Kucha

Tarim Basin in the 3rd century

For a long time, Kucha was the most populous oasis in the Tarim Basin. As a Central Asian metropolis, it was part of the Silk Road economy, and was in contact with the rest of Central Asia, including Sogdiana and Bactria, and thus also with the cultures of South Asia, Iran, and the coastal areas of China.[9] The main population of Kucha was Indo-European, part of the ancient population of the Tarim Basin known as Tocharians, and Kuchans spoke an Indo-European language known as Tocharian.[10] Chinese sources from the 2nd century BCE did mention Indo-European Wusun populations with blue eyes and red hair in the area of the Ili river, to the northwest of Kucha. [10] Chinese official and diplomat Zhang Qian traveled the area westward to visit Central Asia, during the 2nd century BCE, stopping at Kucha. Chinese chronicles recount that Princess Xijun, a Han princess married to the king of the Wusun, had a daughter who was sent to the Han court in 64 BC, but when the daughter stopped at Kucha on the way, she decided to marry the king of the Kucha kingdom instead.[11] The Roman Maes Titianus visited the area of Kucha in the 2nd century CE.[10] According to the Book of Han (completed in 111 CE), Kucha was the largest of the "Thirty-six Kingdoms of the Western Regions", with a population of 81,317, including 21,076 persons able to bear arms.[12] The Kingdom of Kucha occupied a strategic position on the Northern Silk Road, which brought prosperity, and made Kucha a wealthy center of trade and culture.[13]

Kuchean monks and lay devotees circa 300 CE, in the paintings of the Cave of the Hippocampi (Cave 118), Kizil Caves.[14]

During the Later Han (25–220 CE), Kucha, with the whole Tarim Basin, became a focus of rivalry between the Xiong-nu to the north and the Chinese to the east.[15] In 74 CE, Chinese troops started to take control of the Tarim Basin with the conquest of Turfan.[16] During the 1st century CE, Kucha resisted the Chinese invasion, and allied itself with the Xiong-nu and the Yuezhi against the Chinese general Ban Chao.[17] Even the Kushan Empire of Kujula Kadphises sent an army to the Tarim Basin to support Kucha, but they retreated after minor encounters.[17]

Kizilgaha Beacon Tower, built by a Chinese garrison during the Han dynasty, located south of Kucha

In 124, Kucha formally submitted to the Chinese court, and by 127 China had conquered the whole of the Tarim Basin.[18] Kucha became a part of the Western protectorate of the Chinese Han Dynasty, with China's control of the Silk Road facilitating the exchange of art and the propagation of Buddhism from Central Asia.[19] The Roman Maes Titianus visited the area in the 2nd century CE,[20] as did numerous great Buddhist missionaries such as the Parthian An Shigao, the Yuezhis Lokaksema and Zhi Qian, or the Indian Chu Sho-fu (竺朔佛).[21] Around 150 CE, Chinese power in the western territories receded, and the Tarim Basin and its city-states regained independence.[22][23]

The "Peacock Cave", in the Kizil Caves near Kucha, built circa 400 CE.[24][25][26]

Kucha became very powerful and rich in the last quarter of the 4th century CE, about to take over most of the trade along the Silk Road at the expense of the Southern Silk Road, which lay along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin.[13] According to the Jinshu, Kucha was highly fortified, had a splendid royal palace, as well as many Buddhist stupas and temples:[27]

There are fortified cities everywhere, their ramparts are three-fold, inside there are thousands of Buddhist stupas and temples (...) The royal palace is magnificent, glowing like a heavenly abode".

— Jinshu, Book 97.[28]

Culture flourished, and Indian Sanskrit scriptures were being translated by the Kuchean monk and translator Kumarajiva (344-413 CE), himself the son of a man from Kashmir and a Kuchean mother.[13] The southern kingdoms of Shan-shan and Jushi (Turfan and Jiaohe) asked for Chinese assistance in countering Kucha and its neighbour Karashar.[13] The Chinese general Lü Guang was sent with a military force by Emperor Fu Jian (357-385) of the Former Qin Dynasty (351-394).[13] Lu-Guang obtained the surrender of Karashar and conquered Kucha in 383 CE.[13] Lu-Guang mentioned the powerful armour of Kucha soldiers, a type of Sasanian chainmail and lamellar armour which can also be seen in the paintings of the Kizil Caves:[13]

They were skillful with arrows and horses, and good with short and long spears. Their armour was like chain link; even if one shoots it, [the arrow] cannot go in.

— Biography of Chinese General Lü Guang[13]

Lu-Guang soon retired and the empire of Fu Jian crumbled against the Eastern Jin, and he established his own principality in Gansu, bringing Kumarajiva together with him.[13]

Kucha ambassador at the Chinese court of Emperor Yuan of Liang in his capital Jingzhou in 516–520 CE, with explanatory text. Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, 11th century Song copy.

Kucha ambassadors are known to have visited the Chinese court of Emperor Yuan of Liang in his capital Jingzhou in 516–520 CE, at or around the same time as the Hepthalite embassies there. An ambassador from Kucha is illustrated in Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, painted in 526-539 CE, an 11th century Song copy of which has survived.

The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited Kucha and in the 630s described Kucha at some length, and the following are excerpts from his descriptions of Kucha:

The soil is suitable for rice and grain... it produces grapes, pomegranates and numerous species of plums, pears, peaches, and almonds... The ground is rich in minerals-gold, copper, iron, and lead and tin. The air is soft, and the manners of the people honest. The style of writing is Indian, with some differences. They excel other countries in their skill in playing on the lute and pipe. They clothe themselves with ornamental garments of silk and embroidery... There are about one hundred convents in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to the Little Vehicle of the school of the Sarvastivadas. Their doctrine and their rules of discipline are like those of India, and those who read them use the same originals... About 40 li to the north of this desert city there are two convents close together on the slope of a mountain... Outside the western gate of the chief city, on the right and left side of the road, there are erect figures of Buddha, about 90 feet high.[29][30][31]

Royal family of the oasis city-state of Kucha (King, Queen and young Princes), Cave 17, Kizil Caves. Circa 500 CE, Hermitage Museum.[32][33][34]

A specific style of music developed within the region and "Kuchean" music gained popularity as it spread along the trade lines of the Silk Road. Lively scenes of Kuchean music and dancing can be found in the Kizil Caves and are described in the writings of Xuanzang. "[T]he fair ladies and benefactresses of Kizil and Kumtura in their tight-waisted bodices and voluminous skirts recall--notwithstanding the Buddhic theme--that at all the halting places along the Silk Road, in all the rich caravan towns of the Tarim, Kucha was renowned as a city of pleasures, and that as far as China men talked of its musicians, its dancing girls, and its courtesans."[35] Kuchean music was very popular in Tang China, particularly the lute, which became known in Chinese as the pipa.[36] For example, within the collection of the Guimet Museum, two Tang female musician figures represent the two prevailing traditions: one plays a Kuchean pipa and the other plays a Chinese jiegu (an Indian-style drum).[37] The music of Kucha, along with other early medieval music, was transmitted from China to Japan during the same period and is preserved there, somewhat transformed, as gagaku or Japanese court music.[38]

Dali coins founded in Kucha

Following its conquest by the Tang dynasty in the early 7th century, during Emperor Taizong's campaign against the Western Regions, the city of Kucha was regarded by Han Chinese as one of the Four Garrisons of Anxi: the "Pacified West",[39] or even its capital.

During a few decades of domination by the Tibetan Empire, in the late 7th century, Kucha was usually at least semi-independent.

In the 8th and 9th centuries, Uyghurs increasingly migrated into the area. After the destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate by Kyrgyz forces in 840, Kucha became an important center of the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho.[40]

The extensive ruins of the ancient capital and temple of Subashi (Chinese Qiuci), which was abandoned in the 13th century, lie 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of modern Kucha.

Kucha (庫車) delegates in 1761 in Beijing, China. 万国来朝图

Francis Younghusband, who passed through the oasis in 1887 on his journey from Beijing to India, described the district as "probably" having some 60,000 inhabitants. The modern Chinese town was about 700 square yards (590 m²) with a 25 feet (7.6 m) high wall, with no bastions or protection to the gateways, but a ditch about 20 feet (6.1 m) deep around it. It was filled with houses and "a few bad shops". The "Turk houses" ran right up to the edge of the ditch and there were remains of an old city to the south-east of the Chinese one, but most of the shops and houses were outside of it. About 800 yards (730 m) north of the Chinese city were barracks for 500 soldiers out of a garrison he estimated to total about 1,500 men, who were armed with old Enfield rifles "with the Tower mark."[41]

Modern Kucha is part of Kuqa County, Xinjiang. It is divided into the new city, which includes the People's Square and transportation center, and the old city, where the Friday market and vestiges of the past city wall and cemetery are located. Along with agriculture, the city also manufactures cement, carpets and other household necessities in its local factories.

A monk from the royal family known as Po-Yen travelled to the Chinese capital, Luoyang, from 256-260. He translated six Buddhist texts into Chinese in 258 at China's famous White Horse Temple, including the Infinite Life Sutra, an important sutra in Pure Land Buddhism.

Po-Śrīmitra was another Kuchean monk who traveled to China from 307-312 and translated three Buddhist texts.

A second Kuchean Buddhist monk known as Po-Yen also went to Liangzhou (modern Wuwei, Gansu, China) and is said to have been well respected, although he is not known to have translated any texts.

• Beckwith, Christopher (1993) [1987]. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia: A History of the Struggle for Great Power Among Tibetans, Turks, Arabs, and Chinese During the Early Middle Ages (reprint ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02469-3.
• Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2.
• Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1. Google Books
• Hansen, Valerie (2012). The Silk Road. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-15931-8.
• Hill, John Edward (2015). Through the Jade Gate - China to Rome. A Study of the Silk Routes 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. Vol. I. North Charleston, S.C.: CreateSpace. pp. 121–125, note 1.30. ISBN 978-1500696702.
• Hulsewé, Anthony François Paulus Hulsewé (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage: 125 BC - AD 23 ; an Annotated Transl. of Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. With an Introd. by M.A.N.Loewe. Brill Archive. ISBN 90-04-05884-2.
• Mallory, J. P.; Mair, Victor H. (2008). The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-28372-1.
• Millward, James A. (2007). Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13924-3.
• Picken, Laurence (1997). Music from the Tang Court (PDF). Vol. 7. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62100-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2012-06-14.
• Schafer, Edward H. (1963). The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of Tʻang Exotics. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-05462-2.
• Tredinnick, Jeremy; Baumer, Christoph; Bonavia, Judy (2012). Xinjiang: China's Central Asia. Odyssey. ISBN 978-962-217-790-1.
• Whitfield, Susan (2004). The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. Serindia Publications, Inc. ISBN 978-1-932476-13-2.
• Younghusband, Francis (1904). The Heart of a Continent: A Narrative of Travels in Manchuria, Across the Gobi Desert, Through the Himalayas, the Pamirs, and Hunza, 1884-1894. Scribner.

• The Book of Han
• The Book of the Later Han
• The Book of Jin