Four garrisons from Anxi

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The advance of the Chinese from 640. With the 4 garrisons (red) and other cities (black)

The four garrisons of Anxi ( Chinese  安西 四 鎮  /  安西 四 镇 , Pinyin Anxi Sizhen , W.-G. Anhsi Szuchen ) were garrison troops from the Tang Dynasty between 648 and 658 in the Tarim Basin in various cities and the capital of the Indo -European small states Kuqa , Khotan , Kashgar and Karashahr had been stationed. The capital of Kuqa was also the headquarters of the “General Protectorate for Pacification of the West”. The troops stationed here came from the heartland of the Tang Dynasty itself.

history

640 conquered Tangkaiser Taizong the kingdom of Gaochang (also Karakhoja, Turfan or Kocho), a neighbor of China, which with the Western Türk-Kaganat was allied. After that, Karashahr , which was originally allied with China, turned against its previous ally, as a result of which it was also conquered in 644. In 648/49 Kuqa was defeated.

The four garrison system was applied from 648, when the opposing small states in the Tarim Basin were defeated. In 651, the troops under the Turkish prince Ashina Helu were withdrawn for a short time until Su Dingfang was conquered in 657.

The main adversary of the Tang in consolidating their dominance over the region were the Tibetans , who attacked again and again since 662 and occupied the area between 670 and 692, only briefly interrupted by advances by the Tang in 675, 679, 682 and 686.

In 679 another fortified camp was built in Suyab near the Chui He , which later replaced Karashahr as one of the four garrisons until the Turkesh conquered it in 719. After the final victory over the Tibetans in 692, the four garrisons remained in the hands of the Tang, except for an eight-month occupation of Kuqa by the Turkic people in 709. The Tang held the garrisons until 791, although most of the regular prefectures were held fell into the hands of Tibetans in the surrounding Hexi corridor , such as Liangzhou (764), Ganzhou , Suzhou (766), Guazhou (776), Yizhou (781) and Shazhou (787). In the year 791 the four garrisons were finally captured by the Tibetan soldiers together with the General Protectorate for the pacification of the west.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Xue, pp. 596-598.
  2. ↑ a b "Anxi Sizhen" on Baike ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Wang, pp. 69-89, 294-295
  4. ↑ Wang, pp. 207-210 and 296-300

literature