of the partition, the northern Hsiung-nu attempted in the years
between A.D. 60 and 70 to regain a sphere of influence in Turkestan;
this seemed the easier for them since the king of Yarkand had been
captured and murdered, and Turkestan was more or less in a state of
confusion. The Chinese did their utmost to play off the northern against
the southern Hsiung-nu and to maintain a political balance of power in
the west and north. So long as there were a number of small states in
Turkestan, of which at least some were friendly to China, Chinese trade
caravans suffered relatively little disturbance on their journeys.
Independent states in Turkestan had proved more profitable for trade
than when a large army of occupation had to be maintained there. When,
however, there appeared to be the danger of a new union of the two
parts of the Hsiung-nu as a restoration of a large empire also
comprising all Turkestan, the Chinese trading monopoly was endangered.
Any great power would secure the best goods for itself, and there would
be no good business remaining for China. For these reasons a great
Chinese campaign was undertaken against Turkestan in A.D. 73 under Tou
Ku. Mainly owing to the ability of the Chinese deputy commander Pan
Ch'ao, the whole of Turkestan was quickly conquered. Meanwhile the
emperor Ming Ti (A.D. 58-75) had died, and under the new emperor Chang
Ti (76-88) the "isolationist" party gained the upper hand against the
clique of Tou Ku and Pan Ch'ao: the danger of the restoration of a
Hsiung-nu empire, the isolationists contended, no longer existed;
Turkestan should be left to itself; the small states would favour trade
with China of their own accord. Meanwhile, a considerable part of
Turkestan had fallen away from China, for Chang Ti sent neither money
nor troops to hold the conquered territories. Pan Ch'ao nevertheless
remained in Turkestan (at Kashgar and Khotan) where he held on amid
countless difficulties. Although he reported (A.D. 78) that the troops
could feed themselves in Turkestan and needed neither supplies nor money
from home, no reinforcements of any importance were sent; only a few
hundred or perhaps a thousand men, mostly released criminals, reached
him. Not until A.D. 89 did the Pan Ch'ao clique return to power when the
mother of the young emperor Ho Ti (89-105) took over the government
during his minority: she was a member of the family of Tou Ku. She was
interested in bringing to a successful conc