Dunhuang Commandery

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Dunhuang Commandery (敦煌郡) was the western-most commandery of the Chinese empire, guarding the terminus of the Hexi Corridor on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert. Created during the reign of Emperor Wu (111 BCE), it served for more than seven centuries as a strategic military, administrative, and cultural outpost linking the Central Plains to the Western Regions. Although the formal commandery was dissolved in early Sui times, Dunhuang remained a prefecture and later the seat of the quasi-independent Guiyi Circuit.