Dayuan Kingdom
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Dayuan (or Tayuan; ;
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 ...
''dâiC-jwɐn'' < LHC: ''dɑh-ʔyɑn'') is the Chinese
exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
for a country that existed in
Ferghana valley The Fergana Valley (; ; ) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Divided into three republics of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse and in the ...
in
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, described in the Chinese historical works of ''
Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...
'' and the ''
Book of Han The ''Book of Han'' or ''History of the Former Han'' (Qián Hàn Shū,《前汉书》) is a history of China finished in 111AD, covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE. ...
''. It is mentioned in the accounts of the Chinese
explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
Zhang Qian Zhang Qian (; died c. 114) was a Chinese official and diplomat who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the late 2nd century BC during the Han dynasty. He was one of the first official diplomats to bring back valuable inf ...
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 The Fergana Valley (; ; ) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Divided into three republics of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse and in the ...
, controlled by the
Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...
Alexandria Eschate (modern
Khujand Khujand ( tg, Хуҷанд, Khujand; Uzbek: Хўжанд, romanized: Хo'jand; fa, خجند‌, Khojand), sometimes spelled Khodjent and known as Leninabad (russian: Ленинабад, Leninabad; tg, Ленинобод, Leninobod; fa, لنی ...
,
Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
), which can probably be understood as "Greco-Fergana city-state" in English language. These Chinese accounts describe the "Dayuan" as urbanized dwellers with
Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...
features, living in walled cities and having "customs identical to those of the
Daxia Daxia, Ta-Hsia, or Ta-Hia (; literally: 'Great Xia') was apparently the name given in antiquity by the Han Chinese to Tukhara or Tokhara: the main part of Bactria, in what is now northern Afghanistan, and parts of southern Tajikistan and Uzbek ...
" or Greco-Bactrians, a Hellenistic kingdom that was ruling Bactria at that time in today's northern
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. 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 Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
in Ferghana in 329 BCE (see Alexandria Eschate), and had prospered within the Hellenistic realm of the
Seleucids The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the M ...
and Greco-Bactrians, until they were isolated by the migrations of the
Yuezhi The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat ...
around 160 BCE and the
Scythians The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
in 140. It appears that the name "Yuan" was simply a transliteration of
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
''
Yavana The word Yona in Pali and the Prakrits, and the analogue Yavana in Sanskrit and Yavanar in Tamil, were words used in Ancient India to designate Greek speakers. "Yona" and "Yavana" are transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians" ( grc, ...
'' or
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddh ...
''
Yona The word Yona in Pali and the Prakrits, and the analogue Yavana in Sanskrit and Yavanar in Tamil, were words used in Ancient India to designate Greek speakers. "Yona" and "Yavana" are transliterations of the Greek word for " Ionians" ( grc, ...
'', used throughout antiquity in Asia to designate
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
("
Ionians The Ionians (; el, Ἴωνες, ''Íōnes'', singular , ''Íōn'') were one of the four major tribes that the Greeks considered themselves to be divided into during the ancient period; the other three being the Dorians, Aeolians, and Achaea ...
"), so that Dayuan would mean "Great Ionians" or "Great Greeks". By 100 BC, the Dayuan were defeated by 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 ...
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 Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
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 Khujand ( tg, Хуҷанд, Khujand; Uzbek: Хўжанд, romanized: Хo'jand; fa, خجند‌, Khojand), sometimes spelled Khodjent and known as Leninabad (russian: Ленинабад, Leninabad; tg, Ленинобод, Leninobod; fa, لنی ...
(also called Khozdent, formerly Leninabad), in the state of
Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
. 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 River, Ili valley in the general area of Lake Issyk Kul, were retreating southward after having been dislodged by Yueh-Chi, 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 Zhang Qian (; died c. 114) was a Chinese official and diplomat who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the late 2nd century BC during the Han dynasty. He was one of the first official diplomats to bring back valuable inf ...
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 Eurasian nomads, 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 Hellenization, 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 (probably Sodgia). The Chinese also record the name of the king of Dayuan as "Mu-Kua", a Saka name rendered in Greek as Mauakes or Maues. Another Scythian ruler by the name of Maues was later a ruler of the Indo-Scythian kingdom in northern India, during the 1st century BCE.


Yuezhi migration

According to the Han Dynasty, Han Chronicles In 132BCE the
Yuezhi The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat ...
were driven out of the Ili River valley by the Wusun. They fled south from the Ili river area, by-passed the urban civilization of the Dayuan in Ferghana, and re-settled north of the Oxus in Bactria, definitively cutting Dayuan from contact with the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The Yuezhi would further expand southward into Bactria proper around 125 BCE, and then going on to form the Kushan Empire in the 1st century CE.


Han Chinese rule and interaction

The Dayuan remained a healthy and powerful civilization which had numerous contacts and exchanges with China from 130 BCE.


Zhang Qian's Report

Around 130 BCE, at the time of
Zhang Qian Zhang Qian (; died c. 114) was a Chinese official and diplomat who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the late 2nd century BC during the Han dynasty. He was one of the first official diplomats to bring back valuable inf ...
's embassy to Central Asia, the Dayuan were described as inhabitants of a region corresponding to the Ferghana, far to the west of the Chinese empire. To their south-west were the territories of the Yuezhi, with the Greco-Bactrians further south still, beyond the Oxus. The Shiji then explains that the Yuezhi originally inhabited the Hexi Corridor, before they were defeated by the Xiongnu under Mao-tun and later his son in 176 BCE, forcing them to go beyond the territory of the Dayuan and resettle in the West by the banks of the Oxus, between the territory of the Dayuan and Bactria to the south.


Urbanized city-dwellers

The customs of the Dayuan are said by
Zhang Qian Zhang Qian (; died c. 114) was a Chinese official and diplomat who served as an imperial envoy to the world outside of China in the late 2nd century BC during the Han dynasty. He was one of the first official diplomats to bring back valuable inf ...
to be identical to those of the Bactrians in the south, who actually formed the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom at that time. They are described as town-dwellers, as opposed to other populations such as the
Yuezhi The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat ...
, the Wusun or the Xiongnu who were nomads.


Appearance and Culture

The Shiji comments on the appearance and the culture of the people around Dayuan:
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.
They were great manufacturers and lovers of History of wine, wine: According to the Shiji, grapes and alfalfa were introduced to China from Dayuan following Zhang Qian's embassy:
The regions around Dayuan make wine out of grapes, the wealthier inhabitants keeping as much as 10,000 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.
The Shiji also claims that metal casting was introduced to the Dayuan region by Han deserters:
... 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.Watson, Burton(1993). ''Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian''. Translated by Burton Watson. Han Dynasty II (Revised Edition), p. 245. Columbia University Press. ; (pbk)


Han-Dayuan war

Following the reports of Zhang Qian (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the
Yuezhi The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat ...
against the Xiongnu, in vain), the Chinese emperor Emperor Wu of Han China, Wudi became interested in developing commercial relationships with the sophisticated urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia: "The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan) and the possessions of Bactria and Parthia are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China" (Shiji, 123) The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as Seleucid Syria."Thus more embassies were dispatched to An-si (Parthia), An-ts'ai (the Aorsi, or Alans), Li-kan (Syria under the Seleucids), T'iau-chi (Chaldea), and Shon-tu (India)... As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six." (Shiji, 123) The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses ("heavenly horses") in the possession of the Dayuan, which were of capital importance to fight the nomadic Xiongnu. The refusal of the Dayuan to offer them enough horses along with a series of conflicts and mutual disrespect resulted in the death of the Chinese ambassador and the confiscation of the gold sent as payment for the horses. Enraged, and thinking Dayuan weak, the Chinese Emperor in 104 BCE sent out Li Guangli, the brother of his favorite concubine. He was given 6,000 horsemen and '30,000 young men of bad reputation rounded up from the provinces'. General Li lost many men along the way in petty fights with local rulers. After a severe defeat at a place called Yucheng Li concluded that he was not strong enough to take the enemy capital and therefore returned to Dunhuang (about 102 BC). Emperor Wudi responded by giving Li Guangli a much larger army along with a huge number of oxen, donkeys and camels to carry supplies. With this force he had no difficulty reaching Ershi, the Dayuan capital. After a 40-day siege the Chinese had broken through the outer wall and cut off the water supply. The nobles of Ershi killed their king and sent his head to Li Guangli, offering the Chinese all the horses they wanted. Li accepted the offer, appointed one of the nobles to be the new king and withdrew with the horses. On his return journey all the petty states accepted Chinese sovereignty. He reached the Jade Gate about 100 BC with 10,000 men and 1,000 horses. Contacts with the West were re-established following the peace treaty with the Yuan. Ambassadors were once again sent to the West, caravans were sent to Bactria.


Era of East-West trade and cultural exchange

The Silk Road essentially came into being from the 1st century BCE, following the efforts of China to consolidate a road to the Western world, both through direct settlements in the area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west. Intense trade followed soon, confirmed by the Ancient Rome, Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied by the Parthians) from the 1st century BC, to the point that the Roman Senate, Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds. This is attested by at least three significant authors: * Strabo (64/ 63 BCE–c. 24 CE). * Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BCE–65 CE). * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE). This is also the time when the Buddhism, Buddhist faith and the Greco-Buddhism, Greco-Buddhist culture started to travel along the Silk Road, entering China from around the 1st century BCE.


See also

* History of Buddhism * Greco-Buddhism


Footnotes


References

* Sima Qian, ''Records of the Grand Historian of China. Translated from the Shih Chi of Sima Qian by Burton Watson.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, Volume II, * "Zhang Qian's Mission to the West", translation by Friedrich Hirth published in the ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', 37/2 (1917), pp. 93–116, adaptation by J. Moore, Department of History, Austin College. * ''Han Shu'', as translated by A. Wylie in the ''Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland'', Vols. III (1874), pp. 401–452, V (1876), pp. 41–80, and X (1881), pp. 20–73, and XI (1882), pp. 83–115, adaptation by J. Moore, Department of History, Austin College. * ''The diffusion of Classical art in Antiquity'', John Boardman, Princeton University Press, 1993 * ''The Greeks in Bactria and India'', W. W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press {{refend


External links


ShiJi 123: The Account of DaYuan


* See references to Dayuan/Ferghana in the annotated translations by John Hill from the 2nd century ''Hou Hanshu''

and of the 3rd century ''Weilüe'': http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html Historical Chinese exonyms History of the foreign relations of China Hellenistic states Sites along the Silk Road Bactrian and Indian Hellenistic colonies