The Qiang () were a group of primarily Sino-Tibetan peoples who historically inhabited parts of western China. They are generally believed to have been Tibeto-Burman speakers, though few have also suggested that they were Indo-European.
The Qiang were first mentioned in oracle bone inscriptions dating back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–c. 1046 BC). They were not a singular unified ethnicity, but were rather a broad collection of western tribes considered "foreign" by the Chinese. During the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 CE), the Qiang specifically referred to semi-nomadic herdsmen from Gansu and the Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau. Following their expansion into the Hexi Corridor in the 2nd century BCE, the Han came into constant conflict with the various local Qiang tribes such as the Shaodang and Xianlian, who formed loose confederations to resist Chinese rule for centuries.
By the 4th century CE, many of the Qiang had been forcibly resettled within China Proper in eastern Gansu, Ningxia and northern Shaanxi. The Qiang are categorized as one of the "Five Barbarians" of the Sixteen Kingdoms. The Later Qin dynasty (384–417 CE) was founded by the Yao clan of the Shaodang. Meanwhile, the Qiang tribes that remained on the plateau were conquered by the Tuyuhun (284–670 CE) and Tibetan Empire (618–842 CE). During the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), the Tangut branch of the Qiang offered their submission to the Chinese court, and later founded the Western Xia dynasty (1038–1227 CE).
As many of the western plateau tribes assimilated with the Han Chinese, Tibetans and other surrounding ethnic groups, the scope of the Qiang was gradually reduced to people living in the upper Min River valley in Sichuan. The modern Qiang people, Tibetans and various other Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups in southwestern China may have been descended in part from the ancient Qiang tribes.
Etymology According to the Han dynasty dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, the Qiang were shepherds, and the Chinese character for Qiang () was thus formed from the characters for "sheep" () and "man" (), and pronounced like the word for "sheep".Shouwen Original text: Fengsu Tongyi also mentions that the character for Qiang was formed from the words "sheep" and "man". Modern scholars have attempted to reconstruct the ancient pronunciation of Qiang: sinologist Edwin Pulleyblank reconstructs it to *kʰiaŋ in Middle Chinese, while William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart reconstruct the Old Chinese name of Qiang as *C.qʰaŋ.Baxter, William H. and Laurent Sagart. 2014. Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction. Oxford University Press, .
Christopher Beckwith proposes that the word "Qiang" may have an Indo-European etymology and that the Qiang were of Indo-European origin; Beckwith compares a proposed reconstruction of Qiang to *klaŋ in Old Chinese to the Tocharian word , meaning "to ride, go by wagon", as in "to ride off to hunt from a chariot", so that Qiang could actually mean "charioteer".
History
Origins and genetics The term "Qiang" did not represent a singular unified ethnic group. Rather, it was an exonym to denote "western others", and was broadly imposed by the Chinese for non-Han shepherding tribes living to the west of the Central Plains. While the label seemingly referred to tribes living in the diagonal band from northern Shaanxi to northern Henan at first, the scope of the Qiang grew over the centuries as the Han expanded westwards, finally reaching the eastern fringes of the Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau.
Modern scholars generally believe that the Qiang tribes were all, if not mostly, progenitors of Tibeto-Burman-speaking peoples. The ancient Di (; not to be confused with the Northern Di) were a farming people culturally related to the Qiang, often collectively referred to as the "Di-Qiang". Genetic analyses of Di-Qiang remains at the Mogou site in Lintan County, Gansu found high genetic affinity with modern Sino-Tibetan, particularly modern Qiang people and Han Chinese, as well as with ancient 'Yellow River farmers' associated with the Yangshao culture. The ancient Qiang remains belonged exclusively to paternal haplogroup O-M175 (O3a).
Legends and pre-imperial China According to legend, the Qiang originated from the tribe of Fuxi, one of the Three Sovereigns, in the area of modern Tianshui, Gansu and were partly descended from the Yan Emperor, the mythical "Flame Emperor" who was defeated along with his tribe by the Yellow Emperor. The term "Qiang" first appeared on 3,000 years ago on oracle bone inscriptions, which speaks of a "Qiangfang" () and was used to describe "a people other than one's people."The Creation of the Qiang Ethnicity, its Relation to the Rme People and the Preservation of Rme Language, p.56-63 It appears again in the Classic of Poetry in reference to Tang of Shang (trad. 1675–1646 BC).Shi Jing, Sacrificial Odes of Shang, Yin Wu. They were enemy of the Shang dynasty, who mounted expeditions against them, capturing slaves and victims for human sacrifice during ancestor veneration rituals. The Qiang prisoners were also skilled in making oracle bones.
Shuowen Jiezi indicated that the Qiangs were shepherds from the west and that they were part of the Western Rong. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Qiang formed a social and economic community comprising many branches, tribes, groups, and cultures that varied in their differences and networks. They had a close relation to the Zhou, and were mentioned in the Book of Documents and Records of the Grand Historian as one of the allies of King Wu of Zhou who defeated the Shang.Shiji It has been suggested that the clan of Jiang Yuan, mother of Houji, a figure of Chinese legends and mythology and an ancestor of the Zhou dynasty, was possibly related to the Qiang, or was Qiang itself. Some of the ancient groups were called the Ma Qiang (; "Horse Qiang") or "Duoma Qiang" (; "Many-Horses Qiang"), suggesting they may have been horse breeders.
Qin Though the Qiang tribes were never united, an influential figure in their history was Wuyi Yuanjian during the late Warring States Period. According to the Book of Later Han (compiled in the 5th-century CE), he was initially a slave under Duke Ligong of Qin (r. 476-443 BCE) but later escaped and founded a dynasty in the Huangshui River Basin. While likely a legend, Yuanjian was credited with introducing farming and animal husbandry to the Qiang tribes, as well as establishing several common traditions among them, such as his name "Wuyi" becoming the word for "slave" in their languages.
The Qiang tribes had been facing mounting military pressure since the reign of Duke Mu of Qin (r. 659–621 BCE). As a result, the Qiang followed their migratory routes but expanded into larger-scale and distant migrations. By the time of Duke Xian of Qin (r. 384–362 BCE), the descendants of Wuyi Yuanjian also wished to form separate tribes, clans and branches and migrate on their own will. Among their offshoots were the Maoniu (; "Yak"), Daya (; "Great Elegant"), Baima (; "White Horse"), Canlang (; "Three Wolves" ) and Yan (; later known as the Shaodang ()) tribes, and the sons of their chieftains continued to form new clans of their own.
Many of the Qiang and Western Rong tribes were brought to submission by Duke Xiao of Qin (r. 361–338 BCE). When Qin Shi Huang began to unify the six states in the second half of the 3rd century BCE, warfare was directed at the feudal lords and former lords still resisting his rule in the east. As the Qin armies stopped marching west, the Qiang branches began to multipy and grow during the time of peace for them. After Qin unified China in 221 BCE, General Meng Tian was dispatched west to seize territory and construct the Great Wall, pushing back the Qiang and Rong.
Relations with Ba-Shu Prior to the Qin conquest in 316 BCE, the Sichuan Basin was home to the ancient states of Ba and Shu. The tribes of Shu were known as the "Sou" (叟), and by the Han dynasty era, the term was used interchangeable for anyone from the Shu region. The Sou people were long settled in western Sichuan, specifically in the Chengdu Plain. They lived and intermixed with the Di and Qiang peoples, all while maintaining a degree of autonomy to distinguish themselves as a separate ethnic group. Until the Western Jin dynasty, populations of the Sou inhabited the regions of Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan. During the fall of Han, the warlord Lü Bu had Sou people in his army, former Shu soldiers who rebelled.
Like the Shu, the Ba people also contained Di-Qiang ancestry, emerging as a fusion of the southern Pu-Yue () and the northern Di-Qiang populations. Part of the Ba confederation were the Bo people, who existed as early as the Western Zhou as a branch of the Di-Qiang. The Bo were considered humane and benevolent and thus granted the character "rén" (; meaning "people"). By the Qin-Han period, the Bo had a higher economic, social and cultural development than other barbarians and thus were considered advanced and civilised. The Bo people's records were sparse before the Qin, but Han records indicated they were sparsely distributed throughout the northwestern river basins, extending southwest in eastern Lancang and north of the Red River in modern Yunnan. By the late Eastern Han, the Bo people had intermixed with the Qiang along the river valleys. Due to the phonetic similarity in their name that can indicate interchangeability, the Bo are also thought to be the ancestors of the modern-day Bai people (白族). Another Di-Qiang branch were known as the Hutang (), who lived west of the Li river, now known as the Min river in Sichuan. The preexistence of the Qiang people in the southwest allowed many of the central Qiang to migrate from the north of the Qin empire into the southwestern region of China.
Western Han
The Han dynasty saw a period of extensive Chinese expansion in the west, annexing the lands of modern-day Gansu and northeastern Qinghai, as well as vassalizing the numerous oasis states of the Tarim Basin. The reference of Qiang during this period were primarily semi-nomadic pastoralist tribes originating from the Gansu and Qinghai regions. Throughout the course of the Han dynasty, many Qiang people migrated or were forcibly resettled inland into Chinese territory, where they practiced agriculture as tenent farmers or slaves. This created rough distinction between the Western Qiang (; tribes that remained on or outside the western boundaries in western Gansu and Qinghai) and the Eastern Qiang (; resettled and assimilated tribes within the Chinese interior in eastern Gansu, Shaanxi and Shanxi). Relations between the Qiang tribes and Han were volatile, as the Qiang were frequently driven out of their homelands and suffered oppression at the hands of local Chinese officials and magnates. The various tribes formed loose confederations against the Han, and though they were defeated time and time again, the cost of quelling their rebellions were a significant drain on the Han's economy and military, playing a part in their decline and eventual fall.
Around the same time that the Western Han dynasty began to rule China, the Xiongnu Empire of the northern Eurasian steppe were also rising in power. In the mid-2nd century BCE, the Xiongnu defeated their previous overlords, the Yuezhi in the Hexi Corridor. A branch of them, the Lesser Yuezhi, reportedly migrated into southern Gansu, where they subsequently merged with the Qiang population (some scholars speculate that these people later became known as the Lushuihu). Many of the Qiangs were forced into submission by the Xiongnu, while others moved eastwards to seek protection under the Han. Emperor Jing of Han (r. 157–141 BCE) permitted the submissive Qiang to settle in the counties of Dídao, Angu, Lintao, Dīdao and Qiangdao, where they guarded the frontier.