History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
Text/Kaidi Wang
In Taoyuan County, Changde City, in western Hunan Province, there are two unique ethnic minority townships, where the ethnic minorities are not representative of the local Tujia or Miao, but a group of beautiful ethnic groups that we think only exist in Xinjiang, the Uighurs. In the local Maple Uyghur Hui Township and Qinglin Hui Uyghur Township, there are about 10,000 Uyghurs living here, who have settled here for nearly 700 years, building a unique folk culture circle, and also emerging legendary figures like historian Zhai Bozan. What made them come from the far northwest to the land of western Hunan Province?
01. Northwest Wonderland
This group of Uighurs, far away from Xinjiang, naturally has an inseparable connection with Xinjiang, thousands of miles away. Their ancestors can be traced all the way back to the Western Regions before and after Genghis Khan's Western Expedition. In 840 AD, the once-thriving Uighur Khaganate of Northern Mobei collapsed rapidly under the sudden attack of the Jurchens (Kyrgyz), and the Uighurs, who had been rulers, fled south to the west, and the tribes that fled south gradually integrated into the Central Plains Han Dynasty, while the tribes fleeing west entered the Western Regions through the Altai Mountains, one established the later Qarakh Khanate in the steppe of Central Asia, and the other established the Gaochang Uighur Khanate on the land of the former Tang Dynasty's Western Prefecture.
By the 12th century, however, Gaochangguo, with the eastern foothills of the southern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains as its core, had become a pawn in the game of powerful regimes in the north. The Western Liao state established by the Khitan Yelü Dashi after the dingdu husihan ear (Tang Dynasty Shanye City) turned Gaochang into its own eastern vassal and became a front-line town defending the eastern part of the Western Liao Empire.
02. The story of the Western Expedition
After all, the Western Liao regime from the outside could not effectively manage the huge northern and southern lands of the Tianshan Mountains. After the Western Liao Empire ruled the western region for only a hundred years, the new Mongol Empire from the north of the desert swept in. In 1209, the semi-independent Uighur kingdom of Gaochang in the east killed the Western Liao Dynasty's overseer, shaojian, and defected to the Mongols.
In the process, Gaochang Huidu Governor Hale followed Gaochang Hui and surrendered to Genghis Khan, and was named "General of Folding Chong" by Yuan Taizu. Eighteen years later, Hale commanded the Uyghur army to attack Western Xia, and his descendants have been serving as officials in the Yuan Dynasty, and their people have enjoyed relatively favorable treatment, living for a long time near Gu'an County, the center of the imperial capital.
03. Come to Xiao Xiang's family
The descendant of this general, Hale Bashi, in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, turned to Zhu Yuanzhang, the ming emperor, and served as a pioneer in many famous battles against the Northern Yuan. In the fourth year of Hongwu (1371 AD), in order to reward the eighty merits, Ming Taizu was credited with his ability to cut off the remnants of the Mongols, and personally gave him the surname "Zhai", changed his name "Eighty" to "Eight Shi", and the Chinese name was Zhai Bashi, which is the origin of the surname of the Uyghur clan in Hunan. In order to reward the Eight Soldiers, Zhu Yuanzhang even gave his righteous daughter Princess Tuye (the daughter of the founding general Deng Yu) to the Eight Scholars, that is, Lady Zhu.
Photo/ Tomb of The Eight Soldiers
In order to isolate this powerful combat force from the Northern Yuan forces, Zhu Yuanzhang chose to throw them into the vast world of the south. In the fifth year of Ming Hongwu (1372 AD), Zhai Bashi led his people to chenzhou dongman, fan ke forty-eight caves. Fu ordered the brass drum, Wukai, Guzhou and other barbarians, and reported victory. Zhu Yuanzhang made the Eighth Shi the Governor of Jingxiang Prefecture, the Jin Dynasty general of Zhennan Dingguo, the title of Prince Taibao, and the area around Zhenshou Lake Guangchen Chang (Xiangxi Prefecture and Changde).
In the twenty-first year of Ming Hongwu (1388 AD), the incorruptible and old Scissors followed the Mu family to conquer the barbarians in Yunnan, and finally fulfilled his loyalty to the country on the southwest battlefield. In order to commemorate this legendary Uyghur general, Zhu Yuanzhang personally ordered the burial of Huanglonggang (later Zhaijiagang) outside Changde Dongguan, and ordered Yin Qi's heir to be the commander of Changde Weizheng, giving 30 acres of land, 6 men of the gate army, and 720 acres of foreign military fields. This group of Uyghurs who have been fighting all their lives have since settled in Xiaoxiang and begun to move towards the path of localization and scribe.
By the time of the Qing Dynasty, the Zhai clan had become a famous family of poetry heirlooms in western Hunan Province, and later the famous historian Zhai Bozan came out of this old land and new people.