Xinjiang: Cornerstone of Eurasia – Teaching Guide

‹ Back to Video

Vocabulary of Note

• Han – majority ethnic group in China (c. 92% of population) (Also the name of the dynasty that unified China)
• oasis (plural is “oases”) – a small water source in a desert, surrounded by vegetation, because of the water. Caravans crossing deserts stopped at oases for water; settlements often grew up around an oasis.
• pastoralists – people whose income is from raising large animals, sheep and cattle; they are often “herders” who move about finding better grazing places for their animals. “Nomads” are often sometimes also pastoralists

Names of Note

• Xiongnu (Si-ong-nu) – alliance of nomadic tribes to the north and west of lands controlled by the Han dynasty of China from approximately the 3^rd c. BCE to the 5^thc. CE (Historians continue to debate whether the Xiongnu of western Eurasia and the Huns of eastern Eurasia are related)
• Zhang Qian (Jang chee-en) – envoy sent by the Han dynasty\emperor to establish alliances with peoples beyond the area the Xiongnu controlled
• Uyghurs or Uighurs (We-gurs) – Turkic ethnic group native to Xinjiang, culturally similar to Central Asian populations and Sunni Muslims.

Maps: Teachers are encouraged to display these maps and images – found in Background Reading and Classroom Material on video page.

• Map 1: Xinjiang as 1/6^th of China’s territory
• Map 2: Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang – the geographical feature defining all overland travel to Central Asia and India; importance of oases (the Taklamakan is the desert in the entry of the Tarim Basin)
• Map 3: Silk Road Map & Geography – shows the geography of going from:
  • Chang’an (Xian, today), which was the capital of China throughout early history, to “the west”
  • “the West” to the Chinese, historically, meant: Iran, Central Asia, and also India
  • to travel to India from China by land, travelers had to go around the Taklamakan desert; this usually meant that they went west before going south
  • Chang’an (Xian, today) was the eastern terminus of the “Silk Road” in China (even though on the map, it appears to be only in the eastern third of what is known as “China” today. Desert begins to the west of Chang’an/Xian
  • Image of the Taklamakan desert, which is in Xinjiang, will help students understand what this desert looks like

Outline of Presentation – with [Timecode]

Geography of China: how much is desert and how the Chinese travel by land to the west and other countries

• Taklamakan desert makes travel oasis-to-oasis essential [04:30] & [05:57]
  • The Silk Road (map 3) follows these oases [05:57]
  • Camels for transportation [12:00]

Trade over these long stretches of land and desert was put heavy goods at a disadvantage. Trade was primarily:

• in luxury goods [13:15]
  • in local goods, between different stops on the trading routes
  • cultural exchange in the form of goods, products, and beliefs was very important

Xinjiang was China’s first point of exposure to different religions (Buddhism from India and Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Nestorian Christianity, and Islam from Persia all entered China from the west in earliest days of the “Silk Roads,” under the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) and particularly under the Tang dynasty (618–906 CE).

• Sculpture, art and religious artifacts were very important in transmitting religious beliefs, especially to a population that was largely illiterate [16:00]
  • Monks dug caves in the hills near oases and brought craftsmen to decorate the caves; 492 caves discovered in Dunhuang (all preserved for over 1000 years by the sand of the Taklamakan)

Xinjiang and its incorporation into China – timeline:

• The Han (206 BCE–220 CE) and Tang (618–906 CE) dynasties, pursued the greatest expansion of Chinese territory to the west, and represent two historical periods where trade and exchange on the Silk Roads was most lively. Looking at Map #3 of The Silk Road to see the section labeled “Imperial Highway,” from Chang’an (the early capital of Chinese dynasties) to the oases in Xinjiang; military garrisons protected the Imperial Highway as the Silk Road route into China, through the “Hexi Corridor.”
  • Mongols expanded into Xinjiang and dominated the Uyghur kingdoms in 13^th c. CE when they ruled China as the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368 CE)
  • During the period of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) trade through Xinjiang declined due to other trade routes and the non-expansionist nature of the Ming, which did not control Xinjiang
  • When the Manchus invaded China and established the last dynasty, the Qing (1644–1912), they fought a group of Mongols who opposed the Manchu victory in China; the Qing fought to conquer Mongolia (1696), pursued the Mongol rebels into Tibet and conquered Tibet (1719), and the pursued them into Xinjiang, conquering Xinjiang by the 1750s and claiming that that they were creating a “multi-ethnic” empire in China, composed of Han, Manchus, Mongols, Uighurs and others.
  • See in Classroom Material: Map of Chinese Dynasties
• Between the fall of the Qing in 1912 and the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, there were warlord struggles in Xinjiang, but without a central authority, Uyghur culture flourished. Uyghur separatists called the area “East Turkestan” in intermittent periods.
  • The CCP came to power in China in 1949 re-imposed central government control over Xinjiang. CCP policy in Xinjiang has “zigzagged” since 1949, with the period of the Cultural Revolution particularly repressive.
    • The Uyghurs fear assimilation and destruction of their culture
    • China imposes “reeducation camps” in 2017 under Xi Jinping

Xinjiang remains vitally important to China in the 21^st c:

• Land access to the west is through Xinjiang, now through the “Belt and Road” Initiative (instead of the historical Silk Roads)
  • Xinjiang is rich in mineral resources
  • China’s nuclear sites are based in Xinjiang