Zihe ()
is the name of a
polity
A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources.
A polity can be any group of people org ...
mentioned in ancient Chinese texts. Its exact location is a matter of debate, although it is usually assumed to be in modern south-west
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
.
During the
Former Han
The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring int ...
period (late
1st millennium BCE
File:1st millennium BC.jpg, 400x400px, From top left clockwise: The Parthenon, a former temple in Athens, Greece; Aristotle, Greek philosopher; Gautama Buddha, a spiritual teacher and the founder of Buddhism; Wars of Alexander the Great last from ...
), Zihe was referred to as controlling the southern
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 ...
town of
Xiye (, later known as Karghilik). Xiye was also mentioned in the
Book of the Later Han
The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Lat ...
(
1st
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
and
2nd Centuries CE) as being distinct from Zihe.
Most modern scholars believe that Zihe and Xiye were one and the same. The reasons for this include the phonological similarities between the names Xiye and Zihe.
Other sources state that Zihe may be synonymous with
Shahidulla
Shahidulla, also spelt Xaidulla from Mandarin Chinese, (altitude ca. 3,646 m or 11,962 ft), was a nomad camping ground and historical caravan halting place in the Karakash River valley, close to Khotan, in the southwestern part of Xinjiang A ...
(Xaidulla), more than 200 km (120 mi.) south-south-east of Karghilik.
However, this identification is controversial.
References
Footnotes
{{reflist
Sites along the Silk Road
Hotan Prefecture
Township-level divisions of Xinjiang