Between History and Reality: China's Thousand Year Central Asian Dream

It is known that the Central Asian region, which is widely referred to in Chinese historiography as the "Western Land," has always been described as "Western China" in the political history of Central Asia. This is the most fundamental of the slogans of Chinese scholars who have been tasked with interpreting history in accordance with the Chinese government's political motives, saying that "Xinjiang has always been part of Chinese territory." This section of the history of the Western world dates back to the 8th century AD, with the current Dynasty of the Dynasties (618-908) expanding westward from the most powerful political forces of the time (618-908) and the Arab Abbasid Empire (750-1517) extending the scope of the Islamic world to the east.

After the destruction of the Western Blue Turk Empire, which dominated the vast area from present-day Dunhuang and Kumul to the west to the Kharezim Valley in the west, from the Altai Mountains in the north to the Hotan and Kashgar districts along the Karakorum in the south, the Tang Empire was severely weakened by 750. At that time, the occupation of the eastern armies under the command of Qutaybah Ibn Muslim under the command of the Abbasid Empire had already taken control of Samarkand and Bukhara, and the struggle between the two major empires for Central Asia had officially begun. Occupying the region, which was an important trunk of the ancient Silk Road between the East and the West, was of great political and economic value to both sides.

It is estimated that at least a hundred thousand people from both sides participated in the war, and the Tang Empire, led by Korean Sangun Gao Xiangji, used the Qarluqs, one of the main Turkic peoples at the time, as mercenaries. The Arab army, on the other hand, was preparing for war by forming an alliance with the Tibetans, who were considered the arch-rivals of the Tang Empire. In the final battle of Talas in July of the same year, the Qarluqs wrapped up their cooperation with the Tang Empire and launched an offensive against the Tang army along with the Arab army. At least 30,000 soldiers were killed in what became known as the Cold War.

All the achievements of the Tang Empire in its journey to Central Asia over the last century after the Thalassic War have been bubbling. Commenting on the war, one of the Oriental giants, Vladimir Barthold, said that "this war has undoubtedly determined whether the dominant culture in the history of Turkestan will be Chinese culture or Islamic culture." The Chinese, who were taken prisoner in this war, will introduce high-quality paper-making techniques, which have been kept as secret recipes in the Eastern world, into the Islamic world and push Islamic culture to become a world-leading culture in the next century. As for the historical role of this war, says James Millward, a professor at George Town University.

"It simply came to our notice then. In the process, religious, cultural, and political exchanges took place. From now on, a similar Ukraine war seems to be between Russia and Ukraine. In fact, there are so many types it's hard to say. The same was true of the Battle of Talas in 751. Although this seems to be the case between the two empires, it was essentially a meeting of two ideologies and religious beliefs. It also determined that the people of the region would be loyal to those who came from the east or those who were expanding from the west. The snowmen quickly turned to the Arabs and confronted the Dawn Empire. But the biggest difference here is that in the aftermath of the recent An Lushan uprising, the influence of the Tang Empire in what we call the Six Cities, Hungary, became the last influence for the next millennium. The victory of the Arabs was essentially characterized by the defeat of Islam by the political leadership of the Dawn Empire. The Dawn Empire has since abandoned its fortresses in these areas. "

Thus, when the Tang Empire was on the verge of a major defeat in Central Asia, An Lushan ("Bukhara Roshan"), a half-Sogdian-Turkish Turkic brother-in-law ("Bukhara Roshan") who ruled over the three great ten-military regions of the Tang Empire, the Great Sangu of the Tang Empire Raised and soon occupied the two capitals, Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) and Luoyang. With this, the expulsion of the Tang Empire from Central Asia was absolute, and the Tang emperor Shuansong left the royal palace and fled to Chengdu. With the loss of the capital, the collapse of the Tang Empire became a matter of eyebrows and eyelashes.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prince of the Tang Empire, Li Kua (later Emperor Tang Dezong), arrived in the Uighur capital, Orda, as the ambassador for military aid, and in the reception ceremony, Li Kua bowed to the Uyghur emperor Bayan Chur and saluted him. Talking about military aid, the two sides said, "After the Uighurs recapture the two capitals (Chang'an and Luoyang), all the wealth and girls in these two cities will belong to the Uighurs." The city will be returned to the Dawn Palace. " At the same time, according to the agreement, Tang Empress Tang Suzong's own daughter Ninggu was given to his wife, Princess Qan of the Uyghur Empire, Bayan Chur. This is also the case with the Bayan Chur Eternal Stone, founded in 759 AD, in the Year of the Sheep (757). That's the way it is. Gave her two daughters as gifts. "It simply came to our notice then. Don't get me wrong, "said David Cook, chief of The Christian Science Monitor's Washington bureau. Professor James Milward said that the aid was entirely commercial in nature, with the Uyghur Empire at the time, noting that the Uyghur Empire was not so closely related to them as An Lushan, but rather to the Tang Dynasty with such decisive aid to save them from destruction. Emphasizes.

"It simply came to our notice then. Because the cities of Chang'an and Luoyang played a significant role in this. So this aid was done entirely on a commercial basis. As a result, the Tang Dynasty allowed them to take whatever they wanted in the city as soon as the capitals occupied by the rebels were returned by the Uighur Empire in the treaty between them. They may have thought that if they helped An Lushan, they would not benefit from it. So it's really just a matter of trading. "

Since the beginning of the Uyghur Empire's direct involvement in the internal affairs of the Tang Empire, the Tang Empire has relied on the Uyghurs to ensure its existence and internal security. This was the basis of the Tang Dynasty's policy of "restricting Tibetans through the Uighurs," which had been used in the second half of the second century to oppress another rival, the Tibetan Empire. Later, when the Uighur-based Uighur Empire was on the verge of collapsing due to severe drought and famine, which lasted for several years in a row, the Tang Empire did not respond to their requests for help, making it an "opportunity to snatch the spotlight." As a result, by 840, the Kyrgyz-dominated Kyrgyz tribe, with the secret support of the Tang Empire, led an army of 80,000 people to the capital, Ordubalik. The minister at the Qagan Palace, Kulug Baga, reached an internal agreement with the Kyrgyz and coordinated internally. Thus, after the collapse of the empire, most of them migrated from the main settlements of the Turks for centuries and later to the foothills of the Tengri Mountains, which belonged to the Uighur Empire. In this way, they established the Shaju Uyghur Kingdom and the Idiqut Uyghur State in Turpan, the capital of Dunhuang in the present-day Gansu Province, and the Karakhanid State in the Tarim Valley.

"Historical records tell us that the Kyrgyz destroyed the Uighur dynasty. This is the name of the people of that time, and people can easily confuse that name with that of present-day Kyrgyzstan. However, after the destruction of the Uighur Empire, they did not establish a dynasty of their own, nor did they go anywhere other than the Mongol steppes. There are many secrets hidden in the destruction of the Uyghur Empire. After all, the Uighurs moved west to establish another Uighur state in present-day Turfan. The Idikut state, which made Idikut and Bashbal (the five cities) the twin capitals, played a very important role in the Silk Road until the 13th century. He later became one of the most important allies of the Mongol Empire's march west. The Uighurs created an ancient Uighur language in the Idikut region other than their Turkic-Runic language and became one of the main languages ​​on the Silk Road. As a result, the Uyghurs have become a people who have settled down and become their own independent language. This script was later adopted by the Mongols and Manchus. In this way, the nomadic Uyghurs have quickly become a bridgehead in political activities on the Silk Road, as well as in cultural exchanges between the West and the East. "

Thus, after the severe defeat of the Tang Empire in the Battle of Talas in 751, their desire to expand to Central Asia was completely defeated, and China's political influence was completely squeezed out of the region. The Turkish-language political and cultural system of the region is also systematically created. It was not until 1755 that the Manchu army occupied the Dzungarian Valley in the Manchu War to destroy the Dzungar Mongols in the West, and the Tarim Valley, which in its time was known as the "Six Cities", was occupied. In 1884, after a series of bloody repression by the Khoja dynasty in the Sixth City and the Hogan forces led by Yaqub Beg, the Qing Empire established a province here and named it "Xinjiang" in the sense of "new frontier" or "new territory." Thus, China's dream, which had been in a state of sweet dreams for more than a thousand years, was once again tied to the destiny of the Uyghur land by China through the hands of the Manchus. (Finished)