![SihaiHuayiZongtu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/SihaiHuayiZongtu.jpg)
Daqin (; alternative transliterations include Tachin, Tai-Ch'in) is the ancient Chinese name for the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
or, depending on context, the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
, especially
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
.
It literally means "great Qin";
Qin Qin may refer to:
Dynasties and states
* Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China
* Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC
* Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...
() being the name of the founding dynasty of the
Chinese Empire
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...
. Historian John Foster defined it as "
the Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
, or rather that part of it which alone was
known to the Chinese, Syria". Its basic facets such as
laws
Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...
,
customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
,
dress
A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment). It consists of a top piece that covers ...
, and
currency
A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins.
A more general def ...
were explained in Chinese sources. Its medieval incarnation was described
in histories during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
(618–907 AD) onwards as ''Fulin'' (), which
Friedrich Hirth
Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. (16 April 1845 in Gräfentonna, Saxe-Gotha – 10 January 1927 in Munich) was a German-American sinologist.
Biography
He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Greifswald (Ph.D., 1869). He was in the ...
and other scholars have identified as the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
.
Daqin was also commonly associated with the
Syriac-speaking Nestorian Christians
Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian N ...
who lived in China during the Tang dynasty.
Chinese sources describe several
ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
embassies
arriving in China, beginning in 166 AD and lasting into the 3rd century. These early embassies were said to arrive
by a maritime route via the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
in the Chinese province of
Jiaozhi
Jiaozhi (standard Chinese, pinyin: ''Jiāozhǐ''), or Giao Chỉ (Vietnamese), was a historical region ruled by various Chinese dynasties, corresponding to present-day northern Vietnam. The kingdom of Nanyue (204–111 BC) set up the Jiaozhi Co ...
(now northern
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
). Archaeological evidence such as
Roman coins
Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denom ...
points to the presence of
Roman commercial activity in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
. Later recorded embassies arriving from
the Byzantine Empire, lasting from the 7th to 11th centuries, ostensibly took an overland route following the
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
, alongside other
Europeans in Medieval China
Given textual and archaeological evidence, it is thought that thousands of Europeans lived in Imperial China during the Yuan dynasty.Roux (1993), p. 465 These were people from countries traditionally belonging to the lands of Christendom during t ...
. Byzantine Greeks are recorded as being present in the court of
Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...
(1260–1294),
the Mongol ruler of the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
in
Khanbaliq
Khanbaliq or Dadu of Yuan () was the winter capital of the Yuan dynasty of China in what is now Beijing, also the capital of the People's Republic of China today. It was located at the center of modern Beijing. The Secretariat directly administ ...
(
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
), while the
Hongwu Emperor
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...
(r. 1368–1398), founder of the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
, sent a letter of correspondence to Byzantine emperor
John V Palaiologos
John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος, ''Iōánnēs Palaiológos''; 18 June 1332 – 16 February 1391) was Byzantine emperor from 1341 to 1391, with interruptions.
Biography
John V was the son of E ...
.
Etymology
Daqin
The term ''Daqin'' (,
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
: /dɑi
H d͡ziɪn/), meaning "Great Qin," is derived from
the dynasty
A dynasty is a series of rulers from one family.
Dynasty may also refer to:
Arts and media Film and television
* ''Dynasty'' (film), a 1976 NBC television film
* ''Dynasty'' (Australian TV series), a 1970 Australian TV series
* ''Dynasty'' ...
founded by
Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ( ...
, ruler of the
State of Qin and
China's first emperor who unified
China's Warring States by 221 BC.
[Lieu (2013), p. 126.] The
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
''da'' (大) or "great" signified that the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
was on par with the might of the Qin dynasty and was viewed as a
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
n land located to the northwest of the
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conque ...
.
The title ''Daqin'' does not seem to have any phonetic derivation from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''
Roma
Roma or ROMA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Roma, Queensland, a town
** Roma Airport
** Roma Courthouse
** Electoral district of Roma, defunct
** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council
*Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
'' or
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''Romaikē''. On the other hand, it is possible that the Latin term used for China, ''
Serica
Serica (, grc, Σηρικά) was one of the easternmost countries of Asia known to the Ancient Greek and Roman geographers. It is generally taken as referring to North China
North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geogr ...
'' (derived from Greek ''Serikon'', commonly understood as "Land of Silk", from Chinese ''si'' , meaning
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
), originated from the name Qin using
Early Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The S ...
pronunciation (with the final consonant pronounced with an ''-r'' sound).
Fulin
The term ''Daqin'' was used from the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
(202 BC – 220 AD) onwards,
but by the beginning of the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
(618–907 AD) a new name emerged in Chinese historical records for distinguishing the
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
: ''Fulin'' ().
Friedrich Hirth
Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. (16 April 1845 in Gräfentonna, Saxe-Gotha – 10 January 1927 in Munich) was a German-American sinologist.
Biography
He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Greifswald (Ph.D., 1869). He was in the ...
surmised that Fulin may have been based on the
accusative form of ''Konstantinoupolis'', the Greek name of
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, or rather its paraphrase ''hē Pólis'' ("the City"), giving (in the accusative) ''(tḕn) Pólin''.
[Lieu (2013), p. 227.] Using historical phonetic pronunciations of
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, Hirth also speculated that ''Fulin'' in
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
was pronounced ''Butlim'' or ''Butlam'' and thus might have also come from the
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
pronunciation for
Bethlehem
Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...
. While some scholars of the 20th century believed that Fulin was a transliteration of
Ephrem
Ephrem is a masculine given name, a variant spelling of Ephraim (also spelled ''Efrem'', ''Ephraem''). It is the name of biblical Ephraim, a son of Joseph and ancestor of the Tribe of Ephraim.
People
First name Pre-Modern
* Saint Ephrem, one o ...
, an ancient word for
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, Samuel N. C. Lieu highlights how more recent scholarship has deduced that Fulin is most likely derived from the
Persianate
A Persianate society is a society that is based on or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art and/or identity.
The term "Persianate" is a neologism credited to Marshall Hodgson. In his 1974 book, ''The Venture of Is ...
word for the Roman Empire shared by several contemporaneous
Iranian languages
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are grouped ...
(
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
: ;
Parthian Parthian may be:
Historical
* A demonym "of Parthia", a region of north-eastern of Greater Iran
* Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD)
* Parthian language, a now-extinct Middle Iranian language
* Parthian shot, an archery skill famously employed by ...
: ;
Sogdian: ;
Bactrian: ).
History
Early descriptions by Gan Ying
Following the opening of the
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
in the 2nd century BC, the Chinese thought of the Roman Empire as a civilized counterpart to the Chinese Empire. The Romans occupied one extreme position on the trade route, with the Chinese located on the other.
China never managed to reach the Roman Empire directly in antiquity, although general
Ban Chao sent
Gan Ying
Gan Ying (; fl. 90s CE) was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military official who was sent on a mission to the Roman Empire in 97 CE by the Chinese military general Ban Chao.
Gan Ying did not reach Rome, only traveling to as far as the "west ...
as an envoy to "Daqin" in 97 AD. Gan Ying did not reach Daqin: he stopped at the coast of a large sea, because "sailor(s) of the
Parthia
Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...
n west border" told him that the voyage to cross the sea might take a long time and be dangerous. Gan Ying left a detailed account of the Roman Empire, but it is generally considered to have been based on second-hand information
from Parthians:
![Dahuting tomb mural detail of women wearing hanfu, Eastern Han period](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Dahuting_tomb_mural_detail_of_women_wearing_hanfu%2C_Eastern_Han_period.jpg)
Gan Ying gives a very idealistic view of Roman governance which is likely the result of some story he was told while visiting the Persian Gulf in 97 AD. He also described, less fancifully, Roman products:
Geographical descriptions in the Weilüe
In the ''Weilüe'' written by
Yu Huan
Yu Huan ( third century) was a historian of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China.
Life
Yu Huan was from Jingzhao Commandery, which is around present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi.''Shitong'' vol. 12. He is best known for writing ...
(c. 239–265), a text that is preserved in the ''
Records of the Three Kingdoms
The ''Records or History of the Three Kingdoms'', also known by its Chinese name as the Sanguo Zhi, is a Chinese historical text which covers the history of the late Eastern Han dynasty (c. 184–220 AD) and the Three Kingdoms period (220– ...
'' by
Pei Songzhi
Pei Songzhi (372–451), courtesy name Shiqi, was a Chinese historian and politician who lived in the late Eastern Jin dynasty and Liu Song dynasty. His ancestral home was in Wenxi County, Shanxi, but he moved to the Jiangnan region later. He i ...
(published in 429), a more detailed description of the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire is given, particularly the province of
Roman Egypt
, conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt
, common_name = Egypt
, subdivision = Province
, nation = the Roman Empire
, era = Late antiquity
, capital = Alexandria
, title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis
, image_map = Roman E ...
. The 19th-century sinologist
Friedrich Hirth
Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. (16 April 1845 in Gräfentonna, Saxe-Gotha – 10 January 1927 in Munich) was a German-American sinologist.
Biography
He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Greifswald (Ph.D., 1869). He was in the ...
translated the passages and identified the places named in them, which have been edited by Jerome S. Arkenberg in 2000 (with
Wade-Giles spelling):
![Green glass Roman cup unearthed at Eastern Han tomb, Guixian, China](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Green_glass_Roman_cup_unearthed_at_Eastern_Han_tomb%2C_Guixian%2C_China.jpg)
The ''Weilüe'' also noted that the Daqin had small "dependent"
vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...
states, too many to list as the text claims, yet it mentions some as being the
Alexandria-Euphrates or
Charax Spasinu
, alternate_name =
, image = Hyspaosines.jpg
, alt =
, caption = Hyspaosines (209–124 BC), founder and king of Characene, had his capital in Charax.
, map_type = Iraq
, map_alt =
, map_size = 250
, location = Iraq
, region ...
("Ala-san"),
Nikephorium ("Lu-fen"),
Palmyra
Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early second ...
("Ch'ieh-lan"),
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
("Hsien-tu"),
Emesa
ar, حمصي, Himsi
, population_urban =
, population_density_urban_km2 =
, population_density_urban_sq_mi =
, population_blank1_title = Ethnicities
, population_blank1 =
, population_blank2_t ...
("Si-fu"), and
Hira Hira may refer to:
Places
*Cave of Hira, a cave associated with Muhammad
* Al-Hirah, an ancient Arab city in Iraq
** Battle of Hira, 633AD, between the Sassanians and the Rashidun Caliphate
*Hira Mountains, Japan
* Hira, New Zealand, settlement n ...
("Ho-lat").
Perhaps some of these are in reference to certain states that were temporarily conquered during the
Roman–Parthian Wars
The Roman–Parthian Wars (54 BC – 217 AD) were a series of conflicts between the Parthian Empire and the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. It was the first series of conflicts in what would be 682 years of Roman–Persian Wars.
Battles ...
(66 BC – 217 AD) when, for instance, the army of Roman Emperor
Trajan
Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...
reached the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
and captured
Characene
Characene (Ancient Greek: Χαρακηνή), also known as Mesene (Μεσσήνη) or Meshan, was a kingdom founded by the Iranian Hyspaosines located at the head of the Persian Gulf mostly within modern day Iraq. Its capital, Charax Spasinou ( ...
, the capital of which was Charax Spasinu. The ''Weilüe'' provides the traveling directions and approximate distances between each of these cities, counted in
ancient Chinese miles (''li''), and along with the ''
Book of Later Han
The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...
'' even mentions the
pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maxi ...
("flying bridge") across the
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
at the Roman city of
Zeugma, Commagene
Zeugma ( grc-gre, Ζεῦγμα; syr, ܙܘܓܡܐ) was an ancient Hellenistic era Greek and then Roman city of Commagene; located in modern Gaziantep Province, Turkey. It was named for the bridge of boats, or , that crossed the Euphrates at that ...
(in modern-day Turkey).
Hirth and Arkenberg identified Si-fu (Chinese: 汜復) with Emesa. However, John E. Hill provides evidence that it was most likely
Petra
Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...
(in the
Nabataean Kingdom
The Nabataean Kingdom ( Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢕𐢃𐢋𐢈 ''Nabāṭū''), also named Nabatea (), was a political state of the Arab Nabataeans during classical antiquity.
The Nabataean Kingdom controlled many of the trade routes of the region, ...
), given the directions and distance from "Yuluo" (i.e.
Al Karak
Al-Karak ( ar, الكرك), is a city in Jordan known for its medieval castle, the Kerak Castle. The castle is one of the three largest castles in the region, the other two being in Syria. Al-Karak is the capital city of the Karak Governorate.
...
) and the fact that it fell under Roman dominion in 106 AD when it was annexed by Trajan.
Even more convincing for Hill is the fact that Si-fu in Chinese means "an arm of a river which rejoins the main stream" or more aptly "rejoined water courses".
He believes this is directly related to the
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
and
cistern
A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...
flood-control system harnessing the many streams running through the settlement and nearby canyons, or wadis, such as the
Wadi Musa
Wadi Musa ( ar, وادي موسى, literally "Valley of Musa (AS)) is a town located in the Ma'an Governorate in southern Jordan. It is the administrative center of the Petra Department and the nearest town to the archaeological site of Petra. I ...
("Valley of Moses").
Christianity
![Nestorian-Stele-Budge-plate-X](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Nestorian-Stele-Budge-plate-X.jpg)
In later eras, starting in AD 550, as
Syriac Christians
Syriac Christianity ( syr, ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ / ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a distinctive branch of Eastern Christianity, whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expr ...
settled along the
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
and founded mission churches, Daqin or Tai-Ch'in is also used to refer to these Christian populations rather than to Rome or the
Roman church
Holy Roman Church, Roman Church, Church of Rome or Church in Rome may refer to:
* The Diocese of Rome or the Holy See
* The Latin Church
* Churches of Rome (buildings)
In historical contexts ''Roman Church'' may also refer to:
* The Catholic Chur ...
.
So, for example, when the Taoist
Emperor Wuzong of Tang closed Christian monasteries in the mid-9th century, the imperial edict commanded:
The name "Daqin" for Rome was used on Chinese maps as late as the 16th century, such as the
Sihai Huayi Zongtu
The ''Sihai Huayi Zongtu'' ("Complete Map of the Four Seas, China, and the Barbarians") is a Chinese mappamundi, world map dated to 1532, the 11th year of the Ming Dynasty's Jiajing Emperor. It is now located in the Harvard Library.
The map is or ...
. The identification of "Daqin" with the Western Roman Empire,
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, or the
Church of the East
The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...
varies with the era and context of the document. The
Nestorian Stele
The Xi'an Stele or the Jingjiao Stele ( zh, c=景教碑, p= Jǐngjiào bēi), sometimes translated as the "Nestorian Stele," is a Tang Chinese stele erected in 781 that documents 150 years of early Christianity in China. It is a limestone block ...
erected in 781 in Tang dynasty, the Tang capital Chang'an contains an inscription that briefly summarizes the knowledge about Daqin in the Chinese histories written up to that point and notes how only the "luminous" religion (i.e. Christianity) was practiced there.
Capital cities
To the Chinese, the capital of Daqin was "An-tu", or Antioch, the first great Christian city. However, the ''Old Book of Tang'' and ''New Book of Tang'', which identified Daqin and "Fulin" (拂菻; i.e. the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
) as the same countries, noted a different capital city (
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
), one that had Walls of Constantinople, walls of "enormous height" and Siege of Constantinople (674-678), was eventually besieged by the commander "Mo-yi" (Chinese language, Chinese: 摩拽伐之; Pinyin: ''Mó zhuāi fá zhī'') of the ''Da shi'' (大食; i.e. Muslim conquests, the Arabs).
Friedrich Hirth
Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. (16 April 1845 in Gräfentonna, Saxe-Gotha – 10 January 1927 in Munich) was a German-American sinologist.
Biography
He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Greifswald (Ph.D., 1869). He was in the ...
identifies this commander as Muawiyah I, who was first governor of Syria before becoming caliph and founder of the Umayyad Caliphate.
The History of Rome, city of Rome itself does not appear to have been described.
Embassies
Starting in the 1st century BC with Virgil, Horace, and Strabo, Roman histories offer only vague accounts of China and the silk-producing ''Serica, Seres'' of the distant east.
The 2nd-century historian Florus seems to have conflated the Seres with peoples of India, or at least noted that their skin complexions proved that they both lived "beneath another sky" than the Romans.
[Max Ostrovsky (2007), ''Y = Arctg X: the Hyperbola of the World Order'', Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Plymouth: University Press of America, , p. 44.] The 1st-century geographer Pomponius Mela noted that their lands formed the center of the coast of Pacific Ocean, an eastern ocean, flanked by India to the south and the Scythians of the Eurasian Steppe, northern steppe, while the historian Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330 – c. 400) wrote that the land of the Seres was enclosed by great natural walls around a river called Bautis, perhaps the Yellow River.
In his ''Geography (Ptolemy), Geography'', Ptolemy also provided a rough sketch of the Gulf of Thailand and
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
, with a port city called Cattigara lying beyond the Golden Chersonese (i.e. Malay Peninsula) visited by a Greek sailor named Alexander.
Among the proposed sites for Ptolemy's Cattigara are Oc Eo, Vietnam, where Roman artefacts have been found.
![Marc'aurelio da probalinthos, 161 dc](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Marc%27aurelio_da_probalinthos%2C_161_dc._circa.JPG)
In contrast, Twenty-four Histories, Chinese histories offer an abundance of source material about their interactions with alleged Roman embassies and descriptions of their country. The first of these embassies is recorded in the ''
Book of Later Han
The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...
'' as having arrived by sea in 166 AD and came by way of Jiaozhou (region), Jiaozhou, later known as Annam (Chinese province), Annam (northern Vietnam), as would later embassies.
Its members claimed to be representatives of the Daqin ruler "Andun" (安敦), either Antoninus Pius or his co-emperor Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and offered gifts to the court of Emperor Huan of Han.
[Rafe de Crespigny, de Crespigny, Rafe. (2007). ''A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD)''. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, p. 600, .] Other embassies arrived sporadically afterwards. The ''Book of Liang'' mentions a Daqin embassy to Sun Quan of Eastern Wu in 226, while the ''Book of Jin'' records a Daqin embassy to Emperor Wu of Jin in 284.
Although Emperor Yang of Sui (r. 604–618) had desired to send an embassy to Daqin, this never came to fruition.
Instead, an embassy from a country that was now called ''Fulin'' (拂菻, i.e. the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
), which the ''Old Book of Tang'' and ''New Book of Tang'' identified as being the same as Daqin, arrived in 643 at the court of Emperor Taizong of Tang and claimed to represent their king ''Bo duoli'' (波多力; i.e. Kōnstantinos Pogonatos, "Constantine the Bearded", the nickname of Constans II).
Several other ''Fulin'' (i.e. Byzantium) embassies during the Tang dynasty are mentioned for the years 667, 701, and 719.
The ''Wenxian Tongkao'' written by Ma Duanlin (1245–1322) and the ''History of Song (Yuan dynasty), History of Song'' record that the Byzantine emperor Michael VII Doukas, Michael VII Parapinakēs Caesar (''Mie li sha ling kai sa'' 滅力沙靈改撒) of ''Fulin'' (i.e. Byzantium) sent an embassy to China that arrived in 1081, during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song (r. 1067–1085).
During the subsequent
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
(1271–1368), an unprecedented number of Europeans in Medieval China, Europeans started to visit and live in China, such as Marco Polo and Katarina Vilioni, and papal missionaries such as John of Montecorvino and Giovanni de Marignolli. The ''History of Yuan'' recounts how a man of ''Fulin'' named Ai-sie (transliteration of either Joshua or Joseph), initially in the service of Güyük Khan, was well-versed in Western languages and had expertise in the fields of Byzantine medicine, medicine and Byzantine astronomy, astronomy.
This convinced
Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...
, founder of the Yuan dynasty, to offer him a position as the director of medical and astronomical boards, eventually honoring him with the title of Prince of Fulin (Chinese: 拂菻王; ''Fú lǐn wáng'').
His biography in the ''History of Yuan'' lists his children by their Chinese names, which are similar to the Christian names Elias (''Ye-li-ah''), Luke (''Lu-ko''), and Antony (''An-tun''), with a daughter named ''A-na-si-sz''.
[Emil Bretschneider, Bretschneider, Emil (1888), ''Medieval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources: Fragments Towards the Knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th Century, Vol. 1'', Abingdon: Routledge, reprinted 2000, p. 144.]
The History of Ming explains how the founder of the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
(1368–1644), the
Hongwu Emperor
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...
, sent a merchant of ''Fulin'' named "Nieh-ku-lun" (捏古倫) back to his home country with a letter announcing the History of the Ming dynasty, founding of a new dynasty.
It is speculated that this "merchant" was actually a Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Beijing, former bishop of
Khanbaliq
Khanbaliq or Dadu of Yuan () was the winter capital of the Yuan dynasty of China in what is now Beijing, also the capital of the People's Republic of China today. It was located at the center of modern Beijing. The Secretariat directly administ ...
named Nicolaus de Bentra.
The ''History of Ming'' goes on to explain that contacts between China and ''Fulin'' ceased thereafter, whereas an envoy of the great western sea (i.e. the Mediterranean Sea) did not arrive again until the 16th century, with the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci.
Currency and coinage
![Bronze coin of Contantius II 337 361 found in Karghalik](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Bronze_coin_of_Contantius_II_337_361_found_in_Karghalik.jpg)
Although the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans imported Han Chinese silk while the Economy of the Han dynasty, Han-dynasty Chinese imported Roman glasswares as discovered in their tombs, Valerie Hansen (2012) claimed that no Roman coins from the Roman Republic (507–27 BC) or the Principate (27 BC–284 AD) era of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
have been found in China.
[Hansen, Valerie (2012), ''The Silk Road: A New History'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 97, .] Yet this assumption has been overturned; Warwick Ball (2016) notes the discovery of sixteen Roman coins found at Xi'an, China (site of the Han capital Chang'an) minted during the reign of various emperors from Tiberius (14–37 AD) to Aurelian (270–275 AD).
[Warwick Ball (2016), ''Rome in the East: Transformation of an Empire'', 2nd edition, London & New York: Routledge, , p. 154.] The earliest gold Solidus (coin), ''solidus'' coins from the Eastern Roman Empire found in China date to the reign of Byzantine emperor Theodosius II (r. 408–450) and altogether only forty-eight of them have been found (compared to thirteen hundred silver coins) in Xinjiang and the rest of China.
However, Roman golden medallions from the reign of Antoninus Pius, and possibly his successor Marcus Aurelius, have been discovered at Óc Eo in southern
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
, which was then part of the Kingdom of Funan bordering the Chinese province of
Jiaozhi
Jiaozhi (standard Chinese, pinyin: ''Jiāozhǐ''), or Giao Chỉ (Vietnamese), was a historical region ruled by various Chinese dynasties, corresponding to present-day northern Vietnam. The kingdom of Nanyue (204–111 BC) set up the Jiaozhi Co ...
in northern Vietnam.
This was the same region where Chinese historical texts claim the Romans first landed before venturing further into China to conduct diplomacy.
[Gary K. Young (2001), ''Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC - AD 305'', London & New York: Routledge, , p. 29.]
Chinese histories offer descriptions of Byzantine coins. In discussing trade Sino-Indian relations, with India, the
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conque ...
and the Roman Empire, the ''Book of Jin'', as well as the later ''Wenxian Tongkao'', noted how ten ancient Roman silver coins were worth one Roman gold coin.
With fluctuations, the Roman golden ''aureus'' was worth about twenty-five silver ''denarius, denarii''. The ''History of Song (Yuan dynasty), History of Song'' notes how the Byzantines made coins of either silver or gold, Ancient Chinese coinage#early round coins, without holes in the middle yet with an inscription of the king's name.
Law and order
![Roman Lictor Clothes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Roman_Lictor_Clothes.png)
The ''History of Song (Yuan dynasty), History of Song'' described forms of punishment in criminal law as they were carried out in ''Daqin'' (
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
) and ''Fulin'' (
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
). It states that they made a distinction between minor and major offenses, with 200 strikes from a bamboo rod being reserved for major crimes.
It described their form of capital punishment as having the guilty person being stuffed into a "feather bag" and thrown into the sea.
This seems to correspond with the Romano-Byzantine punishment of ''poena cullei'' (from
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
"punishment of the sack"), where those who committed parricide (i.e. murder of a father or mother) were sewn up into a sack, sometimes with wild animals, and thrown into either a river or sea. The ''History of Song'' also mentioned how it was forbidden by law to counterfeit the coins minted by ''Fulin''.
These descriptions from the ''History of Song'' are also found in the ''Wenxian Tongkao''.
Naming conventions
In the Twenty-Four Histories, Chinese histories, the Roman naming conventions, names of Romans and Byzantines were often Transliteration, transliterated into History of the Chinese language, Chinese as they were heard, yet occasionally the surname stemmed from their country of origin, Daqin (大秦). For instance, the Roman merchant Qin Lun (秦論), who visited the Eastern Wu court of Sun Quan in 226 AD, bears the surname derived from the name for his homeland, while having a given name that is perhaps derived from the Greek name Leon (given name), Leon (e.g. Leon of Sparta).
In the Eastern Han Chinese, Han-era stage of the spoken language intermediate between Old Chinese and
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
, the pronunciation for his given name "Lun" (論) would have sounded quite different from Standard Chinese, modern spoken Mandarin: K. 470b *li̯wən / li̯uĕn or *lwən / luən; Historical Chinese phonology#Periodization of Chinese, EMC lwən or lwənh.
Granting Roman individuals the surname "Qin" followed a common Chinese naming convention for foreign peoples. For instance, people from the
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conque ...
of ancient Persia such as An Shigao were often given the An (surname), surname "An" (安) derived from ''Parthia, Anxi'' (安息), the Arsaces I of Parthia, Arsacid dynasty. The Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people from Central Asia, were also frequently given the surname "An" (e.g. Li Baoyu, An Chongzhang), especially those from Bukhara, while Sogdians from Samarkand were surnamed Kang (Chinese surname), "Kang" (康; e.g. Kang Senghui), derived from ''Kangju'', the Chinese term for Transoxiana.
[For information on Kang Senghui, see: Tai Thu Nguyen (2008). ''The History of Buddhism in Vietnam''. CRVP. pp. 36-. .] The name given for Antoninus Pius/Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in the Chinese histories was "An Dun" (安敦).
[The surname "An" (安) used here for the surname of Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus is the same as the aforementioned surname used for ]Parthia
Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...
ns and Sogdians.
See also
* Christianity in China
* Daqin Pagoda
*
Europeans in Medieval China
Given textual and archaeological evidence, it is thought that thousands of Europeans lived in Imperial China during the Yuan dynasty.Roux (1993), p. 465 These were people from countries traditionally belonging to the lands of Christendom during t ...
* Foreign relations of imperial China
* Michael Shen Fu-Tsung, Chinese visitor to Europe in the 17th century
*
Nestorian Stele
The Xi'an Stele or the Jingjiao Stele ( zh, c=景教碑, p= Jǐngjiào bēi), sometimes translated as the "Nestorian Stele," is a Tang Chinese stele erected in 781 that documents 150 years of early Christianity in China. It is a limestone block ...
(Memorial of the Propagation in China of the Luminous Religion from Daqin)
* History of the Han Dynasty
* Serica, Seres and
Serica
Serica (, grc, Σηρικά) was one of the easternmost countries of Asia known to the Ancient Greek and Roman geographers. It is generally taken as referring to North China
North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geogr ...
, Latin Roman words for Chinese and China, respectively; see also ''Sinae''
* Sino-Roman relations
* Zhang Qian, Western-Han Chinese explorer of Central Asia during the 2nd century BC
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
* Bauman, Richard A. (2005). ''Crime and Punishment in Ancient Rome''. London & New York: Routledge, reprint of 1996 edition, .
* Ball, Warwick (2016). ''Rome in the East: Transformation of an Empire'', 2nd edition, London & New York: Routledge. .
* Bretschneider, Emil (2000) [1888]. ''Medieval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources: Fragments Towards the Knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th Century'', Vol. 1, reprint edition. Abingdon: Routledge.
* Brosius, Maria (2006). ''The Persians: An Introduction''. London & New York: Routledge. .
* Foster, John (1939). ''The Church in T'ang Dynasty''. Great Britain: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
* Galambos, Imre (2015). "She Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, ''A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture''. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
* Garthwaite, Gene Ralph (2005). ''The Persians''. Oxford & Carlton: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd., .
* Grant, R. G. (2005). ''Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat''. DK Publishers. .
* Hansen, Valerie (2012). ''The Silk Road: A New History, Oxford: Oxford University Press''. .
* Haw, Stephen G. (2006). ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan''. London & New York: Routledge. .
* Hill, John E. (2004). ''The Peoples of the West from the Weilue'' 魏略 ''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265.'' Draft annotated English translation
*
*
*
* Jenkins, Philip (2008). ''The Lost History of Christianity: the Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia – and How It Died.'' New York: Harper Collins. .
* Lieu, Samuel N.C. (2013). "The 'Romanitas' of the Xi'an Inscription," in Li Tang and Deitmer W. Winkler (eds), ''From the Oxus to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia''. Zürich & Berlin: Lit Verlag. .
* Luttwak, Edward. (1 November 2009). ''The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire''. Harvard University Press. .
* Mawer, Granville Allen (2013). "The Riddle of Catigara" in Robert Nichols and Martin Woods (eds), ''Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia'', 38–39. Canberra: National Library of Australia. .
* Osborne, Milton (2006) [2000]. ''The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future''. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, revised edition. .
* Ostrovsky, Max (2007). ''Y = Arctg X: the Hyperbola of the World Order''. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Plymouth: University Press of America. .
* Sezgin, Fuat; Carl Ehrig-Eggert; Amawi Mazen; E. Neubauer (1996). نصوص ودراسات من مصادر صينية حول البلدان الاسلامية. Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften (Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University).
* Wood, Frances(2002). ''The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia''. University of California Press. .
* Young, Gary K. (2001). ''Rome's Eastern Trade: International Commerce and Imperial Policy, 31 BC - AD 305''. London & New York: Routledge. .
* Yü, Ying-shih. (1986). "Han Foreign Relations," in Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe (eds), ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220'', 377–462. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
* Yule, Henry (1886). ''Cathay and the Way Thither''. Downloaded 22/12/04 from: http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-b-2/V-1/ and http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/III-2-F-b-2/V-2/.
{{refend
Further reading
*Leslie, D. D., Gardiner, K. H. J.: "The Roman Empire in Chinese Sources", ''Studi Orientali'', Vol. 15. Rome: Department of Oriental Studies, University of Rome, 1996
*Pulleyblank, Edwin G.: "The Roman Empire as Known to Han China", ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 119, No. 1 (1999), pp. 71–79
External links
Accounts of Daqinin the Chinese history of the Later Han Hou Hanshu
Chang'an the ancient capital of China
Foreign relations of ancient Rome
Historical Chinese exonyms
History of Christianity in China
History of the foreign relations of China