What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
The Silk Road is the main road connecting Eurasia and the great passage of economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West. But the Silk Road is not only one, but there are three, namely the main road, the grassland road and the Qinghai road. In contrast, the Qinghai Road is the most bumpy way through the plateau, so why develop such a Silk Road?
1. Qinghai Road
The road from China to the Western Regions is mainly concerned with the following two roads, one is from Chang'an to the northwest, through the north of Liupan mountain, through Guyuan and Jingbian, through the Hexi Corridor into Xinjiang, and then along the edge of the Tarim Basin over the Onion Ridge to the Western Regions. This is the main road. The other is to go north directly from the Central Plains, through the Yinshan Mountains to Juyanhai, and then through the northern and southern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains to the Western Regions.
Later, archaeologists unveiled the mystery of another Silk Road in the Qinghai region. Archaeologists have repeatedly found West Asian coins in the Qinghai region, such as the silver coins of Sassanid Persia excavated in 1956 in Huangmiao Street in Xining City, and the gold coins of the Roman Justinian I in 1999 in Wulan County, Qinghai. There are also many precious cultural relics from the West. The place where these gold coins were unearthed can be regarded as a trading metropolis or a major transportation artery.
Roman silver coins
So the scholars began to explore further. They found the saying "Qiangzhong Dao" in the "Records of History" and the "Book of Han"; the history books of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties found the saying "Tugu Hun Dao"; and the "Hui Hui Dao" and "Qing Tang Dao" in the Two Song Dynasties. In this way, the mystery of this road was unveiled, which is the "Qinghai Road".
The Qinghai Road, centered in Xining, passes through the Hehuang Valley to the east, to Lanzhou and joins the main silk road; the southern route is connected with present-day Gannan to the north of present-day Sichuan (this line is generally the route into Qinghai Road); to the north it leads directly to Zhangye through the foothills of the Qilian Mountains; to the west, it enters the Qaidam Basin, then passes through Delingha, and finally joins the main road of the Silk Road in Xinjiang.
Qinghai Road
2. Tuguhun and Tuguhun Dao
The formation of Qinghai Road has two stages, the first stage is roughly from the prehistoric culture of Qinghai 4,000 years ago, that is, the Qijia faience pottery culture, to the Western Han Dynasty, this period of this road has been formed, and undertakes a certain function of east-west traffic, but has not yet become an east-west trade route.
Qinghai Dao was noted to have begun during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Zhang Qian first went out of the Western Regions, because he did not understand the road conditions outside the Western Han Dynasty, he only knew that the only way to the Western Regions could be through the Hexi Corridor ruled by the Xiongnu. After that, he was captured by the Xiongnu, escaped and reached the western region after many hardships. He heard from the locals that there was a "Qiangzhong Road" that was not controlled by the Xiongnu, and this was the Qinghai Road, which he took when he returned.
Zhang Qian went on a mission to the Western Regions
However, at that time, the Qiang people had close relations with the Xiongnu, and Zhang Qian was still captured and sent to the Xiongnu. Zhang Qian took advantage of the Xiongnu civil unrest to escape back to Chang'an and introduced several roads he passed to Emperor Wu, and people learned of the existence of this road. However, the Han Dynasty attacked the Xiongnu, and the Hexi Corridor was opened, so people in the Western Han Dynasty did not attach much importance to this road. However, with the establishment of the Lieutenant of the Qiang Dynasty, this road has still been greatly built and developed.
The real prosperity of Qinghai Province was during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. At that time, the Central Plains were in chaos, especially in the north, where various ethnic groups established political power one after another and were constantly in dispute with each other, especially for the Southern Dynasty regime, the Silk Road was basically under the control of the enemy. At this time, a political regime arose in the Qinghai region, that is, Tuguhun.
Tuguhun culture
Tuguhun was established in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the territory is probably the present-day Qinghai Province, because the national strength at that time was weak, Tuguhun adopted a neutral and mercantilist strategy, he paid tribute to the southern dynastic regimes, and established good relations with the northern dynastic countries, and used the advantages of transportation to earn income in large-scale international trade. Therefore, during the three hundred years of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Qinghai Road surpassed the main road and became a trade transit station on the Silk Road.
(Tuguhun Road)
3. Gū and Tang Bo Dao
After the sui and Tang empires achieved great unification, the main roads of the Silk Road were opened again. Tuguhun was also destroyed by the Tubo Empire, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau entered the period of Tubo control. As a result, the function of the Silk Road to connect the western regions gradually withered away. During this period, the function of Qinghai Province was mainly Sino-Tibetan exchanges, and to connect the Central Plains with India, Nepal and other places.
Map of the Tang Dynasty
In the division of the town at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Dangxiang clan gradually grew in the northwest region. During the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the party leader Li Yuanhao claimed that the emperor had established Western Xia, and the Hexi Corridor was under the control of Western Xia. Although the Western Xia did not block the road, it was very harsh on the tribute envoys and merchants on the road, and it was also necessary to extract one-tenth of the goods for exploitation, and the most valuable items were extracted. The merchants were miserable, so Qinghai Road was once again valued.
At this time, the Qinghai region was occupied by a small regime. It adopted the same mercantilist policy as Tuguhun and earned money through transit trade.
Buddha statue
Many caravanserais were set up to receive passing missions and business groups, and at the same time, the people were required to live in harmony with the past business groups, encouraged and supported them to open warehouses, and demanded that the price of food and accommodation should not be excessive. At the same time, when bulk goods and large merchant groups transited, the state would also send troops to protect them, so that they could successfully reach the territory of the Northern Song Dynasty. At the same time, there are great tax benefits. As a result, Qingtang City (present-day Xining) became the largest trading city in western China, and countless tribute envoys and merchant groups changed their routes here.
Xining Qingtang City Ruins
After the Song Dynasty crossed south, the Silk Road was basically cut off on the road, and the Southern Song Dynasty faced the sea and established a state, from the overland Silk Road to the Maritime Silk Road. Since then, the aura of Qinghai Province as an overland Silk Road has also slowly faded. In the third dynasty of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the Silk Road on the road was also playing a role in light and heat, but its main group of people was no longer merchants, but religious contacts.
Qinghai Province has played an important role in history. The Han regime in the middle of the country was weak and unable to unify the country, and when the Hexi Corridor was occupied by a powerful regime, Qinghai Province would become a convenient and safe trade route. And it just so happens that history will make some small regimes here, because of the limited resources, so they choose to build a country through trade transit. It is precisely because of the existence of Qinghai Road that today's Xining City, the former Qingtang City, has been able to develop and grow, becoming a transportation hub in the west from ancient times to the present.