Loulan ancient city

Loulan ancient country

synonym

Loulan ancient city generally refers to Loulan ancient country (relics of ancient countries in western regions)

This entry is compiled and applied by "popular science China" Science Encyclopedia

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Loulan ancient country is a small country on the ancient Silk Road. It is located in the west of Lop Nur and the hub of the western regions. The Kingdom ranges from guyangguan in the east to the ancient city of Niya in the west, Altun Mountain in the South and Hami in the north. It occupies a very important position on the ancient Silk Road. Today, only a piece of ruins remains.

Loulan ancient country was founded before 176 B.C., but it suddenly disappeared in 630 A.D., lasting more than 800 years.

Loulan civilization

history

According to the records of the biographies of Dawan in historical records and the biographies of the western regions in the history of Han Dynasty, Loulan was a famous "city outline country" in the western regions as early as the 2nd century. It connects Dunhuang in the East, Yanqi and Yuli in the northwest, and Ruoqiang and Qiemo in the southwest. The South and north of the ancient Silk Road were separated from Loulan.

The Institute of long history of the western regions in the Wei Jin and pre Liang dynasties is located in the northwest of Lop Nur, Xinjiang. It was named after the Chinese documents unearthed from the site, which used the kharoshi antithetical sound of "Loulan" as "kurolena". At the beginning of the 20th century, the British, such as Stein, came here many times to steal and dig. Since the 1950s, Chinese scholars have carried out investigations and excavations.

Loulan ancient country is a powerful country of 36 countries in the western regions, adjacent to Dunhuang, and has close relationship with Han Dynasty around ad. The records of Loulan in ancient times are based on the records of Hanshu · biography of the western regions, FA and Xuanzang. According to the book of Han, biography of the western regions: "the state of Shanshan, whose real name is Loulan, is located in the mud city of Wang Zhichi. It's 600 Li to Yangguan and 6100 Li to Chang'an. The number of households is five hundred and seventy, and the number of mouths is fourteen thousand and one hundred. " FA Xian said: "its land is rugged, thin and barren. The common people's clothes are the same in thickness as those in the Han Dynasty, but the blanket is brown. His king obeyed the law. There are more than 4000 monks who know about Hinayana. " At the end of his trip, Xuanzang Sanzang made a very simple description: "from then on, he traveled more than 1000 miles to the northeast, to his hometown of Nabo, namely Loulan."

In the Han Dynasty, Loulan state sometimes became the eyes and ears of Xiongnu, and sometimes belonged to Han, which was between the two forces of Han and Xiongnu, and maintained its political life skillfully. Because Loulan is located in the communication fortress between Han Dynasty and western regions, Han Dynasty could not cross this area to fight Xiongnu. Xiongnu could not threaten Han Dynasty without the help of Loulan. Both Han Dynasty and Xiongnu tried their best to carry out the soft policy towards Loulan.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Bowang Hou Zhang Qian as an envoy to Dayue's family and failed to form an offensive and defensive alliance. After that, he sent troops to fight against Dawan, and sent envoys to the western regions many times. When these messengers passed through Loulan, Loulan could not bear the heavy burden and even killed the messengers. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty finally sent troops to fight against Loulan. As evidence of surrender, Prince Loulan was sent to the Han Dynasty as a hostage. Loulan also sent a prince to the Xiongnu, indicating that he strictly adhered to neutrality between the Xiongnu and the Han.

After that, when the Han expeditionary army attacked a Hun dependent country, King Loulan communicated with the Huns and stationed the Huns in the country. The ambush angered the Han court. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once again sent troops to fight against Loulan and went straight to the capital city of chanicheng. The king of Loulan was afraid and immediately opened the gate to apologize. Emperor Wu asked him to monitor the movements of Xiongnu. In 92 BC, King Loulan died, and the prince, who was taken hostage in the Han Dynasty, went back to take the throne. The prince was very sad and didn't want to return home easily, so his younger brother inherited the throne. The new king died in a short time. The Huns took advantage of this opportunity to inherit the throne with the eldest son of the former king, who used to be a hostage in his own country. Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty was very surprised when he heard this news. He quickly sent messengers to persuade the new king to come to the court of Han Dynasty and wanted to take him as a hostage, but failed. In the following two or three years, there was no major incident between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu. The border of Loulan is close to Yumen pass. The envoys of the Han Dynasty often go to the western regions through this pass. They have to pass through the desert called bailongdui in Loulan. There is often wind in the desert, which draws the quicksand into the air like a dragon and loses pedestrians. The Han Dynasty constantly ordered Loulan kingdom to provide guides and drinking water. Because the Han envoys repeatedly abused the guides, Loulan refused to obey their orders, and the relationship between the two deteriorated. Emperor Zhao of Han Dynasty finally sent Fu Jiezi to assassinate the new king. In order to marry the prince who was taken hostage in the Han Dynasty, a beautiful concubine was sent back to Loulan to inherit the throne. But the king was afraid of being assassinated. In the name of protecting the king, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty sent troops to garrison Loulan, thus gaining the initiative to attack Xiongnu and the western regions. After that, the power of the Han Dynasty declined, and Loulan declined again, even later perished.

Discovery process

In February 1895, Swede Sven heding crossed the Taklimakan desert along the Keriya River and arrived at Lop Nur. Along the way, he made an arduous but fruitful investigation of geology, biology and ancient cultural relics, and preliminarily found out the general situation of important ancient sites in the Taklimakan Desert.

In September 1899, Sven Hedin began his second trip to Taklimakan. The expedition to Central Asia was funded by Swedish king Oscar and millionaire Emmanuel Nobel. Sven heding stopped for a while in the empty and cold Ruoqiang county (today's Ruoqiang), and then continued to advance to the Lop Nur desert at the east end of Taklimakan.

March 29, 1900

A dramatic plot led to the discovery of a very important ancient city site. After arriving at the North Bank of Lop Nur, heding and his party came to a place where fresh water seemed to be produced. When they decided to dig a well for water, they found that their only shovel was lost. A guide with them was sent back to the original road to look for it. Unexpectedly, there was a strong wind on the road, and the wind and sand all over the sky made the guide hungry and unable to move forward. After the sandstorm, in front of the guide suddenly appeared tall mud towers and stacked houses, an ancient city miraculously revealed its face. The guide reported the discovery. Sven Harding came here at once. When he found some exquisite wood carvings from the site, he was very excited and concluded that it was a very important ancient city site. Heding later recalled: "how lucky I was with shovel, otherwise I would never have returned to that ancient city to realize this important discovery as if there were a certain number, so that the ancient history of Central Asia would have an unexpected new light!"

In March 1901, Sven heding excavated the ancient city. He couldn't wait to offer a reward. If anyone could find any form of human characters first, he would be rewarded. Small pieces of felt, red cloth, brown braids, coins and pottery pieces were unearthed at the excavation site. With the continuous development of excavation, a large number of wooden slips, paper documents and some Sogdian documents in Chinese and Khartoum, as well as exquisite silk and wool fabrics and unique style of wood carvings and ornaments were finally unearthed. For a whole week, Sven heding not only carried out excavation, but also investigated the temple sites and residential sites of the ancient city. He found that the word "Kroraina" appeared many times on the Khartoum wooden slips unearthed in the ancient city. According to the Chinese bamboo slips found in the site, the city was called Loulan, so Loulan was presumed to be the transliteration of "Kroraina"

Historical records

The earliest concrete record of Loulan kingdom in Chinese historical records can be found in the biographies of Dawan in historical records. According to the records, we know that Loulan is a small country in the western regions. It was founded on the edge of Yanze and has a city. However, it is easy for the weak soldiers to go. "Yanze" here refers to Lop Nor. By the time Ban Gu, a historian of the Han Dynasty, wrote Han Shu, there were 1570 families in Loulan Kingdom, with a total of 14100 people. The capital of Loulan was called "Da Ni". "Hanshu" further introduces the ecological environment of Loulan: "the land is sandy, the fields are few, the land is sent, the valley is raised and the country is divided. The country produces jade, and there are many reeds (Reed), Willows (red willow), Populus euphratica (Hu Tongjia) and white grasses (Ji Ji). The people follow the animal husbandry and chase the water and grass. There are donkeys, horses and camels. If you can be a soldier, you will be the same as the Qiang people. "

During the reign of emperor Zhao of Han Dynasty, Loulan changed its name to Shanshan and asked the imperial court to garrison Yixun. Emperor Zhao set up a Duwei in Yixun city to garrison the land. Since then, Loulan has become a strategic fulcrum for the central government to control the western regions. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Loulan still occupied an important position on the silk road. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the government established large-scale farms and developed Loulan. Since then, Loulan has been an important transportation hub from the mainland to the western regions for hundreds of years until the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Later, Loulan was rarely seen in historical records and gradually disappeared mysteriously.

site of an ancient city

Loulan ancient city is located in the north of Ruoqiang County, Bayinguoleng Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, 7 kilometers west of Lop Nur and South Bank of Kongque River. The whole site is scattered in the Yadan landform on the West Bank of Lop Nur.

Haitou ancient city

In 1988, the cultural relics team of Lop Nur organized by the cultural relics department of the autonomous region, with the cooperation and assistance of the troops, after 32 days of hard work, found two ancient cities in the southwest of Loulan, such as "Haitou" (named as LK ancient city by Stein), mapped the first topographic map of the two ancient cities in China, collected a number of precious cultural relics, and further filled the archaeological gap in Lop Nur White.

Milan site

It is a vast area, including the city of Milan, two Buddhist temples and cemeteries. Along the city wall and the base of the Buddhist temple, a large pit dug in the East and West can be seen everywhere. Milan is the territory of the ancient Loulan state. In the Han Dynasty, China once settled land here. There is a controversial view that it is the new capital of Loulan state after its capital was moved. There has been a discovery of "the cultural characteristics of India."

Chinese PinYin : Lou Lan Gu Cheng