18 Facts About Kangju

The name Kangju is generally regarded as a variant or mutated form of the name Sogdiana.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Kangju spoke an Eastern Iranian language, which was probably identical to Sogdian, or derived from it.

Chinese sources state that the Kangju were tributiaries of the Yuezhi in the south and the Xiongnu in the east.

Kangju was mentioned by the Chinese traveller and diplomat Zhang Qian who visited the area c 128 BCE, whose travels are documented in Chapter 123 of the Shiji :.

In 101 BCE, the Kangju allied themselves with the Dayuan, helping them preserve their independence against the Han.

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The Kangju established close connections with the Sarmatians, their western neighbors.

The Kangju state came to unite a number of regions which had sedentary, agricultural and nomadic populations.

Kangju were in frequent struggles with the Wusun, during which they in the mid 1st century BCE allied themselves with the northern Xiongnu.

The Kangju ruler gave his daughter in marriage to the northern Xiongnu ruler Zhizhi while Zhizhi married the daughter of the Kangju ruler.

The Xiongnu and Kangju were initially successful, besieging the Wusun in 42 BCE.

The Kangju ruler was forced to send his son as a hostage to the Han court.

Nevertheless, the Kangju continued to send embassies to the Han court and pursued an independent policy, which they were able to maintain until the 3rd century CE.

The Chinese then sent "considerable presents of silks" to the Yuezhi successfully gaining their help in pressuring the Kangju to stop supporting the king of Kashgar against them.

Kangju was later known as the State of Kang during the Sui and Tang dynasties.

Kangju are regarded as an Indo-European people, and are generally held to have been an Iranian people identical with the Sogdians, or the closely related Asii.

References from written sources and archaeological finds show that the Kangju reached a considerable level of agricultural sophistication.

Wide canals from the Kangju period have been discovered, with the land area under irrigation of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya being four times greater than today.

Kangju appears to be a civilisation known to Soviet archaeologists as the "Kaunchi Culture", dating from the 2nd century BCE to the early 8th century CE, and centred on the middle course of the Syr Darya and its tributaries: the Angren, Chirchik, and Keles.