Qiang (historical people)

Qiang

羌
Depiction of an envoy of Dengzhi, a Qiang ethnic group, from a Portraits of Periodical Offering painting, 6th century CE
Regions with significant populations
Ancient China

Qiang (Chinese: 羌; pinyin: Qiāng; Wade–Giles: Ch'iang) 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,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} though there are other theories.

The Tangut people of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties may be of Qiang descent.^[1] The modern Qiang people as well as Tibetans may also have been descended in part from the ancient Qiangs.^[6]

According to the Han dynasty dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, the Qiang were shepherds, and the Chinese character for Qiang (羌) was thus formed from the characters for "sheep" (羊) and "man" (人), and pronounced like "sheep".^[7][8] 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.^[9]

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".^[10]

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.^[11]

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."^[12] It appears again in the Classic of Poetry in reference to Tang of Shang (trad. 1675–1646 BC).^[13] 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.^[14]

This ancient tribe is said to be the progenitor of both the modern Qiang and the Tibetan people.^[6] There are still many ethnological and linguistic links between the Qiang and the Tibetans.^[6] 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.^[15] Even today, from linguistic similarities, their relative relationship can be seen. They formed the Tibetan ethnicity after the unification of the Tubo kingdom.^[15] 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".^[16]

Shuowen Jiezi indicated that the Qiangs were shepherds from the west and they were part of the Xirong.^[8] They had a close relation to the Zhou dynasty,^[1] 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.^[17] 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 or identical to the Qiang.^[1][18][19] Some of the ancient groups were called the "Horse-Qiang" or "Many-Horse-Qiang" (Ma Qiang or Duo Ma Qiang), suggesting they may have been horse breeders.^[14]

During the Han dynasty, a group of nomads to the southwest of Dunhuang were known as the Chuo Qiang (Chinese: 婼羌). 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.^[20] In the Weilüe, other Qiang tribes named were the "Brown Onion", "White Horse", and "Yellow Ox" Qiang.^[21] The various tribes of the Qiangs formed a confederation against the Han but were defeated.^[22]

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.^[1]

Genetic analyses of ancient Qiang (Di-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.^[23] Ancient Qiang remains belonged exclusively to paternal haplogroup O-M175 (O3a).^[24]

In the mid-2nd century BCE, elements of the Lesser Yuezhi reportedly migrated into southern Gansu, where they subsequently merged with the Qiang population.^[25]

In 112 BCE, the Han dynasty invaded what is now eastern Tibet with 25,000 cavalry on grounds of Qiang raiding.^[26]

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 (義渠安國) to assess the tribes, but he instead massacred the Xianling Qiang tribes and more than thirty of their leaders, causing the Western Qiang to all 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.^[27]

In 42 BCE, the Qiang in the Longxi region rebel and initially defeated the Han forces sent to fight them.^[28] However, in 41 BCE, the Han general Feng Fengshi returned with 60,000 men and crushed the Qiang rebellion.^[28]

In 49 CE, the Qiang tribes retook the Qinghai region from the Han.^[29]

In 57 CE, the Qiang led by Dianyu raided Jincheng Commandery.^[30]

In 59 CE, a Han army defeated Dianyu.^[30]

In 107 CE, Dianlian of the Qiang Xianlian 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.^[31][29]

In 109 CE, Dianlian conquered Longxi Commandery.^[32]

In 110 CE, Dianlian defeated and killed the Administrator Zheng Qin in Hanzhong Commandery.^[32]

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.^[33]

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.^[33]

In 117 CE, Lianchang was assassinated and forces under Ren Shang ended Qiang raids.^[34]

In 120 CE, the Qiang chieftain Jiwu attacked Jincheng Commandery and was defeated by the general Ma Xian.^[35]

In 121 CE, the Qiang Shaodang tribe under Manu raided Wuwei Commandery but were defeated by the general Ma Xian the following year.^[36]

In 140 CE, the Qiang rebelled.^[34]

In 142 CE, the Qiang rebellion was put down.^[34]

In 167 CE, Duan Jiong conducted an anti-Qiang campaign and massacred Qiang populations as well as settled them outside the frontier.^[34]

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.^[37]

In 211 CE, Ma Chao, the son of Ma Teng, led a coalition in Guanxi (west of Tong Pass) 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.^[38]

In the Three Kingdoms period (220–280), 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.^[39]

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 (270–279) and Qi Wannian (296–299) 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.^[39]

The first and only Qiang-led state of the Sixteen Kingdoms was the Later Qin (384–417). 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 (Later) Qin in 386.^[39]

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.^[40]

However, the Later Qin entered a 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.^[40]

During the period of Northern and Southern dynasties, Fan Ye (398–445) 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.^[12]

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 (梁) while the Dengzhi Qiang, also known as the Baishui Qiang (白水羌), were led by the Xiang clan (像/象). Both states were tributaries to the neighbouring Northern and Southern dynasties and lasted until the mid-6th century.^[41]

In 446 an ethnic Qiang rebellion was crushed by the Northern Wei. Wang Yu (王遇) was an ethnic Qiang eunuch and he may have been castrated during the rebellion since the Northern Wei would castrated the 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.^[42]

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 (1038–1227 CE) 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.^[39]

According to the New Book of Tang, the "Bod originates from the Qiang." According to the Da Qing yi tong zhi (1735), the Tibetan Empire was founded by a branch of the Fa Qiang.^[12]

According to the polymath Shen Kuo, the Qiang were noted for producing high quality steel armour.^[43]

The Qiang people of Qingtang are skilled at forging armour. The colour of the iron is blue-black, so clear and bright that it can mirror a hair. They use musk-deer leather for the thongs to string it together - it is soft, thin, and tough.^[44]

— Shen Kuo

During the Yuan dynasty, the term Qiang was replaced by Fan (Bod), 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.^[12]

A problematic case is the “Qiang,” which as Wang Mingke has established, is an old Chinese term along the western borderlands for people in the middle, neither Chinese nor Tibetan, neither exclusively agricultural nor purely pastoral, and likely referring to a variety of successive frontier populations. Communities and individuals were not firmly identified with the modern nationality Qiang, by others as well as themselves, until the People’s Republic. Today they are concentrated in Maozhou and Wenchuan and parts of Lixian and Heishui, plus a few in the southernmost part of Songpan. They speak a variety of non-Tibetan dialects in two main forms, Northern and Southern Qiang, but some speak only Chinese.^[45]

— Xiaofei Kang

The Qiang did not have surnames until the last few hundred years when they adopted Han Chinese surnames.^[46]

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.^[47] At some point prior to the modern era they settled and adopted an agricultural way of life.^[48] 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 "Stone Tower Culture". These constructs, described as Himalayan Towers, can be found today in eastern Tibet and Sichuan Province.^[49]

Qiang society followed matrilineal descent and it was men who integrated into the women's lineage at their deaths. Others consider Qiang society to be patrilineal but with a 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 or egalitarian. Men held all the important political and religious positions, although there is some evidence that female shamans existed at one point. Like most agricultural societies, women were responsible for domestic and agricultural work while men engaged in construction, transport, and plowing.^[48][50]

The Qiang culture, ram's horn flower represents true love. Young men use the flower to express their love for their beloved.^[51]

The Qiang revered the tiger and featured it prominently on their totem poles. White stones (flint 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.^[52] 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.^[53]

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.^[53]

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.^[54]

In most current scholarship, especially in Chinese, the modern Qiangzu are assumed to be the same as Ancient Qiangzu. However, compared to other Tibeto-Burman speakers, Qiangzu does not have a closer relation to the Ancient Qiang group. Nevertheless they have been designated as Qiangzu by the Chinese government. The arbitrary assignment of Qiang (羌) to a specific ethnic group has created confusion. First, in general, people could hardly avoid making an artificial equivalence between Ancient Qiang and Qiangzu. Since Qiangzu was named in 1950, other Tibeto-Burman speakers or Ancient Qiang decendents show no interest in dating their history back to Ancient Qiang, asking, “How could we (Yi 9,000,000; Tibetan 6,000,000) be decendents of the small Qiangzu?” Moreover, since the assignment of the name Qiangzu, the indigenous culture (Rme/ʐme/ culture) has been strongly shaped by the willing and concomitant necessity of creating a Qiang culture that demonstrates unmerited links to Ancient Qiang. Thirdly, the term Qiang split the Rme people (those using the Rme/ʐme autonym) into two parts. The Rme in Heishui are not considered Qiangzu but Tibetan by the Central Government.^[55]

— Maotao Wen

• Bi'nan
• Goujiu
  • Dianyu II (184)
• Qian
  • Midanger (60)
• Shaodang (Yan)
  • Shaodang (40 BCE)
  • Dianliang (40)
• Western Qiang
  • Fu Fan (6)
  • Pang Tian (6)
• Xianlian
  • Yangyu (60)
  • Youfei (60)
  • Dianlian (r.107–112)
  • Lianchang (d.117)
  • Langmo (r.112–118)
• Zhong
• ?
  • Beigong Boyu
  • Diaoku
  • Dize
  • Erku
  • Juzhong
  • Li Lu
  • Lianger
  • Miwang
  • Quhu lai Wang
  • Ruoling
  • Yangdiao

• Qiang people
• Tangut people
• Gyalrong people
• Tibetan people
• Achang people
• Bamar people
• Sumpa
• Mosuo
• Nakhi people
• Pumi people
• Yi people
• Ethnic groups in Chinese history

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• Crespigny, Rafe de (2010), Imperial Warlord, Brill
• Crespigny, Rafe de (2017), Fire Over Luoyang: A History of the Later Han Dynasty, 23-220 AD, Brill
• LaPolla, Randy (2003), A Grammar of Qiang, Mouton Gruyter
• Kang, Xiaofei (2016), Contesting the Yellow Dragon
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• Twitchett, Denis (2008), The Cambridge History of China: Volume 1, Cambridge University Press
• Wen, Maotao (2014). The Creation of the Qiang Ethnicity, its Relation to the Rme People and the Preservation of Rme Language (Master thesis). Duke University.
• Wagner, Donald B. (2008), Science and Civilization in China Volume 5-11: Ferrous Metallurgy, Cambridge University Press
• West, Barbara A. (2009), Encyclopedia of Peoples of Asia and Oceania, Facts on File
• Whiting, Marvin C. (2002), Imperial Chinese Military History, Writers Club Press