As early as the end of primitive society, the Sanmiao people who migrated to Hexi after the defeat of the tribal war in the Central Plains flourished in Dunhuang. They made a living by hunting and gradually mastered the primitive agricultural production technology.

Dunhuang belonged to Guguazhou in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and there were three Miao descendants. At that time, Qiang people and Rong people settled nomadic here.

During the Warring States and the Qin Dynasty, there were Dayue people, Wusun people and Serbs living in Dunhuang. Later, Dayue gradually became stronger and merged with the original Qiangrong. At the end of the Warring States period, Dayue drove away Wusun and Serbs and monopolized Dunhuang until the end of Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Han Dynasty.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the Huns invaded Hexi, defeated Dayue's family twice, and forced Dayue's family to move westward in the Syr Darya and Amu Darya River basins, and the whole Hexi Corridor was occupied by Huns.

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Huns became stronger and conquered most of the western regions that were once under the jurisdiction of the Western Han Dynasty.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Hexi region successively established feudal regimes such as former cool, later cool, southern cool, western cool and northern cool. In the pre-Zhangliang period, Dunhuang was changed to sandbar.