Between theRoman Empire and theHan dynasty, as well as between the laterEastern Roman Empire and varioussuccessive Chinese dynasties, there were (primarily indirect) contacts and flows of trade goods, information, and occasional travelers. These empires inched progressively closer to each other in the course of the Roman expansion intoancient Western Asia and of the simultaneousHan military incursionsinto Central Asia. Mutual awareness remained low, and firm knowledge about each other was limited. Surviving records document only a few attempts at direct contact. Intermediate empires such as theParthians andKushans, seeking to maintain control over the lucrativesilk trade, inhibited direct contact between the two ancientEurasian powers. In 97 AD, theChinese generalBan Chao tried to send his envoyGan Ying toRome, butParthians dissuaded Gan from venturing beyond thePersian Gulf. Ancient Chinese historians recorded several alleged Roman emissaries to China. The first one on record, supposedly either from the Roman emperorAntoninus Pius or from his adopted sonMarcus Aurelius, arrived in 166 AD. Others are recorded as arriving in 226 and 284 AD, followed by a long hiatus until the first recordedByzantine embassy in 643 AD.
The indirect exchange of goods on land along theSilk Road andsea routes involved (for example) Chinesesilk,Roman glassware and high-quality cloth.Roman coins minted from the 1st century AD onwards have been found in China, as well as a coin ofMaximian (Roman emperor from 286 to 305 AD) andmedallions from the reigns ofAntoninus Pius (r. 138–161 AD) andMarcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 AD) inJiaozhi (in present-dayVietnam), the same region at which Chinese sources claim the Romans first landed. Roman glassware and silverware have been discovered at Chinese archaeological sites dated to theHan period (202 BC to 220 AD). Roman coins and glass beads have also been found in theJapanese archipelago.[1]
Inclassical sources, the problem of identifying references to ancient China is exacerbated by the interpretation of the Latin termSeres, whose meaning fluctuated and could refer to several Asian peoples in a wide arc from India over Central Asia to China. In the Chinese records from theHan dynasty onwards, the Roman Empire came to be known asDaqin or Great Qin. The later termFulin (拂菻) has been identified byFriedrich Hirth and others as theEastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. Chinese sources describe several embassies ofFulin (Byzantine Empire) arriving in China during theTang dynasty (618–907 AD) and also mention thesiege of Constantinople by the forces ofMuawiyah I in 674–678 AD.
Geographers in the Roman Empire, such asPtolemy in the second century AD, provided a rough sketch of the north-easternIndian Ocean, including theMalay Peninsula and beyond this theGulf of Thailand and theSouth China Sea. Ptolemy's "Cattigara" was most likelyÓc Eo, Vietnam, whereAntonine-era Roman items have been found. AncientChinese geographers demonstrated a general knowledge ofWest Asia and ofRome's eastern provinces. The 7th-century AD Byzantine historianTheophylact Simocatta wrote of China's reunification under the contemporarySui dynasty (581 to 618 AD), noting that thenorthern and southern halves wereseparate nations recently at war. This mirrors both theconquest of Chen byEmperor Wen of Sui (r. 581–604 AD) as well as the namesCathay andMangi used by latermedieval Europeans in China during theMongol-ledYuan dynasty (1271–1368) and theHan Chinese-ledSouthern Song dynasty (1127–1279).
Beginning in the 1st century BC withVirgil,Horace, andStrabo, Roman historians offer only vague accounts of China and the silk-producing Seres people of theFar East, who were perhaps the ancient Chinese.[2][3] The 1st-century AD geographerPomponius Mela asserted that the lands of the Seres formed the centre of the coast ofan eastern ocean, flanked to the south by India and to the north by theScythians of theEurasian Steppe.[2] The 2nd-century AD Roman historianFlorus seems to have confused 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.[2] Roman authors generally seem to have been confused about where the Seres were located, in either Central Asia or East Asia.[4] The historianAmmianus Marcellinus (c. 330 – c. 400 AD) wrote that the land of the Seres was enclosed by "lofty walls" around a river called Bautis, possibly a description of theYellow River.[2]
The existence of China was known toRoman cartographers, but their understanding of it was less certain. Ptolemy's 2nd-century ADGeography separates the Land of Silk (Serica) at the end of the overlandSilk Road from the land of theQin (Sinae) reached by sea.[5] The Sinae are placed on the northern shore of theGreat Gulf (Magnus Sinus) east of theGolden Peninsula (Aurea Chersonesus, Malay Peninsula). Their chief port, Cattigara, seems to have been in the lowerMekong Delta.[6] The Great Gulf served as a combinedGulf of Tonkin andSouth China Sea, asMarinus of Tyre and Ptolemy's belief that the Indian Ocean was an inland sea caused them to bend theCambodian coast south beyond the equator before turning west to join southernLibya (Africa).[7][8] Much of this is given asunknown lands, but the north-eastern area is placed under the Sinae.[9]
Classical geographers such asStrabo andPliny the Elder were slow to incorporate new information into their works and, from their positions asesteemed scholars, were seemingly prejudiced against lowly merchants and theirtopographical accounts.[10] Ptolemy's work represents a break from this, since he demonstrated an openness to their accounts and would not have been able to chart theBay of Bengal so accurately without the input of traders.[10] In the 1st-century ADPeriplus of the Erythraean Sea, its anonymous Greek-speaking author, a merchant ofRoman Egypt, provides such vivid accounts of eastern trade cities that it is clear he visited many of them.[11] These include sites in Arabia, Pakistan, and India, includingtravel times from rivers and towns, where todrop anchor, the locations of royal courts, lifestyles of the locals and goods found in their markets, and favourable times of year to sail from Egypt to these places to catch themonsoon winds.[11] ThePeriplus also mentions a great inland city,Thinae (orSinae), in a country calledThis that perhaps stretched as far as theCaspian.[12][13] The text notes that silk produced there travelled to neighbouring India via theGanges and toBactria by a land route.[12] Marinus and Ptolemy had relied on the testimony of a Greek sailor named Alexander, probably a merchant, for how to reach Cattigara (most likely Óc Eo, Vietnam).[6][14] Alexander (Greek: Alexandros) mentions that the main terminus for Roman traders was a Burmese city called Tamala on the north-west Malay Peninsula, where Indian merchants travelled overland across theKra Isthmus to reach the Perimulic Gulf (the Gulf ofThailand).[15] Alexandros claimed that it took twenty days to sail from Thailand to a port called "Zabia" (orZaba) in southern Vietnam.[15][16] According to him, one could continue along the coast (of southern Vietnam) from Zabia until reaching the trade port of Cattigara after an unspecified number of days (with "some" being interpreted as "many" by Marinus).[15][16] More generally, modern historical scholars assert that merchants from the Eastern part of the Roman Empire were in contact with the peoples of China, Sri Lanka, India and theKushana Empire.[17]
Cosmas Indicopleustes, a 6th-century AD Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Greek monk fromAlexandria and former merchant with experience in the Indian Ocean trade, was the first Roman to write clearly about China in hisChristian Topography (c. 550 AD).[18] He called it the country ofTzinista (comparable toSanskritChinasthana andSyriacSinistan from the 781 ADNestorian Stele ofXi'an, China), located in easternmost Asia.[19][20] He explained the maritime route towards it (first sailing east and then north up the southern coast of the Asian continent) and the fact thatcloves came that way toSri Lanka for sale.[19] By the time ofthe Eastern Roman rulerJustinian I (r. 527–565 AD), the Byzantines purchased Chinese silk fromSogdian intermediaries.[21] They alsosmuggled silkworms out of China with the help ofNestorian monks, who claimed that the land ofSerindia was located north of India and produced the finest silk.[21] By smuggling silkworms and producing silk of their own, the Byzantines could bypass the Chinese silk trade dominated by their chief rivals, theSasanian Empire.[22]
FromTurkic peoples of Central Asia during theNorthern Wei (386–535 AD) period, the Eastern Romans acquired yet anothername for China:Taugast (Old Turkic:Tabghach).[21]Theophylact Simocatta, a historian during the reign ofHeraclius (r. 610–641 AD), wrote that Taugast (or Taugas) was a great eastern empirecolonised by Turkic people, with a capital city 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) northeast of India that he calledKhubdan (from the Turkic wordKhumdan used for theSui and Tang capitalChang'an), whereidolatry was practised but the people were wise and lived by just laws.[23] He depicted the Chinese empire as being divided by a great river (theYangzi) that served as the boundary betweentwo rival nations at war; during the reign of Byzantine EmperorMaurice (582–602 AD) the northerners wearing "black coats" conquered the "red coats" of the south (black being a distinctive colour worn by the people ofShaanxi, location of the Sui capital Sui Chang'an, according to the 16th-century Persian traveller Hajji Mahomed, or Chaggi Memet).[24] This account may correspond to the conquest of theChen dynasty and reunification of China byEmperor Wen of Sui (r. 581–604 AD).[24] Simocatta names their ruler asTaisson, which he claimed meantSon of God, either correlating to the ChineseTianzi (Son of Heaven) or even the name of the contemporary rulerEmperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626–649 AD).[25] Latermedieval Europeans in China wrote of it as two separate countries, withCathay in the north andMangi in the south, during the period when theYuan dynasty led by Mongol rulerKublai Khan (r. 1260–1294 AD) conquered theSouthern Song dynasty.[26][27][28]
Geographical information about the easternmost territories of the Roman Empire is provided in traditionalChinese historiography, although very little was known about the core Roman territories. TheShiji bySima Qian (c. 145–86 BC) gives descriptions of countries inCentral Asia andWest Asia. These accounts became significantly more nuanced in theBook of Han, co-authored byBan Gu and his sisterBan Zhao, younger siblings of the generalBan Chao, who led military exploitsinto Central Asia before returning to China in 102 AD.[29] The westernmost territories of Asia as described in theBook of the Later Han compiled byFan Ye (398–445 AD) formed the basis for almost all later accounts of Daqin.[29][note 1] These accounts seem to be restricted to descriptions of theLevant, particularlySyria.[29]
Historical linguistEdwin G. Pulleyblank explains that Chinese historians considered Daqin to be a kind of "counter-China" located at the opposite end of their known world.[30][31] According to Pulleyblank, "the Chinese conception of Dà Qín was confused from the outset with ancientmythological notions about the far west".[32][31] From the Chinese point of view, the Roman Empire was considered "a distant and therefore mystical country," according to Krisztina Hoppál.[33] The Chinese histories explicitly related Daqin and Lijian (also "Li-kan", or Syria) as belonging to the same country; according to Yule, D. D. Leslie, and K. H. G. Gardiner, the earliest descriptions of Lijian in theShiji distinguished it as theHellenistic-eraSeleucid Empire.[34][35][36] Pulleyblank provides some linguistic analysis to dispute their proposal, arguing that Tiaozhi (條支) in theShiji was most likely the Seleucid Empire and that Lijian, although still poorly understood, could be identified with eitherHyrcania inIran or evenAlexandria in Egypt.[37]
TheWeilüe byYu Huan (c. 239–265 AD), preserved inannotations to theRecords of the Three Kingdoms (published in 429 AD byPei Songzhi), also provides details about the easternmost portion of the Roman world, including mention of theMediterranean Sea.[29] For Roman Egypt, the book explains the location of Alexandria, travelling distances along theNile and the tripartite division of theNile Delta,Heptanomis, andThebaid.[29][38] In hisZhu Fan Zhi, theSong-eraQuanzhou customs inspectorZhao Rugua (1170–1228 AD) described the ancientLighthouse of Alexandria.[39] Both theBook of the Later Han and theWeilüe mention the "flying"pontoon bridge (飛橋) over theEuphrates atZeugma, Commagene inRoman Anatolia.[29][40] TheWeilüe also listed what it considered the most important dependentvassal states of the Roman Empire, providing travel directions and estimates for the distances between them (inChinese miles,li).[29][38] Friedrich Hirth (1885) identified the locations and dependent states of Rome named in theWeilüe; some of his identifications have been disputed.[note 2] Hirth identified Si-fu (汜復) asEmesa;[29] John E. Hill (2004) uses linguistic and situational evidence to argue it wasPetra in theNabataean Kingdom, which was annexed by Rome in 106 AD during the reign ofTrajan.[40]
TheOld Book of Tang andNew Book of Tang record thatthe Arabs (Da shi大食) sent their commander Mo-yi (摩拽,pinyin:Móyè, i.e.Muawiyah I,governor of Syria and laterUmayyad caliph, r. 661–680 AD) tobesiege the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, and forced the Byzantines to pay them tribute.[29] The same books also described Constantinople in some detail as havingstrong granite walls and awater clock mounted with a golden statue of man.[29][41][42]Henry Yule noted that the name of the Byzantine negotiator "Yenyo" (the patricianJohn Pitzigaudes) was mentioned in Chinese sources, an envoy who was unnamed inEdward Gibbon's account of the man sent toDamascus to hold a parley with the Umayyads, followed a few years later by the increase of tributary demands on the Byzantines.[43] TheNew Book of Tang andWenxian Tongkao described the land ofNubia (either theKingdom of Kush orAksum) as a desert south-west of the Byzantine Empire that was infested withmalaria, where the natives hadblack skin and consumedPersian dates.[29] In discussing the threemain religions of Nubia (the Sudan), theWenxian Tongkao mentions theDaqin religion there and theday of rest occurring every seven days for those following the faith of theDa shi (theMuslim Arabs).[29] It also repeats the claim in theNew Book of Tang about theEastern Roman surgical practice oftrepanning to remove parasites from the brain.[29] The descriptions of Nubia andHorn of Africa in theWenxian Tongkao were ultimately derived from theJingxingji ofDu Huan (fl. 8th century AD),[44] a Chinese travel writer whose text, preserved in theTongdian ofDu You, is perhapsthe first Chinese source to describeEthiopia (Laobosa), in addition to offering descriptions ofEritrea (Molin).[45]
Some contact may have occurred betweenHellenistic Greeks and theQin dynasty in the late 3rd century BC, following the Central Asian campaigns ofAlexander the Great, king ofMacedon, and the establishment ofHellenistic kingdoms relatively close to China, such as theGreco-Bactrian Kingdom. Excavations atthe burial site of China's first EmperorQin Shi Huang (r. 221–210 BC) suggest ancientGreeks may have provided gifts to theHan ChineseQin dynasty evidenced byGreek stylistic andtechnological influences in some of the artworks found buried there, including a few examples of the famousTerracotta Army.[47][48] Cultural exchanges at such an early date are generally regarded as conjectural in academia, but excavations of a 4th-century BC tomb in Gansu province belonging to thestate of Qin have yielded Western items such as glass beads and a blue-glazed (possiblyfaience) beaker of Mediterranean origin.[49] Trade and diplomatic relations between China's Han Empire and remnants of Hellenistic Greek civilization under the rule of the nomadicDa Yuezhi began with the Central Asian journeys of the Han envoyZhang Qian (d. 113 BC). He brought back reports to the court ofEmperor Wu of Han about the "Dayuan" in theFergana Valley, withAlexandria Eschate as its capital, and the "Daxia" ofBactria, in what is now Afghanistan and Tajikistan.[50] The only well-known Roman traveller to have visited the easternmost fringes of Central Asia wasMaes Titianus,[note 3] a contemporary ofTrajan in either the late 1st or early 2nd century AD[note 4] who visited a "Stone Tower" that has been identified by historians as eitherTashkurgan in the ChinesePamirs[note 5] or a similar monument in theAlai Valley just west ofKashgar, Xinjiang, China.[51][52][53]
The historian Florus described the visit of numerous envoys, including the "Seres" (possibly the Chinese) to the court of the firstRoman EmperorAugustus (r. 27 BC – 14 AD):
Even the rest of the nations of the world which were not subject to the imperial sway were sensible of its grandeur, and looked with reverence to the Roman people, the great conqueror of nations. Thus evenScythians andSarmatians sent envoys to seek the friendship of Rome. Nay, the Seres came likewise, and theIndians who dwelt beneath the vertical sun, bringing presents of precious stones and pearls and elephants, but thinking all of less moment than the vastness of the journey which they had undertaken, and which they said had occupied four years. In truth it needed but to look at their complexion to see that they were people of another world than ours.[54][55]
In the entire corpus ofRoman literature andhistoriography, Yule was unable to uncover any other mention of such a direct diplomatic encounter between the Romans and the Seres.[note 6] He speculated that these people were more likely to have been private merchants than diplomats, since Chinese records insist thatGan Ying was the first Chinese to reach as far west as Tiaozhi (條支;Mesopotamia) in 97 AD.[note 6] Yule notes that the 1st-century ADPeriplus mentioned that people ofThinae (Sinae) were rarely seen, because of the difficulties of reaching that country.[12][13] It states that their country, located underUrsa Minor and on the farthest unknown reaches of theCaspian Sea, was the origin of raw silk and fine silk cloth that was traded overland from Bactria toBarygaza, as well as down the Ganges.[12]
TheEastern Han generalBan Chao (32–102 AD), in a series of military successes which brought theWestern Regions (theTarim Basin of Xinjiang) back under Chinese control and suzerainty, defeated the Da Yuezhi in 90 AD and theNorthern Xiongnu in 91 AD, forcing the submission of city-states such asKucha andTurfan,Khotan andKashgar (Indo-EuropeanTocharian andSaka settlements, respectively),[56] and finallyKarasahr in 94 AD.[57][58] An embassy from theParthian Empire had earlier arrived at the Han court in 89 AD and, while Ban was stationed with his army inKhotan, another Parthian embassy came in 101 AD, this time bringing exotic gifts such asostriches.[59]
In 97 AD, Ban Chao sent an envoy named Gan Ying to explore the far west. Gan made his way from the Tarim Basin toParthia and reached the Persian Gulf.[60] Gan left a detailed account of western countries; he apparently reached as far as Mesopotamia, then under the control of the Parthian Empire. He intended to sail to the Roman Empire, but was discouraged when told that the trip was dangerous and could take two years.[61][62] Deterred, he returned to China bringing much new information on the countries to the west of Chinese-controlled territories,[63] as far as theMediterranean Basin.[60]
Gan Ying is thought to have left an account of theRoman Empire (Daqin in Chinese) that relied on secondary sources, most likely from sailors in the ports which he visited. TheBook of the Later Han locates it inHaixi ("west of the sea", orRoman Egypt;[29][64] the sea is the one known to the Greeks and Romans as theErythraean Sea, which included thePersian Gulf, theArabian Sea, and Red Sea):[65]
Its territory extends for several thousands of li [ali during the Han dynasty equalled 415.8 metres].[66] 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. 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.[67]
TheBook of the Later Han gives a positive, if inaccurate, view ofRoman governance:
Their kings are not permanent rulers, but they appoint men of merit. When a severe calamity visits the country, or untimely rain-storms, the king is deposed and replaced by another. The one relieved from his duties submits to his degradation without a murmur. The inhabitants of that country are tall and well-proportioned, somewhat like the Han [Chinese], whence they are called [Daqin].[68]
Yule noted that although the description of theRoman Constitution and products was garbled, theBook of the Later Han offered an accurate depiction of thecoral fisheries in the Mediterranean.[69]Coral was a highly valued luxury item in Han China, imported among other items from India (mostly overland and perhaps also by sea), the latter region being where the Romans sold coral and obtainedpearls.[70] The original list of Roman products given in theBook of the Later Han, such assea silk,glass,amber,cinnabar, andasbestos cloth, is expanded in theWeilüe.[38][71] TheWeilüe also claimed that in 134 AD the ruler of theShule Kingdom (Kashgar), who had been a hostage at the court of theKushan Empire, offered blue (or green) gems originating fromHaixi as gifts to the Eastern Han court.[38]Fan Ye, the editor of theBook of the Later Han, wrote that former generations of Chinese had never reached these far western regions, but that the report of Gan Ying revealed to the Chinese their lands, customs and products.[72] TheBook of the Later Han also asserts that the Parthians (Chinese: 安息;Anxi) wished "to control the trade in multi-coloured Chinese silks" and therefore intentionally blocked the Romans from reaching China.[64]
It is possible that a group of Greek acrobatic performers, who claimed to be from a place "west of the seas" (Roman Egypt, which theBook of the Later Han related to the Daqin empire), were presentedby a king of Burma to Emperor An of Han in 120 AD.[note 7][73][74] It is known that in both the Parthian Empire and Kushan Empire of Asia, ethnic Greeks continued to be employed after theHellenistic period as musicians and athletes.[75][76] TheBook of the Later Han states that Emperor An transferred these entertainers from his countryside residence to the capitalLuoyang, where they gave a performance at his court and were rewarded with gold, silver, and other gifts.[77] With regard to the origin of these entertainers, Raoul McLaughlin speculates that the Romanswere selling slaves to the Burmese and that this is how the entertainers originally reached Burma before they were sent by the Burmese ruler to Emperor An in China.[78][note 8] Meanwhile, Syrian jugglers were renowned in WesternClassical literature,[79] and Chinese sources from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD seem to mention them as well.[80]
The first group of people claiming to be an ambassadorial mission of Romans to China was recorded as having arrived in 166 AD by theBook of the Later Han. The embassy came toEmperor Huan ofHan China from "Andun" (Chinese:安敦; EmperorAntoninus Pius orMarcus Aurelius Antoninus), "king of Daqin" (Rome):[81][82]
"... 其王常欲通使於漢，而安息欲以漢繒彩與之交市，故遮閡不得自達。至桓帝延熹九年，大秦王安敦遣使自日南徼外獻象牙、犀角、瑇瑁，始乃一通焉。其所表貢，並無珍異，疑傳者過焉。"
"... The king of this state always wanted to enter into diplomatic relations with the Han. ButParthia ("Anxi") wanted to trade with them in Han silk and so put obstacles in their way, so that they could never have direct relations [with Han]. This continued until the ninth year of the Yanxi (延熹) reign period ofEmperor Huan (桓) (A.D. 166), when Andun (安敦), king ofDa Qin, sent an envoy from beyond the frontier ofRinan (日南) who offered elephant tusk, rhinoceros horn, and tortoise shell. It was only then that for the first time communication was established [between the two states]."
— 《後漢書·西域傳》 “Xiyu Zhuan” of theHou Hanshu (ch. 88)[83]
As Antoninus Pius died in 161 AD, leaving the empire to his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and the envoy arrived in 166 AD,[84] confusion remains about who sent the mission, as both emperors were named "Antoninus".[32][85] The Roman mission came from the south (therefore probably by sea), entering China by the frontier ofRinan orTonkin (present-day Vietnam). It brought presents ofrhinoceros horns,ivory, andtortoiseshell, probably acquired inSouthern Asia.[85][86] The text states that it was the first time there had been direct contact between the two countries.[85] Yule speculated that the Roman visitors must have lost their original wares due to robbery or shipwreck and used the gifts instead, prompting Chinese sources to suspect them of withholding their more precious valuables, which Yule notes was the same criticism directed atpapal missionaryJohn of Montecorvino when he arrived in China in the late 13th century AD.[87] HistoriansRafe de Crespigny,Peter Fibiger Bang, andWarwick Ball believe that this was most likely a group ofRoman merchants rather than official diplomats sent by Marcus Aurelius.[80][81][88] Crespigny stresses that the presence of this Roman embassy as well as others fromTianzhu (innorthern India) andBuyeo (inManchuria) provided much-needed prestige for Emperor Huan, as he was facing seriouspolitical troubles and fallout for the forced suicide of politicianLiang Ji, who had dominated the Han government well after the death of his sisterEmpress Liang Na.[89] Yule emphasised that the Roman embassy was said to come by way ofJiaozhi in northern Vietnam, the same route that Chinese sources claimed the embassies from Tianzhu (northern India) had used in 159 and 161 AD.[90]
TheWeilüe andBook of Liang record the arrival in 226 AD of a merchantnamed Qin Lun (秦論) fromthe Roman Empire (Daqin) atJiaozhou (Chinese-controlled northern Vietnam).[6][38][80] Wu Miao, the Prefect of Jiaozhi, sent him to the court ofSun Zhongmou (the ruler ofEastern Wu during theThree Kingdoms) inNanjing,[6][80] where Sun requested that he provide him with a report on his native country and its people.[29][38] An expedition was mounted to return the merchant along with ten female and ten male "blackish coloured dwarfs" he had requested as a curiosity, as well as a Chinese officer, Liu Xian of Huiji (inZhejiang), who died en route.[29][38][91] According to theWeilüe andBook of Liang Roman merchants were active inCambodia and Vietnam, a claim supported by modern archaeological finds of ancient Mediterranean goods in theSoutheast Asian countries of Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.[6][29][38]
Yule mentions that in the early 3rd century AD a ruler of Daqin sent an envoy with gifts to the northern Chinese court ofCao Wei (220–266 AD) that includedglassware of various colours.[92] Several years later a Daqin craftsman is mentioned as showing the Chinese how to make "flints into crystal by means of fire", a curiosity to the Chinese.[92]
Another embassy from Daqin is recorded as bringing tributary gifts to the ChineseJin Empire (266–420 AD).[80][93] This occurred in 284 AD during the reign ofEmperor Wu of Jin (r. 266–290 AD), and was recorded in theBook of Jin, as well as the laterWenxian Tongkao.[29][80] This embassy was presumably sent by the EmperorCarus (r. 282–283 AD), whose brief reign waspreoccupied by war withSasanian Persia.[94]
Chinese histories for theTang dynasty (618–907 AD) record contacts with merchants from "Fulin" (拂菻), the new name used to designate the Byzantine Empire.[29][95][96] The first reported diplomatic contact took place in 643 AD during the reigns ofConstans II (641–668 AD) andEmperor Taizong of Tang (626–649 AD).[29] TheOld Book of Tang, followed by theNew Book of Tang, provides the name "Po-to-li" (波多力,pinyin:Bōduōlì) for Constans II, which Hirth conjectured to be a transliteration ofKōnstantinos Pogonatos, or "Constantine the Bearded", giving him the title of aking (王wáng).[29] Yule[97] and S. A. M. Adshead offer a different transliteration stemming from "patriarch" or "patrician", possibly a reference to one of the actingregents for the 13-year-old Byzantine monarch.[98] The Tang histories record that Constans II sent an embassy in the 17th year of the Zhenguan (貞觀) regnal period (643 AD), bearing gifts ofred glass and greengemstones.[29] Yule points out thatYazdegerd III (r. 632–651 AD), last ruler of the Sasanian Empire, sent diplomats to China to secure aid from Emperor Taizong (considered the suzerain overFerghana in Central Asia) during the loss of thePersian heartland to the IslamicRashidun Caliphate, which may also have prompted the Byzantines to send envoys to China amid theirrecent loss of Syria to the Muslims.[99] Tang Chinese sources also recorded how Sasanian princePeroz III (636–679 AD) fled to Tang China following theconquest of Persia by the growing Islamic caliphate.[98][100]
Yule asserts that the additional Fulin embassies during the Tang period arrived in 711 and 719 AD, with another in 742 AD that may have been Nestorian monks.[101] Adshead lists four official diplomatic contacts with Fulin in theOld Book of Tang as occurring in 643, 667, 701, and 719 AD.[102] He speculates that the absence of these missions in Western literary sources can be explained by how the Byzantines typically viewed political relations with powers of the East, as well as the possibility that they were launched on behalf of frontier officials instead ofthe central government.[103] Yule and Adshead concur that a Fulin diplomatic mission occurred during the reign ofJustinian II (r. 685–695 AD; 705–711 AD). Yule claims it occurred in the year of the emperor's death, 711 AD,[104] whereas Adshead contends that it took place in 701 AD during the usurpation ofLeontios and the emperor's exile inCrimea, perhaps the reason for its omission inByzantine records and the source for confusion in Chinese histories about precisely who sent this embassy.[105] Justinian II regained the throne with the aid ofBulgars and a marriage alliance with theKhazars. Adshead therefore believes a mission sent to Tang China would be consistent with Justinian II's behaviour, especially if he had knowledge of the permissionEmpress Wu Zetian granted toNarsieh, son of Peroz III, to march against the Arabs in Central Asia at the end of the 7th century.[105]
The 719 AD a Fulin embassy ostensibly came fromLeo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741 AD) to the court ofEmperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712–756 AD), during a time when the Byzantine emperor was again reaching out to Eastern powers with a renewed Khazar marriage alliance.[106] It also came as Leo III had just defeated the Arabs in 717 CE.[107] The Chinese annals record that "In the first month of the seventh year of the periodKaiyuan [719 CE] their lord [拂菻王, "the King of Fulin"] sent the Ta-shou-ling [an officer of high rank] of T'u-huo-lo [吐火羅,Tokhara] (...) to offer lions and ling-yang [antelopes], two of each. A few months after, he further sent Ta-te-seng ["priests of great virtue"] to our court with tribute."[108] During its long voyage, this embassy probably visited theTurk Shahis king ofAfghanistan, since the son of the king took the title "Fromo Kesaro" when he acceded to the throne in 739 CE.[107][109] "Fromo Kesaro" is a phonetic transcription of "Roman Caesar", probably chosen in honor of "Caesar", the title of Leo III, who had defeated their common enemy the Arabs.[107][109][110] In Chinese sources "Fromo Kesaro" was aptly transcribed"Fulin Jisuo" (拂菻罽娑), "Fulin" (拂菻) being the standardTang dynasty name for "Byzantine Empire".[111][112][109] The year of this embassy coincided with Xuanzong's refusal to provide aid to theSogdians ofBukhara andSamarkand against theArab invasion force.[106] An embassy from the Umayyad Caliphate was received by the Tang court in 732 AD. However, the Arab victory at the 751 ADBattle of Talas and theAn Lushan Rebellion crippled Tang Chinese interventionist efforts in Central Asia.[113]
The last diplomatic contacts with Fulin are recorded as having taken place in the 11th century AD. From theWenxian Tongkao, written by historianMa Duanlin (1245–1322), and from theHistory of Song, it is known that the Byzantine emperorMichael VII Parapinakēs Caesar (滅力沙靈改撒,Mie li sha ling kai sa) of Fulin sent an embassy to China'sSong dynasty that arrived in 1081 AD, during the reign ofEmperor Shenzong of Song (r. 1067–1085 AD).[29][114] TheHistory of Song described the tributary gifts given by the Byzantine embassy as well as the products made in Byzantium. It also described punishments used inByzantine law, such as thecapital punishment of being stuffed into a "feather bag" and thrown into the sea,[29] probably the Romano-Byzantine practice ofpoena cullei (fromLatin 'penalty of the sack').[115] The final recorded embassy arrived in 1091 AD, during the reign ofAlexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118 AD); this event is only mentioned in passing.[116]
TheHistory of Yuan offers a biography of a Byzantine man named Ai-sie (transliteration of either Joshua or Joseph), who originally served the court ofGüyük Khan but later became a headastronomer andphysician for the court ofKublai Khan, the Mongol founder of theYuan dynasty (1271–1368 AD), atKhanbaliq (modernBeijing).[117] He was eventually granted the title Prince of Fulin (拂菻王,Fúlǐn wáng) and his children were listed with theirChinese names, which seem to match with transliterations of theChristian names Elias, Luke, and Antony.[117] Kublai Khan is also known to have sent Nestorian monks, includingRabban Bar Sauma, to the court of Byzantine rulerAndronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328 AD), whosehalf-sisters were married to the great-grandsons ofGenghis Khan, making this Byzantine ruler anin-law with the Mongol ruler in Beijing.[118]
Within theMongol Empire, whicheventually included all of China, there were enough Westerners travelling there that in 1340 ADFrancesco Balducci Pegolotti compiled aguide book for fellow merchants on how to exchange silver forpaper money to purchase silkin Khanbaliq (Beijing).[120] By this stage the Eastern Roman Empire, temporarily dismantled by theLatin Empire, had shrunk to the size of a rump state inparts of Greece andAnatolia.[121][122]Ma Duanlin, author of theWenxian Tongkao, noted the shifting political boundaries, albeit based on generally inaccurate and distortedpolitical geography.[29] He wrote that historians of the Tang dynasty considered "Daqin" and "Fulin" to be the same country, but he had his reservations about this due to discrepancies in geographical accounts and other concerns (Wade–Giles spelling):
During the sixth year of Yuan-yu [1091] they sent two embassies, and their king was presented, by Imperial order, with 200 pieces of cloth, pairs of silver vases, and clothing with gold bound in a girdle. According to the historians of the T'ang dynasty, the country of Fulin was held to be identical with the ancient Ta-ts'in. It should be remarked, however, that, although Ta-ts'in has from the Later Han dynasty when Zhongguo was first communicated with, till down to the Chin and T'ang dynasties has offered tribute without interruption, yet the historians of the "four reigns" of the Sung dynasty, in their notices of Fulin, hold that this country has not sent tribute to court up to the time of Yuan-feng [1078–1086] when they sent their first embassy offering local produce. If we, now, hold together the two accounts of Fulin as transmitted by the two different historians, we find that, in the account of the T'ang dynasty, this country is said "to border on the great sea in the west"; whereas the Sung account says that "in the west you have still thirty days' journey to the sea;" and the remaining boundaries do also not tally in the two accounts; nor do the products and the customs of the people. I suspect that we have before us merely an accidental similarity of the name, and that the country is indeed not identical with Ta-ts'in. I have, for this reason, appended the Fulin account of the T'ang dynasty to my chapter on Ta-ts'in, and represented this Fulin of the Sung dynasty as a separate country altogether.[123]
TheHistory of Ming expounds how theHongwu Emperor, founder of theMing dynasty (1368–1644 AD), sent a merchant of Fulin named "Nieh-ku-lun" (捏古倫) back to his native country with a letter announcing thefounding of the Ming dynasty.[29][124][125] It is speculated that the merchant was aformer archbishop ofKhanbaliq called Nicolaus de Bentra (who succeededJohn of Montecorvino for that position).[29][126] TheHistory of Ming goes on to explain that contacts between China and Fulin ceased after this point and an envoy of the great western sea (theMediterranean Sea) did not appear in China again until the 16th century AD, with the 1582 AD arrival of the ItalianJesuit missionaryMatteo Ricci in PortugueseMacau.[29][note 9]
Direct trade links between the Mediterranean lands and India had been established in the late 2nd century BC by the HellenisticPtolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.[127] Greek navigators learned to use the regular pattern of themonsoon winds for their trade voyages in theIndian Ocean. The lively sea trade in Roman times is confirmed by the excavation of large deposits of Roman coins along much of the coast of India. Many trading ports with links to Roman communities have beenidentified in India and Sri Lanka along the route used by the Roman mission.[128] Archaeological evidence stretching from the Red Sea ports ofRoman Egypt to India suggests thatRoman commercial activity in the Indian Ocean andSoutheast Asia declined heavily with theAntonine Plague of 166 AD, the same year as the first Roman embassy to Han China, where similar plague outbreaks had occurred from 151 AD.[129][130]
High-qualityglass from Roman manufacturers inAlexandria and Syria was exported to many parts of Asia, including Han China.[131][33] The firstRoman glassware discovered in China is a blue soda-lime glass bowl dating to the early 1st century BC and excavated from a Western Han tomb in the southern port city ofGuangzhou, which may have come there via the Indian Ocean andSouth China Sea.[132] Other Roman glass items include a mosaic-glass bowl found in a prince's tomb nearNanjing dated to 67 AD and a glass bottle with opaque white streaks found in anEastern Han tomb ofLuoyang.[133] Roman and Persian glassware has been found in a 5th-century AD tomb ofGyeongju, Korea, capital of ancientSilla, east of China.[134] Roman glass beads have been discovered as far as Japan, within the 5th-century ADKofun-era Utsukushi burial mound nearKyoto.[135]
From Chinese sources it is known that other Roman luxury items were esteemed by the Chinese. These include gold-embroideredrugs and gold-coloured cloth,amber,asbestos cloth, andsea silk, which was a cloth made from the silk-like hairs of a Mediterranean shellfish, thePinna nobilis.[29][136][137][138] As well as silver and bronze items found throughout China dated to the 3rd–2nd centuries BC and perhaps originating from theSeleucid Empire, there is also a Romangilded silver plate dated to the 2nd–3rd centuries AD and found inJingyuan County, Gansu, with a raisedrelief image in the centre depicting the Greco-Roman godDionysus resting on a feline creature.[139]
A maritime route opened up with the Chinese-controlled port ofRinan in Jiaozhi (centred in modern Vietnam) and theKhmerkingdom of Funan by the 2nd century AD, if not earlier.[140][141] Jiaozhi was proposed byFerdinand von Richthofen in 1877 to have been the port known to the Greco-Roman geographerPtolemy asCattigara, situated near modernHanoi.[142]Ptolemy wrote that Cattigara lay beyond theGolden Chersonese (theMalay Peninsula) and was visited by a Greek sailor named Alexander, most likely a merchant.[6] Richthofen's identification of Cattigara as Hanoi was widely accepted until archaeological discoveries atÓc Eo (nearHo Chi Minh City) in theMekong Delta during the mid-20th century suggested this may have been its location.[note 10] At this place, which was once located along the coastline, Roman coins were among the vestiges of long-distance trade discovered by the French archaeologistLouis Malleret in the 1940s.[140] These include Roman goldenmedallions from the reigns ofAntoninus Pius and his successor Marcus Aurelius.[6][143] Furthermore, Roman goods and native jewellery imitatingAntonine Roman coins have been found there, and Granville Allen Mawer states that Ptolemy's Cattigara seems to correspond with the latitude of modern Óc Eo.[14][note 11] Ancient Roman glass beads and bracelets were also found at the site.[143]
The trade connection from Cattigara extended, via ports on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, all the way to Roman-controlled ports inEgypt and theNabataean territories on the north-eastern coast of the Red Sea.[144] The archaeologist Warwick Ball does not consider discoveries such as the Roman and Roman-inspired goods at Óc Eo, a coin of Roman emperorMaximian found inTonkin, and a Roman bronze lamp at P'ong Tuk in the Mekong Delta, to be conclusive proof that Romans visited these areas and suggests that the items could have been introduced by Indian merchants.[145] While observing that the Romans had a recognised trading port in Southeast Asia, Dougald O'Reilly writes that there is little evidence to suggest Cattigara was Óc Eo. He argues that the Roman items found there only indicate that the Indian Ocean trade network extended to the ancient Kingdom of Funan.[143]
Archaeological excavations of Roman ruled Chatalka (an area in modern-day Bulgaria) uncovered several swords and other weapons buried inside tombs. These swords include Han Dynasty style swords and scabbards with nephrite-jade scabbard slides adorned with Chinese dragon motifs.[146]
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Chinese trade with the Roman Empire, confirmed by theRoman desire for silk, started in the 1st century BC. The Romans knew ofwild silk harvested onCos (coa vestis), but they did not at first make the connection with the silk that was produced in thePamirSarikol kingdom.[147] There were few direct trade contacts between Romans and Han Chinese, as the rival Parthians and Kushans were each protecting their lucrative role as trade intermediaries.[148][149]
During the 1st century BC silk was still a rare commodity in the Roman world; by the 1st century AD this valuable trade item became much more widely available.[150] In hisNatural History (77–79 AD),Pliny the Elder lamented the financial drain of coin from theRoman economy to purchase this expensive luxury. He remarked that Rome's "womankind" and the purchase of luxury goods from India, Arabia, and the Seres of theFar East cost the empire roughly 100 millionsesterces per year,[151] and claimed that journeys were made to the Seres to acquire silk cloth along withpearl diving in theRed Sea.[152][138] Despite the claims by Pliny the Elder about the trade imbalance and quantity of Rome's coinage used to purchase silk, Warwick Ball asserts that the Roman purchase of other foreign commodities, particularlyspices from India, had a much greater impact on the Roman economy.[153] In 14 AD theSenate issued an edict prohibiting the wearing of silk by men, but it continued to flow unabated into the Roman world.[150] Beyond the economic concerns that the import of silk caused a huge outflow of wealth, silk clothes were also considered to be decadent and immoral bySeneca the Elder:
I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes ... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body.
— Seneca the Elder c. 3 BC – 65 AD,Excerpta Controversiae 2.7[154]
Trade items such as spice and silk had to be paid for with Roman gold coinage. There was some demand in China for Roman glass; the Han Chinese also produced glass in certain locations.[155][150] Chinese-produced glassware date back to the Western Han era (202 BC – 9 AD).[156] In dealing with foreign states such as the Parthian Empire, the Han Chinese were perhaps more concerned with diplomatically outmaneuvering their chief enemies, the nomadicXiongnu, than with establishing trade, since mercantile pursuits and themerchant class were frowned upon by thegentry whodominated the Han government.[157]
Valerie Hansen wrote in 2012 that no Roman coins from theRoman Republic (509–27 BC) or thePrincipate (27 BC – 284 AD) era of theRoman Empire have been found in China.[158] Nevertheless,Warwick Ball (2016) cites two studies from 1978 summarizing the discovery atXi'an, China (the site of the Han capitalChang'an) of a hoard of sixteen Roman coins from the reigns ofTiberius (14–37 AD) toAurelian (270–275 AD).[153] The Roman coins found at Óc Eo, Vietnam, near Chinese-controlledJiaozhou, date to the mid-2nd century AD.[6][143] A coin of Maximian (r. 286–305 AD) was also discovered inTonkin.[145] As a note, Roman coins of the 3rd and 4th centuries AD have been discovered in Japan; they were unearthed fromKatsuren Castle (inUruma, Okinawa), which was built from the 12th to 15th centuries AD.[159]
Shortly after thesmuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire from China byNestorian Christian monks, the 6th-century AD Byzantine historianMenander Protector wrote of how the Sogdians attempted to establish a direct trade of Chinese silk with theByzantine Empire. After forming an alliance with the Sasanian Persian rulerKhosrow I to defeat theHephthalite Empire,Istämi, theGöktürk ruler of theFirst Turkic Khaganate, was approached by Sogdian merchants requesting permission to seek an audience with the Sasanian king of kings for the privilege of travelling through Persian territories to trade with the Byzantines.[160] Istämi refused the first request, but when he sanctioned the second one and had the Sogdian embassy sent to the Sasanian king, the latter had the members of the embassy killed by poison.[160] Maniakh, a Sogdian diplomat, convinced Istämi to send an embassy directly to Byzantium's capitalConstantinople, which arrived in 568 AD and offered not only silk as a gift to Byzantine rulerJustin II, but also an alliance against Sasanian Persia. Justin II agreed and sent an embassy underZemarchus to the Turkic Khaganate, ensuring the direct silk trade desired by the Sogdians.[160][161][162] The small number ofRoman andByzantine coins found during excavations of Central Asian and Chinese archaeological sites from this era suggests that direct trade with the Sogdians remained limited. This was despite the fact that ancient Romans imported Han Chinese silk,[163] and discoveries in contemporary tombs indicate that theHan-dynasty Chinese imported Roman glassware.[164]
The earliest goldsolidus coins from the Eastern Roman Empire found in China date to the reign of Byzantine emperorTheodosius II (r. 408–450 AD) and altogether only forty-eight of them have been found (compared to 1300 silver coins) inXinjiang and the rest of China.[158] The use of silver coins inTurfan persisted long after theTang campaign against Karakhoja and Chinese conquest of 640 AD, with a gradual adoption ofChinese bronze coinage during the 7th century AD.[158] Hansen maintains that these Eastern Roman coins were almost always found withSasanian Persian silver coins and Eastern Roman gold coins were used more as ceremonial objects liketalismans, confirming the pre-eminence ofGreater Iran in Chinese Silk Road commerce of Central Asia compared to Eastern Rome.[165]Walter Scheidel remarks that the Chinese viewed Byzantine coins as pieces of exotic jewellery, preferring to use bronze coinage in theTang andSong dynasties, as well aspaper money during the Song and Ming periods, even while silverbullion was plentiful.[166] Ball writes that the scarcity of Roman and Byzantine coins in China, and the greater amounts found in India, suggest that most Chinese silk purchased by the Romans was from maritime India, largely bypassing the overlandSilk Road trade through Iran.[153] Chinese coins from theSui and Tang dynasties (6th–10th centuries AD) have been discovered in India; significantly larger amounts are dated to the Song period (11th–13th centuries AD), particularly in the territories of the contemporaryChola dynasty.[167]
Even with the Byzantine production of silk starting in the 6th century AD, Chinese varieties were still considered to be of higher quality.[22] This theory is supported by the discovery of a Byzantinesolidus minted during the reign ofJustin II found in a Sui-dynasty tomb ofShanxi province in 1953, among other Byzantine coins found at various sites.[22] Chinese histories offer descriptions of Roman and Byzantine coins. TheWeilüe,Book of the Later Han,Book of Jin, as well as the laterWenxian Tongkao noted how ten ancient Roman silver coins were worth one Roman gold coin.[29][38][69][168] The Roman goldenaureus was worth about twenty-five silverdenarii.[169] During the later Byzantine Empire, twelve silvermiliaresion was equal to one goldnomisma.[170] TheHistory of Song notes that the Byzantines made coins of either silver or gold,without holes in the middle, with an inscription of the king's name.[29] It also asserts that the Byzantines forbade the production of counterfeit coins.[29]
In 2010,mitochondrial DNA was used to identify that a partial skeleton found in a Roman cemetery from the 1st or 2nd century AD in Vagnari, Italy, hadEast Asian ancestry on his mother's side. Evidence indicated that he was not originally from Italy, and was a slave or worker in the area.[171][172] However, although they are examples of Eurasian contacts, they were not a Chinese population, but were of Paleo-Siberian descent.[173]
A 2016 analysis of archaeological finds fromSouthwark in London, the site of the ancient Roman cityLondinium inRoman Britain, suggests that two or three skeletons from a sample of twenty-two dating to the 2nd to the 4th centuries AD are of Asian ancestry, and possibly of Chinese descent. The assertion is based on forensics and the analysis of skeletal facial features (the "Looks Chinese" method). The discovery has been presented by Dr Rebecca Redfern, curator of humanosteology at theMuseum of London.[174][175] No DNA analysis has yet been done, the skull and tooth samples available offer only fragmentary pieces of evidence, and the samples that were used were compared with the morphology of modern populations, not ancient ones.[176]
The historianHomer H. Dubs speculated in 1941 that Roman prisoners of war who were transferred to the eastern border of the Parthian Empire might later have clashed with Han troops there.[177]
After a Roman army under the command ofMarcus Licinius Crassus decisively lost thebattle of Carrhae in 53 BC, an estimated 10,000 Roman prisoners were dispatched by the Parthians toMargiana to man the frontier. Some time later the nomadicXiongnu chiefZhizhi established a state further east in theTalas valley, near modern-dayTaraz. Dubs points to a Chinese account byBan Gu of about "a hundred men" under the command of Zhizhi who fought in a so-called "fish-scale formation" to defend Zhizhi's wooden-palisade fortress againstHan forces, in theBattle of Zhizhi in 36 BC. He claimed that this might have been the Romantestudo formation and that these men, who were captured by the Chinese, founded thevillage of Liqian (Li-chien, possibly from "legio") inYongchang County.[178][179]
There have been attempts to promote the Sino-Roman connection for tourism, but Dubs' synthesis of Roman and Chinese sources has not found acceptance among historians, on the grounds that it is highly speculative and reaches too many conclusions without sufficient hard evidence.[180][181]DNA testing in 2005 confirmed theIndo-European ancestry of a few inhabitants of modern Liqian; this could be explained by transethnic marriages with Indo-European people known to have lived in Gansu in ancient times,[182][183] such as theYuezhi andWusun. A much more comprehensive DNA analysis of more than two hundred male residents of the village in 2007 showed close genetic relation to theHan Chinese populace and great deviation from theWestern Eurasian gene pool.[184] The researchers conclude that the people of Liqian are probably of Han Chinese origin.[184] The area lacks archaeological evidence of a Roman presence, such as coins, pottery, weaponry, architecture, etc.[182][183]
The first year of Yongning (120 AD), the southwestern barbarian king of the kingdom of Chan (Burma), Yongyou, proposed illusionists (jugglers) who could metamorphose themselves and spit out fire; they could dismember themselves and change an ox head into a horse head. They were very skilful in acrobatics and they could do a thousand other things. They said that they were from the "west of the seas" (Haixi–Egypt). The west of the seas is the Daqin (Rome). The Daqin is situated to the south-west of the Chan country. During the following year,Andi organized festivities in his country residence and the acrobats were transferred to the Han capital where they gave a performance to the court, and created a great sensation. They received the honours of the Emperor, with gold and silver, and every one of them received a different gift.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)He received this laudatory epithet because he, like the Byzantines, was successful at holding back the Muslim conquerors.
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