Hexi Corridor or
Gansu Corridor () refers to the historical route in
Gansu province of
China. As part of the
Northern Silk Road running northwest from the bank of the
Yellow River, it was the most important route from North China to the
Tarim Basin and
Central Asia for traders and the military. The corridor is basically a string of oases along the northern edge of the
Tibetan Plateau. To the south is the high and desolate Tibetan Plateau and to the north, the
Gobi Desert and the grasslands of
Outer Mongolia. At the west end the route splits in three, going either north of the
Tian Shan or south on either side of the Tarim Basin. At the east end are mountains around
Lanzhou before one reaches the
Wei River valley and
China proper.
History
As early as the first millennium
BC silk goods began appearing in
Siberia, having traveled over the Northern branch of the Silk Road, including the Hexi Corridor segment.
At the end of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE), the Yuezhi tribe overcame previous settlers, the Wusun and Qiang tribes, occupying the entire Hexi Corridor. Later, Northern Xiongnu tribal armies vanquished the Yuezhi and established dominance here during the early Han Dynasty.
Han Dynasty
In 121 BCE,
Han forces expelled the Xiongnu from Hexi Corridor and even
Lop Nur, when Xiongnu's King Hunye surrendered to
Huo Qubing in 121 BCE. The Han acquired a territory stretching from the Hexi Corridor to Lop Nur, thus cutting the Xiongnu off from their Qiang allies. Again, Han forces repelled a joint Xiongnu-Qiang invasion of this northwestern territory in 111 BCE. After 111 BCE, new outposts were established, four of them in the Hexi Corridor, namely
Jiuquan,
Zhangye,
Dunhuang, and Guzang (
Wuwei).
From roughly 115–60 BCE, Han forces fought the Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the
Tarim Basin. Han was eventually victorious and established the
Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BCE, which dealt with the region's defense and foreign affairs.
During the turbulent reign of Wang Mang, Han lost control over the Tarim Basin, which was conquered by the Xiongnu in 63 CE, and used as a base to invade the Hexi Corridor. Dou Gu defeated the Xiongnu again at the Battle of Yiwulu in 73 CE, evicting them from Turpan and chasing them as far as Lake Barkol before establishing a garrison at Hami.
After the new Protector General of the Western Regions Chen Mu was killed in 75 CE by allies of the Xiongnu in Karasahr and Kucha, the garrison at Hami was withdrawn. At the Battle of Ikh Bayan in 89 CE, Dou Xian defeated the Xiongnu shanyu who then retreated into the Altai Mountains.
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Empire fought with 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 670–692 CE.
In 763 the Tibetans even captured the capital of China, Chang'an, for fifteen days during the An Shi Rebellion. In fact, it was during this rebellion that the Tang withdrew its western garrisons stationed in what is now Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, which the Tibetans then occupied along with the territory of what is now Xinjiang. Hostilities between the Tang and Tibet continued until they signed a formal peace treaty in 821. The terms of this treaty—including the fixed borders between the two countries—are recorded in a bilingual inscription on a stone pillar outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa.
Xia Dynasty
The Western Xia Dynasty, known also as the Tangut Empire, was established in the 11th century by Tangut tribes. 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
The Mongol Empire's expansion to south , known as Mongol-Jin Dynasty War, was started around 1207 by Genghis Khan and continued after his death in 1227 CE by Ögedei Khan. The Jin Dynasty fell in 1234 CE, with help from Song Dynasty.
In addition to the Mongol-Jin War, Ögedei crushed the Eastern Xia Dynasty in 1233, pacifying southern Manchuria.
The Yuan Dynasty, or Great Yuan Empire, was both the continuation of the Mongol Empire and the Mongol founded historical state in Mongolia and China, lasting officially from 1271 CE to 1368 CE.
Geography and climate
The Hexi Corridor is a long, narrow passage stretching for some from the steep
Wushaolin hillside near the modern city of
Lanzhou to the
Jade Gate at the border of Gansu and
Xinjiang. There are many fertile oases along the path. A strikingly inhospitable environment surrounds them: the vast expanse of the
Gobi desert, the snow-capped
Qilian Mountains to the south, the
Beishan mountainous area, and the
Alashan Plateau to the north. Geologically, the Hexi Corridor belongs to a
Cenozoic foreland basin system on the northeast margin of the
Tibetan Plateau.
The ancient trackway formerly passed through Haidong, Xining and the environs of Juyan Lake, serving an effective area of about . It was an area where mountain and desert limited caravan traffic to a narrow trackway, where relatively small fortifications could control passing traffic.
There are several major cities along the Hexi Corridor. In western Gansu Province is Dunhuang, then Zhangye in the center, then Wuwei 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 was the chief commercial hub of the Hexi Corridor.
The Jiyaguyan fort guards the western entrance to China. It's located in Jiayuguan pass at the narrowest point of the Hexi Corridor, some southwest of the city of Jiayuguan. The Jiyaguyan fort is the first fortification of Great Wall of China in the west.
See also
Juyan Lake Basin
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
Notes
Reference
Yap, Joseph P. (2009). "Wars With The Xiongnu - A Translation From Zizhi tongjian" . AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4490-0605-1
Category:History of Gansu
Category:Sites along the Silk Road
Category:Geography of Gansu
