Exhibition "Qinghai in the Belt and Road" was displayed at the Capital Museum from February 28 to June 30, 2019 in Beijing.

Here is the review and the introduction:

Foreword

The clouds of Qinghai roam far and wide to the eastern land; the valley of the Hehuang is unparalleled in the western border region.

In the Qin and Han dynasties, the Qiang people, Bronze Age rulers of Qinghai, were involved in the war between the dynasty ruling the central plain and the Huns. As a result, central plain dynasty forces first entered the Hehuang region. In the subsequent turbulent times involving the Wei and Jin dynasties, the war raging in central China spread west to Qinghai. The Tuyuhun clan of the Xianbei people from Liaodong finally established their kingdom in the former homeland of the Qiang people. However, after ruling for over three hundred years, this kingdom stretching thousands of miles was gradually crushed by invading troops of the Sui and Tang dynasties from one direction and the Tibetan Empire from the other. Eventually, Qinghai became the frontier of the war between the Tang Dynasty and the Tibetan Empire. After the Anshi Rebellion, Qinghai was occupied by the latter for hundreds of years. In the early 11th century, the remnants of the old Tibetan Empire founded the Qingtang Regime, which was then overturned by the Northern Song Dynasty. Subsequently, the regimes of the Jin and Western Xia and the unified dynasties of the Yuan, Ming and Qing steadily strengthened their governance and rule in Qinghai. 

These political and military conflicts and confrontations covering thousands of years on the one hand show Qinghai as a military base of unparalled significance due to its favorable geographical position. Though situated far away on the remote western frontier, Qinghai was always closely related to the changes in the situation of the hinterland. On the other hand, through the ages, multiple ethnic groups migrated there and merged with each other, while traffic routes connecting the surrounding areas and to places beyond the western border of China were continually established, forming an important part of the Silk Road network, the Tang-Tibet Ancient Road and the Ancient Tea Horse Road.

The beauty of Qinghai can be traced through its mountains, rivers and ancient roads.

I. Dawn of Civilization

Qinghai has a long history and a brilliant culture. As early as the Old Stone Age, people were living there. Chipped tools have been discovered along the Tuo Tuo River, Hol Sil, Sanchakou of the Kunlun Mountains and the Yellow River terrace in the Longyangxia region. The cultural relics of the New Stone Age were also widely distributed in areas running from the extensive and fertile Hehuang Valley to the boundless Qaidam Basin. The complex cultural composition, to some degree, reflects the cultural development of ancient Qinghai, and shows certain historical origins for the multi-ethnic features of Qinghai today.

II. Han Government and Qiangzhong Road

In the Qing and Han dynasties, the Hun started to rise up from the northern prairie. In the period of Modu Chanyu, by"defeating the Eastern Hu regime and Yuezhi people, setting up authority among aboriginal tribes and ruling the Qiang clans", the Qiang people in Qinghai and the Western Regions became the auxiliary force for the Hun intrusion into the core territory of the Han Dynasty. Up to the time of Emperor Wu, the Western Han Dynasty started to"beat off the Hun in the north and drive off the Qiang in the west". In the period of Han Emperor Zhao, Jincheng prefecture was set up, thus bringing the east of Qinghai into the system of prefectures & counties under central governance. In the Eastern Han dynasty, Xiping prefecture (today's Xining city) was set up after being separated from Jincheng prefecture to further strengthen the Han rule over the western territories, and the Qiangzhong Road became a vital communications line connecting the East and the West, forming the desert silk road with the northern roads.

III. Tuyuhun Kingdom

Tuyuhun was primarily the name of the eldest son of Murong Shegui, the Chanyu of the Murong people of the Xianbei Clan in Liaodong. Due to disputes with his brothers, Tuyuhun led his clan to move to the eastern part of Qinghai, and became powerful after the invasion of Diqiang. His grandson, Yeyan, used his name as the nomenclature of the clan and title of the regime. At the time, China was in the state of secession and separated regimes. Those governing Qinghai or engaged in the fighting for control included the Former Liang, the Former Qin, the Later Liang, the Southern Liang, the Western Qin and the Northern Liang. After Sui Emperor Yang led the expedition to defeat Tuyuhun, the regime gradually declined. In the early Tang Dynasty, as Tuyuhun frequently harassed the northwest frontier region, Emperor Taizong sent the great general Li Jing to defeat it and take control of its territory. Meanwhile, the regime in Tibet gradually expanded to Gansu-Qinghai region, and overthrew Tuyuhun in 663. The last king of Tuyuhun Nuohebo led the remnants to flee to Liangzhou.

"Tuyuhun Road" ("Henan Road") thrived after Hexi Road was blocked, and became part of the route as the only way connecting Central Asia, West Asia, and Central China. From the 4th century to the latter half of the 7th century, the Tuyuhun people were the leading force in the historical progress of Qinghai.

IV. Tibetan and Tang Empires 

In the 6th century, the Tibetan regime was established in the Shannan area of Tibet. It then expanded toward Qinghai and eventually destroyed Tuyuhun. Then a prolonged military and political confrontation erupted in Qinghai between the Tang Dynasty and the Tibetan Empire. After the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, the Tibetans occupied most parts of Qinghai as the Tang Dynasty transferred its force to suppress the rebellion in the east. After the middle of the 9th century, civil strife continued in the Tibetan Empire, and Zhang Yichao, a Han Chinese from Shazhou, took the opportunity to gain control of eastern Qinghai. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, a large-scale civilian slave riot broke out across the territory of Tibet. The Qinghai Tibetan regime also fell apart. During the period of the Tang-Tibet war, a road connecting Central China with Tibet, Nepal, and India was established, namely the Tang-Tibet Road, and Qinghai became a part of this route as the only way for connecting the commerce and trade as well as national friendship between Central China and South Asia.

V. Qinghai after the Eleventh Century

In 842, with the killing of Zanpu Dama of the Tibetan Empire, the Hehuang region of Qinghai fell into a state of scattered tribal secession. In 1032, Gusiluo chose Qingtang City (now Xining City) as his capital, and established a local regime with Tibetan forces as the main body. In the third year of the Chongning Period (1104), the Song Dynasty army occupied the Hehuang region, and turned Shanzhou into Xining Prefecture, marking the beginning of the history of"Xining". After the annihilation of the Northern Song Dynasty, the empires of Jin and Western Xia occupied the eastern part of Qinghai and the area south of the Yellow River for about a century. In 1227, the eastern part of Qinghai was incorporated into the territory of the Mongolian khanate. In 1370, the Ming army took control of the eastern part of Qinghai, and Xining Prefecture was transformed into Xining Wei in the sixth year of the Hongwu Period (1373). In the early Qing Dynasty, the Hehuang region was controlled by Gushi Khan, head of Khoshut Khanate of Mongolia. In the early years of Emperor Yongzheng's reign, after the rebellion of Lob Tsangdanjin was settled, the Qing government finally realized formal rule over the Qinghai Hehuang region.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, the Hehuang region of Qinghai has shown a pattern of multi-ethnic settlement and the coexistence and development of a variety of religions. During the period, the tea-horse trade thrived, and the Ancient Tea Horse Road became an important channel connecting trade between Central China and Tibet.

Epilogue

Qinghai, with numberless mountains and rivers, is divided into three categories of geomorphic features from the north to the south, and bears cultural, agricultural and stock resources in great abundance.

It became a strategic military base, with the integration and settlement of multiple ethnic groups, and development of traffic connecting China with the foreign countries.

In the past, the mountains, rivers and roads formed various stages in the long history of Qinghai. However, to explore the history and culture of Qinghai, we shall further open up the temporal and spatial dimensions of history, and meditate in a broader field of vision, and perhaps you will make that discovery for yourself. 

In fact, the most important chapter in the history of Qinghai is the role Qinghai has assumed and the functions it has played in the confrontation between various forces outside its borders. In other words, the history of Qinghai is"not on" Qinghai. The reason is just that Qinghai has always served as a link and joint, and the ruler's attention is always not on, but beyond the valleys & mountains of Qinghai, with thoughts always lingering at the end of the ancient roads or following the surging eastward-bound Hehuang River.

Time changes, and now Qinghai has a new positioning in the People's Republic of China. In the new age of national unity, abundance of goods and prosperity, Qinghai, the place of great beauty, will become greater as the country gets stronger, and more beautiful, providing a better, sweeter life for its people.