Kangju | |
|---|---|
| 1st century BCE (?)–5th century CE | |
 The approximate territory of the Kangju c. 200 CE. | |
| Status | Independent state |
| Capital | Kangu |
| Common languages | Sogdian language |
| Historical era | Late Antiquity |
• Established | 1st century BCE (?) |
• Disestablished | 5th century CE |
| Today part of | Uzbekistan Tajikistan |
Kangju (Chinese:康居;pinyin:kāngjū;Wade–Giles:K'ang-chü;Eastern Han Chinese:kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ < *khâŋ-ka (c. 140 BCE)[1]) was the Chinese name of a kingdom inCentral Asia during the first half of thefirst millennium CE. The nameKangju is now generally regarded as a variant or mutated form of the nameSogdiana. According to contemporaneous Chinese sources, Kangju was the second most powerful state inTransoxiana, after theYuezhi.[2] Its people, known in Chinese as theKāng (康), were evidently ofIndo-European origins, spoke anEastern Iranian language, and had a semi-nomadic way of life. TheSogdians may have been the same people as those of Kangju and closely related to theSakas,[3] or other Iranian groups such as theAsii.[4]
According to John E. Hill, a historian specialising in ancient Central Asia, "Kangju (W-G: K'ang-chü) 康居" was in or near the "Talas basin, [modern]Tashkent and Sogdiana".[5] (According toEdwin Pulleyblank, Beitian – the summer capital of Kangju – was in or near modern metropolitan Tashkent.[6])
It is not clear whether the Chinese name 康居 Kangju was intended to transcribe an ethnic name, or to be descriptive, or both. 居ju can mean: 'seat', 'central place of activity or authority; 'to settle down,' 'residence,' or 'to occupy (militarily).'... The term, therefore, could simply mean "the abode of the Kang," or "territory occupied by the Kang." ... Askang 康 means 'well-being', 'peaceful,' 'happy;' 'settle', 'stability,' Kangju can be translated as the 'Peaceful Land,' or 'Abode of the Peaceful (People).' ... Even if the name Kangju was originally an attempt to transcribe the sounds of a foreign name, it would still have carried the sense of a peaceful place to Chinese speakers, and the name 'Kang' would have had overtones of a peaceful people.[5]
Later Chinese sources, during theSui andTang dynasties, refer to Kangju as the State ofKang (simplified Chinese:康国;traditional Chinese:康國). By that time it was part of theGöktürk Khaganate.[7]
Pulleyblank linked Kangju to theTocharian A wordkāṅka-, probably meaning "stone" and proposed that the Kangju were originallyTocharians who had migrated westward into Sogdia and established themselves inChach (modernTashkent). Pulleyblank also suggested that theJié (羯) tribe Qiāngqú (羌渠) might be Kangju people who had been incorporated into the Xiongnu tribal confederation. Pulleyblank further connected Kangju to Kànjié 瞰羯 (*Kamkar?) and the nameKankar given to the lowerYaxartes by Persian geographeribn Khordadbeh.[8] Ünal (2022) instead reconstructs *kaŋk- as theunderlying form of Chinese transcription 康居 EHC *kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ > standard ChineseKāngjū), proposes that it was anIranian word meaning "stone", and compares it toPashtokā́ṇay "stone".[a][10]
Joseph Marquart,Omeljan Pritsak andPeter B. Golden have noted phonetic similarities between Kangju andKengeres mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions, theKangarâyê in Transcaucasia, the city ofKengü Tarban, and the threePecheneg tribes collectively known asKangar mentioned byConstantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Nevertheless, all those connections remain hypothetical.[11]
Archaeological evidence suggests that the Kangju spoke anEastern Iranian language, which was probably identical toSogdian,[12] or derived from it.
According to 2nd century BCEChinese sources, Kangju lay north of theDayuan and west of theWusun, bordering theYuezhi in the south. Their territory covered the region of theFerghana Valley and the area between theAmu Darya andSyr Darya rivers, with the core territory along the middle Syr Darya.[2] Since historians ofAlexander the Great do not mention the existence of any political power in the area except theKhwarezmians, the Kangju must have appeared a little later.[2] It is likely that the state of the Kangju emerged during the great upheaval inCentral Asia following the withdrawal of theYuezhi fromGansu and then theIli Valley after their defeat by theXiongnu and Wusun respectively.[2] Chinese sources state that the Kangju were tributiaries of the Yuezhi in the south and the Xiongnu in the east.[2]
Kangju was mentioned by the Chinese traveller and diplomatZhang Qian who visited the area c. 128 BCE, whose travels are documented in Chapter 123 of theShiji (whose author,Sima Qian, died c. 90 BCE):
"Kangju is situated some 2,000 li [832 kilometers] northwest of Dayuan. Its people are nomads and resemble the Yuezhi in their customs. They have 80,000 or 90,000 skilled archers. The country is small, and borders Dayuan (Ferghana). It acknowledges sovereignty to the Yuezhi people in the South and the Xiongnu in the East.[13]
Qian also visited a land known to the Chinese asYancai 奄蔡 (literally "vast steppe"), which lay north-west of the Kangju. The people of Yancai were said to resemble the Kangju in their customs:
Yancai lies some 2,000li (832 km) northwest of Kangju (centered onTurkestan at Beitian). The people are nomads and their customs are generally similar to those of the people of Kangju. The country has over 100,000 archer warriors, and borders a great shoreless lake [perhaps what is now known as the Northern Sea (Aral Sea, distance betweenTashkent toAralsk is about 866 km].
By the time of theHanshu (which covers the period from 206 BCE to 23 CE), Kangju had expanded considerably to a nation of some 600,000 individuals, with 120,000 men able to bear arms. Kangju was clearly now a major power in its own right. By this time it had gained control of Dayuan andSogdiana in which it controlled "five lesser kings" (小王五).[14]
In 101 BCE, the Kangju allied themselves with the Dayuan, helping them preserve their independence against theHan.[2]
The account on the 'Western Regions' in theHan dynasty Chinese chronicle, theHou Hanshu, 88 (covering the period 25–220 and completed in the 5th century), based on a report to the Chinese emperor c. 125 CE, mentions that, at that time, Liyi 栗弋 (= Suyi 粟弋) = Sogdiana, and both the "old" Yancai (which had changed its name toAlanliao and seems here to have expanded its territory to theCaspian Sea), andYan, a country to Yancai's north, as well as the strategic city of "Northern Wuyi" 北烏伊 (Alexandria Eschate, or modernKhujand), were all dependent on Kangju.[15][16]
Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjection of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BCE.[2][17] Yancai is identified with theAorsi ofRoman records.[2] Scholars have connected name Alanliao toAlans.[17] The Yan people of theUrals, paid tribute to the Kangju infurs.[2] The Kangju established close connections with theSarmatians, their western neighbors. The westward expansion of the Kangju obliged many of the Sarmatians to migrate further west, and it may therefore be concluded that the Kangju played a major in thegreat migrations of the time, which played a major role in world history.[2] Through this expansion the Kangju gained control over key parts of theSilk Route.[2] The Kangju state came to unite a number of regions which hadsedentary,agricultural andnomadic populations.[2] Although their territory was small, the fertility of the land and their sophisticated civilization enabled the Kangju to maintain a large population, becoming a major military power.[18]
The Kangju were in frequent struggles with the Wusun, during which they in the mid 1st century BCE allied themselves with the northern Xiongnu.[2] The Kangju ruler gave his daughter in marriage to the northern Xiongnu ruler Zhizhi, while the Kangju king married the daughter of the Xiongnu ruler.[20] The Xiongnu and Kangju were initially successful, besieging the Wusun in 42 BCE. The Han however intervened, defeating and killing the northern Xiongnu ruler in at Talas in 36 BCE (Battle of Zhizhi). The Kangju ruler was subsequently forced to send his son as ahostage to the Han court.[2] Nevertheless, the Kangju continued to send embassies to the Han court and pursued an independent policy, which they were able to maintain until the 3rd century CE. Evidence of Kangju independence can be seen in thecoinage issued in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, during which they issued their owncurrency which was similar to that of Khwarezm.[2]
The biography of the Chinese GeneralBan Chao in theHou Hanshu says in 94 CE that the Yuezhi were arranging a marriage of their king with a Kangju princess. The Chinese then sent "considerable presents of silks" to the Yuezhi successfully gaining their help in pressuring the Kangju to stop supporting the king ofKashgar against them.[21]
The 3rd centuryWeilüe states that Kangju was among a number of countries that "had existed previously and neither grown nor shrunk."[22][23] The Kangju subsequently declined. Around 270 CE they were subdued by theXionites.[24] Like other Central Asian peoples, the Kangju probably became subsumed into theHephthalites.[2]
Kangju was later known as the State of Kang (康國) during theSui andTang dynasties. In the 8th century, some of them seem to have been adherents ofManicheanism.[25]
TheBook of Han describes the way of life of the Kangju elite. Its ruler spent his winter in thecapital city of Beitian, and his summers at hissteppe headquarters, which was a seven days' journey away on horseback.[2]
The Kangju are regarded as anIndo-European people, and are generally held to have been anIranian people identical with theSogdians,[2][18][27][28][29][30] or the closely relatedAsii.[4]SinologistEdwin G. Pulleyblank has however suggested that the Kangju could have beenTocharians.[31]
The ruling elite of the Kangju consisted ofnomadic tribes whose customs were very similar to those of the Yuezhi. Kangju burials of the early period have been excavated at Berk-kara and Tamdî, in which the dead were placed in pit-graves, often covered with logs, underkurgan mounds. These graves often contain hand-made pots, iron swords, arrow-heads and jewellery. The burials show that the traditional culture of the Kangju resembled characteristics of theSaka.[2] From the beginning of the Christian era "catacomb graves" (in shaft and chamber tombs) became widespread. This is seen from the burials of the Kaunchi and Dzhun cultures of the 1st to the 4th centuries CE, which are generally accepted as having belonged to the Kangju.[2] The Kangju regarded theram as a noble animal.[32]
References from written sources and archaeological finds show that the Kangju reached a considerable level of agricultural sophistication. Much of the population consisted of a sedentary farming population.[2] Wide canals from the Kangju period have been discovered, with the land area underirrigation of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya being four times greater than today.[33] The irrigation systems of Central Asia reached their highest levels of development under the Kangju-Kushans and was in fact superior to those fully developed in theMiddle Ages.[33]
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Kangju appears to be a civilisation known toSoviet archaeologists as the "Kaunchi Culture", dating from the 2nd century BCE to the early 8th century CE, and centred on the middle course of the Syr Darya and its tributaries: theAngren,Chirchik, andKeles. The culture was named after an ancient townsite now known as Kaunchi-Tepe, which was first studied by G. V. Grigoriev in 1934–37.
Settlements of the Kaunchi culture were typically located in proximity to water and usually have monumental oval buildings in the center, at times with a defensive wall. The largest settlement was a 150 hectare city known apparently as Kang (SanskritKanka), south of modernTashkent and founded in the 1st century CE. Kang had a square layout, encircled by a wall with inner passages.[35]
The settlements were surrounded bykurgan burials of a catacomb type with longdromoses, crypts, and burial vaults, with horse bone trappings and rites typical of nomads.[35]
The people predominantly practiced cattle husbandry and nonirrigated agriculture (grain cultures of millet, barley, wheat, and rice, cotton, melons, and fruits).
Materials typical of the culture are typical hand-formed pottery:khums (large bowls for water and produce), pots, pitchers, and cups adorned with ram's head on the handles. In the 1st century CE ceramics made on apotter's wheel became more common. Aram's head motif at first common was replaced by abull's head during the late 3rd and early 4th centuries. At that period weapons started appearing in the kurgans.
Kaunchi-type sites apparently spread from theOtrar region along Syr Darya to the south of Tashkent. The Kaunchi culture significantly impacted the archeological cultures in the vast territories of theMiddle Asia.[35]
Some important inscriptions were discovered recently[when?] that provide information about Kangju and its contacts with China.
A genetic study published inNature in May 2018 examined the remains of 6 Kangju buried between ca. 200 CE and 300 CE.[38] The 2 samples ofY-DNA extracted belonged to the paternal haplogroupsR1a1a1b2a andR1a1a1b2a2b,[39][40] while the 6 samplesmtDNA extracted belonged to the maternal haplogroupsH6a1a,C4a1,U2e2a1,HV13b,U2e1h andA8a1.[41][40] The authors of the study found that the Kangju andWusun had lessEast Asian admixture than theXiongnu andSakas. Both the Kangju and Wusun were suggested to be descended fromWestern Steppe Herders (WSHs) of the Late Bronze Age who admixed withSiberian hunter-gatherers and peoples related to theBactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex.[12]
A 2021 study reconstructed the genetic profile of the Kangju as derived from theSarmatians for 90%, with the rest (10%) being derived fromBMAC ancestry.[42]
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