Shiji 123: The Account of Dayuan
After the Han had sent its envoy to open up communications with the state of Daxia [Bactria], all the barbarians of the distant west craned their necks to the cast and longed to catch a glimpse of China. Thus I made The Account of Dayuan.
Zhang Qian was the first person to bring back a clear account of Dayuan [Ferghana]. He was a native of Hanzhong and served as a palace attendant during the jianyuan era [140-135 B.C.]. At this time the emperor questioned various Xiongnu who had surrendered to the Han and they all reported that the Xiongnu had defeated the king of the Yuezhi people [Indo-scythians] and made his skull into a drinking vessel. As a result the Yuezhi had fled and bore a constant grudge against the Xiongnu, though as yet they had been unable to find anyone to join them in an attack on their enemy.
The Han at this time was engaged in a concerted effort to destroy the Xiongnu, and therefore, when the emperor heard this, he decided to try to send an envoy to establish relations with the Yuezhi. To reach them, however, an envoy would inevitably have to pass through Xiongnu territory. The emperor accordingly sent out a summons for men capable of undertaking such a mission. Zhang Qian, who was a palace attendant at the time, answered the summons and was appointed as envoy.
He set out from Longxi, accompanied by Ganfu, a Xiongnu slave who belonged to a family in Tangyi. They traveled west through the territory of the Xiongnu and were captured by the Xiongnu and taken before the Shanyu. The Shanyu detained them and refused to let them proceed. "The Yuezhi people live north of me," he said. "What does the Han mean by trying to send an envoy to them! Do you suppose that if I tried to send an embassy to the kingdom of Yue in the southeast the Han would let my men pass through China?"
The Xiongnu detained Zhang Qian for over ten years and gave him a wife from their own people, by whom he had a son. Zhang Qian never once relinquished the imperial credentials that marked him as an envoy of the Han, however, and after he had lived in Xiongnu territory for some time and was less closely watched than at first, he and his party finally managed to escape and resume their journey toward the Yuezhi.
After hastening west for twenty or thirty days, they reached the kingdom of Dayuan. The king of Dayuan had heard of the wealth of the Han empire and wished to establish communication with it, though as yet he had been unable to do so. When he met Zhang Qian he was overjoyed and asked where Zhang Qian wished to go.
"I was dispatched as envoy of the Han to the Yuezhi, but the Xiongnu blocked my way and I have only just now managed to escape," he replied. "I beg Your Highness to give me some guides to show me the way. If I can reach my destination and return to the Han to make my report, the Han will reward you with countless gifts!"
The king of Dayuan trusted his words and sent him on his way, giving him guides and interpreters to take him to the state of Kangqu [Trans-Oxiana]. From there he was able to make his way to the land of the Great Yuezhi.
Since the king of the Great Yuezhi had been killed by the Xiongnu, his son had succeeded him as ruler and had forced the kingdom of Daxia [Bactria] to recognize his sovereignty. The region he ruled was rich and fertile and seldom troubled by invaders, and the king thought only of his own enjoyment. He considered the Han too far away to bother with and had no particular intention of avenging his father's death by attacking the Xiongnu. From the court of the Yuezhi, Zhang Qian traveled on to the state of Daxia, but in the end he was never able to interest the Yuezhi in his proposals.
After spending a year or so in the area, he began to journey back along the Nan-shan or Southern Mountains, intending to reenter China through the territory of the Qiang barbarians, but he was once more captured by the Xiongnu and detained for over a year.
Just at this time the Shanyu died and the Lu-li King of the Left attacked the Shanyu's heir and set himself up as the new Shanyu [126 B.C.]. As a result of this the whole Xiongnu nation was in turmoil and Zhang Qian, along with his Xiongnu wife and the former slave Ganfu, was able to escape and return to China. The emperor honored Zhang Qian with the post of palace counselor and awarded Ganfu the title of "Lord Who Carries Out His Mission."
Zhang Qian was a man of great strength, determination, and generosity. He trusted others and in turn was liked by the barbarians. Ganfu, who was a Xiongnu by birth, was good at archery, and whenever he and Zhang Qian were short of food he would shoot birds and beasts to keep them supplied. When Zhang Qian first set out on his mission, he was accompanied by over a hundred men, but after thirteen years abroad, only he and Ganfu managed to make their way back to China.
Zhang Qian in person visited the lands of Dayuan, the Great Yuezhi, Daxia, and Kangqu, and in addition he gathered reports on five or six other large states in the neighborhood. All of this information he related to the emperor on his return. The substance of his report was as follows:
Dayuan lies southwest of the territory of the Xiongnu, some ten thousand li directly west of China. The people are settled on the land, plowing the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make wine out of grapes. The region has many fine horses which sweat blood; their forebears are supposed to have been foaled from heavenly horses. The people live in houses in fortified cities, there being some seventy or more cities of various sizes in the region. The population numbers several hundred thousand. The people fight with bows and spears and can shoot from horseback.
Dayuan is bordered on the north by Kangqu, on the west by the kingdom of the Great Yuezhi, on the southwest by Daxia, on the northeast by the land of the Wusun, and on the east by Yumi and Yutian [Khotan].
West of Yutian, all the rivers flow west and empty into the Western Sea, but east of there they flow eastward into the Salt Swamp [Lob Nor]. The waters of the Salt Swamp flow underground and on the south form the source from which the Yellow River rises. There are many precious stones in the region and the rivers flow into China. The Loulan and Gushi peoples live in fortified cities along the Salt Swamp. The Salt Swamp is some five thousand li from Chang'an. The western branch of the Xiongnu occupies the region from the Salt Swamp east to a point south of the Great Wall at Longxi, where its territory adjoins that of the Qiang barbarians, thus cutting off the road from China to the west.
The Wusun live some two thousand li northeast of Dayuan, moving from place to place in the region with their herds of animals. Their customs are much like those of the Xiongnu. They have twenty or thirty thousand skilled archers and are very daring in battle. They were originally subjects of the Xiongnu, but later, becoming more powerful, they refused any longer to attend the gatherings of the Xiongnu court, though still acknowledging themselves part of the Xiongnu nation.
Kangqu is situated some two thousand li northwest of Dayuan. Its people likewise are nomads and resemble the Yuezhi in their customs. They have eighty or ninety thousand skilled archer fighters. The country is small, and borders Dayuan. It acknowledges nominal sovereignty to the Yuezhi people in the south and the Xiongnu in the east.
Yancai lies some two thousand li northwest of Kangqu. The people are nomads and their customs are generally similar to those of the people of Kangqu. The country has over a hundred thousand archer warriors, and borders a great shoreless lake, perhaps what is known as the Northern Sea [Caspian Sea?].
The Great Yuezhi live some two or three thousand li west of Dayuan, north of the Gui [Oxus] River. They are bordered on the south by Daxia, on the west by Anxi [Parthia], and on the north by Kangqu. They are a nation of nomads, moving from place to place with their herds, and their customs are like those of the Xiongnu. They have some one or two hundred thousand archer warriors. Formerly they were very powerful and despised the Xiongnu, but later, when Maosun became leader of the Xiongnu nation, he attacked and defeated the Yuezhi. Some time afterwards his son, the Old Shanyu, killed the king of the Yuezhi and made his skull into a drinking cup.
The Yuezhi originally lived in the area between the Qilian or Heavenly Mountains and Dunhuang, but after they were defeated by the Xiongnu they moved far away to the west, beyond Dayuan, where they attacked and conquered the people of Daxia and set up the court of their king on the northern bank of the Gui River. A small number of their people who were unable to make the journey west sought refuge among the Qiang barbarians in the Southern Mountains, where they are known as the Lesser Yuezhi.
Anxi is situated several thousand li west of the region of the Great Yuezhi. The people are settled on the land, cultivating the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make wine out of grapes. They have walled cities like the people of Dayuan, the region containing several hundred cities of various sizes. The kingdom, which borders the Gui River (Oxus), is very large, measuring several thousand li square. Some of the inhabitants are merchants who travel by carts or boats to neighboring countries, sometimes journeying several thousand li. The coins of the country are made of silver and bear the face of the king. When the king dies, the currency is immediately changed and new coins issued with the face of his successor. The people keep records by writing horizontally on strips of leather. To the west lies Tiaozhi [Mesopotamia] and to the north Yancai and Lixuan [Hyrcania].
Tiaozhi is situated several thousand li west of Anxi and borders the Western Sea [Persian Gulf?]. It is hot and damp, and the people live by cultivating the fields and planting rice. In this region live great birds which lay eggs as large as pots. The people are very numerous and are ruled by many petty chiefs. The ruler of Anxi gives orders to these chiefs and regards them as his vassals. The people are very skillful at performing tricks that amaze the eye. The old men of Anxi say they have heard that in Tiaozhi are to be found the River of Weak Water and the Queen Mother of the West, though they admit that they have never seen either of them.
Daxia is situated over two thousand li southwest of Dayuan, south of the Gui River. Its people cultivate the land and have cities and houses. Their customs are like those of Dayuan. It has no great ruler but only a number of petty chiefs ruling the various cities. The people are poor in the use of arms and afraid of battle, but they are clever at commerce. After the Great Yuezhi moved west and attacked and conquered Daxia, the entire country came under their sway. The population of the country is large, numbering some million or more persons. The capital is called the city of Lanshi [Bactra] and has a market where all sorts of goods are bought and sold.
Southeast of Daxia is the kingdom of Shendu [India]. "When I was in Daxia," Zhang Qian reported, "I saw bamboo canes from Qiong and cloth made in the province of Shu. When I asked the people how they had gotten such articles, they replied, 'Our merchants go to buy them in the markets of Shendu.' Shendu, they told me, lies several thousand li southeast of Daxia. The people cultivate the land and live much like the people of Daxia. The region is said to be hot and damp. The inhabitants ride elephants when they go into battle. The kingdom is situated on a great river.
"We know that Daxia is located twelve thousand li southwest of China. Now if the kingdom of Shendu is situated several thousand li southeast of Daxia and obtains goods which are produced in Shu, it seems to me that it must not be very far away from Shu. At present, if we try to send envoys to Daxia by way of the mountain trails that lead through the territory of the Qiang people, they will be molested by the Qiang, while if we send them a little farther north, they will be captured by the Xiongnu. It would seem that the most direct route, as well as the safest, would be that out of Shu."
Thus the emperor learned of Dayuan, Daxia, Anxi, and the others, all great states rich in unusual products whose people cultivated the land and made their living in much the same way as the Chinese. All these states, he was told, were militarily weak and prized Han goods and wealth. He also learned that to the north of them lived the Yuezhi and Kangqu people who were strong in arms but who could be persuaded by gifts and the prospect of gain to acknowledge allegiance to the Han court. 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.
The emperor was therefore delighted, and approved Zhang Qian's suggestion. He ordered Zhang Qian to start out from Jianwei in Shu on a secret mission to search for Daxia. The party broke up into four groups proceeding out of the regions of Mang, Jan, Xi, and Qiong and Po. All the groups managed to advance one or two thousand li, but they were blocked on the north by the Di and Zuo tribes and on the south by the Sui and Kunming tribes. The Kunming tribes have no rulers but devote themselves to plunder and robbery, and as soon as they seized any of the Han envoys they immediately murdered them. Thus none of the parties were ever able to get through to their destination. They did learn, however, that some one thousand or more li to the west there was a state called Dian-Yue whose people rode elephants and that the merchants from Shu sometimes went there with their goods on unofficial trading missions. In this way the Han, while searching for a route to Daxia, first came into contact with the kingdom of Dian.
Earlier the Han had tried to establish relations with the barbarians of the southwest, but the expense proved too great and no road could be found through the region and so the project was abandoned. After Zhang Qian reported that it was possible to reach Daxia by traveling through the region of the southwestern barbarians, the Han once more began efforts to establish relations with the tribes in the area.
Zhang Qian was made a subordinate commander and sent to accompany the general in chief Wei Qing on expeditions against the Xiongnu. Because he knew where water and pasture were to be found in the Xiongnu territory, he was able to save the army from hardship. He was enfeoffed as Bowang or "Broad Vision" marquis. This occurred in the sixth year of the yuansuo era [123 B.c.].
The following year he was appointed colonel of the guard and sent with General Li Guang on an expedition out of Yubeiping to attack the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu surrounded Li Guang's army and wiped out most of the men. Zhang Qian was accused of having arrived late at his rendezvous with Li Guang and was sentenced to execution, but on payment of a fine he was allowed to become a commoner. This same year the Han sent the swift cavalry general He Qubing against the Xiongnu. He defeated and killed thirty or forty thousand of the Xiongnu in the western region and rode as far as the Qilian Mountains. The following year the Hunye king led his barbarian hordes and surrendered to the Han, and the Xiongnu completely disappeared from the region from Jincheng and Hexi west along the Southern Mountains to the Salt Swamp. Occasionally Xiongnu scouts would appear, but even they were rare. Two years later the Han armies attacked the Shanyu and chased him north of the desert.
During this time the emperor occasionally questioned Zhang Qian about Daxia and the other states of the west. Zhang Qian, who had been deprived of his marquisate, replied, "When I was living among the Xiongnu I heard about the king of the Wusun people, who is named Kunmo. Kunmo's father was the ruler of a small state on the western border of the Xiongnu territory. The Xiongnu attacked and killed his father, and Kunmo, then only a baby, was cast out in the wilderness to die. But the birds came and flew over the place where he was, bearing meat in their beaks, and the wolves suckled him, so that he was able to survive. When the Shanyu heard of this, he was filled with wonder and, believing that Kunmo was a god, he took him in and reared him. When Kunmo had grown to manhood, the Shanyu put him in command of a band of troops and he several times won merit in battle. The Shanyu then made him the leader of the people whom his father had ruled in former times and ordered him to guard the western forts. Kunmo gathered together his people, looked after them and led them in attacks on the small settlements in the neighborhood. Soon he had twenty or thirty thousand skilled archers who were trained in aggressive warfare. When the Shanyu died, Kunmo led his people far away, declared himself an independent ruler, and refused any longer to journey to the meetings of the Xiongnu court. The Xiongnu sent surprise parties of .troops to attack him, but they were unable to win a victory. In the end the Xiongnu decided that he must be a god and left him alone, still claiming that he was a subject of theirs but no longer making any large-scale attacks on him.
"Now the Shanyu is suffering from the recent blow delivered by our armies, and the region formerly occupied by the Hunye king and his people is deserted. The barbarians are well known to be greedy for Han wealth and goods. If we could make use of this opportunity to send rich gifts and bribes to the Wusun people and persuade them to move farther east and occupy the region which formerly belonged to the Hunye king, then the Han could conclude an alliance of brotherhood with them and, under the circumstances, they would surely do as we say. If we could get them to obey us, it would be like cutting off the right arm of the Xiongnu! Then, once we had established an alliance with the Wusun, Daxia and the other countries to the west could all be persuaded to come to court and acknowledge themselves our foreign vassals."
The emperor approved of this suggestion and, appointing Zhang Qian as a general of palace attendants, put him in charge of a party of three hundred men, each of which was provided with two horses. In addition the party took along tens of thousands of cattle and sheep and carried gold and silk goods worth a hundred billion cash. Many of the men in the party were given the imperial credentials making them assistant envoys so that they could be sent to neighboring states along the way.
When Zhang Qian reached the kingdom of the Wusun, the king of the Wusun, Kunmo, tried to treat the Han envoys in the same way that the Shanyu treated them. Zhang Qian was greatly outraged and, knowing that the barbarians were greedy, said, "The Son of Heaven has sent me with these gifts, but if you do not prostrate yourself to receive them, I shall have to take them back!"
With this Kunmo jumped up from his seat and prostrated himself to receive the gifts. The other details of the envoys' reception Zhang Qian allowed to remain as before. Zhang Qian then delivered his message, saying, "If the Wusun will consent to move east and occupy the region of the Hunye king, then the Han will send you a princess of the imperial family to be your wife."
But the Wusun people were split into several groups and the king was old. Living far away from China, he had no idea how large the Han empire was. Moreover, his people had for a long time in the past been subjects of the Xiongnu and still lived nearer to them than to China. The high ministers of the king were therefore all afraid of the Xiongnu and did not wish to move back east. The king alone could not force his will upon his subjects, and Zhang Qian was therefore unable to persuade him to listen to his proposal.
Kunmo had over ten sons, among them one named Dalu who was very strong and skillful in leading the people. He lived in a separate part of the realm and had over ten thousand horsemen under his command.
Dalu's older brother, who had been designated as heir to Kunmo, had a son named Cenqu. The heir apparent died early and on his deathbed he begged his father, Kunmo, to make Cenqu the new heir. "Do not allow anyone to take his position away from him!" he pleaded. Kunmo, moved by grief, gave his permission and designated his grandson Cenqu as the new heir apparent.
Dalu was furious that he himself had not been appointed heir and, persuading his other brothers to join him, led his forces in a revolt, planning to attack Cenqu and Kunmo. Kunmo, who was old and lived in constant fear that Dalu would attack and kill his grandson, gave Cenqu a force of over ten thousand horsemen and sent him to live in another part of the realm, while he himself kept over ten thousand horsemen for his own protection. Thus it happened that when Zhang Qian arrived the Wusun people were split into three factions, though the large part of them acknowledged the leadership of Kunmo. Kunmo for this reason did not dare make any promises to Zhang Qian on his own authority.
Zhang Qian dispatched his assistant envoys to Dayuan, Kangqu, the Great Yuezhi, Daxia, Anxi, Shendu, Yutian, Yumo, and the other neighboring states, the Wusun providing them with guides and interpreters. Then he returned to China, accompanied by twenty or thirty envoys from the Wusun and a similar number of horses which the Wusun sent in exchange for the Han gifts. The Wusun envoys thus had an opportunity to see with their own eyes the breadth and greatness of the Han empire.
On his return Zhang Qian was honored with the post of grand messenger, ranking him among the nine highest ministers of the government. A year or so later he died.
The Wusun envoys, having seen how rich and populous the Han was, returned and reported what they had learned to their own people, and after this the Wusun regarded the Han with greater respect. A year or so later the envoys whom Zhang Qian had sent to Daxia and the other states of the west all returned, accompanied by envoys from those states, and for the first time relations were established between the lands of the northwest and the Han. It was Zhang Qian, however, who opened the way for this move, and all the envoys who journeyed to the lands in later times relied upon his reputation to gain them a hearing. As a result of his efforts, the foreign states trusted the Han envoys.
After Zhang Qian's death the Xiongnu learned that the Han had established relations with the Wusun and, infuriated by the news, decided to make an attack on the Wusun. By this time the Han had already sent envoys to the Wusun, as well as to Dayuan, the Great Yuezhi, and the other states to the south, and the Wusun, frightened by the threat of a Xiongnu attack, sent an envoy with a gift of horses to the Han court to ask that a Han princess be granted to the Wusun leader and an alliance of brotherhood concluded. The emperor referred the matter to his ministers for debate, and they all replied, "The princess should not be sent until the betrothal gifts have been duly received."
Sometime earlier the emperor had divined by the Book of Changes and been told that "divine horses are due to appear from the northwest." When the Wusun came with their horses, which were of an excellent breed, he named them "heavenly horses." Later, however, he obtained the blood-sweating horses from Dayuan, which were even hardier. He therefore changed the name of the Wusun horses, calling them "horses from the western extremity," and used the name "heavenly horses" for the horses of Dayuan.
At this time the Han first built fortifications west of the district of Lingju and established the province of Jiuquan in order to provide a safe route to the lands of the northwest, and as a result more and more envoys were sent to Anxi, Yancai, Tiaozhi, and Shendu. The emperor was very fond of the Dayuan horses and sent a constant stream of envoys to that region to acquire them.
The largest of these embassies to foreign states numbered several hundred persons, while even the smaller parties included over a hundred members, though later, as the envoys became more accustomed to the route, the number was gradually reduced. The credentials and gifts which the envoys bore with them were much like those supplied to the envoys in Zhang Qian's time. In the course of one year anywhere from five or six to over ten parties would be sent out. Those traveling to distant lands required eight or nine years to complete their journey, while those visiting nearer regions would return after a few years.
At this time the Han had already overthrown the kingdom of Yue in the southeast, and the barbarian tribes living southwest of Shu were all filled with awe and begged to be ruled by Han officials and to be allowed to pay their respects at court. The Han therefore set up the provinces of Yizhou, Yuesui, Zangge, Chenli, and Wenshan, hoping to extend the area under Han control so that a route could be opened to Daxia. The Han sent Bo Shichang, Lü Yueren and others, over ten parties in the space of one year, out of these new provinces to try to get through to Daxia. The parties were all blocked by the Kunming barbarians, however, who stole their goods and murdered the envoys, so that none of them were ever able to reach Daxia.
The Han then freed the criminals of the three districts of the capital area and, adding to them twenty or thirty thousand soldiers from Ba and Shu, dispatched them under the command of two generals, Guo Chang and Wei Guang, to go and attack the Kunming tribes that were blocking the Han envoys. The army succeeded in killing or capturing twenty or thirty thousand of the enemy before departing from the area, but later, when another attempt was made to send envoys to Daxia, the Kunming once more fell upon them and none were able to reach their destination.
By this time, however, so many envoys had journeyed to Daxia by the northern route out of Jiuquan that the foreign states in the area had become surfeited with Han goods and no longer regarded them with any esteem. After Zhang Qian achieved honor and position by opening up communications with the lands of the west, all the officials and soldiers who had accompanied him vied with one another in submitting reports to the emperor telling of the wonders and profits to be gained in foreign lands and requesting to become envoys. The emperor considered that, since the lands of the west were so far away, no man would choose to make the journey simply for his own pleasure, and so when he had listened to their stories he immediately presented them with the credentials of an envoy. In addition he called for volunteers from among the people and fitted out with attendants and dispatched anyone who came forward, without inquiring into his background, in an effort to broaden the area that bad been opened to communication.
When the envoys returned from a mission, it invariably happened that they had plundered or stolen goods on their way or their reports failed to meet with the approval of the emperor. The emperor, who was very practiced at handling such matters, would then have them summarily investigated and accused of some major offense so that they would be spurred to anger and would volunteer to undertake another mission in order to redeem themselves. Thus there was never any lack of men to act as envoys, and they came to regard it as a trifling matter to break the law. The officials and soldiers who had accompanied them on a mission would in turn start at once enthusiastically describing the wealth to be found in the foreign nations; those who told the most impressive tales were granted the seals of an envoy, while those who spoke more modestly were made assistants. As a result all sorts of worthless men hurried forward with wild tales to imitate their example.
The envoys were all sons of poor families who handled the government gifts and goods that were entrusted to them as though they were private property and looked for opportunities to buy goods at a cheap price in the foreign countries and make a profit on their return to China. The men of the foreign lands soon became disgusted when they found that each of the Han envoys told some different story and, considering that the Han armies were too far away to worry about, refused to supply the envoys with food and provisions, making things very difficult for them. The Han envoys were soon reduced to a state of destitution and distress and, their tempers mounting, fell to quarreling and even attacking each other.
The states of Loulan and Gushi, though very small, lay right across the path that the envoys traveled, and they attacked and plundered the parties of Wang Hui and other envoys with extreme ferocity. In addition, raiding parties of Xiongnu from time to time appeared in the region to swoop down on the envoys to the western states and block their advance. The envoys hastened to the emperor with complaints of all the hardships which they suffered and suggested that, although the inhabitants of the western regions lived in fortified cities, they were poor in combat and could easily be attacked.
As a result of their complaints, the emperor dispatched Zhao Ponu, the former Congpiao marquis, with a force of twenty or thirty thousand troops recruited from the dependent states and the provinces. He advanced as far as the Xionghe River, hoping to attack the Xiongnu, but they withdrew.
The following year an attack was made on Gushi. Zhao Ponu, with a force of seven hundred or more light horsemen, led the attack, captured the king of Loulan, and succeeded in conquering Gushi. At the same time he used his armies to intimidate the Wusun, Dayuan, and the other states in the region. On his return Zhao Ponu was enfeoffed as marquis of Zhuoye.
Wang Hui, who had several times acted as an envoy and been mistreated by the people of Loulan, took his complaint to the emperor. The emperor called out a force of troops and appointed Wang Hui as aide to Zhao Ponu, in which capacity he attacked and defeated Loulan. He was enfeoffed as marquis of Hao. After this a series of defense stations was established from Jiuquan west to the Jade Gate Pass.
The Wusun sent a thousand horses to the Han as a betrothal gift for the Han princess whom they had been promised. The Han then sent a princess of the imperial family, the daughter of the king of Jiangdu, to be the wife of the Wusun leader. Kunmo, the king of the Wusun, made her his Bride of the Right. The Xiongnu also sent one of their women to marry Kunmo, and he made her his Bride of the Left. Later, saying that he was too old, he gave the Han princess to his grandson Cenqu to be his bride. The Wusun have a great many horses, the wealthy men among them owning as many as four or five thousand!
When the Han envoys first visited the kingdom of Anxi, the king of Anxi dispatched a party of twenty thousand horsemen to meet them on the eastern border of his kingdom. The capital of the kingdom is several thousand li from the eastern border, and as the envoys proceeded there they passed through twenty or thirty cities inhabited by great numbers of people. When the Han envoys set out again to return to China, the king of Anxi dispatched envoys of his own to accompany them, and after the latter had visited China and reported on its great breadth and might, the king sent some of the eggs of the great birds which live in the region, and skilled tricksters of Lixuan, to the Han court as gifts. In addition, the smaller states west of Dayuan, such as Huanchian and Tayi, as well as those east of Dayuan, such as Gushi, Yumi, and Suxie, all sent parties to accompany the Han envoys back to China and present gifts at court. The emperor was delighted at this.
The emperor also sent envoys to trace the Yellow River to its source. They found that it rises in the land of Yutian among mountains rich in precious stones, many of which they brought back with them. The emperor studied the old maps and books and decided to name these mountains, where the Yellow River has its source, the Kunlun Mountains.
At this time the emperor made frequent tours east to the seacoast, and at such times he would take all the visitors from foreign lands along in his party, passing through large and populous cities on the way, scattering gifts of money and silk among the visitors, and supplying them with generous accommodations in order to impress upon them the wealth of the Han empire. He would hold great wrestling matches and displays of unusual skills and all sorts of rare creatures, gathering together large numbers of people to watch. He entertained the foreign visitors with veritable lakes of wine and forests of meat and had them shown around to the various granaries and storehouses to see how much wealth was laid away there, astounding and overwhelming them with the breadth and greatness of the Han empire. After the skills of the foreign magicians and tricksters had been imported into China, the wrestling matches and displays of unusual feats developed and improved with each year, and from this time on entertainments of this type became increasingly popular.
In this way party after party of envoys from the foreign lands of the northwest would arrive in China and, after a while, take their leave. Those from the states west of Dayuan, however, believing that their homelands were too far away from China to be in any danger,
continued to conduct themselves with great arrogance and self-assurance; it was impossible to make them conform to proper ritual or to compel them to obey the wishes of the Han court.
The lands from that of the Wusun on west to Anxi were situated nearer to the Xiongnu than to China, and it was well known that the Xiongnu had earlier caused the Yuezhi people great suffering. Therefore, whenever a Xiongnu envoy appeared in the region carrying credentials from the Shanyu, he was escorted from state to state and provided with food, and no one dared to detain him or cause him any difficulty. In the case of the Han envoys, however, if they did not hand out silks or other goods they were given no food, and unless they purchased animals in the markets they could get no mounts for their riders. This was because the people considered the Han too far away to bother about. They also believed that the Han had plenty of goods and money and it was therefore proper to make the envoys pay for whatever they wanted. As may be seen, they were much more afraid of the Xiongnu envoys than of those from the Han.
The regions around Dayuan make wine out of grapes, the wealthier inhabitants keeping as much as ten thousand or more piculs stored away. It can be kept for as long as twenty or thirty years without spoiling. The people love their wine and the horses love their alfalfa. 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. Later, when the Han acquired large numbers of the "heavenly horses" and the envoys from foreign states began to arrive with their retinues, the lands on all sides of the emperor's summer palaces and pleasure towers were planted with grapes and alfalfa for as far as the eye could see.
Although the states from Dayuan west to Anxi speak rather different languages, their customs are generally similar and their languages mutually intelligible. The men all have deep-set eyes and profuse beards and whiskers. They are skillful at commerce and will haggle over a fraction of a cent. Women are held in great respect, and the men make decisions on the advice of their women. No silk or lacquer is produced anywhere in the region, and the casting of coins and vessels was formerly unknown. Later, however, when some of the Chinese soldiers attached to the Han embassies ran away and surrendered to the people of the area, they taught them how to cast metal and manufacture weapons. Now, whenever the people of the region lay their hands on any Han gold or silver they immediately make it into vessels and do not use it for currency.
By this time a number of embassies had been sent to the west and even the lesser attendants who went along on the expeditions had become accustomed to appearing before the emperor and relating their experiences. "Dayuan has some fine horses in the city of Ershi [Sutrishna]," they reported, "but the people keep them hidden and refuse to give any to the Han envoys!"
The emperor had already taken a great liking to the horses of Dayuan, and when he heard this he was filled with excitement and expectation. He dispatched a party of able young men and carriage masters with a thousand pieces of gold and a golden horse to go to the king of Dayuan and ask him for some of the fine horses of Ershi.
But Dayuan by this time was overflowing with Han goods, and the men of the state therefore plotted together, saying, "The Han is far away from us and on several occasions has lost men in the salt-water wastes between our country and China. Yet if the Han parties go farther north, they will be harassed by the Xiongnu, while if they try to go to the south they will suffer from lack of water and fodder. Moreover, there are many places along the route where there are no cities whatsoever and they are apt to run out of provisions. The Han embassies that have come to us are made up of only a few hundred men, and yet they are always short of food and over half the men die on the journey. Under such circumstances how could the Han possibly send a large army against us? What have we to worry about? Furthermore, the horses of Ershi are one of the most valuable treasures of our state!"
In the end, therefore, they refused to give the Han envoys any horses. Enraged, the Han envoys cursed the men of Dayuan, smashed the golden horse with a mallet, and departed.
The nobles of Dayuan were furious, complaining that the Han envoys had treated them with the utmost contempt. After the Han party had left, therefore, they sent orders to the people of Yucheng on the eastern border of the kingdom to attack and kill the envoys and seize their goods.
When the emperor received word of the fate of the envoys, he was in rage. Yao Dinghan and others, who had acted as envoys to Dayuan in the past, assured the emperor that the kingdom was militarily weak and that it would not require a force of more than three thousand Han soldiers equipped with powerful crossbows to conquer it and take the entire population captive. Earlier, when the emperor had dispatched Zhao Ponu to attack Loulan, Zhao had led an advance party of only ten hundred horsemen and had taken the king of Loulan prisoner. The emperor therefore believed the assurances of Yao Dinghan and others, wishing to have some excuse to enfeoff the relatives of his favorite, Lady Li, he honored her brother Li Guangli with the title of Ershi General and dispatched him with a force of six title horsemen recruited from the dependent states, as well as twenty or thirty thousand young men of bad reputation rounded up from the provinces and kingdoms, to launch an attack on Dayuan. The title of Ershi General was given to Li Guangli because it was expected that he would reach the city of Ershi and capture the fine horses there. Zhao Jicheng was appointed director of martial law for the expedition, and Wang Hui, the former marquis of Hao, was ordered to act as guide. Li Che was made a subordinate commander and put in charge of various military affairs. This was in the first year of the taiyuan era (104 B.c.) At this time great swarms of locusts rose up in the area east of the Pass and flew west as far as Dunhuang.
General Li and his army passed the Salt Swamp and were advancing west when they found that the inhabitants of the small states along the way, terrified by their approach, had all shut themselves up tightly in their walled cities and refused to supply any food to the army. Even attacks on the cities did not always prove successful. The army was able to obtain provisions from some of the cities that submitted, but in the case of others, if a few days of attack did not bring capitulation, the army would move on its way. Thus by the time Li Guangli reached Yucheng he had no more than a few thousand soldiers left, and all of these were suffering from hunger and exhaustion.
He attacked Yucheng, but was severely beaten and a great many of his men were killed or wounded. General Li then consulted Li Che, Zhao Shicheng, and his other officers and decided that, if they could not even conquer the city of Yucheng, there was absolutely no hope that they could make a successful attack on Ershi, the king's capital, farther to the west. They therefore decided to lead their troops back to China. The journey to Dayuan and back had taken them two years, and by the time they reached Dunhuang they had no more than one or two tenths of their original force left.
Li Guangli sent a messenger to the emperor explaining that the distance had been so great and he had been so short of provisions that his men, though brave enough in battle, had been defeated by hunger and not enough of them had survived the journey to make an attack on Dayuan possible. He asked that the army be disbanded for a while and a larger force recruited for another expedition later on.
When the emperor received word of this, he was enraged and sent an envoy with orders to close the pass at jade Gate, saying that anyone from General Li's army who attempted to enter the country would be cut down on the spot.
General Li, afraid to move, remained for the time being at Dunhuang. This same summer over twenty thousand Han soldiers under the command of Zhao Ponu were surrounded by the Xiongnu and forced to surrender.
The high ministers and court advisers all wanted the emperor to disband the army that had been sent to attack Dayuan and concentrate the strength of the empire on attacking the Xiongnu. But the emperor had already undertaken to punish Dayuan for its outrage and he was afraid that if his armies could not conquer even a small state like Dayuan, then Daxia and the other lands would come to despise the Han. No more fine horses could ever be obtained from Dayuan, the Wusun and Luntou people would scorn and mistreat the Han envoys, and China would become a laughingstock among the foreign nations. He therefore had Deng Guang and the others who were most outspoken in their opposition to the Dayuan campaign handed over to the law officials for investigation, freed all the skilled bowmen who were in prison, and called out more young men of bad reputation and horsemen from the border states. By the end of a year or so he had sent sixty thousand new men to Dunhuang to reinforce the army there, not counting porters and personal attendants. The army was provided "with a hundred thousand oxen, over thirty thousand horses, and tens of thousands of donkeys, mules, and camels, as well as plentiful provisions and a great number of crossbows and other weapons. The whole empire was thrown into a turmoil, relaying orders and providing men and supplies for the attack on Dayuan. Over fifty subordinate commanders were appointed to direct the army.
It was known that there were no wells in the capital city of Dayuan, the city drawing its water supply from rivers that flowed outside the walls. The emperor therefore sent water engineers to join the army so that when the time came they could divert the streams which flowed by the city and deprive the inhabitants of their water. A force of a hundred and eighty thousand soldiers was also dispatched to garrison the districts of Quyan and Xiutu, which had been established north of Jiuquan and Zhangye in order to provide greater protection for Jiuquan. All men in the empire who came in the seven classes of reprobated persons were called out and sent to transport supplies of dried boiled rice to Li Guangli's forces. The lines of transport wagons and marching men stretched without a break all the way west to Dunhuang. In addition, two men who were skilled in judging horses were appointed as commanders in charge of steeds so that, when the conquest of Dayuan had been accomplished, they would be on hand to select the finest horses to take back to China.
When all of this had been done, Li Guangli set off once again. This time he had far more men, and in every little state he came to the inhabitants came out to greet him with gifts of food for his army. When he reached Luntou, however, the people there refused to submit. He besieged the city for several days and, after taking it, massacred the inhabitants, and from there on west to Ershi, the capital of Dayuan, his advance was unhindered.
He reached Ershi with a force of thirty thousand soldiers. The men of Dayuan came forward to attack, but the Han soldiers overwhelmed them with their arrows and forced them to flee into the city, where they mounted the battlements and prepared to defend the city.
General Li's men had wanted to attack Yucheng on the way, but he was afraid that if he halted his advance it would only give the men of Ershi more time to think up plots to save their lives. He therefore pressed on to Ershi, where he broke down the banks of the rivers and springs and diverted them from their courses so that they no longer supplied water to the city. This move caused the inhabitants of the city extreme distress and hardship.
After surrounding and besieging the city for over forty days, he managed to break down the outer wall and capture one of the enemy leaders, a noble of Dayuan named Jinmi who was noted for his bravery. The inhabitants were thoroughly terrified and fled within the inner wall, where the nobles of Dayuan gathered to plot the next move.
"The reason the Han has sent troops to attack us is simply that our king Wugua hid his best horses and killed the Han envoys," they said. "Now if we kill the king and hand over the horses, the Han troops will most likely withdraw. Should they refuse, that will be the time to fight to the death for our city!"
All having agreed that this was the best plan, they killed the king and sent one of the nobles to carry his head to General Li and ask for an agreement. "If the Han soldiers do not attack us," the nobleman said, "we will bring out all the finest horses so that you may take your pick, and will supply food to your army. But if you refuse to accept these terms we will slaughter all the best horses. Moreover, rescue troops will soon be coming to aid us from Kangju, and when they arrive the Han will have to fight both our men within the city and their forces on the outside. You had better consider the matter well and decide which course to take!"
At this time scouts from Kangju were keeping a watch on the Han troops, but since the latter were still in good condition, the Kangju forces did not dare to advance against them.
Li Guangli consulted with Zhao Shicheng, Li Che, and his other officers on what to do. "I have received word," he said, "that the people within the city have just obtained the services of a Chinese who knows how to dig wells. Moreover, they still seem to have plenty of food. Our purpose in coming here was to punish the chief offender, Wugua, and now that we have obtained his head, our task has been accomplished. If under these circumstances we refuse to withdraw our troops, the inhabitants will defend the city to the last man. Meanwhile the scouts from Kangqu, seeing our soldiers wearied by the siege, will come with troops to rescue Dayuan and the defeat of our army will be inevitable."
His officers all agreed with this opinion, and General Li sent word that he was willing to accept Dayuan's proposal. The men of Dayuan then brought out their finest horses and allowed the Han officers to choose the ones they wanted. They also produced large stores of provisions to feed the Han army. The Han officers selected twenty or thirty of the choicest horses, as well as over three thousand stallions and mares of less high quality, and set up one of the nobles named Micai, who had treated the earlier Han envoys with kindness, as the new king of Dayuan, promising that they would withdraw their troops. In the end the Han soldiers never entered the inner wall of the city, but withdrew according to their promise and began the journey home.
When Li Guangli first started west from Dunhuang, he considered that his army was too numerous to be provided with food by the lands along the way and he therefore divided it up into several parties, some of them taking the northern route and some the southern. One of these separate groups, comprising a thousand or more men and led by the subordinate commander Wang Shensheng, the former grand herald Hu Chungguo, and others, arrived at Yucheng. The men of Yucheng withdrew into the city and refused to provide any food to Wang Shensheng soldiers. Though he was two hundred li away from the main army of General Li, Wang Shensheng examined the city and, deciding that he had nothing to fear, began to berate the inhabitants for failing to give him any food. The inhabitants could see that Wang Shensheng's army was growing smaller day by day, and finally one day at dawn they sent out a force of three thousand men who attacked and killed Wang Shensheng and the other commanders and defeated his army. Only a few of the Han soldiers managed to escape and flee to the army of General Li.
General Li thereupon dispatched Shangguan Jie, his chief commandant in charge of requisitioning grain, who attacked and conquered the city of Yucheng. The king of Yucheng fled to Kangqu, where Shangguan Jie pursued him. When the men of Kangqu heard that the Han armies had already conquered Dayuan, they handed the king of Yucheng over to Shangguan Jie. The latter ordered four of his horsemen to bind the king and take him under guard to the headquarters of the commander in chief, General Li.
The four horsemen consulted together, saying, "The king of Yucheng is the archenemy of the Han. Now we have been given the task of escorting him alive to the general's headquarters, but if he should suddenly escape it would go very badly with us!" They therefore decided to kill the king, but none of them dared to strike the first blow. Finally one of the horsemen from Shangguei named Zhao Di, the youngest of the group, drew his sword and cut down the king. Then, bearing the king's head, he and Shangguan Jie and the rest of the group set out after and overtook General Li.
Earlier, when General Li started out on the second expedition against Dayuan, the emperor sent envoys to announce the fact to the Wusun and ask them to send a large force to cooperate in the attack. The Wusun did in fact send two thousand horsemen but, not willing to alienate either party, they held back and refused to join in the attack.
When General Li and his army returned east, the rulers of all the small states they passed through, having heard of the defeat of Dayuan, sent their sons or brothers to accompany the army to China, where they presented gifts, were received by the emperor, and remained at the Han court as hostages.
In General Li's campaign against Dayuan, the director of martial law Zhao Shicheng achieved the greatest merit. In addition, Shangguan Jie won distinction by daring to venture far into enemy territory and Li Che by his skill in planning. When the army reentered the jade Gate Pass, it numbered something over ten thousand men, with over a thousand military horses. During General Li's second expedition the army had not suffered from any lack of provisions, nor had many of the soldiers been killed in battle. The generals and other officers, however, were a greedy lot, most of them taking little care of their men but abusing and preying upon them instead. This was the reason for the large number of lives lost.
Nevertheless the emperor, considering that it had been such a long expedition, made no attempt to punish those who were at fault, but enfeoffed Li Guangli as marquis of Haixi, and Zhao Di, the horseman who had cut off the head of the king of Yucheng, as marquis of Xinzhi. He appointed Zhao Shicheng as superintendent of the 'imperial household, Shangguan Jie as privy treasurer, and Li Che as governor of Shangdang. Three of the officers who had gone on the campaign were appointed to posts ranking among the nine highest ministers; over a hundred were enfeoffed as marquises or appointed as chancellors, governors, or two thousand picul officials; and more than a thousand were appointed to posts paying a thousand piculs or less. Those who had volunteered to join the army were given posts which far exceeded their expectations, while the convicts who had been pressed into service were all pardoned and released from penal servitude. The common soldiers were rewarded with gifts valued at forty thousand catties of gold.
The expedition against Dayuan required four years to carry out, after which the army was disbanded. A year or so after the Han conquered Dayuan and set up Micai as the new king, the nobles of Dayuan, considering Micai a servile flatterer who had brought about the destruction of his own country, joined forces and murdered him. In his place they set up Jianfeng, the brother of Wugua, the former king. Jianfeng sent his son as a hostage to the Han court, whereupon the Han dispatched an envoy to Dayuan to present gifts to the new ruler and make sure that he restored peace and order to the kingdom. The Han also sent over ten parties of envoys to the various countries west of Dayuan to seek for rare objects and at the same time to call attention in a tactful way to the might which the Han had displayed in its conquest of Dayuan.
The government set up a chief commandant of Jiuquan in Dunhuang and established defense stations at various points from Dunhuang west to the Salt Swamp. A force of several hundred agricultural soldiers was sent to set up a garrison at Luntou, headed by an ambassador who saw to it that the fields were protected and stores of grain laid away to be used to supply the Han envoys who passed through on their way to foreign countries.
The Grand Historian remarks: The Basic Annals of Emperor Yu records that the source of the Yellow River is in the Kunlun Mountains, mountains over twenty-five hundred li high where the sun and moon in turn go to hide when they are not shining. It is said that on their heights are to be found the Fountain of Sweet Water and the Pool of Jade. Yet, since Zhang Qian and the other envoys have been sent to Daxia, they have traced the Yellow River to its source and found no such Kunlun Mountains as the Basic Annals records. Therefore, what the Book o f Documents states about the mountains and rivers of the nine ancient provinces of China seems to be nearer the truth, while when it comes to the wonders recorded in the Basic Annals of Emperor Yu or the Classic of Hills and Seas, I cannot accept them.
Shiji 123: The Account of Dayuan
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I think you are aware that
Siji ( å²è¨˜) in Chinese means Historical Record.
How this historical record of Sima Qian (the Grand Historian )proves:
1. Non Han who were conquered and converted were called 'barbarians'.
2. Unlike the belief that 93% of China is Han, it is not so. It includes those who were subjected to forced assimilation by various means including inter marriage and through destroying their identity in all its facets so that they forgot there roots.
