《vol_II silk road_the wester regions under the hsiung-nu and the_Han》.pdf

ISBN 978-92-3-102846-5 The triangular clash 10 THE WESTERN REGIONS UNDER THE * HSIUNG-NU AND THE HAN Ma Yong and Sun Yutang Contents The triangular clash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 China and the Western Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 The economy of the oasis states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Language, culture and religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Chinese administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Military and agricultural colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 The Silk Route . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 The triangular clash The second century b.c. had a profound influence on the history of Central Asia. This was the century in which the clash between two great powers, the Hsiung-nu and the Han, for the mastery of the Western Regions took place. The Hsiung-nu people origi- nally lived in the northern part of present-day Shaanxi in China. During the fifth and fourth centuries b.c., faced with the northward expansion of the states of Ch’in and Chao, they were forced to migrate to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, where they became a strong tribal confederati