The Dangchang Qiang宕昌羌

The Dangchang Qiang are, in their forebears, in the main descendants of the Sanmiao (三苗). In the time of the Zhou they joined the eight states — Yong, Shu, Wei, Lu and the rest — in following King Wu to destroy the Shang. Under the Han there were the Xianling and the Shaodang, who for generations were a trouble on the frontier. Their land touches China to the east and opens upon the Western Regions to the west, and runs some thousands of li from south to north. Each surname forms its own tribe and sets up its own chieftain, and each has its portion of land, none ruling another. Dangchang is one of these.

In their customs they are all settled on the soil, and their dwellings have roof and beam. Their roofs they cover with a weave of yak tails and black ram's wool. The country has no laws and orders, and no labor service or taxes either. Only in time of war do they gather together; otherwise each minds his own living and they do not go back and forth to one another. They all wear fur and coarse cloth, and they herd yaks, sheep and pigs to furnish their food. When a father, an uncle on either side, or a brother dies, they take his widow, be she stepmother, uncle's wife, elder brother's wife, or younger brother's wife, to be their own wife. In their customs there is no writing, and they mark the seasons only by watching the grass and trees put out leaves and shed them. Once in three years they gather together and kill oxen and sheep to sacrifice to Heaven.

There was one Liang Qin (梁勤), who for generations was chieftain and who won the hearts of the Qiang men of mettle, and so he called himself king. His borders ran from Chouchi westward, a thousand li from east to west, and from the Xi River southward, eight hundred li from south to north. The land has many hills and mounds, and his host was more than twenty thousand settlements. Mihu, the grandson of Qin, was the first to send envoys to the Later Wei, and Emperor Taiwu granted him the title he had taken for himself.

From Mihu down to Xianding (仚定), through nine generations, they kept up their tribute and service without a break. Later, seeing the two Wei split apart, they came to harbor thoughts of revolt. At the end of Yongxi, Xianding drew in the Tuyuhun and raided Jincheng, and at the beginning of Datong he led the men of his kind and invaded again. By edict the xingtai Zhao Gui was set over the yitong Houmochen Shun and others to strike and break them. Xianding took fright, called himself a vassal, and begged pardon for his offense, and Taizu let him go and appointed him General Who Soothes the Army. In the fourth year Xianding was made governor of South Taozhou and vassal king of Yao'an; afterward Taozhou was renamed Minzhou, and Xianding was kept on as its governor. That year the Qiang of Zhuoshui in Qinzhou rebelled, and the prefectural troops struck them and put them down. In the seventh year Xianding raised troops and invaded once more. Dugu Xin was then guarding Longyou, and by edict Xin was to strike him at once; but before the army came up, Xianding was killed by his own men. Xin pressed forward and broke what was left of his party. The court was then seeking to call in and cherish peoples of other ways, and so it made his younger brother Miding king of Dangchang instead.

In the sixteenth year Liaogan, a kinsman of Miding, fell upon him and took his seat, and Miding came over in flight. Before this, the Qiang chieftain Pangqi Tiecong and others had taken the time of Xianding's revolt to gather a host and hold Qulinchuan, and together with Zheng Wuchou, a commoner of Weizhou, they stirred up the several Qiang and defied the imperial commands with arms. Now by edict the great generals Yuwen Gui and Doulu Ning, with Shi Ning, governor of Liangzhou, and others, led troops to strike Liaogan and his party. They took them all and beheaded them, brought Miding back in, and returned. The account is in the chapters on Gui and the rest. Afterward the Qiang chieftains Dongnianjie and Gonglian Juhe rebelled, and the great generals Doulu Ning and Wang Yong struck them and put them down, one after the other.

At the beginning of Baoding, Miding sent an envoy and presented the products of his land, and in the third year he sent an envoy again and presented live wild beasts. In the fourth year Miding raided Taozhou, and the area commander Li Xian struck him and drove him off. That year Miding again drew in the Tuyuhun and raided the Shimen garrison, and Xian broke him once more. Gaozu was angered, and by edict he sent the great general Tian Hong to strike him and make an end of him, and their land was made into Dangzhou.