Qiang (historical people)

Common card · No. 262193

The Qiang (Chinese: 羌; pinyin: Qiāng; Wade–Giles: Ch'iang) 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...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Painting: Emperor Yuan of Liang (6th century) Photographer: undetermined, Public domain