During the Tang Dynasty, Princess Wencheng married into Tubo, bringing advanced production technology and excellent Tang culture to the early Tibetan people. As a bridge between Sino-Tibetan friendship in the classical period, the story of Princess Wencheng is still the favorite talk of our tea and dinner.
According to historical records, Princess Wencheng married into Tubo in the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, that is, in 641 AD. Nine years after she married into the Tubo kingdom, Songtsen Gampo died in 650. In the thirty years after Songtsen Gampo's death, Princess Wencheng did not choose to return to her hometown of Datang, but continued to stay in Tibet and live with the Tibetan ethnic groups.
Since the fall of the Han Dynasty, the early Jin Dynasty has been in a state of serious internal friction, and under the light of the four hundred years of the Han Dynasty, the jin dynasty's sense of existence in history is minimal. By the late Jin Dynasty, many nomadic tribes from Central Asia began to invade the Central Plains Dynasty, and this turmoil and ethnic integration lasted until the Sui and Tang Dynasties ended.
In the hands of Li Shimin, Datang not only completed the unification of the eighteen provinces of The Han Dynasty, but also the town of Shenweiyuan. Let the surrounding ethnic minorities in Central Asia, grasslands, Tibet and other regions all bow down to their subjects and willingly honor them as "Heavenly Khans."
After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, it still followed the Sui Dynasty's policy of restraining the surrounding ethnic groups, and used peace and affinity as a link to improve the relations between various ethnic groups.
Zampu was the supreme leader of the Tibetan state. During the sui dynasty, Tubo's Nongzan had already become the Zampu of tubo. Tubo set the capital at the city of Qibo in the west of Mumu, which is equivalent to the current Qiongjiexue, and by the early Tang Dynasty, the Tubo regime had been established for more than fifty years.
After Songtsen Gampo succeeded Zampu, he quickly quelled the Tubo rebellion and unified the various departments, he moved the capital to Luo some cities, and Tubo instead began to expand outward. After annexing several small countries, Songtsen Gampo had already sat on hundreds of thousands of troops and became the hegemon of Tibet, and even the Dangxiang people, Tuguhunbu, Bailanqiangbu and the surrounding western countries were very afraid of him.
In 634 AD, Songtsam Gampo had become the hero of the party. Because he did not know enough about Datang, he sent an emissary to visit Datang. According to the etiquette of treating all ethnic groups, the envoys of Tubo were received by the Libu Haosheng of the Tang Dynasty. After the Tubo emissary returned, he praised Songzan Gampo as if he had arrived in a fairyland on earth, and from then on Songzan Gampo began to have an understanding of the Tang Dynasty.
Not long after, Songzan Gampo heard that the original princess of Datang had been married, which had become a trend around Datang. Neighbors Tuguhun and turks rushed to marry the princess of the Tang Dynasty. Songzan Gampo, as the lord of the Tubo kingdom, would not have been too faceless if he had not married the Princess of Tang, so in 636, Songzan Gampo once again sent emissaries and brought a lot of gold and silver to Tang to propose marriage.
In the hope of Songtsen Gampo, the messenger finally returned, but the princess did not come.
The emissary said to Songzan Gampo: The Tang Dynasty treated me very well, originally I could almost get a princess, but I happened to meet the leader of Tuguhun to worship in the Tang Dynasty, and the leader of Tuguhun used a divisive strategy, saying that we gave less money, and this little gold could not marry the princess. The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty did not understand Tubo much, and we had a hard time communicating. It wasn't until later that I learned that there were too many marriage proposals from countries such as Dashi, Turkic, Tianzhu, and Tuguhun, and there were also Gaochang, Guizi, Shiguo and other western countries waiting to come to the Tang Dynasty to meet, and in the end this did not work.
Songzan Gampo was furious when he heard this, and immediately led the Tubo army to attack Tuguhun, and after the battle, Tuguhun was still angry, and attacked the Bailanbu and the Dangxiang people. In the end, Songtsen Gampo was still unwilling, he thought that he was the leader of a powerful tribe in the West, and it was too embarrassing for The Tang Dynasty to refuse to marry even a princess. Songzan Gampo decided to send an emissary to Datang again, and the emissary offered a pair of armor and said to The Tang lord Li Shimin: If you don't marry me as a princess, I will go deep into Datang to attack.
Datang still ignored it.
Songzan Gampo did indeed attack Songzhou with an army of 200,000. When Emperor Taizong of Tang saw that the Tubo kingdom really wanted to fight, he immediately sent Marquis Junji of the Rebbe Shangshu to serve as the chief commander of the marching road and oversee the army to fight Tubo.
The battle between Tubo and Datang lasted for several years, and the continuous flow of troops of Datang made Songzan Gampo more and more alarmed. Coupled with the backward production of the Tibetan country at that time, the materials were even more difficult to sustain. The ministers around him advised him to retreat back to tubo quickly, but Songzan Gampo did not accept it and still decided to continue fighting. In the end, the ministers had no way, committed suicide seven or eight people, Songtsen Gampo finally gave in and chose to withdraw his troops.
In 641, the lord of the country, Songzan Gampo, put aside his pride, and this time he sent Lu Dongzan, the first wise man of Tubo, to the Tang Dynasty, and Lu Dongzan offered five thousand gold, acknowledged the mistake of the two countries in starting a war, and expressed his hope that the Tang would give a princess.
Since Emperor Taizong of Tang and Li Shimin came to the throne, he has always had a restrained attitude toward the surrounding ethnic minority tribes. It is best not to fight, everyone gets along harmoniously, and common development is the best policy. After seeing songtsen gampo's sincere attitude, Li Shimin finally agreed to Songzan Gampo's request.
Li Shimin found a "daughter of the Yuanzhi Sect", a distant relative of Li surnamed Li, and gave her the title of Princess Wencheng and gave her to Tubo.
In the historical period at that time, Datang was able to promise a princess to ethnic minorities, which simply had countless benefits. This is not only an honor, but also a multi-faceted and profound exchange and dialogue with the most advanced and powerful countries in the world.
When arranging the dowry for Princess Wencheng, the Tang Dynasty prepared more than three hundred Buddhist classics, more than 600 kinds of rare treasures such as golden saddles and white jade pedals, as for the medical and craft texts, there are countless texts, things are still secondary, so many precious craftsman skills flowed into Tubo, undoubtedly bringing great changes to the people in Tibetan areas.
According to the New Book of Tang, in 641 AD, Li Daozong, the king of Jiangxia, became a hand-picked emissary of Princess Wencheng, escorting a large group of craftsmen, maids and other people and horses all the way to the Heyuan Wang Zhuguan prepared by tubo, waiting for Songzan Gampo to welcome him.
Overjoyed, Songtsen Gampo saw Li Daozong and insisted on greeting him with the etiquette of the "son-in-law" of the younger generation. After seeing the Tang Dynasty ceremonial guards with his own eyes, Songzan Gampo became "shrinking and ashamed" again, and his mouth could not stop praising the Tang Dynasty Chinese masters, the beauty of the costumes, and the week of etiquette, which was really unimaginable to the Tubo country.
In this way, Princess Wencheng was welcomed by the Tubo people and came to Tibet with the culture and friendship of the Tang Dynasty.
When she first arrived in Tubo, Princess Wencheng found that the Tubo people liked to use a red pigment called "ochre" to decorate their faces, and she was a little uncomfortable, and Songzan Gampo immediately ordered the whole country not to paint the noodles again. Not only that, the whole country of Tibet began to take "Huafeng" as a fashion vane. Various rich disciples competed to study the poems and books, and they also hired special Confucian teachers to teach them.
In the decades of marrying into Tibet, Princess Wencheng became the link between Sino-Tibetan cultural exchanges. Due to the short period of civilization, the Tubo state had not yet formed its own script, so Princess Wencheng assisted Songtsen Gampo in establishing the Tibetan alphabet.
Princess Wencheng brought high-yielding hardy crops such as wheat and barley to Tubo, improving the agricultural structure of the Tibetan people. She also taught the Tibetan people how to grow mulberry, raise silkworms and reel. The tubo nation cheered because of the arrival of Princess Wencheng. They are sincerely grateful to this great woman who brought a new way of life.
During the time when Princess Wencheng gradually became popular for the Tubo people, the geopolitics of the Tang and Tubo were also in the honeymoon period because of this marriage.
Lu Dongzan was an astute minister, one day Li Shimin crusaded against Goryeo and returned to China, Lu Dongzan wrote a letter of praise: "Your Majesty has pacified the four sides, the world is under your control, the speed of your charge, even the geese are not comparable, the geese and the geese are the same, the minister specially cast a seven-foot-tall golden goose for you to present to you." ”
Wang Xuance went out on an expedition to the Western Regions and was trapped by Zhongtianzhu, Wang Xuance went to find Songzan Gampo to borrow troops, and Songzan Gampo heard the news and took the case, which not only solved Wang Xuance's urgent need, but also tied the enemy to Chang'an, achieving Wang Xuance's reputation as "destroying the country by one person".
After Emperor Taizong, Emperor Gaozong of Tang succeeded to the throne. Songtsen Gampo said, "Your Majesty has just ascended the throne, and I am afraid that there are those who do not want to submit, as soon as you open your mouth, I will immediately send troops to fight with you." Emperor Gaozong once again rewarded Tubo silkworm seeds, winemaking technology, and various workers.
When Songzan Gampo died, since he had no sons, Tubo supported Songzan Gampo's grandson to inherit the throne, and Lu Dongzan came to be the assistant of the chancellor, at this time Princess Wencheng was still making her own efforts for the friendship between Tubo and The Tang.
It was not until after Lu Dongzan's death that the relationship between Tubo and Tang changed. As soon as Lu Dongzan died, his son Qinling began to exercise dictatorship, and when Qinling Tubo was in power, he detained Chen Xingyan, an emissary of the Tang Dynasty, in Tubo for a full decade, resulting in Chen Xingyan's death in a foreign land. Later, Tubo invaded the Tang Border Pass every year, destroying the Twelve Prefectures of the Tang Dynasty.
Not only that, Qinling also wanted to oppress the supreme leader of the Tubo state, the Zampu clan, and under his bad influence, the friendship maintained by the Han and Tibetan tribes was also exhausted, and Princess Wencheng was also restricted from her freedom.
In 680 AD, the first year of Yonglong, Princess Wencheng died in the Tubo kingdom, at this moment Tubo and Tang have been fighting for many years, and the war in Anxi and Hehuang has been ruined, but Princess Wencheng is a generation of sages who are commonly admired by the Han and Tibetan ethnic groups, so Tubo allowed the Tang envoys to go to mourn, during which Time Chen Xingyan's coffin was able to return to his homeland.
By the time of Wu Zetian, the general Wang Xiaojie defeated Tubo and restored the glory of the four towns in the Western Regions, and Datang gained a brief advantage in the use of troops against Tubo, but thereafter there was still wartime peace, and the enmity between Datang and Tubo did not end until the anshi rebellion. And the Sino-Tibetan story created by Princess Wencheng and Songzan Gampo can no longer be reproduced.
More than a thousand years ago, Tubo was still a bitter cold place, the yin of Wuhai was still snowy in the middle of summer, and when Princess Wencheng's honor guard passed through Qinghai, she felt that the distance between her and her hometown was getting farther and farther, and she couldn't help but burst into tears. Legend has it that her crying was felt by a river on the shore of Qinghai Lake, and the miracle of "all the rivers in the world go east, only this water flows west". This great Han woman made an unparalleled contribution to the friendship between Han and Tibet for thousands of years with her mother's love, and although her body has decayed, the towering Potala Palace in Lhasa Still silently tells the moving story of more than a thousand years ago.