V. The period of Tubo's rule

　　The Tubo, the predecessor of the Tibetans, inhabited the Tibetan plateau long ago. At the turn of the sixth and seventh centuries A.D., the Tubo, under the leadership of its outstanding leader Songtsen Gampo, established a unified and powerful slave state. The period from 755 to 796 was the reign of the Tubo Zangpo Chisong Dezan, the most powerful period of the Tubo dynasty ever.
　　After Tubo occupied the River and Long regions, one of the first problems faced by Tubo was how to deal with the ethnic relations in the vast newly occupied areas. At that time, the Tubo people and Sunbo people belonged to the full-fledged troops; the Tugukhun people and the Dangxiang people had already been integrated by the Tubo, but there were still miscellaneous troops with quite an independent chain of command; in addition, there were also the Han people in the conquered Hexi region. From the actual situation at that time, the Han people were the main economic pillars of the Hexi region. When the Tubo just began to enter the Hexi, the slave-owning regime in the military attack at the same time, plundering, looting everywhere, children, jade and silk, all under the tent. The local people did not have any political security, thus causing social unrest at that time. When the Tubo rulers can effectively control the new occupation area, on the one hand, with tough measures to eliminate social instability, suppress the resistance, the implementation of the policy of Fanhua, the census of households, re-create the registration; on the other hand, reuse the local Tang Dynasty, the old officials of the family, and prohibit the captivity of the Han Chinese people. The Tubo people who are accustomed to looting, still treat the Han households with the attitude of the victor, that is, to the Han households integrated into the tribe, but also do whatever they want to do, creating new chaos. Although the Guasha tribe still had great influence in the region, the social status of the Han people was lower than that of the Tubo people, and even lower than that of some minorities also conquered by the Tubo.
　　In the early years of Tubo's rule, ethnic conflicts were sharp. The Tubo rulers disposed of Yan Chao, the leader of the resistance movement, by the assassination method of "putting poison in the boots", but the people of Shazhou did not give in, and the anti-Tubo struggles continued unceasingly. One of the more famous revolts was the Yuguan Yidu Uprising, in which Si Guozhong and others entered the sub-city of Shazhou in the middle of the night, and the Tubo Jie'er threw himself into the fire. This revolt had a strong color of anti-national oppression, and the revolters "then murdered the official of the Tubo". In the face of this situation, in order to maintain its rule for a long time, the Tubo rulers had to change the way of rule, to fight for the newly occupied areas of the Bailong, and actively cooperate with the local families and clans, to take a more moderate policy of rule. After that, the society was relatively stable. Tubo rulers also from the living habits and cultural traditions to implement the policy of fanization, in an attempt to eliminate the ethnic divide, and thus eliminate the people's anti-Tubo sentiments. At the beginning of the occupation of Dunhuang by the Tubo, Shang Beg Xin'er made the people of Shazhou change their clothes, learn to speak Tibetan, and get tattoos on their ochre faces. Zhanghuai deep monument " contains: " river Luo boiling, ...... and the south of the Tibetan culture, ...... caressing and surrender, far through the oath of alliance, analysis of property, self-settlement of the mulberry field. Give the name of the tribe, accounted for the amount of marching. From the line to comply with the braided hair, body beautiful weaving leather, left obeisance bound body, hanging humerus kneeling. Ancestors with grudges and hatred, a hundred years have not met the high winds, Qu Shen has no way." "Yin Shi repair virtue record" also has "bear warriors love children, split swaddling clothes to Wen body; mandarin ducks husband and wife, the hair and braid hair and hair" of the language. It can be seen that the Tubo rulers in the Dunhuang area with tough measures to force the Han people to speak the language, the left obeisance and clothing, braiding hair, tattoos, and even from infants to start. Its purpose is to remove the obvious differences between the ethnic groups from the language, customs, traditions, etc., to achieve the effect of long-term peace and security. Moreover, the Tubo's policy of fanization was not limited to Dunhuang, but was carried out in the whole Hexi region. However, these policies did not eliminate the Han people's hatred of the Tubo and their nostalgia for the Great Tang. When Liu Yuanding was on a mission to the Tubo, in the city of Longzhi, thousands of old men and women were crying and asking the Son of Heaven if he was safe, saying, "I was killed by the army, but my children and grandchildren have not yet forgotten the Tang clothes, and the imperial court is still remembering them? When will the soldiers come?" Shazhou Han people, although the Hu service subjugation, "every year when the father and ancestor, clothing China's clothes, the number of mourning and hide it".
　　In order to consolidate the rule, Tubo set up five tribes of ten thousand tribes and one De Lun for jurisdiction in He Long area; and set up a series of military towns for defense. After the occupation of Dunhuang, Tubo first set up a complete set of official system (i.e., section ministers - Kiliben - section children - governors, supervisors - tribes to make - judge) to rule the Hexi Guasha area, due to the Dunhuang area of the inhabitants of the composition of the Han Chinese people, so the Tubo in order to carry out effective rule, in the appointment of the Tubo people officials at the same time, but also appointed Han Chinese people for the auxiliary officials. It was with this dual system of officialdom that the Tubo rulers were able to maintain their rule in the Hexi region for hundreds of years. Dunhuang belonged to Gua Zhou from the military and township system, and was still called Shazhou during the time of the Tubo, but it was only a city, and its owner was called "Jie'er". After the occupation of Dunhuang, the Tubo made many changes to Dunhuang, and in 790, the Tubo divided the people of Shazhou into tribes according to their occupations under their own system, such as the "Silk Tribe", the "Pedestrian Tribe", the "Monk and Nun Tribe", the "Monk and Nun Tribe", and the "Monk and Nun Tribe". Tribe", "Taoist relatives and cousins tribe". A tribe roughly governed the original township, and its internal organization, similar to the tribal system of the Tubo headquarters. Tribes have tribal ambassador, under the general, the general has a general head. The most basic unit is a thousand households (tribes), thousand households under the small thousand households (i.e., five hundred organizations), set up a small thousand households long. Around 820, the military system was supplemented with the tribes of A-bong-sa (Uighur-bong-sa) and Sy-dong-sa (Si-dong-sa or Sil-dong-sa) (the upper and lower tribes). In 824, the Tongchew Army Tribe was added. Tubo changed the Dunhuang military and administrative jurisdiction system, although it is to strengthen the rule, has an important military factor; but from the internal organization, its economic factors are also very important, that is, in order to collect "sudden tax difference section". Therefore, "tribal - will" system, is not purely military organization, is a set of political, military, economic trinity of the organization system, that is, the government household registration system. Tubo rule period of household registration is very detailed, family members of births, deaths, family, marriage are recorded in detail. During the reign of the Tubo, the equalization of fields, which was practiced in the early Tang Dynasty, was changed and the Tudian system was introduced. We do not know the details of the system, but only from the Dunhuang documents in a glimpse of it. The sudden as a unit of measurement of land, a sudden equal to ten acres. Counting the mouth to grant the field, roughly, each person is a sudden, that is, ten acres. Land tax is known as "sudden field", pay "sudden field" is known as "Na Chu". Tubo in the Hexi tax system, in addition to retaining the old slavery elements, mainly absorbed Tang and the occupied areas of the tax system, and has a "tax officer", "tax collector" to carry out the task. The tax was paid on a per household basis, including wheat, green wheat, cloth and oil. In addition to paying taxes, the people under the Tubo system were also required to perform corvée services, including body work, work for the government, and work for the government. However, the socio-economic development of the Tubo period was slow. Although the system of granting land by counting the number of mouths continued, the tribal establishment was not conducive to the organization of production. The large increase in the number of monks and nuns reduced the labor force. The collection of land tax and sudden tax increased the burden of the people. The Tubo rulers, in order to prevent the Han Chinese people from revolting, seized all the iron weapons from the people, which seriously affected the agricultural production. The currency of the Tang Dynasty was abolished, and transactions were returned to bartering.
　　The occupation of Dunhuang by the Tubo dynasty was also in the pre-Buddhist period of the Tubo dynasty, and Dunhuang was a center of Buddhism at that time, so Buddhism was protected here. In addition, many of the officials and members of the great families who were unwilling to cooperate with the Tubo rulers also sought liberation by devoting themselves to the empty door. Therefore, at this time the Shazhou Buddhism unprecedented prosperity, the monastery from the pre-Tubo rule of thirteen to the end of the seventeen, monks and nuns from three hundred and ten to thousands of people, while the total population of the Shazhou at that time was only more than 30,000 people. Under the support of the Tubo rulers, the monastery economy flourished as never before, and the monasteries in Dunhuang, like those in the mainland, had temple households and land, were not subject to the jurisdiction of the government, and enjoyed all sorts of privileges. The Tubo slave masters also elevated the status of monks, and even allowed some monks to participate directly in political affairs. For example, Wujin's master, Hong Wei, in the era of the Tubo is "know the Shi Men Du law and regulate the line of professors"; Zhang Zhichao son-in-law Li Mingzhen's uncle Miaoben, often in the Tubo Zanpu around to participate in politics, and "altar offerings". At this time, Dunhuang Buddhist community of famous monks, such as has remained in Dunhuang, Chang'an monk Tanguang, teaching Zen Mahāyāna, did the "Fan Da De" Fucheng, Wujin, etc. are quite influential. However, in the process of spreading Zen Buddhism from Han to Tubo, there was a conflict with the Indian sect, which triggered a religious debate between the Indian monks and the Han monks. According to the record of "The Decision of the Enlightened Mahayana Righteousness" compiled by Wang Xi, Mahāyāna's disciples in the royal court of Tubo included the empress of the Zangpo, several aunts, the wives of more than thirty ministers, and many monks, and his disciples amounted to more than 5,000 people. When a conflict arose between the Gradual Sect of Indian monks and the Dhundun Sect of Han monks, the Indian monks asked Zanpou to kill the Han monks and prohibit the preaching of Buddhism, while Mahāyāna, a Han monk, asked for the convening of a monastic censure meeting. Zangpo adopted Mahāyāna's request, but made a special effort to strengthen the Indian monks by bringing Master Lotus Rings from India. In addition, the number of Indian monks was thirty, while the Han monks were only three. There are also many accounts of the outcome of this debate, but one thing is clear, the Hindu sect eventually gained dominance in Tubo itself. Tubo ruled until the uprising of Zhang Zhichao in the second year of Dazhong in the Tang Dynasty (848). Compared to the central plains, Dunhuang escaped the "Huichang extermination" of the Tang Dynasty, which allowed Dunhuang Buddhism to continue to develop.

Translated with DeepL