Liang Province or Liangzhou () was a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

in the northwest of

ancient China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapt ...

, in the approximate location of the modern-day province of

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...

. It was bordered in the east by Sili Province.

History

Establishment

The province was first conquered by the Han Chinese in the 120s BCE during the Han–Xiongnu War, and settled in the decades thereafter. The

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 rela ...

served to connect China proper with the Western Regions, which helped secure important parts of the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and rel ...

into

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

Qiang rebellions

In 107 CE, the Xianlian Qiang rebelled against Han authority. After heavy fighting, and proposals to abandon Liang Province, this First Great Qiang Rebellion was quelled in 118. Efforts were made to resettle the province from 129 to 144, although large parts of Liang remained without effective government. General

Duan Jiong Duan may refer to: * Duan (surname), a Chinese surname ** Duan dynasty, the ruling dynasty of the Dali Kingdom * Duan tribe, pre-state tribe during the era of Sixteen Kingdoms in China * Duan language, spoken on the Laotian–Vietnamese border * D ...

conducted another successful campaign against Qiang rebels in 167–169, committing a massacre at Shoot-Tiger Valley.

End of Han rule

In 184, concurrent with the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion in large parts of China, the Liang Province rebellion commenced.de Crespigny, p. 14. Han campaigns to retake the area remained inconclusive, and by 189 Liangzhou was a de facto independent warlord state ruled by Han Sui and Ma Teng. Warlord Cao Cao started an offensive against Liang Province in 211, winning a key victory in the Battle of Tong Pass (211), and finally conquering the entire province in 215.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liang Provinces of Ancient China History of Gansu