I. The basic situation in the Western Regions during the Northern Wei Dynasty
In August of the second year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (436), Emperor Taiwu sent Dong Huan and Gao Mingxi envoys as far as the west of the Onion Ridge. After returning in November of the following year, they divided the so-called "Sixteen Kingdoms" in the vast area west of Dunhuang (that is, the Western Regions in a broad sense) into "Four Domains", that is, the four major political spheres of influence, based on what they saw and heard. The first is east of the Green Ridge and west of the quicksand, referring to the Tarim Basin east of the Pamir and the area north of the Tianshan Mountains, that is, the western region in a narrow sense, which belonged to the sphere of influence of the northern nomadic peoples (Ruoran, etc.). The second is the area west of the Onion Ridge and east of Haiqu, which refers to the area west of the Hindu Kush Mountains and east of the Mediterranean Sea, which belong to the Persian sphere of influence. The third is south of the tongue and north of the Moon Clan, referring to sogdiana, Tocharotstan and parts of the northwestern subcontinent, which are between the above two major forces and are directly affected by the growth of their power. The fourth is between the two seas and south of Mizusawa, which refers to the area around the Mediterranean Sea south of the Black Sea and centered on the Italian peninsula, which belonged to Rome's sphere of influence. This can be called a very accurate political map of the Western Regions in the 1530s. This article is mainly discussing the western region in a narrow sense, that is, the northern and southern regions of the Tianshan Mountains, roughly equivalent to today's Xinjiang.
As far as the oasis area of the Tarim Basin south of the Tianshan Mountains is concerned, the main political pattern composed of the great states of Yanshan, Khotan, Shule, Guizi, Yanqi and Gaochang since the Wei and Jin dynasties has not undergone fundamental changes, but during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Shanshan eventually declined, and the front of cheshi was destroyed by the remnants of the Northern Liangfuqu clan, thus exerting some partial influence on the political situation in the western region. With the decline of Shanshan, and the end seems to have regained independence for a time, it was only after the third year (442) of the Northern Wei Taiping Zhenjun that it was re-enlisted under the Northern Wei Dynasty; in the eleventh year (450) of the Taiping Zhenjun,the remnants of the Northern Liang depression Qu clan attacked Jiaohe City and destroyed the former state of Cheshi, and the Turpan Basin was completely included in Gaochang's sphere of influence, and the state of Jimi, which was originally subordinate to the front of Cheshi, also regained its independence. Even in large cities like Khotan and Guizi, the effective scope of their rule or control may be reduced. For example, the state of Pushan (formerly the state of Pishan), which originally belonged to Khotan, may have been restored for a time, and later belonged to Khotan; the half-kingdom of Xiju (formerly the Western Night Kingdom, a son of he), the state of Mo (formerly the state of Wuyu), and the state of Qusha (the state of Kusha checheng) were freed from Khotan's control during this period, and the half-kingdom of Xiju even sent envoys to Northern Wei from the early years of Taiyan (435). Although Gu Mo, Wen Su, and Wei Tou still belonged to Guizi, they also regained their respective national names and seemed to be in a semi-independent state. Shule also recovered during this period. All of these phenomena show that, with the exception of Gaochang, the overall area of domination of the oasis cities of the Taree Basin during the Southern and Northern Dynasties seems to have shown a trend of reduction, which is certainly related to the mutual rivalry between neighboring countries (such as Shanshan and Khotan, Yanqi and Guizi), but it is also related to the activities of nomadic forces in the western region during this period, such as Rouran, Gaoche, Dada and Tuguhun.
In the Junggar Basin north of the Tianshan Mountains and its surrounding areas, the replacement and strife of the nomadic peoples in the north became the norm in this period, and had a direct impact on the changes in the political situation of the States of Chengguo in the Tarim Basin; this also caused the migration of ethnic groups in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, and promoted the ethnic integration of the western regions.
At the beginning of the 5th century, Rouran rose in the desert north, and after the 20th century, his power reached the western region, and then began to compete with the Northern Wei for control of the southern Tianshan Mountains; behind the rear of the Cheshi wang Cheyiluo, the remnants of the Western Liang Tang and his brothers, and the Northern Liang Yuyu brothers in the Turpan Basin, the shadow of the two wrestling in the western region can be seen, and the founding of the Kan clan Gaochang in the first year of the Northern Wei Peace (460) is the result of Rouran's direct intervention. After that, Rouran attacked Khotan, and the entire western region, including Yanqi, Guizi, Gumo, and the host countries, was included in its sphere of influence. The expansion of Ruoran in the western region first led to the forced relocation of Wusun, who was active in the Ili River Valley, to the onion Ridge, and Wusun, who had been stationed north of the Tianshan Mountains for more than 5 centuries, did not know what to do; Yueban, who was originally nomadic in the north of Guizi, took the opportunity to go north and occupy the old land of Wusun, and then contacted Northern Wei to confront Rouran.
In the eleventh year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (487), the chief of the Gaoche Deputy Fuluo Clan of Rouran's subordinate Gaoche, Afu Zhiluo, and his brother Qianqi took advantage of Rouran's disastrous defeat at Northern Wei to lead their troops out of Rouran's rule and move west to the north of the rear of the Che division and establish the Gaoche State, thus replacing Rouran's rule in the Western Regions. After Gao Che established the state, he sent the Northern Wei to jointly attack Rouran, and in the fifteenth year of Taihe (491), he killed the son of Kan Bozhou, the king of Gaochang, who had been established by Rouran, and supported Zhang Mengming, a member of the Dunhuang clan, as the king of Gaochang, thus taking complete control of the Gaochang region. After that, Gao Che sent all the Hu people in the front of the Turpan Basin to Yanqi, and immediately broke the Shanshan, causing its "people to disperse", most of the Shanshan people ran west and ended, and some went north to Yiwu.
At the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th century, the nomadic forces of Wuda in the Amu Darya River Valley in Central Asia and Tuguhun on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau also entered the western region one after another, and fought with Gaoche and Rouran, thus further exacerbating the complicated political situation in this region. Around 504, Qida killed Gaoche Qiqi and captured his son Mi'o suddenly, causing The Poor Qi's forces to disperse and defect to Northern Wei and Rouran respectively; around 506, Qida again conquered Afu to Luosuo and supported Mi'oe to become the king of Gaoche, thus establishing his rule in the Western Regions. The main oasis cities in the Tarim Basin, such as Khotan, Shule, Gumo, Yanqi and Guizi, were all conquered by The Da, and Yanqi was once in a situation where "the people of the country are scattered and the people are not self-reliant". Tuguhun crossed the quicksand into the Western Regions for the first time after being defeated by the Northern Wei in the sixth year of the Taiping Zhenjun (445), and his khan Mu Liyan led his troops to Khotan, killing the King of Khotan and causing tens of thousands of deaths among his people, but retreated from the Western Regions to Qinghai the following year. By the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th century, Tuguhun had truly expanded its sphere of influence to Khotan, Shanshan, Jimu and Gaochang, controlling the main gateway to and from the western region, and its territory was bordered by Khotan under the control of Gaoche to the west and Gaochang under the control of Gaoche to the north. In this situation, Gaochang was not only a necessary place for the transportation of nomadic forces such as Rouran, Qida, Tuguhun and Gaoche, but also became the focus of various contradictions and struggles, so that the king of Gaochang, Qijia, could not bear all kinds of pressure and repeatedly sent Northern Wei to request internal migration. This shows that at that time, the kingdoms of the Western Regions were facing a complex and sinister situation. It was also in this situation that the Northern Wei Dynasty began to operate and manage the Western Regions. In general, the Northern Wei's management and governance activities for the Western Regions can be roughly divided into three stages, which are basically synchronized with their own prosperity and decline; each stage also has its own characteristics, thus reflecting the complex relationship between the Central Plains Dynasty, the Northern Nomadic Regime and the Western Regions in this historical period, and reflecting the general law of the Central Plains Dynasty's management of the Western Regions.
2. Preparation period: from the liaison of the envoys to the opening of Hexi Road
In the eleventh year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (386), Tuoba Jue, the leader of the Xianbei Tuoba clan in northern Mobei, established the Daiguo and Established the Yuan Dengguo; in April of the same year, Tuoba Jue was renamed "King of Wei" from "Daiwang" to "King of Wei", which was for Northern Wei or Later Wei. In the first year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (398), Tuoba Jue moved the capital to Pingcheng (平城, in modern Datong, Shanxi), and became known as Emperor Wei, who was emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty. During Tuoba Jue's reign (386-409), although there were also ministers who asked for access to the Western Regions like the Han Dynasty to revitalize weide and send strange goods, at that time, the main energy of Northern Wei was used for the Southern Expedition to the Central Plains and the Northern Expedition to Gaoche, and naturally there was no time to take care of the Western Regions. In addition, Tuoba Jue believed that the passage through the western region would cause "waste in the sea", which would not only be unprofitable but would increase the burden on the people, so he did not adopt the minister's suggestion. After that, including Emperor Taizong's Ming Dynasty (409-423), Northern Wei did not take any measures to manage the Western Regions.
In the eighth year of Taichang (423), Tuoba Si, the Emperor Ming of Northern Wei, died of illness, and his son Tuoba Tao took the throne as Emperor Taiwu. During Tuoba Tao's reign (423-452), he successively "swept tong wan, ping qin long, cut the Liaohai, Dangheyuan, Nanyi Hedan, northern creeping traces, kuding four tables, and mixed one Ronghua", basically unifying the northern agricultural areas of the Yellow River Basin. It was during his reign that the Northern Wei state was in full swing and began to fully manage the Western Regions in a struggle with Ruoran.
Since the establishment of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Rouran has been constantly attacking and plundering, and has always been the greatest threat to the Northern Wei. During the reigns of Emperor Daowu and Emperor Mingyuan, Northern Wei was on a passive defensive position against Rouran. After Tuoba Tao ascended the throne, on the one hand, he repeatedly personally conquered Rouran and constantly weakened his strength; on the other hand, he eliminated the Xia kingdom (431) and Northern Yan (436) one by one, and destroyed Northern Liang in the fifth year of Taiyan (439), opening up the road to the western region while unifying the north. For the Northern Wei Dynasty, in order to completely remove the threat from Rouran, further management of the Western Regions became an inevitable choice. Because of this, the relationship between the Northern Wei and the Western Regions is to some extent a reflection of its relationship with Rouran in the Western Regions.
From the first year of Emperor Taiwu's reign (435) to the sixth year of Taiping Zhenjun (445), it was the first stage of Northern Wei's management of the Western Regions, that is, the preparatory period. At this stage, on the basis of the advantage gained by the Northern Wei in the War of Ruoran, on the one hand, in the process of exchanging envoys with the western regions, it grasped the basic situation of the western regions and the main situation of the states, and on the other hand, in the fifth year of Taiyan (439), it eliminated the Northern Liang regime occupying Hexi and prepared for the direct management of the western regions. From the establishment of the dynasty (unifying the Central Plains) and the liaison of envoys to the opening of the Hexi Road, it was the general law before the Central Plains Dynasty fully managed the Western Regions, and its direct driving force was often to alleviate or eliminate the threat from the north (usually some nomadic force).
In February of the first year of Taiyan (435), Yanqi, Cheshi and other western states sent envoys to the Northern Wei Dynasty for the first time, along with envoys from Rouran. The first envoy of the Western States to Northern Wei was directly related to the situation after the great victory of the Northern Expedition in April of the second year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (429). The Northern Expedition was carried out by the Taiwu Emperor Tuoba Tao personally led by the Six-Way Army, rouran Khan Dayan burned the hut, extinct west, and Northern Wei "divided the army to search, east to Hanhai, west to Zhangye Water, north to Yanran Mountain, more than 5,000 miles from east to west, and 3,000 miles from north to south." The various departments of Gaoche also took the opportunity to attack and kill Rouran, resulting in more than 300,000 people returning to Rouran before and after, and their power was greatly weakened. Tuoba Tao further dispatched his left servants to shoot Anyuan and others to attack Gaoche, and hundreds of thousands of people from Gaoche's troops looked forward to the army and surrendered. After that, Rouran was forced to send envoys to pay tribute to Northern Wei, and the two sides were reconciled, while Northern Wei temporarily stabilized the north, was able to fully manage the south, and in the third year of Shen Dynasty (430), he attacked the Xia kingdom and occupied Guanzhong, which directly led to the capture of The following summer king Helian Ding by Tuguhun and the fall of the country. Tugu hun was intimidated by the northern Wei dynasty's strength, sent envoys to the table as vassals, and in early 432 sent the captured Helian to the Wei capital Pingcheng. Northern Wei became the most powerful regime in northern China at that time, "Wei Deyi was far away", so there was a tribute from the states of Yanqi and Guizi in February of the first year of Taiyan (435).
In view of the fact that the threat of Rouran had not been completely lifted at this time, there was the Liu Song regime in the south, the Northern Yan regime in the northeast, and the Hexi region was still occupied by the Northern Liang of the Depressed Qu clan, and the entire north had not yet been unified, so the Taiwu Emperor Tuoba Tao's initial reaction to Yanqi and Guizi coming to pay tribute was not very positive. In his view, the countries of the Western Regions were proud of their remoteness and the difficulty of arriving in the inland armies, so "if they have a request, they will bow down and resign, and if they have no desire, they will be arrogant and arrogant to the king's orders", and "if they report to the envoys, they will not be of any benefit in the end, and they will not send the envoys if they want to." However, relevant officials of the Northern Wei Dynasty pointed out that the countries of the Western Regions should respond to the tribute without fear of danger and danger, so as not to inhibit their enthusiasm for entering the DPRK in the future. Tuoba Tao finally adopted the advice of his subordinates, and in May of that year, he successively "sent emissaries to the Western Regions for twenty generations", but all of them were hindered by Rouran, and the first mission led by Wang Ensheng and Xu Gang was repatriated after Being carried out by Rouran. Although Rouran would not tolerate other forces interfering with his sphere of influence, and even in the second year of Taiyan (436), he "cut off peace and committed crimes", this did not prevent Northern Wei from continuing to operate the Western Regions and the western regions to send envoys to pay tribute.
Unlike Yanqi and Guizi, who first sent envoys to Northern Wei in February of the first year (435), when they first sent envoys to Northern Wei, Yanshan and Sogdia sent envoys alone in June and July of that year, indicating that the western states had begun to try to use the influence of Northern Wei to get rid of Rouran's control. In August of the second year of Taiyan (436), the Northern Wei Dynasty once again "sent six generations to the Western Regions" and successfully broke through the barrier of Rouran, of which the most effective effects of the envoys of Dong Huan and Gao Ming were the most significant.
The delegation of Dong Huan and Gao Ming should have set out from Pingcheng in August of the second year of Taiyan (436), passed through the Northern Liang Territory of Hexi Depression Canal, and under the escort and guidance of the Northern Liang Guide, crossed the quicksand, entered Shanshan, and then traveled west along the Northern Silk Road, passing through the cities of Guo Zhuguo in the Northern Province, and then north to Wusun in the Ili River Valley. The dong and gao envoys carried a large number of brocades on this trip, and they gave more care and generous gifts to the countries in the western region along the way, and were instructed to go to the so-called "country of the convenient way". King Wusun welcomed the arrival of the Northern Wei mission and informed Dong Huan: "It is rumored that the broken Lorraine and the tongue are all thinking of Wei De, and they want to pay tribute to their subjects, but there is no reason to suffer from it. Now that the ambassadors have come here, they can go to the two kingdoms and admire the sincerity of their admiration. Dong Huan accepted the suggestion of King Wusun and personally went to the kingdom of Thalona (present-day Fergana) and sent a wise emissary to the tongue country (present-day Tashkent), which was actually the territory of the Sogdians; the King of Wusun provided them with guides and interpreters to guide the Wei envoys to the two countries to announce the consolation. In November of the third year of Taiyan (437), Dong and Gao's envoys returned to The Capital Division and accompanied them to the Northern Wei Dynasty to pay tribute to as many as 16 western states. Among the various missions sent by the Northern Wei Dynasty, the envoys of Dong Wan and Gao Ming traveled the farthest, the area of consolation was the widest, and the number of countries was also the most appeased. In addition, after returning, they also based on their personal experience and what they saw and heard, and comprehensively introduced the basic political pattern and road traffic conditions of the Western Regions, Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia and even the Mediterranean Region of Europe to the Northern Wei Court, laying a solid foundation for the Northern Wei to further operate the Western Regions.
In addition to the Dong and Gao missions, other missions sent by the Northern Wei Dynasty this time also achieved results. In March of the third year of Taiyan (437), envoys from nine kingdoms, including Guizi, Yueban, Yanqi, Cheshi, Sogdia, Shule, Wusun, Thirsty Tuotuo, and Shanshan, also sent envoys to the court, basically covering all the cities and nomadic countries in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, showing the extensive influence of the Northern Wei in the western region. Since then, the western regions have "come one after another, not even the same age," and the number of missions sent by the Northern Wei Dynasty has reached dozens, and some of them are as far as Tianzhu and Guobin. The Northern Wei Dynasty's ties with the Western Regions became increasingly close, and its influence in the Western Regions became more and more extensive.
The frequent exchanges of envoys between the Northern Wei and the Western Regions not only caused dissatisfaction among Rouran, but also worried the Northern Liang regime. The relationship between the Northern Wei and Rouran once again affected the attitude of some countries in Northern Liang and the Western Regions towards the Northern Wei and their relations with the Northern Wei. Due to Rouran's "absolute peace and crime", Tuoba Tao personally led the Three Roads Army to conquer again in the fourth year of Taiyan (438), but not only did he return in vain, but also lost a lot of military horses due to the drought in the desert north. Rouran took the opportunity to exaggerate northern Wei's defeat and sent envoys to the western regions to declare: "Wei has weakened, and today I am strong, if there are more Wei envoys, do not return to respect." Some unknown Western Regions regimes had ill will toward Northern Wei, and northern Liang's frustrated qu muqian also began to snubble northern Wei emissaries. After the emissaries also reported the above situation, Tuoba Tao, who had long had the heart to destroy the Liang, decided to attack the Northern Liang, with the aim of finally realizing his ambition to unify the entire north while consolidating ties with the western region.
In March of the fifth year of Taiyan (439), Princess Weiwu, the sister of Tuoba Tao, who was married to the Northern Liang King Of Northern Liang, was poisoned by Mu Qian's sister-in-law Li Shi and Mu Qian's sister. This incident became the fuse for Northern Wei to send troops to Northern Liang. Among the twelve major crimes listed by the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were also "cutting taxes and merchants hu to cut off the travels"; "threatening The West Rong, high arrogance"; "betraying the rebels in the north, attracting the enemy pond in the south", and "preparing for the king's people, waiting to guard the guanyao". Obviously, Northern Liang monopolized the Silk Road trade, vainly claimed to be big against the countries of the Western Regions, and colluded with Rouran to guard against Northern Wei, which was unacceptable to Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei. In June of that year, emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao personally led a large army to conquer Northern Liang, and although Hequ Muqian asked Rouran for help and defended the infant city, he was finally defeated by the Northern Wei army, and the city of September was broken and surrendered, and Northern Liang died. In the first year of the Taiping Zhenjun (440), the Northern Liang Yu descendants of the Wuqu Wuqu brothers rebelled against Dunhuang; the following year (441), Emperor Taiwu first sent Bai Wuzhi as the pastor of Liangzhou and the king of Jiuquan, and then sent a large army to fight and force the Wuxia brothers to cross the quicksand into the western region, and northern Wei from then on completely controlled the Hexi region and completely opened up the road to the western region.
Not only that, the Northern Wei Dynasty destroyed Northern Liang and expelled the Northern Liang Yu descendants of the Frustrated Qu Wuqu brothers, which also led to a series of chain changes in the political situation in the Western Regions in 442. First of all, the Northern Liang Yu descendants of the Depressed Canal Wuxia brothers crossed the quicksand under the persecution of Northern Wei to occupy Shanshan, and used this as a base to support Shanshan and continue to block the Northern Wei through the western region. Secondly, Tang Qi, the King of Yiwu established by Rouran, intended to surrender to Northern Wei after being expelled from Depression Canal and return to his hometown of Hexi in the east, which led to Rouran's obstruction and pursuit, and Tang Qi was forced to turn west to Gaochang. In order to resist Tang Qi's attack, Gaochang Taishou Kan Shuang turned to the depressed canal that occupied Shanshan and asked for help, which eventually led to the depressed canal taking advantage of the opportunity to enter gaochang, and Kan Shuang fled to Rouran. It was in this context that the second phase of the Northern Wei Dynasty's operation of the Western Regions began.
3. Management and Governance Period: From Military Conquest to Military and Political Management
The second phase of Northern Wei's management and governance of the Western Regions was the period of military conquest and military and political administration, which lasted from the sixth year (445) of the Taiping Zhenjun of the Taiwu Emperor to the second year of Zhengping (452). As part of the strategy of attacking Rouran, Northern Wei twice sent troops to conquer the western regions at this stage, successively conquered Yanshan and Yanqi and Guizi, and implemented the county system in Shanshan, setting up military town guards in Yanshan and Yanqi, and its strategic intention was to break Rouran's right arm and completely eliminate the threat from the north.
After the demise of Northern Liang, The Northern Liang Remnants of The Depression Canal sent his brother An Zhou to cross the quicksand and attack Shanshan. Although Bi long, the king of Shanshan, initially obeyed the advice of northern Wei emissaries to resist An Zhou, but eventually led his people to the west out of fear, and his son descended and became a puppet of the Northern Liang remnants. After the Depression Canal An Zhou occupied the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Shanshan people often plundered the Northern Wei envoys under their coercion, and at this time, as the gateway to the Western Regions, Shanshan also had a sense of "cold lips and dead teeth", which cut off the road from the Northern Wei to the Western Regions, resulting in "the contribution of the Western Regions, which did not enter for many years." "In April of the sixth year (445) of the Taiping Zhenjun, the Taiwu Emperor Tuoba Tao, while conquesting Tuguhun, sent The Duke of Zhou wandu to return to the conquest of Shanshan and open the gate of the Western Regions.
After Wan Du returned to his command, he led the Liangzhou soldiers who could fight a good battle to Dunhuang first, leaving a heavy weight, leading five thousand light horses to cross the quicksand and quickly enter the territory of Shanshan. Shan Shan was unprepared for the sudden Arrival of the Northern Wei army, which was "crowded with people", while Wan Dugui ordered officials not to raid the people. In the face of strict military discipline and the Northern Wei army, the guards of shan shan were deeply moved and surrendered, and zhenda, the king of shanshan, also surrendered himself. When Northern Wei first conquered the Western Regions, it occupied Shanshan without bloodshed. In August of the sixth year of the Taiping Zhenjun (445), Wan Du returned to the army to guard the aftermath and returned to the dynasty with Zhenda. Emperor Taiwu was very happy and treated Zhenda kindly, but did not allow him to return to the country, but stayed in the capital division. From then on, the Northern Wei Dynasty began to directly rule and administer Shanshan, and Tunken Shushou .
In order to strengthen the rule of Shanshan, in May of the ninth year (448) of the Taiping Zhenjun, the Northern Wei Dynasty also appointed Han Ba, the Duke of Jiaotong, as a false festival, a general of the Zhenxi Dynasty, a lieutenant of the Xi rong, and the king of Shanshan, and the town guarded Shanshan, "entrusting his people with the county of Bizhi County". This was not only the first time that the central dynasty in the interior implemented the county system in Shanshan, but also the beginning of the Northern Wei Dynasty's establishment of military towns in the western region. Shanshan became the base for the Northern Wei Dynasty to further manage the Western Regions.
In view of Yan Qi's "dangerous land" and frequent plundering of Northern Wei envoys, Emperor Taiwu sent Wan Dugui to launch a second expedition against the Western Regions in the ninth year of the Taiping Zhenjun (448). The Wandu Gui army still led five thousand cavalry to light vehicles this time, mainly relying on food along the way. After entering the territory of Yanqi, Wan Dugui first captured the two cities of Zuo hui and Wei Li in the eastern part of the country, and forced the Yanqi capital to enter the Yuanqu Canal. The Yanqi king Jiu Ji Bei Na sent 40,000 or 50,000 people out of the city to resist, but was destroyed by Wan Du Gui; The Dove Corpse Pei Na fled into the mountains on a single horse, and Wan Du Gui entered the slaughterer Canal City, and the whole territory of Yan Qi surrendered, in September of that year. Seeing that there was no hope of returning to the country, he had to flee to Guizi, who not only took him in, but also treated him as a son-in-law and gave him preferential treatment. In December, Wan Dugui was ordered to lead a thousand cavalry to conquest Guizi, destroyed three thousand Guizi soldiers, and captured a large number of camels and horses and returned them.
Unlike the bloodless occupation of Shanshan, the Wandu Gui army conquered Yanqi and Guiziduo in this battle; at Yanqi conquered the three cities of Zuohui, Weili and Yuanqu, not only slaughtering the city of Qucheng, but also plundering a large amount of property, of which there were countless rare treasures, tens of thousands of camels, cattle and horses and other livestock, causing huge losses to the local manpower and financial resources. To this end, Emperor Taiwu ordered Wan Du to recruit the yanqi people, and around 449 set up a military town guard in yanqi. The establishment of the two military towns of Shanshan and Yanqi was not only an important measure for the Northern Wei to manage the western region, but also an organic part of the strategy of comprehensively cracking down on Ruoran. At the same time, the Northern Wei continued to send envoys to the Western Regions to further expand their influence in the east and west of the Onion Ridge and seek broader support for the attack on Rouran. In the so-called "Hongzha Lingyan No. 2" rock carving group on the banks of the Hunzha River Valley in the haldeikish area of present-day northern Pakistan, a Chinese inscription of "Great Wei Envoy Gu Weilong Now Goes to Mimi" was found, which is left by gu Weilong, an envoy of northern Wei, who was ordered to send an envoy to the miguish country (present-day Samarkand, Uzbekistan) through this place between 444 and 453.
At this stage of northern Wei's management of the western region, especially in the second conquest process, the cooperation between Yue Ban and Che Shi also played an important role. Yue Ban, Che Shi, and Northern Wei all faced a common rival, Rou Ran, which was the root cause of their union. The nomadic Yuebanyuan and Rouran, who were north of Guizi, were married to Rouran, and the King of Yueban once led thousands of people to Rouran to see the Great Tan Khan, but returned because he hated the filth of his men, and from then on he formed a vendetta with Rouran, and there were many wars between them. In the ninth year of the Taiping Zhenjun (448), Yue Fang repeatedly sent envoys to Northern Wei, and even asked to join Northern Wei in attacking Rouran from east to west; in response, emperor Tuoba Tao, almost at the same time as sending Wandu back to attack Yanqi, ordered the King of Huainan to be the forward and led a large army to attack Rouran. However, the joint military operation between the two sides did not achieve the expected results, and soon after that, they moved westward to Europe and withdrew from the historical stage of the western region.
Cheshi was one of the first to send envoys to the Northern Wei Dynasty, guo guo, and at that time also faced the threat of the pro-Rouran depressed northern Liang remnants, and the two sides repeatedly fought each other. During the Yanhe period (432-434), Northern Wei made che yiluo the general of Pingxi and the king of Cheshi. Three years after Taiping Zhenjun (442), Che Yiluo fought many battles with Li Qin, who fled to Gaochang, and successively recruited more than 500 households led by Qianshou, the son of Frustrated Qu Wulu, who had lost the battle for the throne, to send more than 500 households to the Northern Wei capital division, and Li Qin, the brother of Li Bao, who was living in Gaochang, led more than 50 people to Dunhuang, and joined forces with Tang He to break the depression canal An zhou and behead 300 people. In the ninth year of the Taiping Zhenjun, Emperor Taiwu sent WanDu back to conquer Yanqi and ordered Che Yiluo to cooperate with Tang He from the east. Che Yiluo sent his son Che Xie to stay behind, while he personally led a large army to attack the seven cities in eastern Yanqi, capturing 200 people, 1,000 camels and 1,000 horses, and offering 100 pounds of gold to Northern Wei. Frustrated, However, An Zhou took advantage of the opportunity of Che Yiluo's devotion and the emptiness of the Che Division to lead the three-way army of Rouran to besiege Che Xie. Although Che Xie held the city firmly, due to the lack of reinforcements for a long time, he was finally attacked by the combined forces of An Zhou and Ruoran, and had to flee to Che Yiluo. Che Yiluo was destroyed and homeless, so he had to collect more than a thousand remnants to settle in Yanqi Town. Emperor Taiwu issued an edict to soothe him and ordered the opening of the Yanqi warehouse to help the starving people of the Cheshi. In the first year of Zhengping (451), Che Xie, because of his "stubbornness to the city and the prominence of loyalty", was ordered to enter the dynasty with his brother Che Boli and more than ten other people; the following year Che Yiluo himself also paid tribute to the Northern Wei Capital Division, and Northern Wei gave him wives and concubines, slaves, farmhouses, cattle and sheep, worshiped the general, and still enjoyed the title of King of Cheshi. The Che Yiluo family stayed in the interior and became Subjects of northern Wei.
Tang He, who had conquered Yanqi, had captured the city of Bojuluo in the eastern part of Yanqi, and later joined Wan Dugui in conquering Guizi. After Wan Du returned to the dynasty, Tang Hezhen was ordered to guard Yanqi. During his tenure, Tang He quelled the rebellion of The Hu generals such as Yi Zhenga, the lord of Liu Donkey City, resulting in the "Zhu Hu Qianfu, Western Region Keping", and made a great contribution to the Northern Wei administration of the Western Regions. In the first year of Zhengping,Tang He entered the dynasty and was favored by the Northern Wei. The Operation and Management of the Western Regions by the Northern Wei Dynasty thus reached its peak. However, with the death of Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao the following year, the Northern Wei forces gradually withdrew from the Western Regions, and its management of the Western Regions immediately entered the third stage.
IV. The period of regression: from civil unrest to exit
The third phase of Northern Wei's administration of the Western Regions was a period of regression, which lasted from the first year of Xing'an (452) to the fall of Northern Wei in the third year of Yongxi (534). At this stage, due to Emperor Taiwu's perennial use of troops abroad, northern Wei's national strength was wasted, internal contradictions continued, and after that, his main energy was busy with internal social governance; coupled with the revival of Rouran and the containment of the Southern Dynasty regime, Northern Wei was obviously passive compared with the previous stage in managing the western region, except for the previous stage of competing with Rouran for Yiwu and recruiting Gaochang internal annexes, and most of the time it was only satisfied with communicating with envoys with the western region.
In February of the second year of Zhengping (452), Emperor Taiwu was killed by Zong Ai, and Northern Wei fell into civil unrest for the throne, which gradually stabilized after the Wencheng Emperor Tuoba Mao ascended the throne in October of the same year. Probably around this time, the Northern Wei Dynasty deposed the towns of Yanqi and Shanshan, and the forces began to withdraw from the Western Regions, while Rouran took the opportunity to control the Western Regions again. In August of the second year of Tai'an (456), Emperor Wencheng patrolled Hexi and sent the Dunhuang generals, Pingxi generals, and Yuyang Dukes to attack Yiwu, who was attached to Rouran, and returned after attacking his city and obtaining a large amount of loot. Although the Northern Wei military campaign was intended to attack Rouran's forces in the western region, it did not actually occupy or control Iwu, so it was still of the nature of an attack. During the reign of Emperor Wencheng (452-465), the only western cities that came to pay tribute to the Northern Wei Dynasty were Shule and Khotan at the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, which also showed from one side that Guizi, Yanqi, Gaochang, and Yiwu on their northern edge were under the control of Rouran. During this period, the Northern Wei Dynasty did not have the first stage of sending envoys to the Western Regions several times or even dozens of times per year, nor did it have the active progress and management of the second stage, and its relations with the Western Regions began to show a fading trend. However, Khotan maintained a special relationship with Northern Wei through marriage, and Khotan may have married a princess named "Xianji" to Emperor Wencheng of Wei in the third year of Tai'an (457), and the long-lived Princess Khotan did not die until the second year of Xiaochang (526) at the age of 90.
It was precisely because of this special relationship with the Northern Wei that in the first year of Emperor Xianwen's reign (466) and the first year of Emperor Xing's reign (467) and the second year (467), Khotan sent tributes to the imperial court, most likely under pressure from Rouran. At that time, Wei Duohou, the son of Wei Wei, was given the title of False Festival, General of Zhenxi, Lieutenant of QiangRong, and General of Dunhuang Town. After taking office, he asked for a light horse to enter Khotan in the west and adopt the strategy of "taking funds from the enemy" to pacify the countries in the western regions, but Emperor Xianwen did not take his advice. During the reign of Emperor Xianwen (466-471), the only city of Guoguo that came to pay tribute was Khotan, and the political relations between Northern Wei and the Western Regions were further alienated, and the influence of Rouran was further expanded. History says that "the western kingdoms of Yanqi, Shanshan, Guizi, Gumo, and the eastern provinces (including Gaochang, Yiwu, etc.) were all subordinate to Rouran, and Khotan was the only chengguo state at that time that was not completely conquered by Rouran. This roughly reflected the basic political situation in the Western Regions at that time.
In the first year of Yanxing (471), the 5-year-old Xiaowen Emperor Tuoba Hong was succeeded by Chan, and Emperor Wencheng's civilized empress Feng Shi (i.e., Empress Feng) actually listened to the government; in that year, the Northern Wei Dynasty enfeoffed Tuoba Zhen the Great General of the Eastern Expedition and the King of Nan'an Tuoba Zhen as a false festival, the governor of Liangzhou and The Western Rong military, and the lieutenant of the Western Regions, ZhenliangZhou, who seemed to have the intention of running the Western Regions. However, Rouran entered Dunhuang for several years between the second year of Yanxing (472) and the fourth year of Yanxing (474), forcing Northern Wei's subjects to even advocate abandoning Dunhuang. In the face of Rouran's constant attacks, Wei Duohou, who was still in Dunhuang at the time, once again demanded that Yiwu be taken north and blocked The road through the western region of Rouran to completely remove his threat to Dunhuang. Although Emperor Xiaowen greatly appreciated Wei Duohou's strategy, he was troubled by the troubles in the east and could not draw out his strength and give up.
In the eleventh year of Taihe (487), Rouran's subordinate Gaoche Deputy Fuluobu rebelled, and under the leadership of the leader Afu Zhiluo, moved west to establish a state in Northern Yanqi, and Rouran began to lose control of the political situation in the Western Regions. In this context, gao lambzi, the lord of Iwushu under The rule of Rouran, led a crowd of 3,000 in December of the following year (488) to attach the city to Northern Wei. Northern Wei forces thus entered the Western Regions, and Yiwu became the main stronghold of Northern Wei in the Western Regions during this period. After the Northern Wei dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang in the eighteenth year of Taihe (494), Emperor Xiaowen was busy internally stabilizing the political situation and the people's hearts and minds, implementing Sinicization reforms, and launching a war against Southern Qi externally, and had no time to take care of the western region. After that, Rouran and Gao Che fought each other for control of the Western Regions, and Ma Ru, the king of Gaochang, who was in the middle of the gap, in order to protect himself, sent an envoy to Northern Wei in the twenty-first year of Taihe (497) to request a domestic migration. Emperor Xiaowen sent the Mingwei general Han Bao'an to greet him, and planned to set aside five hundred miles of Iwu for resettlement, so as to strengthen his control over the gateway to the western region, but in the end, Gaochang's request to move to the interior was not met, and Gaochang's old love for the mainland was unwilling to move east. Not only did this matter end in vain, but Ma Ru, the king of Gaochang, who insisted on internal migration, was killed by the countrymen. During the reign of Emperor Xiaowen (471-499), Guizi, Gaochang, and Gaoche also joined the ranks of sending tributes to the Northern Wei Dynasty, and although the relations between Northern Wei and the Western Regions were strengthened, and there were even practical measures to control Yiwu and use this as a base to recruit Gaochang, all of these achievements were achieved passively in the face of changes in the political situation in the Western Regions, not the result of their active management of the Western Regions. Even in the above favorable situation, because the main energy of the Northern Wei Dynasty was still underutilized in the southern expedition, the failure to recruit Gao Chang also shows this. After Emperor Xuanwu succeeded to the throne, Northern Wei's negative attitude towards managing the Western Regions continued.
In the twenty-third year of Taihe (499), Emperor Xiaowen died of illness on the way to the south and north, and the crown prince Yuan Ke succeeded him as Emperor Xuanwu. After that, the Northern Wei continued to be busy with the use of troops against the Southern Dynasty, and in addition to still controlling Iwu, there were few positive measures in running the western region, but maintained contact with the oasis city of Guo Guo in part of the Tarim Basin. Around the fourth year of Zhengping (507), Gao Da, Gao Che, and Rou Ran engaged in a series of scuffles over the control of Gaochang, and the gaochang king Qi Jia, who could not withstand the multiple pressures of the nomadic forces, sent an envoy to Northern Wei in the first year of Yongping (508), requesting internal migration and "begging for a welcome". The Northern Wei general Meng Wei led 3,000 Liangzhou troops to Yiwu to greet him, but the two sides missed the agreed time and eventually returned without success. After that, although Gaochang continued to send envoys to pay tribute, Northern Wei had no measures to send troops to welcome them except to send envoys to Zhaolao and canonize. In the third year of Zhengguang (510), Emperor Xuanwu sent Meng Wei to pay tribute, and during the Yanchang period (512-515), he also made Qijia a general of Zhijie, a general of Pingxi, a thorn in Guazhou, and the founder of Tailin County. Northern Wei regarded Qi Jia as a Wei vassal, and the two sides had the closest relationship during this period, but there was nothing they could do about Qi Jia's private claim to be king. During the reign of Emperor Xuanwu (500-515), Khotan, Shule, Gaobin, Gaochang, Guizi, and many more states west of the Onion Ridge sent tribute many times, but behind each envoy can see the shadow of the nomadic regimes such as Zhaoda and Gaoche. Among them, during the Yanchang period, the Northern Wei sent gao hui envoys to play a certain deterrent effect on the western regions, and the central Asian states of Luohou (na), Wusun and other countries sacrificed famous horses.
In the early years of Emperor Xiaoming's reign (516) and the first year of the Shengui Dynasty (518), Northern Wei explicitly rejected Gao Chang's request for internal migration twice. In the fifth year of Zhengguang (524), the Liuzhen Rebellion and the Guanlong Rebellion broke out, and the Northern Wei Dynasty went into full decline until the division and demise of Yongxi in the third year (534), and there was no positive measure to run the western region. Despite this, the western kingdoms, including Gaochang, Shule, Gaobin, Gaoche, and Qida, continued to send envoys, among which Zhaoda paid tribute almost year after year.
For the attitude and policy of the alternating forces of Rouran and Gaoche and competing for the western region, the northern Wei Liangzhou's suggestion to assassinate Shi Yuan Tuan was quite representative. In the last year of the Divine Turtle (520), he pointed out in the song of the Khan Anayan and brahmins who placed Rouran to surrender: "The high car and the creep are devoured. At the beginning, the creep is weak, the high car is strong, the creep is self-help, and the high car is far northwest. And creeping and re-vibrating, breaking the high car, the Lord mourns the people, and the line is endless. And the high car can now finally snow its shame, and the re-destruction of the creeps is by a wide variety of people, and it is impossible to destroy it. However, those who fight these two enemies, that is, Bian Zhuang's calculation, can make the realm dustless for decades, rely on this reason. Therefore, in the absence of the ability to completely remove the threat from the north, the Northern Wei Adopted a strategy of balance and mutual containment towards Rouran and Gaoche, so that the two sides maintained a situation of mutual struggle, on the one hand, to weaken the power of the two, on the other hand, through this balance and containment to protect the stability and security of the northern border, to achieve the so-called "Anbian Baosai" purpose. However, under the domination of this strategy, the Northern Wei Dynasty was naturally difficult to do anything in the Western Regions.
V. Economic ties and cultural ties
In the Northern Wei Dynasty, its political relations with the Western Regions may have fluctuated due to changes in the internal and external situation, but the economic and cultural ties between the two sides have been smooth and continuous. With Buddhism as the link, the monks of the Western Regions traveled east to promote the Dharma and the monks in the interior traveled west to seek the Dharma, which promoted cultural exchanges between the Northern Wei And the Western Regions, and Buddhism in the interior also developed by leaps and bounds. In November of the first year (518) of the first year of the Xiaoming Emperor's reign ( 518 ) , Empress Hu , who was listening to the government and devoted herself to Buddhism , sent Wang Fuzi to lead Song Yun , Mana , and Huisheng to the Western Regions to visit the Buddhist scriptures and obtain 170 Mahayana texts. The mission saw tens of thousands of prayer flags as it passed through the city of Han (between present-day Yutian County and Hotan City) east of Khotan, more than half of which were dedicated to the Northern Wei people who passed through the area, mostly in the nineteenth year of Taihe (495), the second year of Jingming (501), and the second year of Yanchang (513). The frequency and depth of cultural exchanges between the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Western Regions can be seen from this. In addition to carrying a large number of prayer flags and incense sachets, the mission also carried edicts, and there were many edicts in the countries it passed, so its mission was not only to seek the law, but also to have political and diplomatic tasks. The mission's task, Wang Fuzi and Song Yun, among the members of the mission, was mainly to contact the countries of the Western Regions and preach the Northern Wei Dynasty; the task of Shamen Mana and Huisheng was to seek the Dharma. In addition, after the first year of Zhengguang (520), the king of Gaochang, Qi jia, continued to send tributes to the court, and even asked for Confucian classics and historical books such as the Five Classics and Zhushi, and asked Liu Xie, an assistant teacher of the Northern Wei State, to be a doctor of Gaochang, and obtained the permission of Emperor Xiaoming. It is precisely because of these so-called "Han wei relics" that the inland Han culture has also been able to spread in Gaochang. As for the economy, driven by the rich interests of the Silk Road trade, there are a large number of western merchants and Hu who continue to travel to and from the Silk Road continuously and uninterruptedly, the so-called "west of the Onion Ridge, as for the Great Qin, a hundred countries and a thousand cities, all of which are attached." Merchants and peddlers, day after day". As a result, many Hu people in the Western Regions stayed in the interior during this period. Taking the Wei capital Luoyang City as an example, the Northern Wei Dynasty placed these Western Hu people in the city's Song Pavilion and gave them houses in Muyili. At that time, there were more than 10,000 Dongxi Yi people living in Luoyang City, and a considerable number of them should be Hu merchants in the Western Regions. Under the turbulent and unpredictable political situation during this period, the continuous economic and cultural ties between the western region and the interior became the basis for maintaining the integration of the two sides. This is also the profound reason why the western region and the interior region have been unified in the end despite the time and the hour. Due to space limitations, the content about the economic and cultural relations between the Northern Wei And the Western Regions is not repeated here.
This article was originally published in Northwest Ethnic Theory Series
About author:Xin Wang, male, born in 1966, Ph.D. in ethnology, visiting scholar at Cornell University. He is currently the dean, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Institute of Western Frontier Research of Shaanxi Normal University. He has been engaged in research in the fields of Chinese ethnic history, history of Sino-foreign relations, and ethnic and religious issues in the western frontier areas; he has presided over 5 national projects, including major projects of the National Social Science Foundation, published 5 academic monographs, and published more than 80 papers; and won 5 outstanding achievement awards in philosophy and social sciences from the Ministry of Education and Shaanxi Province. The main academic part-time positions are: member of the Ethnology Education Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, member of the Expert Committee of the National Xinjiang Think Tank, vice president of the Chinese Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties History Society, and vice president of the China World Ethnic Society.