Ban Chao’s campaigns in the Tarim Basin
For almost thirty years the Han officer Ban Chao, with a handful of Chinese troops and levies from the oases, drove the Northern Xiongnu out of the Tarim Basin and brought its city-states under Han control; in 91 he became Protector General of the Western Regions.
- Date
- 73–102year known · duration: ≈ 29 years
- Place
- Kashgar (Shule)today: Kashgar, Xinjiang, China · Central and Northern Asia
- Route
- Shanshan (Lop Nur) → Khotan → Kashgar (Shule) → Yarkand → Kucha (Qiuci) → Karasahr
- Participants
- Ban Chao, Han dynasty, Xiongnu
- Threads
- The Steppe and Central Asia (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Protector General of the Western Regions; Western Regions; Duhu; Западный край; Сиюй
In 73 the Han resumed the war with the Northern Xiongnu, and Ban Chao, a junior officer in the army of Dou Gu, was sent with a small party to the oasis states. In Shanshan, near Lop Nur, his men killed a visiting Xiongnu embassy and the king submitted; Khotan followed, and in 74 Ban Chao deposed the ruler whom Kucha had set over Kashgar (Shule). The court soon withdrew its garrisons, but Ban Chao went on holding the western oases with local levies, putting down revolts in Kashgar and taking Yarkand in 88; in 84, won over by his gifts, the Kushan king persuaded Kangju to stop backing a rebel in Kashgar.
After Dou Xian’s victories over the Northern Xiongnu in 89–91 the court made Ban Chao Protector General of the Western Regions, with his seat at Kucha; in 94 he subdued Karasahr, and more than fifty states sent hostages to the Han court. He also repelled a Kushan army in 90 and in 97 sent Gan Ying to the west; the claim that his own army reached the Caspian Sea has been criticised as a misreading. Old and ill, he returned to Luoyang in 102 and died there a month later, after which Han control of the Tarim weakened again.
Connections
Includes
- Ban Chao repels a Kushan army90 · Central and Northern Asia
Related events
- Liu Xiu restores the Han: the Eastern Han25 · East Asiathe Eastern Han regained the Western Regions lost after the fall of Wang Mang
- Battle of Ikh Bayan and the Yanran inscription89 · Central and Northern Asiathe defeat of the Northern Xiongnu let Ban Chao complete the conquest of the Tarim Basin
- Gan Ying’s mission to Da Qin (Rome)97 · Central and Northern AsiaGan Ying was sent by Ban Chao, Protector General of the Western Regions
- The Han abandon the Western Regions29 July 107 · Central and Northern Asiathe protectorate that Ban Chao had rebuilt was abolished five years after his return to Luoyang
- Ban Yong restores Han authority in the Western Regions123–127 · Central and Northern AsiaBan Yong, Ban Chao’s youngest son, won back the oases his father had conquered
Same participants
- The Xiongnu split into Northern and Southern48 · Central and Northern Asiavia Xiongnu
- The Book of Han is writtenc. 54 – 111 · East Asiavia Ban Chao
Adjacent events in the thread
- The burials of Tillya Tepe (the Bactrian Gold)between 16 and 100 · Central and Northern Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Inauguration of the Colosseum80
- Eruption of Vesuviusbetween 24 August and 1 November 79
- Pliny the Elder’s Natural History77
- Roman conquest of Britain43 – between 83 and 84
Eastern Europe
- The Alans appear on the Don and in the North Caucasusbetween 50 and 72
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Balkans and Anatolia
- Domitian’s Dacian Warbetween 85 and 86 – 89
- Trajan’s Dacian Wars101–106
- Plutarch’s Parallel Livesc. 96 – c. 120
Middle East and Egypt
- Hero of Alexandria’s aeolipilebetween 50 and 100
- First Jewish–Roman War66 – between 73 and 74
- Reign of Vologases I51–78
- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea40s … 70s
Africa
- Adulis and Aksum in the Periplus40s … 70s
South Asia
- Gautamiputra Satakarni defeats Nahapanabetween 71 and 130
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
- Gandharan art: the first images of the Buddhabetween 30 BC and AD 100
East Asia
- The Book of Han is writtenc. 54 – 111
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Founding of Funan: Kaundinya and Queen Liuyebetween 1 and 100
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
- Sa Huỳnh culturec. 1000 BC – c. 200
North America
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
Latin America
- Emergence of the Moche culturec. 100
- Monte Albán II: the Zapotec state expandsc. 100 BC – c. 200
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Preclassic Maya collapse: El Mirador is abandonedc. 100 – c. 250
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Ban Chao
- Wikipedia (English): Protectorate of the Western Regions
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бань Чао
- Wikipedia (Russian): Наместничество Сиюй
- Chavannes É. Trois généraux chinois de la dynastie des Han orientaux: Pan Tch’ao (32–102 p. C.), son fils Pan Yong, Leang K’in (112 p. C.). Chapitre LXXVII du Heou Han chou // T’oung Pao. — 1906. — Vol. 7. — P. 210–269.
- Yü Ying-shih. Han Foreign Relations // The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 1: The Ch’in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.