The military victory was not that important per se simply because a Chinese future was unrealistic at best. That the whole enterprise soon collapsed proved that. The real center of mass for this region was to the West around Samarkand.
The real pay off came from the acquisition of a cadre of professional paper makers and that was certainly incredibly important. We had a solid paprus tradition which by the way had never gone away but remained unsatisfactory for book making. This was suitable for scrolls but not for book making of any kind that involved mass production. It was likely just too fragile.
Paper making allowed for the manufacture of large robust books without using parchment. It also allowed use in daily commerce as well. Good paper made all the difdertence and we still are not giving it up any time soon.
What is one major Chinese historical event that had a huge impact on the world, but is hardly covered or known about today?
The Battle of Talas between the armies of Arabs and Chinese in 751 AD could be considered an event that eventually had a huge impact on the rest of the world. The battle itself was barely noticed or remembered today but it did help change the course of history.
The Battle of Talas (picture)
In 751 AD, the Arabs was in its ascendancy. At the time, the Arab caliphate was ruled by the powerful Abbasid dynasty. In the East, the Chinese empire was ruled by the great Tang dynasty. At their point of contact in today's Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, an event would spark a conflict between these two great empires. Historian and Georgetown University professor, James Millward, wrote in his book, "Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang", calling the conflict the "first and last meeting of Arab and Chinese armies".
By the mid-740s, the Tang controlled trade routes both north and south of the Tianshan mountains in modern Kyrgyzstan. Tang's general, Gao Xianzhi, had been engaged in a series of campaigns to drive the Tibetans out of the Pamir mountains at the time. A quarrel between the rulers of the principality of Chach and the Kingdom of Ferghana in Central Asia would eventually spark the conflict between the Arabs and Chinese. In those days, the Kingdom of Ferghana, ruled by the Ikhshids, was a vassal of Tang.
In 750 AD, the king of Ferghana had a border dispute with the ruler of neighboring Chach. He appealed to the Chinese, who sent General Gao to assist Ferghana's troops. Gao besieged Chach, offered the Chachan king safe passage out of his capital. But Gao reneged and beheaded the king. The son of Chachan king's escaped and sought help from Abbasid Arab governor at Khorasan. The Arabs decided to teach Gao a lesson. It gathered its troops and marched East. The Arabs were, of course, also keen to take the opportunity to assert Abbasid power in the region.
The Battle
In 751 AD, the two armies finally met along the Talas river in today's Kyrgyzstan. The Tang army was reinforced by the Karluks, a Turkic Central Asian tribal confederacy. The Karluks would later prove unexpectedly decisive in the forthcoming battle.
Both sides fielded tens of thousands of troops. For five days, the two mighty armies clashed. Then the Karluks came in on the Arab side on the fifth day and attacked the Chinese troops. Tang army's doom was sealed. Chinese sources imply that the Karluks had been fighting for them, but treacherously switched sides midway through the battle, causing their defeat. Gao managed to escape but with only a fraction of his army.
The defeat marked the end of Tang westward expansion and resulted in Muslim control of Central Asia area for the next 400 years. Control of this region was economically beneficial for the Abbasids because it was where the Silk Road passed through.
Consequences
At the time of the battle, its significance was not clear. The historical records of the battle are few but it was recorded in both Chinese and Arabian accounts. Not long after the Battle of Talas, China would be swept up by an even bigger event.
Tang at first wanted revenge and planned to chase the Arabs out of the Central Asia region. However, a catastrophic civil war, the An Shi Rebellion, later consumed the whole of China from 755-763. The rebellion resulted in a huge number of deaths and that the Tang empire's population was greatly reduced. The devastation of the population was not only a direct result of the heavy combat casualties and collateral civilian deaths, but, due to the widespread dislocations of the peasants, especially in the north and middle areas of China, mass starvation and disease also resulted in the deaths of millions. The rebellion spanned the reign of three Tang emperors and the death toll is estimated to be up to 36 million according to some sources.
The An Shi Rebellion and its aftermath greatly weakened the centralized bureaucracy of the Tang dynasty, especially in regards to its perimeters. Virtually, autonomous provinces and ad hoc financial organizations arose, giving rise to warlordism and reducing the influence of the central government. Furthermore, the Tang government also lost most of its control over the Western regions, due to troop withdrawal to central China to help crush the rebellion and deal with subsequent disturbances. Hence, continued military and economic weakness resulted in further subsequent erosion of Tang territorial control during the ensuing years, particularly in the Western region. By 790 Chinese had completely lost control over the Tarim Basin area. The Arabs took opportunity to further expand into Central Asia as Tang’s influence in the region retreated.
Nevertheless, the Battle of Talas had important consequences. The weakened Chinese Empire was no longer in any position to interfere in Central Asia, so the influence of the Abbassid Arabs continued to grow. Many of the communities and tribes in Central Asia were converted to Islam. Within the next 250 years, most of the formerly Buddhist, Hindu, Zoroastrian, and Nestorian Christian tribes of Central Asia had become Muslim. With the decline of Central Asian Buddhism due to Islam influence, Chinese Buddhism was cut off from Indian Buddhism and developed into an independent religion with distinct spiritual elements.
Paper technology goes West
Most significant of all, the art of making paper was said to spread to the Arabs, then to the West as a result of the Battle of Talas.
According to the 11th century historian, Thaalibi, Chinese prisoners captured at the battle helped introduce paper manufacturing to Samarkand, a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia.
Some of the Chinese soldiers were said to have worked at paper mills in China before. They were the ones who later helped build paper mills outside of China. One of the captives was the Tang Dynasty craftsman Tou-Houan. It was reported that he and others were brought to Baghdad where they stayed and worked for their Islamic captors for some years. When he returned to China, Tou wrote to the emperor that he and his colleagues taught the Abbasid craftsmen the important techniques of paper-making, textile manufacture, and gold-working.
Soon, paper mills sprang up in Samarkand, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Delhi and in 1120 the first European paper mill was established in Xativa, Spain (now called Valencia). Note that at the height of Arab domination, they controlled Spain and Portugal, as well as North Africa, the Middle East, and large swaths of Central Asia. This facilitated the transfer of paper-making technology to the West. From Xativa, this Chinese invention later passed to Italy, Germany, and across Europe.
Paper, being less expensive than parchment, helped spread knowledge, much of which was gleaned from the great Asian culture centers along the Silk Road, that benefitted Europe during the Middle Ages. It revolutionized the Islamic world, and later the European West. The advent of paper technology, along with woodcut printing and later movable-type printing, certainly fueled the advances in science, theology, and history in the West.
Ref:
Battle of Talas - Wikipedia
The Battle That Kept the Chinese Out of Central Asia
Arabs Fought the Chinese Back in 751 at the Battle of Talas River
An Lushan Rebellion - Wikipedia
An Shi Rebellion
https://getd.libs.uga.edu/pdfs/ayers_bryan_s_200408_ma.pdf
The Invention of Paper
Edit:
Someone commented that the Karluk Turks did not treacherously switch sides midway through the battle but were allied to the Abbasid Caliphate right from the beginning. It was suggested that the Chinese had lied about the supposed betrayal by the Turks in order to make excuses for its loss at the Battle of Talas so as to cover their shame.
The truth of the matter is, nobody really knows for sure. There were not many historical accounts of the battle and primarily, they came from either the Chinese or Arab sources. That means, there would be certain biasness involved in recording the accounts of the battle. So, principally, there are 2 versions of the battle.
According to the Chinese accounts, the battle lasted for five days. The fighting was hard and bloody. During the first few days, the battle was a contest between the archers and infantrymen of both Tang and Abbasid armies in the center and the cavalry units vying for control of the flanks. The Chinese army had a larger number of infantrymen and archers, while the Abbasid forces were comprised of half infantry and half cavalry. In the Chinese accounts, their forces were attacked by their Karluk allies in the rear on the last day of the battle while the Abbasids launched an all-out frontal attack. The Chinese army collapsed and was routed with heavy losses. Many of the Chinese soldiers were captured.
The second version came from Arab sources. In this version, the two armies faced off against one another for four days. Neither side was willing to fully commit to battle. Then on the fifth day, a third army, the Karluk Turks, attacked the Chinese in the rear, and at the same time the Abbasid forces launched a direct assault against the Tang army from the front, resulting in its utter destruction. In this second account, the Karluks had been Abbasid’ allies from the start and the Abbasid commander, Ziyad ibn Salih, had planned the simultaneous assault with the Karluks on the fifth day. There was never any treachery involved.
In either versions, the battle was a decisive Arab victory in any case. In both versions, the Chinese army was completely destroyed with the Chinese commander, General Gao, escaping. Multitudes of Chinese POWs were taken, which aided in the transfer of paper making technology to the West, as explained earlier. And the Chinese influence would never extend beyond the Tarim Basin again. The Arabs would come to dominate the region for the next few hundred years, resulting in its inhabitants of Central Asia gradually being Islamicized.
Today, a large majority of the people in countries of Western Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) are Muslims. Even Xinjiang of Eastern Central Asia was originally dominated by Uyghur Muslims. After the People's Republic of China was founded by Mao Zedong in 1949, he transferred large number of Han Chinese into Xinjiang (“支边新疆” policy), resulting in today's mix of about half Han, half Uyghur populations in Xinjiang. The Eastern Central Asian region (Dzungarian Basin and Tarim Basin) was reconquered by China and incorporated into a province during the late Qing dynasty. The name Xinjiang was actually proposed by General Zuo Zongtang (General Tso) to Qing Emperor, after he successfully led the reconquest. And today, there is a constant tension between Uyghur and Han populations in Xinjiang. Beijing has established many "re-education camps" in Xinjiang to house the Uygher Muslims.
Which version of the battle to believe?
You will have to decide for yourself which version of the battle to believe in. Understandably, such decision may be affected by one's outlook and culture. Even the academics themselves aren’t able to come to an agreement.
For example, Dr Kallie Szczepanski, a history expert specializing in Asian history and culture, believes in the Arab accounts more. That is to say, there was no treachery to begin with and the Karluk Turks were originally allied with the Arabs at the beginning of the battle. In her write-up for ThoughtCo on the battle, she said, "The Arab account seems more likely since the Qarluqs (Karluks) suddenly mounted a surprise attack on the Tang formation from the rear." She has a Ph.D. in history from Boston University.
Not surprisingly, Prof Jin Canrong, Professor and Associate Dean at the School of International Studies in Renmin University (one of the top universities in China), thought otherwise. In a 2018 article on China-US trade war and its impact to the surrounding countries, he mentioned the Battle of Talas in his article:
Translation:
"The northwestern region bordering us are the five “Stans” of Central Asia. We called the region the Western Territory in ancient times. It used to be a Buddhist region, and was deeply influenced by Chinese culture. Unfortunately, during the Tang dynasty there was this Battle of Talas. The army led by General Gao Xianzhi failed and was defeated by the Arab allied forces. He was actually a good military leader. He took 40,000 troops to fight with Arab allied forces of 150,000. Initially, he was successful and fought well. However, the Karluk mercenaries rebelled, and the Tang army lost. It’s a pity cause history was changed and the region became Islamicised.”
Prof Jin is also a member of the Policy Planning Office of the National People's Congress, the highest legislative body in the People's Republic of China, and an agenda contributor to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
So, which pill would you want to take, the red or the blue? You decide.
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