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Xiutu
Xiutu ( zh, c=休屠王, p=Xiūtú Wáng, also romanized as Hsiu-t'u, lit. "The one 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. "Xiutu" (休屠) is also an early Chinese transliteration for the name of the Buddha. 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 towards the Han dynasty. King Xiutu, considered as ''" Hu"'' (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 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 close ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jin Midi
Jin Midi (134 BC – 29 September 86 BC, zh, c=金日磾, p=Jīn Mìdī, courtesy name Wengshu (翁叔), formally Marquess Jing of Du (秺敬侯)), was a Xiongnu Xiutu prince and a general of the Western Han dynasty. He was referred to as a non-Han "barbarian", either with the term '' Hu'' or '' Yidi''. He was originally from the Xiutu Kingdom in central Gansu and served as co-regent early in the reign of the Emperor Zhao of Han. He was given the family name "Jin" ("Gold") by Emperor Wu of Han because he worshipped the golden statue of the Xiongnu which Huo Qubing captured in his military campaigns."本以休屠作金人為祭天主，故因賜姓金氏云。" (HS 68:23b9) in Background Jin Midi was born in 134 BC to a royal Xiongnu family. He was the heir of the Xiongnu's Prince of Xiutu, one of the major princes under the supreme ruler of the Xiongnu, the Junchen Chanyu. After Junchen's death in 126 BC, his brother Yizhixie succeeded him. During this time, the Prince ... [...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 Central Plains of China. The village of Shajing is about 250 km northwest of 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 and cultural decline, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huo Qubing
Huo Qubing (140 BC – October 117 BC, formerly ''Ho Ch'ii-ping'') was a Chinese military general and politician of the Western Han dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. He was a nephew of the general Wei Qing and Empress Wei Zifu (Emperor Wu's wife), and a half-brother of the statesman Huo Guang. 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. Huo Qubing was one of the most legendary commanders in Chinese history, and still lives on in Chinese culture today. 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Han–Xiongnu Wars
The Han–Xiongnu Wars. or Sino–Xiongnu Wars, were a series of military conflicts fought over two centuries (from 133 BC to 89 AD) between the agrarian society, agrarian Ancient China, Chinese Han dynasty, Han Empire and the Eurasian nomads, nomadic Xiongnu confederacy, although extended conflicts can be traced back as early as 200 BC and ahead as late as 188 AD. The History of China, Chinese civilization initially clashed with Inner Asian nomadic tribes (then collectively known as ''Beidi, Di'') that would later become the Xiongnu during the Warring States period, and various northern ancient Chinese states, states built elongated fortifications (which later became the Great Wall) to defend against raid (military), raids down from the Mongolian Plateau. The unified Qin dynasty, who Qin's wars of unification, conquered all other states under the First Emperor, dispatched General Meng Tian in 215 BC in Qin's campaign against the Xiongnu, a successful campaign to expel the Xiongnu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Ordos Loop (hence the name ''Hexi'', meaning 'west of the river'), flanked between the much more elevated and inhospitable terrains of the Mongolian and Tibetan Plateaus. 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 separating it from the arid Badain Jaran D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yizhixie
Yizhixie ( zh, c=伊稚邪; Late Old Chinese: ; r. 126–114 BC) was the brother of Junchen Chanyu and his successor to the Xiongnu throne. Yizhixie ruled during a time of conflict with the Han dynasty under the military expansionist Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC). Defeating Yudan Originally the Eastern Luli-Prince, Yizhixie, a younger brother of Junchen, had to stage a coup against the previous ''chanyu'''s son Yudan, the Eastern Tuqi (Wise Prince). Yudan was defeated by Yizhixie in battle and fled to the Han dynasty, where Emperor Wu gave him a princely title. A few months later Yudan died. Life In 125 BC, the Xiongnu raided Chinese provinces in 3 groups, each with 30,000 cavalry. The Western Jükü-Prince, angry that Chinese Court took Ordos and built Shuofang, attacked the borders of China a few times; and when he entered the Ordos, plundered Shuofang, and killed and captured many officials and other people. In early 124 BC, Wei Qing and four other generals led a force ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chang'an
Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in what is now 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 t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Han Wudi
Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), born Liu Che and courtesy name Tong, was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty 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 Han 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 the 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 and indirectly. During his reign as Emperor, he led the Han dynasty through its gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhàng
The zhang ( zh, c= ) is a customary Chinese unit of length equal to 10 chi (Chinese feet). Its value varied over time and place with different values of the chi, although it was occasionally standardized. In 1915, the Republic of China set it equal to about 3.2meters or 3.50 yards. In 1930, this was revised to an exact value of 3⅓meters (about 3.645yd). It is not commonly used in mainland China today but appears in traditional Chinese architecture, where it was commonly used to measure bays. In Japanese units of measurement, the is equivalent to ten ''shaku'', or 3.03 meters. See also * Chinese units of measurement Chinese units of measurement, known in Chinese as the ''shìzhì'' ("market system"), are the traditional units of measurement of the Han Chinese. Although Chinese numerals have been decimal (base-10) since the Shang dynasty, Shang, several Chine ... Customary units of measurement Units of length Standards of the People's Republic of China References ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minqin County
Minqin County () is a county of Gansu province, 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, or moved—tempo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Wall
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They 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. The first walls date to the 7th century BC; these were joined together in the Qin dynasty. Successive dynasties expanded the wall system; the best-known sections were built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). To aid in defense, the Great Wall utilized watchtowers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and its status as a transportation corridor. Other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls (allowing control of immigration and emigration, and the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road), and the regulation of trade. The collective fortifications constituting the Great Wall stret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
