In the long course of history, there is a once-powerful people who have been completely wiped out because of their brutal nature, and the name of this people may sound familiar, but it also makes people feel strange and curious. Who are they, why were they destroyed, and how appalling are their cruelty? Let's step on the corridor of time, explore the rise and fall of this mysterious people, uncover the reasons for their total obliteration, and learn from the lessons of history.
The Rise of the Karma
In the steppes of northern China, there was once a fierce nomadic people, the Xiongnu. As the most powerful nomadic alliance of the time, the Huns were brave and skilled in battle, conquering the vast steppes. However, in this dominating army, there is a special army of slaves, who are later known as the Qian.
At first, the Qiang people were only slaves of the Xiongnu nobles, and were used as vanguard military envoys. With their extraordinary bravery and brutality, they soon became the elite of the Xiongnu army. In the long years, under the strict training of the Huns, the Qian people have developed excellent fighting skills.
In 304 AD, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was established. With the turmoil of the situation in the Central Plains, the Qiang people took the opportunity to cross east and began their conquest in the Central Plains. In 329 AD, Shi Le, the leader of the Qiang people, unified the Qiang tribe and established the Great Xia Kingdom, which opened the era of the Qiang people's rule in the Central Plains.
As the founding monarch of the Qiang people, Shi Le has a good hand and extraordinary command ability. Under his leadership, the territory of the Qiang people expanded rapidly, and successively conquered today's Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi and other places. With excellent cavalry and archery skills and thunderous offensive power, the Qiang army destroyed and conquered everywhere it went. In just a few years, the Qiang had become the most powerful nomadic regime in the Central Plains at that time.
However, just as the national power of the Qi people was growing stronger, Shi Le died young, and the burden of the country fell on his son Shi Hu. Although Shi Hu was still young, he also had the style of his father's commander, and at the beginning of his succession, he led the Qian army to continue to expand southward, conquering today's Jiangsu and Anhui, and expanding his territory to the Yangtze River Valley.
In this way, a Qian tribe, which was once only a Xiongnu slave army, has become the most powerful nomadic regime in the Central Plains at that time in just a few decades. And all this is due to the extraordinary courage and brutality of the Karma people.
The tyrannical rule of the Qiang
Although the Qiang have built a powerful nomadic empire in just a few decades, their way of ruling is remarkable. As a tribe that was once only an army of Xiongnu slaves, the Qiang people received harsh military training from an early age, and developed a warlike and murderous personality. Therefore, when they established their own regime, that violent and ferocious nature was completely exposed.
Under the rule of the Qiang people, the people of the Central Plains lived a miserable life. Whenever the Qiang army conquered a city, it would brutally slaughter and plunder the people of the city. They had no mercy for the captives and civilians, and were slaughtered as prey, young and old, women and children. What's more, the captives would cut off their captives' heads and hang them high at the head of the city as a sign of their victory.
In the history books of that time, the tragic situation of the capture of Luoyang City by the Qian army was recorded in detail. At that time, there were hundreds of thousands of residents in Luoyang City, but under the crazy slaughter of the Qian army, in just a few days, corpses were all over the field, and blood flowed like a river. Those who survived were treated as slaves and subjected to all kinds of humiliation and destruction.
Under the rule of the Qiang people, women are undoubtedly the biggest victims. The attitude of the Karma people towards women was extremely contemptuous, and they saw them as objects of plunder and toy. Whenever a city was captured, the women of the city were taken captive, brought back to the camp, and either forced into slavery or humiliated as playthings. What's more, some beautiful women will be forcibly taken as wives by the upper echelons of the Karma tribe.
Although the Karma later became a Buddhist person, this did not change their brutal nature. During the reign of Shi Hu, the atrocities of the Qian people reached their peak. According to historical records, Shi Hu ordered the massacre of more than 30,000 captives in Luoyang City, and the blood flowed like a river of blood. After the capture of Xiangyang City, Shi Hu killed all the captives, and the corpses were everywhere.
In the face of the ferocious and tyrannical arrogance of the Qiang people, the people of the Central Plains were devastated, and they were all in awe and fear. Under the iron hooves of the Qiang people, the land of the Central Plains was full of scenes of blood and killing, and the sound of cries and wails was everywhere. The reign of the Qiang people was undoubtedly a heinous dark time.
Attempts to reform failed
Although the Qiang people showed extreme brutality and barbarism during their reign in the Central Plains, they were not completely devoid of cultural ideas. In fact, at the beginning of the establishment of the regime, the Qian people began to try to learn and absorb the advanced culture of the Central Plains, hoping to change their barbaric image.
Initially, the Karma people began to practice Buddhism, trying to purify their minds with the benevolence and fraternity of Buddhism. At that time, the ruler of the Qiang tribe, Shile, ordered the construction of a magnificent Buddhist temple in the capital, and personally set up fasting and chanting Buddha in the temple. However, while the Buddhist concept of compassion is embraced by the Karma, their tyrannical nature is deeply ingrained and difficult to completely reverse.
Subsequently, the Qiang began to absorb a large number of cultural intellectuals from the Central Plains, hoping to use their wisdom to reform their own way of rule. At that time, many Han scholars were recruited by the Qiang regime and entrusted with important tasks. The most famous of these was Wang Jun, who was appointed by the Qiang regime as the crown prince and the prince, responsible for teaching the prince to learn Han culture.
Thanks to the efforts of Wang Jun and others, the rulers of the Qiang people began to learn Chinese language and culture, and tried to restrain themselves with the Confucian idea of benevolence. For a period of time, the Qiang regime even ordered the implementation of Han culture throughout the country, requiring the common people to learn Chinese, wear Hanfu, and follow Confucian etiquette.
However, despite the superficial learning of Buddhism and Han culture, the brutal personality in their bones has never been completely changed. New Element 2: Although the Karma people believe in Buddhism, the Buddhist concept of compassion and fraternity is in contradiction with their brutal nature, and ultimately fails to completely transform their barbaric personality.
New Element 3: On the other hand, there are also serious contradictions and divisions within the Karma people. Due to the long period of war and plunder, the benefits were extremely unevenly distributed among the Karma people, with the upper nobles enjoying privileges while ordinary soldiers and civilians were exploited for a long time. This internal contradiction intensified, which eventually led to the turmoil of the Qiang regime.
It is precisely because of these inherent contradictions and defects that the Karma people did not succeed in the real reform in the end, and still maintained their barbaric and brutal nature until they were finally completely wiped out.
The demise of the Karma
Although the Qiang people once established a powerful political power in the Central Plains, due to their internal contradictions and increasing external pressures, this once fearsome nation eventually came to an end.
During the reign of Shi Hu, although the national power of the Qian regime was strong, the internal contradictions were also increasingly intensified. Due to the long-term war and plunder, the interests of the upper nobles and ordinary soldiers of the Qiang nationality were extremely unevenly distributed, resulting in serious class antagonism. On the other hand, Shi Hu himself was also a tyrannical ruler, and his arbitrariness and recklessness further intensified the contradictions within the Qiang people.
In 349 AD, Shi Yang, the crown prince of the Qiang tribe, lost to his younger brother Shi Xiuzhi in the battle for the reigning heir. Frustrated, Shi Yang fled to other ethnic groups in the Central Plains, and gathered a large number of remnants of the Qi people to launch a rebellion against Shi Xiuzhi. The two sides engaged in a protracted civil war in the Hebei region, which plunged the Qiang regime into a state of extreme turmoil.
Just as the civil war was raging, another major event occurred. In 352 AD, Liang Ji, an important general of the Liang tribe, betrayed Shi Xiuzhi and established his own power in the Henan region of Later Zhao. Liang Ji not only seized a large area of the territory of the Qian, but also gathered a large number of Han forces and launched a fierce attack on the Qian.
Under the double attack of internal and external troubles, the Qiang regime soon collapsed. In 352 AD, Shi Xiuzhi was killed in a civil war, and Liang Ji of Later Zhao became the greatest threat to the Qian. In the following years, the Liang and Hebei joined forces with other ethnic groups to launch a frenzied attack on the Qian, and finally in 370 AD, completely eliminated the rule of the Qiantai regime in the Central Plains.
In this way, this once terrifying and brutal nation, under the dual effects of internal contradictions and external pressure, finally came to an end. The collapse of the Qiang nationality also marked the beginning of a new era in the Central Plains.