yangguan on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Yangguan, or Yangguan Pass (), is a mountain pass that was fortified by Emperor Wu of the
Yangguan is associated with sad parting in Chinese literature as it was the last stop for Chinese travellers leaving China to the
Yangguan Sandie
Mountain passes of China Great Wall of China Landforms of Gansu Sites along the Silk Road {{PRChina-geo-stub
Western Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a war ...
around 120 BC and used as an outpost in the colonial dominions adjacent to ancient China. It is located approximately southwest of Dunhuang, in the Gansu territory to the west of the Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
province in the far Northwest China
Northwest China () is a statistical region of China which includes the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Ningxia and the provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai. It has an area of 3,107,900 km2.
The region is characterized by a (semi-)arid con ...
, which was in ancient times the westernmost administrative center of China. It was established as a frontier defense post, as well as a developed place in China's remote western frontier; Emperor Wu encouraged Chinese to settle there. Today Yangguan is located in Nanhu Village, along 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 ...
.
Yangguan was one of China's two most important western passes, the other being Yumenguan. In Chinese, ''yang'' means "sun" or "sunny", but it can also be used to mean "south" (the sunny side of a hill being the southern side). Yangguan was therefore so-named because it lies to the south of the Yumenguan Pass. It was an important landmark on the Silk Road. The fortress at Yangguan however had fallen into ruin by around AD 900.
Cultural references
Yangguan is associated with sad parting in Chinese literature as it was the last stop for Chinese travellers leaving China to the Western Regions
The Western Regions or Xiyu (Hsi-yü; ) was a historical name specified in the Chinese chronicles between the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD that referred to the regions west of Yumen Pass, most often Central Asia or sometimes more sp ...
. In a famous poem, "Seeing Yuan'er off on a Mission to Anxi", the Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
poet Wang Wei wrote:
:
Wang Wei's poem inspired one of China's best-known musical pieces, the "Three Variations of Yangguan" (''Yangguan Sandie'', ) which existed as early as the Tang Dynasty. The song became a classic farewell song sung down the centuries, and additional lines were added by others to the song as refrains. The poem is repeated either in part or in whole three times, and each time with some variations. The earliest surviving music score dates back to the Ming Dynasty. A current popular version is based on a late Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
tune; originally it was played on ''guqin
The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and Scholar-bureaucrats, literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinemen ...
'' and first published in ''Introduction to Learning Qin'' (琴學入門, ''Qinxue Rumen'') in 1864, but it may be traced back to a version from the Ming dynasty. This version is also played on '' guanzi'' as well as other instruments, and has also been adapted for a vocal performance.
See also
*Yang Gongren
Yang Guan (died 639), courtesy name Gongren, better known as Yang Gongren, formally Duke Xiao of Guan, was a Chinese military general and politician during the Sui and Tang dynasties, at one point serving as a Tang chancellor.
Background
It ...
References
External links
Yangguan Sandie
Mountain passes of China Great Wall of China Landforms of Gansu Sites along the Silk Road {{PRChina-geo-stub