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Daqin (Chinese:大秦;pinyin:Dàqín;Wade–Giles:Ta4-ch'in2; alternative transliterations includeTachin,Tai-Ch'in) is the ancient Chinese name for theRoman Empire or, depending on context, theNear East, especiallySyria.[1] It literally means "Great Qin";Qin (Chinese:秦;pinyin:Qín;Wade–Giles:Ch'in2) being the name of the founding dynasty of theChinese Empire. Historian John Foster defined it as "the Roman Empire, or rather that part of it which alone wasknown to the Chinese, Syria".[2] Its basic facets such aslaws,customs,dress, andcurrency were explained in Chinese sources. Its medieval incarnation was describedin histories during theTang dynasty (618–907 AD) onwards asFulin (Chinese:拂菻;pinyin:Fúlǐn), whichFriedrich Hirth and other scholars have identified as theByzantine Empire.[3] Daqin was also commonly associated with theSyriac-speakingNestorian Christians who lived in China during the Tang dynasty.
Chinese sources describe severalancient Roman embassiesarriving in China, beginning in 166 AD and lasting into the 3rd century. These early embassies were said to arriveby a maritime route via theSouth China Sea in the Chinese province ofJiaozhi (now northernVietnam). Archaeological evidence such asRoman coins points to the presence ofRoman commercial activity inSoutheast Asia. Later recorded embassies arriving fromthe Byzantine Empire, lasting from the 7th to 11th centuries, ostensibly took an overland route following theSilk Road, alongside otherEuropeans in Medieval China. Byzantine Greeks are recorded as being present in the court ofKublai Khan (1260–1294),the Mongol ruler of theYuan dynasty inKhanbaliq (Beijing), while theHongwu Emperor (r. 1368–1398), founder of theMing dynasty, sent a letter of correspondence to Byzantine emperorJohn V Palaiologos.
The termDaqin (Chinese:大秦;pinyin:Dà qín;Wade–Giles:Ta4-ch'in2,Middle Chinese: /dɑiH d͡ziɪn/), meaning "Great Qin", is derived fromthe dynasty founded byQin Shi Huang, ruler of theState of Qin andChina's first emperor who unifiedChina's Warring States by 221 BC.[4] Theprefixda (大) or "great" signified that the Roman Empire was on par with the might of the Qin dynasty and was viewed as autopian land located to the northwest of theParthian Empire.[4] The titleDaqin does not seem to have any phonetic derivation fromLatinRoma orGreekRomaikē. On the other hand, it is possible that the Latin term used for China,Serica (derived from GreekSerikon, commonly understood as "Land of Silk", from ChinesesiChinese:絲;pinyin:sī, meaningsilk), originated from the name Qin usingEarly Middle Chinese pronunciation (with the final consonant pronounced with an-r sound).[5]
The termDaqin was used from theHan dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) onwards,[4] but by the beginning of theTang dynasty (618–907 AD) a new name emerged in Chinese historical records for distinguishing theEastern Roman Empire:Fulin (Chinese:拂菻;pinyin:Fú lǐn).Friedrich Hirth surmised that Fulin may have been based on theaccusative form ofKonstantinoupolis, the Greek name ofConstantinople, or rather its paraphrasehē Pólis ("the City"), giving (in the accusative)(tḕn) Pólin.[6] Using historical phonetic pronunciations ofCantonese andJapanese, Hirth also speculated thatFulin inMiddle Chinese was pronouncedButlim orButlam and thus might have also come from theSyriac pronunciation forBethlehem.[7] While some scholars of the 20th century believed that Fulin was a transliteration ofEphraim, a reference to the BiblicalNorthern Kingdom, Samuel N. C. Lieu highlights how more recent scholarship has deduced that Fulin is most likely derived from thePersianate word for the Roman Empire shared by several contemporaneousIranian languages (Middle Persian:hrwm;Parthian:transl. xpr – transl. frwm;Sogdian: βr'wm-;Bactrian:φρομο).[8]
Following the opening of theSilk Road 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 generalBan Chao sentGan Ying 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 theParthian 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 informationfrom Parthians:
「大秦國一名犂鞬，以在海西，亦云海西國。地方數千里，有四百餘城。小國役屬者數十。以石為城郭。列置郵亭，皆堊塈之。有松柏諸木百草。」The Kingdom of Da Qin (the Roman Empire) is also called Lijian. As it is found to the west of the sea, it is also called the Kingdom of Haixi ("West of the Sea"). The territory extends for several thousands ofli. It has more than four hundred walled towns. There are several tens of smaller dependent kingdoms. The walls of the towns are made of stone. They have established postal relays at intervals, which are all plastered and whitewashed. There are pines and cypresses, as well as trees and plants of all kinds.[9][10]
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:
「其王無有常人，皆簡立賢者。國中災異及風雨不時，輒廢而更立，受放者甘黜不怨。其人民皆長大平正，有類中國，故謂之大秦......土多金銀奇寶，有夜光璧、明月珠、駭雞犀、珊瑚、虎魄、琉璃、琅玕、朱丹、青碧。刺金縷繡，織成金縷罽、雜色綾。作黃金塗、火浣布。」
Their kings are not permanent. They select and appoint the most worthy man. If there areunexpected calamities in the kingdom, such as frequent extraordinary winds orrains, he is unceremoniously rejected and replaced. The one who has been dismissed quietly accepts his demotion, and is not angry. The people of this country are all tall and honest. They resemble the people of the Middle Kingdom and that is why this kingdom is called Da Qin. This countryproduces plenty of gold [and] silver, [and of] rare and precious they have luminous jade, "bright moon pearls",Haiji rhinoceroses,coral, yellowamber, opaque glass, whitishchalcedony [i.e.,langgan], redcinnabar, greengemstones, gold-thread embroideries, woven gold-threaded net, delicate polychrome silks painted with gold, andasbestos cloth.
「又有細布，或言水羊毳，野蠶繭所作也。合會諸香，煎其汁以為蘇合。凡外國諸珍異皆出焉。以金銀為錢，銀錢十當金錢一。與安息、天竺交巿於海中，利有十倍。[...]其王常欲通使於漢，而安息欲以漢繒綵與之交市，故遮閡不得自達。」
They also havea fine cloth which some people say is made from the down of "water sheep", butwhich is made, in fact, from the cocoons of wild silkworms. They blend all sorts of fragrances, and by boiling the juice, make a compound perfume. [They have] all the precious and rare things that come from the various foreign kingdoms. They make gold and silver coins. Ten silver coins are worth one gold coin. They trade withAnxi andTianzhu by sea. The profit margin is ten to one. ... The king of this country always wanted to send envoys to the Han, but Anxi, wishing to control the trade in multi-coloured Chinese silks, blocked the route to prevent [the Romans] getting through [to China].[9][10]
In theWeilüe written byYu Huan (c. 239–265), a text that is preserved in theRecords of the Three Kingdoms byPei Songzhi (published in 429), a more detailed description of the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire is given, particularly the province ofRoman Egypt. The 19th-century sinologistFriedrich Hirth translated the passages and identified the places named in them, which have been edited by Jerome S. Arkenberg in 2000 (withWade-Giles spelling):[3]
FormerlyT'iao-chih was wrongly believed to be in the west ofTa-ts'in; now its real position is known to be east. [...] Formerly it was, further, wrongly believed that theJo-shui was in the west of T'iao-chih; now the Jo-shui is believed to be in the west of Ta-ts'in. Formerly it was wrongly believed that, going over two hundred days west of T'iao-chih, one came near the place where the sun sets; now, one comes near the place where the sun sets by going west of Ta-ts'in. The country of Ta-ts'in, also calledLi-kan, is on the west of the great sea [theIndian Ocean] west ofAr-hsi and T'iao-chih. From the city ofAr-ku, on the boundary of Ar-hsi one takes passage in a ship and, traversing the west of the sea, with favorable winds arrives [at Aelana, modernElat, on the Gulf of Aqaba] in two months; with slow winds, the passage may last a year, and with no wind at all, perhaps three years. This country is on the west of the sea whence it is commonly calledHai-hsi. There is a river [theNile] coming out from the west of this country, and there is another great sea [theMediterranean]. In the west of the sea there is the city ofAli-san. Before one arrives in the country one goes straight north from the city ofU-tan. In the south-west one further travels by a river which on board ship one crosses in one day [again the Nile]; and again south-west one travels by a river which is crossed in one day [still the Nile]. There are three great divisions of the country [i. e.,Delta,Heptanomis,Thebaid]. From the city of Ar-ku one goes by land due north to the north of the sea; and again one goes due west to the west of the sea; and again you go due south to arrive there. At the city of Ali-san, you travel by river on board ship one day, then make a round at sea, and after six days' passage on the great sea [the Mediterranean], arrive in this country. There are in the country in all over four hundred smaller cities; its size is several thousand li in all directions of the compass. The residence of their king lies on the banks of a river estuary [Antioch-on-the-Orontes]. They use stone in making city walls. In this country there are the trees sung [pine], po [cypress], huai [sophora?], tzu [a kind of euphorbia?]; bamboos, rushes, poplars, willows, the wu-t'ung tree, and all kinds of other plants. The people are given to planting on the fields all kinds of grain. Their domestic animals are: the horse, the donkey, the mule, the camel, and the mulberry silk-worm. There are many jugglers who can issue fire from their mouths, bind and release themselves, and dance on twenty balls. In this country they have no permanent rulers, but when an extraordinary calamity visits the country, they elect as king a worthier man, while discharging the old king, who does not even dare to feel angry at this decision. The people are tall, and upright in their dealings, like the Han [Chinese], but wear foreign dress; they call their country another "Middle Kingdom" [probably from "Mediterranean" or "Middle of the Land"].[3]
TheWeilüe also noted that the Daqin had small "dependent"vassal states, too many to list as the text claims, yet it mentions some as being theAlexandria-Euphrates orCharax Spasinu ("Ala-san"),Nikephorium ("Lu-fen"),Palmyra ("Ch'ieh-lan"),Damascus ("Hsien-tu"),Emesa ("Si-fu"), andHira ("Ho-lat").[3] Perhaps some of these are in reference to certain states that were temporarily conquered during theRoman–Parthian Wars (66 BC – 217 AD) when, for instance, the army of Roman EmperorTrajan reached thePersian Gulf and capturedCharacene, the capital of which was Charax Spasinu.[11] TheWeilüe provides the traveling directions and approximate distances between each of these cities, counted inancient Chinese miles (li), and along with theBook of Later Han even mentions thepontoon bridge ("flying bridge") across theEuphrates at the Roman city ofZeugma, Commagene (in modern-day Turkey).[3]
Hirth and Arkenberg identified Si-fu (Chinese: 汜復) with Emesa. However, John E. Hill provides evidence that it was most likelyPetra (in theNabataean Kingdom), given the directions and distance from "Yuluo" (i.e.Al Karak) and the fact that it fell under Roman dominion in 106 AD when it was annexed by Trajan.[12] 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".[12] He believes this is directly related to thereservoir andcistern flood-control system harnessing the many streams running through the settlement and nearby canyons, or wadis, such as theWadi Musa ("Valley of Moses").[12]
In later eras, starting in AD 550, asSyriac Christians settled along theSilk Road and founded mission churches, Daqin or Tai-Ch'in is also used to refer to these Christian populations rather than to Rome or theRoman church.[1] So, for example, when the TaoistEmperor Wuzong of Tang closed Christian monasteries in the mid-9th century, the imperial edict commanded:[13]
As for the Tai-Ch'in (Syrian Christian) and Muh-hu (Zoroastrian) forms of worship, since Buddhism has already been cast out, these heresies alone must not be allowed to survive.[14]
The name "Daqin" for Rome was used on Chinese maps as late as the 16th century, such as theSihai Huayi Zongtu. The identification of "Daqin" with the Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, or theChurch of the East varies with the era and context of the document. TheNestorian Stele erected in 781 inthe Tang capitalChang'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.[3]
In theHou Hanshu and theWeilüe, the chief city of Daqin is said to be more than 100li around. It is described as being located near a river and having five palaces, with the king travelling to one of these palaces each day. Some scholars have identified in this description the city ofRome, theTiber river and the Imperial residences of thePalatine hill. However, other scholars, including Hirth and Hoppál, identify it with Antioch. It has also been suggested that the capital of Daqin described in those works is a conflation of multiple cities, chiefly Rome, Antioch and Alexandria.[15]
In Gan Ying's report the capital of Daqin is "An-tu",Antioch.[16] However, theOld Book of Tang andNew Book of Tang, which identified Daqin and "Fulin" (拂菻; i.e.Primus, the Byzantine Empire) as the same countries, noted a different capital city (Constantinople), one that hadwalls of "enormous height" andwas eventually besieged by the commander "Móyì" (Chinese: 摩拽伐之;Pinyin:Móyì fá zhī) of theDa shi (大食; i.e.the Arabs).[3]Friedrich Hirth identifies this commander asMu'awiyah I, who was first governor of Syria before becomingcaliph and founder of theUmayyad Caliphate.[3]
The encyclopedic part of theBook of Jin classified the appearance of the Romans as being genuinelyXirong, a barbaric people who lived west of theZhou dynasty, however, the characteristics attributed to Daqin tend to be more positive than the others, saying that their people when they reachedadulthood looked like theChinese, they usedglass on the walls of their houses (considered aluxury item in theTang dynasty), their tiles were covered withcoral, their "king" had 5 palaces, all huge, and all far from each other, just as what was heard in one palace took time to reach another and so on.[17]
Starting in the 1st century BC withVirgil,Horace, andStrabo, Roman histories offer only vague accounts of China and the silk-producingSeres of the distant east. The 2nd-century historianFlorus seems to have conflated the Seres with peoples ofIndia, or at least noted that their skin complexions proved that they both lived "beneath another sky" than the Romans. The 1st-century geographerPomponius Mela noted that their lands formed the center of the coast ofan eastern ocean, flanked by India to the south and theScythians of thenorthern steppe, while the historianAmmianus Marcellinus (c. 330 – c. 400) wrote that the land of the Seres was enclosed by great natural walls around a river called Bautis, perhaps theYellow River. In hisGeography,Ptolemy also provided a rough sketch of theGulf of Thailand andSouth China Sea, with a port city calledCattigara lying beyond theGolden Chersonese (i.e.Malay Peninsula) visited by a Greek sailor named Alexander.[18] Among the proposed sites for Ptolemy's Cattigara areOc Eo, Vietnam, where Roman artefacts have been found.[19]
In contrast,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 theBook of Later Han as having arrived by sea in 166 AD and came by way ofJiaozhou, later known asAnnam (northern Vietnam), as would later embassies.[3] Its members claimed to be representatives of the Daqin ruler "Andun" (安敦), eitherAntoninus Pius or more likely his co-emperorMarcus Aurelius Antoninus, and offered gifts to the court ofEmperor Huan of Han.[20][21] Other embassies arrived sporadically afterwards. TheBook of Liang mentions a Daqin embassy toSun Quan ofEastern Wu in 226, while theBook of Jin records a Daqin embassy toEmperor Wu of Jin in 284.[3]
AlthoughEmperor Yang of Sui (r. 604–618) had desired to send an embassy to Daqin, this never came to fruition.[3][22] Instead, an embassy from a country that was now calledFulin (拂菻, i.e. the Byzantine Empire), which theOld Book of Tang andNew Book of Tang identified as being the same as Daqin, arrived in 643 at the court ofEmperor Taizong of Tang and claimed to represent their kingBo duoli (波多力; i.e. Kōnstantinos Pogonatos, "Constantine the Bearded", the nickname ofConstans II).[3] Several otherFulin (i.e.Byzantium) embassies during the Tang dynasty are mentioned for the years 667, 701, and 719.[3]
TheWenxian Tongkao written byMa Duanlin (1245–1322) and theHistory of Song record that the Byzantine emperorMichael VII Parapinakēs Caesar (Mie li sha ling kai sa 滅力沙靈改撒) ofFulin (i.e. Byzantium) sent an embassy to China that arrived in 1081, during the reign ofEmperor Shenzong of Song (r. 1067–1085).[3][23] During the subsequentYuan dynasty (1271–1368), an unprecedented number ofEuropeans started to visit and live in China, such asMarco Polo andKatarina Vilioni, and papal missionaries such asJohn of Montecorvino andGiovanni de Marignolli.[24][25][26] TheHistory of Yuan recounts how a man ofFulin named Ai-sie (transliteration of either Joshua or Joseph), initially in the service ofGüyük Khan, was well-versed in Western languages and had expertise in the fields ofmedicine andastronomy.[27] This convincedKublai Khan, 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).[27] His biography in theHistory of Yuan lists his children by theirChinese names, which are similar to theChristian names Elias (Ye-li-ah), Luke (Lu-ko), and Antony (An-tun), with a daughter namedA-na-si-sz.[27]
TheHistory of Ming explains how the founder of theMing dynasty (1368–1644), theHongwu Emperor, sent a merchant ofFulin named "Nieh-ku-lun" (捏古倫) back to his home country with a letter announcing thefounding of a new dynasty.[3][28][29] It is speculated that this "merchant" was actually aformer bishop ofKhanbaliq named Nicolaus de Bentra.[30] TheHistory of Ming goes on to explain that contacts between China andFulin ceased thereafter, whereas an envoy of the great western sea (i.e. theMediterranean Sea) did not arrive again until the 16th century, with the Italian Jesuit missionaryMatteo Ricci.[3]
Although theancient Romans imported Han Chinese silk while theHan-dynasty Chinese importedRoman glasswares as discovered in their tombs,[31][32]Valerie Hansen (2012) claimed that no Roman coins from theRoman Republic (507–27 BC) or thePrincipate (27 BC–284 AD) era of the Roman Empire have been found in China.[33] Yet this assumption has been overturned;Warwick Ball (2016) notes the discovery of sixteen Roman coins found atXi'an, China (site of the Han capitalChang'an) minted during the reign of various emperors fromTiberius (14–37 AD) toAurelian (270–275 AD).[34] The earliest goldsolidus coins from the Eastern Roman Empire found in China date to the reign of Byzantine emperorTheodosius II (r. 408–450) and altogether only forty-eight of them have been found (compared to thirteen hundred silver coins) inXinjiang and the rest of China.[33] However, Roman goldenmedallions from the reign ofAntoninus Pius, and possibly his successorMarcus Aurelius, have been discovered atÓc Eo in southernVietnam, which was then part of theKingdom of Funan bordering the Chinese province ofJiaozhi in northern Vietnam.[18][35] This was the same region where Chinese historical texts claim the Romans first landed before venturing further into China to conduct diplomacy.[18][3]
Chinese histories offer descriptions of Byzantine coins. In discussing tradewith India, theParthian Empire and the Roman Empire, theBook of Jin, as well as the laterWenxian Tongkao, noted how ten ancient Roman silver coins were worth one Roman gold coin.[3] With fluctuations, the Roman goldenaureus was worth about twenty-five silverdenarii.[36] TheHistory of Song notes how the Byzantines made coins of either silver or gold,without holes in the middle yet with an inscription of the king's name.[3]
TheHistory of Song described forms of punishment in criminal law as they were carried out inDaqin (Roman Empire) andFulin (Byzantine Empire). It states that they made a distinction between minor and major offenses, with 200 strikes from a bamboo rod being reserved for major crimes.[3] It described their form ofcapital punishment as having the guilty person being stuffed into a "feather bag" and thrown into the sea.[3] This seems to correspond with the Romano-Byzantine punishment ofpoena cullei (fromLatin "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.[37] TheHistory of Song also mentioned how it was forbidden by law tocounterfeit the coins minted byFulin.[3] These descriptions from theHistory of Song are also found in theWenxian Tongkao.[3]
In theChinese histories, thenames of Romans and Byzantines were oftentransliterated intoChinese as they were heard, yet occasionally thesurname stemmed from their country of origin, Daqin (大秦). For instance, the Roman merchant Qin Lun (秦論), who visited theEastern Wu court ofSun Quan in 226 AD, bears the surname derived from the name for his homeland, while having agiven name that is perhaps derived from theGreek nameLeon (e.g.Leon of Sparta).[38] In theHan-era stage of the spoken language intermediate betweenOld Chinese andMiddle Chinese, the pronunciation for his given name "Lun" (論) would have sounded quite different frommodern spoken Mandarin: K. 470b *li̯wən / li̯uĕn or *lwən / luən;EMC lwən or lwənh.[38]
Granting Roman individuals the surname "Qin" followed a common Chinese naming convention for foreign peoples. For instance, people from theParthian Empire ofancient Persia such asAn Shigao were often given thesurname "An" (安) derived fromAnxi (安息), theArsacid dynasty. TheSogdians, anEastern Iranian people from Central Asia, were also frequently given the surname "An" (e.g.An Chongzhang), especially those fromBukhara, while Sogdians fromSamarkand were surnamed"Kang" (康; e.g.Kang Senghui), derived fromKangju, the Chinese term forTransoxiana.[39][40][41][42] The name given for either Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in the Chinese histories was "An Dun" (安敦).[20][note 1]
