Tongwan City in Nomadic Times

NI HAO from China

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E-ZINE / Editors Picks

Tongwan City in Nomadic Times

Updated: 2007-08-15 08:35

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When talking about Xi'an, people generally mention that it was the
capital of the Zhou (11th century-256BC), Qin (221-206BC), Han
(206BC-220AD), and Tang (618-907) dynasties. However, nearly no one knows
that it was also a capital of the Qian Zhao (304-329), Qian Qin
(351-394), Hou Qin (384-417), Western Wei (535-556), and Northern Zhou
(557-581) dynasties, which were established by nomadic minorities.

Actually, the farming Han majority as well as the nomadic minorities,
throughout history, overlapped in not only Xi'an, but also the rest of
China.

Nomadic minorities were not apt to writing, so that which has been
written in books, by the farming Han ethnicity, represents just half of
China's history, with the other half written in the green grasslands.

Most of the past descriptions of nomadic groups were unfair. For example,
historic books describe Helianbobo, chief of the Huns, as a cruel, moody,
and cutthroat tyrant.

Now, although we are unable to know what kind of a person he truly was,
he left a big present to the world -- Tongwan City, the capital of the
Daxia Kingdom. It bears testimony to the prosperity once enjoyed by these
nomadic people on China's northern frontiers.

Some say that Helianbobo loved his hometown. It is because when he
conquered the central plains, he left his son to rule Xi'an, while he
himself went back to his Tongwan City in the northern grasslands.

Hun Capital Rises from the Sands of Time

Tongwan City, extending to nearly 20,000 square kilometers, has lain
buried beneath the desert sands for more than 1,000 years. The city was
laid out on an east-west axis and consisted of an outer city, an inner
city, and a palace city.

The outer city was where ordinary folks lived. Government offices and the
residences of the nobility were located in the inner city. Inside the
palace city was the inner sanctuary of the imperial city where Helianbobo
himself lived.

Historical records suggest that by the year 431, Tongwan City and its
hinterland supported a population of over 40,000 Hun nomads and Han
farmers. By 984 however, the city had been abandoned, and would later
become buried under the shifting sands.

"Tongwan City was built on the natural contours of the ground and so is
higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast. This served to
provide a measure of protection against the cold winter winds. Meanwhile,
the river in the north of the city could easily be channeled to supply
water to the residents or used for the city moat," said Dai Yingxin, a
famous archaeologist who has been engaged in field investigation and
trial digs at the site for years.

"The city wall was constructed in layers by ramming a mix of cohesive
white clay and sand bound together with glutinous rice gruel and slaked
lime. The western section is 16 to 30 meters thick. This type of rammed
earth construction has proven to be almost as strong and resistant to
erosion as stone masonry," Dai said.

The Huns waged war and migrated continuously across Northeast and
Northwest China from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. Their
activities came to seriously threaten not only the traffic along the Silk
Road but even the very security of the feudal dynasties with their power
bases located deep within the Central Plains.

After unifying the country, Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin
Dynasty, deployed imperial troops in pursuit of the Huns and finally
built the formidable protective screen of the Great Wall. The years that
followed were to bring increasing exchanges with dynasties in the Central
Plains and some Huns began to assimilate among the Han people. Others
migrated to Central Asia and on to Europe. By the 6th century the Huns
had gradually disappeared as a separate people as they merged with other
peoples.

Although the Huns may have disappeared as a people, Tongwan City, which
the Huns built in 6 years, was seen as an important political, economic,
and military center in the next five centuries. At present its sites
still standing in the desert showing Hun people's proud history.

Historical documents show the city was established at a place where there
was adequate freshwater at the edge of a desert. The rise and fall of
Tongwan City, lying where agriculture and animal husbandry overlapped,
vividly record how human activities adversely affected the fragile
ecological environment.

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