Kangju

Ethnic group mentioned in Chinese history; probably the Sogdians

Kangju
1st century BCE (?)–5th century CE
Late Antiquity
• Established	1st century BCE (?)
• Disestablished	5th century CE
Today part of	Uzbekistan Tajikistan

Kangju (

Sakas,^[3] or other Iranian groups such as the Asii.^[4]

Name

According to John E. Hill, a historian specialising in ancient Central Asia, "Kangju (W-G: K'ang-chü) 康居" was in or near the "

Edwin Pulleyblank, Beitian – the summer capital of Kangju – was in or near modern metropolitan Tashkent.^[6]

)

It is not clear whether the Chinese name 康居 Kangju was intended to transcribe an ethnic name, or to be descriptive, or both. 居 ju can mean: 'seat', 'central place of activity or authority; 'to settle down,' 'residence,' or 'to occupy (militarily).'... The term, therefore, could simply mean "the abode of the Kang," or "territory occupied by the Kang." ... As kang 康 means 'well-being', 'peaceful,' 'happy;' 'settle', 'stability,' Kangju can be translated as the 'Peaceful Land,' or 'Abode of the Peaceful (People).' ... Even if the name Kangju was originally an attempt to transcribe the sounds of a foreign name, it would still have carried the sense of a peaceful place to Chinese speakers, and the name 'Kang' would have had overtones of a peaceful people.[5]

Later Chinese sources, during the

Göktürk Khaganate.^[7]

Pulleyblank linked Kangju to the

underlying form of Chinese transcription 康居 EHC *kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ > standard Chinese Kāngjū), proposes that it was an Iranian word meaning "stone", and compares it to Pashto kā́ṇay "stone".^[a][10]

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Nevertheless, all those connections remain hypothetical.^[11]

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Kangju spoke an

Eastern Iranian language, which was probably identical to Sogdian,^[12]

or derived from it.

History

Main article: Sogdia

According to 2nd century BCE

Ili Valley after their defeat by the Xiongnu and Wusun respectively.^[2] Chinese sources state that the Kangju were tributiaries of the Yuezhi in the south and the Xiongnu in the east.^[2]

HAN
DYNASTY

XIONGNU

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The Kangju received the visit of Zhang Qian

circa 128 BCE.

"Kangju is situated some 2,000 li [832 kilometers] northwest of Dayuan. Its people are nomads and resemble the Yuezhi in their customs. They have 80,000 or 90,000 skilled archers. The country is small, and borders Dayuan (

Ferghana). It acknowledges sovereignty to the Yuezhi people in the South and the Xiongnu in the East.^[13]

Qian also visited a land known to the Chinese as Yancai 奄蔡 (literally "vast steppe"), which lay north-west of the Kangju. The people of Yancai were said to resemble the Kangju in their customs:

Yancai lies some 2,000

Aralsk

is about 866 km].

By the time of the

Sogdiana in which it controlled “five lesser kings” (小王五).^[14]

In 101 BCE, the Kangju allied themselves with the Dayuan, helping them preserve their independence against the Han.^[2]

The account on the '

Hou Hanshu, 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), based on a report to the Chinese emperor c. 125 CE, mentions that, at that time, Liyi 栗弋 (= Suyi 粟弋) = Sogdiana, and both the "old" Yancai (which had changed its name to Alanliao and seems here to have expanded its territory to the Caspian Sea), and Yan, a country to Yancai's north, as well as the strategic city of "Northern Wuyi" 北烏伊 (Alexandria Eschate, or modern Khujand), were all dependent on Kangju.^[15][16]

Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjection of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BCE.

nomadic populations.^[2] Although their territory was small, the fertility of the land and their sophisticated civilization enabled the Kangju to maintain a large population, becoming a major military power.^[18]

The Kangju were in frequent struggles with the Wusun, during which they in the mid 1st century BCE allied themselves with the northern Xiongnu.^[2] The Kangju ruler gave his daughter in marriage to the northern Xiongnu ruler Zhizhi, while the Kangju king married the daughter of the Xiongnu ruler.^[20] The Xiongnu and Kangju were initially successful, besieging the Wusun in 42 BCE. The Han however intervened, defeating and killing the northern Xiongnu ruler in at Talas in 36 BCE (Battle of Zhizhi). The Kangju ruler was subsequently forced to send his son as a hostage to the Han court.^[2] Nevertheless, the Kangju continued to send embassies to the Han court and pursued an independent policy, which they were able to maintain until the 3rd century CE. Evidence of Kangju independence can be seen in the coinage issued in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, during which they issued their own currency which was similar to that of Khwarezm.^[2]

The biography of the Chinese General

The 3rd century Weilüe states that Kangju was among a number of countries that "had existed previously and neither grown nor shrunk."^[22][23] The Kangju subsequently declined. Around 270 CE they were subdued by the Xionites.^[24] Like other Central Asian peoples, the Kangju probably became subsumed into the Hephthalites.^[2]

Kangju was later known as the State of Kang (康国) during the

The Book of Han describes the way of life of the Kangju elite. Its ruler spent his winter in the capital city of Beitian, and his summers at his steppe headquarters, which was a seven days' journey away on horseback.^[2]

The Kangju are regarded as an

The ruling elite of the Kangju consisted of nomadic tribes whose customs were very similar to those of the Yuezhi. Kangju burials of the early period have been excavated at Berk-kara and Tamdî, in which the dead were placed in pit-graves, often covered with logs, under kurgan mounds. These graves often contain hand-made pots, iron swords, arrow-heads and jewellery. The burials show that the traditional culture of the Kangju resembled characteristics of the Saka.^[2] From the beginning of the Christian era "catacomb graves" (in shaft and chamber tombs) became widespread. This is seen from the burials of the Kaunchi and Dzhun cultures of the 1st to the 4th centuries CE, which are generally accepted as having belonged to the Kangju.^[2] The Kangju regarded the ram as a noble animal.^[32]

References from written sources and archaeological finds show that the Kangju reached a considerable level of agricultural sophistication. Much of the population consisted of a sedentary farming population.^[2] Wide canals from the Kangju period have been discovered, with the land area under irrigation of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya being four times greater than today.^[33] The irrigation systems of Central Asia reached their highest levels of development under the Kangju-Kushans and was in fact superior to those fully developed in the Middle Ages.^[33]

Archaeology

Kaunchi culture

Kangju appears to be a civilisation known to

Settlements of the Kaunchi culture were typically located in proximity to water and usually have monumental oval buildings in the center, at times with a defensive wall. The largest settlement was a 150 hectare city known apparently as Kang (Sanskrit Kanka), south of modern Tashkent and founded in the 1st century CE. Kang had a square layout, encircled by a wall with inner passages.^[35]

The settlements were surrounded by kurgan burials of a catacomb type with long dromoses, crypts, and burial vaults, with horse bone trappings and rites typical of nomads.^[35]

The people predominantly practiced cattle husbandry and nonirrigated agriculture (grain cultures of millet, barley, wheat, and rice, cotton, melons, and fruits).

Materials typical of the culture are typical hand-formed pottery: khums (large bowls for water and produce), pots, pitchers, and cups adorned with ram's head on the handles. In the 1st century CE ceramics made on a potter's wheel became more common. A ram's head motif at first common was replaced by a bull's head during the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. At that period weapons started appearing in the kurgans.

Kaunchi-type sites apparently spread from the

Some important inscriptions were discovered recently ^[when?] that provide information about Kangju and its contacts with China.

• A dozen wooden slips with Chinese writing were found at the Xuanquan site in Dunhuang, China. They are dated to the late Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE-24 CE).^{[citation needed]}
• A set of Sogdian inscriptions from Kultobe in Kazakhstan; they were analyzed and deciphered by Nicholas Sims-Williams. They complement the existing Chinese historical records about Kangju. Sims-Williams also assigned a likely date to these inscriptions.^[36]
• Several fragmentary Sogdian inscriptions discovered by A. N. Podushkin in his excavations at Kultobe. They contain archaic features which shed light on the development of the Sogdian script and language.^{[citation needed]}

Genetics

A genetic study published in

A 2021 study reconstructed the genetic profile of the Kangju as derived from the

BMAC ancestry.^[42]

Notes and References

Part of a series on the
History of Central Asia
Ancient Oxus Civilization Scythia Dingling/Tiele Saka Kangju Huns
Middle Ages Sogdians 200s–1000s Hephthalites 440s–710 Göktürks 552–745 Karluks 665–744 Kimek Khanate 743–1220 Oghuz Yabgu State 750–1055 Kara-Khanid Khanate 840–1212 Qara Khitai 1124–1218 Mongol Empire 1206–1368 Golden Horde 1240s–1446
Modern Colonization period Russian Turkestan 1867–1918 Great game period History of Central Asia XIX a.d.–
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Footnotes

1. ^ For further etymology, see Blažek (2022).^[9]

References

1. ^ Schuessler, Axel (2014) "Phonological Notes on Hàn Period Transcriptions of Foreign Names and Words" in Studies in Chinese and Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Dialect, Phonology, Transcription and Text. Series: Language and Linguistics Monograph. Issue 53. p. 272 of 249-292
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u} Zadneprovskiy 1994, pp. 463–464
3. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 153, 174: "... the Sogdians, known as K'ang-chü to the Chinese..."
4. ^ ^{a b} Golden 1992, p. 53.
5. ^ ^{a b} Hill (2015), Vol. 1, note 2.17, p. 183.
6. ISSN 0004-4482
   .
7. ^ Tangshu chapter 221b, p. 1, translated (into French) by Édouard Chavannes in Documents sur les tou-kiue [turcs] occidentaux, pp. 132-147. Paris. (1900).
8. ISSN 0004-4482
   .
9. ^ Blažek 2022, p. 68.
10. ^ Ünal, Orçun (2022). "On *p- and Other Proto-Turkic Consonants" Sino-Platonic Papers, 325, pp. 45-46
11. ^ Golden 1992, pp. 264–265.
12. ^ ^{a b} Damgaard et al. 2018.
13. ^ Watson 1993, p. 234
14. Hulsewé
    (1979) pp. 126, 130–132
15. ^ Hill (2009), pp. 377-383.
16. Hulsewé
    (1979) p. 129
17. ^ ^{a b} Zadneprovskiy 1994, pp. 465–466
18. ^ ^{a b} Benjamin, Craig (October 2003). "The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia". Transoxiana Webfestschrift. 1 (Ēran ud Anērān). Transoxiana. Retrieved 29 May 2015.
19. ISBN 978-8412527858
    .
20. ISBN 978-90-04-14129-2
    . "Zhi-zhi allied himself with the king of Kang-ju by means of a bilateral marriage arrangement; Zhizhi married the king's daughter, while Zhi-zhi's own daughter was wed to the king."
21. ^ "Trois généraux chinois de la dynastie des Han orientaux," by Édouard Chavannes, p. 230. In: T'ouang pao 7 (1906)
22. ^ Hill (2004),
23. ^ Hill (2015), Vol. I, note 2.15, p. 175.
24. ^ Harmatta 1994, p. 21
25. seven-day week ] was also transmitted to China by Manichaeans in the 8th century from the country of Kang (康) in Central Asia." (translation after Bathrobe's Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese & Vietnamese, plus Mongolian and Buryat
    (cjvlang.com)]
26. ISBN 978-1-78969-407-9
    .
27. ^ Kyzlasov 1996, pp. 315–316
28. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 153
29. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 174
30. ^ Wood 2004, p. 94
31. Yanqi, all names occurring in the Chinese historical sources for the Han dynasty, as Tocharian
    speakers."
32. ^ Mukhamedjanov 1994, p. 277
33. ^ ^{a b} Mukhamedjanov 1994, p. 270
34. ISBN 978-8412527858
    .
35. ^ ^{a b c} Masson V.M., Pre-Islamic Central Asia, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/archeology-v
36. ^ New Evidence from Dunhuang, China and Central Asia for the Kangju Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine nyu.edu
37. PMID 34707286
    .
38. ^ Damgaard et al. 2018, Supplementary Table 2, Rows 81-82, 84, 120, 128, 131, Individuals DA121, DA 123, DA125, DA206, DA226, DA229.
39. ^ Damgaard et al. 2018, Supplementary Table 9.
40. ^ ^{a b} Narasimhan et al. 2019, Table S1.
41. ^ Damgaard et al. 2018, Supplementary Table 8.
42. PMID 33771866
    .

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