The Guiyi Circuit (Dunhuang) 1: A "Return to Righteousness" 归义军

Shazhou (Sha Prefecture,) or modern Dunhuang. It was an important convergence of all trade and pilgrimage traffic along the long neck of the Hexi Corridor. Because of strategic location Dunhuang was frequently intermittently used as a toll station, caravansary, pilgrimage center, and military garrison. The pagoda-like design of the Mogao Caves not only provided for an imposing facade for the grottoes but was also designed so as to survive the wind blast and earthquakes endemic to the region.

We are familiar with the story of Rome's loss of the British Isles, we are familiar of the Ming loyalist warlord Koxinga's conquest of Taiwan to make it into his new home in defiance against the Manchus conqueror of Ming China. However very few looking through the annals of Chinese history probably have paid much attention to a small state- that was only the size of several counties called Guiyi Circuit. The creation and how the "state" of the Guiyi Circuit came to be will be enduringly be one of the strangest occurrences in all of Chinese history- perhaps comparable only to Koxinga's establishment of his kingdom in Taiwan. 


Imagine being in charge of a dying empire after it has terminally suffered a series of crushing defeats. War spills unchecked on the frontiers while simultaneously you also have to endure nightmarish level of internal disturbances in the heartlands of the realm. You would be forced to pull your soldiers out from the empire's frontiers so they could redress the chaos at the heartlands. An entire frontier was thus abandoned to the onslaught of invaders. In this case the Tang empire of the 8th century- pulling out against the onslaught of the Tibetan Empire hammering Tang forces across every pocket of the western marches. 

TANG RECEDES, TIBETAN EMPIRE TRIUMPHANT

Padmasambhava Statue from the Johkan Temple, first built in the 7th century. Under strong Tibetan Emperors (Chosgyal) such as Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen, and Ralpacan, Tibet became a supreme regional power by the advent of 7-9th century. Just like the Gokturks from the earlier part of Tang history, the Tibetan Empire would become one of the mortal nemesis of the Tang Empire during the latter part of its existence. 

As Tang China faltered in the middle of the 8th century, Tibet ramped up its efforts dislodge the Tang holds in the western regions by throttling the thin Gansu Corridor, in total, hundreds of battles were fought between a weakened Tang and the Tibetan Empire.



Tibetan cavalry with riders covered from head to toe in armor dominated the western wars. Hundreds of bloody battles were fought and with each battle, the already weakened strength of the Tang was further chipped away in attrition. The west was lost- in both control and the collective attention of almost everyone in the dying empire. 

Tibetan cavalry with veiled face armor

Besieged, Tibetan infantrymen ascending siege ladders while they are greeted by an alarmed Tang nobleman with sword drawn, a militia attempting to aim his recurved bow and a Tang lady armed with a cocked crossbow. In the aftermath of the disastrous An Lushan rebellion, the western territories of Tang was repeatedly attacked by the resurgent Tibetan Empire. These attacks would overwhelm Tang defenses in the region and completely separate the local Tang settlements from the Tang heartlands. The west was lost.


THE RETURNED PROVINCE

And then- in the ensuing 60 decades, after generations have been born and died, after the lost frontier was but a memory, when it was something as emotionally distant as notations on a history book. Then, one day you- as the head of the weakened Tang empire receive a message that came from the west, more than merely a strange blip on the radar, but in perfect speech of your own people, proclaiming that "the west has been won back." And the west, previously thought to be lost forewver has returned to your fold. This is the story of the 归义军 Guiyi Army: the "Return to Righteousness Army" and their "Return to Righteousness" province. 


This Guiyi Army and their circuit would become a critical fixture to the Tang realm in the last days of the dynasty. In the late 700s. The Hexi Corridor was an important part of the Silk Road, connecting the trade influx of Central Asia with northwest China. After the An Lushan Rebellion, the Hexi Corridor was conquered by the Tibetan Empire. Around the 770s or the 780s, Shazhou Prefecture, otherwise known as Dunhuang, was occupied by the Tibetans. 60 full years would pass until suddenly, the last Tibetan Emperor was assassinated by a Buddhist fanatic, the Tibetan Empire would descend into anarchy and high warlordom in the ensuing centuries in what would be known as the Tibetan Era of Fragmentation



THE LOYALIST UPRISING

 

Late Tang celestial deities depiced wearing heavy Mingguang armor. These silk paintings represented the typical general's gears from the middle of the 9th century. 

Valley of monuments and fortresses: ^Majishan Grottoes shown above in the modern Gansu Province. Surrounded on two side by massive mountains, traffic in the Hexi Corridor could only travel along a single nw to se axis. Because of this, the Tang and the Tibetans both constructed many forts and site of pilgrimage along the path of what would become the Guiyi Circuit. On the western most corner of the new state sat the great Yumen (Jade Gate) Fortress, which had served as the tail end of the Han Great Walls. All along the Corridor were dotted with giant painted monuments along the cliff sides. 


PHANTOM LIMB


What would happen next sounded something straight out of Red Dawn or a Metal Gear Solid game that featured Big Boss. In 848 Zhang Yichao, a resident of Shazhou Prefecture, secretly planned a rebellion with the other Han Chinese, Uighur, Tuyuhun and Qiang (a Tibetan subgroup) residents of Sha Prefecture to return Sha Prefecture to Tang allegiance.


One day, he led armed soldiers and approached the city gates, and the Han all rose in response. The Tibetan garrisons abandoned the city and fled. After that he took the whole of Shazhou (Sha Prefecture) and the nearby Guazhou (Gua prefectures) from the Tibetans.


Two years later, by 850 Zhang captured Ganzhou, Suzhou, and Yizhou prefectures until most of the Tibetan remnants are ejected from the region. After they have conquered the 10 nearby prefectures, they prepared maps of the 11 prefectures and his brother Zhang Yize (张义泽) submitted them to Xuānzong at Chang'an to prove their allegiance to the Tang dynasty.

A "RETURN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS" 归义


It was at this moment in 851 that envoys from Shazhou prefecture reached the Tang court and the emperor enthusiastically responded by naming the 11 prefectures the Guiyi "Return to Righteousness" Circuit (designation for a Tang regional govenment) with its capital at Sha prefecture and made Zhang Yichao the Guiyi Jiedushi (归义节度使, or Military- Governor of the Guiyi Circuit) and Cao Yijin his secretary general of the new 归义军 "Return to Righteousness Army." After 60 years of separation, the west was restored by unexpected loyalists who putted it all back in order without the Tang ruler's design nor expectations. A phantom limb and a lost flock had returned from the pale.


For his astounding contributions, Zhang was swiftly ennobled and allowed to retain his gains in the west. Xuānzong thus made him Official Guard (防御使, Fangyushi) of Sha Prefecture. Though technically part of the empire's bureaucracy, Zhang- like many of the other autonomous military governors of the late Tang empire virtually ruled his Circuit and his flock as his own private kingdom. Their mission- retain this vital western region at all costs against anyone who would wrestle it away from the empire again.


THE MELTING POT OF CULTURES: GUIYI CIRCUIT

Above: Painted Buddha statues from Dunhuang. Like much of the late Tang army, funding and equipment was generally hard to come by, the Guiyi Army possessed a powerful vanguard of heavy cavalry and made use of whatever support they received from the imperial court while they did their best to supplement their forces. Their society was not only multi-ethnic but multi-religious as well. Final: the Guiyi Circuit at its greatest extent, laying hold of the entire Hexi Corridor and extending well into the Tarim Basin. 

Grotto ceiling paintings depicting the 4 Heavenly Kings, Dunhuang 
notice the flaming red beard


Zhang and his secretary Cao would go on to rule a multi-ethnic and inter-religious kingdom of Han, Sogdians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs. Culturally, Dunhuang and by extension the entire circuit was a multicultural melting pots that contained one of the largest ethnic Sogdian communities in China following the An Lushan Rebellion. The Sogdians were Sinified to some extent and were bilingual in Chinese and Sogdian.


Linguistically the circuit was also pluralistic, as evidenced by an abundance of manuscripts (religious and secular) in Chinese and Tibetan, but also Sogdian, Khotanese (from the nearby oasis kingdom of Khotan, another Eastern Iranian language native to the region), Uyghur, and Sanskrit.


From the Chinese surnames listed in the Tang-era Dunhuang manuscript Pelliot chinois 3319V, the names of the Nine Zhaowu Clans (昭武九姓), the prominent ethnic Sogdian families of China, have been deduced. Of these the most common Sogdian surname throughout China was Shi (i.e. 石), whereas the surnames Shi (i.e. 史), An, Mi (i.e. 米), Kang, Cao (the Cao family of the Guiyi Circuit were Sinisized Sogdians), and He appear frequently in Dunhuang manuscripts and registers. Their documents in Chinese characters were written horizontally from left to right, the same way the Sogdian alphabet is read, instead of vertical line (or right to left if horizontal) that Chinese was normally written at the time.



THE RETURN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS ARMY

Section of a wall mural commemorating the victory of Zhang Yichao- the founder of the Guiyi Circuit over the Tibetan Empire, Mogao Cave 156, Late Tang Dynasty (9th century).


In 851 Zhang captured the nearby Xizhou Prefecture (Gaochang) in the Tarim Basin, making the Guiyi Circuit the most powerful force in not only the Hexi Corridor but also the Tarim Basin as well. For nearly 2 decades after his promotion, Zhang would lead his forces and repel many Tibetan attempts to wrestle back the strategically critical corridor.


Zhang proved himself as a deadly commander in these two decades of engagements and expanded rapidly, recovering much of the former areas that was part of the Tang empire. It was a series of resounding victories. By 861 the Guiyi Circuit had extended its authority to Guazhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Yizhou, Lanzhou, Shanzhou, Hezhou, Minzhou, Liangzhou, and Kuozhou prefectures.

After Zhang defeated the veteran Tibetan general Baönhrom Barhé in 866 and seized Luntai (modern Ürümqi) and Tingzhou the whole swath of eastern Tarim Basin was in Zhang's hands. However, with their success came new enemies. And the challenger they happened to find themselves dealing with was none other than a most desperate foe with no where else to run. 



→ ☯ [PLEASE SUPPORT ME @ PATREON] ☯ ←


Thank you to my Patrons who has contributed $10 and above: 
You helped make this happen!
➢ ☯ José Luis Fernández-Blanco
➢ ☯ Vincent Ho (FerrumFlos1st)
➢ ☯ BurenErdene Altankhuyag
➢ ☯ Stephen D Rynerson
➢ ☯ Michael Lam



Comments

Der said…
Wow! who knew that people of Sogdian descent considered themselves loyal T'ang vassals, indeed considered themselves Chinese?? adopting Han Chinese surnames? That's pretty crazy, or was it during the T'ang ... people of Indo-European descent, who didn't even look East Asian, considered themselves Han Chinese ??
Dragon's Armory said…
Well that's old news by this point, the 400 years before that had seen extensive exchange between China and Central Asia. Most of the polities around this time had extensive amount of Sogdian merchants, be they the Gokturks, Uighurs, Sui or the Tang.

In fact while Li Shimin was leading his uprising against the Sui one of his main enemies during the consolidation wars was a Sui general named Wang Shichong, I mean that's both his Chinese name and his birth name but he was a Sinified Persian of Persian descent. He was recorded to be extremely eloquent and superstitious and before battles often offered sacrifices to the ghost of Kings of Zhou. That's Pushkin level of integration if you ask me. While Tang ruled the Tarim Basin most of the local Indo- European Kings served as Tang governors and had Chinese names and at times when dealing with the Chinese wore Chinese dress etc. Those who served loyally were married into the Tang imperial family and was given the last name of Li.

http://www.heritagemuseum.gov.hk/en_US/web/hm/exhibitions/data/exid218/exhibit_25.html

So...yeah, even before the Tang. I've also covered when the last Sassanian court fled to Chang An and was married into the Li clan. An Lushan was half Sogdian and there were contemporary Chinese generals and soldiers who were half or full Sogdians as well.

Secretary Cao of the Circuit was a Sinified Sogdian as well and one day would lead the Circuit as a head of state.
Der said…
You make excellent points. But I wonder what the T'ang Chinese concept of 'race' was? Did they even have such a concept? and therefore the concept of 'racism'. I mean, surely the East Asiatic looking T'ang Chinese looked different from the caucasian looking Sogdians/Tocharians and Indian Buddhist monks? and this difference was noted and commented upon by the people of the Middle Kingdom ??
Dragon's Armory said…
Simply put?
The Chinese were pretty racist, they were supremacists but less racial but rather cultural. A better version is that they were more than anything realists. Despite their standoffish quality they never shied away from using foreigners within the regime, supporting loyal foreign regimes and maintaining a multi-ethnic society. A society of 1st citizens and 2nd citizens to be sure but it's an ancient one.

I say this because despite their self identified superiority they never shied away from integrating foreign people into the tribe, as the saying goes. They would raise their brows of course but since the Shang dynasty the DNA of the tomb remains are quite diverse and all over the place. One must remember that the mother culture of the earliest Chinese culture: The Yellow River Culture that birthed the Xia and Shang etc were smack dab in the center of an open plain and was thus endemically engaged with surrounding tribes. It only make sense that for the sake of survival and expansion that they are realists diplomatically and incorporate local strength to secure fronts and incorporate the best as pillars of the collective tribe. This was the way of even pre-historic times. Again, the nature of the Central Plains.

By the time of the Zhou to the Han (and imperial China in general) They generally looked down on surrounding small states and especially against the steppe invaders and regarded them as barbarians with no cities, written language and are but thieves and rapist. Insert Trump joke here who are only there to loot and then retreat beyond the boarders. The Chinese also regarded them (in their mind) as lacking of honor and loyalty etc.

Imagine that you are fighting some steppe group from the north, they finally make a treaty with you, gave their word, then a year later or the same year horseback riding folks came back to your boarder again from the north and raid your lands. You get angry and demand to know from the tribe you sign a treaty with, why they did it. They would point out that as nomadic people they raised their stakes and moved with their flocks and another new tribe is now in the north and attacking you. To the common people it would seem like you are dealing with looters without honor.

This would of course become more complicated after the Han and having China disintegrate into a series of statelets. You will be familiar with the fact that after Han collapsed northern China became to a whole host of "barbarian" rulers across the board. But here is where the so called "Chinese identity" or race or whatever become complicated. These were barbarian lords who had by now adopted Chinese customs, even changed their names to become Chinese, adopted trappings and offices of Chinese style of government, and for the most part learned and even excelled at the Chinese language (N Wei was a high cultural watermark of "Chinese culture"- of poetry, governing bureaucracies, despite being staffed with "barbarians") see the complications in defining things with a broad-strokes of in group and out group? Even more ironically they became noted defenders of Northern China against tides of invading steppe barbarians. Remember that ballad of Mulan was composed during the time extolling the virtue of defending against barbarians. It's like when the Anglo Saxons became the Christian champions under Wessex against the Vikings.

By the time of the Tang northern Chinese culture (Sui, Tang culture) was very mixed, since both dynasties were noted in being from the cream of the Northern Zhou military elites who then went on to found their own dynasties. Although the imperial clan would be patrilinially Han, from their mother's side they were quite mixed. Sui and N Zhou were deeply wedded and intermarried with the Gokturks and the Xianbei of Northern China, Li clan of Tang- was married with many Xianbei princesses.

kol said…
https://www.facebook.com/pg/cathayarmory/photos/?ref=page_internal
kol said…
It's a Facebook Page for a group who makes replica Chinese armor
Dragon's Armory said…
Oh I'm in it, Ceasar and I are already friends.
Muramasa said…
Nice post once again!!!! You could say also the lost of the Western Provinces was the lost at the Battle of Talas against the Abbasid Caliphate. After that Paper was brought to the West and Islam spread significantly in Around Khotan, and other parts of the Tarim Basin. Dragons Armory can you start mentioning where the sources of the the picture screens come from. Would love to watch what movies or Chinese dramas these pictures are from.
Yutyrannus said…
I know I’m 5 years late, but who is Baönhrom Barhé? Can you provide me his sources?