The Discovery of the Silk Road
Long before Marco Polo, a diplomat figured out how China’s silk reached Rome
In 138 BC, the emperor of China, Han Wudi, summoned one of his officers. He presented the commander with a staff bearing the imperial emblem and briefed him about a mission. His task was to locate the whereabouts of a tribe and seal an alliance with them.
China’s future was at stake.
The emperor gave him 99 men and dispatched them into the dangerous Gobi Desert, far from the imperial borders. After thirteen years, the ambassador returned. He had failed. Yet, he was hailed as a hero.
The information he brought back altered the course of Chinese history. It helped the Han Empire defeat its arch-nemesis, the Xiongnu.
The diplomat stumbled onto something more valuable than an ally.
He found that Chinese goods were sold as far away as Mesopotamia and Rome. The Chinese learned how their commodities moved west across the Himalayas, through Central Asia, over the Zagros mountains, to the river valleys of Mesopotamia, and on to the eternal city, Rome.
The discovery helped the Chinese to bypass several middlemen and establish a long-distance trade, laying the groundwork for globalization almost a thousand years before Marco Polo. As a result, the Silk Road was born, connecting the East with the West.
The Han ambassador who discovered the Silk Road by accident was Zhang Qian. The emperor rewarded him with one of the highest offices for his efforts.
Who was taking silk from China? Why did the Han emperor send Zhang to search for an ally?
In this two-part series, we’ll cover the discovery of the Silk Road and how Zhang brought something special from his travels, which helped the Chinese defeat the Xiongnu.
The first part will focus on the Silk Road’s origins.
The Curious Case of Missing Silk
The Xiongnu were a confederacy of nomadic tribes that lived in the northern parts of China and Mongolia. After they defeated the Han dynasty in the Battle of Baideng in 200 BC, they forced the Chinese to sign a humiliating treaty. Every year, the Han were required to deliver their princesses in marriage and silk to the Xiongnu.
What did the Han get?
A few horses.
Sounds like a raw deal.
In 138 BC, Emperor Han Wudi had enough of this unfair treaty and planned to attack the Xiongnu. But there was a significant roadblock. The Xiongnu had a large army of well-trained horseback warriors, and the infantry-based Han army was no match for them.
The Han were not the only enemies of the Xiongnu. In the 2nd century BC, the Yuezhi (later known as Kushans), a nomadic confederacy centered in the Gansu region in northwest China, fought with the Xiongnu. The Yuezhi lost and were driven away from China.
Where did they go?
That’s what Han Wudi wanted to know. He trusted Zhang Qian to track down the Yuezhi and seal a military alliance. The Han and the Yuezhi had scores to settle with their common enemy, the Xiongnu.
Luckily, the Han had captured a Xiongnu warrior called Ganfu. He agreed to guide the Han delegation to the Yuezhi. Ganfu showed the way through the Gobi desert. But Zhang and his men hadn’t ventured far when the Xiongnu captured them.
Zhang was brought to Junchen Chanyu, the head of the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu admired bold men regardless of their ethnicity. Zhang’s physical prowess and intellect impressed the Chanyu. Though Zhang was a prisoner, the Xiongnu treated him like nobility. They provided him with food, clothing, a tent, horses, and even a bride.
Sounds like a great deal for a prisoner!
The arrangement was perhaps too good because it explains why Zhang spent ten of his thirteen years away from China in Xiongnu captivity. He had a son with his wife.
But during his days with the Xiongnu, something caught his eye.
The Xiongnu were tough nomadic people who taught their children to hunt early on. The men grazed livestock during times of peace and doubled up as horseback archers during times of war. The hardy warriors had a taste for luxury, which explains why they demanded silk as a tribute from the Han. But they wore clothes made of animal skins.
Where did all the silk go that the Chinese paid them as tribute? There wasn’t a single piece of silk clothing in sight!
Zhang knew they’d sold them, but to whom?
The Search for an Ally
After holding Zhang captive for ten years, the Xiongnu let their guard down. He seized the opportunity to escape with Ganfu and several Han prisoners.
Ganfu led the Han delegation through the Tarim Basin in modern-day Xinjiang to the kingdom of Dayuan. Dayuan was in the Ferghana valley, in modern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
The name Dayuan means great Yuan. “Yuan” is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word “Yavana” or Pali word “Yona”, a term Indians used for the Greeks. The literal translation of Dayuan is the “Great Ionians.” As you can guess from the name, the Greeks inhabited the kingdom.
Dayuan most likely referred to Alexandria Eschate, the largest city in the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. I know you’re wondering what the Greeks were doing in Central Asia. In the next post, I'll discuss the secrets they held and how a clash between the Han and the Greeks changed the course of history.
Zhang found the information he was looking for at Dayuan. The Yuezhi lived in Daxia, or Bactria, in present-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. According to the Han historian Sima Qian, the Yuezhi traded silk for jade and other precious stones since the Qin era (221 BC to 206 BC).
After their defeat by the Xiongnu, the Yuezhi split in two. The main group moved to Central Asia, and a lesser branch of Yuezhi settled in the Tibet region, intermingling with the local Qiang people. Historians use the term “Yuezhi” to refer to the bigger group migrating to Central Asia, and we shall maintain that tradition in this story.
When the Yuezhi arrived in Central Asia, they fought against other nomadic tribes, such as the Wusun and the Sakas, expelling them and settling in the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Zhang was ecstatic to learn about the Yuezhi and went to Bactria to meet their chiefs.
The Great Yuezhi live 2,000 or 3,000 li (832–1,247 kilometers) west of Dayuan, north of the Gui (Oxus, now known as the Amu Darya) river. They are bordered on the south by Daxia (Bactria), on the west by Anxi (Parthia), and on the north by Kangju (beyond the middle Jaxartes, also known as Syr Darya). 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 100,000 or 200,000 archer warriors- Zhang Qian, Shiji.
But despite having an impressive army, Zhang learned the Yuezhi were not interested in fighting the Xiongnu. Exhausted after decades of conflict, they sought secure pastures for their livestock and traded with neighboring settled kingdoms.
Zhang wasn’t about to give up. He spent a year in Dayuan and Daxia trying to convince the Yuezhi to join the Han alliance against the Xiongnu. But while he was waiting for an answer from the Yuezhi, he found silk from Shu(Sichuan) was sold in Kangju, a region under Yuezhi control. It didn’t take long for him to put two and two together and figure out how the Chinese silk ended up in Central Asia. The Xiongnu took the silk as a tribute and sold them to the wealthy Central Asian towns.
But if Central Asian nations traded silk, then others must be doing so. How far west did the silk travel?
Zhang was curious to know more.
The Silk Road
Zhang Qian visited Dayuan, Kangju, and Daxia. He learned about Shendu, Anxi, Tiaozhi, and Yancai from interactions with nobles and traders. These nations traded Chinese silk.
Let us discuss the nations of the Silk Road as described by Zhang.
Shendu: Shendu was a reference to the Sindh region of ancient India. We get the name from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, a name for the Indus River. Zhang mentions this was the region furthest south of Daxia. The country was hot and damp, and the people used elephants in war.
Anxi: Anxi was Parthia. The name comes from Arsaces, the founder of the Arsacid or Parthian empire. Zhang describes the region as an advanced urban civilization like Dayuan or Daxia. The country had several hundred walled cities and minted silver coins bearing the king’s face. Anxi was to the south of Yancai. To the west of Anxi was Tiaozhi.
Tiaozhi: This was Mesopotamia. According to Zhang, it was populated by several thousand people. Petty chiefs ruled them. The weather was hot and damp, and the people grew rice. The Tiaozhi were vassals of the Parthians.
Kangju: Kangju was 1000 kilometers northwest of Dayuan. Zhang noted the people were vassals of the Yuezhi. Scholars believe Kangju was the ancient kingdom of Sogdia.
Yancai: This region was located 832 km northwest of the Kangju. According to Zhang, they possessed 100,000 archers. They were nomadic people who lived near a boundaryless lake. Historians believe the Yancai were likely Alans, and the lake described was the Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Dayuan and Daxia: We have covered Dayuan and Daxia in the previous section. Zhang mentions people lived in urban centers with fortified walls in both nations. The people of Dayuan made wine from grapes, a surprising practice for the Chinese.
The people of Daxia were skilled traders but incompetent warriors, afraid of combat. Hence, the Yuezhi took over their territory. The capital of Daxia was Lanshi, a bustling international commercial hub.
Zhang Qian returned to the Han court after failing to persuade the Yuezhi to attack the Xiongnu. As luck would have it, the Xiongnu arrested him again while passing through their land. They were less forgiving this time and incarcerated him.
Fortunately for Zhang, the Xiongnu were embroiled in a succession war. Taking advantage of the confusion, he fled with his wife, kid, and Ganfu, safely arriving at Chang’an capital.
He returned with valuable knowledge about Dayuan, which prompted Han Wudi to launch an expedition westward.
We’ll learn more in the following newsletter.
Stay tuned.
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References
Watson, Burton (1993), Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (Shiji), Columbia University Press.
History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol II, UNESCO Publishing.
Hyun Jin Kim, 2017, The Political Organization of Steppe empires and Their Contribution to Eurasian inter-connectivity, Cambridge.
Benjamin, Craig (2018), Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE — 250 CE, Cambridge University Press
As someone who reads a lot of medieval travel narratives, this was outside of my usual period but very much within my interests!
Very well done, Prateek!