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Xiutu
Xiutu (, also rendered as Hsiu-tu, lit. "The king who puts an end to massacres") was a king in the Hexi corridor of the Gansu region, west of Wuwei, during the 2nd century BCE. According to the '' Shiji'' and the '' Book of Han'', King Xiutu, together with King Hunye, was a vassal of the Xiongnu under their ruler Yizhixie (伊稚邪 126–114 BCE), and was antagonistic with the Han dynasty. King Xiutu, considered as ''" Hu"'' (胡, barbarian) by the Han, was positioned between the Xiongnu tribes of the Mongolian steppes to the north, the Han to the east, the Saka to the northwest, the Tocharians to the west, and the Southern Qiang (南羌, ''Nanqiang'') to the south. Although a vassal, Xiutu was probably not himself a Xiongnu: it is actually reported that his territory was occupied by the Xiongnu as they were pushed westward by the Han. Kingdom of Xiutu The Kingdom of Xiutu is closely associated to the Shajing culture (700–100 BCE), which managed to prosper along river ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shajing Culture
The Shajing culture (Ch: 沙井文化, 800/700–100 BCE), is an ancient Iron Age culture in the area of Gansu, to the northwest of the Zhongyuan, Central Plains of China. The village of Shajing is about 250 km northwest of Wuwei, Gansu, Wuwei, while the village of Yushugou, another important Shajing site, is about 140 km to its southeast. The Shajing culture is closely associated to the Saka culture of the Xinjiang, the Ordos culture of Inner Mongolia and the Upper Xiajiadian culture of Liaoning. It was a culture essentially based on pastoral nomadism. As of 2017, seven sites had been excavated and almost as many fortified settlements built with walls of compacted loess. Characteritics The ecological context of the Shajing culture was one of general aridification, following the warm and humid climatic conditions from the Late Glacial to the Middle Holocene from which the Majiayao culture and the Qijia culture had benefited. Usually, such arid conditions lead to material ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jin Midi
Jin Midi (134–86 BC) (, courtesy name Wengshu (翁叔), formally Marquess Jing of Du (秺敬侯), was a foreign prince and a warrior of the Western Han Dynasty. He was a Hu (胡) "barbarian" from a kingdom in central Gansu area and served as coregent early in the reign of Emperor Zhao of Han. Background Jin Midi was born in 134 BC to a Xiongnu royal family in Gansu. He was the heir of the king Xiutu (休屠王; Soter/Σωτήρ), one of the major kings serving under the supreme ruler of the Xiongnu, Gunchen Chanyu. After Gunchen's death in 126 BC, his brother Yizhixie succeeded him. During this time, the king of Xiutu and another major king, the king Hunxie, were assigned for defending Xiongnu's southwestern border against the Han Dynasty – in modern central and western Gansu. In 121 BC, Emperor Wu of Han sent his general Huo Qubing to attack Xiongnu armies, dealing a great defeat on the Xiongnus and their Greco-Bactrian and Irano-Scythian allies in Gansu. In th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Han–Xiongnu War
The Han–Xiongnu War,. also known as the Sino–Xiongnu War, was a series of military battles fought between the Han Empire and the nomadic Xiongnu confederation from 133 BC to 89 AD. Starting from Emperor Wu's reign (r. 141–87 BC), the Han Empire changed from a relatively passive foreign policy to an offensive strategy to deal with the increasing Xiongnu incursions on the northern frontier and also according to general imperial policy to expand the domain. In 133 BC, the conflict escalated to a full-scale war when the Xiongnu realized that the Han were about to ambush their raiders at Mayi. The Han court decided to deploy several military expeditions towards the regions situated in the Ordos Loop, Hexi Corridor and Gobi Desert in a successful attempt to conquer it and expel the Xiongnu. Hereafter, the war progressed further towards the many smaller states of the Western Regions. The nature of the battles varied through time, with many casualties during the changes of territ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huo Qubing
Huo Qubing (140 BC – 117 BC) was a Chinese military general and politician of the Western Han dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. He was the nephew of the general Wei Qing and Empress Wei Zifu (Emperor Wu's wife), and the half-brother of the statesman Huo Guang. The Records of the Grand Historian by the ancient scholar Sima Qian also list him as a male favorite (i.e., lover) of the Emperor. Along with Wei Qing, he led a campaign into the Gobi Desert of what is now Mongolia to defeat the Xiongnu nomadic confederation, winning decisive victories such as the Battle of Mobei in 119 BC. Early life Huo Qubing was an illegitimate son from the love affair between Wei Shaoer (), the daughter of a lowly maid from the household of Princess Pingyang (Emperor Wu's older sister), and Huo Zhongru (), a low-ranking civil servant employed there at the time. However, Huo Zhongru did not want to marry a lower class serf girl like Wei Shaoer, so he abandoned her and went away to m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hexi Corridor
The Hexi Corridor (, Xiao'erjing: حْسِ ظِوْلاْ, IPA: ), also known as the Gansu Corridor, is an important historical region located in the modern western Gansu province of China. It refers to a narrow stretch of traversable and relatively arable plain west of the Yellow River's Ordos Loop, flanked between the much more elevated and inhospitable terrains of the Mongolian and Tibetan Plateaus. The name ''Hexi'', refers to "west of the river". As part of the Northern Silk Road, running northwest from the western section of the Ordos Loop between Yinchuan and Lanzhou, the Hexi Corridor was the most important trade route in Northwest China. It linked China ''proper'' to the historic Western Regions for traders and military incursions into Central Asia. It is a string of oases along the northern edges of the Qilian Mountains and Altyn-Tagh, with the high and desolate Tibetan Plateau further to the south. To the north are the Longshou, Heli and Mazong Mountains separatin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hexi Corridor
The Hexi Corridor (, Xiao'erjing: حْسِ ظِوْلاْ, IPA: ), also known as the Gansu Corridor, is an important historical region located in the modern western Gansu province of China. It refers to a narrow stretch of traversable and relatively arable plain west of the Yellow River's Ordos Loop, flanked between the much more elevated and inhospitable terrains of the Mongolian and Tibetan Plateaus. The name ''Hexi'', refers to "west of the river". As part of the Northern Silk Road, running northwest from the western section of the Ordos Loop between Yinchuan and Lanzhou, the Hexi Corridor was the most important trade route in Northwest China. It linked China ''proper'' to the historic Western Regions for traders and military incursions into Central Asia. It is a string of oases along the northern edges of the Qilian Mountains and Altyn-Tagh, with the high and desolate Tibetan Plateau further to the south. To the north are the Longshou, Heli and Mazong Mountains separatin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Han Wudi
Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years – a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi Emperor more than 1,800 years later and remains the record for ethnic Chinese emperors. His reign resulted in a vast expansion of geopolitical influence for the Chinese civilization, and the development of a strong centralized state via governmental policies, economical reorganization and promotion of a hybrid Legalist–Confucian doctrine. In the field of historical social and cultural studies, Emperor Wu is known for his religious innovations and patronage of the poetic and musical arts, including development of the Imperial Music Bureau into a prestigious entity. It was also during his reign that cultural contact with western Eurasia was greatly increased, directly an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chang'an
Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty, China's first emperor, held his imperial court, and constructed his massive mausoleum guarded by the Terracotta Army. From its capital at Xianyang, the Qin dynasty ruled a larger area than either of the preceding dynasties. The imperial city of Chang'an during the Han dynasty was located northwest of today's Xi'an. During the Tang dynasty, the area that came to be known as Chang'an included the area inside the Ming Xi'an fortification, plus some small areas to its east and west, and a substantial part of its southern suburbs. Thus, Tang Chang'an was eight times the size of the Ming Xi'an, which was reconstructed upon the site of the former imperial quarters of the Sui and Tang city. During its heyday, Chang'an w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minqin County
Minqin County () is a county of Gansu province, the People's Republic of China. It is under the jurisdiction of Wuwei City. Its postal code is 733300, and its population in 1999 was 281,826 people. In older literature, today's Minqin is referred to as Zhenfan (). According to Pyotr Kozlov, the Mongol name for the city was Sogo Khoto. Geographically, Minqin county occupies one of Gansu's panhandles, bordering in the north, east, and southeast on the Alashan League of Inner Mongolia. History Historically, Chinese agricultural settlement in the area was made possible by the Shiyang River, flowing from the Qilian Mountains. However, the livelihood of Chinese farmers here was often precarious; in the 1920s it was considered as somewhat of a regular famine district.Owen Lattimore, ''The Desert Road to Turkestan''. London, Methuen, 1928. Large number of Zhenfan people, nicknamed "Sand-hollow Mice", worked as "camel-pullers" with caravans owned by Mongols from the adjacent Alashan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Wall
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eurasian nomads, various nomadic groups from the Eurasian Steppe. Several walls were built from as early as the 7th century BC, with selective stretches later joined by Qin Shi Huang (220–206 BC), the first emperor of China. Little of the Qin wall remains. Later on, many successive dynasties built and maintained multiple stretches of border walls. The best-known sections of the wall were built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Apart from defense, other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Majiayuan Site
Majiayuan (Ch:马家垸遗址) is an 3rd-2nd century BCE archaeological site in Gansu, China. The site is considered as belonging to rulers of the culture of the Xirong ("Western Barbarians"), recently subjugated by the state of Qin, who included them within the defensive wall of King Zhao of Qin, built in 271 BCE. It is rather similar to another Xirong site about 50 km away, the Wangjiawa cemetery (王家洼墓地). Majiayuan was a zone of interraction between the Chinese and their nomadic neighbours to the west and north during the Warring States period (476–221 BCE). Characteristics The pits are oriented west-east, with stepped passageways and a catacomb, but Majiayuan also has wooden coffins at the bottom of a vertical pit. Ornately decorated chariots have been found, as well as sacrificial animals, and the corpses were highly decorated with gold belt ornaments with bird patterns. In the tombs, tools and weapons were installed. There were ''li'' vessels with snake pattern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
