After Eastern Han Dynasty and starting from Wei, Jing and The Northern and Southern Dynasties, the traffic along the Western Regions declined due to internal disturbance and continuous war in China.

During the Period of Three Kingdoms, Kingdom Wei lay to the north, areas under its jurisdiction extended east to Liaodong Peninsula and west to Yumen.

The Kingdoms Guizi, Yutian, Kangju, Usun, Shule, Yueshi, Shanshan, and Cheshi were subject to Wei and every year would pay tribute to Wei. But not all kingdoms in the Western Regions were so. During the reign of Kang Wu of Jing Dynasty, only Kingdoms Kangju, Yanqi, Guizi, Dawan, and Daqin came to pay tribute. When five foreign tribes came to invade China, Jing Dynasty moved to the other side of Yangtze River. Dynasties Song, Qi, Liang and Chen all communicated with the west by sea.

The Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Eastern Wei, and Western Wei of the North Dynasty all exchanged messengers with the Western Regions, but there was no other improvement in their relations. In late North and South Dynasty. Tujue Nationality in the Western Regions became powerful and Tuyuhun nationality rose up in Qinghai, blocking the route to the west during the North and South Dynasty. Shui Dynasty unified China. During Emperor Wen’s reign, king of Tujue (Qiming) subjected his kingdom to Shui. Emperor Yang of Shui led army to make inspection tour to Yansi Mountain to the west, 27 Kingdoms in the Western Regions, such as Kaochang and Yinwu etc. voluntarily begged to surrender. Before that, Emperor Yang of Shui commanded his army and defeated Tuyuhun in Qinghai, making the Western Regions the only way for the dynasty to expand to foreign land. But in late Shui, the central plains were in disorder, and all warlords rose to compete for the throne. All kingdoms in the Western Regions, taking advantage of the chaos, paid tribute to Western Tujue. Li Yuan, the first emperor of Tang Dynasty established Tang Empire. During the reign of Zhenguan (Taizhong), the state was powerful and people were getting richer.
So, it is called a flourishing period of Tang Dynasty. In early Tang, the army of Western Tujue was well trained, ruthlessly dominating other kingdoms of the Western Regions. But since then, Tujue was broken into two parts and became weak. Thus, Tang Dynasty had good opportunity to expand to the Western Regions. Kingdoms Yingwu (Hami) and Shanshan took lead to subject them to Tang Dynasty. In 14th year of Zhenguan (639A.D.), kingdom Gaochang blocked the passway, Emperor Taizhong of Tang ordered General Xue Wanche and Hou Junji to command army and defeated Gaochang Army and captured its king. Xizhou district and Anxi district were set up in the land of what was originally kingdom Gaochang, stationing massive troops in the two districts. Hence Kingdom Gaochang was forever annihilated. Later Emperor Taizhong of Tang Dynasty sent western-conquering Army to conquer twenty odd obstinate states, such as Yanqi, Guizi, Sule, and Yutian etc.

All these annihilated states were put under the jurisdiction of Anxi district. In 658 AD Tang defeated the remnant part of Western Tujue. Since then, all kingdoms of the Western Regions that had been subject to western Tujue were all in Anxi district. In the period of Wuzhetian (Empress Wu), a North Court district was set up in Tingzhou, commanding the North Tianshan route and Anxi district was to command South Tianshan route from Quizi (now Kuche county). Hence most land east of Chonglin became territory of Tang Dynasty.

At the time, the kingdoms paying tribute to Tang Dynasty were Tohuolu (North of Afghan), Kashmir, Persia, Neparo (Nepal) and nine kingdoms all with surname Zhaowu. The nine kingdoms all with surname Zhaowu were located in Amudar’ya and Syrdar’ya valley. These valleys belonged originally to Russia and were in area south of Mid-Asia. Their lands extended as far as land near Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea. They were kingdoms Kang, An, Chao, Shi, Mi, He, Shi, Hoaxun and Sudi. The ancestors of these nine kingdoms stayed for centuries in city Zhaowu in Qilian Mountain, Gansu. When they became nine kingdoms, they still took Zhaowu as their surnames, so they are called nine kingdoms of Zhaowu in history. Later, Emperor Gaozhong grouped them together into a district (Fuzhou), and awarded the title of Dutu or Chishi (head of district) to the kings. Now, the fame and prestige of Tang Dynasty reached its climax.

Since then all the kingdoms not annihilated by Tang addressed the Emperor of Tang respectfully as Tian Kehan (his majesty).

By the reign of Xuanzong under the reign title of Kaiyuan, Chang’an, the capital of Tang, became the place where all major kings of other continents competed to pay tribute. At that time, Chang’an was extremely active and all kinds of people gathered there as if it was an exhibition of human races. But foreigners (not including people of the kingdoms that had already subject themselves to Tang) who came to Tang were subject to strict restrictions and requirements. All foreigners coming to Tang were required to wear dresses designated by Tang and were not allowed to go elsewhere without permission. People of Tang addressed people of other states as foreigners, merchants, foreign merchants and monks, foreign monks, and women, foreign women. From the above, we can see that China then was prosperous and peaceful. In a book on history of China, it is said, in the capital, a Dou (=1 deciliter) of rice costs 13 Qian, while in Qing district and Qi district it costs only 3 qian. There is no robber and thief in the state, no one suffers from hunger. One doesn’t need to take arms to defend himself even if he travels one thousand li. In the 12,000 li from Chang’an west to the border, buildings are adjacent to each other and mulberry and hemp are all over the countryside. But since Xuan Zhong changed his reign title from Kaiyuan to Tianbao, Tang began to wane after Li Linfu was nominated the premier. During and after the revolt of An and Shi, the whole state (and the central plain) were in complete disorder. Tang Dynasty no longer enjoyed any prestige. But under the reign of Tianbao, there was a western march led by Gao Xianzi. The first western march was held in the sixth year of Tianbao (747A.D.), Gao Xianzi, the head of Anxi District (A Korean, one of famous generals of Tang, the other famous generals being Feng Changqin and Gesuhan), led an army of 10,000 soldiers, starting from Sule, and, after long journey of hardships and danger, got over snow-capped mountains, crossed icy river and natural barriers and reached the source of Amudar’ya in Pamir Plateau. Then he commanded the army to go west; crossing the roof of the world and defeating allied army of Dashi (Aral) and Tufan and finally brought the Western Regions into subjugation. Stein, an English archaeologist, and geographer twice followed this route and after crossing Darkot glacier, which the Tang army had once crossed, highly praised the Tang generals. How could the large troop formation move across such Snow Mountain and glacier with the mean of communication used then? Even generals nowadays would not be able to overcome such a hardship. But in the ninth year of Tianbao, Gao Xianzi’s army was defeated by Dashi at Bishkek and Dashi’s army captured majority of Tang’s army. Papermaking, the most advanced technology of the time was thus introduced to the west. Soon after the battle, the communication in the western region was again under the control of various tribes of Tujue. After 154 years, Tang Dynasty eventually fell. Though Tang fell, but in the one and half century’s communications with the Western Region, Tang was able to introduce the ancient oriental civilization, through silk, to comparatively poor and backward Asian and European Continent. In a considerably long period, silk was symbol of prosperity and richness in the eyes of European nobles, Chinese silk, traveling the long distance on land, was sold to Rome---the European center of politics, civilization and military affairs---through Syrian merchants. At the time, Romans admired sumptuous lives, loved silk, which came thousand of miles from Tang, then the center of the world. Roman Poet Virgilrus, Aristotle, Plinius all praised highly silk in their poems. Tang Dynasty, besides expanding militarily along the Silk Road to mid-Asia, South Asia and West Asia, also dispatched political envoys to various kingdoms in the Western Regions, even as far as Bactora and Persia. The missions of the envoys were to propagandize the powerful strength of Tang and the prosperity of Chinese people. Of course, silk and silkworks were the native products and special local products of China that they never forgot to bring home. The trade of silk also made much contribution economically to the lasting prosperity of China. The long rule of Tang Empire was due not to its military power, but rather to its communication with the Western Region. It was the smooth communication that guaranteed the dissemination of the excellent oriental civilization to all countries of the world. We might say, Tang dynasty contributed to the development of world civilization through the Silk Road.

Written by www.travel-silkroad.com
Translated by Beijing Star-light Translation Center
September 12, 2002