Loulan

Author: Albert Herrmann (Germany)/Country:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: Great political changes occurred during the era of Xiongnu rule. Due to fortunate plunder and campaigns, the Xiongnu not only secured control over the Mongolian grasslands but also expanded westward across some nomadic states until the Ural Mountains. As a result, by 176 BC, the oasis peoples of Tarim were forced to pay tribute to them, and Loulan was the first to suffer. Occupying Loulan would allow them to cut off the path to the west at any time. Subsequently, the neighboring Yuezhi (Tocharians) were annihilated by the Xiongnu, which was a particularly severe blow. Some Tocharians fled into the mountains, while the majority emigrated, traveling north along the route to the Iskander region and then to Semites. From Semites, the Tocharians overthrew the Greek Bactria, establishing an independent dynasty there, whose influence expanded to most of northern India. Due to these events, the inhabitants of Tarim lost two good neighbors and had to submit to the racially different Xiongnu. Their former commercial partners, the Tocharians, were indeed merely relocated, but the trade connection with the silk-producing country was completely disrupted by the Xiongnu. At this time, the city-states of the Western Regions could only receive aid from China, but since China itself was also plagued by the Xiongnu, this aid was realized through the envoy Zhang Qian of China.
Because the protection provided by the Great Wall, built centuries earlier, was no longer sufficient, the ambitious Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty first sought to ally with the Xiongnu's former enemy, the Tocharians. This task fell to the envoy Zhang Qian. However, as soon as he set out, he was captured by the Xiongnu and could not continue his journey for ten years. He passed through Tarim, Fergana, and Samarkand before finally reaching the court of the Tocharian king, but the king no longer had an interest in forming an anti-Xiongnu alliance. Although the mission did not achieve its original purpose, it drew worldwide attention to the Western Regions—Tarim, marking a significant historical achievement. Prior to this, China's knowledge of the West—Tarim had never extended beyond it, but now it suddenly encountered a completely new world, with vast and rich territories and treasures previously unforeseen.
Now, this far-sighted Emperor Wu sought to establish direct trade relations with this new region. Not only did the markets of Tocharia's capital and Fergana (Dayuan), famous for its fine horses, attract longing, but even the goods passing through Tarim were enviable, especially the precious jade found in the sandy deposits of the alluvial fans in the southern Kunlun Mountains. Through victories against the Xiongnu, the Chinese opened a free route through the ancient Tocharian kingdom, which was henceforth protected by China and defended by a strong frontier city against its ancient enemies. As a result, China moved its northwest boundary from the Yellow River to the Lop Nur, extending all the way to the kingdom of Loulan.
Loulan had just been freed from Xiongnu rule, opening a path for this new neighbor (the Han Dynasty) to the even farther west. Subsequently, Zhang Qian forged an alliance with the powerful nomadic people of Wuquan and sent envoys to various Western countries from there, thus realizing the first direct connection between the East and West of Asia (115 BC). P25-P26