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former country in present-day China
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Kucha was an ancient Tocharian Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of what is now the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin and south of the Muzat River. The people of Kucha spoke Kuchean (also known as Tocharian B) and a local variant of Gandhārī Prakrit, known as Kucha Prakrit, was used by Kucha for official and administrative purposes, with evidence indicating that it remained in use until 6th century.
The former area of Kucha now lies in present-day Aksu Prefecture, west-central Xinjiang, China. Kuqa town is the county seat of Aksu Prefecture's Kuqa County.
Though the history of toponyms for modern Kucha remains problematic, it is clear that Kucha (Kuchar, in Turkic languages) and Kuché (modern Chinese) both correspond to the Kushan of Indic scripts from late antiquity.
Chinese annals uniformly record the kingdom's name as 龜茲 (Qiūcí) from the Han to the Song dynasty. Its earliest attestation is in the Hanshu. Commentators indicate that the name was pronounced specifically as 丘慈 (Qiūcí, Old Chinese *kʽǐwə-dzǐə) rather than the ordinary reading Guǐzī (Old Chinese *kǐwə-tsǐə). A later 4th‑century transcription, 屈茨 (Qūcí, EMC *khut-dzi), corroborates this pronunciation.
Attested forms in other pre-Islamic languages include Niya-Gāndhārī *kuciya, Sanskrit kuci-, Kuchean kᵤśiññe, Sogdian ’kwc’, and Old Turkic küsän.
Guzan or Küsan is attested in the Tibetan Annals (s.v.), dating from 687 CE. Old Uyghur and Old Mandarin transcriptions from the Mongol Empire support the forms Küsän / Güsän and Kuxian / Quxian respectively, instead of Küshän or Kushan. Another, cognate Chinese transliteration is Ku-sien.
In the 11th‑century Turkish lexicon of Maḥmud Kāšḡari, the oasis is recorded as Küsän and Kuča, reflecting its status as “a frontier of Uighur.” The modern Mandarin form 庫車 (Kuche) was later established in 1758.
Transcriptions of the name Kushan in Indic scripts from late antiquity include the spelling Guṣān, and are reflected in at least one Khotanese Tibetan transcription.
The forms Kūsān and Kūs are attested in Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat's 16th-century work in Chaghatai, the Tarikh-i Rashidi. Both names, as well as Kos, Kucha, Kujar etc., were used for modern Kucha.
For a long time, Kucha was the most populous oasis in the Tarim Basin. As a Central Asian metropolis, it was part of the Silk Road economy, and was in contact with the rest of Central Asia, including Sogdia and Bactria, and thus also with the cultures of South Asia, Iran, and the coastal areas of China. At the northern route of the Silk Road, above the Taklamakan Desert, many travelers passed through this oasis. This travel pattern led to exchanges in art, culture, and religion.
The main population of Kucha was part of the ancient population of the Tarim Basin known as the Tocharians, who spoke an Indo-European language known as Kuchean Tocharian. The Tocharians are associated with the earlier Afanasievo culture, a population derived from the ancient North Eurasians. Chinese sources from the 2nd century BCE mentioned Wusun populations with blue eyes and red hair in the area of the Ili River to the northwest of Kucha.
In the second century BCE, the kingdom known in Chinese sources Qiūcí 龜茲 was controlled, as the other states of the regions by the steppe federation of Xiōngnú 匈奴. Chinese official and diplomat Zhang Qian traveled the area westward to visit Central Asia, during the 2nd century BCE, but he did not mention Qiūcí in his report.
According to the Hanshu (Book of Han), around 101 BCE, the king of Qiūcí (龜茲) received hostages, including Làidān (賴丹), the crown prince of Wūmí (扜彌). On his return journey to Cháng'ān (長安) after the campaign against Dàyuān (大宛), General Lǐ Guǎnglì (李廣利) captured Làidān.
Subsequently, Prince Làidān was ordered by the Han court to oversee the establishment of military agricultural colonies (túntián 屯田) at Lúntái 輪臺 near Qiūcí. However, a nobleman from Qiūcí killed Làidān, which led to an attack by a Han army commanded by Cháng Huì 常惠，only several decades later.
The daughter of the Princess Jieyou (Jiěyōu Gōngzhǔ 解忧公), who was married to the king of the Wusun, was sent to the Han court in 64 BCE. However, the King of Kucha Jiàngbīn 絳賓 stopped here on the way, wanting to marry her, which she accepted. In 65 BCE, King Jiàngbīn even travelled to Cháng'ān 長安 (modern Xī'ān 西安, Shaanxi) to visit the Han court and pay tribute.
In 60 BCE, the Han court established the Protectorate of the Western Regions (Xīyù Dūhùfǔ 西域都護府), with its administrative seat in Wūlěi 烏壘, just east of Qiūcí 龜茲. King Jiàngbīn's 絳賓 son, Chéngdé 丞德, was granted the title of "Outer Imperial Grandson" (wàisūn 外孫), signifying his status as the son of an imperial daughter.
Following the fall of the Former Han dynasty and during the usurpation of Wáng Mǎng 王莽 (r. 8–23 CE), the city-states of the Western Territories (Xīyù 西域) severed ties with China and once again fell under the control of the Xiōngnú 匈奴.
According to the Book of Han (completed in 111 CE), Kucha was the largest of the "Thirty-six Kingdoms of the Western Regions", with a population of 81,317, including 21,076 persons able to bear arms. The Kingdom of Kucha occupied a strategic position on the Northern Silk Road, which brought prosperity, and made Kucha a wealthy center of trade and culture.
As an oasis town northward of the Taklamakan Desert, Kucha attracted travelers passing by along their journey on the Silk Road, serving as a rest stop for travelers and visitors and as a religious stronghold and political center. The Silk Road, despite its name, provided routes across Eurasia for the flow of cultures, religions, ideas, and goods and services, and Kucha played a role in this exchange. Kucha and the archaeological discoveries in the surrounding region provide insight into the city's significance during the time of the Silk Road.
During the Later Han (25–220 CE), Kucha and the rest of the Tarim Basin became a focus of rivalry between the Xiongnu to the north and the Han Chinese to the east. In 74 CE, Chinese troops started to take control of the Tarim Basin with the conquest of Turfan. In the first century CE, Kucha resisted the Chinese and allied itself with the Xiongnu and the Yuezhi against the Chinese general Ban Chao. Even the Kushan Empire of Kujula Kadphises sent an army to the Tarim Basin to support Kucha, but retreated after minor encounters.
In 124, Kucha formally submitted to the Chinese court, and by 127 China had conquered the whole of the Tarim Basin. Kucha became a part of the Western protectorate of the Chinese Han dynasty, with China's control of the Silk Road facilitating the exchange of art and the propagation of Buddhism from Central Asia. The Roman Maes Titianus visited the area in the 2nd century CE, as did numerous great Buddhist missionaries such as the Parthian An Shigao, the Yuezhis Lokaksema and Zhi Qian, or the Indian Zhú Shuòfú (竺朔佛). Around 150 CE, Chinese power in the western territories receded, and the Tarim Basin and its city-states regained independence.
Kucha became very powerful and rich in the last quarter of the 4th century CE, about to take over most of the trade along the Silk Road at the expense of the Southern Silk Road, which lay along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin. According to the Jinshu, Kucha was highly fortified, had a splendid royal palace, as well as many Buddhist stupas and temples:
There are fortified cities everywhere, their ramparts are three-fold, inside there are thousands of Buddhist stupas and temples (...) The royal palace is magnificent, glowing like a heavenly abode".
Culture flourished, and Indian Sanskrit scriptures were being translated by the Kuchean monk and translator Kumarajiva (344–413 CE), himself the son of a man from Kashmir and a Kuchean mother. The southern kingdoms of Shanshan and the Jushi Kingdom (now Turfan and Jiaohe) asked for Chinese assistance in countering Kucha and its neighbour Karashar. The Chinese general Lü Guang was sent with a military force by Emperor Fu Jian (357–385) of the Former Qin (351–394). Lü Guang obtained the surrender of Karashar and conquered Kucha in 383 CE. Lü Guang mentioned the powerful armour of Kucha soldiers, a type of Sasanian chainmail and lamellar armour that can also be seen in the paintings of the Kizil Caves as noted in the Biography of Chinese General Lü Guang: "They were skillful with arrows and horses, and good with short and long spears. Their armour was like chain link; even if one shoots it, [the arrow] cannot go in."
Lü Guang soon retired and the empire of Fu Jian crumbled against the Eastern Jin, and he established a principality in Gansu, bringing Kumarajiva together with him.
Kucha ambassadors are known to have visited the Chinese court of Emperor Yuan of Liang in his capital Jingzhou in 516–520 CE, at or around the same time as the Hepthalite embassies there. An ambassador from Kucha is illustrated in Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, painted in 526–539 CE, an 11th-century Song copy of which has survived.
The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited Kucha and in the 630s described Kucha at some length, and the following are excerpts from his descriptions of Kucha:
The soil is suitable for rice and grain... it produces grapes, pomegranates and numerous species of plums, pears, peaches, and almonds... The ground is rich in minerals-gold, copper, iron, and lead and tin. The air is soft, and the manners of the people honest. The style of writing is Indian, with some differences. They excel other countries in their skill in playing on the lute and pipe. They clothe themselves with ornamental garments of silk and embroidery... There are about one hundred convents in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to the Little Vehicle of the school of the Sarvastivadas. Their doctrine and their rules of discipline are like those of India, and those who read them use the same originals... About 40 li to the north of this desert city there are two convents close together on the slope of a mountain... Outside the western gate of the chief city, on the right and left side of the road, there are erect figures of Buddha, about 90 feet high.
A specific style of music developed within the region and "Kuchean" music gained popularity as it spread along the trade lines of the Silk Road. Lively scenes of Kuchean music and dancing can be found in the Kizil Caves and are described in the writings of Xuanzang. "[T]he fair ladies and benefactresses of Kizil and Kumtura in their tight-waisted bodices and voluminous skirts recall—notwithstanding the Buddhic theme—that at all the halting places along the Silk Road, in all the rich caravan towns of the Tarim, Kucha was renowned as a city of pleasures, and that as far as China men talked of its musicians, its dancing girls, and its courtesans." Kuchean music was very popular in Tang China, particularly the lute, which became known in Chinese as the pipa. For example, within the collection of the Guimet Museum, two Tang female musician figures represent the two prevailing traditions: one plays a Kuchean pipa and the other plays a Chinese jiegu (an Indian-style drum). The music of Kucha, along with other early medieval music, was transmitted from China to Japan during the same period and is preserved there, somewhat transformed, as gagaku or Japanese court music.
Following its conquest by the Tang dynasty in the early 7th century, during Emperor Taizong's campaign against the Western Regions, the city of Kucha was regarded by Han Chinese as one of the Four Garrisons of Anxi: the "Pacified West", or even its capital.
During a few decades of domination by the Tibetan Empire, in the late 7th century, Kucha was usually at least semi-independent.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, Uyghurs increasingly migrated into the area. After the destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate by Kyrgyz forces in 840, Kucha became an important center of the Uyghur kingdom of Qocho.
The extensive ruins of the ancient capital and the Subashi Temple (Chinese Qiuci), which was abandoned in the 13th century, lie 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of modern Kucha.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Kucha”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.