羌, which is quite far southwest of modern Niya on the Aqqan River in the Kunlun

foothills. (Not to be confused with another Aqqan 阿羌 south of Qiemo). 101 The Er Qiang to the south of Ronglu would have been in the Kunlun foothills, perhaps dependent on the upper tributaries of the Niya river and/or around the Aqqan river where Stein located Ronglu. They would have moved extensively with their livestock. From this point westwards none of the Er Qiang groups are mentioned as a state, which suggests lack of fixed territory and possibly even that the Er Qiang were actually migrants rather than pastoral nomads of a particular region. Evidence of earlier pastoralists in the Aqqan area from roughly the 10th to the 6th century BC is found in the 4000 m2 Liushui cemetery (流

水墓地) in Aqqan township at the confluence of an eastern branch of the upper Keriya River and the Liushui River in the Kunlun mountains. Jadeware was found in the cemetery (Tang et al 2013:40) so the area may have been frequented by the Yuezhi or others providing jade to the Central Plains. 160 skeletons have been excavated and “about half of the graves had an additional small stone circle on the eastern side in which ashes, pot sherds, and burned bones of sheep/goats were found.” (Wagner et al, 2011:15733.) Other finds included pottery, Scythian-style metal ornaments, bronzeware, strings of beads, and iron knives. According to Wagner, the people buried at Liushui were “a commoner group of mobile pastoralists” who were moving between upland summer pastures and lower winter settlements. Some settlements were abandoned during the 1st millennium BC due to an increasingly dry climate and deglaciation of the Kunlun and the lower date of the Liushui burials seems to be c.600-500 BC so it may be these people were forced to move. Wagner suggests the pottery of Liushui differs from that of most other Xinjiang sites but has some similarity with that of Xiabandi cemetery in today’s Tashkurgan county (see n.119 below) and of Yuansha (Djumbulak Kum) on the lower Keriya River (see n.102). Yuansha was established at roughly the end of the Liushui period. Tang et al (2013:40) also suggest some connections with Zaghunluq (Qiemo) and North Niya (c.43km north of ancient Niya), based on pottery finds. In their craniofacial research of skulls at Liushui, Tan et al found both western Eurasian traits and eastern Eurasian traits and some with an admixture of both (2012:301). Artefacts indicate later use of the area but without burials, which could perhaps suggest seasonal activity but with burials elsewhere lower down. See n.105 re secondary burials of those who died up in the summer pastures. For an introduction to the Liushui cemetery see: http://kaogu.cn/html/en/backup_new/new/2013/1026/42232.html 102 Yumi was sometimes transcribed as Wumi and was known as Jumi 拘弥 in the HHS and Hanmi 扞弥 in the Tang Shu. Yumi was centred on the Keriya river in the region of today’s Yutian county and had the largest population of the settlements along the southern route, although this decreased considerably in the Eastern Han period. In ancient times a north-south route connected with Kucha via the Keriya River, along which lay the ancient settlements of Yuansha (圆沙, Djumbulak Kum) and Kaladun (喀拉墩,

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3,340 households with 20,040 people and 3,540 able to fight. … It is 3,550 li northeast to the protector general. Qule is to the south and Kucha to the northeast. Yumi adjoins Gumo in the northwest and Yutian is 390 li to the west. The name changed from Yumi to Ningmi.103 Qule state (渠勒国):104 the king governs from Jiandu town (鞬都). It is 9,950 li to Chang’an and

Karadong). Yuansha lies about 190km north of today’s Yutian town and dates to c.500-0 BC so it existed during the Western Han period. Finds there include iron and bronzeware and sheep remains and as mentioned in n.101, some pottery finds show a similarity to the earlier Liushui cemetery. Debaine-Francfort describes Yuansha as a 10 hectare fortified city with residents who “had connections with areas of the neighboring piedmonts to the north and south, and, before the Silk Road, with regions farther away, including Chinese mainland, the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent, and Central Asian oases and steppes” (2009:193, 195). Qiang were in the Kunlun ‘piedmont’ southwest of Yumi, to the west of Qule, so it seems likely they were among those who had connections with Yuansha. In their study of Yuansha mitochondrial DNA, Gao et al discovered an alignment with the modern populations of Shugnan in Tajikistan and of the Indus Valley and they suggest the Yuansha population originated in the eastward migration of Indo-Afghan (Eastern Mediterranean) types in the mid to late first millennium BC (Gao et al 2008). Kaladun, c.40km south of Yuansha, was a main settlement on the Keriya River established in the late Western Han period when the Yuansha site could no longer sustain its population. “In 2.2 ka BP, Keriya River’s avulsion imposed central place migration to Karadun as Yuansha was progressively abandoned. The migrants and their descendants became part of the Wumi Kingdom known from the historical literatures of the Western Han times. About 1.9 ka BP, the river channel at Yuansha again carried water and a new settlement developed, only to be (as with Loulan and Jingjue) eventually abandoned around 1.6 ka BP.” (Zhang et al, 2011:1979). Zhang et al also point out that ancient Yuansha, is “about 60km west of the present river course,” (2011:1972) which shows how much river-dependent settlements were at the mercy of natural influences, especially those like Yuansha in the delta regions. Art found in Kaladun (Karadong) shows Indo-Gandharian influence. Today’s settlement of Daheyan (大河沿, or Darya-Boyi) lies 20km southeast of Karadong and is inhabited by the only modern Xinjiang population so far showing evidence of sub-haplogroup U3 (Cui et al 2010) which was also found at the ancient Shanpula and Niya grave sites (Cui et al 2009) and originates from the Near East and Iran. Cui et al suggest this U3 indicates a remnant of immigrants from the Near East / Caucasus area, most of whom subsequently migrated away from the Keriya River region (2010:6). See Cariou (2008) for a Keriya map. Di Cosmo (2000:405) speculates that the lack of fortresses pre-400 BC in the Tarim oasis regions may point to a fairly rapid development of the oasis states around 400-300 BC, with the building of fortresses perhaps indicating antagonism between different cultures, between newcomers and earlier populations, and indicating territorial competition between pastoral and agricultural lifestyles. With water and useable land both precious commodities in the Tarim, such competition seems highly likely. This also accords with the tradition recorded by Stein that Khotan was “conquered and colonized” in late BC by immigrants from Taxila in today’s Pakistan (1933:49, see n.105 below) and raises the question of whether the newly established colonies would have obstructed the seasonal movement of local residents between their winter settlements in the Tarim basin and their summer pastures in the Kunlun. With life so dependent on access to water, a newly established fortified colony could easily cut off or hinder movement along these rivers flowing north out of the Kunlun and into the Tarim basin, crossing the ‘southern route.’ If their lifelines cut off, would this have forced pastoral people like the Qiang to move elsewhere? As evidenced by finds at Niya and Shanpula, Sheng (2010:38) suggests that pastoral nomads and settlers developed a measure of co-existence, but with migration, river movement, climate change, as well as Han expansion and power struggles with the Xiongnu, it seems there was no such thing as an extended status quo. 103 宁弥: can mean ‘pacified Mi’. 104 Qule, south of Yumi, was 300 li (c.125km) further from the protector general than Yumi so it may have extended as far south as today’s Pulu in the Kunlun foothills. The absence of any Qiang directly south of Qule is perhaps explained by the bleakness of the western branch of the upper Keriya River. In their 1892 expedition up the Keriya River and across the Kunlun to northern Tibet, Fernand Grenard and Dutreuil de Rhins found it to be an uninhabited, desolate route that resulted in the loss of 12 of their 36 horses. According to Grenard, Pulu (Polur) was the last settlement into the Kunlun on the Keriya River and the locals from Pulu who accompanied them soon begged to return to Pulu, so bad were the conditions further up into the Kunlun. (1904:8, 13.) Aurel Stein wrote of this route via Pulu that “it can never have

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has 310 households with 2,170 people and 300 able to fight. It is 3,850 northeast to the protector general. Ronglu is to the east, the Er Qiang are to the west and Yumi is to the north. Yutian state (于阗国):105 The king governs from Xicheng (西城, Western Town) which is 9,670 li

served for movements of any consequence…. The difficulties presented by the precipitous rock slopes of the deep-cut gorges…are exceptionally great and make portions of the route practically impossible for laden animals.” (1921:1323-4.) The presence of Er Qiang to the west of Qule may indicate they were in the foothills south of today’s Qira (Cele) where several tributaries of the Yurungkash River (meaning ‘White Jade River’) flow south out of the Kunlun. 105 Yutian was in today’s Khotan region (Hetian 和田) and the capital is thought to have been at Yoktan, about 10 miles west of today’s Khotan city. Although it has a significant Chinese population nowadays and movement is restricted by modern national boundaries, descriptions by travellers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries indicate close connections with Central Asia and northern India, in part due to Khotan’s relative proximity to the Karakoram Pass. Aurel Stein, commenting on the Indian Prakrit with Sanskrit admix of the Kharoshthi documents of this region noted that “Their discovery in this region seems curiously bound up with the old local tradition, recorded by Hsüan-tsang and also in old Tibetan texts, that the territory of Khotan was conquered and colonized about two centuries before our era by Indian immigrants from Takshasila, the Taxila of the Greeks, in the extreme north-western corner of the Panjab.” (1933:49.) According to Xuanzang, Khotan was founded by officials banished by the Indian ruler Ashoka (r. 269-232 BC) of the Mauryan Dynasty. [For this and other accounts of the founding of Khotan see http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asoka-mauryan-emperor]. Christopoulos (2013:18) suggests these migrants were “perhaps an ethnically mixed army of mercenaries from Taxila” and refers to them as “Greco-Bactrians and their Hellenized Scythian troops.” (2013:2) Harmatta refers to them as Indo-Europeans (1994:488, see n.53 above). Whether the founders of Khotan were Indo-Greek, Indian, or an ethnic mix, this helps to explain why Chinese documents of the Han period do not mention Sai along the southern route. Although Bailey suggests they were Saka and that “the language of Khotan is a Saka dialect,” he points out that “The local texts of Khotan and Tumshuq do not use the name Saka of themselves.” (1970:68-69) Shache (Yarkand), northwest of Khotan and whose name is associated with Saka, defeated Khotan in 56 AD but was then defeated by Khotan in 61 AD, after which Khotan dominated the western part of the southern route.

The extensive Shanpula (Sampul/Sampula) cemetery, which dates from roughly 200 BC to 200 AD, (i.e. the whole Han period) lies about 40km southeast of ancient Yoktan and 14km southwest of Lopu, so it seems to have been more associated with Luopu and the foothills to the south than with Khotan. It is not clear whether any of the Er Qiang to the south of Khotan would have been buried here but if they wintered in the Kunlun foothills it’s a possibility. Bunker (2001:16) points out that Shanpula is not an elite burial site. “A preliminary study of the archaeological evidence reveals a complex cultural mixture of distant Iranian artistic elements, evidence for long-distance contact with dynastic China, and burial practices related to the agro-pastoral lifestyle of the local population that are not duplicated elsewhere in Central Asia.” Debaine-Francfort (1989:205) refers to two large collective burial tombs at Shanpula containing mainly adults of an Indo-Afghan (i.e. Eastern Mediterranean) type and some much smaller collective burials. Besides these there are also some individual ‘second burial’ tombs with sheep bones found in many tombs and young children wrapped in foliage rather than placed in coffins. Second burials were sometimes the reburial of those who had died up in the summer pastures and whose bodies were brought back at the end of the season for a proper burial.

Physical anthropologist Han Kangxin, in his study of skulls in various Xinjiang cemeteries including Shanpula concluded that, “Several centuries B.C.E. or a little earlier, other racial elements close to that of the East Mediterranean in physical character entered into the western part of Xinjiang from the Central Asian region of the former USSR. Their movement was from west to east (Xiangbaobao, Tashkurgan, Shanpula-Luopu, Loulan cemeteries). In other words, some of them gradually moved along the southern margin of the Tarim Basin to the Lopnor area and converged with the existing population in the region.” (Han 1994:6) Related to this, a genetic study by Cui et al (2009) which included Zaghunluq, Niya and Shanpula, found many genetic mtDNA similarities between the ancient population and today’s residents but one marked difference was the presence of U3 in the ancient population and not in the modern (except for in Daheyan, see Cui et al, 2010). U3 was particularly evident in Niya and Shanpula (2009:3917): “Previous studies indicated U3 originates from Near East and Iran, the east area of Mediterranean, and the physical anthropological characters of the extant populations in these two regions also belong to the Eastern Mediterranean type. Thereby, it was reasonable to conjecture that

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to Chang’an. It has 3,300 households, 19,300 people and 2,400 able to fight. … It is 3,947 li northeast to the protector general. It adjoins the Er Qiang in the south106 and Gumo in the north. West of Yutian the rivers all flow west and pour into the western sea.107 East of Yutian the rivers

before the early Iron Age, a branch of the Mediterranean type populations from Near East or Iran region migrated eastward across the Pamirs, and reached the southern margin of the Tarim Basin.” (2009:3921) In their mitochondrial DNA analysis of Shanpula samples, Xie et al discovered a relationship between some of the ancient people of Shanpula and Ossetian, Turkmenistan, and Iranian peoples (2007:932). The language of the Ossetians shares a genetic link with the Yaghnobi language of the western Pamir and they are thought either to be descendants of the Alani or to have adopted an Iranian language from the Alani (Nasidze et al, 2004:588). Although there is no reason to draw a direct Qiang link here, the Qiang and Ossetians do have some things in common:

a. Both regions still practice sheep sacrifice. b. Both are known for their distinctive towers, some of which share similarities, particularly their

tapered shape and the door several feet above ground level. E.g. Ossetia: http://www.kaukaz.net/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/english/northossetia/ossetia_gal3 Qiang: http://image.baidu.com/i?tn=baiduimage&ct=201326592&lm=-1&cl=2&fr=ala1&word=%C7%BC%D7%E5%B5%EF%C2%A5 and www.qianghistory.co.uk

c. Today’s Qiang area and Ossetia are both known for their polyphonic singing. E.g. Ossetian: http://petitesplanetes.bandcamp.com/track/aphsaty Qiang: http://www.56.com/u56/v_MTkwNzQ5MjU.html (at 1.05 mins of 3.12 mins.)

106 No population numbers are given for these Er Qiang south of Yutian, nor are they mentioned as a state and it seems likely that they were nomads not under control of the Han. Stein describes the Yurungkash, Sampula and Lop areas of southern Khotan as cultivated areas but to their south “ the wide barren glacis of piedmont gravel stretches up to the foot of the mountains. This is bordered here and there by narrow patches of cultivation…. Only where some of the valleys open out at their top into broad uplands and the vicinity of perpetual snow and ice secures adequate moisture, is summer grazing to be found at great elevations.” (1923:74.) It seems likely that these Er Qiang were somewhere in the foothills or higher up and using the summer grazing in the uplands for their livestock.

Travellers of the late 19th and early 20th century (e.g. Johnson 1867; Forsyth 1875; Trinkler 1930) noted Kirghiz encampments southwest of Khotan along the route from Sanju (Sangzhu 桑株) up to the Sanju Pass in the Kunlun, along the Karakash River to Shahidulla, which was a main grazing ground on the routes from Khotan and Yarkand to Ladakh, and from there to the Karakoram Pass, the only pass in the region suitable for heavy loads. Like the Er Qiang, these Kirghiz, who also had no fixed borders, were noted for not engaging in cultivation and with the similarities in both lifestyle and location it is feasible that ancient Qiang locations may correspond quite closely to the 19th century Kirghiz encampments in the region. If their summer pastures were up in these higher Kirghiz areas of the late 19th century around Shahidulla, it also seems likely they would have been familiar with and perhaps even controlled the route between Khotan and the Karakoram Pass. Despite the rough terrain, sheep can cope well in such an environment. In 1927 Trinkler took 31 yak and 70 sheep on his journey from Ladakh to southwestern Xinjiang: “I knew that sheep could be extremely valuable as transport animals. … it was probable that sheep could stand the hardships of such a journey at least much better than horses could do. The Tibetans also use sheep as transport animals, loading them with salt and wool. … I think none of us anticipated that our sheep would eventually save our lives, and that only one yak would [survive]. … The more the yaks died, the more our sheep had to carry…they could carry as much as 30 lbs weight, … sheep can nearly always get enough food while grazing during the march. They pick up small plants or some grass here and there, however scanty it might be.” (1930:505, 507, 508. See whole journal for valuable photos, maps and accounts of the region). There is no doubt that in the Han period, sheep were a defining aspect of Qiang identity. Xu Shen’s early 2nd century AD dictionary (Shuowen Jiezi) explained the meaning of Qiang 羌 as

Western Rong shepherds, with the Qiang 羌 character consisting of two components, ‘person’ and ‘sheep’,

and the pronunciation derived from ‘yang 羊, i.e. sheep. (西戎牧羊人也。从人从羊，羊亦声). 107 Although the term ‘western sea’ (西海) is used in Chapter 99 below to refer to the general region to the

west of China, the use here of the verb ‘to pour’ (注西海) indicates a literal body of water. The rivers referred to here cannot indicate the Yarkand or Karakash Rivers which flow north into the Tarim Basin. However, the text may well refer to a much broader ‘western regions’ context including the whole area west of Yutian included in the southern route. In this context it could indicate the various tributaries west of the Karakoram range which flow into the Indus. The Shyok river rises just south of the Karakoram Pass,

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flow east and empty into the salt marsh where the (Yellow) River emerges.108 There is much jade in Yutian.109 Pishan is 380 li to the west. Until this point, the places described have been in order along the southern route from east to west. Today’s main route continues round to Kashgar via Pishan, Yecheng (Kargilik) and Shache (Yarkand). However, in the Han Shu text, after Pishan, which has no mention of Qiang and which today is where the main route begins to move away from the Kunlun, there is a major diversion in order to include many places further to the west, before the text resumes its progress around the Tarim Basin to Shache, Kashgar and then from west to east along the northern route. The textual order of these places to the west is: Wucha, Xiye, Puli, Yinai, Wulei, Nandou, Jibin, Wuyishanli, Anxi, Da Yuezhi, Da Xia, Kangju, Taohuai, Xiuxun, and Juandu. Of these, the first Qiang reference after those south of Yutian (Hetian/Khotan) is Xiye, whose people are of the same type, at least regarding nomadic lifestyle, as the ‘Qiang Di’. The people of Puli, Yinai and Wulei are all of this same type. The only other Qiang reference is specifically to some Er Qiang south of Nandou. The locations of these Qiang-type groups beyond Pishan show these groups holding a block of territory between the western end of the Tarim Basin and the Da Yuezhi who were established west of the Pamir, to the north and south of the Oxus River. They are roughly as follows: from Pishan, Wucha is southwest and Xiye is west. Puli is west of Xiye and Shache, with Yinai probably to the south of Puli. Wulei is west of Puli and the Da Yuezhi are west of Wulei. Nandou is west of Wucha with Jibin to the southwest and the Da Yuezhi to the west. This region would have included much of today’s extensive Tashkurgan county and stretched into the Wakhan corridor and parts of Tajikistan in the Pamirs to the north and into Pakistan to

the south.110 It was a highly significant region controlling access eastwards to Shache, westwards to the Oxus Basin and southwest to the upper Indus.

Pishan state (皮山国):111 the king governs from Pishan town. It is 10,050 to Chang’an and has 500 households, 3,500 people and 500 fighters. It is 4,292 li northeast to the protector general and 1,340 li southwest to Wucha state. It connects with Tiandu112 in the south. Gumo is 1,450 li to the north. To the southwest lies the route to Jibin and Wuyishanli. Shache is 380 li to the northwest.

is joined by the Nubra river, flows through Khaplu and joins the Indus southeast of Skardu (Baltistan). The Jhelam, Chenab, Ravi and Satluj rivers also flow southwest into the Indus which then enters the Arabian Sea. The entry below for Wuyishanli, in the region of the Iran-Afghan-Pakistan border, notes that it is adjacent to the Western Sea (临西海), i.e. the Arabian Sea, and at the extreme end of the southern route. 108 It was thought in ancient times that Lopnor Lake was source of the Yellow River from whence it went underground before emerging in Qinghai. 109 As mentioned in n.96, jade was already being transported from Khotan to China’s central plains in the late 2nd millennium BC as evidenced by Khotan jade found in the tomb of Fu Hao, the warrior consort of the Shang king, Wu Ding (c.1200 BC). The Yuezhi are mentioned by Guanzi in the 7th century BC as suppliers of jade to China’s central plains and “had been middlemen between China and Central Asia in ancient times.” (Liu Xinru, 2010: Kindle 110). They had been neighbours of the Qiang in the Gansu-Xinjiang border region until the majority of the Yuezhi were banished west along the northern route by the Xiongnu (c.176 BC) and the remnant of the Yuezhi allied themselves with the Qiang in the southern mountains (Kunlun/Altun/Qilian region). It is not known whether the Qiang and Yuezhi ever cooperated in the jade trade but the Yuezhi would have been very familiar with the southern route along which these Han period Qiang were scattered. 110 For maps showing west-east routes to Tashkurgan see The Silk Road of Tajikistan by Sunatullo Jonboboev and Sharofat Mamadambarova. www.meta.tj/wp-content/uploads/The-Silk-Road-of-Tajikistan.pdf 111 Today’s region of Pishan, between Hetian (Khotan) and Shache (Yarkand). 112 天笃: an old name for India. Later names for it are found in Ch 54 of the Liang Shu: Tianzhu (天竺) and

Shendu (身毒). Ladakh, in today’s Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is directly south of Pishan, across the Karakoram Pass. Grenard (1904:30) comments on a Kashmir fort at Shahidulla so at times Kashmir’s influence extended across the Karakoram into today’s Chinese territory, something which may also have been true of Tiandu in the Han period.

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Wucha state (乌秅国):113 the king governs from Wucha town which is 9,950 li to Chang’an. There are 490 households with 2,733 people and 740 able to fight. It is 4,892 northeast to the protector general. Zihe and Puli are to the north and it adjoins Nandou in the west. The people live in the mountains and their fields are among the rocks. There is white grass.114 The houses are built of piled stones. The people cup their hands together to drink. They have horses and donkeys but no cattle. To the west are the suspended crossings115 … These suspended crossings are rocky mountains with uncrossable gorges so the people use ropes to pull each other across. Xiye state (西夜国):116 the title of the king is ‘Zihe King’ (子合王) and he governs from Hujian

113 Wucha: Hill discusses the location of Wucha in detail (2009:208) and locates it extending from the southwest of Tashkurgan county (in the Taghdumbash Pamir region) across the Mintaka and Kilik passes into Upper Hunza. The Chinese Baidu entry (http://baike.baidu.com/view/1078982.htm) places it in the lower part of this region between the upper reaches of the Yarkand River and the Karakoram range. This fits with the Pishan entry above which records Wucha as southwest of Pishan and also fits with the ‘suspended crossings’ being in the Hunza gorge to the west of Wucha but not in Wucha. Ch 108 of the Wei Shu (Northern Wei period, 386-535 AD), locates Wucha southwest of Xiye (Yecheng area) which would correspond to this Yarkand-Karakoram region. This region between the upper Yarkand and the Karakoram contains the Aghil Mountains and Shaksgam valley and is traditionally associated with the Baltistan-Ladakh region. Travelling from Skardu in Baltistan, the 1937 Shipton expedition explored this area. Spender, one of the party, writes of “many remains of habitation… many temporary stone-shelters and some ruins, possibly of some very old large houses” at Sughet Jangal, near the junction of the Shaksgam River and the Sarpo Laggo Glacier/River (Spender, 1938). As they travelled up to the Aghil Pass they also came across stone shelters and cairns marking the route, which then followed the Surukwat River down to its junction with the Yarkand River. In the Wei Shu (Ch 108) an Agou Qiang state (阿钩羌国) is recorded as southwest of Shache

(Yarkand) and, like Wucha, was to the east of the ‘suspended crossing mountains’ (县度山). This would have been north of Wucha and may have corresponded to the northern part of the region described by Hill above and overlapped with the area of the Qiang-Di type people of Puli and Zihe in the Han period. 114 白草: Pennisetum centrasiaticum Tzvel or perennial whitegrass. 115县度 (悬渡): this term describes mountainous regions where narrow valleys are crossed by ropes and plank paths are built into the cliff faces which tower above the valleys. As a descriptive term rather than a proper name, it may well have applied to more than one region. Stein (1942) and Jettmar (1987) both apply the term to the Upper Indus gorge southwest of Shatial but in the context here it seems either to be specifically the gorges of the Hunza River which cut north to south through the Karakoram Range, or possibly even a general description for the Karakoram, which does not seem to be named in the Han Shu unless it is included in the term Congling. In the Wei Shu (Ch 108) the region is called the Xuandu Mountains (县度山) and it is clearly explained that the name derives from the use of plank roads and ropes to negotiate the steep mountains valleys. (The use of these is widespread. Early photos of Western Sichuan show both in use in the early 20th century.) 116 Xiye: There is some confusion regarding the relationship between Xiye and Zihe, which may just reflect clan divisions within a larger tribe. Puli, in the next entry, is said to border Zihe and Xiye to the south, suggesting two separate but adjacent entities but in this actual Xiye entry we are only given one set of statistics. In the HHS Xiye and Zihe are listed separately with the comment that the Han Shu was in error to see them as one and that “each place now has a king.” In the Han Shu, Xiye has 4,000 people, the king governs from Hujian valley, and the people, who are of the same type as the Qiang and Di, are nomadic and live in a jade-producing region. By contrast, in the HHS it is Zihe which is located in Hujian valley and has a population of 4,000, whereas the Xiye of the HHS has more than 10,000 people and is also called ‘Drifting Sands’ (Piaosha, 漂沙), which suggests proximity to desert terrain, probably around Yecheng. This seems to indicate that the Xiye of the Han Shu, which has a king entitled Zihe, is actually equivalent to the Zihe of the Hou Han Shu and consists of 4,000 people based in the Hujian valley. Judging by the directions to Pishan, Shache and Puli, the Xiye of the Han Shu was probably in the upper reaches of the Tiznap River valley (Tiznef, 提孜那甫河) which eventually intersects with today’s national route G219. Hill equates Zihe with Shahidullah. (See Hill 2009:196-200.)

(On his blog page, Kraig Becker describes a marathon, part of which took place along the Tiznap River: “Still, more than 170 competitors remain in the race, and today's course took them through the

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Valley (呼犍谷). It is 10,250 li to Chang’an and there are 350 households with 4,000 people and 1,000 fighters. The protector general is 5,046 to the northeast. It is east to Pishan, southwest to Wucha, north to Shache and it adjoins Puli in the west. The states of Puli, Yinai and Wulei are all of the Xiye kind. The people of Xiye are different from the Hu. They are of the same kind117 as the nomadic Qiang (and) Di states,118 following their animals in search of water and pasture and coming and going. There is jade in Zihe. Puli state (蒲犁国):119 the king rules in Puli Valley which is 9,550 li to Chang’an. There are 650

Tiznap River gorge for 19 straight kilometers. The race continued up into the hills, racing along the over flowing banks of the river itself, until it ended in the village of Langer, the end of the second stage.” http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html) It is generally accepted that the Xiye of the HHS is today’s Yecheng (Kargilik). At present there seems to be little archaeological exploration in Yecheng to yield more light on its ancient history. The difference between the HS and HHS statistics and descriptions raises the question of whether, some time in the Han period, Yecheng was actually established by the Xiye-type people, which included those of Puli, Wulei and Yinai. Yecheng has fertile agricultural land and would have been a prize for these pastoral nomads. We see below that in the Western Han period Puli was dependent on Shache for agricultural land and Yinai was dependent on Shule and Shache. By the Eastern Han period of the HHS, Yinai is not mentioned and Puli and Wulei are mentioned in passing as west of Shache but are not in the list of places described. The Shache (Yarkand) entry below says Shache, with a population of 16,373, had an official in charge of defending Shache from the ruler of Xiye. This seems surprising considering the larger population of Shache and suggests the people of Xiye were encroaching on them or carrying out raids. This hostility continued into the early first century AD. The HHS tells of King Xian of Shache conquering Xiye, killing its king and installing his own nephew as king. Some years later he also killed a king of Zihe, who at that time was under his rule.

By the Northern Wei period, the Wei Shu (Ch 108) agrees with the Han Shu that Zihe was an alternative name for Xiye and that the king was called ‘Zi 子’. It had the alternative name of Xijuban 悉居

半 by the Northern Wei period and was described as west of Yutian. Zihe state (子合国) is also mentioned

in the ‘Record of Buddhist States’ by the Chinese monk, Faxian (法显, 337-422 AD), who rested there for 15 days before taking a four day journey south into the Congling. This suggests that Zihe, like the Yecheng area, was not deep in the mountains and that Faxian’s Zihe was equivalent to Xiye of the HHS and Wei Shu. 117 其种类羌氐行国: This is the only instance of ‘种类’ (type, species) in the chapter and indicates a common ethnic identity among the peoples of Xiye, Puli, Yinai and Wulei and possibly also with the Qiang Di. Hulsewé and Loewe (1979:101) translate it thus: “their race is of the same type as the Ch’iang and the Ti. It is a land of nomads…” The contrast between Shache needing to defend itself against Xiye and the dependence of Yinai and Puli on Shache for agricultural land suggests that the ethnic and cultural similarity of these groups didn’t always result in the building of similar alliances. 118 Qiang Di (羌氐): The use of two characters together to indicate a broad region of non-Chinese was a

common occurrence, e.g. 蛮夷 (Man Yi) in the southwest and 戎狄 (Rong Di) in the north and northwest.

Qiang Di generally indicated a type of people to the west of China. Where the Di (氐) is used independent of the Qiang (e.g. Ch 28 (Part 1) and Ch 95 above) it generally refers to a people in today’s northern Sichuan/southern Gansu border region. Ch 30 of the Wei Shu in the Three Kingdoms Annals lists the Di and Qiang as separate groups and says of the Di, “Their customs and language are not like those of the Middle Kingdom, but similar to those of the Qiang and several Hu peoples.” (Hill, 2004:15) ‘Hu’ here would be a loose term for various Central Asians. 119 Puli is generally thought to have been in the region of Tashkurgan, the county town of today’s Tashkurgan Tajik autonomous county in western Xinjiang. This extensive county borders Tajikistan, Afghanistan’s Wakhan corridor and Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Yang Juping agrees with Narain (1957:170, after Cunningham) that Puli and Shule (Kashgar) may be Strabo’s Phryni and Seres (2009:16). Strabo records that, according to Apollodorus of Artemita, the Greco-Bactrian empire extended eastwards as far as these Phryni (Strabo 1917-1932, Vol. 5: 11.11.1). Puli and Wulei were of the same ethnic type and Wulei bordered Nandou to the east which was a vassal of Jibin. Jibin, in the middle and lower Kabul River area, was ruled by the Indo-Greeks during parts of the Western Han period so if that rule extended to Nandou, Indo-Greek power bordering this region of the peoples of Wulei and Puli (Phryni?) is plausible.

It is not known whether the Qiang Di type peoples of Puli are connected with pre-Han

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archaeological finds in this area such as the ancient cemeteries of Xiangbaobao (香宝宝) and Xiabandi (下

坂地) but Ma and Wang (1994:2010) suggest that the 19 cremations found at Xiangbaobao (Xiangbabai) indicate a Qiang presence. This hypothesis needs further confirmation as it is mainly based on descriptions by Mozi and Xunzi in China’s Warring States period (5th – 3rd century BC) of cremation as a specific Qiang custom (Kleeman, 1998:56). Xiangbaobao lies 2km north of Tashkurgan town and dates roughly to between 800 and 500-400 BC. Han Kangxin’s study of the one skull collected from Xiangbaobao found that its “characteristics are close to that of both the modern East Mediterranean and the ancient Saka of the south Pamir within the former USSR.” (1994:4) Yablonsky, researching sites in Tajikistan (e.g. Ak Beit cemetery southwest of Tashkurgan), concurs with Han’s view: “In the eastern Pamir Mountains, the homogeneous Saka population were dolichocephalic Europoids with narrow and very high faces. Little doubt remains about the origin of the Pamir Saka. According to V. Ginzburg, they were carriers of the Mediterranean complex of cranial traits. The distinct physical differences between these tribes and their contemporary neighbors occupying the Semirechiye and regions to the north, testify to the biological, but not cultural, isolation of the Pamir Saka.” (Yablonsky, 1995:238). ‘Saka’ here clearly relates to culture rather than ethnicity. Could these biologically isolated people of the eastern Pamir be the Qiang-Di type peoples of Puli, Xiye, Yinai and Wulei who seem to have dominated the eastern Pamirs in the early Han period? The eastern Pamir Saka are described by Yablonsky here as homogeneous even if they overlap culturally with others. This seems to be the case too with the use of 种

类 for these Qiang-like peoples (see n.117) suggesting homogeneity but, for example, the people of Wulei have clothing like the Wusun further north in the Semirechiye (see Wulei entry below).

Cremations were also found by Yablonsky in Saka-type cemeteries dating to the 7th – 6th centuries BC in southern Turkmenistan’s Sakar-Chagar region. He notes, “Some pits had four feigned corner posts. Occasionally the cremation was performed inside the burial chamber. However, more frequently, the deceased was cremated on the ground surface inside a circular stony area, or within a round or oval pole-frame structure.” (1995:224-5) Whether or not there are any Qiang links here is unclear but there is some similarity to Graham’s early 20th century description of Qiang cremation structures: “Each house is set on a stone base that rises about a foot above the ground. The sides are not boarded up, but there are large wooden posts at the corners and between them small wooden posts a few inches apart. Before each cremation eight or more men lift the entire building off its base and place it at one side. After the fire of the cremation has died out, the building is again put into place. The cremation is performed inside the stone foundation.” (1958:41) In the Sakar-Chaga region some bodies were “cremated in an unknown location, brought to the cemetery, and then placed in the burial…” (Yablonsky, 1995:225-6) This was also the case in Xinjiang where some of the deceased “were cremated in another location before being brought to the kurgan location.” (1995:238). This may suggest that the same people used both inhumation and cremation with the latter being used for those who died far away from the burial ground, possibly during their summer pasture season. Ma and Wang point out that despite the presence of inhumations and cremations, the Xiangbaobao inhabitants essentially shared a common culture: a sheep-dependent livelihood (cloth, clothing and food) and a “developed use of metal.” (1994:210-11).

Inhumations (c.90%) and cremations (c.10%) were also found at the monocultural Xiabandi cemetery about 40km east of Tashkurgan county town in Bandi township (班迪乡). With some of the cremations the carcass of a sheep was placed at the entrance to the grave after the cremated body had been placed in the tomb (Wu 2005:110). This is also suggestive of Qiang customs. Traditionally, when a person dies, the Qiang kill a sheep to guide the deceased to the afterlife. The sheep is known as the ‘guiding the way sheep’ (引路羊) (Zhou et al, 2004:385).These Xiabandi cremations had stone circles and piles and some were stone coffin burials. The greyish or brick-red pottery in the tombs was similar to that of Xiangbaobao and Wu (2005:112) points out that pottery and earrings found at Xiabandi were also similar to items found in Saka sites in the Tajikistan Pamir region which date roughly to 7th – 4th century BC. As mentioned in n.101 above, similar pottery was also found at Liushui cemetery. Use of these cemeteries all seems to have ceased by around 500 - 400 BC. Shui (1998:163) points out that the pottery of Xiangbaobao and Shanpula (which he calls Shanbabay and Sampul) shares some similarities, although Shanpula dates only from about 200 BC. This could point to an eastward movement of people in the latter part of the last millennium BC from the Pamir along the southern route to Shanpula.

In 2013, another cluster of tombs was excavated just north of Tashkurgan town at the Jirzankal site in Qushiman village (曲什曼村). They date to c.550 BC and finds include what “appears to be the earliest discovery of a Zoroastrian fire altar worldwide to date” as well as a steppe harp of the kind found in Qiemo’s Zaghunluq cemetery (see n.96). (Institute of Archaeology report, CASS, 26.10.2013.) The report also notes “unusual white stones” beneath a ceramic pot by one of the skulls. White stones play a

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households, 5,000 people and 2,000 able to fight.120 The protector general is 5,396 li to the northeast. Shache is 540 li to the east and Shule (Kashgar) is 550 li to the north. Puli adjoins Xiye and Zihe121 in the south and it is 540 li to Wulei in the west. … The people rely on Shache for agricultural land and are of the same type and customs as Zihe. There are grave inconsistencies in some entries regarding distance to the protector general whereas the distances to Chang’an are relatively consistent. Puli is apparently 5,396 li to the protector general and 540 li from Shache (Yarkand) whereas Yinai is 2,730 to the protector general and 540 li from Shache and, despite being west of Yinai, Wulei is 2,465 to the protector general and 540 li south of Puli. The same problem arises further on with Shule (Kashgar) and Shache: Shache is 4,746 li to the protector general and 560 li to Shule whereas Shule is 2,210 li to the protector general and 560 li to Shache. (One Han li = 415.8m)

Yinai state (依耐国):122 the king governs from [text omission]… It is 10,150 li to Chang’an and there are 125 households, 670 people, 350 able to fight. It is 2,730 northeast to the protector general. It is 540 li to Shache, 540 li to Wulei and 650 li north to Shule. It adjoins Zihe in the south and has the same customs. They have little grain and depend on Shule and Shache for agricultural land. Wulei state (无雷国):123 the king governs from Wulei town and it is 9,950 li to Chang’an. There are 1,000 households, 7,000 people, and 3,000 able to fight. It is 2,465 li northeast to the protector general. It is 540 li south [east]124 to Puli. Wucha is to the south, Juandu to the north125 and it connects with the Da Yuezhi to the west. Their clothing is like that of the Wusun126 but their customs are like Zihe. Nandou state (难兜难兜):127 the king governs 10,150 li from Chang’an. [No town given.] There

significant role in Qiang culture today but there is not enough description to know if the Jirzankal white stones played any similar role. It is often said nowadays that Qiang people worship the white stones placed on their rooftops or in their sacred groves but the author was told by a Qiang lady that they are representative of god(s) worshipped rather than an object of worship themselves. One Qiang friend also suggested they may have served as way-markers in the past. 120 Like the Er Qiang these groups have a very high proportion of their people trained in warfare. See Wulei and Yinai also. 121 I.e. Xiye and Zihe are noted as separate but adjacent entities here. 122 Yinai and Puli are both north of Zihe and were close neighbours. Yinai is not mentioned in the Hou Han Shu. The NAHS places Yinai in the area of today’s Bulunmusha township (布伦木沙) southeast of Tashkurgan town. Both Puli and Yinai depended on Shache (Yarkand) for agricultural land and Yinai also depended on Shule (Kashgar). (See n. 90 for Shanshan also using this practice.) It seems Yinai and Puli had livestock in the eastern Pamir and carried out seasonal farming on the lowlands belonging to Shache and Shule. 123 Wulei lay between Puli and the Da Yuezhi. Hill (2009:401) equates Wulei with the Great and Little Pamir Valleys, including Sarhad at the foot of the Baroghil Pass. 124 The next sentence states that Wucha is to the south and we have already been told in the Puli section above that Puli is east of Wulei so the statement here should also read that Puli is to the east rather than the south. 125 Juandu: the Irkeshtam region at the eastern end of Kyrgyzstan’s Alai Valley (west of Kashgar). See also n.150. Juandu was a Sai region. 126 The Wusun (see n.158) were a large group further north in the Semirechiye area and further east. The Wusun were pastoral nomads as were the people of Zihe, so the reference to Wulei having customs similar to Zihe but by implication not like the Wusun, must indicate something other than nomadism – perhaps shared religious or other cultural customs. The Wulei were of the Qiang Di type. The Wusun section below says Wusun customs were like the Xiongnu. (See Watson 1961:155ff for a detailed description of Xiongnu customs in the Shiji.) 127 Nandou lies north of some Er Qiang. It is south of Xiuxun, east of the Da Yuezhi, west of Wucha and Wulei, and to the northeast of Jibin and is the only vassal of Jibin recorded in the Han Shu. According to P’iankov (1994) “Nandou encompasses Gilgit with Hunza and Yasin and also evidently Wakhan and the adjoining parts of the Pamir plateau.” This is very roughly the equivalent of the region to the west of

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are 5,000 households, 30,000 people and 8,000 able to fight. It is 2,850 li northeast to the protector general. Wulei (无雷) is 340 li to the west [east]128 and Jibin is 330 li to the southwest. Nandou connects with the Er Qiang to the south,129 with the Xiuxun to the north and with the Da

today’s Tashkurgan county and stretches from the southern Tajik part of the Pamirs south across Afghanistan’s Wakhan corridor into northern Pakistan. P’iankov suggests that Nandou occupied the eastern part of the Wakhan corridor with the western part occupied by Xiumi, a region of Bactria under Da Yuezhi control. This would agree with Nandou adjoining the Da Yuezhi in the west. The extension of Nandou up into the Pamir north of the Wakhan corridor also agrees with Xiuxun being to the north. If, as suggested in n.113, Wucha is in the Aghil and Shaksgam region between the upper Yarkand River and the Karakoram range, and part of Nandou is west of Wucha, this suggests that southern Nandou did include at least part of the Gilgit region. It had a larger population than many places mentioned so was probably quite extensive. Shiratori (1941, cited in CICA, p103, n.195) locates Nandou on the lower Gilgit River, which enters the Indus River to the northwest of Skardu.

Based on ancient Gandhara being the heartland of Jibin (see n. 130) with its capital at today’s Charsadda, Hill (2009:499-500) suggests that Nandou was located further west in Chitral and the upper Swat valley with its capital close to today’s Madyan to the north of Mingora. However, this region is to the north of the region around Charsadda whereas Gilgit is to the northeast. Also, if Xiuxun extends south from the Alai valley into the Pamirs and has Nandou to the south, P’iankov’s location of Nandou being in Gilgit seems more probable. Another point in favour of this is that although the distances given are unreliable, Nandou is listed as 10,150 li from Chang’an, similar to the Qiang Di type states (Puli, Yinai, Wulei and Xiye), whereas Jibin is 12,200 li from Chang’an and Swat and Chitral are closer to Jibin than to these other states. 128 Wulei is closer to Chang’an than Nandou so ‘west’ is unlikely. Its proximity to Puli plus the fact that locations to the south, north, and west are mentioned but not east suggest that the text should read that Wulei was east of Nandou. In his late Qing commentary on Li Daoyuan’s 6th century Shuijing Commentary, Yang Shoujing also argues that Wulei is east of Nandou, in part because Nandou is south of Xiuxun and Wulei is south of Juandu, which is east of Xiuxun. 129 These Er Qiang south of Nandou are the westernmost Qiang mentioned in the Han Shu. If Hill’s location of Nandou in the Swat valley is correct, these Er Qiang could have been east of Peshawar, in the eastern part of today’s predominantly Pashtun region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. If P’iankov’s Nandou location is correct, they would have been in Baltistan in the region of Skardu and the western Karakoram.

Wherever these Qiang were, it seems, characteristically, that they were away from the main routes of the period, somewhere in the mountainous northern Indus region between Mansehra and Baltistan to the north of the vale of Kashmir and west of the Karakoram range. They are not referred to as a state, which suggests nomadism or that they had lost territory and were looking for a new place to settle. The area had seen many upheavals. Rock carvings in the Upper Indus and across to Ladakh point to a pre-Achaemenid influx of Iranian speaking nomads (Hauptmann 2007:27). In around 517 BC the Achaemenid empire pushed as far east as the Indus and in 327-326 BC, only a century before the Western Han period, Alexander crossed the Indus and subdued much of the area immediately to the east, so eastward migrations in these periods would not be surprising.

Alexander was particularly brutal towards the Assacenians (Assakenoi) whose walled towns were just west of the Indus in the Buner region and whom Arrian says had been subject successively to the Assyrians, Medes and Persians (Arrian, tr. Iliff Robson, 1933). Many were slaughtered by Alexander even after capitulation, and many fled to the mountains. Abisares, a local ruler east of the Indus whom Arrian calls “king of the mountaineer Indians” (i.e. Indus peoples, Book 5.VIII) sent reinforcements but the Assacenians were subdued and Abisares was eventually forced into at least nominal submission. McCrindle (1896:375) locates his territory in the Hazara region, southwest of Baltistan. Stein thought the discovery of Kharosthi documents in Khotan seemed somehow connected with migrants from this wider region whose language “was derived from the extreme north-west of the Panjab and the adjacent trans-Indus tracts” (1933:91). (See also n.105.) Direct Greek control of the region gave way to the Mauryans who took control of northern India c.305 BC but the end of Ashoka’s reign (232 BC) saw a splintering of power under local rulers until 190 BC when the Indo-Greek king Demetrios took much of northern India. Indo-Greek rule continued well into the Western Han period. The Saka ruler, Maues, came down from the Pamirs via Gilgit and defeated the Indo-Greek Apollodotus in around 85 BC and took control of Hazara and Kashmir but seems to have co-existed with Greek rulers in Taxila and the northwest. The Indo-Greeks were finally expelled from the area by the Saka ruler, Azes I, in about 55 BC.

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Yuezhi to the west. The people grow food crops, grapes and various fruits. They have gold, silver, copper and iron and they make weapons the same as the various other states. They are vassals of Jibin. Beyond this point in Chapter 96 the only Qiang references are in relation to the Lesser Yuezhi and in relation to the conflict between Tangdou and the Red River Qiang tribes. However, I have continued to include selected information from other entries in the chapter which provide some useful context for the Qiang situation. (As mentioned above, CICA has a complete annotated translation of this chapter.)

Jibin state (罽宾):130 the king governs from Xunxian town and it is 12,200 li to Chang’an. It is

The nearest known Er Qiang to those south of Nandou were those south of Khotan (see n.106). It

seems likely that these Qiang were linked via a route which went from Baltistan over the Karakoram into the western end of the Kunlun mountains south of Khotan, perhaps via the Shyok and Nubra valleys and over the Karakoram Pass, coinciding with the ancient trade route from Ladakh to Yarkand and Khotan. Barber mentions that the Gandharan or Greco-Buddhist art of early AD found along the southern Tarim route would have been brought from Gandhara “over the Karakoram Pass to Khotan and other oases of the southern Tarim Basin, where Stein was so startled to find it…” (1999:107).

Depending on glacial conditions there were also more direct routes than via the Karakoram Pass. Rizvi (1995) describes ancient routes that linked Baltistan with the Shaksgam-Aghil region (see n. 113) and Yarkand (Shache). Younghusband managed to cross the Mustagh Pass between the Sarpo Laggo and Baltoro glaciers in 1887. His journey took him from Yarkand to Raskam, along the Surakwat valley to the Shaksgam valley via the Aghil and Mustagh passes to Skardu in Baltistan and eventually on to Kashmir. Vohra also describes the westward route over the Mustagh Pass from eastern Xinjiang to Skardu and Khaplu and adds, “It is evident that the local inhabitants who used these shortcuts over difficult passes knew of quite a few alternatives… used according to the time of year and after consideration of the effects of climatic changes upon them.” (1999:13, n.3) The route from the Sanju Pass over the Mustagh Pass to Skardu could be accomplished in about 20 days.

Although the Karakoram might seem to serve as a formidable barrier, Neolithic archaeological finds in Kashmir and Swat and on the Tibetan plateau as well as in northern China, show that “Mountain chains have often integrated rather than isolated peoples.” (Neelis, 2007:55, citing Stacul 1993:712). This seems to have been particularly true of the Qiang who were associated with the Karakoram, the Kunlun, the Altun and Qilian mountains, probably also the Anyemachen range, and nowadays with the Min mountains of western Sichuan. Later connections across the Karakoram between Baltistan and southwestern Xinjiang are also affirmed in Tibetan texts, “Even the ruling dynasty at Skardu whose genealogical records are available from the early centuries of the 2nd millennium A.D. mention their dynastic name as ‘Amaccha’ ( Skt.: Amatya) which was also the ruling house at Khotan. ‘The Inquiry of Vimalabrabha’ (Thomas:1935) provides us some historical information with regards to the marital ties between the ruling houses of Skardu and Khotan and how the rulers were involved in defending the latter place against the Tibetan invasion during the 8th century A.D.” (Vohra 1987:127, n.1, citing Thomas 1935:164, 226-228).

The Gilgit region and the area south of Khotan were regions where the ancient tribal confederation of Zhangzhung (Žaŋžuŋ) converged with territory more familiar to the Han, i.e. Khotan and northern Gilgit. In the Sui and Tang periods the Zhangzhung area was known as Yangtong to the Chinese and associated with the Qiang. The name Yangtong (羊同: sheep + together/same) suggests sheep played a central role in their culture. (See Zeisler, 2010, for a detailed discussion). 130 Jibin: Coming under a succession of different rulers, including the Achaemenids, Alexander the Great, Mauryans, Indo-Greeks, Saka, and Kushans, boundaries in the Jibin region no doubt changed frequently. There are a variety of views regarding its location but it is generally accepted to have included the middle and lower reaches of the Kabul River, which enters the Indus River near Attock, c.100km east of Peshawar and Charsadda. Hill discusses the complexity of locating Jibin (2009:489-505) and concludes that it included Kabul and it “seems almost certain that, during the two Han dynasties, Jibin was centred on Kapisha-Gandhara and controlled Swat, the Kunar/Chitral Valley and the route up to the much-feared xuandu or ‘hanging passages’ in Hunza.” (2009: 495, 505) These controlled areas and the route to Hunza would have included Nandou, to the north of the Er Qiang. Tansen Sen (2003:3-4) notes that by the time the Han Shu was compiled, “the Chinese had already gathered detailed information about the southern Hindukush region, then dominated by Greek colonies. This area, especially the kingdom of Jibin (around the Gandhāra region), due to its proximity to the nomadic tribes of Central Asia and the Chinese military

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not subject to the [Han] protector general. It is a large state with many households, people and fighters. It is 6,840 li northeast to the protector general. Wucha is 2,250 li to the east, Nandou is a nine-day journey going northeast, the Da Yuezhi are to the northwest and Wuyishanli is to the southwest. (A list follows about the people and their produce and natural resources.) The text continues: In former times the Xiongnu defeated the Da Yuezhi [c.203-162 BC] and the Da Yuezhi went west and ruled over Daxia (大夏) [c.130 BC] and the Sai king (塞王) went south and ruled over Jibin. The Sai people then divided and dispersed, forming several states. 131 Going northwest from Shule are the vassal states of Xiuxun and Juandu which are both of the old Sai type.132 There are no Qiang references in the text, but this interaction between the Chinese and northern India/Pakistan would have been observed by the Qiang in the region between south of Khotan across to Baltistan. It may have been during Han interaction with the Indo-Greeks and Saka of the Jibin region that the Chinese became aware of these Qiang to the south of Nandou.

The text explains that connections had existed between Jibin and the Han since the time of Emperor Wu (140-87 BC) but that the ruler of Jibin, Wutoulao, [probably Saka] often killed the Han envoys. His son who succeeded him planned to do the same but the Han commander, Wen Zhong, discovered this and allied himself with Yinmofu of the Rongqu (容屈),133 whom the Han then made a vassal ruler, granting him the seal and silk ribbon of the Han. However, Yinmofu rejected later overtures from the Han and

killed the subordinates of a later envoy, so Emperor Yuan (48-33 BC) broke off all contact.134 The situation was then reviewed under Emperor Cheng (32-7 BC) when Jibin sent further envoys but the Han concluded that Jibin had caused too much trouble for too little gain and the separation was maintained. Near the end of the Western Han period, in a speech arguing against renewal of contact with Jibin, Du Qin, in the time of Emperor Cheng (r.32–7 BC) describes the treachery of Yinmofu of the Rongqu and his killing of Han envoys and advises Emperor Cheng to have no more contact with Jibin. He then mentions that starting from south of Pishan there are also four or five states which are even less submitted to the Han than Jibin. He also describes the conditions that then had to be negotiated: altitude sickness, rugged barren areas of red ground, great heat, three lakes, boulder-strewn slopes and long very narrow paths. The three lakes are a strong indication that this is the Pamirs. Han troops had been sent to

garrisons in the Pamirs, was of great importance to the Han court. … The hostilities between the Han court and the Jibin kingdom may have stemmed from the fact that the local rulers were adamantly opposed to the expansionist activities of the Chinese in Central Asia.” 131 Possibly Maues. Views differ re the dates of his reign. A commonly held view is 85 – 60 BC but R. C. Senior suggests ca.120-85 BC. (See http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-scythian-dynasty-1). Yang Juping: “The original homeland of the Sai people should encompass the areas from the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea to the Ili Valley in today’s Xinjiang province of China (Strabo 1969, XI.8.2; Hanshu 1962, p. 3901). …. The Sai race in Chinese records should be identified as the Sacarauli referred to by Strabo. When the Sai people or Sacarauli moved south they presumably took two routes. Some tribes passed by Bactria on their way to southeastern Iran from where they subsequently migrated through southern Afghanistan, and other tribes traversed the Pamirs into the northwest of India where they founded the kingdom of Jibin.” (2013:87) 132 皆故塞种也. See the Juandu and Xiuxun entries below for more detail regarding their location. As the Yuezhi pushed westwards via Ili and Issyk-kol to the Ferghana valley some of the Sai were pushed out and settled in Juandu and Xiuxun in the Alai valley region south of the Ferghana Valley. (See also the Wusun section below.) 133 Yang Juping (2013:87) mentions Tarn’s theory (1951:339ff) that Rongqu is from ‘Yonaki’ indicating Greeks. This would make sense if local rulers of the Jibin region included both Indo-Greeks and Saka at various times and in various localities during the Western Han period. It would indicate a brief Chinese–Indo-Greek alliance. 134 These changing alliances no doubt reflect the frequent power changes in the Jibin region and the co-existence of local rulers, both Saka and Indo-Greek. Although the last Indo-Greek king in the Jibin region was Hippostratos in c. 55 BC, Strato II ruled in the eastern Punjab until c.10 AD.

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reconnoitre the area and despite half of them staying awake at night to keep guard they were still sometimes robbed. These states either didn’t have enough grain to feed the Han soldiers, or were hostile and didn’t want to give any provisions. It seems likely that Du Qin was referring to Wucha and the cluster of Qiang-Di type states of Puli, Yinai, Xiye and Wulei to the southwest and west of Pishan and, in the context of the speech, didn’t require geographical precision or names. These had to be negotiated to reach the route via Hunza to Jibin. If it is these states, it tells us that by the late Western Han period they were only nominally under Han control, if at all. If it is not these states Du Qin is referring to, it is not clear to what he is alluding. The Han Shu doesn’t describe or name any states directly south of Pishan. The Karakoram Pass is south of Pishan in the area between the Qiang south of Khotan and those in Baltistan. It seems likely the Han would have been aware of this region as the pass was a highly valuable route for trade and larger loads could be carried than via the Hunza route. In 1922 the new British Consul General in Kashgar, C.P. Skrine, went with his wife from Gilgit to Kashgar (Shule) via the Hunza gorges and Tashkurgan (Puli). However, Harold comments that “since the Gilgit route would have been difficult for heavily laden animals, it seems unlikely that it ever served as a major artery of trade. Indeed, Skrine sent his heavier baggage via the Karakoram Pass route starting in Leh.” (2009:78) Wuyishanli state (乌弋山离):135 It is 12,200 li136 to Chang’an from the king’s seat of government and it is not under the protector general. It is a large state with many households and fighters. It is 60 days by foot to the seat of the protector general. Jibin is to the east and Putiao137 to the north. Lijian and Tiaozhi138 are to the west and the journey to Tiaozhi can take

135 This included the ancient regions of Drangiana (later known as Sakastan, Sistan) and Arachosia (modern Kandahar region) to the southwest of Gandhara. Here it is described as a large state. In the HHS it is described as extending for several thousand li. It seems to have included much of southern Afghanistan and the bordering regions of southwestern Pakistan and southeastern Iran, possibly as far south as the Arabian Sea. Yu Taishan (2013:8) translates 国临西海 as “The state is situated on the Western Sea.” In early AD this territory came under Indo-Parthian control. 136 This is another indication of how unreliable the distances in the Han Shu are. Jibin is also listed as 12,200 li from Chang’an and yet it is east of Wuyishanli and clearly nearer to Chang’an. 137 扑挑: this is generally accepted as equivalent to the Puda 濮逹 of the HHS. Yu (2013:50) suggests that

Putiao (撲挑[phok-dyô]) is a transcription of Bactra (Bāχtri) but Daffinà refutes any such equation

(319:1982, cited in Hill 2009:507). Bactria is generally equated with Daxia (大夏). Hill concludes that, “Although the information is sparse, it seems most likely that Puda/Paktiya roughly corresponded to the present Afghan Province of Paktia and surrounds, plus the Kurram Valley down to the Indus in what is now Pakistan.” (2009:516) 138 犁靬、条支: there has been much debate over the location of these places which has been addressed in detail by others (see Hill, 2009). The use of different characters for Lijian adds to the lack of clarity. The Shiji describes Tiaozhi as west of Anxi (Parthia) and Lijian (Lixuan 黎轩 in the Shiji) as north of Anxi. In the Han Shu they are both noted as west of Wuyishanli, with Anxi lying between Wuyishanli and Tiaozhi, which still allows for Lijian to be west of Wuyishanli and north of Anxi. Tiaozhi being west not just of Wuyishanli but also of Parthia (Anxi) helps to explain a journey of more than 100 days journey from Wuyishanli. Watson (1961:268) offers a very broad ‘Mesopotamia’ for Tiaozhi (i.e. from the Persian Gulf northeast along the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers) and Hyrcania (south of the Caspian Sea in Iran and Turkmenistan) for Lixuan (Lijian). In his translation of the HHS Western Regions, Hill concludes that Lijian was Seleucid Syria and that Tiaozhi was ancient Characene (southern Iraq/Kuwait) and Susiana (Iran’s Khuzestan region), which were neighbours at the head of the Persian Gulf, and possibly Fars province too. (2009:216). Some of the complexity is caused by huge political changes occurring west of Wuyishanli during the Han dynasty period resulting in ever-shifting boundaries. A brief summary of Seleucid-Parthian interaction during the Qin and Western Han periods shows just how constantly borders were changing. In the mid 3rd century BC, Parthia and Greco-Bactria had rebelled against Hellenistic Seleucid control but in 223 BC the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus III, came to power and regained a measure of control over them. However, he died on a failed mission to the east in 187 BC. The Parthian ruler, Mithradates I, who ruled from 171-138 BC, consolidated and expanded Parthia, taking Herat, Babylonia, Media and Persia during his reign and severely weakening the Seleucids. Under Mithradates I, Hyrcania (Watson’s Lixuan/Lijian) also became a Parthian vassal. In this period Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164 BC) died fighting the

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more than 100 days. The state is adjacent to the western sea… Following more detailed description about Wuyishanli we learn that it was at the extreme end of the southern route which went from Yumen and Yang Pass via Shanshan, the route along which the Qiang were located at various intervals. This was clearly a known trade route at that time between the western borders of China and the Arabian Sea.

Da Yuezhi (大月氏):139 the king rules from Jianshi town and it is 11,600 li to Chang’an. It is not under the protector general. There are 100,000 households and 400,000 people with 100,000 fighters. The protector general is 4,740 li to the east. Anxi140 is 49 days journey to the west and the Da Yuezhi connect with Jibin in the south. … Their customs, money and commodities are similar to Anxi.141 They produce one-hump camels.142

Parthians as they took Persia and in 139 BC the Seleucid ruler, Demetrius II, was defeated and captured by the Parthians who by then controlled the whole of the Iranian plateau. In 133 BC Antiochus VII Sidetes managed to regain Mesopotamia, Babylon and Media but he was then killed by the Parthian ruler, Phraates II (r.138-127 BC), who recovered these areas. Phraates II was ruler of Parthia when the Yuezhi and their allies took control of the Greco-Bactrian region. By about 100 BC the Seleucid Empire had been reduced to Antioch and some Syrian cities and in c.64 BC it became the Roman province of Syria. With the demise of the Seleucids, Parthia’s main enemies in the west became the Romans. In the HHS we are told that Lijian (犁鞬) was an alternative name for Da Qin (大秦) which represented Roman-controlled territory. 139 The Yuezhi controlled the regions north and south of the Amu Darya, including Bactria. They are thought to be early Indo-Europeans known as the Tochari by classical writers but their origins are still unclear. In the first millennium BC they were already known in central China as traders of jade from the Khotan region. (See n.109) In the early 2nd century BC they were situated in today’s Xinjiang-Gansu border region and were neighbours of the Qiang until, as the next section shows, they were pushed out by the Xiongnu. If they had previously dominated the Khotan region it may be that they had been forced east to the Dunhuang region by newcomers to the Khotan. It seems unlikely that they would have lived near Dunhuang and controlled the jade of Khotan.

The Yuezhi population of 400,000 is very large compared to any of the states around the Tarim basin, of which Kucha is the largest with 81,317, according to Han Shu figures. However, it is not as large as other nomadic confederations like the Wusun (630,000) and Kangju (600,000). We don’t know how many the Yuezhi numbered when the Xiongnu pushed them out of the Gansu-Xinjiang border region but the 400,000 may well include those who later allied themselves with the Yuezhi. Classical writers offer a different perspective on the Yuezhi arrival in Central Asia. Strabo speaks of a tribal alliance of the Asioi, Pasianoi, Tocharoi (probably Yuezhi) and Sacarauloi (Strabo XI.8.2) replacing Greek power in Bactria (Enoki et al, 1994:180). The WQB says of the Lesser Yuezhi who didn’t move west that “Their clothing, food and language were quite similar to that of the Qiang”. This may be because the Yuezhi remnant who allied themselves with the Qiang had adopted Qiang ways or may point to pre-existing cultural similarities when they were neighbours in the early Western Han period and before. A possible indication of language similarity is found in Ch 69 of the Han Shu which mentions the Xianlian Qiang in 90 BC sending an interpreter to communicate with the Xiongnu who then sent an envoy to the Lesser Yuezhi to convey a message to the various Qiang. According to Sims-Williams “Nothing is known for certain of the language of the Tokharoi/Yüeh-chih; in view of mounting evidence in favor of the much disputed connection of the Tokharoi with the inhabitants of Agni and Kucha in Chinese Turkestan, it is not unlikely that it was in fact related to the language which modern scholars have named “Tocharian.”” http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bactrian-language (1988, updated 2011.)

For Yuezhi clothing and likeness on a reconstructed Khalchayan temple relief as well as a useful map see Loeschner (2008). www.onsnumis.org/publications/Yuezhi-Kushan_Hans-Loeschner_2008-04-15.pdf 140 Anxi indicated Parthian domains. See n.134 for Parthian territorial changes in the Western Han period. In the Eastern Han period the term could also indicate the more easterly Indo-Parthian region which emerged at the beginning of the first century AD. (See Hill, 2009:xviii) 141 Having come from the Gansu-Xinjiang border region it is surprising that the Yuezhi customs were similar to those of Anxi (Parthia), especially as the Parthians had absorbed Achaemenid and Hellenistic customs. However, a clue to this similarity with the Yuezhi might be found in Justinus’ account of the Parthians (Book XLI, perhaps 2nd or 3rd century AD), which tells us that they were exiles from Scythia, as

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The Da Yuezhi were originally a nomadic people moving around with their livestock and with customs like the Xiongnu… They originally lived between Dunhuang and the Qilian mountains143 until the Xiongnu Shanyu, Maodun, attacked and defeated the Yuezhi… who then moved far away, crossing Da Yuan (Ferghana), and attacking and subduing Daxia (Bactria) in the west. The king’s seat of government is in their capital north of the Gui River (妫水, Amu Darya). A small remnant was not able to move with the rest of the Yuezhi and they came under the protection of the Qiang of the southern mountains and were known as the Lesser Yuezhi (小月氏).144 Daxia (大夏)145 originally had no rulers and the towns and villages often established minor rulers. The people of Daxia are weak and afraid of fighting so when the Yuezhi moved into the area they all meekly acknowledged allegiance to the Yuezhi and also received Han envoy officials.146 There are five xihou officials,147 all vassals of the Yuezhi: Xiumi, Shuangmi,

indicated by the name Parthi which is Scythian for ‘exile’. They had been forced out of Scythia by some kind of conflict and “gradually settled in the deserts betwixt Hyrcania, the Dahae, the Arei, the Sparni and Marsiani. … Their language is something between those of the Scythians and the Medes, being a compound of both. Their dress was formerly of a fashion peculiar to themselves; afterwards, when their power had increased, it was like that of the Medes, light and full flowing. The fashion of their arms is that of their own country and of Scythia. … Of engaging with the enemy in close fight, and of taking cities by siege, they know nothing. They fight on horseback, either galloping forward or turning their backs….” (Justinus, trans. by Watson, 1853.) “ The people of Kangju (Sogdiana) and Da Yuan (Ferghana) are also noted as having customs similar to those of Anxi and the Yuezhi, similarities which probably included a horse-centred culture, pastoral nomadism and similar styles of warfare. 142 This was obviously of note to the Chinese. The two-humped or Bactrian camel is found in Central Asia and the Gobi desert whereas the single-hump camel or dromedary, also known as the Arabian camel, is native to the deserts of the Middle East so it would not have been a familiar site to the Han. 143 Some scholars argue that the Qilian here is the Tian Shan rather than today’s Qilian Mts. (See Liu Xinru, 2001:267) 144 There is no doubt that the Xiao Yuezhi who stayed behind in the southern mountains with the Qiang continued to live in today’s northwestern China as there are several references to them in the early AD Chinese histories, see for example, the final paragraph of the WQB. However, there is a puzzling reference to some Lesser Yuezhi in Ch 108 of the Wei Shu (Northern Wei): “Xiao Yuezhi state (小月氏国): its capital is Fulousha (thought to be Purushapura/ Peshawar). Its king was originally the son of the Da Yuezhi king, Jiduoluo. When Jiduoluo was pursued by the Xiongnu, he moved west and ordered his son to guard this settlement (城), which was therefore called Xiao Yuezhi. It is southwest of Bolu (Baltistan/Gilgit region), 16,600 li from the capital.” In this same chapter of the Wei Shu the Agou Qiang are located southeast of Bolu. (See n.113 above.) Whether this reference to the Xiao Yuezhi is mistaken, or whether there was more than one small group of Yuezhi that, at some point, separated from the main group is unclear. 145 Daxia is within the Da Yuezhi section here and is not referred to as a state (国), presumably because it was a politically fragmented area under Da Yuezhi control. It is generally accepted as the region of ancient Bactria. (See Hill 2009:532-557 for a detailed discussion.) Apart from locals, the people of Daxia would have included migrants arriving in the Seleucid (Greek) period and also earlier when Bactria was a satrapy of the Persian Empire. Herodotus mentions residents of Libya being moved by Darius the Persian to a village in Bactria (1996:376) so the population could have been extremely mixed. The Bactrian language was a Middle Iranian language eventually written down in a modified Greek script (Sims-Williams, 1988 (updated 2011).) 146 故月氏徙来，皆臣畜之，共禀汉使者. Yan Shigu, author of a 7th century commentary on the Han Shu,

notes that ‘共禀’ meant ‘to receive a Han Jiedu official’ (受节度) so the people of Daxia had submitted to the Yuezhi but also received an official Han envoy. Yu Taishan regards this reception of Han officials as an indication that these regions of Daxia, despite being under some level of Yuezhi control, had a certain amount of independence regarding foreign affairs. (2004:14) 147 A xihou (翕侯) was an official title and also applied to the region under the xihou official, rather like the use of chief and chiefdom. Hill suggests Graeco-Bactrians may have been among these petty rulers (2009:549). The HHS chapter on the Western Regions says the Han Shu account is in error to include Gaofu (Kabul) in the five xihou and instead includes Dumi 都密. However, the Wei Shu account of the

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Guishuang, Xidun, and Gaofu. Extensive sections follow on Kangju (康居, Sogdiana region) and Da Yuan (大宛, Ferghana region). Kangju is said to have similar customs to the Yuezhi and gives allegiance to the Xiongnu in the east. Guo Shunshu, who was protector general in the time of Emperor Cheng (32-7 BC), reported that, “Today the Wusun are submitted to the Xiongnu … The Kangju are crafty and proud and not willing to welcome envoys. … The Xiongnu are a large state of many different non-Chinese148…” The people of Da Yuan have customs similar to the Yuezhi and Anxi. They use grapes for wine, have fine horses, the language is different to that of Anxi but similar enough for mutual understanding. The people have deep-set eyes and beards… Xiuxun state (休循国):149 the king rules in Niaofei Valley. It is west of the Congling and 10,210 li to Chang’an. It has 358 households and 1,030 people with 480 fighters. It is 3,121 li east to the protector general, 261 li to Juandu’s Yandun Valley, 920 li northwest to Da Yuan and 1,600 west to the Da Yuezhi. The customs and clothing are similar to the Wusun, they follow pasturage and water for their livestock. They were originally of the old Sai type. Juandu state (捐毒国):150 the king rules in Yandun Valley which is 9,860 li from Chang’an. Juandu has 380 households and 1,100 people with 500 fighters. The protector general is 2,861 li to the east. To Shule….151 It joins with the Congling (Pamir region) to the south, an uninhabited area. In the west it goes up to the Congling where Xiuxun is located. It is 1,030 li northwest to Da Yuan and connects with the Wusun in the north. Their clothing is similar to that of the Wusun and the people of Juandu are nomadic, dependent on the Congling. They were originally of the Sai type.152

western regions (Ch 108, Northern Wei) gives the Han Shu names and corresponding later names for these five xihou, including Gaofu:

Xiumi is Gabei, west of Yarkand/Shache; Shuangmi is Zhexuemosun, west of Gabei; Guishuang is Qiandun, west of Zhexuemosun; Xidun is Fodisha, west of Qiandun; Gaofu is Yanfuye, south of Fodisha.

In the Wei Shu these all precede the section on the Da Yuezhi, whose state is recorded as west of Fodisha which has Gaofu to the south, so the Da Yuezhi at this point were presumably roughly northwest of Gaofu/Kabul. The Wei Shu also mentions the Agou Qiang as southwest of Yarkand and both the Agou Qiang and Gabei (Xiumi – west of Yarkand) are listed as 13,000 li from Chang’an, indicating that the Agou Qiang were roughly south of Gabei (Xiumi). P’iankov (1994) suggests Xiumi of the Han period was the western end of Wakhan with Nandou to the east, perhaps with the Yamchun fortress (3rd C BC) marking the border between them.

Of note here is that the HHS was written by Fan Ye (398-446 AD) during the Liu Song era of the Southern Dynasties, drawing on histories of the Han period to describe the Eastern Han era. The Liu Song state was in the south, far from the western regions. By contrast, the Wei Shu, compiled by Wei Shou from 551-554, relates to the Northern Wei period (386-535) when Northern Wei controlled access to the western regions. 148 匈奴百蛮大国: a large confederation of many different peoples dominated by the Xiongnu. 149 Xiuxun and Juandu are both Sai. We know from the Nandou section that Xiuxun was north of Nandou. The Juandu section says Xiuxun is in the Congling (Pamirs) so it seems to have stretched south from the Niaofei (Alai) valley into the northern Pamir region. P’iankov (1994) equates the Xiuxun with a Saka group referred to by Ptolemy in the 1st century AD as the Komedes, who “inhabited the Alai Mountains, the Alai valley, and Qarategin, and that to the south their lands extended from Darvaz well up along the Panj...” 150 Juandu (Sai) was west of Kashgar in the Irkeshtam region at the eastern end of Kyrgyzstan’s Alai Valley, through which the Kizil Su (Red River) runs. It was north of Wulei, which was of the Qiang Di type. P’iankov (1994) sees a possible equation between the Sai of Juandu and Ptolemy’s Homodotes, thought to be related to the Komedes. 151 “至疏勒.” The text omits the distance between Juandu and Shule. 152 本塞种也 as compared to 本故塞种也 for Xiuxun.

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The text now returns to the Tarim Basin and from Shache/Yarkand continues up the western side and eastwards along the northern edge of the Tarim Basin. Shache state (莎车国):153 The king rules in Shache town (Yarkand) which is 9,950 li from Chang’an. It has 2,339 households and 16,373 people with 3,049 fighters. … There is an official in charge of defending Shache from the ruler of Xiye154 … and there are four officials in charge of translating. It is 4,746 northeast to the protector general, 560 li west to Shule (Kashgar region) and 740 li southwest to Puli.155 There is iron in the mountains and green jade (青玉) is produced. A story follows which shows the people of Shache in c.65 BC trying to maintain favour with both the Wusun and the Han. This was in the same period in which Zhao Chongguo was fighting the Qiang in today’s Qinghai and the Han were in conflict with the Xiongnu. Shule state (疏勒国):156 the king rules in Shule town which is 9,350 li from Chang’an. It has 1,510 households and 18,647 people with 2,000 fighters.157 … There is an ‘Attacking the Hu’ official (击胡侯) … It is 2,210 li east to the protector general and Shache is 560 li to the south. Shule has a market with rows of shops. It controls the route west to the Da Yuezhi, Da Yuan, and to Kangju. Weitou state (尉头国): (today’s Aheqi region) … it adjoins Shule in the south, the mountain routes are impassable. Juandu is 1,314 li to the west… Wusun state (乌孙国):158 the great Kunmi (昆弥, also Kunmo 昆莫) rules in Chigu town, 8,900 li

153 Shache (also Suoche/Suoju) is still known today as Shache and Yarkand. “The territory of Yārkand is for the first time mentioned in the Hanshu (1st century BCE), under the name Shache (Old Chinese, approximately, *s³a(j)-ka), which is probably related to the name of the Iranian Saka tribes.” (Pavel Lurje. 2009. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yarkand) In the light of this it seems strange that the Han Shu would comment on Juandu and Xiuxun being connected with the Sai, and also comment on Sai being pushed out by the Yuezhi, yet make no mention of the Sai in relation to Shache. Stein bemoaned the lack of archaeological finds here, ““During my four days' stay at Yarkand I was as unsuccessful as on my previous visits in obtaining information as to any old sites. The position of ‘the old city’ of Yarkand, from which Aba Bakr the tyrant, was, according to Mirza Haidar's testimony, believed to have excavated great riches, still remains unidentified. The intensive cultivation proceeding all over this great and flourishing oasis is likely to have buried all ancient remains under deep layers of alluvial deposit…” (1921:84)

Ancient routes went from Ladakh and Baltistan to Shache/Yarkand so it was very connected to Central Asia. Describing his 1866 journey from northern India via Leh to Khotan, W. H. Johnson commented on the Karakoram Pass being controlled by the “Yárkandees, who were then at war with the people of Khotan” (1867:3-4) This was nothing new. Khotan and Yarkand were already at war in the first century AD, suggesting a lack of ethnic affinity. Johnson comments on Yarkand as “a great place of trade. The Bokhárá and Khokán caravans with sugar-candy, loaf-sugar, cloth, wrought iron, brass, iron vessels, and other articles, which are brought from Petropavlovsk, Semipolatinsk, Troitska, and Bokhárá, after passing through Khokan, visit Yárkand twice a year, with as many as a thousand camels.” (1867:7) He also mentions Kashmiris as well as Baltis from Skardu settling in Yarkand in large numbers. 154 See Xiye n.116. 155 Puli, in the Tashkurgan region, of the Qiang Di type. 156 Shule was today’s Kashgar region. It may possibly have been the Seres region whose border marked the extent of Graeco-Bactrian power. (See n.119) 157 This is a lower ratio of fighters compared to some of the nomadic states and the presence of market stores suggests a significantly different culture. The need for an official to defend Shule against the Hu, similar to Shache having an official for defence against the people of Xiye, also points to raids or attacks by their more mobile neighbours. 158 The Wusun are generally associated with the Ili river which emerges in Xinjiang and flows west between the Borohoro mountains to the north and the Tian Shan to the south, eventually reaching the Semirechye region of southeastern Kazakhstan. The section on Yanqi says the Wusun are to the north of

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from Chang’an.159 There are 630,000 people… It is 1,721 li to the protector general. Kangju is to the west… They don’t do farmwork … but follow their livestock for pasturage. Their customs are like the Xiongnu. They have many horses, with the wealthy having up to 4-5,000. … The people are strong and fierce, greedy and untrustworthy. They often invade and plunder and are the strongest state. In the past they submitted to the Xiongnu but later flourished and the Xiongnu influence was diminished. They are not willing to come to the Han court. They connect with the Xiongnu in the east, Kangju in the northwest, Da Yuan (Ferghana) in the west and the various city states in the south.160 Their territory was originally Sai territory but when the Da Yuezhi moved west (from the Dunhuang-Qilian region) they defeated the Sai and pushed them out. The Sai king went south across Xuandu (the Suspended Crossings) and the Da Yuezhi occupied the former Sai territory but later the Wusun Kunmo attacked and defeated the Da Yuezhi who then moved west and ruled over Daxia. The Wusun Kunmo occupied this territory which had been held by the Sai and by the Da Yuezhi and therefore there are still said to be Sai and Da Yuezhi among the Wusun people. To begin with, Zhang Qian said the Wusun were originally with the Da Yuezhi in the Dunhuang region and now although they are strong they can be persuaded with generous enticements to move east and occupy their old territory… and control the Xiongnu … Despite the Han desire to form an alliance with the Wusun against the Xiongnu, the Wusun had no desire to move back east but sent gifts to the Han via Zhang Qian. The need for alliances is seen in the Kunmo marrying a Han wife and a Xiongnu wife. Much detail follows of Han-Wusun alliances through marriage. The Wusun also at times had marriage links with Shache and Kucha. In the time of Emperor Zhao (86-74 BC), the people of Jushi and the Xiongnu were threatening the Wusun so the Han sent help. This continued in the reign of Emperor Xuan (73-49 BC) with the Xiongnu trying to break the alliance between the Wusun and Han by taking Juyan and E’shi. A joint force of 50,000 Wusun troops made up of people from

the west (从西方人) and 150,000 Han troops defeated the Xiongnu in 71 BC.161

The other states described in this chapter are along the northern edge of the Tarim (Gumo, Wensu, Kucha, Quli, Yuli, Weixu, Yanqi), and those in the Tianshan mountains and north around today’s Urumqi. I have not included them as there are no strong connections to the Qiang and they are recorded in CICA. The chapter then continues with a detailed record, which I have summarised, of Han-Xiongnu battles for control of Jushi to the north and west of Turpan. These are the Xiongnu whom the Han wanted to prevent from forming an alliance with the Qiang to the south in the Qilian–Altun region. The first paragraph of the WQB in the HHS says that the Qiang bordered the states of Shanshan and Jushi in the northwest,162 indicating that the Qiang presence stretched north towards Turpan in the Eastern Han period, further than is described in any detail in the Western Han period of the Han Shu.

In 99 BC Emperor Wu used a surrendered Xiongnu king with soldiers of Loulan to launch an attack on Jushi. The Xiongnu sent several 10,000 cavalry to help Jushi and the Han were forced to withdraw. In 89 BC the Han again sent 40,000 cavalry against the Xiongnu, passing north of Jushi, and again sent the surrendered Xiongnu king with troops from Loulan, Yuli, Weixu and three other states to attack Jushi. The king of Jushi surrendered and pledged allegiance to the Han.

Yanqi so it seems they still extended quite far east in the Western Han period. The distance to the protector general is less than many of the states. They are also mentioned as north of Gumo (modern Aksu region) and Kucha. The people of Juandu, Xiuxun and Wulei are all recorded as having the same clothing as the Wusun. 159 赤谷城: Meaning ‘Red Valley town’ this settlement is thought to have been to the southeast of Issyk-Kol lake in Kyrgyzstan. 160 This would be the states along the northwestern part of the Tarim route towards Kashgar. 161 See Chapter 123 on Da Yuan in Watson Shiji translation for more information in English on the Wusun in this period. (1961:264-289) 162 西北接鄯善、车师诸国

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In the time of Emperor Zhao (87-74 BC), the Xiongnu sent 4,000 cavalry to farm land in Jushi. When Emperor Xuan came to power (73 – 49 BC), he sent troops to attack the Xiongnu and those farming in Jushi were alarmed and fled, leaving Jushi open to the Han. … When Wugui became king of Jushi he made a marriage alliance with the Xiongnu, enabling the Xiongnu to block the Han route to the Wusun. In 68 BC, the Han sent officials to Quli, wanting to prepare for an attack on Jushi. Soldiers joined together from the various walled states and they attacked Jushi and destroyed Jiaohe city163 and Jushi later surrendered to the Han. When the Xiongnu heard this they sent soldiers to attack Jushi but were confronted by Han troops and didn’t dare advance. The Jushi king, afraid that the Xiongnu would eventually attack, fled west to the Wusun. Jushi was obviously a strategic location with desirable agricultural land and the struggle over it continued between the Han and Xiongnu. In the end, although a Han general asked for more troops to defend Jushi and work the land, the Han court decided it was too far away and yielded Jushi to the Xiongnu but strengthened Quli. In the last few years BC, the king of Further Jushi, Guju, was worried because the Han were opening a new route from Yumen Pass and he thought he would have to provide provisions for the Han. Although he doesn’t seem to have had good relations with the Xiongnu he fled from Gaochang164 to the Xiongnu, for which he paid dearly as the next section shows. The next paragraph concerns the king called Tangdou in the time of Wang Mang, whose story has been

told in Ch 94 in a Xiongnu-related context in around 2 AD.165 Tangdou is referred to as the ‘Quhulai king’

(去胡来王), possibly ‘the king who came over from the Hu’, a term also used for the Er Qiang king

southwest of the Yang Pass, but it is unclear whether Tangdou is Qiang.166 He was being harassed by the Red River Qiang who do not seem to be mentioned in any other source:

“There was also Tangdou, the Quhulai king (去胡来王). His state was close to the numerous Chi Shui (Red River) Qiang type167 and he was frequently harassed by them and unable to defeat them so he sought emergency assistance from the protector general. However, Dan Qin, the protector general, did not send help in time so Tangdou was in a desperate situation and

163交河West of today’s Turpan. 164 高昌: southeast of today’s Turpan. The ruins of Jiaohe and Gaochang are still visible today. 165 Wang Mang has the title marquis at this point. He had become commander of the army (大司马) in 8 BC but only became emperor of his short-lived Xin dynasty in 9 AD. 166 See Ch 94, n.25 for Tangdou. Of note here is that Tangdou has a state (not mentioned in Ch 94) and that he first fled to the Protector General at Luntai, on the northern route and northwest of the Chi Shui region (see n.167), and when that failed he went east to Yumen pass, i.e. north or northeast of the Chi Shui area, avoiding the Chi Shui Qiang further south, who were harassing his people. This suggests his state may have been to the north of the Chi Shui, perhaps somewhere between Korla and the Turpan basin. 167大种赤水羌. CICA (p191) translates this as “the Red Water Ch'iang of the Great Tribes.” They are not mentioned elsewhere but a clue to their location is found in the Liang Shu (Ch 54) which mentions Tuyuhun (吐谷浑) going southwest out of Liangzhou to the Chi Shui (赤水) and settling there. Tuyuhun was a Xianbei chief who arrived in this region in the early 300s AD. His people adopted his name and are known to have taken over territory previously controlled by the Qiang. Southwest of Liangzhou indicates the Altun foothills and the marshy Lop Nor lake region which was fed by the Qiemo, Kongque and Tarim Rivers. The Liang Shu describes the extent of Tuyuhun’s territory as south of Zhangye (i.e. in the Qilian range), west of western Long (i.e. western Qinghai), south of the Yellow River (i.e. towards the Anyemachen mountains) and with Yutian/Khotan as a western neighbour. From Ch 69 of the Han Shu we know that in the mid 1st century BC a significant portion of this territory was occupied by Qiang tribes such as the Xianlian, Han (罕) and Kai. We also know that the Qiang marquis, Langhe was southwest of the Yang Pass with some Xiao Yuezhi, plotting with the Xiongnu to attack Shanshan and Dunhuang and cut off the Han route. It seems likely that the Chi Shui or Red River Qiang of c.2AD are the descendants of at least some of these Qiang that had caused so much trouble for Zhao Chongguo and the Han in 61-60 BC. (An unlikely alternative may be connected with the Kashgar River which, due to coloration from red mudstone, is referred to in Turkic as the Red River (Kizil Su), but this would probably be a later name.)

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resentful of Dan Qin. He went east to the Han post at Yumen Pass but was not allowed to enter so he immediately led his wife and more than 1,000 people to flee and surrender to the Xiongnu.168 The Xiongnu received them and sent an envoy to report the situation to the Han emperor. At that time Wang Mang, the Marquis of Xindu, held political power (at the Han court) and he sent his Zhonglang general Wang Chang as an envoy to the Xiongnu to inform the Shanyu that the western regions were under Han control and that it was inappropriate for the Xiongnu to have received Tangdou and his people. The Shanyu apologised and yielded and the two kings (Guju169 and Tangdou) were captured and handed over to the Han envoy. Wang Mang sent his Zhonglang general, Wang Meng, to wait at E’dunu170 at the border of the western regions to meet and receive them. The Shanyu dispatched his envoys with the two kings to request that their offenses to be pardoned. The envoys reported this but Wang Mang would not hear of it and instead the various kings of the western regions were ordered to convene, and Guju and Tangdou were beheaded as an example.171 [I.e. of how the Han would reward any disloyalty or disobedience.] The next section, summarised here, concerns the relationship between Wang Mang and the western regions. Wang Mang’s ruthlessness and lack of compromise resulted in grave loss of Chinese influence and even rebellion among his own officials. Wang Mang seized the throne and in 10 AD he appointed Zhen Feng as Bo official of the Right and sent him to the western regions. When Xu Zhili, king of Further Jushi, heard this he wanted to go over to the Xiongnu because his previous experience of the Han was that even though he and his people had provided cattle, sheep, grain, fodder, guides and translators, the Han envoys were never satisfied. He feared the arrival of Zhen Feng would mean poverty for his people. However, the Han heard of this and Zhili was taken by the Wuji colonel, Dao Hu, to the protector general, Dan Qin, who had him beheaded. Then Zhili’s brother, Hu Lanzhi, fled to the Xiongnu with more than 2,000 of Zhili’s people and all their livestock and produce. Wang Mang had created animosity between himself and the Shanyu and the latter therefore accepted Hu Lanzhi’s surrender and sent soldiers to attack Jushi. Not long after there was a rebellion among the Han with officials going over to the Xiongnu and Dao Hu, the Wuji colonel of the Han, was killed. Wang Mang again cheated the Shanyu and broke off links with him. The Xiongnu then made a major attack on the north and the western regions collapsed. The state of Yanqi was near to the Xiongnu and was the first to rebel. Dan Qin, the protector general, was killed and Wang Mang was not able to fight back. In 16 AD Wang Mang sent Wang Jun, the Wuwei (五威) general, and Li Chong, protector general of the western regions, to lead the Wuji colonel out to the western regions. The various states all went out to meet them, giving soldiers and grain. Yanqi pretended to surrender but gathered soldiers in preparation. Wang Jun led more than 7,000 soldiers of Shache and Kucha,172 who divided up into several groups and entered Yanqi. Yanqi set an ambush wanting to block Wang Jun. Then the soldiers of the states of Gumo, Yuli, and Weixu went to sow dissension among the Han troops and then mounted a surprise attack, killing Wang Jun and his men. The Wuji colonel, Guo Qin, arrived later with his

168 The Red River Qiang must have been very hostile if Tangdou preferred refuge with the Xiongnu. His title may indicate he had earlier been under Xiongnu domination. 169 姑句: Guju, the king of Further Jushi who had gone over to the Xiongnu. 170 恶都奴: unknown location. 171 This seems very unjust considering Tangdou had first sought help from the Han Protector General and then from the Han at Yumen Pass and been turned away. Whether or not Tangdou was Qiang, this would have been a grave warning to other Qiang not to seek alliances with the Xiongnu and they would have been watching to see which way things would go between the Han and Xiongnu. Wang Mang’s hostility towards the Qiang is very evident in Chapter 99 below. 172 I.e. Shache (Yarkand) to the southwest and Kucha to the west of Yanqi on the northern route, both allied with the Han.

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troops in Yanqi and because the Yanqi forces had not yet returned to Yanqi, Guo Qin attacked and killed the old and weak and then withdrew. Wang Mang appointed Guo Qin as ‘Exterminator of the Hu’. Li Chong returned with the remaining soldiers to protect Kucha. After several years Wang Mang and Li Chong died and the western regions were cut off. There were approximately fifty states and a total of 376 people who held official Han positions and the Han ribboned seal. However, Kangju, the Da Yuezhi, Anxi, Jibin and Wuyishanli were not included in this number because they were so far away. Authors’ comment (赞曰):173 During the time of Emperor Wu (141-87 BC), the Han tried to control the Xiongnu, worried that they might annex the western states and form an alliance with the Qiang to the south.174 To prevent this the Han opened up the territory west of the Yellow River, set up a line of four prefectures and opened the Yumen Pass connecting with the western regions in order to break off the right arm (western part) of the Xiongnu and completely cut off the southern Qiang and the Yuezhi.175 The Shanyu’s allies deserted him and he fled far away, and there was no seat of power south of the desert.176 There follows a general assessment of the Western Han period which includes some of the results of the westward expansion initiated by Emperor Wu:

- Becoming aware of exotic products including rhinoceros horn and tortoiseshell, particularly in the Hainan region; betel paste and bamboo with the opening up of Zangke and Yuesui (Guizhou and southern Sichuan); heavenly horses and grapes in Ferghana and Parthia. Different products from strange lands came to China from all directions and non-Chinese were entertained by the Han with mountains of meat and pools of wine.

- The exorbitant cost of this expansion resulted in heavy taxes and other demands on the Chinese people and the national coffers drying up which led to famine and banditry, so much so that routes became impassable.

- The region of Luntai (Wulei) was abandoned, which was where the protector general had been based.

The chapter ends with a final comment by the authors which provides a useful summary of the situation in the western regions at the beginning of the Eastern Han period:

The various states of the western region each have their own chief rulers and their military forces are divided and weak and have no unity. Although they are all vassals of the Xiongnu they are not closely attached to each other. The Xiongnu can obtain their horses, livestock and woollen felt fabrics but cannot unite them into a fighting force which they can command to advance or retreat. The western region is isolated and far from the Han. There is no great benefit to be had in gaining it, nor great loss in abandoning it. The great moral virtue is ours, it does not come from them. Therefore, since the Jianwu period, (25-56 AD) the western regions believe the Han empire to be powerful and benevolent and they have become content to submit to China. Only the small towns of Shanshan and Jushi, whose boundaries are close to the Xiongnu, are still constrained by them. Moreover those who are vassals of the large states of Shache and Yutian often dispatch envoys with ‘hostages’ to the Han,177 expressing a desire to

173 These comments appear at the end of most chapters providing the authors with an opportunity to express their own view or to summarise key points in the chapter. 174 Despite the Xiongnu pushing the Yuezhi out and annexing various states in the western regions, there is never any mention of them controlling or annexing Qiang territory, perhaps because the Qiang extended across such a wide area, which was too impractical for the Xiongnu to maintain control. Also, because much of the Qiang territory was mountainous, whereas the Xiongnu were used to the steppe, it may not have been attractive territory. 175 南羌、月氏: These Yuezhi would be the Lesser Yuezhi who had not moved west with the main Yuezhi group in the mid 2nd century BC. 176 The Gobi. This was roughly a century before the time of Wang Mang. 177 A practice of sending some of their own people to remain with the Han, indicating a trusting alliance.

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submit to the protector general. His Majesty (Guangwu, 25-57 AD) extensively considered matters past and present, and because it was appropriate at that particular time, did not cut off the ‘jimi’178 alliances but pulled back from the western regions and made no promises. … Communication between the Han and these western regions broke off soon after the period of Wang Mang (d.23 AD) and was not re-established until 73 AD, with Ban Chao more fully pacifying the area in 91 AD when he became protector general with his base at Kucha.179 We know from the account of the western regions in the Book of Later Han (HHS)180 that there were many changes of power during this time with the number of individual states increasing but also with Xiongnu power waxing and waning and the states of Yarkand (Shache), Shanshan and Yutian all gaining control of smaller neighbouring states. However, there is no additional information provided about the Qiang around the Tarim Basin. Instead, the Qiang have their own chapter, the Western Qiang Biography (WQB), which focuses mainly on the Qiang in Qinghai and Gansu but mentions in the first paragraph that “in the northwest they border the various states of Shanshan and Jushi.”181 Indications that Qiang groups continued to inhabit the southern part of today’s Xinjiang and further west are found in the 3rd century AD remnant of a text called the Weilue (魏略):182

“In the southern mountains of Dunhuang in the western regions, from the Er Qiang west several thousand li to the Congling, are the remnant of the Yuezhi, the Congzi Qiang,183 the Baima (White Horse) Qiang and the Huangniu (Cattle) Qiang, each with their own chieftains, bordering various kingdoms to the north. It is unknown how wide or long their territory is. Rumour has it that the Huangniu Qiang each have their own type184 and give birth after six months. They border the Baima Qiang on the south.

This tells of them extending west from the Er Qiang near Dunhuang across to the mountains which now form the Chinese border with Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their locations seem to be similar to those in the Han Shu, i.e. in the foothills of the Kunlun with various kingdoms to the north (i.e. probably Yutian and other settlements along the southern rim of the Tarim Basin). However, in the 3rd century, when the states of Wu, Wei and Shu were all fighting for ascendancy in China, these regions were too distant for any more detailed information. From the names of the different Qiang groups it could be assumed that some groups had cattle, others had distinctive white horses, and some used local plants, possibly for dye or medicinal use. That the breadth and length of their territory was unknown but that they bordered settlements to the north, suggests their territories may have extended quite far south into the Kunlun and today’s Tibet as well as beyond the western view of the Chinese at that time.

178 羁縻: ‘ji’ and ‘mi’ refer to ‘bridle’ and ‘reins’ – a descriptive picture of a fairly tenuous relationship between China as the holder of the reins and subservient polities which often in reality seem to have retained a large amount of autonomy. 179 Ban Chao was the brother of Ban Biao and Ban Zhao and son of Ban Gu, the three compilers of the Han Shu. 180 See John Hill’s translation and extensive annotation in Through the Jade Gate to Rome, 2009. 181 See my translation at www.qianghistory.co.uk 182 This is included in Chapter 30 of the Wei Shu (魏书) section of the Three Kingdoms Annals (三国志).

“敦煌西域之南山中，从婼羌西至葱领数千里，有月氏馀种葱茈羌、白马、黄牛羌，各有酋豪，北与诸

国接，不知其道里广狭。传闻黄牛羌各有种类，孕身六月生，南与白马羌邻。” See Hill (2004) for an annotated translation. http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html 183 葱茈: ‘Congzi’ may simply be a transliteration of a non-Chinese name. However, the ‘cong 葱’ character means ‘green onion’ and is the character used for the Congling (Pamir/western Kunlun) region so this may indicate a connection with that area. The ‘zi (or ci) 茈 character is found in 茈草 (also 紫草), which is a plant called gromwell (Lithospermum). The small hard fruits or nutlets of one type of gromwell called Lithospermum officinale were used as decoration on two wooden tubs dating to c.600 BC, which were found in the Yanghai tombs of the Turpan region. Describing this find, Jiang et al point out that Lithospermum officinale is native from Europe to Central Asia, including Xinjiang, and is also found in Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Gansu. (Jiang et al, 2007, pp167-170). 184 黄牛羌各有种类: this seems to suggest a variety of groups, perhaps ethnically different, under the general name ‘Cattle/Oxen’ Qiang.

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Chapter 98: The Biography of Empress Yuan (元后传第六十八) This chapter has an odd reference to the Qiang at the end of the Western Han period. The context is 24 BC. Emperor Cheng (r.33-7 BC) had no heir. His mother, wife of the deceased Emperor Yuan, was a member of the powerful Wang family. Emperor Cheng had a half brother through his father’s concubine and this half-brother had an heir, Liu Kang, who was a potential threat to the power of the Wang family. Emperor Cheng liked Liu Kang and wanted him at court but his uncle, Wang Feng, took advantage of a solar eclipse to warn, “In a solar eclipse all becomes dark, which is very extraordinary. Although [Liu Kang] is very close to the emperor, under the laws of social etiquette he is an outsider. If he stays and serves in the capital he will plot something extraordinary, which is why heaven has given us this warning. The prince should be sent back to his state.” Liu Kang and his mother were sent away but another advisor, called Wang Zhang but not related to the powerful Wangs, thought it better to have a good heir via a consort rather than no heir. He re-interpreted the solar eclipse to Emperor Cheng as an indictment of high officials usurping the emperor’s power even as the moon had eclipsed the sun. This was a thinly veiled accusation of the Wang family and he went on to recall their nepotism and abuse of power. To emphasise his point Wang Zhang then drew an analogy with the Qiang saying: “The Qiang Hu place value on killing their first child in order to wash the intestines and keep their generations pure,185 circumstances which are similar to the emperor sending this woman away [concubine Fu with Liu Kang]. …. Wang Feng cannot be left in charge of matters for long, it is appropriate to relieve him of his post and choose someone loyal and virtuous to take replace him.” However, the young Emperor Cheng yielded to Wang Feng’s influence and his uncle’s power increased. The advisor, Wang Zhang, was impeached for various crimes including an apparently false and unwarranted declaration that the Qiang Hu killed their children by ‘washing their intestines,’ which was viewed as highly improper speech. He was accused of betraying the emperor and put in prison where he died. An explanation of ‘washing the intestines’ is given in the NAHS.186 The unnamed author of these notes suggests that it was a euphemism for induced abortion and that the Qiang Hu didn't want to give birth to other people's children because they wanted to protect and guarantee the racial purity of their people. In various accounts we read that Qiang women were taken captive by the Han (e.g. Ch 94 above). If these women were then given to the soldiers, it is feasible that they would find ways not to bear the children of non-Qiang men. The parallel lies in Liu Kang, son of the deceased emperor, being removed from court because his mother was only a concubine, and the children of the Qiang being disposed of because of the mothers’ forced liaisons with non-Qiang fathers. Wang Zhang presumably viewed both as bad. This would be a strange analogy to create if there was no truth in it, especially as the circumstances have nothing to do with the Qiang. The underlying tone of the passage is that Wang Zhang was honest and courageous and had the interests of the nation at heart despite Emperor Cheng’s rejection of his good counsel under pressure from Wang Feng. Chapter 99: The Biography of Wang Mang (王莽传第六十九) 187 Wang Mang had brought peace and security, transforming the Xiongnu in the north, pacifying

185“且羌胡尚杀首子以荡肠正世，况于天子而近已出之女也!” 186 汉书新注 Vol 4, p298, n.7: 羌胡尝杀首子以荡肠正世：意谓羌胡不要他人之子，以保证纯种。肠：疑

作“腹”。荡腹：打胎。) 187 Wang Mang’s Xin Dynasty lasted from 9-23 AD, from the end of the Western Han to the beginning of the Eastern Han. There were three reign periods: Shijianguo 9-13, Tianfeng 14-19, Dihuang 20-23). Prior to taking the throne in 9 AD he was regent to a child emperor and then acting emperor.

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the eastern lands and embracing those in the south. Only the west had not been brought under his sway. So he sent the Zhonglang General, Ping Xian, with his men and a large amount of gold coins to tempt the Qiang beyond the border, offering territory if they were willing to move within the border and submit. Ping Xian reported to the emperor, “The Qiang chieftain, Liangyuan (良愿), and his kind of people, who may number around 12,000, are willing to become subjects of the interior, offering in return Xianshui lake188 and the Yun Valley saltpans,189 giving all the flat land and good pasture to the Han people, and they themselves will live tucked away out of view in the difficult mountainous territory.190 When I [Ping Xian] asked Liangyuan the reason for his surrender, he replied: “The Empress Dowager191 is capable and virtuous, she has calmed the dukes of Han and they are more benevolent, there is peace under heaven, the crops are flourishing, the standing grain is sometimes more than three meters high, … the sweet dew comes down from heaven, the sweet water fountains come up from the earth, …. For the last four years, the Qiang have suffered no hardships so it seems a happy thing to submit.”192 It would be appropriate to settle them without delay and give them some kind of livelihood, setting up a vassal state to administer and protect them.” When this reached Wang Mang, he replied with a memorial, “The empress dowager has maintained unity for several years, full of benevolence, creating harmony in all the vassal states, those in faraway places with very different customs who have no regard for righteousness193 …” Wang Mang then describes how those in the north, east and south have sent tribute or submitted and continues, “Today, Liangyuan of the western regions and his people have again offered territory as servants, ….Consider the case, today we already have the eastern sea, the southern sea and the northern sea commanderies, but we don’t have a western sea commandery,194 so please accept the territory offered by Liangyuan and his people as the Western Sea commandery. …” Wang Mang then introduced fifty more laws and moved offenders to this western region. These migrants numbered ten million and the people began to complain.195 In that year (6 AD)196 Pangtian (庞恬) and Fufan (傅幡) of the Western Qiang complained that Wang Mang had seized their territory to create the Western Sea commandery. They mounted an attack on Cheng Yong, the governor of the Western Sea commandery, and Yong fled. Wang Mang punished Yong and sent Dou Kuang,197 the Colonel Protector of the Qiang, to attack the Qiang. In spring of the second year (7 AD), Dou Kuang and his men attacked and defeated the Western Qiang. In the third year (8 AD), Wang Mang presented a memorial including a reference to this taking of the western area, “We encountered the disaster of the Qiang invading and doing harm to the Western Sea commandery and the rebellious enemies spread rumours to the more easterly commanderies and confused the people of the western territory. Our loyal and dutiful officials

188 鲜水海: Today’s Qinghai Lake. 189 允谷盐池: Yun Valley was in the area of Guide, southeast of Qinghai Lake. 190 自居险阻处为籓蔽. 191 The Empress Dowager was Empress Yuan of Chapter 98. She remained Empress Dowager until her death in 13 AD, aged 81. 192 The whole tone of this passage is one of obsequious eulogy reminiscent of poems of the period. The reported willingness of the Qiang to cede land is highly suspect as is then confirmed by the Pangtian and Fufan’s ensuing attack. 193靡不慕义: ‘righteousness’ here means Han culture. 194 See n.107. 西海 means western non-Chinese regions here rather than a literal sea or lake. 195 An analogy can be drawn here with Western exportation of convicts to colonies. No wonder the Qiang and others complained. 196 Wang Mang was ‘acting emperor’ in 6 AD to Emperor Ruzi, whom he had put on the throne aged only one year old. 197 In Chapter 84 above Dou Kuang is the ‘Terrifying the Qiang’ Marquis.

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were all furious and responded with an annihilating attack … and everywhere is calm. Today we will establish ceremonial rites and compose music appropriate to this occasion …” As a result, those of high position became marquis or count, those on the next level down became viscount or baron and those who received the title of ‘Marquis Within the Passes’ changed their name to Fucheng (附城), several hundred people in total. Those who had attacked

the Western Sea adopted ‘Qiang’ (羌) as a symbolic name198… The final reference occurs in a paragraph explaining Wang Mang’s new system of official appointments: “A command was given to Wang Fu, Appeaser of the Qiang (怀羌子), saying, “The barrier of the

Qian River and the Long Mountains199 blocks the Rong Di (戎狄) in the west. You are appointed

as ‘Wuwei West of the Passes General’ (五威右关将军) in Chenggu200 guarding the territory and pacifying the Qiang in the west.” End of Qiang references in the Han Shu. Bibliography for Parts 1 and 2 of Qiang 羌 References in the Book of Han 汉书 (All websites were accessible on Dec 13th 2014 when this paper was first uploaded.) Arrian. Ancient History Sourcebook: Arrian: Anabasis Alexandri: Book VIII (Indica) Tr. E. Iliff Robson. 1933. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/arrian-bookVIII-India.html Bailey, H. W. 1970. Saka Studies: The Ancient Kingdom of Khotan. Iran, Vol. 8, 1970, pp. 65-72. Published by: British Institute of Persian Studies.

- 2009. Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts Volume VII. Cambridge University Press.

Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. 1999. The Mummies of Ürümchi. London: Pan Books. Benjamin, Craig. 2003. The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia. http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/benjamin.html Brough, John. 1996. Collected papers. Minoru Hara and J.C.Wright (eds). University of London: School of Oriental and African Studies. Bunker, E. C. 2001. The Cemetery at Shanpula, Xinjiang. Simple Burials, Complex Textiles. In Fabulous Creatures from the Desert Sands. Central Asian woolen textiles from the second century BC to the second century AD. D. Keller and R. Schorta (eds). (Riggisberger Berichte, 10). pp. 15-

198 击西海者以「羌」为号: this suggests that Han under Dou Kuang who had attacked the Qiang would have the character ‘Qiang’ attached to their name to show that they had contributed to this victory. It means one cannot assume that all names including the ‘羌’ character actually belonged to Qiang people. In

fact, personal names of Qiang people rarely if ever included the Qiang 羌 character. 199 汧陇: This is the region of the Liupan mountains which extend south from Ningxia into Shaanxi with most of Gansu to the west. The Rong Di reference here was a broad reference to non-Chinese to the west, with Qiang specified as the main problem at that time. 200 成固: today’s Chenggu county in Hanzhong, southwestern Shaanxi. [NB Wuwei here is not the Wuwei

武威 of the Gansu corridor.] This was quite far east to be defending against the Qiang – implying that the Han had little power over them at this time.

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45. Cariou, Alain. 2008. Keriya. Encyclopaedia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/keriya Chen, Aifeng et al (陈爱峰等). 2006. “三危”地望研究述评. 青海民族研究, 2006, No 3. pp101—105. (A discussion of research regarding the geographical location of ‘San Wei’ as referred to in the Shang Shu. Qinghai Ethnic Minority Research. In Chinese) http://www.turfanological.com/article/article.php?articleid=511 Cheng, Te-kun (Zheng Dejun). 1946. The Slate Tomb Culture of Li-Fan. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, June, 1946, Vol 9, No2, pp. 63-80. Chirkova, Katia. 2012. The Qiangic subgroup from an areal perspective: A case study of languages of Muli. Language and Linguistics 13.1, pp. 133-170, 2012. Christopoulos, Lucas. 2012. Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD). Sino-Platonic Papers 230. Cui YQ, Gao SZ, Xie CZ, et al. 2009. Analysis of the matrilineal genetic structure of population in the early Iron Age from Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China. Chinese Science Bulletin, 2009, 54, pp. 3916 - 3923, doi: 10.1007/s11434-009-0647-8. Cui YQ, Li CX, Gao SZ, Xie CZ, Zhou H. 2010. Early Eurasian Migration Traces in the Tarim Basin Revealed by mtDNA Polymorphisms. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Daffinà, P. 1982. The Han Shu Hsi Yü Chuan retranslated. T’oung Pao, LXVIII 1982, pp. 331-332. Debaine-Francfort. 1989. Archéologie du Xinjiang des origines aux Han. IIème partie. Paléorient. 1989, Vol. 15 N°1. pp.183-213. (In French) Debaine-Francfort, Corinne, Françoise Debaine, and Abduressul Idriss. 2009. The Taklamakan Oases: an Environmental Evolution Shown through Geoarchaeology. In Water and Sustainability in Arid Regions. Schneier-Madanes, G. and Courel, M-F (eds). Springer-Verlag Gmbh, 2009, pp. 181-202. De Crespigny, Rafe. Online Publications. (Annotated translations of the Later Han and Three Kingdoms periods with maps.) https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/html/1885/42048/index.html Di Cosmo, N. 2000. Ancient City-States of the Tarim Basin. In A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures. Mogens Herman Hansen (ed). Copenhagen, 2000, pp. 393-407. Dreyer, Edward L. 2008. Zhao Chongguo: A Professional Soldier of China’s Former Han Dynasty. The Journal of Military History, Volume 72, Number 3, July 2008, pp. 665-725. Enoki, K. et al. 1994. The Yüeh-chih and their Migrations. In History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol II, The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations : 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. Janos Harmatta (ed), 1994, pp.171-189. Falkenhausen, Lothar von. 1996. The Moutuo Bronzes : New Perspectives on the Late Bronze Age in Sichuan. In: Arts Asiatiques. Volume 51, 1996. pp. 29-59. Forsyth, T. D. 1875. Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873, Under Command of Sir T. D. Forsyth:

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Yablonsky, Leonid T. 1995. The Material Culture of the Saka and Historical Reconstruction. In Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age. Davis-Kimball, J. (ed). Zinat Press. Yap, Joseph. 2009. Wars with the Xiongnu: A Translation from Zizhi Tongjian. AuthorHouse™. Younghusband, Francis E. 1896. The Heart of a Continent. John Murray, London. Facsimile reprint: (2005) Elbiron Classics. Yu Taishan. 2004. A History of the Relationship Between the Western & Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern & Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions. Sino-Platonic Papers, 131. March 2004.

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Zhang, F. et al. 2011. Hydrological changes and settlement migrations in the Keriya River delta in central Tarim Basin ca. 2.7–1.6 ka BP: Inferred from 14C and OSL chronology. In SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, Dec 2011, Vol 54. No 12: pp1971-1980. © Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. Zhang, W. et al. 2013. A Study on the Auspicious Animal Motifs on Han Textiles in Ancient China. Silk Road, Vol 11, 2013. http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/vol11/SilkRoad_11_2013_zhang.pdf Zhang, X. et al. 2007. Characterization of dyestuffs in ancient textiles from Xinjiang, Journal of Archaeological Science, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.08.001 Zhao, C. and He L (赵丛苍/何利群). 1996. 塔里木地区羌人初探. 中国史研究, 1996 年 02 期 . (A Preliminary Look at the Qiang of the Tarim area. China Historical Research, 1996, No. 2. In Chinese.) Zhou, Xi Yin (main ed.) et al (周锡银, 主编). 2004. 羌族词典. 成都:巴蜀书社. (Qiang Lexicon. Chengdu:Ba Shu Press. In Chinese.) Maps Rafe de Crespigny map: https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/42048/18/map01.pdf Han Civilisation map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Han_Civilisation.png Modern maps of China: http://www.chinatouristmaps.com/provinces Map of the Shule River system (Dunhuang/Lop Nor region): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shulerivermap.jpg

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Official titles in the Han Dynasty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Chinese_history/Translation_of_Han_Dynasty_titles Wei River map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Weirivermap.png General Websites Ancient places in Qinghai: http://baike.baidu.com/view/2071921.htm Asoka (and accounts of the founding of Khotan): http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asoka-mauryan-emperor Liushui cemetery introduction: http://kaogu.cn/html/en/backup_new/new/2013/1026/42232.html MDBG Dictionary: www.mdbg.net Mineral and Locality database (Ruoqiang page): http://www.mindat.org/loc-157181.html New Annotated Han Shu in Chinese: 电子图书:学校专集. 汉书新注. Vols 1-3 online at: Online Xinhua Dictionary (在线新华字典词典 ). http://xh.5156edu.com/ (浙ICP备05019169号) Polyphonic singing, Ossetia: http://petitesplanetes.bandcamp.com/track/aphsaty Polyphonic singing, Qiang: http://www.56.com/u56/v_MTkwNzQ5MjU.html Qiang performance depicting their migration: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWWavOxKpKs Qiang embroidery site (Baidu): http://image.baidu.com/i?tn=baiduimage&ipn=r&ct=201326592&cl=2&lm=-1&st=-1&fm=result&fr=ala0&sf=1&fmq=&pv=&ic=0&nc=1&z=&se=1&showtab=0&fb=0&width=&height=&face=0&istype=2&ie=utf-8&word=%E7%BE%8C%E6%97%8F%E5%88%BA%E7%BB%A3

The Chinese text of the Book of Han: http://www.xysa.net/a200/h350/02qianhanshu/s-index.htm The Chinese text of the Hou Han Shu: http://www.xysa.net/a200/h350/03houhanshu/s-index.htm The Chinese text of the Shiji: http://www.xysa.net/a200/h350/01shiji/s-index.htm The Chinese text for the Book of Sui: http://www.xysa.net/a200/h350/15suishu/s-index.htm The Chinese text for the Book of Wei, Ch 108: http://www.xysa.net/a200/h350/10weishu/s-108.htm The Chinese Text for the Book of Southern Qi, Ch 7: http://www.xysa.net/a200/h350/07nanqishu/s-007.htm The Chinese Text for the Book of Chen, Ch 11: http://www.xysa.net/a200/h350/09chenshu/s-011.htm

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Towers in Ossetia: http://www.kaukaz.net/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/english/northossetia/ossetia_gal3 Towers in the Qiang region: http://image.baidu.com/i?tn=baiduimage&ipn=r&ct=201326592&cl=2&lm=-1&st=-1&fm=result&fr=ala1&sf=1&fmq=&pv=&ic=0&nc=1&z=&se=1&showtab=0&fb=0&width=&height=&face=0&istype=2&ie=utf-8&word=%E7%BE%8C%E6%97%8F%E7%A2%89%E6%A5%BC See also http://www.qianghistory.co.uk/photos.php