Hangu Pass

Famed as Qin's impregnable eastern gate, Hangu Pass is traditionally where Laozi composed the five-thousand-character Tao Te Ching.

Moved east by Yang Pu under Emperor Wu of Han to guard the western approach to Luoyang, this pass is a core site of the jointly listed Silk Road heritage.

Wheel ruts sunk deep into loess cliffs mark this strategic old road, where Du Fu set his famous poem The Shihao Officer.

Part of Hangu Pass's history: Alliances of Warring States. Warring States persuader from Wei who became chancellor of Qin, tricked King Huai of Chu with a false offer of land, and urged the states to side with Qin

Part of Hangu Pass's history: Alliances of Warring States. Warring States persuader from Luoyang; the Shiji makes him chief of a six-state alliance against Qin, but silk manuscripts show him as a later Yan agent at the court of Qi

Part of Hangu Pass's history: Alliances of Warring States. Wei-born strategist who fled to Qin under the name Zhang Lu, became chancellor to King Zhaoxiang and set the policy of allying with distant states to attack near ones

Part of Hangu Pass's history: Alliances of Warring States. Renowned Warring States strategist and chancellor of Wei who pioneered the Vertical Alliance against Qin.

Part of Hangu Pass's history: Alliances of Warring States. Statesman from the small state of Wey who carried out two rounds of legalist reform in Qin under Duke Xiao, became Lord of Shang, and was torn apart by chariots after his patron died

Alliances of Warring States

Vertical and horizontal alliances of Su Qin and Zhang Yi, shaping the grand diplomacy of the Warring States.

In 318 BCE, a coalition of eastern states reached Hangu Pass to attack Qin, then withdrew after Qin counterattacked.

In a late-Spring-and-Autumn tradition, Hangu Pass Keeper Yin Xi welcomed Laozi and asked him to leave the five-thousand-character Tao Te Ching.

In 2014, the Han Hangu Pass site in Xin'an was inscribed as a Chinese component of the Chang'an–Tianshan Corridor.