Upper East Asia (909 BCE – CE 819): Steppe Empires, Frontier Kingdoms, and Transcontinental Corridors

Geographic and Environmental Context

Upper East Asia includes Mongolia and the parts of western China comprising Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and western Heilongjiang.

• This is a region of vast steppe and desert basins, high mountain ranges such as the Altai, Kunlun, and Himalayas, and the high plateau of Tibet.

• Key river systems include the upper Yellow River, Tarim, and Amu Darya headwaters, while oases along the Tarim Basin edge sustain agriculture in otherwise arid landscapes.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• The region’s continental climate brought cold, dry winters and short, warm summers in the steppe, and harsh alpine conditions in the plateau.

• Rainfall was scarce in lowland deserts but more abundant in mountain foothills and river valleys.

• Climatic fluctuations could expand or contract pastureland, influencing nomadic migrations and trade.

Societies and Political Developments

• Nomadic confederations such as the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Türkic Khaganates rose to prominence, controlling steppe trade and threatening or allying with Chinese dynasties.

• The Tibetan Plateau saw the emergence of the Tubo (Tibetan) Empire, which at its height in the 7th–9th centuries CE contested influence in Central Asia and the Himalayas.

• Oasis states like Khotan and Turpan thrived as Silk Road hubs, balancing allegiance between steppe powers and Chinese dynasties.

• Semi-sedentary agricultural communities persisted in fertile river valleys, often under the control of nomadic elites.

Economy and Trade

• Pastoral nomadism centered on horses, sheep, goats, cattle, and camels, with seasonal migration between summer and winter pastures.

• Oases supported agriculture—wheat, barley, millet, grapes, and melons—and served as caravan rest points.

• Trade along the Silk Road moved silk, jade, and ceramics westward, and glassware, precious metals, and textiles eastward.

• Control of trade routes brought wealth to steppe and oasis states alike.

Subsistence and Technology

• Nomadic societies excelled in mounted warfare, metalworking, and portable felt tent (yurt/ger) architecture.

• Irrigation systems in oases allowed intensive farming despite aridity.

• Camel caravans made long-distance trade possible across deserts and mountain passes.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• The Silk Road and its northern branches connected China with Central Asia, Persia, and the Mediterranean.

• Mountain passes in the Altai, Tian Shan, and Kunlun ranges acted as strategic gateways.

• Rivers such as the upper Yellow and Tarim provided local transport and irrigation sources.

Belief and Symbolism

• Religious traditions included shamanism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, and Zoroastrian influences.

• The spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road left a legacy of cave temples, murals, and monasteries in oasis cities.

• Nomadic art featured animal motifs, emphasizing strength, mobility, and spiritual guardianship.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Seasonal mobility ensured sustainable use of pastures.

• Alliances and tribute relationships with neighboring states provided stability and trade security.

• Oases acted as refuges in times of drought or political instability, enabling recovery and continuity.

Long-Term Significance

By CE 819, Upper East Asia was a strategic bridge between China, Central Asia, and the Middle East—home to powerful steppe empires, thriving Silk Road towns, and enduring pastoral traditions that would continue to influence Eurasian history for centuries.

Emperor Ming promotes Ban and commissions him to next visit Yutian (Khotan), at this time the most powerful kingdom in southern Xiyu, which has a strong alliance with the North Xiongnu.

Guangde, the King of Yutian, trusts his chief warlock, who demands Ban's horse.

Ban agrees to give him the horse, and then, when the warlock arrives to pick up the horse, immediately executes him, and sends his head back to Guangde.

Impressed, Gunagde submits to Han suzerainty.

With Yutian having submitted, the Xiyu kingdoms largely all submit as well.

Sogdians and Chinese engage in extensive commercial activities with each other under Tang rule.

The Sogdians are mostly Mazdaist at this time.

Turpan, renamed Xizhou by the Tang after their armies conquer it in 640, has a history of commerce and trade along the Silk Road already centuries old; it has many inns catering to merchants and other travelers, while brothels are recorded as having been numerously available in Kucha and Khotan.

As a result of the Tang conquest, policies forcing minority group relocation and encouraging Han settlement lead to Turpan's name in Sogdian language becoming known as “Chinatown” or "Town of the Chinese".

Wu Zetian has Crown Princess Liu and Consort Dou killed after Wu Zetian's trusted lady in waiting Wei Tuan'er, who hates Li Dan (the reason why she did so is lost to history), falsely accuses Li Dan's wife Crown Princess Liu and Consort Dou of using witchcraft in 693.

Li Dan, fearful that he is to be next, does not dare to speak of them.

When Wei further plans to falsely accuse Li Dan, however, someone else informs on her, and she is executed.

Wu Zetian nevertheless has Li Dan's sons demoted in their princely titles, and when the officials Pei Feigong and Fan Yunxian are accused of secretly meeting Li Dan, she executes Pei and Fan and further bars officials from meeting Li Dan.

There follow accusations that Li Dan is plotting treason, and under Wu Zetian's direction, Lai launches an investigation.

Lai arrests Li Dan's servants and tortures them—and the torture is such that many of them are ready to falsely implicate themselves and Li Dan.

One of Li Dan's servants, An Jinzang, however, proclaim Li Dan's innocence and cuts his own belly open to swear to that fact.

When Wu Zetian hears of what An did, she has doctors attend to An and barely saves his life, then orders Lai to end the investigation, thus saving Li Dan.

Emperor Taizong of Tang in 640 had launched a campaign against the Western Regions and the Kingdom of Khotan had submitted to the Tang emperor.

The Four Garrisons of Anxi had been established, one of them at Khotan.

The Tibetans had subsequently defeated the Chinese and had taken control of the Four Garrisons, and the Khotanese had helped the Tibetans to conquer Aksu.

Tang China under Empress Wu in 692 regains control.

Khotan is made a protectorate.

The powers of the secret police officials meanwhile continue, but appear to be curbed starting about 692, when Lai Junchen is foiled in his attempt to have the chancellors Ren Zhigu, Di Renjie, Pei Xingben, and other officials Cui Xuanli, Lu Xian, Wei Yuanzhong, and Li Sizhen executed, as Di, under arrest, had hid a secret petition inside a change of clothes and had it submitted by his son Di Guangyuan.

The seven are still exiled, but after this incident, particularly at the urging of Li Zhaode, Zhu Jingze, and Zhou Ju, the waves of politically motivated massacres decrease, although do not end entirely.

Also in 692, Wu Zetian commissions the general Wang Xiaojie to attack Tufan, and Wang recaptures the four garrisons of Xiyu that had fallen to Tufan in 670—Qiuzi, Yutian, Shule, and Suiye.

Li Zhaode, who had become powerful after Wu Chengsi's removal, was himself thought to be too powerful, and Wu Zetian had removed him in 694.

Around this time also, the empress had become highly impressed with a group of mystic individuals—the hermit Wei Shifang (on whom she bestows a chancellor title briefly), who claims to be over three hundred and fifty years old; an old Buddhist nun who claims to be a Buddha and capable of predicting the future; and a non-Han man who claims to be five hundred years old.

During this time, Wu briefly claims to be and adopts the cult imagery of Maitreya, the future Buddha, in order to build popular support for her reign.

However, in 695, after the imperial meeting hall and the Heavenly Hall are burned by Huaiyi (who is jealous at Wu Zetian's taking on another lover, the imperial physician Shen Nanqiu, Wu Zetian becomes angry at these individuals for failing to predict the fire; the old nun and her students are arrested and made into slaves; Wei commits suicide; and the old non-Han man flees.

Subsequently, she also puts Huaiyi to death.

After this incident, she appears to pay less attention to mysticism and is even more dedicated than before to the affairs of state.

However, Wu Zetian's administration is soon in for various troubles on the western, then the northern, borders.

Upper East Asia (CE 820 – 963): Tibetan Realignments, Tang Decline, and Steppe Frontiers

Geographic and Environmental Context

Upper East Asia includes Mongolia and western China, encompassing Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and western Heilongjiang.

• The subregion spans the Tibetan Plateau, the Gobi Desert, the Altai Mountains, and arid basins such as the Tarim and Hexi Corridor.

• It served as a strategic crossroads between the Chinese heartland, Central Asia, and the northern steppe.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• A continental and high-altitude climate prevailed, with long winters, short summers, and limited rainfall.

• Oases and river valleys enabled farming in Xinjiang and Gansu, while the plateau and steppe supported pastoralism.

• Periodic droughts and shifting steppe conditions influenced nomadic migrations and political pressures on neighbors.

Societies and Political Developments

• The Tibetan Empire, dominant in the 7th–8th centuries, fragmented by the mid-9th, with regional warlords and monastic centers filling the vacuum.

• In Mongolia and the northern steppes, Turkic and Mongolic tribes organized into shifting confederations after the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate (840).

• The Tang Dynasty of China (618–907) gradually weakened, losing firm control of the western regions; local warlords and military governors filled the gap.

• By the 10th century, post-Tang successor states and regional powers such as the Khotan Kingdom and Gansu Uyghurs controlled key Silk Road oases.

• In the Hexi Corridor, fortified towns became contested points among Chinese, Tibetan, and steppe powers.

Economy and Trade

• Oasis agriculture (wheat, barley, grapes, cotton) supported dense populations in Tarim Basin towns like Khotan and Turfan.

• Tibetan highlands relied on barley cultivation, yak herding, and salt extraction.

• Steppe societies raised horses, sheep, and camels, trading livestock and animal products southward.

• Silk Road caravans carried silk, jade, and porcelain westward, returning with silver, glass, and horses.

• Tribute systems linked frontier states with Tang China and later successor dynasties.

Subsistence and Technology

• Irrigation canals and qanats sustained desert oases.

• Mounted cavalry with composite bows dominated warfare across steppes and frontiers.

• Tibetan Buddhism advanced, with monasteries becoming centers of literacy and landholding.

• Chinese gunpowder experimentation and woodblock printing began in this broader era, though concentrated in the east.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• The Silk Road through the Tarim Basin and Hexi Corridor remained the main artery between China and Central Asia.

• Tibetan passes linked the plateau with Nepal, India, and Inner Asia.

• Steppe routes connected Mongolia to the Caspian steppes and Manchuria.

• The Gansu corridor tied northern Chinese states to frontier polities.

Belief and Symbolism

• Buddhism flourished in Tibet and Tarim Basin states, with monumental cave complexes at Dunhuang and Kizil.

• Manichaeism and Nestorian Christianity persisted among Uyghur groups.

• Indigenous shamanic and sky-god traditions remained central to steppe societies.

• Ritual art, manuscripts, and religious iconography blended Indian, Persian, and Chinese influences.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Nomadic mobility enabled steppe groups to survive drought and resource scarcity.

• Oasis towns fortified their walls and stockpiles to endure sieges and shifting power struggles.

• Tibetan plateau communities relied on barley, yaks, and salt as ecological stabilizers.

• Trade diversification reduced dependence on any single route or crop.

Long-Term Significance

By 963, Upper East Asia was a mosaic of fragmented powers: Tibet in disunity, Tang China collapsing, Uyghur refugees adapting, and oasis states thriving on trade. Its cultural and political dynamism foreshadowed new steppe empires and Buddhist renaissances in the centuries ahead.

The Sakas (also called Kshatrapas), a name deriving from the native word in northwestern India for Scythian, refers to either of two dynasties of satraps in northwestern India who ruled in the first four centuries CE with considerable independence on behalf of the Pahlava suzerains.

The extinct Middle Iranian Saka language, also called Khotanese, is last spoken in Sinkiang, in northwestern China, by the Saka tribes of the kingdom of Khotan.

The main Khotanese dialect (the other Saka dialect, known from only one Buddhist fragment, is the closely related Tumshuq, formerly known as Maralbash) appears in Buddhist and other texts dating from the seventh to the tenth century.

Written in Brahmi script, the texts contain many loanwords from the Prakrit languages of India.

Upper East Asia (964 – 1107 CE): 

Tangut Western Xia, Tibetan Phyi dar, and Steppe–Silk Road Crossroads

Geographic and Environmental Context

Upper East Asia comprises Mongolia, Tibet, and the western highlands of China (Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, NW Sichuan). Landscapes range from Mongolian steppe and Gobi margins to the Tibetan Plateau and Hexi Corridor oases. Key nodes: Tarim/Turfan oases, Gansu–Ningxia irrigated towns, Qinghai/Amdo pastures, and Khams passes.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

The Medieval Warm Period modestly lengthened grazing seasons and improved barley yields in Tibetan valleys. Precipitation remained variable on the steppe; multi-year droughts strained herds and shaped diplomacy. Oases prospered on steady meltwater but faced dune encroachment and salinization—managed through constant irrigation upkeep.

Societies and Political Developments

• Tangut Western Xia (1038–1227): Mi-nyag clans consolidated the Hexi Corridor, founded the Western Xia monarchy (1038), fortified frontiers, taxed caravans, and contested borders with Northern Song and Khitan Liao.

• Oasis & Uyghur polities: Khotan fell to the Kara-Khanids (1006), accelerating Islamization in the southern Tarim; the Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho (Turfan) and Ganzhou Uyghurs remained Buddhist, sustaining manuscript culture and caravan services.

• Tibet (phyi dar, “Later Diffusion”): Post-imperial principalities backed a Buddhist renaissance—Guge and Purang patronized translation and temple building (e.g., Rinchen Zangpo; Atiśa’s arrival in 1042 spurred scholastic reform like Kadam). In Amdo/Qinghai and Khams, Tibetan and Qiangic groups balanced monastery estates with mixed pastoral–agrarian lifeways.

• Mongolia & the Eastern Steppe: No single hegemon; Kereit, Naiman, Merkit, and allied confederations engaged in horse-trade diplomacy with Song, Liao, and Western Xia.

Economy and Trade

• Caravan systems moved silk, tea, paper, porcelain, and copper cash westward; returning were horses, wool, falcons, silver, ambergris, and Islamic glass.

• Hexi tolls and forts under Western Xia monetized and secured routes.

• Tea–horse trade linked Song with Tibet/Amdo and Western Xia.

• Khotan–Kashgar reoriented toward Islamic markets; Qocho remained a Buddhist entrepôt mediating mixed networks.

Subsistence and Technology

• Pastoralism: mobile camps, composite bows, lamellar armor, and remount strings defined steppe warfare; diversified herds (horses, sheep, goats, camels, yaks) spread risk.

• Tibetan valleys: barley/buckwheat terraces, yak traction, monastery granaries, and salt trade.

• Oases: qanat/karez galleries, dams, trellised orchards (apricot, mulberry, pomegranate), and Buddhist woodblock printing (Turfan–Dunhuang).

• Frontier fortifications: Western Xia built rammed-earth walls, beacons, and river forts along caravan lanes and pastures.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Northern/Southern Silk Roads skirted the Taklamakan, converging through Hexi toward Song markets.

• Plateau passes (Tsang–Ngari–Purang; Qinghai Lake routes) tied Tibet to Nepal, Ladakh, and Sichuan.

• Steppe corridors linked Mongolian confederations with Liao, Western Xia, and Song horse brokers.

Belief and Symbolism

• Tibet: Buddhist phyi dar translated scriptures, built monasteries, and formed scholastic lineages; Bon persisted and hybridized locally.

• Western Xia: state Buddhism and Tangut script underpinned royal legitimacy; steles, cave shrines, and monasteries proclaimed sovereignty.

• Oases: plural religious landscape—Buddhist caves (Dunhuang), Manichaean/Nestorian enclaves among Uyghurs, and post-1006 Islamic institutions in the western Tarim.

• Steppe: sky cults, ancestor rites, and divination legitimated chieftaincy and bound camps to landscape.

Adaptation and Resilience

Pastoral mobility absorbed climate shocks; intermarriage and tribute balanced inter-tribal relations. Western Xia combined taxation with convoy protection, securing revenue without stifling flows. Tibetan monasteries acted as grain banks, schools, and diplomatic nodes; oasis irrigation and merchant diasporas kept supply chains running despite wars.

Long-Term Significance

By 1107, Upper East Asia cohered around three durable frontiers:

1. Western Xia commanding Hexi and the Ordos rim;

2. a Tibetan Buddhist renaissance radiating from Guge and Amdo/Khams;

3. Mongolian confederations refining cavalry economies ahead of 12th-century realignments.
   Xinjiang’s religious map tilted toward Islam while Qocho and Dunhuang sustained Buddhist manuscript cultures—an institutional mix that set the stage for Jin expansion, Western Xia’s apogee, and ultimately the Mongol transformations of the 13th century.