티베트족史

TIBETANS

 

For details on when the east met with the west, see my recent discussions on the Huns, the Yuezhi, the Tarim Mummies, the Yuezhi-Yushi misnomer, the Mongoloid-Caucasoid admixture at 2000 B.C.E., the fallacy of the Aryan bearing of the Chinese civilization, the fallacy of the Yuezhi jade trade, the Yuezhi migration timeline, as well as the location of the Kunlun Mountain, Queen Mother of the West the proto-Tibetan Qiangic jade trade with the Sinitic Chinese, and the Qiang's possible routes of passages into Chinese Turkestan at http://www.imperialchina.org/Barbarians.htm which was embedded within the Huns.html and Turks_Uygurs.html pages. (Also see my discussion on the ethnic nature of ancient Huns belonging to part of the epic Jiang-rong human migration of the Jiang-surnamed San-miao people and Yun-surnamed Xianyun people.)   To expound the myth of the Koreans and the Altaic-speaking people, most recent DNA analyses need to be taken into account. Doctorate Li Hui from Fudan University of China had analyzed the DNA of the Asians to derive a conclusion that the ancestors of the Mongoloid Asians possessed a distinctive Mark M89 by the time they arrived in Southeast Asia. About 30,000 years ago, from the launching pad of Southeast Asia, the early Mongoloids went through a genetic mutation to Marker M122. Li Hui claimed that the early migrants to the Chinese continent took three routes via two entries of today's Yunnan and Guangxi-Guangdong provinces. The interesting theory adopted by Li Hui would be the migration of one more branch of people who, at about 20,000 years or earlier, continued to travel non-stop along the Chinese coastline to reach the Liao-he River area of Manchuria where they developed into what this webmaster called by the Altaic-speaking people, i.e., ancestors of the Turks and the Mongols.   Combining Li Hui's study with the pottery excavation, we could see a clear path going north extending from around 15,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. Refer to Yaroslav V. Kuzmin's discourse on potteries to see the path of migration of proto-Mongoloids from southwestern China (approx. 15,120±500 BP) to Northeast Asia (Manchuria [13,000 BP, or c. 14,000 - 13,600 cal BC] and Japan [c. 11,800–10,500 cal BC (c. 13,800 - 12,500 cal BP)]) to Siberia (11,000 BP, or 11,200 - 10,900 cal BC).   In the timeframe of about 10,000 years or earlier, developing a genetic mutation to marker M134, one more branch of people who went direct north, per Li Hui, would penetrate the snowy Hengduan Mountains of the Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau to arrive at the area next to the Yellow River bends. This group of people would be ancestors of the Sino-Tibetans. Splitting out of this northbound migrants would be those who went to the east with a new genetic marker M117, i.e., ancestors of the modern Han [a misnomer as the proper term should be Sino-Tibetan, nor the later Sinitic] Chinese. We could say that our Sino-Tibetan ancestors forgot that they had penetrated northward the Hengduan Mountains from the Indo-China "CORRIDOR" in today's Burma-Vietnam. "Walking down Mt Kunlun", i.e., the "collective memory of the ethnic Han Chinese" throughout China and the Southeast Asian Chinese communities, that was echoed in Guo Xiaochuan's philharmonic-agitated epic, would become the starting point of the eastward migration which our Chinese ancestors remembered. (Li Hui grouped the 3000-year-old Chu and Qi people in the same category as the Han Chinese, albeit meeting the ancient classics' records as to the Qi statelet's lineage from the Qiangic-Tibetan Fiery Lord.) This seems to corroborate with Scholar Luo Xianglin's claim that early Sino-Tibetan people originated from the Mt Minshan and upper-stream River Min-jiang areas of today's Sichuan-Gansu provincial borderline and then split into two groups, with one going north to reach the Wei-shui River and upperstream Han-shui River of Shenxi Prov and then eastward to Shanxi Prov by crossing the Yellow River.   one more branch of the early Mongoloids, about 10,000 years ago, were commented to have entered China's southeastern coastline with genetic marker M119. Li Hui, claiming the same ancestry as the Dai-zu and Shui-zu minorities of Southwestern China, firmly believed that his ancestors had dwelled in the Hangzhou Bay and the Yangtze Delta for 7-8 thousand years. The people with M119 marker would be the historical "Hundred Yue People". Li Hui then pointed out that the ancient Wu people, with M7 genetic marker, came to the lower Yangtze area about 3000 years ago. While Li Hui claimed that the M7 Wu people had split away from the northbound M134 Sino-Tibetan people, the historical Chinese classics pointed out that the Wu Statelet was established by two uncles of Zhou Dynasty King Wenwang, i.e., migrants from the Yellow River area.   As to today's Koreans, this webmaster believed that at most they had a tiny ingredient of this group of early proto-Mongoloid who moved north from 20,000 years ago, just as the Homo sapiens had taken in a portion of the DNA from the Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. Li Hui's claim that today's Koreans were the mixtures of the early migrants to Manchuria and the later Yi migrants from Eastern China, did corroborate with this webmaster's historical analysis of the Huns, the Turks and the Mongols -- which yielded the conclusion i) that there was no chance for an east-west cross-traffic through the Gobi (Dazi, Tengri & Liusha [Kumtag]) in prehistory; ii) that the Mongoloid had a pattern of raiding to the west, not the other way around by the Indo-Europeans. The Korean nationalists' claim of a "Siberian origin", in light of the fact that the Koreans had predominantly the O2-haplogroup gene of the Yi/Yue people along the Chinese coast, was unfounded, as well as the Tangun myth --which in my opinion was a 13th century A.D. forgery on basis of the ancient Chinese scholars' statement that the Sushen-shi people at the Japan Sea submitted the tributes (i.e., stone arrows) to China at the time of Lords Yao-Shun-Yu. (See Assertions By Wang Zhonghan for clues as to the relationship between/among the Qiangic Proto-Tibetan, the Sino-Tibetan Jiang-rong (Proto-Hun), and the Altaic Xianbei/Mongols: "the northern barbarians and the western barbarians were similar [i.e., Qiangs] at the Spring-Autumn time period, but by the time of the late Warring States time period, the Chinese began to see the northern barbarians as different from the western barbarians". Namely, the ancient Huns were offsprings of the ancient Sino-Tibetan Jiang-rong people at the Yellow River bends while the Xianbei, the Khitan, the Mongol, the Jurchen and the Manchu people were all related to the Tungusic people from today's Northeastern China.)

* In Commemoration of China's Fall under the Alien Conquests in A.D. 1279, A.D. 1644 & A.D. 1949 * Korean/Chinese Communists & the 1931 Japanese Invasion of Manchuria * Stay tuned for "Republican China 1911-1955: A Complete Untold History" *

 

 
Mankind became active on the globe only after the dissipation in 9000 B.C. of the last Ice Age, last one of the 17-19 glaciations extending from 3 million years ago. This timeframe would be labeled the Upper Palaeolithic. Research shows that the Tibetan Plateau began to be occupied by the human beings around the 2nd to 3rd century as a result of the warm weather and the thaw of ice. The human movements into Tibet could be roughly be classified as from two sources, namely, the westward or southward move by the Sino-Tibetans, and the northeastward move by possibly the ancestors of today's Indians and Pakistani.
 
The Tibetans belong to a larger language family called the Sino-Tibetan. Two major branches could be differentiated here. The Tibeto-Burman is one of two major branches of the Sino-Tibetan family, the other being the Sinitic (Chinese) languages. The two branches are different in their morphological and syntactic typology. The Tibeto-Burman branch consists of 2-300 languages spoken primarily in the uplands of Inner, South, and Southeast Asia, and could be found from Sichuan and Qinghai in the north to Myanmar (Burma), and northwestern Vietnam to the south, and northern Pakistan in the west.
 
The Tibetans are related to the minorities in today's southwestern China, for example, the Mo-so and Lo-lo people. The Mo-so and Lo-lo people are pockets of the minorities who had survived thousands of years of human migrations from north to south. Most of the early southerners would have been pushed out of southern China a long time ago, and a migration path could be separately painted for the Polynesians, the Southeast Asians in the Philiphines and Indonesia/Malaysia, and the people in Vietnam, Burma and Thailand. Those were the early waves of migrations before the Mongols destroyed the independent state of Nan-Zhao (Da Li), an event that would lead to another chain raction that would form today's ethnicity in Southeast Asia. Today's Shan and Thai people in Burma and Thailand are descendants of the refugees of the Nan-Zhao (Da Li) Statelet.
 
However, the compositions of the Tibetans are not that simple, and in my opinion, two groups of people could be easily identified: 1) The group of people who were active in today's Qinhai-Gansu, comprising of the Qiangs around the turn of A.D.-B.C. centuries, and 2) the mixed group of people such as the Tuyuhun Xianbei [who migrated there from the Manchuria-Mongolia border] in the 4th-5th centuries and the Tanguts (Danxiang) with relation to the Tuoba Xianbei of Western Xia Dynasty in the 9th-13th centuries.
 
 
Origin Of the Qiangic people
 
In the section on prehistory, I have traced the origin of the Qiangic people to the Fiery Lord (Yandi) Tribe which carried the name of 'Jiang'. A famous linguist believed that Qiang was a mutation of 'Jiang'. A good website about the today's Qiangs would be http://www.infomekong.com/p_group_Tibetan_1.htm. Wang Ming-ke included ancient viewpoints in regards to the Fiery Lord in his article on "From the Qiang Barbarians to the Qiang Nationality". Qiang-zu, numbering 112000 per 1982 census, possibly the most orthodox descendant of the ancient Qiangic people, now dwell mostly around the Minjiang River area of Sichuan Prov. Qiang-zu are fond of building their houses into citadels, per Cai Ah-dong, a tradition most likely resulting from their historical confrontations with the people around them.
 
The earliest people in western China had the blending of the 'San Miao' people. At the times of Lords Yao-Shun-Yu, the so-called 'Sanmiao' (Three Miao) people had been living in the middle Yangtze River, taking Lake Dongting as their very homeland. This place would remain marshlands and lakes till the time of the Chu State of the Warring States period (403-221 BC). The State of Chu, 1500 years after Xia Dynasty was first established, would still belong to an alien ethnical group, and they were the first group of people to reject the overlordship of Zhou Dynasty by declaring themselves as a king of equal footing. (The Chu people had ingredients from the people in the areas of today's Hanzhong, namely, the interface area of Sichuan, Hubei and Shenxi, a land which was called the "Minor South-of-the-Yangtze Paradise" north of the Yangtze. The people in this area, such as Yong and Pu, had participated in Zhou King Wuwang's campaign against Shang Dynasty as the allied army from the west. The Yong statelet continued resistance against Zhou Dynasty for hundreds of years till it was defeated and absorbed by the Chu, Ba and Qin statelets.)
 
According to Sima Qian, the 'Sanmiao' people were mostly relocated to western China to guard against the western barbarians. Lord Shun relocated them to western China as a punishment for their aiding the son of Lord Yao (Dan Zhu) in rebellion. To the west of today's Dunhuang was a mountain named 'San Wei Shan' (namely, the Sanmiao Precarious Mountain) where the Three Miao people were exiled. The ancient Chinese classics, Yu Gong, Section on Liu Sa (namely, the flowing sand [Kumtag]), had good description of this part of the country. Interesting will be the claim that the 'San Miao' could be traced to the infilial son of Yandi the Fiery Lord. In the paragraph on the barbarians vs the Chinese exiles, we explored into the nature of the Chinese exiles at the times of Lord Yao-Shun-Yu.
 
Speculations As To San-Miao vs Yuezhi Timeframe
Lord Yao or Tangyao (reign 2357-2258 BC ?) took over the overlord post after 9 year's weak rule by Zhi (reign 2366-2358 BC ?). This could lead to a sound speculation that Sino-Tibetan speaking San Miao people had dwelled in Gansu much earlier than the later misnomer 'Indo-European' Yuezhi people. The approximate date would be about 2258 BC for the relocation. Nova, in its TV series,    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/chinamum/taklamakan.html shows the excavations of mysterious 3000-year-old mummies in China's western desert, inside today's New Dominions Province. The dating of 3000-year-old mummiea shows that there developed some admixture at about 2000 B.C.E. in today's Chinese Turkestan, apparently a consequence of the relocation of the San Miao people, about 200 years before the admixture with the Indo-European people. Note that when the Chinese overlords exiled the rebellious San-miao people to today's Northwest China, they could be treating Northwest China as their backyard. In history, you have the Tang Dynasty emperor exiling the Korgureo people to south of the Qinling Ridge from the northern Korean peninsula, with the logic that the rebellious people, once uprooted from their homeland, could be better managed.
 
http://www.taklamakan.org/allied_comm/commonv-1-8.html carried an article by Takla entitled "The Origins of Relations Between Tibet and Other Countries in Central Asia", stating that "according to the researches of Sir Aurel Stein [i.e., the arch thief of China's Dunhuang Grotto treasures] on the origins of the people of Khotan, most were the descendants of the Aryans. They also had in them Turkic and Tibetan blood, though the Tibetan blood was more pronounced. He discovered ancient documents at a place called Nye-yar [Niya] in Khotan and he has stated that the script of these documents contained no Pali, Arabic (Muslim) or Turkic terminology. All were Tibetan terms and phrases." The Tibetans, clearly the descendants of the Sino-Tibetan-speaking Qiangic SanMiao people, had their influences reaching southern Chinese Turkistan in addition to the He-xi [west of the Yellow River] Corridor. P.T. Takla stated further that "according to Wu Hriu(2), the facial features of the people of Khotan were dissimilar to those of the rest of the Horpa nomads of Drugu (Uighurs belonging to the Turkic people) and similar, to an extent, to the Chinese. Khotan in the north-west was called Li-yul by the ancient Tibetans. Since Khotan was territorially contiguous with Tibet, there are reasons to believe that the inhabitants of Khotan had originated from Tibet." (In Chinese classics, there were repeating citations to the effect that the people in Khotan looked like the Chinese, after the possible penetration of the Central Asians into Chinese Turkestan between the 1st century A.D. and the 5th century A.D. Please refer to the Huns section for Wang Guowei's research. Wang Guowei had good points worthy of acknowledgment. Wang Guowei, who did not have the knowledge of mummies, dug through the ancient records to conclude that Tu-huo-luo used to be located at the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert or between Khotan and the Pamires, and that they did not migrate to Bactria till about 155 B.C.E. around, twenty years ahead of the consecutive Schythian and Yuezhi invasion from north of the Amu Darya River. Wang Guowei, citing the Han Shu, claimed that the deep-eyesocket people were noted beyond the Dayuan [central Asia] in Han Dynasty but appeared to be reaching the area west of Gaochang [Turpan] by the time of the Southern-Northern Dynasties as recorded in Bei Shi, concluded that the Caucasoid had moved east from beyond the Pamirs in a matter of 500 years. All in all, Wang Guowei, continuously citing Monk Hui-chao's travels in Central Asia, pointed out that the invaders, i.e., the Turks, had distinction from the central Asia 'Hu' [who had exclusively-appropriated the said 'Hu' naming after the decline of the Huns - who self-designated themselves with such a name], the original inhabitants of Central Asia, and hence believed that both the Yuezhi and the Tu-huo-luo [Da-xia or the Great Xia] people were actually the Mongoloid "invaders", the same as the later Huns, Turks and Mongols.)
 
The Qiang[1] vs the Di[1]people
Ancient classics, Shi Jing, recorded that "Di[1] & Qiang[1] dared not stop paying pilgrimage to the Xia-Shang-Zhou dynasties." The Qiangs aided Zhou Dynasty in defeating last Shang King Zhouwang. Shi Ji recorded that Zhou King Wuwang's army at the Battle of Muye consisted of the so-called 'people from the west', i.e., the allies including eight barbarian statelets, the Qiangs from Gansu, the Shu-Sou-Mao-Wei statelets in Sichuan Province, Lu and Peng from the northwest, and Yong and Pu south of the Han-shui River.
 
The difference between Di[1] and Qiang is not clear. Records show that Di[1] belonged to an alternative race of the ancient Xi Yi, namely, the western Yi barbarians. They were alternatively called 'Bai Ma', i.e., the white horse, and 'Bai Di[1]', i.e., the white Di[1]. During the Qin-Han times, the Di[1] people resided in the areas south of Qishan (the Zhou ancestral land) and Long (Gansu Province) and west of Hanzhong (the areas between Sichuan and Shaanxi) and Chuan (Sichuan Province). Han Emperor Wudi sent General Guo Chang/Wei Guang against them and set up the Wudu Commandary in the Di[1] land. The Di people fled to the mountains and two groups were known, Qing Di (Green Di) and Bai-Di(1) or Bai-ma-di (White Horse Di). The Di[1] people were said to be descendants of Xi-nan-yi, i.e., the southwestern barbarians. Ancient classics mentioned that Di(1) meant for the sheeps. (The word 'qiang' means the shepards in the west.) In the early A.D. 200s, a Di[1] chieftan called Yang Teng was named Duke of Qiuchi. Ts'ao Wei Dyansty conferred his descendant, Yang Qianwan, the title of King of Di[1]. A nephew of the Yang family, Linghu Maosou, was conferred the title of King Youxianwang (i.e., the rightside virtuous king) by Western Jinn Emperor Huidi (reign 290-306) and the title of King Zuoxianwang (i.e., the leftside virtuous king) by Western Jinn Emperor Mindi (reign 313-317). Internal killings among the Di family ensued. The Di people sought vassalage with Shi Hu's Jiehu Psterior Zhao Dynasty, Eastern Jinn Dynasty, and Fu Jian's Anterior Qin Dynasty, consecutively. In A.D. 371, another Di, Fu Jian of Anterior Qin Dynasty, conquered the Qiuchi Di and relocated all of them to Guanzhong, namely, the areas of ancient Chinese capital Xi'an of Shenxi Province. After the death of Fu Jian in the hands of the Qiangs, a Di descendant called Yang Ding, would lead his people to Longyou, the areas in the west of Gansu Province, and declared himself Duke of Qiuchi. In A.D. 389, Yang Ding occupied the Qinzhou Prefecture (Gansu Prov) and declared himself King of Longxi (i.e., west Gansu). (Note that ancient China divided today's Gansu Province into Longxi, Qinzhou and other prefectures.) Fugou would later be killed by Qifu Qian'gui of Western Qin Dynasty. Yang Ding's son, Yang Shen, would later seek vassalage with Western Jinn Dynasty. Yang Shen would be conferred the title of King of Chengdu by Liu Yu, the founder of Liu Song Dynasty. Yang Shen told his son, Yang Xuan, to always seek vassalage with the Southern Chinese regimes. Yang Xuan would be conferred the title of King of Nan-Qin (i.e., southern Qinzhou Prefecture). Beginning from A.D. 500, the Di people began to seek vassalage with Tuoba Wei Dynasty in the north. Wars between Toba Wei Dynasty and Southern Liang Dynasty erupted over the control of the Di people.
 
Qiang[1] vs the Rong-di[2] people
In the paragraph on Rong's Possible Link To the Qiangic People, I detailed the compositions of the Rong to derive a good conclusion that some of the Rongs at the time of Zhou Dynasty could be of Qiangic, and the Rong people in the west shared the same blood-line with the Xia Chinese but differred in 'Culture' such as cuisine, clothing, money and language. Among the various Rong people would be the Western Rong, Doggy Rong and Rong-di Rong.
 
Scholar Liu Qiyu stated that the difference between the Rong and the Chinese lied in 'culture', not 'blood-line'. In article The Rong People In the Nine Ancient Prefectures versus the Rong-yu Xia People, Liu Qiyu cited ancient classics Zhou Yu's paragraph: "In the ancient times, Gong-gong-shi ... had first worked on repairing the 100 rivers (including the flooding of the Yellow River) ... Gong-gong-shi's descendant, Count Yu (i.e., Lord Yu, aka Rong-yu), repented over his father Gun's mistake in flood control ... Gong-gong-shi's grandson, Si-yue, had acted as an assistant to Lord Yu in flood control ... Hence, Si-yue was conferred the fief of Si-yue-guo Statelet and assigned the surname of 'Jiang' which included the clan name of 'Luu' ... Today (i.e., in Zhou Dynasty times), the clan names of Shen and Luu had declined in prestige and influence but the 'Jiang' family still prevailed in Qi Principality." (Gong-gong-shi was said to be the same person as Gun, the father of Lord Yu.) Liu Qiyu further cited ancient classics Zuo Zhuan and listed the statement of Ju-zhi, a son or prince of Jiang-rong, as paraphrased below: "Everyone had said that our folks, i.e., the miscellaneous Rong people, belonged to the descendants of Si-yue ... Our various Rong people differed from Hua (i.e., the Xia Chinese) in cuisine, clothing, money and language." Liu Qiyu speculated that the clan names of Shen-Luu-Qi-Xu etc, who entered China during Western Zhou Dynasty, had been the Rong people who came eastward to China earlier, while the Jiang-rong would be the original Rong people who later came into China during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty time period.
 
A caveat here in regards to Liu Qiyu's research. The 'Rong' people, whether they came east during Western Zhou Dynasty or during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty time period, was a later development. The source of the 'Rong' people would still have to go the original San-miao exile during the 23rd century B.C.E. Of course, there dwelled the natives in Northwest China in prehistory, before the arrival of the San-miao people. Since prehistory, there were the legends about the Kunlun Mountain, Queen Mother of the West, and the jade trade with the Sinitic Chinese. Bamboo Annals mentioned the stories of contacts between Queen Mother and the Yellow Overlord (Emperor) [Huangdi (l. BC 2697 - 2599 ?)] and Lord Shun (l. 2257 - 2208 BC ?). Lord Yu was said to have personally traveled to Mt Kunlun for inspecting on the western border LIU-SHA (i.e., the Kumtag Desert) and met with Queen Mother of the West. This would be after Lord Shun (l. 2257 - 2208 BC ?) had exiled the San-miao people (with the Yi elements of eastern China per Feng Shi, Bian Ren and Chen Ping, et al.) to LIU-SHA (the Kumtag Desert).
 
The original ancient Qiangic people, [who, as this webmaster had speculated previously, did not participate in the eastern migration of the proto-Sino-Tibetan to the coast at the begining,] could have in fact been exiled to the northwest from the eastern coast in the 23rd century B.C.E. This could be an ancient epic of migration in the Chinese prehistory. Ever since the Yellow Lord defeated the people in eastern China [such as the "Jiu Liu" under Chi-you and/or the people under Yandi who could be the same person as Chi-you], there was the constant rebellion of the so-called "San Miao" people and subsequently the "Nine Yi" people throughout the reigns of Lord Yao, Lord Shun and Lord Yu, as well as through Xia Dynasty, as ascertained in the Bamboo Records. Ancient historians speculated and wrote about the equivalency of two leaders of the people in the east, namely, Chi-you of the Jiu-li (Nine Li) people being the same as Yandi the Fiery Lord. Historian Huang Wenbi believed that the ancient Yi people in eastern China, who had an opposite direction as far as wrapping the clothing and hair style were concerned, namely, "bei4? pi1?[dangling] fa1 [hair] zuo3 [left] REN4 [overlapping part of Chinese gown]", shared the same symptoms as the later Qiangic people in western China, who could have been exiled there from the east as this webmaster had repeatedly said.
 
From this perspective, it could then be deduced why the Ainu on the Japan islands were said to have shared some similarity in genes to the Tibetans --because the Tibetans, i.e., descendants of the Jiang-surnamed Qiangs, could in fact have been exiled to northwestern China from the Chinese coast. Hence, in the late 3rd millennium B.C.E., there were the infusion of the two groups of people from the east, i.e., i) the San-miao people; and ii) the Yi people, or specifically, i) the San-miao people and ii) the Yun-surnamed Xianyun people (i.e., the ancestors of the Huns), who relocated to Gansu Province during the 23rd century B.C.E. under the order of Lord Shun.
 
Descendants of the San-miao and Yun-surnamed Xianyun barbarians who were exiled to the west by lord Shun in the 2200s B.C.E. Zhou King Muwang resettled those barbarians at the origin of the Jingshui River, among them, Yiqu, Yuzhi, Wuzhi, Xuyan and Penglu, namely, the five Rongs as noted in history -- which could be the origin for the misnomer 'Indo-European' Yuezhi. During the 17th year reign [i.e., 985 BC per Bamboo Annals], Zhou King Muwang was noted for defeating the barbarians, reaching Qinhai-Gansu regions in the west, meeting with Queen Mother of West on Mt Kunlun [possibly around Dunhuang area], and then relocating the barbarians eastward to the starting point of Jing-shui River for better management [in a similar fashion to Han Emperr Wudi's relocating Southern Huns to the south of the north Yellow River Bend].
 
The Qiangic People
Ancient classics stated that the word 'qiang' means the shepherds in the west. The chronicle 'Continuum To Hou Han Shu' stated that the Qiangs were alternative race of the Jiang surname tribes of San Miao. During the Later Han (AD 25-220) dynasty, the Qiangs had been mercenaries of Han emperors in numerous wars. Various campaigns against the Northern Huns would comprise of several groups of nomads, including the Qiangs, Southern Huns, and the Xianbei-Wuhuan. When Chinese outposts were in danger of being attacked by the Huns in today's Chinese Turkistan, the Qiangs were called upon by Han Emperor to provide both logistics and fighting manpower. (In addition to the Qiangs, there was another notable group of people called Yueh-Chih Minor or Lesser Yuezhi aiding the Chinese emperors on most occasions.) In the Hun section, we mentioned that one of the two colonial policies of Han China was to segregate the Huns from the Qiangs by setting up castles on the Silk Road. Beginning from late 1st century, the Qiangs began to rebel against the Chinese frequently. Largely as a result of the urgency to cope with the Qiangic threats, the Han Court had very much given up early efforts in controlling Chinese Turkistan, a policy called cutting off the right arm of the Huns by driving the Hunnish influence out of the fertile Turkistan areas. The Qiangs would have wars with Han China for dozens of years. At one time, the Qiangs split into two groups, Xi Qiang (Western Qiang) and Dong Qiang (Eastern Qiang). By the end of the Han Dynasty, Qiangs were controlled by warlord governors in the northwestern part of China. Dong Zhuo, who hand-picked last Han Emperor Xiandi, might have some heritage of the nomads in this Qiangic area. During the Three Kingdom time period, the Qiangs had participated in the wars as mercenaries. After the fall of Western Jinn Dynasty, the Qiangs as well as the Di nomads would play their part in the later landslide campaigns in northern China, i.e., 'Five Nomadic Groups Ravaging China' of 4-5th centuries. Posterior Qin Dynasty (AD 384-417), established in today's Shenxi Province, was of Qiangic nature.
 
 
The Xianbei & Qiangic Blends
 
The Tibetans, according to New History Of Tang Dynasty, belonged to the Xi Qiang, namely, the western Qiangic people. There were 150 different groups of Qiangic people, widely dispersed among Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Shenxi provinces. New History Of Tang Dynasty also cited a mutation of pronunciation for the name of the founder of Southern Liang (Xianbei Statelet, A.D. 397-414), Tufa Lilugu. What it said is that the Southern Liang's last name or clan name, Tufa, had mutated into Tubo in Chinese pronunciation or English Tibet.
 
What's to be emphasized is that the Xianbei immigrants who set up the Southern Liang would be a minority in comparison with the Qiangic people who had dwelled in this area for thousands of years, since the times of Lords Yao-Shun-Yu.
 
The Qiangs first built their dynasty, Posterior Qin (AD 384-417), by rebelling against Di(1) nomads' Anterior Qin (AD 351-394), and they were conquered by General Liu Yu of Eastern Jinn (AD 317-420) in a northern expedition in A.D. 417. The remaining Qiangs joined hands with a branch of Xianbei nomads who had created a lasting kindom called 'Tuyuhun', and Tuyuhun competed against the Tibetans well into the 7th century. At one time, the Tang Chinese were at war with Tuyuhun. one Qiangic tribal leader, allied with Tuyuhun via inter-marriage and carrying last name of Tuoba, would aid Tuyuhun by refusing to surrender to Tang Chinese. Do note that the Tuyuhun people were i) an outsider force, ii) of Xianbei origin, and iii) relocated from Manchuria. The Xianbei element in Tuyuhun was embodied by several noted stories.
 
Tuyuhun Legends
One story is to do with the split of the two Xianbei brothers. It is said that the elder brother (namely, Tuyuhun) was born by a concubine and hence did not inherit the Xianbei royal line. When the horses of the two brothers fought against each other, the younger brother complained about it. The older brother hence said he would lead his people, about 700 households (Fang Xuanling's Jinn Shu stating 1700 households), to the west. This elder brother grazed his horses by about 500 units of grazing distance to the west every day. The younger brother had regrets about his offending the elder brother and sent some elderly people to pursue his elder brother. The elder brother said he would return should his horses be willing to return to the east. But the horses refused to go east even though the elderly people tried to bring the horses eastward 15 times. Hence the elder brother moved across the Mongolian plains to the west of China. The younger brother made a song called 'Ode To Ah Gan' ('gan' meaning brother) and sang it in remembrance of his elder brother. The younger brother would be the later founder of Xianbei's Anterior Yan Dynasty (AD 337-370).
 
The other stories would be about the descendants of the Tuyuhun founder. The grandson, called Yeyan, would name his statelet 'Tuyuhun' by claiming that the ancient Chinese gave their statelets names on basis of the fact that the son of a duke or king usually used the name of the duke or king as family name or statelet name. After his father (Tuyan) was killed by a Qiangic chieftain, he would make a straw man in the image of the Qiangic chieftan and shot arrows at it. Yeyan would cry aloud when he shot at the target but got mad when he missed the target. At one time, Yeyan's mother got sick and did not eat anything for 5 days. Yeyan did not eat anything either, a true filial son according to Confucian standards. Yeyan's son, Pixi, would seek vassalage with Fu Jian, the emperor of Anterior Qin Dynasty. Pixi, fond of his three brothers, died of sadness when his ministers killed his three brothers. Pixi's son, Shilian, sought vassalage with Qifu Qian'gui and was conferred the title as King of Bailan. Shilian's son, Shi Pi, declined the title of King of Bailan and angered Qifu Qiangui. Qifu Qian'gui defeated him. Shi Pi's brother, Wuheti, attacked Qifu Qian'gui when Qifu was busy entering Chang'an (i.e., Xi'an) of Shenxi Prov. Qifu Qian'gui defeated him again. Then, Shi Pi's son, Shuluogan, declared himself the Great Chanyu and the King of Tuyuhun, but he was defeated by Qifu Qian'gui, too. The successor of Qifu Qian'gui further defeated the Tuyuhun people. Shuluogan's brother, Ah Cai, examined the source or origin of the Yangtze River and asked his ministers where it flowed into. When told about Liu Song Dynasty in southern China, Ah Cai sent an emissary seeking for pilgrimage. Ah Cai was conferred the title of Duke by Liu Song Dynasty. When Ah Cai died, he returned the throne to the son of his brother Wuheti. Ah Cai is recorded to have asked his nephew and dozen or so sons to break the arrows by a single stick and by a bundle. This is to show his sons that should they unite together they could not be defeated. Successor Mukui continued to seek pilgrimage with Liu Song Dynasty and was conferred the title of Duke of Longxi (namely, west Gansu Province) by Liu Song Emperor Wendi (reign A.D. 424-474). Mukui would later capture the last ruler of Hunnic Xia (i.e., Helian Ding) and sent to Toba Wei Emperor Taiwudi (reign A.D. 424-452) of Toba Wei Dynasty, namely, Toba Tao. Mukui received the conferral as King of Xi-qin (namely, western Qin). Mukui's brother, Muliyan, succeeded the throne, and when attacked by Toba Wei as a result of his cousin's defection to Wobo Wei, Muliyan fled to the west and conquered the Statelet of Yutian (Khoten) in Chinese Turkistan. He returned to the old land after Liu Song Dynasty invited him back in A.D. 440s.
 
There is no separate English name for the Tuyuhun, and most history books skipped this tribe altogether. It had lasted for about 350 years in history, from the end of Yongjia years (AD 310s) of Jinn Dynasty to the 3rd year of Longshuo (AD 663) of Tang Dynasty. 'Tuyuhun' would be under attacks by various nomadic dynasties, but it managed to be an independent country well into the 7th century, till it was absorbed by the Tibetans. It survived the Sixteen Nations (AD 304-420), North Dynasties (AD 386-581), and Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618). It had at one time raided deep into the Chinese Turkistan. During early Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), it had inter-marriage with Tang princess. The Tibetans took them as No.1 enemy. At one time, 'Tuyuhun' was conquered by the Tibetans, but the son of Tibetan prime minister later brought several thousand tents of 'Tuyuhun' people back to Tang Dynasty.
 
Tuhun During Five Dynasties
During the Five Dynasties time period, the remnant Tuyuhun people would come to be known as 'Tuhun'. It once joined efforts with Tang China in cracking down on Pang Xun rebellion. They were relocated to northern China, near today's Datong of Shanxi Province. Shantuo's Posterior Tang (AD 923-936) conferred them the royal family name of Li. Later, Posterior Jinn (AD 936-946) seceded the land north of the Yanmen'guan Pass to the Khitans. Hence, the Tuhun people were enslaved by the Khitans. Chinese history recorded that the Tuhun people were later defeated by Liu Zhiyuan, the founder of Posterior Han (AD 947-950). Tuyuhun people disappeared after that.
 
Qiangic Elements Of Dangxiang
The Dangxiang people were remnants of the Western Qiang people. The Dangxiang people would be living to the south of the Tuhuhun people. This dwelling place of the Dangxiang people and the Tuyuhun people would be called Inner Tibet [against Frontal Tibet or Outer Tibet] in later times. Out of remaining Tuyuhun people and the Dangxiang people would evolve the later Xixia Kingdom led by the Danxiang nomads or the Tanguts. History recorded that there evolved eight Dangxiang tribes by the time of Five Dynasties (AD 907-960), with one tribal group carrying the old Toba name. The Toba Dangxiang people had inter-marriage with the Tuyuhuns, and at one time made an alliance against the Tang army.
 
Dangxiang-qiang legends claimed that they originated from Bai-he [white river, i.e., ancient Bailongjiang or Qiang-shui] and the cross-border areas of today's Qinhai-Gansu-Sichuan provinces. Their epics also inferred to their tradition of pasting red color onto their dark faces, building stone citadels, pointing to ancient Gao-yao-mi statelet as their origin, and eulogizing Tibetan girl as the wife of their ancestor.
 
From A.D. 635 to 678, Tibetans kept on assaulting the Qiangs. In 635, Tibetans defeated the Qiangs in Dangxiang and Bailan area. By A.D. 678, Qiangs lost the territories of Yangdong to the Tibetans. Tang Emperor Xuanzong (reign 712-756) allowed 25 Qiangic prefectures of the Qiangs relocate to Qingzhou (Qingyang of Gansu Prov). Tuoba Sidai (speculated to be Tuoba Sitou) received the conferral from Tang Xuanzong. Tibetans termed the stranded Qiangs in the original habitation area as 'Miyao' and later applied the term to all Qiangs and consecutively the Tanguts.
 
At the times of Tang Emepror Dezong (reign A.D. 780-785), the Dangxiang nomads sought vassalage with Tang. They were relocated to Qingzhou and Xiazhou prefectures. At the times of Posterior Tang Emperor Mingzong (reign A.D. 926-933), the frontier areas were famous for trading in horses. The horses from Dangxiang and Huihu (ancestor of Uygurs) weighed heavy in the trades. Dangxiang and Huihu were especially delighted in trading with Posterior Tang because Emperor Mingzhong gave very favorable terms to them no matter the horses were fat or thin. Besides, Dangxiang and Huihu merchants were given benefits of emissaries, and they enjoyed free food/drinks and accomodations. This cost a lot of royal savings to Posterior Tang. Hence, Dangxiang and Huihu were ordered to trade at the frontiers, only. But the Dangxiang continued to come deep into the Chinese territories, and moreover, the Dangxiang pillaged China and robbed the Huihu of the horses. The Dangxiang continued the pillages well into the Posterior Zhou Dynasty (AD 951-960).
 

Tibetans vs Tuyuhun
 
Tibet's many kingdoms are unified in 7th century. Buddhism was introduced from Tang China, not India. Tibetan Buddhism was said to have displayed a bit of syncretism with the native animist religion, Bön, and the form of Buddhism is the late Tantric, Vajrayâna Buddhism of India. Early kings will include Song-tsen Gam-po (reign c 618-649), Man-song Mang-tsen (reign 649-704), Du-song Mang-po-je (reign 676-704), Tri-de Tsug-ten (reign 704-754), Tri-song De-tsen (reign 754-797), Mu-ne Tsen-po (reign 797-800), Tri-de Song-tsen (reign 800-815), Tri-tsug De-tsen (reign 815-838), Lang Darma (reign 838-842).
 
In year A.D. 640, Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, learning of Tuyuhun's intermarriage with Tang, initiated a war against Tang and requested intermarriage with Tang princess Wencheng who arrived in Tibet one year later. Indian King also sent over a daughter to Songtsen Gampo. Intermarriages by marrying Nepalese and Chinese princesses created alliances with neighbors to the East and West.
 
Taking advantage of the vacuum left by Tang China after recalling armies from Central Asia for cracking down on An-Shi Rebellion, the Tibetans took over areas west of the Yellow River. After An-Shi Rebellion in late Tang Dynasty, Tibetans occupied over a dozen prefectures in He-xi [west of Yellow River] and Long-you [rightside or wstern Gansu Prov] as well as the Western Territories [New Dominion Prov] by taking advantage of the vacuum left by Tang army's departure. By the time of Tang Emperor Daizong (reigh 760-779), Dangxiang-qiang in Lingzhou & Qingzhou areas colluded with Tibetans in harassing Tang border. General Guo Ziyi petitioned to have Dangxiang-qiang relocate to Yinzhou (Yulin of Shenxi Prov) and Xiazhou (Baichengzi of Inner Mongolia). In A.D. 763, Tibetans briefly occupied the Tang capital, Ch'ang-An. Later, Tibetans had internal upheavals. The last King, Lang Darma, turned against Buddhism. The kingdom fragmented after him.
 
Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo, who asked Princess Wencheng from Emperor Taizong, died in A.D. 650.   At the time of Songtsen Gampo, Tibetans had once helped Tang emissary in attacking middle India (one of five Indian kingdoms of the time) when the Tang emissary was assaulted by the new king of the Middle Indian Kingdom.   Zanpu's young grandson would be the new Tibetan king.   Tibetan prime minister Ludongzan and his four sons had the actual power over Tibet, however.  
 
Ludongzan, together with 10 families of Western Khanate, would first attack Tuyuhun, i.e., Tibet's number one rival. Tang Emperor Gaozong was asked to intervene by the Tuyuhun.   Emperor Gaozong rejected two Tibetan requests:   1) the land of Chisui (i.e., red water), and 2) Tibetan intermarriage with the Tanguts.   Tibetan prime minister Ludongzan hence obtained the aid of the Yutian (Hotan) nomads and took over 18 prefectures in western territories, including the Chouci State.   General Xue Rengui, in A.D. 670, was ordered to quell the Tibetan rebellion, but he was defeated by Ludongzan's 400 thousand troops due to the fact that his logistics general lost all equipment to the enemy.   General Xue negotiated a peace treaty in which Tang would promise not to enter the Tuyuhun territory.   When Xue returned to the capital, he was demoted into a civilian and would not be called upon till the eastern Turks rebelled in the north in A.D. 680-681.   Hence, Tibet entered Tuyuhun and relocated all Tuyuhun to the Lingzhou prefecture which was already taken by the Tibetans.   In A.D. 678, Emperor Kaozong campaigned against Tibet again, but Tang was defeated by the Tibetans.
 
In A.D. 696, Tibetans sought peace with Tang, requesting that Tang revoke the administrations in the four cities of Chouci (Kuqa), Yutian (Hotan), Shule (Kashi) and Suiye (today's Tokmok? in Kyrgyzstan) and that Tibet & Tang divide the 10 Western Turkic families into two halves. But Tang rejected the request. Shortly therefafter, the Tibetan king killed the sons of his previous prime minister Ludongzan, with only one surviving son of Ludongzan fleeing to Tang with 7000 tents of Tuyuhun people.
 
Tibetans' war with Tuyuhun did not end. Tibetans would attack Tuyuhun again in A.D. 756-758. Tang Dynasty relocated the remnant Tuyuhun people to the west of the Yellow River Bend. At that time, Tuyuhun people still enjoyed three big families, with Toba name of Toba and Hunnic names of Helian and Murong. Tang Emperor Yizong (reign A.D. 859-875) would confer the governor-general post of Yingshan to Helian Duo, and later Tang post of 'jiedusi' (governor-general) of Datong. Tang post of 'jiedusi' exercised authorities over multiple regions. Posterior Tang (AD 923-936) conferred them the family name of Li. Later, Posterior Jinn (AD 936-946) seceded the land north of the Yanmen Pass to the Khitans. Hence, the Tuhun people were enslaved by the Khitans. Chinese history recorded that the Tuhun people were later defeated by Liu Ziyuan, the founder of Posterior Han (AD 947-950). Tuyuhun disappeared after that.
 
 
Tibetans vs Tang Chinese
 
AD 681, Western Turkic Khan (Ahshina Duozhi), together with Tibetans, attacked Tang's Anxi Marshal Presidio. Emperor Gaozong ordered the release of Persian Prince in the attempt of having the Persians impede the Western Turks.  In early times, the Persian King died in the hands of the Arabs. The new Persian King, Beirusi, sought the help of Tang Chinese by sending his son Niniesi to Tang capital. Tang had made the city of Jiling as the marshal-governor office and designated Persian King Beirusi as the Persian Marshal.  Tang civil minister Fei Xingjian was ordered to accompany Persian prince back to Persia.  When Fei passed the land of Western Turks, he led a column of tribal leaders of Anxi marshal presidio nomads, and captured the Turkic Khan Duozhi via a surprise strategy: Fei earlier broadcasted that he would go west after the season and the Turkic khan took Fei's words for granted and hence did not make preparations for defence. Fei asked Persian Prince to continue the trip back to his country, and he re-constructed the city of Suiye, and delegated the power of Anxi Marshal Presidio to his general Wang Fangyi.  Later, Fei Xingjian would be responsible for quelling the Eastern Turkic rebellion in A.D. 680 and in A.D. 681 via similar strategies, like hiding soldiers inside the grain carts and offering 10,000 liang(ounce?) gold for the head of the khan.  In A.D. 682, Western Turks rebelled again, and Fei was ordered to go west, but he died on the road at the age of 64. His general Wang Fangyi would succeed in quelling the Western Turks thereafter.
 
In A.D. 692, Governor-General Tang Xiujing of Xizhou prefecture defeated Tibetans and re-took the four cities of Chouci (Kuqa), Yutian (Hotan), Shule (Kashi) and Suiye (today's Tokmok in Kyrgyzstan). In A.D. 696, Tibetans sought peace with Tang, requesting that Tang revoke the administrations in the four cities and that Tibet& Tang divide the 10 Western Turkic families into two halves. But Tang rejected the request. Shortly therefafter, the Tibetan king killed the sons of his previous prime minister Ludongzan, with only one surviving son of Ludongzan fleeing to Tang with 7000 tents of Tuyuhun people. Tibetans would attack Tuyuhun again in A.D. 756-758.
 
Tang had quite some good news around that time. The Khitans in the east were also quelled by two Khitan generals who had surrendered to Tang earlier. However, in A.D. 712, Khitans colluded with Eastern Turks again in attacking Tang.
 
As to Tibet, it had an internal revolt in the south of Tibetan Plateau, and Tibetan king sought peace with Tang again. When Emperor Zhongzong was restored in A.D. 705, he had promised to have princess Jincheng (daughter of a Tang duke-king) marry with the son of the Tibetan king.  After Tibetan king died, his seven year old son got enthroned. In A.D. 710, Emperor Ruizong sent Prince Jincheng to Tibet to marry the new Tibetan king who just grew up, together with a patch of land called Qiuqu (nine winding) in Hexi (west of the Yellow River) as a gift.  In A.D. 714, Tibetans invaded Lanwei (today's Lanzhou & Wei River) areas, using the Qiuqu land as a bridge. Tang General Wang Jun selected 700 brave soldiers to have them dress in the Tibetan clothes and sneaked into the Tibetan camp. General Wang, using the strategy, had caused Tibetan internal fights at night to the extent of almost 10,000 deaths. Tibetans, however, continued to encroach upon Tang capitals from the territories of Tuyuhun and Qiuqu.
 
In A.D. 744/45, the Uygurs defeated the Turks in Mongolia and established the Uygur Empire. Uygurs, considered a vassal of Tang, would now controll north and west Mongolia, from Lake Balkash to Lake Baykal, till A.D. 840, for almost a whole century. History said the Tang Chinese conspired to have the Uygurs and Karlaks attack the Orkhon Turks under Khan Muchuo (Mo-ch'o). To check the Orkhon Turks, Tang Chinese also allied with the Western Turks called Turgesh who were situated in today's Ili, between the Arabs and the Chinese from A.D. 716 to A.D. 733. Turgesh Turks rebelled against Chinese in A.D. 739 and were defeated. In A.D. 741, General Kao Hsien-chih led the troops into Turkistan, and in A.D. 747, General Kao defeated the Tibetans near Gilgit in the Hindu Kush mountains and checked the expansion of the Arabs over the passes of the Pamirs to the upper valley of the Amu-darya. In A.D. 747-749, General Kao also defeated the Karluks who had replaced the Turgesh Turks as a power in the area. In A.D. 748, the Chinese invaded the Ferghana Valley where Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan converge. In A.D. 749/50, the Abbasids seized the Caliphate from the Umayyads and subsequently transfered the capital to Baghdad. In A.D. 750, General Kao's crushing of the Tashkent Kingdom led to a Turkic rebellion. In A.D. 751, Tang Chinese army of 30 thousand, led by general Kao-hsien-chih (a Korean), were defeated by the alliance of the Arabs and the Karluks at the Battle of the Talas River in the high Pamirs. (The Karlaks defected to the Arabs during the war.) It was said Chinese paper technology was relayed to the West via the prisoners of war. From then on, the Karluks controlled Western China while the Uygurs controlled Mongolia. The Arabs halted their push after a defeat in the hands of the Khazars in Azerbaijan.
 
Tang nomadic general An Lushan's rebellion (An-Shi rebellion) broke out in Oct, A.D. 755.  Emperor Xuanzong sneaked out of capital without notifying his court. Xuanzong, in order to continue on his flight into Sichuan Province, orally decreed that his elder son, Suzong, stay behind to be the new emperor.  Emperor Suzong led his people northward to today's Ningxia area where he reorganized his army and requested with the Uygurs whose khan sent his elder son and 5000 cavalry to help Suzong in recapturing both Chang-An (Chang'an) and Lo-yang (Luoyang) in 757.  Tang emperor Suzong had organized an army of over 100 thousand under the banners of two famous generals, Guo Ziyi & Li Guangbi. After the fall of Luoyang, the Uygurs did their best in pillaging the capital.  Luoyang would be pillaged two more times by the Uygurs during the 8 year long rebellion.  Later, Emperor Suzong granted the Uygur Khan one of his daughters, Princess Ningguo, in marriage.
 
Tang General Guo Ziyi would emerge to defend Tang against the encroachment from both the Tibetans and the Uygurs.  Tibetans, taking advantage of the An-Shi rebellion, had taken over areas in today's Gansu-Qinghai provinces, and they had once entered the western capital of Chang'an and forced emperor Daizong into fleeing. one Tang general (a Uygur, called Pogu Huaieng, who had been responsible for going to the Uygur tribe in borrowing Uygur cavalry of 5000 in fighting An Lushan and again borrowing 3000 cavalry in fighting Shi Siming) defected to the Tibetans and he sacked the city of Taiyuan.  Altogether 100 thousand Tibetan-Uygur army came to attack Tang capital again.  General Guo succeeded in defeating them.    In A.D. 765, Pogu Huai'eng led Tibetan-Uygur joint army to attack Tang again by cheating the Uygurs that the Tang emperor and general Guo were both dead.  on the way, Pogu Huaieng himself died due to illness.  General Guo led 500 cavalry into the camp of the Uygurs and successfully persuaded the Uygurs in allying with Tang and attacking the Tibetans. Pogu Huai'eng's mother, who dissapproved of his son's betrayal of Tang, was later invited by Tang emperor to live in the capital
 
In late A.D. 790s, 7000 Shatuo tents, under Shatuo Jinzhong, sought suzerainty with Tibetans. Together with Tibetans, they attacked the Beiting governor office. Tibetans later relocated the Shatuo to Ganzhou Prefecture. Tibetans, suspicious of Shatuo's loyalty, intended to relocate Shatuo to some distant place. In A.D. 808, Shatuo Jinzhong and Zhuye Jinzhong led 30,000 people on an exodus to Tang China. Tibetans chased them all the way and killed Zhuye Jinzhong. Tang General Fan Xichao of Lingzhou Prefecture received the Shatuo and assigned them to Yanzhou Prefecture. Shatuo elderlies and children would find their way to Yanzhou to get a reunion. Fan Xichao selected two thousand Shatuo cavalry and named it 'Shatuo Column'.
 
In the land to the west of the Yellow River and to the right side of Gansu Province, Tang China used to have 33 prefectures called 'zhou'. Tang China set up the Anxi Governor-General post here and it used to control 36 statelets in Western China. New History Of Five Dynasties said Tang had raised altogether 300,000 horses in this area. The Tang China, however, underwent the An-Shi Rebellion beginning in A.D. 755. Tang Emperor Suzong would call upon all the Chinese armies to the west of the Yellow River and to the right side of Gansu Province. Hence, the Tibetans took advantage of the vacuum and moved in. Over one million Tang Chinese came under the rule of the Tibetans, including the prefectures of Ganzhou, Liangzhou, Guazhou and Shazhou. Half a century later, when Chinese emissary (under Tang Emperor Wenzong, reign A.D. 827-836) passed through the four prefectures, the emissary noted that those Chinese had changed a bit in accent but the clothing remained unchanged. The local Chinese, with tears, asked the emissary, 'Did the Emperor still remember the people stranded in the land occupied by the Tibetans?"
 
Chinese has a saying, 'Feng Sui' or good fortune rotates. ('Feng Sui' , or "wind and water," is the name of Chinese geomancy combining Buddhist element of air with Chinese element of water.) Tibetans lost their prominence by the end of Tang Dynasty. Throughout the time period of Five Dynasties, it would be the Dangqiang and the Uygurs who would be competing with the Chinese in the area called 'Frontal Tibet'.
 
 
Tibetans vs Nan-Zhao
 

 
 
Xi Xia Dynasty Of Tanguts
 
Out of Qiangic people would evolve the later Da Xia or Xixia Kingdom led by the Danxiang nomads or the Tanguts. History recorded that there evolved eight Danxiang tribes of Qiangic nature by the time of Five Dynasties (AD 907-960), with one tribal group carrying the old Toba name. The Toba Tribe of the Danxiang people had inter-marriage with the Tuyuhuns, and at one time made an alliance against the Tang army. Looking back, I would say that Tangut people were possibly descendants of the Tobas, Xianbei people, the Di nomads, Chinese, early Tibetans and the Uygurs.
 
Toba Sigong, a Dangxiang nomad with a Toba family name, had come to the aid of Tang Dynasty by the end of Tang in A.D. 907 when rebel Huang Cao sacked Xi'an the Tang capital. Tang conferred him the title of Duke Xia and the Tang family name of Li.
 
In A.D. 1002, Li Jiqian of the Tanguts attacked Lingzhou. Song Dynasty zhi zhou shi (magistrate equivalent) Fei Ji defended the city for over one month, cut his finger and wrote a blood letter for requesting relief with Song court, and later died in street fightings. Wang Chao made an excuse for not going to Lingzhou on time. After taking over Lingzhou, Li Jiqian renamed Lingzhou [Yinchuan area of Ningxia] to Xiping-fu and made it the capital of Xixia [Western Xia Dynasty]. one year later, Li Jihe of Song Zhi-Zhenrong-Jun Garrison wrote to Song court that a chieftan (Tibetan) from Liugu (six valleys), by the name of Balaji (Panluozhi), intended to attack Tanguts on behalf of Song. Zhang Qixian proposed that Song conferred the title of 'King of Liugu' and the post of zhao tao shi (campaigning emissary) onto Balaji. Song decided to offer Balaji the title of suofang jie-du-shi (satrap or governor for northern territories) onto Balaji. Balaji claimed that he had assembled 60,000 strong army for fighting Tanguts. Tangut ruler Li Deming, aka Zhao Deming, had a son by the name of Li Yuanhao. Li Yuanhao often proposed to Li Deming that the Tanguts defeat the Huihe (Uygur) and Tibetans first. Li Yuanhao led a surprise attack at Ganzhou [Zhangye of Gansu Prov], and took over the city from Huihe. Li Deming made Li Yuanhao into the crown prince. Li Yuanhao often instigated his father in rebelling against Song. After the death of Li Deming, Li Yuanhao got enthroned. Li Yuanhao dispatched an army of 25,000 against the Tibetans. Tanguts were defeated and Tangut general Sunuer was taken as prisoner of war. Li Yuanhao personally led an expedition against the Tibetans, but he was defeated by the Tibetans, too. Li Yuanhao then changed target to the Huihe (Uygur) people. In A.D. 1036, Li Yuanhao took over the Huihe territories of Guazhou (Gansu-xian and Anxi-xian of Gansu), Shazhou (Tunhuang-xian of Gansu) and Suzhou (Jiuquan of Gansu Prov), and hence the Tanguts controlled the He-xi Corridor for 191 years.
 
At one time, Emperor Li Renxiao sought aid with Jurchen Emperor Jin Sizong for quelling rebellion and hence allied with Jurchen Jin in A.D. 1165. The Tanguts or the Danxiangs were attacked by the Mongols in A.D. 1205, 1207 and 1208 before they were defeated in A.D. 1209. In A.D. 1209, Genghis Khan personally led the 650 mile march on the Tanguts and in Jan 1210, the siege of Tangut capital was released when the waters were breached by the Tanguts and flooded the Mongol camp. Peace was secured only when Tangut emperor delivered his youngest daughter (rumored to be later responsible for poisoning Genghis when he re-attacked Xixia) to Genghis Khan as a bride, but the Tanguts refused to supply troops to the Mongols as auxiliary. Tanguts would pay for this later. After the Mongols left, the Tanguts, angry that the Jurchens did not come to their aid, broke the peace treaty with the Jurchens which had been effective as of A.D. 1165, and a new treaty would not be signed till A.D. 1225 when they faced new waves of Mongol attackes. The Tanguts attacked the Jurchen Jin border towns but were defeated, and hence asked Genghis Khan to attack the Jurchens.
 
Since Western Xia had refused to provide troops in Genghis Khan's war against the Khwarizm, and more over, signed another alliance treaty with Jurchen Jin, Genghis Khan led a force of 180,000 troops for a new campaign against the Tanguts. Late in A.D. 1226, in the winter, the Mongols struck southward. on the banks of the frozen Yellow River, the Mongols defeated a Xixia army of more than 300,000. The Mongols killed the Tangut emperor. His son took refuge in the walled city of today's Ningxia. Leaving one-third of his army attacking Ningxia, Genghis Khan sent Ogedei eastward, across the Yellow River, to attack the Jurchen Jin forces. Genghis Khan, deeply ill himself, nominally agreed to the surrender request but secretly ordered the slaughter of the city before his death. In July, Genghis Khan died at age 66 (73 ? per different record) somewhere near today's Liupanshan Mountain, Gansu Province, rumored to have been poisoned or killed by his Tangut wife. The Tanguts officially surrendered in A.D. 1227, after being in existence for 190 years, from A.D. 1038 to A.D. 1227 In August, Xia Modei left the capital for the Mongol camp where Tu-lei killed him on the spot. The Mongols killed the Tangut emperor and his royal family members. Pillaging erupted throughout the capital.
 
 
Mongol Regents & the Manchu Invasion
 
After the Mongol conquest of the Tangut Xixia or Hsi-Hsia state, the Tibetans offered submission to the Mongols in A.D. 1227. The Mongols did not go into Tibet till A.D. 1240. In A.D. 1249, a Tibetan Lama was appointed Mongol regent of Tibet.
 
In 1252 and 1253, Khubilai would order Subetei's son to attack Dali (i.e., Nanzhao) in today's southern Chinese province of Yunnan, with three columns of army. King for the Dali statelet, Duan Zixing, whose lineage could be from the Western Corridor, surrendered. Then, the Mongol army invaded the Shanshan statelet in southern Chinese Turkistan and entered the Tibetan Plateau. A Tibetan lama led the Mongols into the capital, and a Tibetan chieftan surrendered. Khubilai also entered Tibet and met the lama. When Mengke recalled Khubilai, Khubilai would take the 15 year old son (Phagsba) of the lama back to northern China and made him the Imperial Tutor.
 
In A.D. 1280, a special title was produced for the regents, Tisri, or Ti-shih in Chinese. The rule of the Tisris, lasting 1280-1358, continued until the Mongol authority waned. The Second Tibetan Statelet was established by King Chang-chub (reign 1350-1364). When the Mongol Yuan Dynasty was overthrown in China, Tibet was already semi-independent. Several kings ruled till the Mongols staged a comeback in A.D. 1642. From A.D. 1642-1717, four Mongol khans ruled in Tibet. When the Mongol rule was imposed in 1642, the Fifth Dalai Lama began to assume effective rule.
 
The line of Lamas originated from the First Larma, Gedun Truppa, during A.D. 1391-1588. Lamaism, a mixture of shamanism and buddhism, enjoyed protection by the Mongols after the reform of the Yellow Cap sect of Tsong-ka-pa in Tibet. A Tibetan lama mission to Mongolia converted in A.D. 1578 Altan Khan who bestowed the title of Dalai ("Ocean") on the Third Lama. The title was retroactively applied to the earlier lamas in the lineage.
 
The Manchus invaded Tibet in A.D. 1720. The pretext of the Manchu conquest was over the overthrow of a local Mongol dynasty by other Mongols from Zungaria, who installed their own candidate for Dalai Lama. The Manchus supported the legitimate and popular (Seventh) Dalai Lama. After erecting some Tibetan kings, the Manchus settled down on the Dalai Lamas for control over Tibet beginning from A.D. 1750. An equally monastic Panchen Lama was also in existence.
 
As to the Tibetans, the Manchu court adopted the policy of "respecting the Tibetan religion but supressing its administration". Scholar Luo Xianglin pointed out that the Manchus decreed that every Tibetan household must dispatch one son to the monasteries for studying the buddhism, hence making the Tibetan population unable to multiply. Further, the Manchus dispatched "imperial minister" to Tibet for monitoring Dalai Lama and Pancho Lama, and intentionally mixed up religion and politics so that the Tibetans could not conduct any reform on administration. Intermarriage between the Tibetans and the Chinese were forbidden by the Manchu.
 

 

TO BE CONTINUED !!!!!

 
Russia, Britain & Japan - Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia & Manchuria
 
Written by Ah Xiang