Tip: Perhaps, the name Shule is the "symbol of hometown" left by Yuezhi on the road to migration, just like some scholars today believe that Loulan people have a certain relationship with Baode, Kelan , and Louanren in Ningwu area in the Spring and Autumn Period. In that era, the only way for people to write history into the earth was to rely on place names. Since we cannot call people of Kang, An, Cao, Shi, Mi, He, Shi, Mu, Bi who have Sogdian bloodlines "foreigners", then the Yuezhi people must be the "ethnic minority" in ancient China. What's more, according to the verification of Chinese scholar Wang Guowei, the Yuezhi is the "Yu family" in "Yi Zhou Shu Wang Huijie" and the "Yu Zhi" or "Yu family" in "Biography of Emperor Mu". They are all people under the rule of the ancient country of Queen Mother of the West in China.
In the history of Silk Road , Western Regions has two very famous ancient cities , one is called Loulan and the other is called Shule. They are one south and one north, and they control the civilization direction of Tianshan . They are signposts of civilization, but what is strange is that Loulan is almost a household name, while Shule is unknown. As for the common people, a "beauty" unearthed in Loulan, Loulan's mummy, and buried in the desert, has increased people's yearning, as if there is always a sense of mystery. This makes people sigh that the hero is not as good as the beauty , because there was a great hero in Shule's history, he is Geng Gong , who guards in the Han Dynasty in Shule City .
Geng Gong's story was summarized by later generations as Thirteen soldiers returning to Yumen , that is: In 74 AD, the Eastern Han Dynasty re-established the Western Regions Protectorate Palace and appointed Geng Gong and Guan Chong as the lieutenant of Wuyi. The following year, the Northern Xiongnu Chanyu sent 20,000 elite troops to attack Cheshi , killed Cheshi Queen, and instead attacked Geng Gong's garrison, which had stationed hundreds of people, and surrounded him into the city. At this time, Emperor Ming of Han died and had no time to send troops and rescued them. The Cheshiguo, the country, betrayed the Han Dynasty and joined forces with the Xiongnu to attack Geng Gong. The Han soldiers and food were exhausted and they were in trouble. They cooked armor and crossbows and ate their tendons and leather, refused the Xiongnu's surrender, and stood firm in the city. It was not until Emperor Zhang succeeded to the throne that he sent troops to defeat the Huns. When reinforcements came to Geng Gong to guard the city, there were only 26 people left in the city. When they followed the Han army back to Yumen Pass, there were only 13 people left, and their clothes were ragged and ragged, looking haggard and withered. The guard of Yumen Pass was so moved that he personally took a shower and changed their clothes.
This can be regarded as the Chinese version of rescue soldiers 2,000 years ago. On the most difficult days, the soldiers guarding the Western Regions "drink them with horse manure and drink them with water", which means that the city is short of water. They make juice from horse manure as water, leaving behind an allusion of " ambition to eat the barbarians in hunger, laughing at the thirsty drinking the Xiongnu blood ", which was written by Yue Fei in "Manjianghong·Rage and Fighting the Crown": The city "eat all the food is poor", the soldiers "cooked armor and crossbows, eat their tendons", and cooked all the strings made of animal tendons on the crossbow and the leather on the armor, but the Huns had no choice but to think of a trick to make them surrender: they promised that if Geng Gong surrendered, they could marry the daughter of the Hun King to him as his wife. Geng Gong said: Well, then let your messengers come and we negotiate. As a result, the Hun envoy came, but Geng Gong captured him to the top of the city, killed him, and then ate it with fire.
What a tragic and regretful historical story. Even today, we still lack this kind of passionate event education, but it still cannot beat the "beauty" in Loulan. Therefore, some people say with great regret that without Shule City, the history of the Silk Road lacks vivid chapters. What we want to say is that the "Shule" on the Silk Road is not only this, one is a city, one is a river, and the other is a country. The three "Shule" are connected together, which is clearly a historical context and line for people to explore and study.
Shule City: A city within the territory of Cheshi, the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty. The city is located on the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, facing a deep stream, with a dangerous terrain, guarding the north-south passage of the Tianshan Mountains.It is generally believed that the Shule City ruins are located in the hilly area on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains of Magouliang Village (formerly the first team) 64 kilometers south of the city of Qitai County. The Shule City is built on a cliff west of the Magou River. It was originally made of stone, so local people call it "Shichengzi". In addition, on the way to the Dalongkou Ancient City of Jimusar to the Wild Wolf Valley, there is Shule City built by people today. Not far from this city, there is a stone tablet mark of Dalongkou Ancient City on the small hillside on the right. The ancient city originally occupied a huge area and then reduced its scale after being damaged. Some scholars also prefer this ancient city as the ruins of Shule City.
Shule River : Gansu Province Gansu Province The second largest river in the flowing water system in Hexi Corridor , the ancient famous book Duanshui, with a total length of 540 kilometers and a basin area of 20,197 square kilometers. It originates between Tulainan Mountain and Shulenan Mountain in the western section of the Qilian Mountains of , flows northwest through the alpine grassland of Subei County, runs through the Daxue Mountains to the canyon between Tulainan Mountains, and passes through the Changma Basin. Before leaving Changmaxia, it was the upper reaches, with abundant water and rapid flow. From leaving Changmaxia to the corridor, it was the middle reaches, and below the Shuangtabao Reservoir to Anxi is the lower reaches.
Shule Kingdom : Ancient Western Regions Kingdom, one of the famous 36 Western Regions Kingdoms . It is equivalent to Kashgar in Xinjiang today. It is located at the intersection of the south and north of the Western Regions. It has been the main import and export of east-west transportation since ancient times. "Han Book: The Western Regions Biography" records that the Shule Kingdom, the king ruled Shule City, went to the 9,350 miles of Chang'an, 1,510 households, 18,647 mouths, and 2,000 soldiers. Shule Hou, attack Hu Hou, Fuguo Hou, Duwei, left and right general, left and right cavalry king, left and right interpreter. It reaches the capital's 2,210 miles east to the capital's stewardship and 560 miles south to Shache. There is a market. Xidang Dayuezhi , Dayuan, Kangju Dao.
One city, one river, one country, what does Shule mean? "Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty": "The formerly called Shule was called the city name. The correct pronunciation is ok. The words of Shule are still false." But no one knows what "Shili is ok" means, but in some ancient books, Shule is also called Qisha, Jiasha, Jiashe, and Jicha, which is obviously related to Buddhism. But what we are more concerned about is that " Shule's words are just erroneous ", which also links it with the Yuezhi and Sogdian in history. We cannot find the historical records or answers in the middle of whether it is transliterated or homophonic, but it leads to the westward migration route of the Yuezhi nation.
According to the "Zhangye Regional Chronicle", about 6,000-5,000 BC, part of the Yu clan (Yuezhi) migrated westward from the Shandong Peninsula along the Yellow River; around the time of the Xia and Shang dynasties, they settled in the east and central areas of the Hexi Corridor. There is an Zhaowu village in Yanuan Town, Linze County. A thick stone tablet is erected on the west side of the Zhaowu Village Committee, with the words "Zhaowu's Old Place". In addition, there is another place called "Half City" in the local area, which is the city built by the Yuezhi people back then. We don’t know whether the city belongs to the Yuezhi people, but there was no problem with the Yuezhi people who once lived in the Hexi Corridor.
Coincidentally, the Sogdians in history, were named Zhaowu in the nine surnames commonly known in Chinese historical records. In "Old Book of Tang: Biography of Xirong", they used Zhaowu as their surname in order to " does not forget their origins, ". These nine surnames were headed by Kang, as well as An, Cao, Shi, Mi, He, Shi, Mu, Bi, etc., which were city-states of the nine surnames and tribal alliances. The Tang Dynasty called them "Nine surnames Hu". In 649 AD, in order to eliminate the northwest border, the Tang Dynasty sent troops to expedition the west to Central Asia. By 658 AD, it finally eliminated the stubborn Turkic forces that rebeled and impermanent, and established prefectures and governors' offices in various parts of the Western Regions. The Sogdian land in Central Asia was classified as the territory of the Tang Dynasty. As a result, the Sogdians set off a climax of returning to the east.
Today, Kang, An, Cao, Shi, Mi, He, Shi, Mu, and Bi are common in Chinese surnames, and have also produced historical celebrities such as An Lushan , Shi Siming , Kang Jinde, Cao Lingzhong, Cao Yena, He Fudiyan, and Mi Fu."Northern History: Biography of the Western Regions" records the relationship between these people and the Hexi region in detail: "The king's surname was Wen, a native of Yuezhi, and his former residence in Qilian Mountains, was destroyed by the Huns, and then he crossed the Pamir Mountains to the west and then had a country, and each branch was divided into kings." The migration route of the Yuezhi people was roughly the same, from the Hexi Corridor to the eastern part of Xinjiang, where he stayed for a short time, then went to Central Asia, where he was merged with the locals into other ethnic groups, and established the Kushan Dynasty, but the Han Dynasty did not know about this and still called them "Big Yuezhi". For example, in 90 AD, when the Han general Ban Chao defeated the Kushan Kingdom, he did not know the name of the Kushan king, so he called him "King Yuezhi".
This is the fusion of ethnicity. In contrast, the "Loulan beauty" seems very lonely. The Silk Road in front of us is so much that we have, and our "hobbies" cannot just stay on women in a desert. The three Shule are actually a road in the migration pace, and the stories on the road are always very exciting. Although we can only face their history in the ruins today, the story still remains, in addition to the names of people, there are also place names. (Text | Lu Sheng)
