Kangju

Kangju (; Eastern Han Chinese: kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ < *khâŋ-ka (c. 140 BCE)) was the Chinese name of a kingdom in Central Asia during the first half of the first millennium CE. The name Kangju is now generally regarded as a variant or mutated form of the name Sogdiana. According to contemporaneous Chinese sources, Kangju was the second most powerful state in Transoxiana, after the Yuezhi. Its people, known in Chinese as the Kāng (康), were evidently of Indo-European origins, spoke an Eastern Iranian language, and had a semi-nomadic way of life. The Sogdians may have been the same people as those of Kangju

Key facts

Country.common_name: Kangju
Country.conventional_long_name: Kangju
Country.status: Independent state
Country.era: Late Antiquity
Country.capital: Kangu
Country.common_languages: Sogdian language
Country.year_start: 1st century BCE (?)
Country.year_end: 5th century CE
Country.symbol_type: Tamga of the Kangju
Country.image_map: Territory of the Kangju in 200 CE.jpg
Country.image_map_caption: The approximate territory of the Kangju c. 200 CE.
Country.leader1: Vanvan of Chach
Country.today: UzbekistanTajikistan

via Wikipedia infobox

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Article

11 sections

Contents

Name
History
Culture
Archaeology
Kaunchi culture
Inscriptions
Genetics
Notes and references
Footnotes
References
Sources

Kangju (; Eastern Han Chinese: kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ It is not clear whether the Chinese name 康居 Kangju was intended to transcribe an ethnic name, or to be descriptive, or both. 居 ju can mean: 'seat', 'central place of activity or authority; 'to settle down,' 'residence,' or 'to occupy (militarily).'... The term, therefore, could simply mean "the abode of the Kang," or "territory occupied by the Kang." ... As kang 康 means 'well-being', 'peaceful,' 'happy;' 'settle', 'stability,' Kangju can be translated as the 'Peaceful Land,' or 'Abode of the Peaceful (People).' ... Even if the name Kangju was originally an attempt to transcribe the sounds of a foreign name, it would still have carried the sense of a peaceful place to Chinese speakers, and the name 'Kang' would have had overtones of a peaceful people.

thumb|upright=1.5|Countries described in Zhang Qian's report. Visited countries are highlighted in blue. Later Chinese sources, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, refer to Kangju as the State of Kang (). By that time it was part of the Göktürk Khaganate.