Western civilization
Western Regions and Warring States Period
At the turn of the Han Dynasty, there were frequent wars in the Central Plains. Neither Wang Mang, who usurped the Han Dynasty, nor Liu Xiu, the Guangwu Emperor who restored the Han Dynasty by force, could concentrate on governing the Western Regions. The Western Regions entered the Warring States Period. Taking advantage of this short-term "vacuum" state of foreign forces, the western regions were first ruled by shache (1) Wang Xian, and were soon replaced by the separation of two powerful countries-Khotan and Shanshan. At this time, Shanshan (Loulan), a small country in the western region, which was crushed and destroyed by the Han and Xiongnu poles, got an opportunity to subdue the city-states of Xiaowan, Ronglu, Qiemo and Jingjue in the South Island and extend the national border to the Niya River in Minfeng County today.
In shache, the king took advantage of the opportunity of giving up the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty to call himself "Dadu Lake", while the countries in the Western Regions who were surrendered by him respectfully called him "Khan". The prefect was the highest military and political chief in the Western Han Dynasty-similar to the governor. So Attila's title is shared by everyone in Xi 'an. In the 22nd year of Jianwu (46), Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xian wrote to Ann, demanding that the Han Dynasty be prevented from entering the Western Regions. Ann not only refused to listen, but also killed shache's envoy. So shache and Wang Fabing attacked Shanshan. Ann led the army to fight and fled into the mountains after defeat. Shache's army killed more than 1000 people in Loulan, and then marched westward. King Shanshan cleaned up the mess and returned to the postwar capital. Facing the dilapidated home, he wrote to the Han Dynasty again, expressing his willingness to send protons to serve, and asked the Han Dynasty to set up capital guards in the western regions again. If you can't protect them, you can only serve the Huns as a patriarch. Guangwudi's energy mainly focused on the government affairs of the Central Plains. In his reply to Shanshan, he said: it is impossible to send all the guards at present. If countries in the western region cannot do this, they can do things cheaply. So Shanshan was attached to the Huns.
Ban Chao Reconstructs the Political Structure of the Western Regions
It is precisely because of another outstanding figure, Ban Chao, who is as famous as Zhang Qian, that the forces of the Eastern Han Dynasty once again entered the Western Regions. In the 16th year of Emperor Yongping of Han Dynasty (73), Ban Chao went to the fortress as a fake Sima, and sent soldiers to attack the Xiongnu with Dou Gu, a captain in the car. His first battle was in the Prehai Lake (now Bakou Lake). Dou Gu appreciated Ban Chao's courage and sent him to Shanshan with Guo Yao.
Ban Chao is the younger brother of Ban Gu, a historian of Han Dynasty and author of Hanshu. The famous allusions in history, such as "joining the army with a pen", "sealing the Hou Xiang" and "being born in Yumen Pass", are all summed up according to his experience. If Zhang Qian was the first person in the Western Han Dynasty to establish political relations with the Western Regions, then Ban Chao was the designer of the Eastern Han Dynasty governing the Western Regions. Ban Chao stayed in the Western Regions for 30 years, and the first thing he did independently was to lead 36 strong men to Shanshan at the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain.
Ban Chao was the first envoy to Shanshan in the Eastern Han Dynasty. At first, Guang was very considerate to the long-awaited Ambassador of China, but soon, he suddenly became very cold. Ban Chao was able to come back unscathed for 30 years in the changeable political situation in the western regions, largely thanks to his sensitivity-he had extraordinary intuition about potential hostility, conspiracy and upcoming disasters. He immediately realized that the change of Shanshan's attitude was not a courtesy, nor was it a momentary negligence. He called his men together and said, "Do you think light is rude to us? This must be because the Huns also sent messengers to Shanshan, and he hasn't made up his mind to take a stand yet. A courageous person can see the micro-knowledge, not to mention his heart has been exposed! " So Ban Chao called Loulan, the waiter who received them at the post office, and deliberately lied to him, asking, "The envoys of Xiongnu have been here for several days. Where do they live? " The waiter thought Ban Chao knew the secret, so he had to tell the truth. Ban Chao immediately locked up the waiter and gathered all the 36 warriors he had brought. After some binge drinking, Ban Chao generously declared, "Come with me and make great contributions to protect your wife and children. Now that the Xiongnu emissary has only been here for a few days, King Shanshan will ignore us. If he arrested us and handed us over to the Huns, then we would not come to a good end. What should we do about it? " The subordinates all said, "do or die, we all lay down our lives to obey your command!" So Ban Chao told his contingency plan: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained! We must attack the residence of the Xiongnu Mission with fire at night. They don't know anything about us. They must be frightened and caught off guard, so they can be annihilated in one fell swoop. " If the Xiongnu Mission is subdued, Shanshan's fear will be broken and her bad luck will be reversed. "Someone suggested:" For such a big matter, we should discuss it with Guo Yao before starting work. "Ban Chao said angrily," this is fighting! Guo is a civil servant and will be at a loss when he hears this plan. We're dead! This is not a strong man's job. "
After dark, they went straight to the Huns' compound. While the wind was blowing, Ban Chao asked 65,438+00 warriors to ambush behind the post office with drums. Everyone agreed that as soon as they saw the fire, they beat the drums and shouted. The rest of the people swooped on both sides of the gate with swords in their hands. Ban Chao set a fire to the limelight. The fire started with a loud noise, and the Xiongnu envoys were in chaos. I don't know what happened. Ban Chao personally killed three escaped Huns, and his men killed more than 30 Huns, leaving 100 people burned to death in the posthouse. Until the next day, Ban Chao informed Guo Xun that he took the Huns' heads to see Guang, which shocked Shanshan all over the country. After Ban Chao's repeated encouragement, Xiao Yi became interested, so King Shanshan had to admit this fait accompli, betray the Huns, join the Han Dynasty, and send protons to the court again. Stabilizing the situation in Shanshan, Ban Chao once again opened the door to the western regions for the Han Dynasty. Since then, Ban Yong, the son of Ban Chao, suggested that 500 people should be stationed in Loulan, which has a long history in the western regions. Finally, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the political pattern of the Western Regions was based on what Ban Chao did in those years, and Loulan/Shanshan was put in the first place as the gateway to the Western Regions.
The Central Plains forces faded out of the Western Regions.
After the Han Dynasty, the records of Loulan/Shanshan in China's historical records were brief and scattered. I only know that Shanshan has become an important country among the 36 countries in the Western Regions. It has been in the south for a long time, but it has been trying to maintain good relations with the Central Plains dynasty. In the period of Shanshan, Meng dedicated his daughter to Wang Zhangjun with the title of "beauty", and built a "guest view" as his residence, and set up a mansion with a long history in Loulan City (that is, Haitou) in Shanshan Middle School. However, when there was no powerful unified dynasty in the Central Plains, it was difficult to bring Shanshan and even the whole western region into the sphere of influence. Therefore, although we have data to prove that Shanshan is still a vibrant and far-reaching country in the western regions since the end of the Han Dynasty, many rich and vivid contents are lost in the official history.
Because the official records about Loulan after Historical Records, Hanshu and Houhanshu are relatively simple and messy, the travel notes left by some people passing by here are quite important. Fortunately, due to Loulan's geographical location, people passed through it in almost every historical period to enter and leave the Western Regions.
Faxian arrived in Shanshan, a Buddhist country.
In 339, in the first year of the reign of Emperor Hong at the end of Qin Dynasty, Fa Xian, a monk who was nearly 60 years old, set foot on the first road from Chang 'an and went west to seek the Dharma. He is one of the few westerners whose travel discipline has been completely preserved to this day. According to the Records of Sui Shu's Classics, there are three kinds of works about Fa Xian and his The Journey to the West in Sui Dynasty, namely, The Story of the Buddha Country, The Biography of Fa Xian and The Biography of Fa Xian, while the tour of eminent monks in Southern Dynasties recorded a volume of The Story of Buddha Traveling to Tianzhu. There are different opinions in academic circles about which one of Fa Xian Ji Xing has been handed down to this day, that is, what is its correct name. We call it Fa Xian Zhuan for the time being in our writing, which is just a flexible approach. However, after all, this does not affect its value and significance.
According to Fa Xian's biography, Fa Xian and his party were quite optimistic about the journey until they set out on the road. When they left Dunhuang and went west, they began to realize the hardships of this trip. Not far from Dunhuang, we entered the dry and windy Bailongdui desert. The biography of Fa Xian recorded the impression of Bailongdui with vivid brushstrokes.
There are many evil spirits in Shahe, and everyone dies. There are no birds or animals in the sky. You can look everywhere, but you don't know what you want. Only the bones of the dead are the hallmark ears.
The last sentence means: there is no regular road along the way. Whenever you meet the bones of the dead, you will know that it is an ancient road that people have traveled.
After a trek of 17 days, they arrived at the capital of Shanshan. At that time, Shanshan had accepted the customs of the mainland more, but "thought brown was different" in dress. Obviously, the barren and rugged Shanshan left a deep impression on Faxian. But what he cares more about is that the King of Shan Shan believes in Buddhism. There are more than 4,000 monks in China, all of whom practice Hinayana, and monasteries and ordinary people practice Tianzhu Buddhism. To this end, Faxian and his party stayed in Shanshan for a month. In addition, Fa Xian also recorded that Shanshan monks used to use "Tianzhu script Tianzhu language", while secular people used Hu language. Unfortunately, Fa Xian did not specify the name of this nonsense, but said in a note that "nonsense varies from country to country" in the Western Regions. The unique language used by Shanshan was not known to the world until the beginning of this century-1500 years later-when the British explorer Stan excavated the ancient city of Virginia.
According to Fa Xian's knowledge, we can make a general assessment of Shanshan's national strength at that time-at the beginning of the 4th century. According to Hanshu, there were 14 100 people in Loulan/Shanshan Kingdom in Han Dynasty, and 29 12 men received military service. If the above figures are generally reliable, then we can know that the proportion of male and female residents in Shanshan was unbalanced at that time, and there were more men than women, otherwise it would be impossible for every 4. One of the eight Shanshan citizens won the battle. Even if one out of every four adult males becomes a monk, the population of Shanshan Kingdom should be around 80,000 (76,800) when Fa Xian arrives. Located in the border areas with vast territory, sparsely populated and poor products, Shanshan's population has increased five or six times in more than 300 years, mainly by annexing land residents and expanding its territory. This proves that Shanshan was still a big country in the western regions at that time.
Passerby Song Yun
However, more than a century later, Song Yun, a Dunhuang native, and Sheng Hui, a monk, were ordered by the Empress Dowager of the Northern Wei Dynasty to go to the Western Regions to learn Buddhist scriptures in the first year of Emperor Gui Xiaoming in the Northern Wei Dynasty (5 18), leaving a glimpse when passing by. According to legend, Shanshan was "the king of his city", but it was annexed by Tuguhun, a tribe rising in Qinghai, and was guarded by General Ning, the second son of Tuguhun. "The tribe has 3,000 people to defend the West Lake." Accordingly, Shanshan's national strength reached its peak in Fa Lu Xian Jing. After Song Yunzhi's way, he changed the soil and returned to the stream, while the adherents of Shanshan, an ancient country, have all dispersed. The Journey to the West of Song Yun has long been lost, but its fragments are still preserved in Galand, Luoyang.
The three centuries between Fa Xian and Song Yun were the process of the demise of Loulan/Shanshan Kingdom. This is the period of the rise and fall of ethnic minorities in northwest China.
Tang Priest Xuanzang and the Real Journey to the West
The most famous monk who went west to seek the Dharma and left a record of learning the scriptures was Xuanzang in the early Tang Dynasty. The Journey to the West, a novel based on his The Journey to the West, made Xuanzang (Tang Priest and Tang Sanzang) well known to all women and children. Contemporary Indian historians point out that it is impossible to reconstruct and study the history of India in the Middle Ages without the biography of Datang to the Western Regions, which records Xuanzang's westward journey. Unlike Faxian, Xuanzang went by land and returned by sea. He traveled to and from the western regions. Emperor Taizong went west in the third year of Zhenguan (629) and returned east in the eighteenth year of Zhenguan (644). Passing through Loulan/Shanshan's hometown was his last trip to the Western Regions. In the Western Regions of Datang, Xuanzang described the experience of Loulan Kingdom as follows:
(East to Zazie) I trudged more than 200 miles to Nirang City, where reeds are barren and there is no way to go back, but there are no residents.
Travel more than 400 miles to the old country. "the country is empty for a long time, and the city is barren."
I drove more than 600 miles eastward, which was the last time. The city walls are desolate and people are isolated from each other.
Traveling more than a thousand miles northeast, "to Nabingbo's old country, that is, Loulan Land". Not only did I not see the residents, but even their land became the "old country".
The so-called "Nilang" is Niya, whose hometown is in Xinjiang. "The logic of goods is the mother country" and "the logic of goods" means to breathe fire, so the place of home should be near the Andiel River. Generally speaking, it means "new" to "bring waves to the motherland" and "bring waves to the motherland", which means Naboo and Bona.
The Western Regions first referred to the Zhou Dynasty. The pre-Qin Guoyu has the Book of the West. There are "people from the west" in the Book of Songs; "Zhuangzi Qin Wang Pian" contains: "In the last Zhou Dynasty, there were two scholars who lived in solitary bamboo and were named Boyi and Shu Qi. The two men said to each other,' I heard that some people in the west seem to have a way. Let's try to observe them. "Song of the South China Lisao" has such words: "Tianjin starts in the morning and ends at the West Pole in the evening"; There is a saying in "The Song of the Southbound" that "the Phoenix Emperor raises the flag with his wings, and when he meets Ru Shou, he meets the Western Emperor". "Jiang Liangfu's school note:" Western Emperor, Western God also. In the west, Geng Xin is the Western Emperor, and his emperor is young. "Song Ouyang Xiu, Fan Zhongyan, etc." Lian Jian famously said, "The Southern Emperor caught fire, while the Western Emperor dripped gold. "West", "West Pole" and "Western Regions" all refer to Zhou.
Since the Han Dynasty, the narrow sense of the western regions refers to the west of Yumenguan and Yangguan, the green ridge is east of Pamirs, east and south of Balkhash Lake and the vast area of Xinjiang. The western regions in a broad sense refer to all the regions that can be reached in a narrow sense, including Central Asia and West Asia.
The Western Regions later evolved into the western regions of China, so Qinghai and Tibet also belonged to the Western Regions. In the Qing Dynasty, the scope of the "Western Regions" started from Dunhuang in the east, to Balkhash Lake and Qingji in the west, to Lhasa border in the south and to Russia and Kazakhstan border in the north, including many areas in southwest Qinghai and northern Tibet.