Qiang (historical people)


Qiang was a name given to various groups of people at different periods in ancient China. The Qiang people are generally thought to have been of Tibeto-Burman origin, though there are other theories.
The Tangut people of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties may have been of Qiang descent. The modern Qiang people as well as Tibetans may also have been descended in part from the ancient Qiang.

Etymology

According to the Han dynasty dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, the Qiang were shepherds, and the Chinese character for Qiang was thus formed from the characters for "sheep" and "man", and pronounced like the word for "sheep". Fengsu Tongyi also mentions that character of Qiang was formed from the words "sheep" and "man". Modern scholars have attempted to reconstruct the ancient pronunciation of Qiang: sinologist Edwin Pulleyblank reconstructs it to *kʰiaŋ in Middle Chinese, while William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart reconstruct the Old Chinese name of Qiang as *C.qʰaŋ.
Qiangs are generally believed to be Tibeto-Burman speakers, although Christopher Beckwith proposes that the word "Qiang" may have an Indo-European etymology and that the Qiang were of Indo-European origin; Beckwith compares a proposed reconstruction of Qiang to *klaŋ in Old Chinese to the Tocharian word klānk, meaning "to ride, go by wagon", as in "to ride off to hunt from a chariot", so that Qiang could actually mean "charioteer".

History

According to a legend, the Qiang were partly descended from the Yan Emperor, the mythical "Flame Emperor." The Yan Emperor and his tribe were defeated by the Yellow Emperor.

Origins

The term "Qiang" first appeared on oracle bone inscriptions 3,000 years ago and was used to describe "a people other than one's people." It appears again in the Classic of Poetry in reference to Tang of Shang. They seem to have lived in a diagonal band from northern Shaanxi to northern Henan, somewhat to the south of the later Beidi. They were enemy of the Shang dynasty, who mounted expeditions against them, capturing slaves and victims for human sacrifice. The Qiang prisoners were skilled in making oracle bones.
This ancient tribe is said to be the progenitor of both the modern Qiang and the Tibetan people. There are still many ethnological and linguistic links between the Qiang and the Tibetans. The Qiang tribe expanded eastward and joined the Han people in the course of historical development, while the other branch that traveled southwards, crosses over the Hengduan Mountains, and entered the Yungui Plateau; some went even farther, to Burma, forming numerous ethnic groups of the Tibetan-Burmese language family. Even today, from linguistic similarities, their relative relationship can be seen. They formed the Tibetan ethnicity after the unification of the Tubo kingdom. According to Fei Xiaotong: "Even if the Qiang people might not be regarded as the main source of the Tibetan people, it is undoubtedly that the Qiang people played a certain role in the formation of Tibetan race".
Shuowen Jiezi indicated that the Qiangs were shepherds from the west and that they were part of the Xirong. They had a close relation to the Zhou dynasty, and were mentioned in the Book of Documents and Records of the Grand Historian as one of the allies of King Wu of Zhou who defeated the Shang. It has been suggested that the clan of Jiang Yuan, mother of Houji, a figure of Chinese legends and mythology and an ancestor of the Zhou dynasty, was possibly related to the Qiang, or was Qiang itself. Some of the ancient groups were called the "Horse-Qiang" or "Many-Horse-Qiang", suggesting they may have been horse breeders.
During the Han dynasty, a group of nomads to the southwest of Dunhuang were known as the Chuo Qiang. They were described in the Book of Han as a people who moved with their livestock in search of water and pasture, made military weapons themselves using iron from the mountains, and possessed bows, lances, short knives, swords and armour. In the Weilüe, other Qiang tribes named were the "Brown Onion", "White Horse", and "Yellow Ox" Qiang. The various tribes of the Qiang formed a confederation against the Han but were defeated.
Later in the Han dynasty, groups of people in the western part of Sichuan were mentioned in the Book of the Later Han as separate branches of the Qiang. A song from one of these groups, the "White Wolf" people, was transcribed in Chinese characters together with Chinese translation, and the language has since been identified as a Tibeto-Burman language.

Genetics

Genetic analyses of ancient Qiang remains found high genetic affinity with modern Sino-Tibetan-speaking peoples, particularly modern Qiang people and Han Chinese, as well as with ancient 'Yellow River farmers' associated with the Yangshao culture. Ancient Qiang remains belonged exclusively to paternal haplogroup O-M175.

Qin

During the Qin state period, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty recorded events involving the Qiang tribes and their interactions with the state. It records that Duke Ligong of Qin captured a Qiang man named Yuan Jian and made him a slave. The Duke did not discern him as a Qiang and had assumed he was of the Rong tribes. Yuan Jian, however, escaped but was being tracked by the Qin officials. He hid in a cave to escape his pursuers. The Qin, upon discovering this, attempted to burn the cave, but a tiger-like figure was said to have appeared and shielded him from the fire. he escaped and met a woman in the wild and became married. The woman, ashamed of her appearance, was described as covering her face with her hair. This became the precursor to a common Qiang tradition later on, according to the text. They fled to the region between the three rivers. The Qiang who discovered that Yuan Jian had survived revered his divine power. He was thus worshipped as a hero making him their leader. He taught the Qiang tribe the ways of the civilised Qins and taught them hunting as the region was scarce in grains. The Qiang referred to slaves as "Wuyi" since their ancestor Yuan Jian had once been forced to work as a slave clearing the land. As he had been given that status by the Qin, it became a part of his legend.
However, the attribution of Yuan Jian as the originator of Qiang customs and social development is argued to be an exaggeration and not entirely factual. The Duke Mu of Qin began to mount military pressure on the Qiang tribes. As a result, the Qiang followed their migratory routes but expanded into larger-scale and distant migrations. By the time of Yuan Jian's great-grandson, Ren, Duke Xian of Qin rose to power. The descendants of Yuan Jian at that time wished to form separate tribes, clans and branches and migrate on their own will. One of these became the Yak tribe, crossing Yuexi and travelling 1000 li west of the Zizhi river bends. They lost contact with the other Qiang and became completely distant. The later Qin followed the precedent of Duke Mu and sent troops to the Wei river to exterminate the Di and Rong tribes. Yin, the younger uncle of Ren feared the Qin and surrendered his clan to the Qin. This branch became known as Great Elegant Qiang. Other branches were also the White Horse Qiang and the Can Wolf Qiang. Ren and his younger brother Wu remained in the central region and both tookj many wives. Ren had nine sons forming nine clans. Wu has seventeen sons forming seventeen clans. This is known as the flourishing of the Qiang.
Ren's son, Yan succeeded his father. However, Duke Xiao of Qin brought the Qiang and Rong to submission. Duke Xiao sent the crown prince to lead 92 vassals to meet with King King Xian of Zhou. Under the Qin, Yan was bold and strong and his clan became known as the Yan clan. When Qin Shi Huang began to unify the six states, warfare was directed at the feudal lords and former lords still resisting rule. As the Qin armies stopped marching west, the Qiang branches began to multipy and grow during the time of peace for them. After Qin unified the region, General Meng Tian was dispatched to seize territory west. The Rong was pushed west, the Di went north and the Great Wall was built to demarcate the imperial frontier. The Qiang no longer crossed the Yuexi corridor into the Sichuan basin for raiding or migrations.
The Fa Qiang and Tang Mao settled in the Lancang River of upper Tibet. They intermingled with the local indigenous peoples of the Proto Tibetans to form the later Tubo people. Some of the Qiang migrated via the Tian Shan route into the Hexi corridors and modern-day Xinjiang. These became known as the later Nu Qiang. A small portion migrated north into the Inner Mongolia region, specifically in Ejina Banner, near Gansu. The preexistence of the Qiang people in the southwest allowed many of the central Qiang to migrate northward from the Qin Empire into their southwest region of China. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Qiang formed a social and economic community comprising many branches, tribes, groups, and cultures that varied in their differences and networks.

Han

In the mid-2nd century BCE, elements of the Lesser Yuezhi reportedly migrated into southern Gansu, where they subsequently merged with the Qiang population.
In 112 BCE, the Han dynasty invaded what is now eastern Tibet with 25,000 cavalry in retaliation for Qiang raiding.
In 61 BCE, the Han court uncovered a conspiracy between the Xiongnu and a Qiang noble to attack Shanshan and Dunhuang. The court sent an envoy, Yiqu Anguo to assess the tribes, but he instead massacred the Xianling Qiang tribes and more than thirty of their leaders, causing the Western Qiang to rebel. The Han commander, Zhao Chongguo, famously pacified the rebellion in 60 BCE, largely attributed to his use of tuntian or "military-agricultural colonies" to win over the Qiang.
In 42 BCE, the Qiang in the Longxi region rebel and initially defeated the Han forces sent to fight them. However, in 41 BCE, the Han general Feng Fengshi returned with 60,000 men and crushed the Qiang rebellion.
In 49 CE, the Qiang tribes retook the Qinghai region from the Han.
In 57 CE, the Shaodang Qiang, a branch of the Western Qiang, led by Dianyu raided Jincheng Commandery.
In 59 CE, a Han army defeated Dianyu, forcing him to surrender.
In 77 CE, Miwu, the son of Dianyu, led the Qiang into rebellion.
In 87 CE, Miwu surrendered to the Han. However, he and 800 Qiang chieftains were soon murdered at a banquet by the Colonel Protector of the Qiang, Zhang Yu. His son, Mitang, led the Qiang to rebel again.
In 101 CE, a Han army defeated Mitang.
In 107 CE, Dianlian of the Xianlian Qiang attacked Liang Province. As a result, the Protectorate of the Western Regions was abandoned. The Han court sent Deng Zhi and Ren Shang against the invading army, and although the Qiang forces suffered significant casualties, they were defeated at Hanyang Commandery. Having achieved victory against the Han army, Dianlian proclaimed himself emperor at Beidi Commandery. Qiang forces now threatened Han territory as far south as Hanzhong Commandery and as far east as Ji Province.
In 109 CE, Dianlian conquered Longxi Commandery.
In 110 CE, Dianlian defeated and killed the Administrator Zheng Qin in Hanzhong Commandery.
In 112 CE, Dianlian died and was succeeded by his son Lianchang. Lianchang was too young to exercise authority and another man of the tribe, Langmo, took charge of strategy. The new regime was significantly less effective under the regent and failed to make any headway against Han forces.
In 116 CE, the Han general Deng Zun led 10,000 Southern Xiongnu cavalry in a raid on Lianchang's headquarters from the north. Meanwhile Ren Shang attacked from the south and killed Lianchang's wife and children.
In 117 CE, Lianchang was assassinated and forces under Ren Shang ended Qiang raids.
In 120 CE, the Qiang chieftain Jiwu attacked Jincheng Commandery and was defeated by the general Ma Xian.
In 121 CE, the Shaodang Qiang under Manu raided Wuwei Commandery but were defeated by the general Ma Xian the following year.
In 140 CE, the Qiang rebelled.
In 142 CE, the Qiang rebellion was put down.
In 167 CE, Duan Jiong conducted an anti-Qiang campaign and massacred Qiang populations as well as settled them outside the frontier.
In 184 CE, Beigong Boyu, a member of the Auxiliary of Loyal Barbarians of Huangzhong, started the Liang Province rebellion. The rebels captured Jincheng and reached Youfufeng Commandery in 185, and from there carried out raids against Chang'an. A Han army was sent out against them led by Huangfu Song and Zhang Wen but they failed to achieve any major victory. In 185, the Han general Dong Zhuo won a battle against Beigong Boyu and the rebels withdrew. Beigong Boyu and Li Wenhou are not mentioned after this, but the rebellion continued anyway when the new Inspector was killed by his own troops. During the rebellion, a half-Qiang, Ma Teng, rose to power as a warlord in Liang province with another warlord, Han Sui.
In 211 CE, Ma Chao, the son of Ma Teng, led a coalition in Guanxi against the Han chancellor, Cao Cao and was joined by Qiang soldiers. Although the coalition collapsed after the Battle of Tong Pass, some of the Qiang people continued to support Ma Chao in his attempt to retake Liang province in 213 CE before he was driven out.

Three Kingdoms

In the Three Kingdoms period, northwestern China became a contested region between the Cao Wei and Shu Han dynasties, and depending on their circumstances, the local Qiang people sided with one of the two states. Among Shu's strategies during the northern expeditions of Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei was to win the support of the Qiang and other tribes and aid them in their revolts against Wei.

Relations with Ba-Shu

The Western Rong were collectively known as Xu, consisting of Zhipi, Kunlun, Xi Zhi and Qu Sou. They were known for leather garments. Until the Jin Dynasty, the regions of Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan had populations of the Sou who lived and intermixed with the Shi Qiang. They maintained themselves as a semi-autonomous branch of the Shi Qiang. The State of Shu had rulers comparable to the Ba people. The Shu people were long settled in western Sichuan, specifically in the Chengdu Plain. By the Han era, the Shu were referred to as Sou. During the Three Kingdoms war, Lü Bu's army contained Sou people, former Shu soldiers who rebelled.
In the Tianshui commandery, the Fuxi tribe was formed as part of the Shi Qiang lineage. The King of Shu eneoffed his brother Meng and made him a marquis. He was friendly with the Ba King but the Ba and Shu were often in conflict. As the Ba and Shu barbarians attacked each other. Since part of the Shu people originated from the Shi Qiang, the Ba people also contain Shi Qiang ancestry as a result. The Ba ethnicity thus emerged as a fusion of the southern Puyue and the northern Shi Qiang populations. As early as the Western Zhou, the Bo people existed originally, forming a branch of the Shi Qiang. The Bo people were considered humane and benevolent and thus granted the character. By the Qin-Han period, the Bo had a higher economic, social and cultural development than other barbarians and thus were considered advanced and civilised. Furthermore, Bo and Bai share a phonetic similarity that can indicate interchangeability. The Bo people's records were sparse before the Qin, but Han records indicated they were sparsely distributed. This indicated the Bo and Shi Qiang were present throughout the Northwestern river basins, extending southwest in Eastern Lancang and north of the Red River in Modern Yunnan, in mixed and distinct clusters. BY the late Eastern Han, the Bo people intermixed with the Qiang along the river valleys. The Shi Qiang were known as Tang and were located west of the Lishui in the Min river in Sichuan.

Sixteen Kingdoms

The Qiang were one of the Five Barbarians that founded many of the Sixteen Kingdoms during the 4th century and early 5th century. They, along with many other tribal people in northwestern China, participated in the rebellions of Tufa Shujineng and Qi Wannian against the Western Jin dynasty. As Jin authority collapsed in northern China during the upheaval of the Five Barbarians, the Qiang tribes waivered their allegiances between Jin and the Xiongnu-led Han-Zhao dynasty before they were all subjected to the latter and its successors.
The first and only Qiang-led state of the Sixteen Kingdoms was the Later Qin, founded by the Yao clan who claimed descent from the Shaodang Qiang. In the wake of the Former Qin's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Fei River, the Qiang general, Yao Chang rebelled and declared himself Everlasting King of Qin in 384. After killing his former ruler, Fu Jian, he captured the Former Qin capital, Chang'an, where he elevated himself to Emperor of Qin in 386.
In 394, Yao Chang's successor, Yao Xing, crushed the last vestiges of the Former Qin's military, establishing the Later Qin as a major power in Guanzhong. Under his rule, the state reached its zenith as it conquered Luoyang from the Eastern Jin dynasty and vassalized many of its contemporary states. Yao Xing was also an ardent Buddhist and heavily promoted the religion within his state. He welcomed the Kuchean monk, Kumārajīva to Chang'an, where he helped translate many Buddhist texts into Chinese. It was also under Qin when the Chinese monk, Faxian, began his pilgrimage to India from Chang'an and the Maijishan Grottoes were first constructed.
However, the Later Qin declined during the second half of Yao Xing's reign. Infighting between the princes over the succession to the throne and mounting defeats on the battlefield, particularly to the Xiongnu rebel state, Helian Xia, gradually weakened the state. When Yao Hong ascended the throne in 416, rebellions sprang up throughout the empire while it came under attack from its neighbours. The Eastern Jin commander, Liu Yu took advantage of the chaos in Later Qin to launch his second northern expedition. In 417, Jin forces captured Yao Hong in Chang'an, ending the Later Qin.

Northern and Southern dynasties

During the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties, Fan Ye wrote a history of the Western Qiang describing traits such as "disheveled hair", folding their coat from the left side, and marriage customs where a widow would either marry her son or the deceased husband's brother. According to Fan, the Qiang lived in tribes and had no unified ruler.
Two minor Qiang polities existed during this period: the Dangchang Kingdom in present-day Tanchang County, Gansu and Dengzhi, located west of present-day Jiuzhaigou County, Sichuan. The Dangchang Qiang were led by the Liang clan while the Dengzhi Qiang, also known as the Baishui Qiang, were led by the Xiang clan. Both states were tributaries to the neighbouring Northern and Southern dynasties and lasted until the mid-6th century.
In 446 an ethnic Qiang rebellion was crushed by the Northern Wei. Wang Yu was an ethnic Qiang eunuch and he may have been castrated during the rebellion since the Northern Wei would castrate a rebel tribe's young elite. Fengyi prefecture's Lirun town according to the Weishu was where Wang Yu was born, Lirun was to Xi'ans's northeast by 100 miles and modern day Chengcheng stands at its site. Wang Yu patronized Buddhism and in 488 had a temple constructed in his birthplace.

Tang

During the Tang dynasty, the Dangxiang Qiang moved to the region of Xiazhou around modern Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province. They eventually founded the state of Western Xia and came to be known as the Tanguts. Another group of Qiang migrated south to the Min River in modern Sichuan Province. They came to be known as the Ran and Mang who were the ancestors of the modern Qiang people.

Tibetan Empire

According to the New Book of Tang, the "Bod originates from the Qiang." According to the Da Qing yi tong zhi, the Tibetan Empire was founded by a branch of the Fa Qiang.

Song

According to the polymath Shen Kuo, the Qiang were noted for producing high quality steel armour.

Yuan

During the Yuan dynasty, the term Qiang was replaced by Fan, and the people of the western plateaus were called "Western Bod". The two terms were used interchangeably until the Qing dynasty when Qiang came to refer to those living upstream of the Min River.

Language

The Qiang did not have surnames until the last few hundred years when they adopted Han Chinese surnames.

Culture

The Qiang were first described as nomadic shepherds living in the region of contemporary Gansu and Qinghai provinces. Unlike other nomads, the Qiang did not shave their heads and wore their hair loose over their face. At some point prior to the modern era they settled and adopted an agricultural way of life. Due to constant conflict between Qiang tribes and other peoples, the Qiang built numerous stone guard towers with small windows and doors, giving them the moniker of the "Stone Tower Culture". These constructs, described as Himalayan Towers, can be found today in eastern Tibet and Sichuan Province.
Qiang society followed matrilineal descent and it was men who integrated into the women's lineage upon their deaths. Others consider Qiang society to be patrilineal but with high status for women. Marriage was monogamous and forbidden within the same family for three generations. A large entourage fetched the bride and delivered her to the groom's house where the wedding ceremony was held, which involved dancing and drinking highland barley wine. After three days, the bride returned to her parents' house and lived there for a year until the birth of the first child. The men traveled to their wives' residences and worked their land for a long period of time as bride service. Despite the centrality of women in Qiang families, Qiang society was neither matriarchal nor egalitarian. Men held all the important political and religious positions, although there is some evidence that female shamans existed at one point. As in most agricultural societies, women were responsible for domestic and agricultural work while men engaged in construction, transport, and plowing.
In the Qiang culture, ram's horn flower represents true love. Young men use the flower to express their love for their beloved.

Religion

The Qiang revered the tiger and featured it prominently on their totem poles. White stones were also considered to be sacred and sometimes put on altars or rooftops. Qiang folk religion resembles animism and shamanism. It places spiritual belief in the natural features of the landscape and the ability of shamans to contact spirits. The Qiang believed in the door god, the fireplace god, and the house god. The fireplace god was sacrificed to with food near an iron potholder before each meal. An altar in the corner of the main floor facing the door was considered sacred. It showed the financial status of the household with how ornate it was.
The Qiang celebrated the Qiang New Year on the 24th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar. Now it is fixed on 1 October. The Mountain Sacrifice Festival is held between second and sixth months of the lunar calendar.
Religious ceremonies were performed by shamans known as duangong or xbi in Qiang. Xbi were responsible for initiation ceremonies for young men who reached 18 years of age. The ceremony, known as "sitting on top of the mountain" in Qiang, involves a family ritual sacrificing a sheep or cow and planting three cypress trees on top of a mountain. These shamans were also responsible for passing down Qiang stories as there was no written Qiang language until recently.

Tribes and chiefs

  • Bi'nan
  • Goujiu
  • *Dianyu II
  • Qian
  • *Midanger
  • Shaodang
  • *Shaodang
  • *Dianliang
  • Western Qiang
  • *Fu Fan
  • *Pang Tian
  • Xianlian
  • *Yangyu
  • *Youfei
  • *Dianlian
  • *Lianchang
  • *Langmo
  • Zhong
  • ?
  • *Beigong Boyu
  • *Diaoku
  • *Dize
  • *Erku
  • *Juzhong
  • *Li Lu
  • *Lianger
  • *Miwang
  • *Quhu lai Wang
  • *Ruoling
  • *Yangdiao