Today, China story network editor brings you why Khotan worships mice as gods? Interested readers can follow Xiaobian to have a look.
We know that more than 2000 years ago, during the Western Han Dynasty, China opened up the Silk Road, which was introduced in the text of the fifth grade of primary school – “the Silk Road”. It was the second century BC, when Hotan was also called Khotan. Hotan and Khotan are actually the same word, but the pronunciation has changed due to the change of times.
Some linguists believe that Hotan’s harmony and Khotan’s Yu, in ancient times, should read “Ou” or “Gu”, which comes from the meaning of high, big and beautiful in the Sino Tibetan language family, which has similar usage in Chinese, Tibetan, even Vietnamese and Korean. Field means land. Therefore, Hotan and Khotan represent beautiful land, and it is metaphorically a place rich in beautiful jade.
When Zhang Qian was sent to the western regions, Khotan was a small city-state located in the south of Tarim Basin, with a population of only tens of thousands, but Khotan’s geographical location was very important. At that time, the silk road was divided into two roads in the western regions, North and south, respectively located in the north and south of the Tarim Basin, so as to bypass the vast Taklimakan Desert. Khotan is an important town that the south route of the silk road must pass through.
Although Khotan has a population of only tens of thousands, it is already the most populous town in the south of the desert. In addition, Khotan is rich in jade, and business travel is very frequent, so it has become one of the most prosperous trade strongholds in the western regions.
Zhang Qian opened the Silk Road and opened the traffic between the Central Plains and the western regions. His initial purpose was to unite these small countries in the western regions to fight against the Xiongnu. At that time, the Huns entrenched in the north not only frequently invaded the Central Plains, but also enslaved small countries in the western regions such as Khotan for a long time, and small countries such as Khotan also carried out long-term resistance.
There is a fairy story in Khotan ancient country, which tells the history of resisting the Huns.
Speaking of this story, let’s first talk about an interesting custom in ancient Khotan, that is, to worship mice and treat mice as gods. What’s going on?
It turned out that a long time ago, the Hun army invaded Khotan. The king of Khotan led the army and people to insist on resistance, but Khotan has a small population and weak troops, so it can only defend the city.
In this way, one day the king of Khotan fell asleep in tiredness and had a dream. In the dream, a huge mouse came into his dream. In the dream, the big mouse told the king that Khotan must go out of the city to attack the Xiongnu before dawn one day, and he would win.
When the king of Khotan woke up, he was very surprised. Think about it. Anyway, Khotan’s troops are weak, and there is no chance of winning against the Huns. It’s better to listen to the hint of the mouse in your dream and fight to the death.
So the king of Khotan launched a surprise attack on the Hun’s camp before dawn according to his dream. The Hun army was strong and arrogant. Unexpectedly, little Khotan dared to go out of the city to attack, so the Hun soldiers mounted in armor to prepare for a big war. Unexpectedly, as soon as the Huns got on the horse and pulled the bow, they found that the situation was wrong. It turned out that the saddle, armor, bowstring and other places with ties had been bitten by rats.
For a moment, the powerful Hun soldiers could not ride horses, had no armor, and could not use bows and arrows. They became lambs to be slaughtered, and were defeated by the Khotan army. From then on, the Huns never dared to invade Khotan again.
In this way, in order to remember the God mouse’s kindness of saving the country, the king specially set up a temple for worship, and the God mouse has become the God of Khotan since then.
This story is recorded in detail in a book called “records of the western regions of the Tang Dynasty” in the Tang Dynasty, and the author of this book is Chen Xuanzang, that is, the Tang monk in “journey to the west”. Journey to the west is a mythological novel, but Chen Xuanzang himself is a real historical figure.
During the Western Han Dynasty, through Zhang Qian’s diplomatic activities, most western countries were unified under the banner of the Han Dynasty and united to drive the Huns out of the western regions. Not only that, in 36 BC, Gan Yanshou, the capital of the western regions, and Chen Tang, the captain, seized the warplanes, gathered 40000 local Han garrison troops and affiliated state troops such as Khotan and Wusun, and boldly attacked, conquered Zhizhi Zhicheng, the Hun’s nest on the Talas River in Kazakhstan today, killing Zhizhi Zhishan Yu, the Hun, and achieved a great victory.
Since then, Khotan and other small countries in the western regions have maintained close ties with the Central Plains for a thousand years. Although the Central Plains experienced the demise of the Han Dynasty, the wars of the two Jin and southern and Northern Dynasties, and the management of the western regions was interrupted many times, Khotan and the countries in the western regions still maintained the operation of the Silk Road, and soon returned to the territory of China after the reunification of the Central Plains.
In the Tang Dynasty, Khotan became one of the four important towns subordinate to Anxi Jiedu envoy, and its economy and culture were very prosperous. Disclaimer: the above content originates from the network, and the copyright belongs to the original author. Please inform us if your original copyright is infringed, and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.