Han mission to the West
Zhang Qian · 138 BCE – 126 BCE · Earth
Reach the Yuezhi, driven west by the Xiongnu, and win them to an alliance against the Xiongnu.
Historical context
In the 130s BCE the Xiongnu, the nomad power of the northern steppe, held the corridor west of China, and Emperor Wu of Han wanted allies to break them. Zhang Qian found none, but Sima Qian dates the Han court’s first knowledge of Ferghana from his return and credits him with opening the way for the envoys who followed. The name Silk Road was made known in 1877 by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen, though the historian Matthias Mertens has found the German term in print by 1858.
The voyage, step by step
Departure from Chang'an
138 BCE
Emperor Wu sends Zhang Qian west to seek allies against the Xiongnu among the Yuezhi, a people the Xiongnu had driven from their lands.
Captured by the Xiongnu
138 BCE
Crossing Xiongnu country, Zhang Qian is taken and sent to the Shanyu, who keeps him for more than ten years.
Ferghana and its horses
128 BCE
Escaping after more than ten years, Zhang Qian reaches the kingdom of Dayuan, in the Ferghana valley, whose king has him guided on towards the Yuezhi.
Bactria and the road home
128 BCE
Through Kangju he reaches the Yuezhi and Bactria, but the Yuezhi will not turn back to fight; on the way home the Xiongnu take him again.
Outcome
Held more than ten years by the Xiongnu, Zhang Qian reached Dayuan, Kangju, the Yuezhi and Bactria, but the Yuezhi would not return to fight. Of more than a hundred men, only he and Ganfu came back, in 126 BCE by Hirth’s chronology, with reports on the four lands he saw and five or six he heard of, among them Parthia and India.
Zhang Qian
Han dynasty envoy whose mission to the Yuezhi gave the Han court its first knowledge of Ferghana, Bactria and the lands beyond; Sima Qian credits him with opening the way west.
Sources
- The Story of Chang K’ién, China’s Pioneer in Western Asia: Text and Translation of Chapter 123 of Ssï-ma Ts’ién’s Shï-kiFriedrich Hirth · Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 37, pages 89–152; Internet Archive · 1917
- Shiji, juan 123: Dayuan liezhuan (Chinese text)Sima Qian · Chinese Wikisource
- Richthofen’s “Silk Roads”: Toward the Archaeology of a ConceptDaniel C. Waugh · The Silk Road, volume 5, number 1, pages 1–10 · 2007
- Did Richthofen Really Coin “the Silk Road”?Matthias Mertens · The Silk Road, volume 17, pages 1–9 · 2019
- Li (unit) — Wikipedia
- Zhang Qian — Wikipedia
- Pathfinders: A Global History of ExplorationFelipe Fernández-Armesto · Oxford University Press · 2006
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