Central Asia and China have been inextricably linked since ancient times. The earliest can be traced back to the Han Dynasty during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty drove away the Huns in the Hexi Corridor and obtained a passage to the Western Regions.
During the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, the Western Regions Protectorate was established in the Western Regions, and since then the Western Regions have been officially included in the scope of China's control. At that time, the Western Regions were much larger than Xinjiang, and at that time, in addition to Xinjiang, the countries of the Western Regions also included the eastern part of present-day Kazakhstan, most of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and part of Russia.
As we mentioned earlier, the eastern part of Kazakhstan, that is, the area east and south of Lake Balkhash, was once the territory of China, and the vast majority of Tajikistan, that is, the Pamir Plateau in Tajikistan, was also the territory of China in the past.
In fact, the vast majority of Kyrgyzstan's territory is also indissolubly linked to China. Since the Han Dynasty, the vast majority of the territory here has been Chinese territory. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, this sphere of influence had expanded to the hinterland of Central Asia and even bordered Persia. The famous Broken Leaf City, located in Kyrgyzstan, is most likely the hometown of the great poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty. It's just that after the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty lost its right to govern here.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, most of Kyrgyzstan was once recovered
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, large areas of the Western Regions were basically insulated from the Central Plains Dynasty for a long time.
Not to mention the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, it was an era of war, and the Central Plains couldn't handle it by itself, let alone govern the Western Regions. Although the Song Dynasty retained the unity of most of the Central Plains, it did not even recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, so it was naturally impossible to get involved in the Western Regions.
Some people say that during the Yuan Dynasty, the territory of Kyrgyzstan must have been in the hands of the Central Plains Dynasty, because the Yuan Dynasty was big enough! In fact, this was not the case, at that time, Genghis Khan gave the Western Regions to his second son, Chagatai, and Chagatai established the Chagatai Khanate here.
Although the Chagatai Khanate and the Yuan Dynasty both belonged to the Great Mongolian State, the two really had no subordinate relationship, but nominally because Kublai Khan called himself the Great Khan of Mongolia, so the Chagatai Khanate recognized the title of Kublai Khan.
During the Ming Dynasty, the sphere of influence of the imperial court stopped at the Hami area, and did not penetrate deep into Kyrgyzstan, and it was not until the Qing Dynasty that the situation changed.
In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the biggest opponent was the Dzungar Khanate in the northwest, which planned to unify the three Mongolias, that is, to unify the Western Mongolia, the Northern Mongolia, and the Southern Mongolia, and then march into the Central Plains to recreate the glory of the Genghis Khan era.
However, the Kangxi Emperor was also an eloquent monarch, and after he received the treasure island of the Pingsan Domain and signed the Treaty of Nebuchu with Tsarist Russia, he concentrated his efforts on dealing with the Dzungar Khanate.
Kangxi's three expeditions to Galdan, although he destroyed Kaldan, did not destroy the Dzungar Khanate, and at that time, a large area of Kyrgyzstan was in the territory of the Dzungar Khanate.
It was not until 1757, during the Qianlong period, that the Qing Dynasty completely equalized the Dzungar Khanate and took a large area of land in the Western Regions. Qianlong named this place Xinjiang, which means that the homeland is new.
Since then, the Qing Dynasty has become the third great unified dynasty in Chinese history to truly have control over the Western Regions. Kyrgyzstan has belonged to China at least three times, which shows how deep its relationship with China is.
At that time, most of the eastern and southern territories of Kyrgyzstan were within the sphere of influence of the Qing Dynasty, and only a small part of the western part was in the hands of the Kokand Khanate in Central Asia. And the Kokand Khanate was also once subordinated to the Qing Dynasty.
Tsarist Russia took advantage of the unequal treaty and cut it away
The Qing Dynasty ruled the Western Regions for more than 100 years, and around 1860, Tsarist Russia began to frantically invade the territory of the Qing Dynasty, which also led to heavy losses in the Western Regions.
At that time, Tsarist Russia had just lost the war in the West, and it was very unhappy and eager to recover all its losses from the East. And land is the best compensation for Tsarist Russia.
Therefore, from 1858 to 1860, Tsarist Russia forced the Qing court to sign the Treaty of Aihui and the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing, taking away more than 1 million square kilometers of land in the Outer Northeast.
This was not enough, they sent 30,000 troops in 1862 to forcibly enter the territory of Xinjiang, intending to seize the Xinjiang region by force. By that time they had already gained a foothold in Central Asia and were attacking several khanates of Central Asia.
As a result, in the areas of Ili and Tacheng, the Russian army encountered stubborn resistance from the Qing army. The war lasted until 1864, when the two sides finally signed the Sino-Russian Treaty on the Survey and Demarcation of the Northwest Boundary.
In this treaty, Tsarist Russia acquired all 440,000 square kilometers of the outer northwest, including the vast majority of Kyrgyzstan's territory. Since then, the Tang Dynasty has garrisoned for 40 years and is suspected to be Li Bai's birthplace, Broken Leaf City, which was robbed by Tsarist Russia.
By 1876, the Kokand Khanate in Central Asia was also completely swallowed up by Tsarist Russia, so the entire territory of Kyrgyzstan naturally fell into the pockets of the Russians.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan had the right to independence
From 1864 until the fall of Tsarist Russia in 1917, Kyrgyzstan was within the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia for a long time. During this period, there was also a series of local resistances, but they were ruthlessly extinguished by Tsarist Russia, and it is difficult to estimate how many people were killed or wounded.
In short, Tsarist Russia turned the place into a place of singing and dancing, and the rebels of the past almost disappeared, leaving behind a large number of docile aborigines.
After the collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917, the ethnic groups of Central Asia, which had been living with Russia for about half a century, naturally continued to follow Russia and joined Soviet Russia under the intervention of Soviet Russia.
Among them, the Kyrgyz region became an autonomous region under the Soviet Union in 1924. By 1926, the autonomous region had been upgraded to an autonomous republic, but it was still under the Soviet Russian flag, similar to the current Russian autonomous republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Tatarstan, and belonged to the provincial level.
It wasn't until 1936 that the situation changed. Because the Soviet Union put forward a series of conditions for upgrading the member countries, Kyrgyzstan happened to meet the standards, so Kyrgyzstan broke away from Russia in 1936 and directly joined the Soviet Union as a member country, which was equivalent to changing from a part of Russia to a brother unit of Russia.
As a result, by the time the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Kyrgyzstan was qualified to go it alone. Those autonomous republics that remained under the Russian flag, such as Chechnya, Dagestan, Tatarstan, etc., were not eligible to act alone.
Kyrgyz: Our ancestor was Li Ling, a famous general of the Han Dynasty
After losing the blessing of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan found a new direction of development, which was naturally to cooperate with its old club China, after all, its economic strength is here. Russia can't bring this little brother, so it can only let us come.
Since they have been incorporated into China at least three times, many Kyrgyz people have long believed that they are of the same origin and lineage as the Chinese. They even claimed to be descendants of Li Ling, a famous general of the Han Dynasty.
According to the records in Sima Qian's "Historical Records", Li Ling was the grandson of the flying general Li Guang, and was also a famous general who fought against the Xiongnu during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. It was only in one battle that he was captured by the Huns. He swallowed his anger and planned to find an opportunity to turn back. As a result, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty wiped out Li Ling's entire family left in the Han Dynasty without investigating the situation.
Li Ling, who was desperate, simply took refuge in the Huns. The Xiongnu were seriously lacking talents at that time, and Li Ling not only came from the Han Dynasty, which had a higher degree of civilization, but also after being a famous general, he was also a Ming general, so he naturally won the appreciation of the Xiongnu king. Since then, Li Ling has taken root in the Xiongnu and obtained a fief. According to the Kyrgyz, Li Ling's fief was with them.
Therefore, the relationship between Kyrgyzstan and China is very good, and intermarriage between the two countries is almost commonplace, after all, Kyrgyzstan has a very high proportion of handsome men and beautiful women.