On the Emergence of the Qinghai Sections of the Silk Road

Abstract

Between the Han 漢 and Tang 唐 dynasties, the Hexi corridor (Hexi zoulang 河西走廊, Gansu corridor) in northern Gansu 甘肅 was controlled by a number of short-lived states and was often a scene of military operations. During these centuries, trade routes emerged across the territory of the Tuyuhun 吐谷渾 Kingdom, in present-day Qinghai 青海 Province, and grew more and more important towards the end of the period. It is a popular assumption that the ascent of these routes is a result of instability in the Hexi corridor and its occupation by the non-Chinese dynasties of North China. Research into the political events of the era indicates that the importance of these southern routes cannot confidently be explained by instability and foreign powers in the Hexi corridor. Instead, the degree of political organisation brought to the region by the Tuyuhun and their unique items of pastoral production might at least in part account for the popularity of the trade routes that ran through their kingdom.