Friends who are familiar with astrology know that the twelve constellations in the West are actually not that simple. There is also astrology arranged according to the year, month, day and time of birth. This horoscope has twelve palaces, and the principle comes from the zodiac twelve palaces.
The Zodiac Palace also had a great influence on China, and it was presented in the Dunhuang mural "The Change of the Buddhist Sutra".
"Blazing Buddhist Sutra Changes" Partial
This mural is located in Cave 61 of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang Dunhuang Dunhuang Dunhuang treasury regime Dunhuang treasury regime Cao Yuanzhong, and the predecessor of Dunhuang is the center of the Guiyi Army territory.
Speaking of Guiyi Army, we have to talk about the promotional film "The Last Transfer of the Tang Dynasty's Mobei" launched by UnionPay last year, which appeared in the film.
Jianzhong is the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang Dynasty. From 780 AD to 783 AD, there were only four years. The "eleventh year of Jianzhong" was actually the sixth year of Zhenyuan, which was 790 AD.
In other words, even in the film, Kuo Dashui set out in the last year of his career, he has been on the road for 7 years.
Mang Guo traveled through mountains and rivers in order to make the Tang Dynasty's flag float again in Western Regions . After 60 years after Guo Dazhi and his brothers were buried in that land, Shazhou Yimin Zhang Yichao led the Guiyi army to recover Xizhou .
If Guo Dashuai had spirit in heaven, he would be very pleased.
Guiyijun , a group that rarely appears in history textbooks and even literary works, is one of the indispensable casters of the historical glory of the Tang Dynasty.
The product of the collapse of the Tubo
Since the Anshi Rebellion, as the Tang Dynasty fell into endless civil strife, the four towns of Anxi and Anxi in the Western Regions and the Anxi Protectorate are also facing various invasions from the outside, the most serious of which is Tubo from Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
pictures are from the Earth Knowledge Bureau
In the entire , the most threatening force to the Tang Dynasty was Tubo.
Even when the Tang Dynasty was at its peak, it could not solve Tubo. A generation of famous generals Xue Rengui had returned home in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Not to mention that after the decline of the Tang Dynasty, Tubo not only repeatedly invaded the Tang Dynasty, but even twice invaded Chang'an City .
For the Anxi Protectorate, which was unable to obtain assistance from the central government due to the civil strife in the Tang Dynasty, it is really difficult to face such an opponent independently.
Although the Anxi Protectorate still held on for more than 40 years under the battle of Guo Xin and others, a lonely army was obviously unable to cope with the invasion from the entire Tubo regime. Anxi Protectorate finally fell into Tubo under the fierce attack.
Picture source from Wikipedia
For the Tang monarchs and ministers who had already devoted their main energy to deal with the internal semi-independent vassal states, it seemed powerless to restore these fallen territory.
However, since Tubo occupied the Hexi Corridor, he has been adopting very strict oppressive policies on the local Han people. Not only did he impose very serious punishments on the Han people, but he also required them to learn Tibetan and wear Tubo costumes.
However, the local Han people did not succumb to the rule of Tubo, but were always concerned about the Tang Dynasty and silently waited for the day to return to the Tang Dynasty.
The so-called hard work will last forever, and the world will not disappoint. After enduring for nearly a hundred years, the Han people in Hexi finally waited for this opportunity.
In 842 AD, Tubo Dama Zamp was assassinated by Buddhists because of his radical policy of abolishing Buddhism and destroying the interpretation. The Tubo nobles supported Prince Yongdan and Osong respectively, and in order to compete for the royal power, they attacked each other, and the royal family was divided into two.
Hexi region controlled by Tubo is no exception involved in this Tubo civil war.
Tubo Luomenchuan (now Wushan District, Gansu) attacked the envoy on the fear of the heat on the attack of a noble who supported Yongdan, and declared: "Why is Zanpu without the order of the Tang Dynasty?"
He called himself "national prime minister" and fought with Yongdan's great prime minister Shang Siluo west of Taoshui. Later, he killed Shang Siluo, and his crowd was more than 100,000. Then he attacked Shang Piqi, the governor of Duzhou of Tubo, and the two sides were fired in the He, Du, Gua, Su and other places.
Although the civil war between these Tubo people caused the people of all ethnic groups to be ravaged by the 8 states including Hexi, Du, and Kuo, and the land was almost gone for 5,000 miles; the two states of He and Wei to Die and Dang, and the two thousand miles were silent.
But on the other hand, it greatly weakened the military strength of Tubo in the Hexi region, allowing the Han people who did not forget their homeland and looked up to the Tang Dynasty to see the opportunity.
In 848 AD, Zhang Yichao, a Han native of Shazhou, gathered a group of people to rebel and promulgated the states to abandon their foreign powers and return to the Tang Dynasty. However, the people of Hexi, who "don't remember the Tang Dynasty every day" , naturally responded to Zhang Yichao's call, followed and controlled it.
Under the will of people, the theory that once swept across Hexi was not as powerful as before. It was defeated repeatedly in front of the Guiyi Army. was finally captured and killed by the Guiyi Army in 866 AD.
Long time before being arrested on the fear of heat, Zhang Yichao sent envoys to Chang'an to report victory in 851 AD, and offered 11 provinces of Gua, Sha, Yi (now Hami, Xinjiang), Su, Gan, Xi (now Turpan, Xinjiang), Lan, Du, He, Mian, and Kuo, and requested to return to the Tang Dynasty.
Picture source from the Earth Knowledge Bureau
For those Tang monarchs and ministers who were busy dealing with the problems of vassal states, it was a surprise that they could get the land of 11 states in the Western Regions without a single soldier.
Tang Ting then set up the Guiyi Army Jiedushi in Shazhou, and ordered Zhang Yichao to be the Guiyi Army Jiedushi and the Observer of 11 Prefectures. I hope he can continue to work hard and continue to restore the hometown of the Western Regions for the Tang Dynasty.
Zhang Yichao did not disappoint everyone's expectations. He led more than 7,000 Hu and Han coalition forces to conquer the important town of Liangzhou, and then occupied the entire Helong area, and even occupied the capital and Kuozhou in the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for a time.
There was this time when the fear of the fire was captured by Tuoba Huaiguang, the leader of the Duzhou City envoy of the Guiyi Army.
Since then, the Tang Dynasty has almost restored its control over the entire Hexi Corridor and even the Western Regions, and seems to have returned to the highlight era of the past.
However, the good times did not last long. The land that was regained from the outside enemy was once again in danger because of the internal Game of Thrones.
The relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the Guiyi Army
For the restoration of the Hexi Corridor and even the Western Regions, if the Guiyi Army had not actively surrendered, then the Tang Dynasty's regaining the Western Regions could be said to be an out of reach.
For the monarchs and ministers of the Tang Dynasty, they really understood the merits of the Guiyi Army, so they also gave Zhang Yichao various kindnesses at the beginning.
However, everyone understands the nature of the monarchs and ministers of the Tang Dynasty. Their main pursuit in their lives is to subdue all the semi-independent vassal states in various places and re-implement the unified centralized pattern.
So no matter what contribution the Guiyi army made to the Tang Dynasty, it is impossible for the court to allow such a semi-independent vassal state to develop without any restrictions.
Even at the beginning, Tang Ting asked Zhang Yichao to take his brother Zhang Yitan to Chang'an as a hostage.
After the Guiyi Army captured Liangzhou, the court refused to subscribe Liangzhou to the jurisdiction of Guiyi Army, ordered the Guiyi Army to withdraw from Liangzhou, and also dispatch troops from Shandong Tianping Army to guard Liangzhou and establish Liangzhou Jiedushi, which was actually used to prevent Guiyi Army.
Zhang Chao marching map
Not only that, the court also ordered the six states to be assigned to the jurisdiction of the Liangzhou Jiedushi and the Tianxiong Army Jiedushi, and the legal jurisdiction of the Guiyi Army was reduced from eleven states to five states.
In order to further weaken the Guiyi Army, after Zhang Yitan's death, the court even summoned Zhang Yichao, who was already 69 years old, and deducted Zhang Yichao's heir Zhang Huaishen's Guiyi Army's Jiedushi Yin Xin for more than ten years.
After this series of operations, the indomitable Guiyi Army was not as powerful as before.
Not only were they unable to carry out active military operations, but even Liangzhou, which had just conquered, had to give up. Their power was eventually limited to Gua and Sha prefectures, and was subject to Ganzhou Uighur , which was supported by the Tang Dynasty.
However, the harsh treatment of the court did not shake the loyalty of the Guiyi army to the Tang Dynasty. They upheld the heart of belonging to the Tang Dynasty until the end.
In 904 AD, when Zhu Wen killed Tang Zhaozong and planned the Baimayi Massacre, Zhang Yichao's grandson Zhang Chengfeng , like many Jiedushi, was dissatisfied with Zhu Wen's usurpation.
But at this time, although Zhang Chengfeng was determined to serve the country, he could no longer help.
The struggle and fall of the Guiyi Army
As early as when Zhang Yichao passed away, the Zhang family broke out several coups around power, just like other vassal states.
First, Zhang Yichao's son-in-law Suexun , killed Zhang Yichao's heir and his nephew Zhang Huaishen and his wife, and made Zhang Yichao's son Zhang Huaiding the governor.
After Zhang Huaiding's death, Suo Xun became the governor again.
This aroused the dissatisfaction of Zhang Yichao's youngest daughter, Li Zhenming's wife Zhang, and sent someone to kill Suo Xun and changed Zhang Huaiding's son Zhang Chengfeng as the governor.
Under this series of internal frictions, coupled with various suppressions from the court, the Guiyi Army, which once shocked the Western Regions, greatly declined.
Cao Yijin , who was born in Sogdians, even saw the opportunity to replace Zhang Chengfeng as the new governor of Guiyi Army.
Unlike Zhang, who is dedicated to the Tang Dynasty, Cao's position is more pragmatic.
Cao's regime strives to improve its relationship with surrounding ethnic minority regimes, and has established a new relationship of friendly exchanges with ethnic minority regimes such as Ganzhou Uighurs, Xizhou Uighurs, and Khotan through marriage.
At the same time, actively restored the tyranny with the Central Plains dynasty, accepted the title of the Central Plains dynasty, and followed the righteousness of the Central Plains, and took advantage of the prestige of the Tang Dynasty in the minds of all ethnic groups in order to establish its orthodox status among the ethnic groups in the northwest.
will continue to absorb leading figures from Guasha and ethnic minorities to participate in the Guiyi Army regime to expand the political foundation.
These measures made the Cao Guiyi army regime not only recognized by the Central Plains dynasty and the surrounding ethnic minority regimes, but also supported by the soldiers and civilians in the country, allowing it to survive and develop in the complex ethnic relations of the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty. staged a textbook-style weak-country diplomatic strategy .
But if there is no sufficient support from a strong country, this weak country diplomacy has its limits after all.
After the rise of Xixia , it quickly destroyed the old rival of Guiyi Army, Ganzhou Uighurs, and then looked at Guiyi Army. In order to deal with the threat from Xixia, Guiyi Army turned to the Northern Song Dynasty court and neighboring countries, but received no reply.
was eventually destroyed by Xixia in isolation and helplessness.
The Japanese movie "Dunhuang" reflects this kind of history, and its war scenes are basically highly restored. Zhu Wangli's sentence in the film: "Kill Li Yuanhao !" vividly shows the courage of Chinese men.
Look back, Zhang Yichao and other ancestors, the word "return" is their full motivation for bloody battles. Any descendant of China will love this land with the most generous heart.
Guo Dashuai and Zhang Yichao represent the endless vitality of the Chinese nation. They sacrificed their lives for the country, regardless of personal honor and disgrace. It is precisely because generations of heroes like them will always appear in Chinese history that Chinese civilization can retain the spark of revival every time they encounter changes.
The body can fall down, and the stubbornness and persistence of a nation will last forever!
