Dayuan

Dayuan (or Tayuan; ; Middle Chinese ''dâi^C-jwɐn'' < LHC: ''dɑh-ʔyɑn'') is the Chinese exonym for a country that existed in Ferghana valley in Central Asia, described in the Chinese historical works of ''Records of the Grand Historian'' and the ''Book of Han''. It is mentioned in the accounts of the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to the Ferghana Valley, controlled by the Hellenistic polis Alexandria Eschate (modern Khujand, Tajikistan), which can probably be understood as "Greco-Fergana city-state" in English language.

These Chinese accounts describe the "Dayuan" as urbanized dwellers with Caucasian features, living in walled cities and having "customs identical to those of the Daxia" or Greco-Bactrians, a Hellenistic kingdom that was ruling Bactria at that time in today's northern Afghanistan. The Dayuan are also described as manufacturers and great lovers of wine.Watson, Burton(1993). ''Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian''. Translated by Burton Watson. Han Dynasty II (Revised Edition), pp. 244-245. Columbia University Press. ; (pbk)

The Dayuan were the descendants of Greeks forcibly resettled in the area by the Persian Empire, as well as the subsequent Greek colonists that were settled by Alexander the Great in Ferghana in 329 BCE (see Alexandria Eschate), and had prospered within the Hellenistic realm of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians, until they were isolated by the migrations of the Yuezhi around 160 BCE and the Scythians in 140. It appears that the name "Yuan" was simply a transliteration of Sanskrit ''Yavana'' or Pali ''Yona'', used throughout antiquity in Asia to designate Greeks ("Ionians"), so that Dayuan would mean "Great Ionians" or "Great Greeks".

By 100 BC, the Dayuan were defeated by the Han dynasty in the Han-Dayuan war. The interaction between the Dayuan and the Chinese is historically crucial, since it represents one of the first major contacts between an urbanized civilization in Central Asia and the Chinese civilization, opening the way to the formation of the Silk Road that was to link the East and the West in material and cultural exchange from the 1st century BCE to the 15th century.

History

Persia

This region was ruled over by Persia starting with Xerxes I, and began to be populated by Greeks starting at this time. When Greeks in other parts of the Persian empire rebelled or otherwise were troublesome, they would be exiled to Sogdia in the far northeast of the Persian empire, the most distant segment from their homelands. The largest city in this northeastern outpost of the Persian empire was known to the Greeks as Cyropolis, after the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great. By the time of the fall of Persia to Alexander the Great, Greek villages, language, and culture were therefore all common in this area.

Hellenistic rule (329–160 BCE)

The region of Ferghana was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE and became his most advanced base in Central Asia. He founded (probably by occupying and renaming Cyropolis) the fortified city of Alexandria Eschate (Lit. "Alexandria the Furthest") in the southwestern part of the Ferghana valley, on the southern bank of the river Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes), at the location of the modern city of Khujand (also called Khozdent, formerly Leninabad), in the state of Tajikistan. Alexander built a 6 kilometer long brick wall around the city and, as similarly in the cases of the other cities he founded, had a garrison of his retired veterans and wounded settle there.

The whole of Bactria, Transoxiana and the area of Ferghana remained under the control of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire until 250 BCE. The region then wrested independence under the leadership of its Greek governors Diodotus of Bactria, to become the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.

Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250–160 BCE)

The Greco-Bactrians held their territory, and according to the Greek historian Strabo even went beyond Alexandria Eschate and ''"extended their empire as far as the Serica and the Phryni"''
Strabo XI.XI.I
. There are indications that they may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in Xinjiang, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BC. Various statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been found north of the Tien Shan, and are today on display in the museum of Urumqi (Boardman).

Around 160 BC, the area of Ferghana seems to have been invaded by Saka tribes (called the Sai-Wang by the Chinese). The Sai-Wang, originally settled in the Ili valley in the general area of Lake Issyk Kul, were retreating southward after having been dislodged by Yuezhi (who themselves were fleeing from the Xiongnu):

The Sakas occupied the Greek territory of Dayuan, benefiting from the fact that the Greco-Bactrians were fully occupied with conflicts in India against the Indo-Greeks, and could hardly defend their northern provinces. According to W. W. Tarn,

Saka rule

The Saka rule of Dayuan possibly started in 160 BC. When the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian described Dayuan around 128 BCE, he mentioned, besides the flourishing urbanized civilization, there were warriors "shooting arrows on horseback", a probable description of nomadic horse archers that were typical of the steppe civilizations at the time, of which Saka was one. Dayuan had probably by then become a kingdom of militaristic Saka ruling class exacting taxes and tributes from the local Hellenistic population.

Also in 106–101 BCE, during their conflict with China, the country of Dayuan is said to have been an ally with the neighbouring tribes of Kangju