A Royal Concubine of Kucha: 古龟兹国王妃
Art by 陸曼陀 Danling★Lu
Music:《Qizil Gülüm》"My Safflower"
A royal concubine of Kucha. Reconstructed from remains excavated from the base of the great mound of the Zhaosuli Temple 昭怙厘大寺. The lady wears an elaborate silk kaftan of Central Asian design. On her head sits a diadem that's connected to a turban of translucent gauze. A disk fan shaped cockade with 2 fan shaped wings surmounts the front of her diadem. Kucha was a Buddhist kingdom and a key hub of trade in the northern lap of the Tarim Basin.
FEUDING OASIS KINGDOMS
Located in the northern section of the Tarim Basin, Kucha had long existed in the region as one of the Tarim Basin's oasis kingdoms. There were two native groups of settlers in the Tarim Basin before the coming of the great empires and it should be noted, both were Caucasian and possessed colorful hair and multi- colored eyes. The earliest documented inhabitants of the Tarim Barin were likely the Tocharians who perhaps are the easternmost group of the warlike Indo-European. Discoveries of Tarim mummies have led scientists to suggest that people may have inhibited the region since at least 1800 BCE.
Most of the Tarim kingdoms were very small- essentially only consisting of a large walled city- state and the surrounding greeneries, and were (appropriately) proportionate to the size of their oasis. They spoke an ancient Indo- European language and were ancient descendants of Sakka- speaking Iranians. The greatest of these oasis kingdoms were able to extend their influence to one or more other walled cities such as the kingdom of Kroran (Loulan) in the east and Kucha (Qiuci), and later Karakhoja (Gaochang) in the north. Comparatively, other kingdoms, such as Khotan, Shule (Kashgar) and Turfan were relatively small.
CROSSFIRE- THE COMING OF THE GREAT EMPIRES
Over the long centuries the various Tarim kingdoms contended with each other for relative hegemony in the region. However, by the 2nd century BC. their political landscape took on an international dimension. In the 2nd Century BC- under the vigorous leadership of the Xiongnu Chanyu (Khan) Modu: alternatively styled as Metehan in later Turkic, the Xiongnu swiftly spilled out of their heartland in modern Mongolia and conquered their nemesis the Yuezhi (an Indo European- led horde) in the west and subjugated the various Tarim Cities under Xiongnu vassalage. However, in the next century, in the titanic Xiongnu- Han wars, the Xiongu were permanently driven out of the Tarim Basin and the Tarim cities became Han vassals.
Tang architecture- in the Tang dynasty, many Tarim cities had adopted many key characteristic of Chinese architecture. As far as back as the Han dynasty many of the local kings had constructed square shaped palaces with sloping roofs, by the Tang great cities such as Gaochang aggressively adopted much of the Tang Chinese aesthetics.
HAN, NORTHERN WEI, & TANG DYNASTY TARIM BASIN
In the Han dynasty's wake the region became a prosperous militarized frontier of the empire called the "Protectorate of the Western Regions." The many oasis Kings and mayors of the city-states would retain their status as local rulers, but also act as Han governors and frontier adjuncts for the Han military. Many would construct great square courtyard palaces with sloped hip and gable roof in imitation of the Han style. With the establishment of the Silk Road, the Tarim Basin became the Eastern lap of the trade route and a nexus of trade between China Proper and the rest of Central Asia.
The Book of the Later Han, covering 6 to 189 AD, says: The largest of the Tarim cities were Kucha with 81,000 inhabitants and Agni (Yanqi or Karashar) with 32,000. Also, according to Chapter 96 of the Book of Han, covering the period from 125 BC to 23 AD, Khotan had 3,300 households, 19,300 individuals and 2,400 people able to bear arms.
Following the collapse of the Han dynasty, direct control between China Proper and the Tarim Basin became more intermittent, several Northern Chinese dynasties were able to hold on to the region or relieved the pledges of some of the oasis kingdoms. Without the external oversight of a great power like that of the Northern Wei, many of the oasis kingdoms returned to internal jockeying among themselves. During this time, Buddhism became entrenched in much of the Tarim Kingdoms and the Oasis became a sanctuary of Buddhism.
Then- almost mirroring that of the Xiongnu- Han wars, history repeated itself in the region. In the mid 6th century, a powerful tribe named the Gokturks conquered much of the steppe lands of Central Asia plus the Tarim Basin, and on their heels, came a long war with the Chinese in the east. In the early Tang dynasty, the Tang- under the vigorous leadership of Emperor Taizong decisively drove the Gokturks off the Tarim Basin and established another period of Chinese suzerainty.
TANG DYNASTY KUCHA
After the Tang received the pledges of the various Tarim kingdoms as vassals, the Tang- like the Han before again turned the region into a garrisoned military frontier- albeit a prosperous one. The key areas around the Tarim Basin became Tang's Anxi Protectorate: Extensive trade along the Silk Road was reestablished, briefly linking up with the twilight days of the Sassanid Empire and then the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate that followed it. During this time- goods from China again reached as far to the West as the capital of the 2nd Rome: Constantinople.
In (643 AD) the King of Fulin Bo duoli (波多力; i.e. Kōnstantinos Pogonatos Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ Πωγωνάτος, "Constantine the Bearded", the nickname of Constans II). sent an embassy offering red glass, green gold gems, and other articles. The Taizong Emperor favored them with a message under his imperial seal, and graciously granted them presents of silk.
Constans II: Bo duoli (波多力; the name derived from the Emperor's fabled magnificent beard Kōnstantinos Pogonatos Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ Πωγωνάτος, "Constantine the Bearded."
Melting Pot of Cultures: The inhabitants included the native Tocharians, Han soldiers, merchants, and nobles, and many traders from the west, including Persians, Sogdians, Arabs, Turkic peoples, and Indians. During Tang's garrison of the region it fought several wars with the Umayyad Caliphate and the Tibetan Empire.
Music: The City's Secret
KUCHA 龟兹 CONTEXTUALIZED
Located in the northern portion of the Tarim Basin, the great city of Kucha was flanked by the tall shielding walls of the Tian Shan Mountain Range, Because of the extremely arid condition of the basin, the windward side walls of the Tian Shan mountains acted as a vital rain catcher which seasonally trapped the sparse rainclouds that sailed passed the region and broke them on the surface of the mountain side. The resulting rainfall would form small rivers which coalesced into the oasis that gave rise to what would become Kucha. The settlers of this oasis eventually developed agriculture using water conservation and irrigation and built great walls that surrounded their settlement.
Kucha and the surrounding cities marked in a Chinese map. Note its strategic location being both flanked by the impenetrable Tian Shan Mountain- see satellite photo of the mountain range and close proximity to the vital Muzat River and nearby tributaries and lakes, it practically dominated the windward side of the mountain in a west- east axis. The climate and geography of the kingdom varied widely, from frozen alpine steppe lands near the Tian Shan Mountains to fertile oasis (concept art) around the great city, and finally to the blistering sea of sand only slightly south into the lifeless Taklamakan Desert. All along the face of the eternal mountain walls are dotted with some 230 grottos and shrines for devout Buddhists.
Kucha became very powerful and rich in the last quarter of the 4th century CE, threatening to take over most of the trade along the Silk Road, at the expense of the Souhtern Silk Road, along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin. According to the "Book of Jin," Kucha was highly fortified, had a splendid royal palace, and many Buddhist stupas and temples:
Buddhist statue from Gandhara- modern Pakistan. Buddhism flourished in the region and eventually made its way northward into the Tarim Basin via the Kushan Empire. Along with Buddhism came a very distinctive Buddhist aesthetic that was imparted to the Kuchan elite.
In time, Kucha dominated the politics of the northern section of the Tarim Basin. During the Han dynasty it was a nexus of Han administration. In the ensuing centuries, Kucha became a place of pilgrimage for devout Buddhists, many monks and Buddhist followers dug many cave shrines along the side of the mountains facing Kucha and converted them into grottoes and shrines with many ornately painted Buddhist Murals.
ROYAL CONCUBINE- BROUGHT TO LIFE
"The soil is suitable for rice and grain...it produces grapes, pomegranates and numerous species of plums, pears, peaches, and almonds...The ground is rich in minerals-gold, copper, iron, and lead and tin. The air is soft, and the manners of the people honest. The style of writing is Indian, with some differences. They excel other countries in their skill in playing on the lute and pipe. They clothe themselves with ornamental garments of silk and embroidery.... There are about one hundred convents in this country, with five thousand and more disciples."
~Xuanzang, Chinese monk and pilgrim to the west (Kucha in the 630s.) Incidentally, Xuanzang is the archetypical character of Tripitaka in the famous "Journey to the West."
The Tang initially placed great investment in the city- state and made it the seat of Tang's staging point in the east, however, the Tang garrison was driven out by a rebellion where by the Tang military governor was assassinate with the help of the Western Gokturk Khaganate. When the Tang dynasty finally defeated the Western Gokturk Khaganate in 658, the protectorate headquarter was moved back to Kucha.
During the Tang dynasty, Kucha was part of Tang's "Four Garrisons of Anxi" and was part of Tang's western frontiers. It was a key stop along the Silk Road and hosted thousands of merchants and pilgrims along the road.
The full establishment of the Four Garrisons, and with them a formal Tang military protectorate over the Tarim Basin, is dated to 658 after Ashina Helu's defeat. Kucha would remain as part of the dynasty for the next century into the High Tang period (713－766.) During this century, the Tang and its rival the Tibetan Empire would war many times in the west and often fought each other using Turkic auxiliaries. Umayyad Caliphate even at times tried to wrestle the Tarim Basin away from the Tang through puppets with no avail. However, with the disastrous An Lushan Rebellion in the middle of the 700s, the Tibetan Empire launched a full out offensive into the Tarim Basin and with them came more than a century of bitter wars.
Remains of an adult female excavated from the base of the great mound of the Zhaosuli Temple 昭怙厘大寺. The woman is about 20 years old, with a flat forehead and a height of 175 cm. There are patterns on the coffin, and the clothing materials are very elegant. Judging from the specifications of the woman's funerary goods, her status is not low.
CENTURY OF BLOODY WAR: FALL AND RESTORATION OF TANG KUCHA
Music: Broken Paradise
Due to the vital strategic importance to Tang in the West, the Tibetan Empire attacked the vulnerable Hexi Corridor between Tang Proper and the Western regions. Pinching the only entrance into the Tarim at the narrowest point of the ∞ shape linking Tang with the Garrison. Tibetan gains were so total that the Western regions essentially entered into a black out and had to fend off the Tibetan armies all by themselves. These wars were some of the bloodiest wars in the 8th century and resulted in appalling losses from both the Tibetans and the Tang. But the Tibetan Empire could afford these losses while the Tang entered into a period of (mostly) protracted decline. As the Tang tottered, the Tibetan Empire ascended to its greatest height, expanding in all directions until they controlled what is modern Nepal, Manipur, section of the Hexi Corridor, and whole sections of the Tarim Basin.
The Tarim Basin because one of the bloodiest arenas between the Tang and the Tibetan Empire, the 2 sides fought dozens of wars with hundreds of thousands of men and the territorial lines shifted widely between the two powers. At times, the Tang was able to wrestle some part of the old Tang lands from the Tibetans but the gains were usually temporary. For the majority of the time, the locals had to fend for themselves against tides of Tibetan forces.
For this reason, the Tang forged alliances with the more friendly Uighur Khaganate and the Abbasid Caliphate to take on the Tibetan Empire together. By marrying Uighur Princesses the Tang Emperors were able to enlist them in the wars in the West. Despite these efforts, the Tang fully lost Kucha and the rest of the Tarim Basin in 790.
However, fortunes returned to the Tang in the middle of the 9th century. After the An Lushan Rebellion, the Hexi Corridor was conquered by the Tibetan Empire. Around the 770s or the 780s, Shazhou Prefecture in Hexi, 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 be plunged into anarchy and high warlordom in the ensuing centuries in what would be known as the Tibetan Era of Fragmentation. Coincidentally, around this time the Uighur Khaganate was also destroyed, leaving the Tang the only strong power in the region. 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.
RETURN TO TANG: A LOYALIST'S REBELLION
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.
Interestingly to note, many of the leading families who maneuvered this Tang restoration were ethnically Sinicized Sogdians who lived in the region. Along with help from the Tarim Kingdom of Khotan who stayed loyal to the distant Tang to counter regional rivals.
The Tang 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." Much of the Tarim Basin- at leat in the east thus came under the personal control of the Zhao family and the Guiyi Jiedushi's army.
During this time Kucha again returned to the Tang dynasty despite nearly 60 years of parting. 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. They would control the region for 40 years until Tang authority completely disintegrated and the empire balkanized into a patchwork of warlords. During this time, massed immigration of Uighur tribesmen took place into the Tarim Basin.
THE WAGE OF TIME- THE END OF KUCHA
Music:《Qizil Gülüm》"My Safflower," Traditional Uighur Song.
The Guiyi Circuit was splintered when in 890s they lost the Tarim holdings due to wars with the Uighur rump state of Kingdom of Quocho (Gaochang) near the location of Kucha. After the complete fall of the Tang dynasty in 907 whereby most of the Tang lands fell into hands of provincial military warlords, the Guiyi Circuit became a Tang rump state. To survive, it eventually adopted a series of diplomatic alliances by marrying with Uighur Princesses.
High intensity warfare would not visit the region again until the Guiyi Circuit was devoured by the Western Xia Empire, and much of the norther western Tarim Basin was conquered by the Kara-Khanid Khaganate. Although the Kara-Khanids, like a good portion of the Turkic Uighur states of the Tarim were also Turkics themselves, they were also devout and fanatical adherents to Islam. There would be several violent Jihads declared in the Tarim Basin whereby much of the traditional Tarim and Uighur Buddhist adherents (the predominately dominant Uighur Buddhists were called Tats) were slaughtered and usurped with mass conversion to Sunni Islam.
In the ensuing centuries, the native Kuchan language and Buddhist culture submerged beneath that of Uighur Turkic culture. In the ensuing centuries, the walled city of Kucha was abandoned, its fields dried up and the cave shrines relegated to the sands of time.
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