Dayuan
The Dayuan ( Chinese 大宛 , Pinyin Dàyuān , literally: Great Yuan , Wade-Giles : Ta-Yüan) were an ancient people in the Ferghana Valley in Central Asia . They are found in the Shiji of the Chinese historian Sima Qian in the early Han dynasty and in the Han Shu , in connection with the journeys of Zhang Qian around 130 BC. BC and its encounters with this people.
The story of the Dayuan
The Hellenistic legacy
The region around Ferghana was founded around 329 BC. Conquered by Alexander the Great and developed into its most highly developed base in Central Asia. He founded the fortified city of Alexandria Eschate ( Greek Αλεξανδρία Έσχατη, "Alexandria the extreme") in the southwest of the Ferghana Valley, on the south bank of the river Syr Darya (in antiquity: Jaxartes ), at the site of the present city of Khujand in Tajikistan . Alexander had this polis surrounded by a six-kilometer brick wall and left a garrison of veterans and wounded. It is believed that the Dayuan are descendants of these Greeks and Macedonians from Alexandria Eschate.
The entire territory of Bactria , Transoxania and Ferghana remained until about 250 BC. Under the control of the Macedonian Seleucids . The region then declared itself independent under its governor Diodotos I and henceforth formed the Graeco-Bactrian Empire ; the Dayuan apparently formed the northern part of this empire in Ferghana.
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
The Graeco-Bactrians held their territory and were even able to expand it. According to the Greek historian Strabo , they were able to expand their empire to the borders of Seres (China) and the Phryni . There is even evidence that they extended their expeditions to Kashgar in Xinjiang , leading to the first contact between Chinese and Western cultures around 200 BC. Led. Several archaeological finds of statuettes and other representations of Greek soldiers north of the Tian Shan speak for this thesis , these finds are exhibited today in the museum of Urumqi .
Rule of the saks
Around 160 BC BC tribes of the Saken , Scythians who remained in the east and who were called the Sai-Wang by the Chinese , invaded the Ferghana Valley. Originally the Saks probably settled in the Ili valley near the Issyk-Kul lake. After the Yuezhi , an Indo-European nomad people who were called Tocharers by the Greeks , were expelled from their ancestral territory by the Xiongnu , they invaded the area around Ili and expelled the Saks, who in turn invaded the area of the Dayuan . The following passage can be found in the Han Shu:
- The Yüe-chi attacked the king of the Dai-Wang, who retreated considerably south, then occupied his land.
When the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian the Dayuan around 128 BC. He describes the urban population as well as warriors who “shoot arrows from horseback”, possibly a description of the Saks. In this case, the settled Dayuan continued to live under the rule of the nomadic Saks, presumably as tributaries.
This hypothesis is also supported by the fact that in a report on the war against China from 106-101 BC. BC, in which the Dayuan had allied themselves with the Sogdern ( Sogdien ), the Sakian name Mu-Kua for the king of the Dayuan is found in the chronicles. The name could go back to Maues , an Indo-Scythian king.
The Yuezhi Incursion
The Han Shu describes that the Yuezhi started in 155 BC. BC were defeated again by the Wu-sun , and then left Ili. They invaded the area of the Dayuan, crossed it and finally settled north of the Amu Darya (in ancient times: Oxus ) in what is now Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan . In doing so, they definitely cut the Dayuan off from the Graeco-Bactrians.
The Dayuan initially remained a strong nation, which developed from 130 BC onwards. BC also leaned more closely to the empire of China due to the influence of the Yuezhi and cultivated a large number of contacts and trade relations there. The Yuezhi, on the other hand, adapted parts of the Hellenistic way of life and, above all, probably also the Greek script from the Dayuan, until the kingdom of the Yuezhi finally around 125 BC. BC expanded further south and later founded Kushana in India from the 1st century onwards .
The Dayuan in Chinese Chronicles
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Around 130 BC At the time of Zhang Qian's travels , the Dayuan are described as inhabitants of a region west of the Chinese Empire, in the Ferghana Valley. In Han Shu it says:
- The capital of the Dayuan Kingdom is the city of Kui-shan (Khujand), 12,550 li from Chang'an . The kingdom consists of 60,000 families, a total of 300,000 people, with a 60,000-strong trained army. There is a viceroy and a prince. The generals lie at a distance of 4,030 left to the east.
The Shiji contains the following passage which describes the location of the Yuezhi behind the Oxus:
- The great Yuezhi are found around 2000 or 3000 li west of the Dayuan, they settle north of the Kuei River (Oxus). To the south of them settle the Daxia (Baktrer), to the west the Anxi ( Parthians ) and to the north the Kangju ( Sogdia ).
The Shiji then further describes that the Yuezhi first settled east of the Dayuan, in the Tarim Basin, and then passed through the Xiongnu under their general Mao-tun Khan in 176 BC. BC and fled west through the Dayuan area.
Sedentary city dwellers
The way of life of the Dayuan was very similar to that of the Bactrians further south, writes Zhang Qian. The following passage can be found in Shiji:
- Their (that of the Graecobactrians) way of life is the same as that of the Dayuan. The people have fixed abodes and live in walled cities in ordinary houses, just like the Dayuan people. They don't have great kings or rulers, but there are little kings in each of their cities and settlements.
Further information can be found in the Han Shu:
- They (the Dayuan) have city walls and houses; Big and small cities belong to her empire, 70 in total, all together several hundred thousand people live there ... There are also more than 70 other cities in the country.
In contrast to the Yuezhi, the Wu-sun or the Xiongnu , the Dayuan were city dwellers.
Indo-European trains
- The Dayuan people have large sunken eyes, bushy beards, and whiskers. They are skilful traders and argue over the distribution of a quarter penny. Women are treated with great reverence by them, and they influence their husbands in their decisions.
Her manual skills and her love for wine are also described:
- The Dayuan make wine from grapes. Rich people store 10,000 vessels and more in their cellars and keep them for several years without the wine spoiling. The whole people are very fond of wine.
It is said that the wine was even introduced to the Chinese Empire by the Dayuan through the travels of Zhang Qian. So it says in Shiji:
- The Han emissaries brought black grapes and alfalfa seeds to China, and the emperor tried to grow the crops on rich soil.
Interactions with the Empire of China
The reports of Zhang Qian, who had actually been sent in vain to forge an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu, aroused the interest of the Chinese Emperor Han Wudi in establishing commercial contacts with the inhabitants of Bactria , Parthia and the Ferghana Valley . Sima Qian reported :
- The Son of Heaven, after hearing these reports, concluded that Ferghana (Dayuan) and the possessions of Bactria and Parthia are important lands, rich in rare goods, with a sedentary population and a way of life similar to that of the Chinese , but with weak armies, and the peoples seem to attach great importance to the rich production of China.
The Chinese then began sending large numbers of ambassadors , about ten a year, to these countries. They even reached Seleucid Syria .
- Embassies were set up in An-Si (Parthians), An-ts'ai ( Aorsen or Alans ), Li-kan (Syrians under the Seleucids ), T'iau-chi ( Chaldeans ) and Shon-tu (Indians) [...] . As a guide, more than ten missions a year started in these countries, but never fewer than five or six.
The Chinese were very interested in the strong and tall Dayuan horses, which they called "heaven horses". These animals were of great importance in the fight against the Xiongnu. After the Dayuan refused to deliver these horses to China in large numbers, the Chinese sent in 104 BC. An army under General Li Guangli to Ferghana. However, this army was defeated because it was poorly prepared and underestimated its opponents. Here's how the Shiji describes the plan:
- The Dayuan army is weak; if we attack them with at least 3,000 Chinese soldiers armed with crossbows , we can be sure of overcoming them.
After this defeat, China sent an army of 100,000 men, which after negotiations were awarded 3,000 horses. In the previous battles, called the War of the Sky Horses, the Chinese had the upper hand, but they failed to take the Dayuan capital (possibly Alexandria Eschate).
- On arrival in Ferghana, the Chinese army consisted of 30,000 men. The Yuan army fought against them. Ultimately, the decisive factor for the victory was the efficiency of the Chinese archers. After the defeat, the yuan holed up in the cities and occupied the city walls [...] Despite all their attempts, the Chinese failed to penetrate the city's interior, and so they withdrew.
If the Dayuan were indeed a Greek civilization, this was the only war documented between a Hellenistic empire and China. As a result of this defeat, the Dayuan were at least subject to tribute to the Chinese and initially placed under the suzerainty of the Suoche ( Chinese : 莎車) from Yarkant for a short time . There is evidence that the Dayuan Kingdom still existed during the Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasty , but at that time there was no diplomatic contact with the Chinese Empire.
After this raid, the Chinese Empire tried to normalize relations with the West again. A peace treaty between China and the Dayuan was signed and the embassy re-established. Caravans also ran regularly between China and Bactria.
An era of east-west trade and cultural exchange
Finally, in the 1st century AD, the Silk Road was established; it not only served as China's gateway to the west, but also strengthened contact with the peoples of the Tarim Basin, as well as the Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians.
The trade soon expanded and became very strong , mainly due to Rome's hunger for silk . The situation came to a head that the Roman Senate also issued several edicts in the 1st century that prohibited the wearing of silk, which was reported independently by at least three contemporary Roman authors (Strabo, Seneca and Pliny the Elder ).
This was also the time when Buddhism and Graeco Buddhism spread along the Silk Road and reached China towards the end of the 1st century.
literature
- Ban Biao, Ban Gu: Han Shu. In: Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. III / 1874, V / 1876, X / 1881 XI / 1882. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, ISSN 0959-5295 , III pp. 401-452, V pp. 41-80, X, pp. 20-73, XI pp. 83-115.
- Friedrich Hirth: Zhang Qian's Mission to the West. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. 37/2/1917, American Oriental Society, ISSN 0003-0279 , pp. 93-116.
- Sima Qian : Records of the Grand Historian of China. Translated from the Shih Chi of Sima Quian by Burton Watson . Vol. II, Columbia University Press, New York 1961, ISBN 0-231-08167-7 .
- Strabon : Geographika. Book IX-XIII. 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlag, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-25952-2 .
Web links
- Parts of the Hou Hanshu (English)
- Strabons Geographika (English, Greek)
- Selection of stories of Han (English)
Individual evidence
