Yumen Pass
Yumen Pass | |
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Location | 80 km NW of Dunhuang, Gansu, China |
Coordinates | 40°21′12.6″N 93°51′50.5″E / 40.353500°N 93.864028°E |
Yumen Pass | |
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Hanyu Pinyin | Yùmén Guān |
Yumen Pass (
Etymology
Although the Chinese guan is usually translated simply as "pass", its more specific meaning is a "frontier pass" to distinguish it from an ordinary pass through the mountains. Yumen guan 玉門關 and Yang guan 陽關 are derived from: yu 玉 = 'jade' + men 門 = 'gate', 'door'; and yang 陽 = 'sunny side', 'south side of a hill', 'north side of a river,' and guan 關 = ‘frontier-passes’.
It is not to be confused with the city Yumen (玉門, literally Jade Gate) in Gansu, China. Although both are within the same Jiuquan "prefecture-level city" (a multi-county administrative unit) of Gansu province, Yumen Pass is located some 400 km to the west of its namesake city.
History
Yumen Pass was one of the most famous passes leading to the north and west from Chinese territory.[2] During the Early Han, "a defensive line was established from Jiuquan ('Wine Springs') in the Gansu Corridor west to the Jade Gate Pass at its end."[3]
Travellers to 'The Western Regions' (西域, Xiyu) left China through the famous Yumenguan 玉門關, or 'Jade Gate Frontier-post,' named for the many jade caravans that passed through it. The original Jade Gate was erected by Emperor Wudi (Emperor Wu of Han) soon after 121 BCE and its ruins may still be seen about 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the northwest of Dunhuang which was, until the 6th century, the final outpost of Chinese territory for caravans on their long caravan journeys to India, Parthia, and the Roman Empire.[4]
The remains of these two important
Hami, the pass was abandoned. In 1907, Sir Aurel Stein found bamboo slips naming the site as Yumenguan, and in 1944 Chinese archaeologists discovered relics that confirmed this. With its 10-metre-high (32 foot) mud walls pierced by four gateways, the square enclosure covered more than 600 square metres (718 square yards) in the midst of unbounded desolation. Yanguan lies 75 kilometres (47 mi) southwest of Dunhuang but consists of only the ruins of a high beacon tower.— Bonavia & Baumer (2004), pp. 176, 178. Quoted in Hill (2009), p. 138.
Footnotes
- ^ "Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 17 Apr 2021.
- ^ Hill (2015), p. 140
- ^ Mallory & Mair (2000), p. 60
- ^ Hill (2009), p. vi
References
- Bonavia, Judy; Baumer, Christoph (2004). The Silk Road: From Xi'an to Kashgar. Hong Kong: Odyssey Publications. ISBN 978-962-217-741-3.
- Hill, John E. (2009). Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. Charleston, South Carolina: BookSurge. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.
- Hill, John E. (2015). Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. Vol. I (Revised ed.). CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1-5006-9670-2.
- Yuan Julian Chen, 春風玉門,《福建文學》Fujian Literature,2014年第五期,頁72-76.
- Mallory, J. P.; Mair, Victor H (2000). The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05101-6.