Borderland Administration
(This is an account of the migration and sinocization of the tribes
in the Western Region including the Israelite community from Ferghana
(Afghanistan today) to China in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE- 220 CE). I translated
this section from the book: Ma Dazheng, Chief Editor: A History of
China Administration Of Borderland from the series of A Complete History of
China Borders. China 2000).
Translated from Chinese by Tiberiu Weisz
How and why did the Israelites move to China? First they lived in
Ferghana peacefully for several generations, and they had little incentives to
move. Only when the conditions in Central Asia became more difficult and China
offered protection to the settlers, including the Israelites, that were
unprecedented in history, they had good incentives to move. China encouraged the various tribes to
move closer to the Chinese borders to serve as a buffer zone between China and
the barbarians. What was unprecedented was that the Chinese welcomed these
settlers and offered them equal status to a Chinese. But before they could
enjoy that status, there was a process of sinociztion that took place in the
borderland areas.
Borderland administration of the Western Regions was a major
accomplishment of successive Chinese emperors. The Western Region as the Chinese called it, stretched from
the Eastern edge of the Taklimakan Desert (Dunhuang today) to Fergana
(Afghanistan today) an area roughly 800 miles long. This region was famous for the Silk Route that connected the
Roman Empire with China, where trade flowed from the earliest times until the
decline of the land trade route in the second century CE.
The Chinese came in contact with the tribes in this region first
because of military skirmishes. During the early Qin (280-221 BCE) and Han
Dynasties (206BCE- 220 CE), the nomadic tribes descended upon the Chinese
settlers and challenged the empire. To the Chinese all non- Chinese nomads were
“barbarians” and the Chinese could hardly distinguish one barbarian from
another. Occasionally, the Chinese mentioned differences in their physical
appearances, customs and in rare cases differences in dialects. But overall, the Chinese were most
familiars with tribes that settled along the Silk Road that ended at Dunhuang
or as the Chinese called if Yumen- Jade gate. China rarely ventured beyond Dunhuang, except on punitive
campaigns. One of those campaigns was set in motion in 104 BCE when a
relatively minor Chinese Deputy Commander Li Guangli reached the outskirts of
Ferghana.
Li
Guangli established the local government of the Han Dynasty at Wulei, not far
from Kucha (the Biblical Kueh/Kve in I Kings 10:28) [1]
(Northern Afghanistan today) to `protect' the states in this area, which
numbered about 50 at the time. At about the same period the city of Gaochang
was built in the Turfan basin. This developed into the centre of the Huihe
kingdom; these peoples later became the Uygur minority who now make up a large
proportion of the local population. Many settlements were set up along the way,
mostly in the oasis areas, and profited from the passing trade. They also absorbed
a lot of the local customs, and adopted cultures from travelers that passed
along the route.
Very few
merchants traveled the full length of the [Silk] Road; most of them simply covered
part of the journey, selling their wares not far from their homes, and then
returned with the proceeds. Goods therefore tended to move slowly across Asia,
changing hands many times. Local people no doubt acted as guides for the
caravans over the most dangerous sections of the journey.
After the Western Han Dynasty, successive dynasties brought more
states under Chinese control. Settlements came and went, as they changed hands
or lost importance due to a change in the [trade] routes. The Chinese garrison
town of Loulan, for example, on the edge of the Lop Nor Lake, was important in
the third century A.D., but was abandoned when the Chinese lost control of the
route. Many settlements were buried in the sands of the Taklimakan Desert; they
were abandoned and could not be repopulated.
[1] For a
connection between Kucha and the Biblical Kue/Kve, see my article: Biblical
Influence in Chinese Literature, Asian Jewish Life # 11 (2012)
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