Liang Province or Liangzhou () was a

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

in the northwest of

ancient China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

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

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

. 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 ( ), 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 O ...

served to connect China proper with the

Western Regions The Western Regions or Xiyu (Hsi-yü; ) was a historical name specified in Ancient Chinese chronicles between the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD that referred to the regions west of the Yumen Pass, most often the Tarim Basin in prese ...

, which helped secure important parts of the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

into

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

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 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 The Yellow Turban Rebellion, alternatively translated as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, was a peasant revolt during the late Eastern Han dynasty of ancient China. The uprising broke out in 184 CE, during the reign of Emperor Ling. Although t ...

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 Cao Cao (; ; ; 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde, was a Chinese statesman, warlord, and poet who rose to power during the end of the Han dynasty (), ultimately taking effective control of the Han central government. He laid the foundation f ...

started an offensive against Liang Province in 211, winning a key victory in the

Battle of Tong Pass (211) The Battle of Tong Pass, also known as the Battle of Weinan, was fought between the warlord Cao Cao and a coalition of forces from Guanxi (west of Tong Pass) between April and November 211 in the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. The battle w ...

, and finally conquering the entire province in 215.

References

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