Karasahr

Yanqi Karasahr
Town
Yanqi Downtown Mosque
Yanqi Location in Xinjiang
Yanqi Location in China
Coordinates:
Country	China
Province	Xinjiang
Prefecture	Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
County	Yanqi Hui Autonomous County
	29000

Yanqi (Chinese: 焉耆; pinyin: Yānqí; Wade–Giles Yen-ch’i; Sanskrit अग्निदेश Agnideśa), or Karasahr (also Karashar, meaning 'black city' in Uyghur languages), is an ancient town on the Silk Road and the capital of Yanqi Hui Autonomous County in the Bayin'gholin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, in northwestern China. As of the 2000 Chinese census it had a population of 29,000, growing to 31,773 persons in 2006; 16,032 persons of which were Han, 7781 people Hui, 7154 people Uygur, 628 Mongol, and 178 other ethnicities and an agricultural population of 1078 people.

The town is well connected, being located on the Kaidu River (known in ancient times as the Liusha), China National Highway 314 and the Southern Xinjiang Railway, and is an important material distribution center and regional business hub. The town administers ten communities.

The town has a notable Islamic population and contains the many mosques.

The Buddhist Sanskrit name for the town was 'Agni' or 'Fire.' "Yanqi, it seemed, was the local derivation of yanghi, the Turkic word for fire. The city had possibly once been called Yanghi-shaher or Fire City. Xuanzang, a stickler for precision and partial to India, had used the Sanskrit word for fire, agni, and transliterated this into Chinese, yielding 'O-ki-ni."

This 17th-century map shows Cialis (Karashar) as of one the cities in the chain stretching from Hiarcan to Sucieu

.

Geography

The modern town of Yanqi is situated about 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of the shallow Lake Bosten. The lake is about 81 kilometres (50 mi) east to west and 48 kilometres (30 mi) north to south with a surface area of about 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi), making it one of the largest lakes in Xinjiang. It has been noted since Han times for its abundance of fish. The lake is fed by the Kaidu River and the Konqi River flows out of it past Korla and across the Taklamakan Desert to Lop Nur. There are numerous other small lakes in the region.

History

The Kingdom of Yanqi (Karashar) was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Route that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin. During the Han dynasty it was a relatively large and important kingdom. According to Book of Han, the various states of the Western Regions, including Yanqi, were controlled by the nomadic Xiongnu, but later came under the influence of the Han dynasty after its show of force when it attacked Dayuan (Fergana) in the late 2nd century BC.

According to the Book of the Later Han, General Ban Chao went on a punitive campaign against Yanqi in 94 AD after they attacked and killed the Protector General Chen Mu and Vice Commandant Guo Xun in 75 AD. The king of Yanqi was decapitated and his head displayed in the capital. Later rebellions were subdued by Ban Chao's son Ban Yong in 127.

In 644, during the Tang expansion into the Tarim Basin, Emperor Taizong of Tang launched a military campaign against Yanqi after the kingdom allied itself with the Turks. The Four Garrisons of Anxi was established with one based at Yanqi.

Karashahr become known to Europeans as Cialis-an Italianized transcription of the Turkic Chalis)-in the early 17th century, when the Portuguese Jesuit Lay Brother Bento de Góis visited it on his way from India to China (via Kabul and Kashgar). De Góis and his traveling companions spent several months in the "Kingdom of Cialis", while crossing it with a caravan of Kashgarian merchants (ostensibly, tribute bearers) on their way to Ming China. The travelers stayed in Cialis City for three months in 1605, and then continued, via Turpan and Hami (all parts of the "Kingdom of Cialis", according to de Góis), to the Ming border at Jiayuguan.

Kaidu River in Yanqi

An early-20th-century traveler described the situation in Karashahr as follows:

"The whole of this district round Kara-shahr and Korla is, from a geographical and political point of view, both interesting and important; for whilst all other parts of Chinese Turkestan can only be reached either by climbing high and difficult passes—the lowest of which has the same elevation as Mont Blanc—or traversing extensive and dangerous waterless deserts of sand-hills, here we find the one and only convenient approach to the land through the valleys of several rivers in the neighbourhood of Ili, where plentiful water abounds in the mountain streams on all sides, and where a rich vegetation makes life possible for wandering tribes. Such Kalmuck tribes still come from the north-west to Tal. They are Torgut nomads who pitch their yurts round about Kara-shahr and live a hard life with their herds ...

Just as these Mongols wander about here at the present day, so the nomadic tribes of an earlier period must have used this district as their entrance and exit gate. The Tochari (Yue-chi) [Pinyin: Yuezhi], on their way from China, undoubtedly at that time passed through this gate to get into the Ili valley ..."

Descriptions in historical accounts

Tarim Basin in the 3rd century

According to the Book of the Later Han:

It has "15,000 households, 52,000 individuals, and more than 20,000 men able to bear arms. It has high mountains on all four sides. There are hazardous passes on the route to Qiuci (Kucha) that are easy to defend. The water of a lake winds between the four mountains, and surrounds the town for more than 30 li [12.5 km]."

According to Book of Zhou, the kingdom of Yanqi (Karashahr) was a small country with poor people and nine walled towns, and described the country and their custom thus:

Wedlock is about the same as among the Chinese. All the deceased are cremated and then buried. They wear mourning for seven full days, after which they put it off. The adult men all trim their hair to make a head decoration. Their written characters are the same as those of India. It is their custom to serve "Heavenly God(s)" but they also show reverence and trust in the law of the Buddha. They especially celebrate these days: the eighth day of the second month, and the eighth day of the fourth month. All the country abstains and does penance according to the teachings of Śākya, and follows His Way. The climate is cold, and the land good and fertile. For cereals, hey have rice, millet, pulse, wheat, and barley. For animals, they have camels, horses, cows, and sheep. They raise silk-worms but do not make silk, merely using [the silk fiber] for padding. It is their custom to relish grape wine, and also to love music. It is some ten li north of a body of water, and has an abundance of fish, salt, and rushes. In the fourth year of the period Pao-ting, its king sent an envoy to present its renowned horses.

— Zhoushu, translation by Roy Andrew Miller.

Neighbours

The ancient state bordered Kucha and thence Aksu to the west, and Turpan to the east. To the south, via Korla, and across the desert, was Khotan.

Francis Younghusband, briefly visited Karasahr in 1887 on his overland journey from Beijing to India. He described it as being "like all the towns hereabouts, is surrounded by a mud wall, and the gateways are surmounted by the usual pagoda-like towers. There is a musketry wall round outside the main wall, but it is now almost in ruins. Inside the wall are some yamens, but only a few houses. Outside, to the south, are a few shops and inns."

See also

• Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

References

• Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. [1]
• Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.
• Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. J. Brill, Leiden.
• Puri, B. N. Buddhism in Central Asia, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, 1987. (2000 reprint).
• Saran, Mishi (2005). Chasing the Monk’s Shadow: A Journey in the Footsteps of Xuanzang. Penguin/Viking, New Delhi. ISBN 0-670-05823-8.
• Stein, Aurel M. 1912. Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 2 vols. Reprint: Delhi. Low Price Publications. 1990.
• Stein, Aurel M. 1921. Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980.[2]
• Stein Aurel M. 1928. Innermost Asia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran, 5 vols. Clarendon Press. Reprint: New Delhi. Cosmo Publications. 1981.
• Yu, Taishan. 2004. A History of the Relationships between the Western and Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 131 March, 2004. Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania.

External links

• Silk Road Seattle - University of Washington (The Silk Road Seattle website contains many useful resources including a number of full-text historical works, maps, photos, etc.)
• Baidu Baike Encyclopedia (Chinese)