Xiutu

[6] The Kingdom of Xiutu is closely associated to the Shajing culture (700–100 BCE), which managed to prosper along rivers in an ecological context of general aridification.

[11] The city of Xiutu (休屠城), about 20 km north of Wuwei, has left monumental ruins (38°08′51″N 102°41′35″E / 38.147380°N 102.693031°E / 38.147380; 102.693031), located on the ancient border of Zhuye Lake.

The Shiji records that in 121 BCE, after Huo Qubing defeated the Xiongnu, he "captured golden (or gilded) men used by the King of Xiutu to worship Heaven", and these were then transferred to the Ganquan Temple near the Imperial Palace of Han Wudi.

Sima Qian probably personally saw which was brought back by Huo Qubing in 121 BCE, while he was working on his Records of the Grand Historian.

[1][23][2] This has reinforced suggestions that King Xiutu and the golden statue may have had a Buddhist character, leading to claims that Buddhism already entered China by the time of the Western Han (202 BCE–9 CE).

[24][25] A New Account of the Tales of the World (c. 6th century CE) claims that the golden statues were more than ten feet high, and Emperor Wu of Han sacrificed to it in the Ganquan 甘泉 palace, which "is how Buddhism gradually spread into (China).

"[26] In Cave 323 in Mogao caves (near Dunhuang in the Tarim Basin), Emperor Wudi is shown worshipping two golden statues, with the following inscription (which closely paraphrases the traditional accounts of Huo Qubing's expedition):[16] 漢武帝將其部眾討凶奴,並獲得二金(人),(各)長丈餘,刊〔列〕之於甘泉宮,帝(以)為大神,常行拜褐時 Emperor Han Wudi directed his troops to fight the Xiongnu and obtained two golden statues more than 1 zhàng [3 meters] tall, that he displayed in the Ganquan Palace and regularly worshipped.The Han expedition to the west and the capture of booty by general Huo Qubing is well documented, but the later Buddhist interpretation at the Mogao Caves of the worship of these statues as a means to propagate Buddhism in China is probably apocryphal, since Han Wudi is not known to have ever worshipped the Buddha.

[27] The statue(s) were moved to a temple in Yong county, Yunyang 雲陽 prefecture, near the royal summer palace Ganquan 甘泉 (modern Xianyang, Shaanxi), in the former capital of the Qin dynasty.

Due to Emperor Wu's close relations with Jin, both his parents were honored and the golden statue(s) were placed in a temple dedicated to the spirit of Jinglu (a type of precious Xiongnu sword) for the worship of Xiutu.