Sino-Roman relations

Sino-Roman relations started first on an indirect basis with the opening of the Silk Road during the 2nd century BC. China and Rome progressively inched closer with the embassies of Zhang Qian in 130 BC and the military expeditions of China to Central Asia, until general Ban Chao attempted to send an envoy to Rome around 100. Several Roman embassies to China were recorded by a number of ancient Chinese historians, the first one on record came from the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius and arrived in AD 166.

Development of the Silk Road

Coin depicting the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus (230-200 BC)

The first major step in opening the Silk Road between the East and the West came with the expansion of Alexander the Great deep into Central Asia, as far as the Fergana Valley at the borders of the modern-day Xinjiang region of China, where he founded in 329 BC a Greek settlement in the city of Alexandria Eschate "Alexandria The Furthest", Khujand (also called Khozdent or Khojent - formely Leninabad), in the modern state of Tajikistan. The Greeks were to remain in Central Asia for the next three centuries, first through the administration of the Seleucid Empire, and then with the establishement of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in Bactria. They kept expanding eastward, especially during the reign of Euthydemus (230-200 BC), who extended his control to Sogdiana, reaching and going beyond the city of Alexandria Eschate. There are indications that he may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BC. The Greek historian Strabo writes that "they extended their empire even as far as the Seres (China) and the Phryni" (Strabo XI.XI.I).

Zhang Qian's embassy

File:HanHorse.JPG

A horse of the Late Han Dynasty (1st-2nd century AD)

The next step came around 130 BC, with the embassies of the Han Dynasty to Central Asia, following the reports of the ambassador Zhang Qian (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiong-Nu, in vain). The Chinese emperor Wudi became interested in developing commercial relationship with the sophisticated urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia: “The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan) and the possessions of Bactria (Daxia) and Parthia (Anxi) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed homes 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” Hou Hanshu (Later Han History).

The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every years, to these countries and as far as Seleucid Syria. “Thus more embassies were dispatched to Anxi [Parthia], Yancai [who later joined the Alans], Lijian [Syria under the Seleucids], Tiaozhi [Chaldea] and Tianzhu [northwestern 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.” Hou Hanshu (Later Han History).

The "Silk Road" essentially came into being from the 1st century BC, following these efforts by China to consolidate a road to the Western world and India, both through direct settlements in the area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west.

Chinese silk in the Roman Empire

File:Menade.JPG

Menade in silk dress, Naples National Museum.

Intense trade with the Roman Empire followed soon, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians) from the 1st century BC, even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees: "The Seres (Chinese), are famous for the woolen substance obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb off the white down of the leaves... So manifold is the labour employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon, to enable the Roman maiden to flaunt transparent clothing in public" (Pliny the Elder (23–79, The Natural History).

The Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the importation of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered to be decadent and immoral: "I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body" (Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC–AD 65, Declamations Vol. I).

A maritime "Silk Route" opened up between Chinese-controlled Jiaozhi (centred in modern Vietnam, near Hanoi) probably by the 1st century AD. It extended, via ports on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, all the way to Roman-controlled ports in Egypt and the Nabataean territories on the northeastern coast of the Red Sea. The Hou Hanshu records that the first Roman envoy arrived in China by this maritime route in AD 166.

The expedition of Ban Chao

File:BanChao.jpg

Portrait of the Chinese general Ban Chao (32-102).

In 97, the Chinese general Ban Chao crossed the Tian Shan and Pamir mountains with an army of 70,000 men in a campaign against the Xiongnu (Huns). He went as far west as the Caspian Sea and the region of Ukraine, reaching the territory of Parthia, upon which event he reportedly also sent an envoy named Gan Ying to Daqin (Rome). Gan Ying left a detailed account of western countries, although he probably only reached the Black Sea before turning back.

Gan Ying left an account on Rome (Daqin in Chinese), which may have relied on second-hand sources. He locates it to the west of the sea:

"Its territory is covers several thousand li (a li is around half a kilometre), it has over 400 walled cities. Several tens of small states are subject to it. The outer walls of the cities are made of stones. They have established posting stations... There are pines and cypresses." (Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and Gardiner).

He also describes the Roman practice of democracy, their physical appearance and riches:

"As for the king, he is not a permanent figure but is chosen as the man most worthy... The people in this country are tall and regularly featured. They resemble the Chinese, and that is why the country is called Da Qin (The "Great" Qin)... The soil produced lots of gold, silver and rare jewels, including the jewel which shines at night.. they sew embroidered tissues with gold threads to form tapestries and damask of many colours, and make a gold-painted cloth, and a "cloth washed-in-the-fire" (asbestos)." (Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and Gardiner).

Finally Gan Ying determines Rome correctly as the main pole at the western end of the Silk Road:

"It is from this country that all the various marvellous and rare objects of foreign states come." (Hou Hanshu, cited in Leslie and Gardiner).

The Chinese army made an alliance with the Parthians and established some forts at a distance of a few days march from the Parthian capital Ctesiphon, and were to hold the region for several years. In 116, the Roman Emperor Trajan advanced into Parthia to Ctesiphon and came within one day's march of the Chinese border garrisons, but direct contacts never took place.

First Roman embassy

Ptolemy's world map, reconstituted from Ptolemy's Geographia (circa 150), indicating "Sinae" (China) at the extreme right, beyond the island of "Trapobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea Chersonesus" (Southeast Asian peninsula).

With the expansion of the Roman Empire in the middle-east during the 2nd century, the Romans gained the capability to develop shipping and trade in the Indian Ocean. Several Roman ports have been excavated on the coast of India.

Several Romans probably travelled farther to the East, either on Roman, Indian or Chinese ships. The first embassy of Romans to China is recorded in 166, sixty years after the expeditions to the west of the Chinese general Ban Chao. It came to Emperor Huan of Han China, "from Antun (Emperor Antoninus Pius), king of Daqin (Rome)". Although, as Antoninus Pius died in 161, while the convoy arrived in 166, it may have been from Marcus Aurelius, who was emperor in 166. The confusion arises because, as a mark of respect, Marcus Aurelius took the names of his predecessor as additional names.

The mission came from the South, and therefore probably by sea, entering China by the frontier of Jinan or Tonkin. It brought presents of rhinoceros horns, ivory, and tortoise shell, which had probably been acquired in Southern Asia. About the same time, and possibly through this embassy, the Chinese acquired a treatise of astronomy from Daqin (Chinese name of the Roman Empire).

China was clearly known to Roman cartographers of the time, since its name and position is depicted in Ptolemy's Geographia, which is dated to c. 150. It is located beyond the Aurea Chersonesus ("Golden Peninsula") and refers to the Southeast Asian peninsula. It is shown as being on the Magnus Sinus ("Great Gulf"), which corresponds to the known areas of the China Sea at the time. Trade throughout the Indian Ocean was extensive from the 2nd century, and many Roman trading ports have been identified in India, through which the Roman embassy passed.

Other Roman embassies

Detail of Asia in Ptolemy's world map. Gulf of the Ganges left, Southeast Asian peninsula in the center, China Sea right, with "Sinae" (China).

Other embassies may have been sent after this first encounter, but were not recorded, until an account appears about presents sent in the early 3rd century by the Roman Emperor to the Emperor Taitsu of the Kingdom of Wei (reigned 227–239), which reigned in Northern China. The presents consisted in articles of glass of a variety of colours. The embassy might have been sent by any of several Roman Emperors who ruled during this time:

• Alexander Severus
• Maximinus Thrax
• Gordian I
• Gordian II
• Pupienus and Balbinus
• Gordian III

Another embassy from Daqin is also recorded in the year 284, which allegedly brought "tribute" to the Chinese empire. This embassy must have been sent by the Emperor Carus (282–283), whose short reign was occupied with war with Persia.

See also

• Foreign relations of imperial China
• Ptolemy world map
• Kangnido map
• Later Han History, Hou Hanshu.

External link and references

• Henry Yule. Cathay and the Way Thither. 1915.
• http://www.silk-road.com/artl/romanenvoy.shtml