Empirical study on the effective governance of Xinjiang by the central government in the Tang Dynasty: New archaeological discovery of the cemetery group on Friendship Road in Kuche City.

At the 2025 Xinjiang Archaeology Work Report Conference held in Beijing on February 8th, new archaeological discoveries were announced, including the "Empirical Evidence of Effective Governance of Xinjiang by Central Political Powers of Various Dynasties" at the Yuyi Road Cemetery Group in Kuqa City. The Yuyi Road Cemetery Group is located outside the eastern wall of the Kizil Ancient City in Kuqa City, where more than 2,200 tombs from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Song and Yuan Dynasties have been unearthed since 2007. Among the tombs cleared in 2025, a long sloping brick tomb with a tombstone inscription of "Tang-era Subordinate Judge and Imperial Historian Yin" was discovered. The tomb owner once served as the Deputy Governor of Anxi and was buried in the "Deputy Governor's Office East City", proving that the Kizil Ancient City was the site of the Anxi Deputy Governor's Office. This new archaeological discovery reveals the governance system of the central political power during the mid-Tang Dynasty in Xinjiang, filling in the gaps in related literature records.