The Steppe and Central Asia (1st–5th c.)
Nomad empires and oasis kingdoms between the Caspian and Manchuria: the Xiongnu and the Xianbei, the Yuezhi and the Kushans, the city-states of the Tarim Basin on the Silk Road, and Han China’s struggle for the Western Regions.
7 events · 1 region · Central and Northern Asia
The thread covers the Mongolian steppe, the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang), Transoxiana and Bactria, and the Kazakh and South Siberian steppes in the 1st–5th centuries. Their history is known mostly from outside: from the Chinese dynastic histories (the Book of Han and the Book of the Later Han), from the coins and inscriptions of the Kushans, and from archaeology, such as the gold of Tillya Tepe in Bactria.
Dates taken from the Chinese histories are usually exact to the year. The chronology of the Kushans is disputed, and such dates are given as intervals, with the competing versions explained in the descriptions.
Events
- Kujula Kadphises founds the Kushan Empirebetween 20 and 50 · Central and Northern Asia
- The Xiongnu split into Northern and Southern48 · Central and Northern Asia
- The burials of Tillya Tepe (the Bactrian Gold)between 16 and 100 · Central and Northern Asia
- Ban Chao’s campaigns in the Tarim Basin73–102 · Central and Northern Asia
- Battle of Ikh Bayan and the Yanran inscription89 · Central and Northern Asia
- Ban Chao repels a Kushan army90 · Central and Northern Asia
- Gan Ying’s mission to Da Qin (Rome)97 · Central and Northern Asia
Key participants
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Xiongnu
- Wikipedia (English): Kushan Empire
- Wikipedia (English): Protectorate of the Western Regions
- Wikipedia (Russian): Хунну
- Wikipedia (Russian): Кушанское царство
- Wikipedia (Russian): Наместничество Сиюй
- Hill J. E. Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, First to Second Centuries CE. — Charleston: BookSurge, 2009.
- Barfield T. J. The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757. — Cambridge (Mass.): Basil Blackwell, 1989.
- 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.
- Бичурин Н. Я. (Иакинф). Собрание сведений о народах, обитавших в Средней Азии в древние времена. Т. 1–3. — М.; Л.: Изд-во АН СССР, 1950–1953.
- Гумилёв Л. Н. Хунну: Срединная Азия в древние времена. — М.: Изд-во восточной литературы, 1960.
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