| Dunhuang,located at the western end of the Hexi Corridor,remained as a traffic hub between the Central Plains and the Western Regions,as a metropolis of cultural collision between the Chinese and the Western cultures during the Han and the Tang Dynasty.Especially during the period of the Tang and the early Song Dynasty,Dunhuang reached its peak in the history with a quite large population,a prosperous culture and a developed business contacts between the East and the West.The Xixia Dynasty established its rule in Dunhuang since defeating the Shazhou Uigur forces after the year of 1053.Meanwhile,Dunhuang began its history during the period of the Xixia Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.The Tangut(Xixia)forces occupied Shazhou(Dunhuang)and Guazhou in the year of 1036and ruled Guazhou then.However,the Shazhou Uigur forces expelled the Tangut forces from Shazhou one year later,and established Shazhou Uigur Regime there from the year of 1037 to1052.The Xixia forces defeated the Shazhou Uigur forces again and ruled Dunhuang since the year of 1053.Guazhou was the dominion center of Gua-Sha area in the early Xixia Dynasty,and Shazhou in the middle and late Xixia Dynasty.Beside,Jian-jun-si(???),Zhuan-yun-si(???)?Jing-zhi-si(???)and other institutions were built back then there.The agriculture,animal husbandry and handicraft industry of Dunhuang also underwent further development.The Mongolian forces occupied Shazhou and Guazhou in 1227,and then Shazhou was under the jurisdiction of King Batu and Chagatai lineage successively and Guazhou was abandoned.In the year of 1280 of Yuan Dynasty was Lu-zong-guan-fu,a local government,established in Shazhou with Guazhou under its administration and appointed the Mongolian clan of Chubo to station and gaze in the western regions of Hexi Corridor.Its agriculture,animal husbandry was further developed then,and Dunhuang became an important node of the stage transport between the ruling area of the Yuan Dynasty and the West Regions.Although the Dunhuang cave art was coming to its end,the murals in the Xixia Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty still achieved a high artistic achievement,as the atmosphere of Buddhism in the particular district was quite strong then.In 1368,the Ming forces occupied Shazhou,and later set up the Shazhou Garrison and theHandongzuo Garrison to jimi(loose control)the Shazhou area instead of under a strict rule.The Mongolian leaders were appointed to official positions,such as the chief executive,namely Du-du(??),commander,namely Zhi-hui-shi(???).However,Shazhou was finally abandoned and the Jiayu Pass(???)was closed due to the deterioration in the northwest frontier regime since the middle Ming Dynasty.In the Qing Dynasty,Emperor Kangxi,taking the advantage of the opportunity of recovering the West Regions,began to re-administer Dunhuang during his later reign.Set up in 1725 under the Yongzheng Reign,Shazhou Post was upgraded to Shazhou Garrison one year later,and was upgraded to a county level,namely the Dunhuang County,in the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong Reign(1760).Its society and economy undertook a general restoration through a series of measures,like establishing administrative institution,encouraging immigration to urban area and valuing cultivation during Yongzheng and Qianlong reign.In general,the importance of Dunhuang as a traffic hub between the Central Plains and the Western Regions gradually declined due to the development of unified empire on one hand;and on the other hand,featured mainly with the Han culture as well as some minority cultures during the Han and the Tang Dynasty,the Dunhuang culture gradually declined,as the population of Han gradually decreased during the period of the Xixia and the Yuan Dynasty.The development of Dunhuang even reached historical low in the Ming Dynasty.Thanks to the positive measures of the Qing reign thereafter,its social and economic development restore largely,but with immigrants from various places of Gansu Province,the culture and beliefs in Dunhuang was quite different from the past. |
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