The Hanjian wooden slips as a source for investigating trade relations in the Northwest China during the Western han period

Four new prefectures of Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Zhangye, and Wuwei emerged during the Western Han period (206 BCE - 9 CE) in the Hexi corridor (also known as Gansu corridor) which connects the upper reaches of the Huanghe river and regions of northwest, after the victory of the Han army over the Xiongnu. Their territory roughly corresponds to the present-day Gansu Province and parts of Shaanxi Province and Inner Mongolia. The development of this region and need for building fortified garrisons were related to new opportunities for trading with rich Western countries, which opened up for the Han China. In the Han period, this area began to be actively populated by poor people and criminals from the southern regions of the country. The number of regular army in garrisons was constantly maintained. The main source of information about trading activities and specific functioning of frontier towns are hanjian wooden slips with Chinese characters, which have been discovered in large numbers in border fortresses. In total, several tens of thousands of such slips have been found in the Hexi corridor. The most famous collection comes from the excavation of the ruins of a Han wall in Juyan, Inner Mongolia, where over 10,000 wooden slips were discovered. Generally, they date back to the middle-late periods of the Western Han. Their translation and correlation with the main written sources of that time - dynastic chronicles of the Han period - make it possible to reconstruct the processes of resettlement to this region, trade contacts with nomadic peoples, amount and diversity of exports and imports in the northwest, daily routine of the border town, as well as local diet and specific features of administrative management in Northwest China at the turn of the Common Era.