Kangju

Kangju
1st century BCE (?)–5th century CE
The approximate territory of the Kangju c. 200 CE.
The approximate territory of the Kangju c. 200 CE.
StatusIndependent state
CapitalKangu
Common languagesSogdian language
Historical eraLate Antiquity
• Established
1st century BCE (?)
• Disestablished
5th century CE
Today part ofUzbekistan
Tajikistan

Kangju (Chinese: 康居; pinyin: kāngjū; Wade–Giles: K'ang-chü; Eastern Han Chinese: kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ < *khâŋ-ka (c. 140 BCE)[1]) was the Chinese name of a kingdom in Central Asia during the first half of the first millennium CE. The name Kangju is now generally regarded as a variant or mutated form of the name Sogdiana. According to contemporaneous Chinese sources, Kangju was the second most powerful state in Transoxiana, after the Yuezhi.[2] Its people, known in Chinese as the Kāng (康), were evidently of Indo-European origins, spoke an Eastern Iranian language, and had a semi-nomadic way of life. The Sogdians may have been the same people as those of Kangju and closely related to the Sakas,[3] or other Iranian groups such as the Asii.[4]

  1. ^ Schuessler, Axel (2014) "Phonological Notes on Hàn Period Transcriptions of Foreign Names and Words" in Studies in Chinese and Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Dialect, Phonology, Transcription and Text. Series: Language and Linguistics Monograph. Issue 53. p. 272 of 249-292
  2. ^ Zadneprovskiy 1994, pp. 463–464
  3. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 153, 174: "... the Sogdians, known as K'ang-chü to the Chinese..."
  4. ^ Golden 1992, p. 53.