Jiaohe, 交河, was the capital of the Former Cheshi, the state that held the Turfan basin before Gaochang.[1] The ruins at Yarkhoto, about six or seven kilometres west of Turfan, are identified with it.[2]

The city between the rivers

The Han Shu says that the water of the river divided and ran round the city, and that the city took the name Jiaohe from this.[1] The Hou Han Shu repeats the sentence.[3] The name means river junction.[2] The little river Yar once ran round the walls in two arms that joined again below the city.[2]

The capital of the Former Cheshi

The Han Shu gives the Former Cheshi 700 households, 6,050 people and 1,865 men under arms.[1] Its king lived at Jiaohe.[1] The city was 835 li from Yanqi and 1,807 li from the seat of the Han Protector.[1] A comparison of the Han distance to Yanqi with the real distance gives 320 kilometres for 835 li.[4]

The country lay on fertile ground near the Xiongnu. The Han and the Xiongnu fought over it and over its farms.[1] The Han officer Zheng Ji, who farmed at Quli, took Jiaohe. The king held out in a stone city to the north.[1] The contest belongs to the story of the Han farm colonies.

In the troubles that followed the death of the Han Protector Chen Mu, the governor of Jiuquan, Duan Peng, defeated Cheshi at Jiaohe.[3] The Hou Han Shu counts 1,500 households, over 4,000 people and 2,000 men under arms for the Former Cheshi and puts its king at Jiaohe, eighty li from Liuzhong, the seat of the Han changshi, the chief clerk of the Western Regions.[3]

Under the northern dynasties

The Wei Shu calls the Former Cheshi “the Front Section” and says that its king lived at Jiaohe.[5] When Juqu Wuhui and his brothers crossed the desert after the Wei had destroyed their kingdom in Liangzhou, they gathered the stragglers and broke Cheshi.[5] In 450 the Cheshi king wrote to the Wei court that eight years of this war had brought famine.[5] His people had fled east and a third of them were alive.[5] The Wei opened the granary of Yanqi to them.[5]

Under Gaochang

The Zhou Shu describes the court of Gaochang under the Qu kings. The king had two dukes below the chief minister, and both were his sons. One was the Duke of Jiaohe and the other the Duke of Tiandi.[6] The Liang Shu lists Jiaohe among the forty-six garrison towns of Gaochang.[7] The Jiu Tang Shu says that Gaochang had twenty-one cities and that its king lived at Gaochang. Jiaohe was the old court of the Former Cheshi king. Tiandi was the city of the Han colonel.[8]

In 640 the Tang court sent an army against Gaochang under Hou Junji, whom it named Grand Commander of the Jiaohe Road.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Han Shu, juan 96
  2. ^ a b c Herrmann 1910, p. 82
  3. ^ a b c Hou Han Shu, juan 88
  4. ^ Herrmann 1910, p. 38
  5. ^ a b c d e Wei Shu, juan 102
  6. ^ Zhou Shu (Book of Zhou), juan 50
  7. ^ Liang Shu, juan 54
  8. ^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 198

Sources

Literature

  • Albert Herrmann, Die alten Seidenstrassen zwischen China und Syrien. Beiträge zur alten Geographie Asiens, Bd. 1 (1910)

Related

What links here3

Places
Anxi Protectorate
Institutions and Titles
Farming and Taxes in Gaochang · Han Military Farms in the Western Regions

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Jiaohe.” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/places/jiaohe/

Last revised: 7 November 2026