Three Miao tribes and the mountain of Sanwei in Dunhuang
2 min readThe Earliest Communication between the Central Plains and the Western Regions from the Perspective of Legends of Sanwei Mountain An ancient historical legend tells the story of three Miao tribes and the mountain of Sanwei. According to the Book of History: Canon of Shun, Emperor Shun “banished Gonggong to the Prefecture of You, Huandou to the Mountain of Chong, and the three Miao tribes to the Mountain of Sanwei, and killed Gun on the Mountain of Yu.”
The three Miaos were aborigines between the lakes of Dongting and Poyang and were partially exiled after defeat to the Sanwei Mountain. Records of the Grand Historian says in its Annals of the Five Emperors that “the three Miaos rioted agai and again in Jianghuai and Prefecture of Jing; therefore Shun… moved them to Sanwei to change the customs of the Rong tribe in the west.”It is explained in Kuo Di Zhi (Journal of Geography) that Sanwei Mountain, also named Beiyu Mountain, was 301i southeast of Dunhuang in Prefecture of Shazhou and had three peaks. Another classic, Shui Jing Zhu (Commentary on the Classic of Waterways), also points out the location to be south of Dunhuang county.
As a famous mountain in Dunhuang, according to the record in Shan Hai Jing: Sanwei was inhabited by Sanqing birds that fetched food for the Queen Mother of the West. It seems that Sanwei Mountain was the living place of the divine birds who served as food collectors of the deity, so that the mountain is covered with a mysterious veil.
From what data we can find now, the three Miaos, Sanwei, the Queen Mother of the West and Sanqing birds are purely legendary. However, they reflect a fundamental fact of history: the communication between the Central Plains and the Western Regions began in the remote past.
