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Hexi Corridor
Historical region in Gansu Province, China From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Hexi Corridor (/həˈʃiː/ hə-SHEE),[a] also known as the Gansu Corridor, is an important historical region located in the modern western Gansu province of China. It refers to a narrow stretch of traversable and relatively arable plain west of the Yellow River's Ordos Loop (hence the name Hexi, meaning 'west of the river'), flanked between the much more elevated and inhospitable terrains of the Mongolian and Tibetan Plateaus.
As part of the Northern Silk Road, running northwest from the western section of the Ordos Loop between Yinchuan and Lanzhou, the Hexi Corridor was the most important trade route in Northwest China. It linked China proper to the historic Western Regions for traders and military incursions into Central Asia. It is a string of oases along the northern edges of the Qilian Mountains and Altyn-Tagh, with the high and desolate Tibetan Plateau further to the south. To the north are the Longshou, Heli and Mazong Mountains separating it from the arid Badain Jaran Desert, Gobi Desert and the cold steppes of the Mongolian Plateau. At the western end, the route splits into three, going either north of the Tianshan Mountains or south on either side of the Tarim Basin. At the eastern end, the mountains around Lanzhou grants access to the Longxi Basin, which leads east through Mount Long along the Wei River valley into the populous Guanzhong Plain, and then into the Central Plain.
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Geography
Location
The Hexi Corridor is located in western Gansu province, bordered to the south by the Qilian Mountains and to the north by the Gobi Desert. It extends for approximately 1,000–1,200 kilometres (620–750 mi) from Wushao Mountain in the south to Dunhuang in the north,[1][2] and covers around 276,000 square kilometres (107,000 sq mi).[3]
There are several major cities along the Hexi Corridor. From west to east, the major cities are: Dunhuang, Yumen, Jiayuguan, Jiuquan, Zhangye, Jinchang, Wuwei, and finally Lanzhou in the southeast.[4][5] Just south of the provincial boundary of Gansu lies Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, which served as the chief commercial hub of the Hexi Corridor along the Northern Silk Road.[6]
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History
Summarize
Perspective
Prehistory
The Hexi Corridor has been the site of cultural exchanges across Eurasia since prehistory.[7] It was first settled around 4800 BP in Neolithic times by millet farmers from the Yangshao Culture in the western Loess Plateau,[8][9][10] who enabled the spread of millet to Central Asia and the rest of Eurasia and Africa.[11] These farmers also used pottery production techniques from Northern China.[9] Several cultures developed in the Hexi corridor during this time, such as the Majiayao, Banshan, and Machang.[12]
The oldest bronze object to be discovered in China, dating to 5000–4500 BP, was found at the Majiayao site.[13] However, none of the Neolithic cultures in the Hexi Corridor at this time possessed the technology to smelt bronze, and only two sites had any bronze at all.[14] The Bronze Age only began in the Hexi Corridor around 4200 BP with the arrival of smelting technology from Central Asia,[15][16] and the production of bronze reached its peak around 4000–3500 BP.[17] Domesticated livestock were also introduced to the area around this time,[18] so cultures at this time typically farmed millet and wheat, while keeping livestock such as sheep, pigs, cattle and horses.[19][20] Bronze age societies in the Hexi Corridor at this time include the Shajing, Qijia, Xichengyi, Siba, and Shanma cultures.[21]
Wheat and barley from the Fertile Crescent arrived in the Hexi Corridor via Central Asia around 4000 BP,[22][23][24] and later spread into China proper.[25] By around 3700–3500 BP, most likely due to the continual weakening and retreat of the East Asian monsoon since 4000 BP which had caused increasing aridity,[26][27] the more drought-resistant wheat and barley had replaced millet as the main staple crop in the Hexi Corridor.[23][28] Cultures after this time period (such as the Shajing culture) saw a decrease in site numbers and bronze artifacts,[17][29][30] and became dominated by nomadic production rather than agriculture.[31][32]
Han dynasty
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Principalities and commanderies
Four Commanderies of Hexi
Protectorate of the Western Regions
Four Commanderies of Hexi
Protectorate of the Western Regions
The nomadic Yuezhi resided in the Hexi Corridor in the 3rd century BCE.[33] The Great Wall of China was constructed into parts of the Hexi Corridor following the Qin-Xiongnu Wars,[34] and the defeated Xiongnu formed a confederacy under leader Modu Chanyu.[35][36] In 176 BCE, the Xiongnu defeated the Yuezhi, most of whom fled from the region while the remaining population moved south into the Qilian (Nanshan) Mountains to live with the Qiang.[37][38] The Xiongnu were subsequently in complete control of the Hexi Corridor.[39][40]
During the Han-Xiongnu Wars, Han dynasty general Huo Qubing expelled the Xiongnu from the Hexi Corridor at the Battle of Hexi (121 BCE).[41][42] The province of Liangzhou was created with its capital at Guzang (modern Wuwei City), within which the commanderies of Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang (the Four Commanderies of Hexi) were established.[43][44][45] This gave the Han dynasty control over major trade routes and began the first classical era of the Silk Road,[46][47] which the Hexi Corridor played a significant role in.[48][49] Agricultural garrison towns were established in the Hexi Corridor to secure the route and the Great Wall was extended to Yumen Pass 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Dunhuang.[50][51][52] Additionally, the Han dynasty's acquisition of the Hexi Corridor allowed them to conquer the Tarim Basin and establish the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BCE,[53][54] and proved instrumental in defeating the Xiongnu as it prevented contact between them and the Qiang.[55][56]
Following the collapse of the interregnum Xin dynasty in 23 CE, the Hexi Corridor was settled by large numbers of Qiang people and came under the control of warlord Dou Rong, who submitted to the reinstated Eastern Han dynasty in 29 CE.[57][58][59] In the 2nd century CE, millions of Han settlers withdrew from the Hexi Corridor as the Qiang began to raid the region.[60][61][62] In 184, the Yuezhi, Xiongnu, and Qiang began the Liangzhou Rebellion, which largely isolated the Hexi Corridor from central control and contributed to the fall of the Han dynasty.[63][64][65] By the end of the Han dynasty, the Hexi Corridor was occupied by warlords Han Sui, Ma Teng and Ma Chao.[66][67] In 214, warlord Cao Cao conquered the region, which was absorbed into the state of Cao Wei in 220.[68]
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty fought the Tibetan Empire for control of areas in Inner and Central Asia. There was a long string of conflicts with Tibet over territories in the Tarim Basin between 670 and 692.
In 763 the Tibetans even captured the Tang capital of Chang'an for fifteen days during the An Lushan Rebellion. It was during this rebellion that the Tang withdrew its western garrisons stationed in what is now Gansu and Qinghai, which the Tibetans then occupied along with the area that is modern Xinjiang. Hostilities between the Tang and Tibet continued until they signed a formal peace treaty in 821. The terms of this treaty, including fixed borders between the two countries, are recorded in a bilingual inscription on a stone pillar outside the Jokhang in Lhasa.
Western Xia dynasty
The Western Xia dynasty was established in the 11th century by the Tangut people. Western Xia controlled from 1038 CE up to 1227 CE the areas in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of Gansu, Shaanxi, and Ningxia.
Yuan dynasty
Genghis Khan began the conquest of the Jin dynasty around 1207 and Ögedei Khan continued it after his death in 1227. The Jurchen-led Jin dynasty fell in 1234 CE with help from the Han-ruled Southern Song dynasty.
Ögedei also conquered the Western Xia dynasty in 1227, pacifying the Hexi Corridor region, which was later absorbed into the Yuan dynasty.
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Geography and climate
Summarize
Perspective
The Hexi Corridor is a long, narrow passage stretching for some 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from the steep Wushaolin hillside near the modern city of Lanzhou to the Jade Gate[69] at the border of Gansu and Xinjiang. There are many fertile oases along the path, watered by rivers flowing from the Qilian Mountains, such as the Shiyang, Jinchuan, Ejin (Heihe), and Shule Rivers.
A strikingly inhospitable environment surrounds this chain of oases: the snow-capped Qilian Mountains (the so-called "southern mountains" or "Nanshan") to the south; the Beishan ("northern mountains") mountainous area, the Alashan Plateau, and the vast expanse of the Gobi desert to the north.
Geologically, the Hexi Corridor belongs to a Cenozoic foreland basin system on the northeast margin of the Tibetan Plateau.[70]
The ancient trackway formerly passed through Haidong, Xining and the environs of Juyan Lake, serving an effective area of about 215,000 km2 (83,000 sq mi). It was an area where mountain and desert limited caravan traffic to a narrow trackway, where relatively small fortifications could control passing traffic.[71]
There are several major cities along the Hexi Corridor. In western Gansu Province is Dunhuang (Shazhou), then Yumen, then Jiayuguan, then Jiuquan (Suzhou), then Zhangye (Ganzhou) in the center, then Jinchang, then Wuwei (Liangzhou) and finally Lanzhou in the southeast. In the past, Dunhuang was part of the area known as the Western Regions. South of Gansu Province, in the middle just over the provincial boundary, lies the city of Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province. Xining used to be the chief commercial hub of the Hexi Corridor.
The Jiayuguan fort guards the western entrance to China. It is located in Jiayuguan pass at the narrowest point of the Hexi Corridor, some 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of the city of Jiayuguan. The Jiayuguan fort is the first fortification of Great Wall of China in the west.
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See also
References
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