Hexi Corridor

Coordinates: 38°42′N 100°47′E / 38.700°N 100.783°E / 38.700; 100.783
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Map of the Hexi Corridor

The Hexi Corridor (

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

Guanzhong Plain, and then into the Central Plain
.

History

Early crop dispersal

Western Asia and Europe from the fifth millennium to the second millennium BC.[1]

Cultivated wheat, originating at the Fertile Crescent, appeared in China around 2800 BC at Donghuishan at the Hexi corridor. Several other crops are also attested at this time period. Xishanping is another similar site in Gansu.[2]

According to Dodson and coauthors (2013), wheat entered via the Hexi Corridor into southern Gansu around 3000 BC, although other scholars date this somewhat later.[1]

As early as the 1st millennium BCE, silk goods began appearing in Siberia, having traveled over the northern branch of the Silk Road, including the Hexi Corridor segment.[3]

Qin dynasty

At the end of the

Chu-Han contention and the early Han dynasty.[4]

Han dynasty

A map of the Western Han dynasty in 2 AD[5]
  Principalities and centrally-administered commanderies
  Protectorate of the Western Regions (Tarim Basin)

During the reign of

162 BCE, forcing the westward exodus of majority of the Yuezhi survivors (later known as the Greater Yuezhi) into Central Asia, while the small portion of Yuezhi population that didn't migrate (known as the Lesser Yuezhi) was forced to mixed among the Qiang people and become the subjects of Xiongnu's Worthy Prince of the Right. At this point, the Hexi Corridor was under complete Xiongnu control, mainly occupied by the two tribes of Hunye and Xiutu
.

In

Anxi, Tiaozhi, Shendu and Wusun
.

During the

111 BCE, Han forces repelled a joint Xiongnu-Qiang invasion, and to consolidate the control of the region, four new commanderies were established in the Hexi Corridor, namely (from east to west) Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang, collectively known as the Four Commanderies of Hexi (Chinese
: 河西四郡).

From roughly 115–60 BCE, Han forces fought the Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin. Han was eventually victorious and established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BCE, which dealt with the region's defense and foreign affairs.

During the

Hami
.

After the new Protector General of the Western Regions

Northern Chanyu, who retreated into the Altai Mountains. The Han forces, allied with the subjugated Southern Xiongnu, again defeated the Northern Chanyu twice in 90 CE and 91 CE, forcing him to flee west into Wusun and Kangju
territories.

Tang dynasty

Main article: Tang dynasty
Mural commemorating victory of General Zhang Yichao over the Tibetan Empire in 848. Mogao cave 156, late Chinese Tang dynasty
Map of the Tang Dynasty showing the Hexi Corridor connecting China proper to the Tarim Basin

The Tang dynasty fought the Tibetan Empire for control of areas in Inner and Central Asia. There was a long string of conflicts with Tibet over territories in the Tarim Basin between 670 and 692.

In 763 the Tibetans even captured the Tang capital of

An Lushan Rebellion. It was during this rebellion that the Tang withdrew its western garrisons stationed in what is now Gansu and Qinghai, which the Tibetans then occupied along with the area that is modern Xinjiang. Hostilities between the Tang and Tibet continued until they signed a formal peace treaty in 821. The terms of this treaty, including fixed borders between the two countries, are recorded in a bilingual inscription on a stone pillar outside the Jokhang in Lhasa
.

Western Xia dynasty

Main article: Western Xia

The Western Xia dynasty was established in the 11th century by the Tangut people. Western Xia controlled from 1038 CE up to 1227 CE the areas in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi, and Ningxia.

Yuan dynasty

Main article: Yuan dynasty
Further information: Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty

Genghis Khan began the conquest of the Jin dynasty around 1207 and Ögedei Khan continued it after his death in 1227. The Jurchen-led Jin dynasty fell in 1234 CE with help from the Han-ruled Southern Song dynasty.

Ögedei also conquered the Western Xia dynasty in 1227, pacifying the Hexi Corridor region, which was later absorbed into the Yuan dynasty.

Geography and climate

The Hexi Corridor is a long, narrow passage stretching for some 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from the steep

Jade Gate[6] at the border of Gansu and Xinjiang. There are many fertile oases along the path, watered by rivers flowing from the Qilian Mountains, such as the Shiyang, Jinchuan, Ejin (Heihe), and Shule
Rivers.

A strikingly inhospitable environment surrounds this chain of oases: the snow-capped

Gobi
desert to the north.

Geologically, the Hexi Corridor belongs to a Cenozoic foreland basin system on the northeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau.[7]

The ruins of a Han dynasty watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang.

The ancient

trackway, where relatively small fortifications could control passing traffic.[8]

There are several major cities along the Hexi Corridor. In western

Liangzhou) and finally Lanzhou in the southeast. In the past, Dunhuang was part of the area known as the Western Regions. South of Gansu Province, in the middle just over the provincial boundary, lies the city of Xining, the capital of Qinghai
Province. Xining used to be the chief commercial hub of the Hexi Corridor.

The Jiayuguan fort guards the western entrance to China. It is located in

Jiayuguan. The Jiayuguan fort is the first fortification of Great Wall of China
in the west.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^
    PMID 27942165
    .
  2. S2CID 55810068
    .
  3. ^ Silk Road, North China, C.Michael Hogan, the Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham
  4. ^ "Dunhuang History". Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  5. ^ Barnes (2007), p. 63.
  6. ISBN 9868141982
  7. doi:10.1016/S0169-555X(98)00114-7
    .
  8. ^ "The Silk Roads and Eurasian Geography". Retrieved 2007-08-06.

Sources

38°42′N 100°47′E / 38.700°N 100.783°E / 38.700; 100.783

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hexi_Corridor&oldid=1215375254"