076: Greco Bactria - Han China and the War of the Heavenly Horses

Hi there, you're listening to The Hellenistic Age Podcast. Episode 76, Greco-Bactria, Han China and the War of the Heavenly Horses. In the year 128 BC, a Chinese diplomat named Zhang Chen had reached the eastern end of the Ferghana Valley in modern Kazakhstan. He had traveled many thousands of li from the court of the Emperor Wu Di in Chang'an in pursuit of one goal. Contact the Yuexi and Wusun nomads who lived within the lands of Dayuan, and establish an alliance against the Xiongnu barbarians that had threatened the Middle Kingdom for decades. No doubt those in the Emperor's retinue thought he was long dead, his journey interrupted by an extended stay against his will in the Xiongnu capital. While he met with the Yuexi without much success, our plucky diplomat returned to the Emperor in 126 with news of a land of riches. More specifically, he was speaking of Bactria and its surrounding regions. Zhang Chen holds distinction of being the first documented visitor from the Chinese Empire of the Han Dynasty to Central Asia, which had just experienced the fall of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. This marked the beginning of a transformative period that saw increased connectivity between China and the so-called Western Regions, which would ultimately result in the forging of an economic network that would reach from East Asia to the Mediterranean world. Zhang's report, recorded by later Chinese historians, is one of the only contemporary accounts of post-Greek Bactria, making the fall of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom the first event in world history recorded by both Asian and European authors. In this episode, we will discuss the first Chinese excursions into Central Asia, looking at the expeditions of Zhang Chen and others to not only get an idea of the events surrounding the fall of Greco-Bactria and its immediate aftermath, but also the earliest encounters between the Chinese and Greco-Roman worlds. As a forewarning, my pronunciation of Chinese terms and names is going to be less than ideal, but I will encourage all of you to check out my transcript if you have any questions about who exactly or what exactly I am referring to. Before we return to where we left off in the narrative of Bactria, we need to understand the circumstances that ultimately led to Chinese interest in Central Asia. The rich history of the peoples and states that arose out of the alluvial plains of the Yellow River Basin has often presented the illusion of near-constant unification across millennia. In truth, while the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties were impressive political entities, China was divided for much of the first millennium. Though we may use the catch-all term Chinese, these peoples referred to themselves by their regional identities like Chu, Wei, or Qin. This is no different than our grouping of the Greeks, who would probably first describe themselves as Boeotians or Laconians before calling themselves Hellenes. From the 5th to the 3rd centuries, China was gripped in the Warring States period, when the once-powerful king of the Zhou dynasty was reduced to a mere figurehead in the contests of 7 major regional states. Of these 7, it would be the Qin that emerged out of the fighting as the master of the Middle Kingdom. In 247-246, a young Zhou Zheng became the king of the Qin, the largest and most powerful of the competing realms. Despite only being 13 years old and with much of his power in the hands of a minister, Zhou nevertheless proved to be a highly intelligent and utterly ruthless figure, seeking to establish his authority lest he be swallowed up by those looking to capitalize on his supposed weakness. After coming of age, he immediately disposed of his political rivals while recruiting brilliant officials to help facilitate the development of his realm. One by one, Zhou eliminated the various factions, consolidating their territory into his own before finally conquering the last remaining state of Qin in 221. Commemorating his newly uncontested position, Zhou took the name Qin Shi Huang Di, a title crafted from the words Huang, August or Splendid, and Di, a type of deity, becoming the first emperor of China. This new imperial office would serve as the model of Chinese political authority for the next 2,000 years. As emperor, Qin Shi would enact a series of reforms to transform and strengthen his empire. A standardization of weights, measures, letters, and currency, along with the development of administrative and legal institutions. Despite the immeasurable impact of the Qin on the Chinese state, their reign would last for less than two decades. Qin Shi Huang Di died of old age in 210, but his successor was murdered in 207, and the final Qin emperor was deposed less than a few months into his reign in 206. Civil war soon followed afterwards, before ultimately being settled by the accession of Liu Bang, the founder of what would be known as the Han Dynasty, which oversaw the classical period of Chinese civilization across their 400 years of rule. Like their Greco-Roman contemporaries, the Qin and Han believed themselves to be a bastion of civilization surrounded by barbarians. The term the Chinese used to describe the empire is Zhongguo, often translated as central or middle kingdom, and reflects their geographic notion of the world. As one radiated from the center, the lands and its inhabitants became less civilized and more populated with barbarians. The most savage of all of these peoples would be the various nomadic tribe living along the grasslands of the steppes, who the Chinese held a complex relationship with. On one hand, they were alien to the concept of civilized society, viewed as a nuisance at best and an existential threat at worst. Tens of thousands of nomadic warriors who were expert riders and hardened by life on the steppes could raid into the Chinese countryside and seize plunder and captives, only to return to the grasslands before any armies were mustered to meet them. The Great Wall as we know it today is largely the by-product of work done by the Ming Dynasty in the 14th and 15th centuries AD, but the Qin and Han ordered the building of fortifications along many of the same routes with the intent to protect against forays from the nomads, using watchtowers and ramparts to control the movement of the tribes. On the other hand, the nomads could be often valuable trading partners who sought goods produced by the sedentary communities, providing access to their fine horse stocks or mercenaries for military service in return. Like the Scythians who dwelled along the Pontic-Caspian steppes, the line between nomad and sedentary communities could be quite blurry, as there was a gradient of lifestyles that may have not easily fallen into one category or the other. The policy of the later Han emperors was to try to establish some sort of buffer zone between them and the nomads, placing military colonists in border regions that could act as a line of defense while still able to engage in commercial and agricultural activities. Control of these border zones was the goal of the Chinese government, to varying degrees of success. At the time of the Qin, there were multiple tribes living in the steppes bordering China, the Yuexi, the Wusun, the Chang, and the Xiongnu. The Yuexi were the most powerful, and controlled the Gansu Corridor, a highway that connected the cities of the Tarim Basin with the rest of East Asia, allowing them to grow rich off the trade of valuable goods like jade. On the other end of the scale were the Xiongnu, who originated from the lands of modern Mongolia and were the weakest of the various tribes. Chinese scholars describe them as being utterly nomadic and custom, wallowing in abject poverty and completely lacking any common decency. Life on the steppes was tough, but the Mongolian plains are even less hospitable than the Pontic-Caspian steppe, subject to greater aridity and temperature extremes. Any climatic fluctuations can result in a perennial dry season or exceptionally brutal winters. Pressure from both the Yuexi and the Qin was only aggravating these problems further, and ended up displacing the Xiongnu from their ancestral lands. The fate of the tribe looked bleak, but in the 210s, there emerged a figure known as Modu, son of the reigning Xiongnu chieftain. Tactically brilliant and politically merciless, Modu had his own father murdered in 209, and took the title of Xiongnu, becoming the supreme leader of his tribe. He carried his people in a series of spectacular campaigns against the Yuexi, driving their former rivals further west with each passing year. The civil war that broke out after the death of the last Qin emperor allowed the Xiongnu to regain their foothold and launch putative expeditions to conquer Chinese territory. Han armies sent to fight this new menace were either rendered ineffectual or wiped out completely by the tactical brilliance of Modu Xiongnu. At its peak, the Xiongnu empire stretched across much of East Asia and possessed hundreds of thousands of warriors from a variety of backgrounds, a prototype for the later Mongol Empire. Such was the power of the Xiongnu that he could command a high price for peace between the Xiongnu and the Han. To keep the hordes at bay, the emperor was expected to bribe the nomads, or from the perspective of the Xiongnu, pay tribute to them with an assortment of goods, money, finished products like jewelry and clothing, unlucky Chinese princesses, and thousands upon thousands of bolts of silk. The inclusion of princesses on the list of demands was particularly embarrassing for the Han, but the cost of doing business was arguably lower than ordering the expensive mobilization of troops against the Xiongnu and had a better guarantee for peace. Yet the price grew steeper with each successive payment, much to the humiliation and fury of the emperors, and many subordinate vassals of the Xiongnu continued their attacks against the Han without reprisal, regardless of any treaty signed. It is during the reign of the 7th Han emperor Wu Di, who took the throne in about 141 BC, that the Chinese would try to free themselves from the blackmail of the nomads. Far more militarily minded than his predecessors, Emperor Wu Di refused to put up with the growing demands of the Xiongnu and sought to restore China's prestige and position as the uncontested master of the region. Though the emperor could draw from a pool of hundreds of thousands of conscripted soldiers, the Chinese army was relatively lacking in sufficient cavalry needed to try and match the horsemen of the Chanyu, but he might have been able to mitigate the issue by looking to outside parties to meet his needs. During the expansion of the Xiongnu, the other tribes of the steppe like the Wusun and Yuezhi were driven out of their former homes and gradually pushed into the Tarim Basin. A final decisive blow came in the 170s when the chieftain of the Yuezhi was killed in battle and had the privilege of his skull being turned into the new drinking cup of the second Chanyu. This provided sufficient motivation for the tribe to keep moving into Central Asia along the corridors of the steppe, far out of the reach of the Xiongnu. Of course, this resulted in a domino effect over the next few decades which led them into conflict with the established groups like the Saka, ultimately contributing to the fall of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in the 140s or 130s as they were weakened by the subsequent arrival and settlement of the nomads. Emperor Wu Di was keenly aware of the migration of these steppe tribes into lands unknown thanks to the interrogation of captured Xiongnu, hoping that they would adhere to the maxim the enemy of my enemy and form an alliance with the Han against the Chanyu. A solid plan in theory, but how exactly it was supposed to be carried out remained problematic as no Chinese representative had made direct contact with the Yuezhi in over 30 years. The lands west of the Tarim Basin were virtually unknown in any official capacity and so Wu Di needed to send out an expedition to explore the western regions to carry his message to the Wusun and Yuezhi. Enter Zheng Qian, a palace attendant at the court of Chang'an. Zheng was knowledgeable about the Xiongnu given his military service and considered especially trustworthy in carrying out the emperor's will. In about 138, he and a Xiongnu slave named Gan Fu set out on an imperial commission with a hundred men to cross the Tarim Basin in search of the Wusun and Yuezhi. Despite their best efforts to avoid any unwanted attention, they were discovered by Xiongnu scouts on the initial leg of their journey and brought before the Chanyu, who was understandably annoyed at the Han government's attempts to circumvent his authority. They were detained in the Chanyu's capital and to encourage his complicity in his new velvet prison, Zheng Qian was even given a Xiongnu wife, whom he later fathered a child with. After 10 years of captivity however, Zheng and Gan Fu managed to escape by taking advantage of the relaxed demeanor of their guards. By traveling for over a month through the Tianshan Mountains, the pair had reached their ultimate destination, the grasslands of the Fergana Valley. Zheng's recountings of his journeys and the official report for the emperor were preserved by later Chinese authors, who sometimes directly quoted the work in their own texts. The first of these was Shima Chong, the author of the Shiji, Records of the Grand Historian, composed in the early 1st century BC. In Book 123, The Account of Dayuan, Shima dedicates an entire chapter discussing the earliest context of the Chinese with the peoples of Central Asia and beyond, and extensively paraphrased Zheng's report. There are a surprising amount of observations in the text that are parallel to the Greco-Roman sources and archaeological evidence, but it must be noted that like any historical account, we need to exercise a degree of caution when trying to apply it too literally. Shima does not appear to have been particularly approving of Zheng's mission, or the Central Asian policies of Wu Di. In his report, Zheng Qian provides the geographic names of all the places he visited or was aware of during his western travels, Dayuan, Kanju, Dayuexie, Dayuan probably refers to the Fergana Valley, as there is also the existence of a Kanju, which could be the region surrounding Samarkand, so both together form the bulk of Sogdiana. The name Dayuan is particularly interesting. The translation of Da from the Old Chinese means Yuan, however, bears an uncanny resemblance to the term Yona or Yovana, the Iranian and Sanskrit name for Greek, based on the word Ionian, hence Great Land of the Yuan. Given the possible increased Hellenic presence in Sogdiana following the collapse of Bactria, one can't help but wonder if Zheng Qian named the country after its Hellenic inhabitants. Such was the case for the Dayuexie, the lands of northern Bactria that were occupied by the Yuexian nomads. Daxia is explicitly described as being south of the River Gui, the Oxysar Amudaria, and the state of the Great Yuexie, containing the capital of Lanxi, Bactria. Anxi is almost certainly a transliteration of the term Arshak, the name of the founder of the Arsakid dynasty, and thus refers to Parthia. Shendu is clearly meant to be India, and Diaozhe is said to be west of Anxi, likely referring to the broader region of Mesopotamia and Iran. Upon his arrival in Fergana, Zheng is said to have met with the king of Dayuan, who provided him guides and interpreters to help him explore the area. He first traveled to Kangju before moving to the court of the Yuexie. The king at the time was the son of the previous Yuexie chieftain who had his skull turned into the Chanyu's goblet, but he was not interested in pursuing any sort of alliance given the distance of the Han and the power of the Xiongnu. Besides, he was perfectly content with his new home, as the lands he and his tribe now occupied were quite wealthy and fertile. Disappointed, Zheng and Gongfu spent the next year traveling throughout Central Asia, but especially in Bactria. Though he was probably considered a lost cause by the emperor and his court, the envoys decided to return to China through a different route, but had the misfortune of being captured once again by the Xiongnu scouts. Zhang Chen, Gongfu, and even Zheng's wife and child were able to escape the capital of the nomads a year later thanks to the outbreak of a civil war following the death of the Chanyu, and returned to Chang'an by the end of 126, delivering his report to the no-doubt shock Emperor Wudi nearly 13 years following his initial departure. What did Zhang have to say about the peoples of Central Asia and the surrounding regions? According to the report, Dayuan is fairly populated and contained fortified settlements occupied by farmers tilling the land, but there was clear evidence of nomadic customs. In his description of Bactria, he notes that it was extremely prosperous, with several cities and a population of a million subjects, which lines up nicely with Strabo and Justin's descriptions of the Land of a Thousand Cities. Zhang is more dismissive of the Bactrians' martial valor, noting that they were weak in arms but capable merchants, and were more sedentary in lifestyle than those of Dayuan. He was surprised at the amount of Chinese goods that were in the markets of Bactria, and it was explained to him that they were acquired from outposts in India. Zhang was also aware that the Yuezhi had invaded and toppled the previous rulers of Bactria, thus confirming the descriptions of the Greek and Roman authors about the collapse of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Perhaps his most revealing observations are on the Parthians. Zhang claimed that the Anxi had hundreds of walled cities, and minted silver and gold coins with the portrait of the king, something that was not a custom of the Chinese, who generally issued coins that were made of bronze or other alloys and had a square-shaped hole punch marked into them. Grapes, the first he had ever seen, were cultivated to produce the wine in the areas surrounding Dayuan. Based on what we stereotypically think of Hellenistic civilizations, Zhang's account is spot on. Shima Chen acknowledges that while the languages of Central Asia were somewhat different, they were at least mutually intelligible, and the populace tended to share similar cultural practices. This has led some to speculate that this may be a reference to the use of Greek as a lingua franca, but it isn't too clear, as Strabo himself commented how the Bactrians and Sogdians spoke nearly identical dialects. For the lands that were outside of his itinerary, the descriptions are a little bit more fantastical in nature, though he does manage to get some common ideas across. Zhang's description of Tiaozhi, referring to Mesopotamia, does correctly state that it was under the vassalage of the Parthians who moved into the area following the collapse of Seleucid power in Babylonia. He likewise notes that the Indian kings of Shendu ride into battle on elephants, an observation also frequently cited by Greco-Roman authors. But while the alliance with the nomads ultimately came to naught, there was one detail in Zhang's report that would attract the attention of the emperor. In the grasslands of the Fergana Valley, there was a breed of horse that would come to be known as the heavenly horses that sweat blood. The name was derived from Zhang's description, which stated that the horses were descendants of divine stallions, while the 13th century Venetian merchant Marco Polo believed that the stallions of Bactria and Sogdiana were sired by Alexander's loyal steed, Eucepholus. The reference to the sweating of blood may actually have a biological explanation. Paraphylaria multipapillosa, a parasitic nematode that burrows into the skin and creates nodules or sores which leak, creating the illusion when the horses exerted themselves in the pasture. Chinese military tradition never particularly emphasized heavy cavalry prior to the 2nd century due to the small size of their mounts. Exceptionally large and healthy, the breed of Fergana could travel great distances without tiring thanks to their stocky frame, despite being over five feet in height, and could also bear heavier loads. Part of the reason that these horses were so fit was due to a steady diet of alfalfa sprouts growing wild in the valley, which tend to be more nutrient-dense than other grasses. Horse domestication and riding were cultivated on the steppe, and so it was only natural that they mastered the process of horse rearing, selectively breeding over generations to produce this fine stock. A similarly featured breed known as the Niseian horses were prized in the Mediterranean and Near East, and cultivated along the grasslands of the Caspian Sea. Wu Di immediately recognized the military potential of the heavenly horses, a tool to counteract the cavalry of the Xiongnu. Bactria was also politically divided and wealthy, eager for Chinese products. This proved to be a potent combination for the martial emperor, as Shima Qian put it, quote, Thus the emperor learned of Dayuan, Daxia, Anxi, and the others, all great states rich in unusual products. All these states, he was told, were militarily weak, and prized Han goods and wealth. If it were only possible to win over these states by peaceful means, the emperor thought, he could then extend his domain ten thousand li, attract to his court men of strange customs who would come translating and retranslating their languages, and his might would become known to all the lands within the four seas, end quote. For the next several decades, imperial policy towards the western regions was dictated by the emperor's desire for more of these horses, which also meant securing control of the Gansu Corridor. Campaigns were waged against the Xiongnu from 123 to 119, which allowed the Han to expand their western frontier at great cost in both lives and money. In 118-117, Wu Di appointed Zhang Qian as the head of a much larger embassy that was intended to visit the kingdom of the Wusun nomads in the Tarim Basin, a large oval-shaped piece of land situated between the northern Tianshan Mountains and the southern Kunlun Mountains. Most of its 1,500 kilometer or 932 mile breadth is encompassed by the desolate Taklamakan Desert, but several kingdoms and peoples occupied the oasis settled along the basin's rim. As the only overland route between east and central Asia outside of immediate Xiongnu control, it was vital that the Chinese gather allies to allow for the passage of troops and officials. Presented with bolts of silk, gold pieces, and the hand of a Han princess, the king of the Wusun agreed to an alliance, providing military protection and thousands of hardy step-ponies to add to the army's cavalry stock. Unfortunately, the perceptive Xiongnu quickly dispatched a bride of their own to the Wusun, and so both the emperor and the Chanyu would have to compete to gain the loyalty of the various states of the Tarim Basin. In the meanwhile, embassies between the Han court and the various states of central Asia continued to flow unimpeded, and gradually grew quite large. Shima Qian comments disapprovingly that a flurry of opportunistic merchants and low-ranking government officials continually sought to embark on expeditions to the western regions in search of fame and fortune. Problems soon emerged when opportunistic tribes and bands of Xiongnu began to descend upon the Chinese travelers to seize their good and take captives. In response to their predation, Wudi became more aggressive in his push to incorporate the Tarim Basin into his sphere of influence, campaigning against both the Xiongnu and local peoples who were unwilling to submit to his authority. Even in the final decade of the second century, the emperor was still very keen on acquiring Ferghana horses, and so in 106, he sent a mission to Sagdiana carrying 1,000 gold pieces and a gold equine statue, gifts for the king of Dayuan if he was willing to provide some of his finest stallions and mares. According to Chinese accounts, the council of Dayuan advised the king to reject the offer, pointing out the vast distance separating them from the Chinese and the hazardous trek through the Tarim Basin. Retaliation from the Han was unlikely, and to hand over one of their key military advantages to the emperor was a huge mistake, so they told the envoys to go back home. Out of anger, the Chinese ambassadors smashed the golden horses to bits before they departed, and in retaliation, the council of Dayuan had them murdered. Once Emperor Wu Di heard of the rejection of his goodwill and the fate of his ambassadors, he flew into a violent fury. In 104, a great expeditionary force was summoned to either lay waste to Dayuan or conquer it outright, thus beginning what was to be called the War of the Heavenly Horses. The initial army sent to attack the western regions struggled greatly with the crossing of the Tarim Basin, suffering huge losses from a lack of supplies and the hostility of the environment. Wu Di was undeterred, and much to the dismay of his own advisors, he organized an even larger body of soldiers numbering over 50,000 men and a great amount of pack animals and supplies. This was the most expensive campaign ever conducted by the Han up to that point, a testament to the emperor's dogged determination. Eventually, the Chinese armies had pushed far enough to reach the highly fortified city of Ershi, the capital of Dayuan. Besieged for over a month, the inhabitants of Ershi wished to make terms with the Han general, and so they murdered their king as a gesture of good faith and offered to give up their horses, though notably they provided this information along with a gentle threat of possible reinforcements from Kangju to encourage the peace talks. After four years of campaigning in the west, the war was brought to a close. In addition to 3,000 heavenly horses, a puppet ruler was placed upon the Dayuan throne, and Fergana became a tributary of the Han Empire. Based on the city's size and reported defenses, it is very possible that Ershi is actually Alexandria Ashkate. To imagine that the descendants of Greek colonists planted by Alexander and his successors, still equipped in the arms and armor of their ancestors, doing battle with soldiers of the Han Emperor is certainly a romantic idea, though one we can't really confirm. The War of the Heavenly Horses was not the last time the Han had campaigned in Central Asia. In the mid-first century, a Xiongnu prince named Zhezhe had been driven into Sogdiana thanks to a civil war that had broke amongst his tribe, and he was on the losing end against a Chinese-backed rival. After establishing himself near Lake Balakash in modern Kazakhstan, Zhezhe allied with the nation of Kangju, which could provide tens of thousands of mounted archers should he call for aid. The protector-general of the Han Central Asian Territory, Gan Yanshu, and his deputy, Chengtang, considered this a grave threat to Chinese interests in the region. And so, in 36 BC, a large army of Chinese soldiers and allies from the Tarim Basin launched an attack against the displaced Xiongnu and Kangju warriors near the modern city of Taraz along the Talas River. The engagements eventually culminated in a siege, where the Han were successfully able to repel counterattacks from the Kangju, and Zhezhe was slain by a strained arrow as his fortress was lost. This was the most westward Chinese military operation to ever be conducted, only matched later by the Battle of Talas River between the armies of the Tang Dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century AD. In the description of the battle, there is a curious reference to a display done by infantry troops outside of the gates of the fortress. The Chinese described this group of 100 soldiers as performing a fish-scale maneuver, their shields locked together as they marched about like scales of a large carp. According to a theory proposed by a sinologist named Homer Doves in the 1950s, these fish-scale soldiers could possibly be referring to Roman legionaries and their testudo formation, a series of interlocking rectangular shields in a box-like formation that allowed its users to protect against missiles and other weapons. But why would legionaries be this far from Rome? Well, about a decade earlier in 53 BC, the Roman commander Marcus Licinius Crassus was defeated at the Battle of Carai in a failed invasion of the Parthian Empire. 10,000 Romans were reportedly captured in the aftermath, and were said to have been shipped off to the city of Merv. If the battle took place less than a few decades later, it wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that many of these Romans were still alive, and Merv is relatively close enough to Sogdiana to warrant the possibility that they escaped to Samarkand and sought employment as mercenaries. Such an interpretation requires many assumptions and leaps of faith, however, and is one that I consider to be highly unlikely. If we continue to lean on a Mediterranean origin, it has also been postulated that the description is that of a Macedonian-style phalanx, employed by the Hellenic descendants living in Samarkand and the rest of Sogdiana. Most ancient accounts of the phalanx emphasize the mass of spears rather than interlocking shields though, and while it is a far more reasonable answer than Crassus' lost legionaries, it still is entirely speculative, and the Greeks did not hold a monopoly on shield formations. Such is the extent of Chinese interaction in post-Greek Central Asia, and while there are a few bits here and there that will be incorporated into the narrative of the Indo-Greeks, we will consider this to be the end of this particular discussion. But now comes the question, was there any evidence of trade or cultural transmission between China and Hellenistic Bactria? As I have already shown, Zhang Chen was the first known Chinese official to visit Bactria, but it is quite possible that a few Chinese merchants, or more likely Central Asian intermediaries who traded goods in the Tarim Basin, managed to get their hands on Greek goods and wares prior to this period. As the main artery of travel and trade between China and the rest of Central Asia, do we have any evidence of Hellenic influence in the Tarim Basin? Excavations have been undertaken in the 1980s at Samphul, a settlement of the southern part of the basin in the modern autonomous province of Xinjiang in western China. Several tombs of Saka origin dating between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC have been uncovered, which have produced an exciting array of materials that reflect the amount of cultural exchange and activity within the area. The most visually striking of these are textile pieces from the burial shrouds and clothing of the deceased. While the Saka and Scythians long possessed a tradition of rich designs and patterns, these specimens are quite distinct for the unmistakable influence of Hellenistic mythological scenes and motifs, such as centaurs and pegasi. The artistic presence of these centaurs is also fascinating when we take into consideration a Chinese account in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, which gives interesting details about an unknown country to the west that was apparently full of horse-man hybrids. The elder of Wusun says that there is a country named Majin in the northern Dingling. The upper parts of their body from the knees upwards are human, but they have the shins and hooves of a horse, with fur below their legs, so they run quickly as a horse. From a textile recovered from the site of Lulan along the Luobupo or Lofnur Lake, we can clearly see the god Hermes with his twisted staff. Another important find was a grave of the so-called Yingpangman, an elite male Saka that was buried sometime around 100 BC, and his clothing shows rich hunting scenes that are almost identical to those found in Macedonia, with nude warriors wielding lances against their prey. Besides the Greek elements, there are other influences that line up with the cosmopolitan nature of the area, such as roundels and rosettes that were popular in Persian artwork. On the same tapestry that shows the image of a centaur, there is the upper body and profile of a spear-holding warrior, which some believe to be a depiction of a Greco-Bactrian, given the Hellenistic facial features and headband that is reminiscent of the diadem. It is also equally likely that this figure is intended to be Iranian in origin based upon his clothing, which is more akin to the dress of the Saka or Sogdians during this time. We can positively assert that there was a reasonable degree of Hellenistic influence in the material culture of the Tarim Basin, facilitated primarily by trade and the elite of nomadic groups like the Saka, but is there any firmer evidence of direct Hellenistic influence? Perhaps the most iconic representation of classical Chinese art are the many terracotta statues often simply known as the Terracotta Army. Discovered in the 1970s near Xi'an in the Shaanxi province, the Terracotta Army is a collection of thousands of highly detailed life-sized statues, each uniquely designed using a series of interchangeable templates to portray figures from the military, including common soldiers and officers to musicians and horses. Originally pigmented, exposure to air and moisture has since removed most traces of color and has left them with a greenish-brown hue. The army was buried within the mausoleum of first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi in the late 3rd century, who presumably intended to bring his host to the afterlife in much the same fashion as had been done by the Egyptian pharaohs. The beauty and detail of these statues have drawn the attention of millions, but some scholars have also noted similarities between them and the sculpture work of the Hellenistic period. A controversial paper by researcher Lucas Nickel has suggested that the may have been inspired by the importation of Hellenistic goods into China during the time, namely life-size bronze statues. The reasoning behind this operates under the principle that earlier Chinese sculptures tended not to portray human or animal figures, and when they did, they were heavily stylized or possessed simple features. Yet in the time of Qin Shi Huangdi, we suddenly get highly realistic and anatomically proportioned statues that are produced by the 1000s without much in the way of transitory works showing the development of this process. This outburst of production does line up with the arrival and proliferation of Greek culture in Bactria during this period. Additionally, Nickel points to two passages in Chinese texts that may document this transition. After his unification of China, Qin Shi Huangdi is said to have collected all the bronze weapons of his enemies, melted them down, and cast them into 12 large bronze figures seemingly depicting human beings. According to the Han Shu, these statues were said to be based on giants that appeared in the westernmost region of Lindao near the Gansu Corridor, which wore foreign robes. A comparison is drawn between these 12 giants and the 12 large altars of the Olympic Pantheon set up by Alexander the Great at the banks of the Hyphasis River in India to mark the end of his journey, and how these designs may have spread by merchants traveling from South Asia to China. While I find the connection between Alexander's altars and the giants of Lindao to be a tenuous one, I do think it is somewhat plausible that Hellenistic goods like statues or figurines could have made their way through the Tarim Basin and inspired local Chinese artists. But the Chinese imperial system was incredibly talented at mobilizing tens of thousands of craftsmen for large projects such as the Tomb of the Emperor, so this influence I think is a limited one at best. However, we do know that Greek-inspired art did in fact make his way to East Asia. A bronze statuette was discovered in the Kanas River in Xinchang, showing a kneeling warrior, which altogether is not that odd. What is unusual about this find is that the warrior is wearing a helmet that looks almost identical to the so-called Phrygian design, with a raised peak at the top that arches forwards. This equipment type was extensively employed by Greco-Macedonian troops both during and after the time of Alexander. It was almost certainly brought to Bactria with the arrival of his army, and was probably worn to some degree by the troops stationed there afterwards. Another example is a rather strange collection of five discs discovered in Gansu, each approximately the size of a coin. On the discs are some sort of three-branch pattern, but on the reverse is what appears to be Greek script encircling the rim. The Greek itself is very muddled, and it is believed that local craftsmen were attempting to copy inscriptions that they may have seen on Greco-Bactrian or later Parthian coins. This is probably quite similar to the medieval European phenomenon of pseudocufic, whereby artists would copy Arabic script for aesthetic purposes without understanding what the word or phrase meant. Dating this find is problematic, as it could very well have been from the Greco-Bactrian period in the 2nd century BC to the Kushan period in the late 1st century AD, but it does show how the Chinese were exposed to Greek writing to some extent or another. More significant than small trinkets or wayward goods was the arrival of Buddhism. By 100 AD, Buddhists began practicing in China, and they brought along with them the image of Buddha that was cultivated in Gandhara. We will discuss Gandharan Buddhist art later, but suffice it to say that there was a strong Greco-Roman influence on the conception of the humanoid Buddha, and perhaps other figures in Buddhist mythology as well. These would have been brought to China through the trade networks leading from Gandhara through Central Asia and the Tarim Basin. While not tied directly to our period, there is also one interesting remnant of the Hellenistic world that made its way to China. The Seleucid era, the dating system used by the eponymous Seleucid dynasty, had been conceived in the late 4th early 3rd century BC as the world's first continuously linear measurement of time. It had fallen out of practice with the independence of the Greco-Bactrian kings who established their own eras, but it saw a reintroduction into Central and East Asia thanks to its use by Nestorian Christians. Gravestones from the 14th century AD in Kazakhstan and as far as Guangzhou in eastern China show epitaphs still counting the era nearly 1700 years after its creation. Following the campaigns of Wudi, the Chinese began to develop an interest in certain Western goods and products. For Wudi, the most important were the horses of Fergana, but there were others as well. It is said that the emperor was eager to display the crops of the West in his palace gardens, namely grapes. Though Chinese winemaking had existed prior to the Han period, it was through the byproduct of grains rather than grapes, the latter of which were acquired from Dayuan and Daxia, areas that Strabo noted as being excellent places for planting the vine. And it would be surprising if Sogdian viniculture was not aggressively expanded to meet the demands of the wine-loving Greek settlers. The term used by Zhang Zhen for grapes is Pudao, which may be a transliteration of the Greek word Botrys, referring to a bunch of grapes. While China was able to benefit from Central Asian imports, they came out on top of the exchange thanks to their most important export, silk. Sariculture, or the production of silk, was practiced by the Chinese for centuries, if not millennia, prior to their arrival in Bactria. Its creation is due to Bombix mori, a domesticated moth species cultivated through generations of artificial selection that has left them blind and incapable of flight. The moths lay hundreds of eggs which hatch into small silkworms that feed on mulberry trees. As they approach their pupa stage, they secrete a fibrous protein filament that envelops them in a cocoon that would normally enable their transformation into adulthood. Unfortunately for the larvae, their exit from their self-made enclosure involves the release of an enzyme that destroys the silk, so harvesters gather these cocoons up and place them into boiling water before they emerge. This process kills the silkworm, but it allows the sariculturalist to unravel the thread, which can be as long as one mile in length. While it sounds like a lot of material from a single filament, upwards of 2,500 cocoons were required to make just one pound of silk. This is certainly a labor-intensive process, but the qualities of silk made it well worth the effort. Lightweight and durable, it was used for a variety of applications, though most prominently as a textile to produce clothing. In terms of aesthetic value, Chinese silk absorbed dyes very well and created a rich shimmer and sheen that was unmatched by any other clothing material known to the ancient world. For this reason, it was often the most sought after Chinese product. Sariculture was a common practice among the women of rural Chinese households, but the government recognized that it was a powerful tool for administration and diplomacy. Unlike precious metals like gold and silver, silk is a renewable resource, a problem for consumers that was recognized by later Roman authors like Pliny the Elder. Silk was viewed as an acceptable form of payment for taxes, and the government oversaw industrial workshops to facilitate the large-scale production. It could be used as wages to pay laborers and troops, but bales of silk were often included in the gifts to the nomads, intended either as bribes to gain their loyalty or deliver tribute to the more intimidating figures like the Xiongnu Chanyu. Sariculture was also practiced in the Mediterranean prior to contact with China, specifically on the island of Kos. Chinese silk was far superior in quality, however, and was priced significantly higher than anything locally made. Increasingly, the Mediterranean world, primarily fueled by Roman aristocrats, began to demand greater amounts of this eastern import. A flourishing trade network soon began to develop as a result, what the 18th century German scholar Ferdinand von Richthofen called the Silk Road. The concept of a Silk Road is entirely a modern one, and something that was not necessarily recognized by any of the peoples that took part in it. Images of caravans carrying goods across Eurasia in an unbroken line from China to the Mediterranean have captured the imagination of many, but this is a romantic perception. It might be better to understand it as a series of overlapping trade networks, where each member may have only dealt directly with one or two links in the economic chain. Some dismiss the idea outright, but many scholars continue to champion the idea of a Silk Roots era, which I believe more accurately captures the notion of what really happened. Eurasia saw an outburst of long-distance connectivity and trade between the 1st century BC until the 3rd century AD, precipitated by the relative stability of the main empires, Roman, Parthian, Kushan, and Han Chinese, but the various kingdoms of India and the Central Asian nomads were major players in this network as well. For the Mediterranean world during this time, the bulk of their imports came through maritime trade through the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, rather than overland routes, a topic of great importance that will be discussed later in this series. Still, silk was an extremely sought-after commodity that was mainly carried through the markets of India to Roman traders, who returned to Alexandria and Egypt with their cargo. Once acquired, the Chinese silk was employed for a wide variety of purposes, ranging from fashionable women's clothing to banners and awnings for the ostentatious display at the Colosseum. Not all were particularly happy at the introduction of this foreign treasure. Conservative Roman authors lamented the apparent moral decline brought about by the large-scale importation of foreign silk. For men, it represented a debasement of character and softness, while for women it left them oversexualized and devoid of any modesty. How much did the Greeks and Romans know about the Chinese? It's difficult to say that the Mediterranean world knew explicitly about the existence of China, but the common name that is associated with them is Seres, a Latin term meaning silk people, those who lived in the lands of Serica, which could be used to apply it to all peoples of East Asia, wherever silk was produced. Like with the early Greek reports of India, descriptions of the Seres head into the fantastical. The geographer Strabo and the poet Lucian say that they lived for over 200 years, though Strabo fully acknowledges that this claim is entirely due to the ignorance brought about by the great distance and lack of concrete information. Other accounts suggest a near utopia, a prosperous region of just laws that rivaled or exceeded that of their own. In his description of Bactria, Strabo believed that the Greco-Bactrian kingdom at its height bordered the lands of the Seres, which may be more of a literary device to exaggerate the size of the kingdom than any sort of serious understanding of the location of China. Many times they are placed within the general geographic space of India and Scythia, which is not an outlandish characterization, but does contextualize how Serica was used in a fashion as Timbuktu or the North Pole are in English idioms, a place that can be generally equated to the furthest ends of the Earth. As one moves into the 1st century AD, there is more concrete evidence thanks to the increased travel of Roman merchants to the Indian Ocean. The author of the Paraplus of the Erythraean Sea, who presumably wrote down his own observations, refers to a land called Thaina. Merchants from Thaina transport silk from the Tarim Basin into Gujarat and sail along the Ganges to deliver their wares. Our writer says that Hugh actively made this journey given its peril and expresses a vague ignorance about the lands beyond India, stating that the vicious cold and storms prevent any further exploration. Shortly after the time of the Paraplus, the geographer Ptolemy also associates the name Thaina with the Seres, as it appears that the term may have derived from Sanskrit renditions of Qin. Are there any recorded meetings between the Chinese and Mediterranean world? Though Zhang Qin is the most important Chinese envoy to the West for our purposes, he was certainly not the last, nor did he travel the farthest. Other embassies were sent to the Mediterranean throughout the next few centuries. Given their closer proximity, China was much more knowledgeable about Parthia, Angshi. At about the same time as the War of the Heavenly Horses, Shima records a meeting at either the city of Hecatonpolos or Parthava between representatives of the Han government and the Parthian king Mithridates II, along with a host of 20,000 Parthian horsemen. Gifts were exchanged and several Parthian officials were sent to the court of the Han on the return trip. By the first century BC, the Chinese became aware of the lands of the Daqin, meaning Great China, more specifically, the Roman Empire. Another term used to describe the Roman Empire is Lijiang, a name that some scholars believe to be a transliteration of Alexandria. Chinese historians and geographers probably did not understand what Rome really was, and their interpretations are about as fantastical as the observations of the Greco-Roman authors on the Seres. Rome itself is described as over 40 kilometers in diameter, with five palaces spread across the city that the king would visit to conduct his affairs. These kings would be overseen by a council of 36, possibly the Roman Senate, and if their performance was deemed inadequate, then a new leader could be elected. A rather whitewashed perception of the government of Imperial Rome, but not completely out of the realm of reality. Like with Central Asia, the Chinese were also interested in the various goods of what Daqin had to offer. Ivory, gemstones, coral, glassware, and dyed clothing. These are all described in the Paraplus, products that could be acquired as sailors traveled through the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Western Indian Ocean. Indirect trading partners aside, there were efforts by both civilizations to try and establish some sort of contact. An envoy named Gan Ying was ordered to get in touch with the Daqin in roughly 97 AD. Gan Ying is said to have ultimately ended his journey at the city-country of Tiaoxie. Zhang Chen also referred to Tiaoxie, and in that context, it roughly approximated Mesopotamia and Eastern Iran, but this was information passed by hearsay. In Gan Ying's case, Tiaoxie was a large site that was on the border of Parthia, approximately 17 kilometers in diameter, and adjacent to a body of water known as the Western Sea. At this point, the envoy wished to sail through the Western Sea from Tiaoxie to Daqin, but was apparently told by Parthian sailors that the journey could take years, and was extremely perilous due to the great size of the ocean, which led Gan Ying to call off his expedition and return back to China. Based on the description, it has been argued that Tiaoxie refers to either Antioch in Syria, along the Orontes River in the Mediterranean, or the city of Qaraqspasinu, Qaraqin, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, with the latter appearing to be the most likely option. In either case, such a voyage would certainly not take as long as what was being told to him. Perhaps Gan Ying simply mistranslated, or perhaps the sailors were trying to scare the inexperienced Gan Ying into accepting a higher cost for the voyage. A more conspiratorial angle suggests that the Parthians did not wish to lose their profitable positions as intermediaries, and sought to prevent the Romans and Chinese from ever making actual contact, a belief that was remarked by the Chinese themselves. According to the epitomist Florus, Augustus Caesar received ambassadors from Serica shortly after becoming emperor, though the exact details of this event are not given, and neither Augustus himself nor the Chinese talk about such a mission ever taking place. But there are a few pieces from both Greco-Roman and Chinese accounts that hint at further attempts. In his research, the geographer Ptolemy was said to have relied on information from a previous author named Marinus of Tyre, who in turn used a report compiled by a Syrian merchant of Macedonian descent named Maius Titianus. According to the story, Maius funded an expedition in the late 1st century AD to get in contact with the Ceres. Starting from Syria, he and his party traveled overland through Mesopotamia and Iran before ultimately ending up in Bactria. From there, Maius' expedition journeyed towards the Pamir Mountains, where they stopped at a location known as the Stone Tower. The Stone Tower was situated at the border of Chinese territory, but the details of Maius' expedition are not elaborated on further, though he may have the distinction of being the furthest documented traveler on an overland route. Another important event occurs a few decades after Maius' expedition, the so-called Andon Embassy. The Hu-Han Shu reports that during the 9th year of the Emperor Huan of Han, approximately 166 AD, officials from the military station at Renan in modern Vietnam reported that foreigners had traveled to contact the emperor. This group, described as an embassy, were said to have come on behalf of an Andon of Da-Chin, bringing tribute to establish former relations between their leader and the Han. After traveling nearly 1,200 miles overland to the capital of Lu-Yang, they were able to meet with the emperor and presented him with their gifts. These goods, a paltry collection of ivory and turtle shells, did little to impress Huan, who was no doubt disappointed that the legends of the fabulously wealthy Da-Chin on the other side of the world were seemingly untrue. Who was Andon? It is generally accepted that Andon is intended to be the Roman name Antoninus, more specifically the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the adopted son of the previous emperor Antoninus Pius. The motivations behind this Sino-Roman meeting are unclear, as there is no report from any of our classical sources of such an expedition. It has been theorized that the travelers were Roman merchants on an independent venture, as it would explain why their gifts were so minimal. Many of these goods could be acquired en route from the Red Sea, as described by the Periplus, but funds may have run out by the time they arrived in Vietnam. Curiously, Ptolemy's geography speaks of a land past India known as the Golden Peninsula, which is thought to be a description of the Thai Mele Peninsula, so it may lend credibility to the idea that Roman traders were somewhat aware of Southeast Asia by the early 2nd century AD, but it is quite possible that this was intended to be an official diplomatic overture on behalf of the Roman government. Shortly before these travelers must have set out on their voyage, a war between Rome and Parthia had erupted in 161 that saw the armies of Marcus Aurelius and his co-emperor Lucius Verus reach Babylonia. It could well be the case that this was intended as a mission to seek some sort of alliance, or more likely establish contact during a conflict that very well may have seen the end of the Parthian Empire, which would make it even more important to establish relations should the Romans continue to occupy Mesopotamia. But the war had already concluded by 166, and the Romans were forced to leave the Parthians intact and retreat to the Mediterranean. Ironically, the end of the Parthian War and the Anduin Embassy also coincided with the outbreak of the Antonine Plague, what is believed to be the first serious outbreak of smallpox in Europe, and the world's first pandemic. This resulted in the death of nearly 20% of the Roman population, and the global trading network would be thrown into disarray by the early 3rd century, thanks to events such as the crisis of the 3rd century in the Roman Empire, the collapse of both the Parthian and Kushan Empires, and the Three Kingdoms Period in China. A few brief records here and there suggest some wayward Roman merchants made it to Southeast Asia, but it appears that there were no more concerted efforts on behalf of the governments of the Roman or Chinese Empires to contact each other, until the period of Late Antiquity, several hundred years later. So concludes our discussion on Sino-Greek and Sino-Roman relations. We will continually rely on the Chinese historians as we move into the second half of our series, but our attention must be turned back to our period in question. While the Greco-Bactrian realm may have collapsed, their contemporaries in India were still thriving. Let us return to the campaigns of Demetrius I, as we discuss the rise of the Indo-Greek Kingdoms.