Protectorate General to Pacify the West

Protectorate General to Pacify the West
Traditional Chinese安西大都護府
Simplified Chinese安西大都护府
Literal meaningPacify-West Grand Metropolitan-Protection Prefecture/Office
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinĀnxī Dàdūhù Fǔ
Protectorate to Pacify the West
Traditional Chinese安西都護府
Simplified Chinese安西都护府
Literal meaningPacify-West Metropolitan-Protection Prefecture/Office
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinĀnxī Dūhù Fǔ
Wade–GilesAnhsi Tuhu Fu
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The Protectorate General to Pacify the West (Anxi Grand Protectorate), initially the Protectorate to Pacify the West (Anxi Protectorate), was a protectorate (640 – c. 790) established by the Chinese Tang dynasty in 640 to control the Tarim Basin.[1] The head office was first established at the prefecture of Xi, now known as Turpan, but was later shifted to Qiuci (Kucha) and situated there for most of the period.[2]

The Four Garrisons of Anxi in Kucha, Khotan, Kashgar, and Karashahr were installed between 648 and 658 as garrisons under the western protectorate. In 659, Sogdia, Ferghana, Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand, Balkh, Herat, Kashmir, the Pamirs, Tokharistan, and Kabul all submitted to the protectorate under Emperor Gaozong of Tang.[3][4][5][6][7]

After the An Lushan Rebellion (755–763) was suppressed, the office of Protector General was given to Guo Xin, who defended the area and the four garrisons even after communication had been cut off from Chang'an by the Tibetan Empire. The last five years of the protectorate are regarded as an uncertain period in its history, but most sources agree that the last vestiges of the protectorate and its garrisons were defeated by Tibetan forces by 790, ending nearly 150 years of Tang influence in Central Asia.

  1. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 103.
  2. ^ Drompp 2005, p. 104.
  3. ^ Haywood 1998, p. 3.2.
  4. ^ Harold Miles Tanner (13 March 2009). China: A History. Hackett Publishing. pp. 167–. ISBN 978-0-87220-915-2.
  5. ^ Harold Miles Tanner (12 March 2010). China: A History: Volume 1: From Neolithic cultures through the Great Qing Empire 10,000 BCE–1799 CE. Hackett Publishing Company. pp. 167–. ISBN 978-1-60384-202-0.
  6. ^ H. J. Van Derven (1 January 2000). Warfare in Chinese History. BRILL. pp. 122–. ISBN 90-04-11774-1.
  7. ^ René Grousset (January 1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. pp. 119–. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.