Tang campaigns against Karasahr

Tang campaigns against Karasahr
Part of Tang campaign against the oasis states
Map of the campaigns against the oasis states of the Tarim Basin, including the defeat of Karasahr
Date 644 and 648 Location Tarim Basin Result Tang victory Karasahr captured Tang military garrison installed in Karasahr Tang loyalist is enthroned as ruler and Tang control of Karasahr is re-established Indo-European Tocharian influence in Central Asia declines
Belligerents
Tang dynasty	Karasahr Western Turkic Khaganate
Commanders and leaders
644 Guo Xiaoke 648 Ashina She'er	King of Karasahr, Long Tuqizhi
Strength
3,000 infantry and cavalry	Unknown number of Karasahr troops 5,000 Western Turk cavalry

The Tang campaigns against Karasahr, known as Yanqi (a transliteration of the Sanskrit name "Agni") in Chinese sources, were two military campaigns sent by Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty against the Tarim Basin kingdom of Karasahr in Xinjiang, a vassal of the Western Turkic Khaganate. The first campaign in 644 was led by the Tang commander Guo Xiaoke, protector-general of the Anxi Protectorate in western China, who defeated the oasis state and a Western Turk army at the conquest of Karasahr and installed a Tang loyalist as ruler. The second campaign in 648 was led by the Tang general Ashina She'er, and was part of the campaign against Karasahr's neighboring state of Kucha.

Background

Karasahr, a kingdom in the Tarim Basin, became a tributary state of Tang China in 632.^[1] In 632, the nearby oasis states Kashgar and Khotan surrendered to Chinese suzerainty, as did the kingdom of Yarkand in 635.^[2] Karasahr was influenced by Persian culture, Buddhism, and the Greco-Buddhist culture of Afghanistan.^[3]

The rulers of Karasahr grew uneasy as the Chinese expanded into Central Asia. After the conquest of the city of Turfan, center of the kingdom of Gaochang, the Chinese army stationed nearby was seen as a direct threat.^[1] This is a little ironic, because Gaochang's military aggression against Karasahr (a response to Karasahr's developing a trade route to China that bypassed Gaochang) had earlier served as one of the pretexts for the Tang campaign against Gaochang.

644 Campaign

Karasahr ended its tributary relationship with the Tang dynasty and formed a marriage alliance with the Western Turkic Khaganate, its previous suzerain. The state of Kucha, although technically a Tang vassal, aided Karasahr's rebellion in 644. Fearing Tang military ambitions, Kucha also ended its status as a Chinese tributary state. The Tang emperor responded by sending an army led by commander Guo Xiaoke, protectorate-general of the Anxi Protectorate, against the kingdom.^[1] Long Lipozhun, a brother of the former king, defected to the Tang and served as Guo's guide. Guo planned a surprise attack, marching towards the city from the Yulduz, and attacked the kingdom at dawn.^[4] The city fell and the king Long Tuqizhi was captured when the Tang troops swam across the moat that surrounded the city. Guo Xiaoke installed Long Lipozhun as ruler and led his army back toward Gaochang with Long Tuqizhi as a captive. The Western Turks sent 5,000 cavalry to assist Karasahr. They arrived three days after Guo's departure and captured Long Lipozhun. They then pursued Guo Xiaoke's army, but were defeated by the Tang troops. One of the Western Turk leaders later sent a tudun to rule Karasahr, but the tudun pulled out after receiving threats from Tang Taizong. The people of Karasahr then installed Long Lipozhun's cousin Xue Apo'anazhi as their king and remained vassals of the Western Turks.

648 campaign

The Tang general Ashina She'er, a member of the Turkic Ashina royal family, was sent to attack Kucha with 100,000 Tiele auxiliary cavalry in 648. Although the Tang expedition did not attack Karasahr directly, the pro-Turk king fled his capital city and attempted to hold off the Tang forces on the eastern borders of Kucha. The Tang expedition pursued, captured, and executed him. Another pro-Tang Karasahr aristocrat, Lipozhun's cousin Xiannazhun, was then installed as ruler of Karasahr.^[1]

Aftermath

Karasahr became one of the Tang empire's Four Garrisons of the Pacified West (the others being Kucha, Khotan, and Kashgar) when the headquarters of the Protectorate of the Pacified West was moved from Gaochang to Kucha in 658 or 659, but it is not clear whether any Tang troops were stationed in Karasahr between 648 and 658. The Tang pulled out of Karasahr in 670 as a result of a Tibetan invasion of the Tarim Basin. Tang forces regained the Tarim Basin in 692 but lost it to the Tibetans for the second and last time in the 790s, by which time the Tarim Basin had been cut off from the Tang empire by the Tibetan conquest of the Gansu Corridor in the 760s.

Citations

1. Wechsler 1979, p. 226.
2. Wechsler 1979, p. 228.
3. Grousset 1970, pp. 96–99.
4. Grousset 1970, p. 99.

Bibliography

• Wechsler, Howard J. (1979). "T'ai-tsung (reign 626–49) the consolidator". In Twitchett, Dennis. The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 188–241. ISBN 978-0-521-21446-9.
• Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.