Dayuan
The Ta-Yuan (大宛, pinyin: dàwǎn, Dayuan or Dawan, lit. “Great Yuan”) were a people of Ferghana in Central Asia, described in the Chinese historical works of Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han, which follow the travels of Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia thereafter.
These Chinese accounts describe the Ta-Yuan as urbanized dwellers with Caucasian features, living in walled cities and having "customs identical to those of the Greco-Bactrians", a Hellenistic kingdom that was ruling Bactria at that time in today’s northern Afghanistan. The Ta-Yuan are also described as manufacturers and great lovers of wine.
The Ta-Yuan were probably the descendants of the Greek colonies that were established by Alexander the Great in Ferghana in 329 BCE, and prospered within the Hellenistic realm of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians, until they were isolated by the migrations of the Yueh-Chih around 160 BCE. It has also been suggested that the name “Yuan” was simply a transliteration of the words “Yona”, or “Yavana”, used throughout antiquity in Asia to designate Greeks (“Ionians”), so that Ta-Yuan (lit. “Great Yuan”) would mean "Great Ionians".
The interaction between the Ta-Yuan and the Chinese is historically crucial, since it represents one of the first major contacts between an urbanized Indo-European culture and the Chinese civilization, opening the way to the formation of the Silk Road that was to link the East and the West in material and cultural exchange from the 1st century BCE to the 15th century.
Hellenistic rule (329–160 BCE)
The region of Ferghana was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE and became his most advanced base in Central Asia. He founded the fortified city of Alexandria Eschate (Lit. “Alexandria the Furthest”) in the southwestern part of the Ferghana valley, on the southern bank of the river Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes), at the location of the modern city of Khujand (also called Khozdent, formerly Leninabad), in the state of Tajikistan. Alexander built a 6 kilometer long brick wall around the city and, as for the other cities he founded, had a garrison of his retired veterans and wounded settle there.
The whole of Bactria, Transoxiana and the area of Ferghana remained under the control of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire until 250 BCE. The region then wrested independence under the leadership of its governor Diodotus of Bactria, to become the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.
Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250–160 BCE)
The Greco-Bactrians held their territory, and according to the Greek historian Strabo even went beyond Alexandria Eschate and "extended their empire as far as the Seres (China) and the Phryni" (Strabo XI.XI.I). There are indications that they may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BCE. Various statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been found north of the Tien Shan, and are today on display in the museum of Urumqi (Boardman).
Around 160 BCE, the area of Ferghana seems to have been invaded by Saka tribes (called the Sai-Wang by the Chinese). The Sai-Wang, originally settled in the Ili valley in the general area of Lake Issyk Kul, were retreating southward after having been dislodged by Yuezhi (who themselves were fleeing from the Xiong-Nu):
- "The Yuezhi attacked the king of the Sai ("Sai-Wang") who moved a considerable distance to the south and the Yuezhi then occupied his lands" (Han Shu, 61 4B).
The Sakas occupied the Greek territory of Ta-Yuan, benefiting from the fact that the Greco-Bactrians were fully occupied with conflicts in India against the Indo-Greeks, and could hardly defend their northern provinces. According to W.W.Tarn, "The remaining of the Sai-Wang tribes apparently seized the Greek province of Ferghana… It was easy at this time to occupy Ferghana: Eucratides had just overthrown the Euthydemid dynasty, he himself was with his army in India, and in 159 he met his death… Heliocles, preoccupied first with the recovery of Bactria and then with the invasion of India, must have let this outlying province go" (W.W.Tarn, "The Greeks in Bactria and India").
Saka rule (160 BCE onward)
When the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian described Ta-Yuan around 128 BCE, he mentioned, besides the flourishing urban civilization, warriors "shooting arrows on horseback", a probable description of Saka nomad warriors. Ta-Yuan had probably by then become a caste of nomadic people ruling over a pre-existing agricultural population.
Also in 106–101 BCE, during their conflict against China, the country of Ta-Yuan is said to have been an ally with the neighbouring tribes of the Kang-Kiu (Sogdians). The Chinese also record the name of the king of Ta-Yuan as "Mu-Kua", a Saka name rendered in Greek as Mauakes or Maues (another Scythian ruler by the name of Maues is known as a ruler of the Indo-Scythian kingdom in northern India in the 1st century BCE).
Yuezhi by-pass (155 BCE)
According to the Han Chronicles the Yuezhi suffered another defeat around 155 BCE, against the Wusun, and fled south from the Ili river area, by-passed the urban civilization of the Ta-Yuan in Ferghana, and re-settled north of the Oxus in modern-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, definitively cutting Ta-Yuan from contact with the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The Yueh-Chi would further expand southward into Bactria around 125 BCE, and then going on to form the Kushan Empire in India from the 1st century CE.
Interaction with China (130 BCE onward)
The Ta-Yuan remained a healthy and powerful civilization which had numerous contacts and exchanges with China from 130 BCE.
Around 130 BCE, at the time of Zhang Qian’s embassy to Central Asia, the Ta-Yuan were described as inhabitants of a region corresponding to the Ferghana, to the west of the Chinese empire. “The capital of the kingdom of Ta-Yuan is the city of Kwe-shan (Khujand), distant from Ch'ang-an 12,550 li. The kingdom contains 60,000 families, comprising a population of 300,000, with 60,000 trained troops, a Viceroy, and a National Assistant Prince. The seat of the Governor General lies to the east at a distance of 4,031 li.” (Han Shu)
To their south-west were the territories of the Yueh-Chih, with the Greco-Bactrians further south still, beyond the Oxus. “The great Yueh-chih is situated about 2000 or 3000 li west of Ta-yuan; they dwell north of the river Kuei (Oxus). To the south of them there is Ta-Hsia (Bactrians), to the west, An-Xis (Parthians); to the north K'an-chu (Sogdians).” (Shiji, 123.5b)
The Shiji then explains that the Yueh-Chih originally inhabited the area East of the Ta-Yuan, in the Tarim Basin, before they suffered a crushing defeat against the Xiong-Nu and their leader Mao-tun in 176 BCE, forcing them to go beyond the territory of the Ta-Yuan and resettle in the West by the banks of the Oxus, between the territory of the Ta-Yuan and Bactria to the south.
Urbanized city-dwellers
The customs of the Ta-Yuan are said by Zhang Qian to be identical to those of the Bactrians in the south, who actually formed the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom at that time.
“Their customs (the Bactrians) are the same as those of Ta-yuan. The people have fixed abodes and live in walled cities and regular houses like the people of Ta-Yuan. They have no great kings or heads, but everywhere in their walled cities and settlements they have installed small kings.” (Shiji, 123.3b)
They are described as town-dwellers, in opposition to other populations such as the Yueh-Chih, the Wun-Sun or the Xiong-Nu who were nomads. “They (the Ta-Yuan) have walled cities and houses; the large and small cities belonging to them, fully seventy in number, contain an aggregate population of several hundreds of thousands…There are more than seventy other cities in the country.” (Han Shu)
Caucasian traits
“The people of Ta-Yuan have deep sunken eyes, and bushy beards and whiskers. They are clever traders, and dispute about the division of a farthing. Women are honorably treated among them, and their husbands are guided by them in their decisions.” (Shiji, 123)
They were great manufacturers and lovers of wine, a characteristic often associated with Greeks: “Round about Ta-Yuan they make wine from grapes. Wealthy people store up as much as 10,000 stones and over in their cellars, and keep it for several tens of years without spoiling. The people are fond of wine.” (Shiji, 123).
Wine was reportedly introduced to China from Ta-Yuan following Zhang Qian's embassy: "The Han envoys brought back grape and alfalfa seeds to China, and the emperor for the first time tried growing these plants in areas of rich soil." (Shiji, 123)
Interactions with China
Following the reports of Zhang Qian (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the Yueh-Chih against the Xiong-Nu, in vain), the Chinese emperor Wu-Ti became interested in developing commercial relationships with the sophisticated urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia: “The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Ta-Yuan) and the possessions of Bactria and Parthia are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China” (Shiji, 123)
The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as Seleucid Syria. “Thus more embassies were dispatched to An-si [Parthia], An-ts'ai [the Aorsi, or Alans], Li-kan [Syria under the Seleucids], T'iau-chi [Chaldea], and Shon-tu [India]… As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six.” (Shiji, 123)
The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses ("heavenly horses") in the possession of the Ta-Yuan, which were of capital importance to fight the nomad Xiong-Nu. After the refusal of the Ta-Yuan to offer them enough horses, the Chinese sent an army in 104 BC/BCE under general Li Guangli. They failed, essentially through lack of preparation and because they underestimated their adversaries: “The army of Yuan is weak; if we attack it with no more than three thousand Chinese soldiers using crossbows, we shall be sure to vanquish it completely.” (Shiji, 123)
They then sent a second army of 100,000 men to subdue them and finally obtained 3,000 horses through negotiation, although they did not manage to take the Ta-Yuan capital: “On its arrival there the Chinese army consisted of thirty thousand men. An army of Yuan gave battle, the victory being gained by the efficiency of the Chinese archery; and this caused the Yuan army to take refuge in their bulwarks and mount the city walls… After all, the Chinese were unable to enter the inner city, and, abandoning further action, the army was led back.” (Shiji, 123)
Contacts with the West were re-established following the peace treaty with the Yuan. Ambassadors were once again sent to the West, caravans were sent to Bactria.
An era of East-West trade and cultural exchange
The Silk Road essentially came into being from the 1st century BC/BCE, following the efforts of China to consolidate a road to the Western world, both through direct settlements in the area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Ta-Yuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west.
Intense trade followed soon, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied by the Parthians) from the 1st century BC, to the point that the Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds. This is attested by at least three significant authors:
- Strabo (64/ 63 BCE–c. 24 CE).
- Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BCE–65 CE).
- Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE).
This is also the time when the Buddhist faith and the Greco-Buddhist culture started to travel along the Silk Road, penetrating China from around the 1st century BCE.
See also
References
- Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian of China. Translated from the Shih Chi of Sima Qian by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, Volume II, ISBN 0231081677
- “Zhang Qian's Mission to the West”, translation by Friedrich Hirth published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 37/2 (1917), pp. 93-116, adaptation by J. Moore, Department of History, Austin College.
- Han Shu, as translated by A. Wylie in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vols. III (1874), pp. 401-452, V (1876), pp. 41-80, and X (1881), pp. 20-73, and XI (1882), pp. 83-115, adaptation by J. Moore, Department of History, Austin College.
- "The diffusion of Classical art in Antiquity", John Boardman, Princeton University Press, 1993 ISBN 0691036802
- "The Greeks in Bactria and India" W.W.Tarn, Cambridge University Press