The second century BC was a great century for the entire human civilization. In this century, the Roman Empire in the West destroyed the Kingdom of Macedonia and the Republic of Carthage, establishing a huge empire spanning the Mediterranean Sea; in the East, the Western Han Empire ushered in its prosperity through the rule of Wenjing, and at the same time, one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history, the Han Wudi Emperor Liu Che, stepped onto the stage of history.
The Western Han Dynasty and Rome are like mirror images of history, they represent the peak of Eastern and Western civilizations. However, under the two "high mountains" of the Western Han Dynasty and Rome, there is also a bright pearl, which is the hegemon of West Asia, the Rest country. Three vast empires are like pearls, connecting the civilizations of Eurasia. However, with beads, there must also be "threads" that string the beads together. The first to take this step and connect the "beads" was Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty.
In the second year of Emperor Wu's jianyuan (139 BC), Zhang Qian led more than a hundred people from Longxi (present-day Lintao, Gansu) to the unknown western region to find the Yue clan in the desert. When Zhang Qian and others set out, they probably wouldn't have thought that they had taken a great step in human history.
Zhang Qian and the others carried the mission entrusted to them by Emperor Wu of Han: to unite with the Yue clan and fight against the Xiongnu. Zhang Qian was fearless, before him, no one would go deep into the Western Regions, for the Han people, the Western Regions behind the Yellow Sands were an unknown territory. Like most famous expeditions in human history, Zhang Qian's expedition to the Western Regions was full of difficulties and obstacles. When Zhang Qian and his party hurried through the Hexi Corridor, they unfortunately encountered the Xiongnu cavalry. After some fighting, Zhang Qian and the others were all taken prisoner and escorted to the court of the Xiongnu king. When the Xiongnu Shan Yu learned of Zhang Qian's mission, he sneered: "The Yue clan is in Northern Wu, why did Han get there?" Let me want to make the more, Han Ken listen to me? (The Chronicle of History)
Shan Yu only felt ridiculous about Zhang Qian's idea, and wanting to cross the Xiongnu to unite with the Yue clan was tantamount to letting the Xiongnu pass through the Han Dynasty and unite with South Vietnam. Shan Yu did not kill Zhang Qian, an envoy of the Han Dynasty, which was a precious political resource for the Xiongnu. In order to win Zhang Qian over, the Xiongnu only coerced and seduced Zhang Qian, and gave him a wife and children, but Zhang Qian was always unmoved, "not dishonoring the king's order" and "holding the Han Festival without losing" ("History"). When the Xiongnu saw that Zhang Qian was soft and hard, they put him under house arrest, and this pass was ten years.
How many decades of life? In the desert, no matter how iron-boned a man would be polished without edges and corners, the Xiongnu believed that Zhang Qian would yield sooner or later. However, just like Su Wu, Zhang Qian also had his integrity, and for ten years, he never forgot his original intention. In the sixth year of Yuan Guang (129 BC), Zhang Qian saw that the enemy's surveillance was slack, seized the opportunity to flee the Xiongnu court with his retinue, and continued to the western region.
It was a continuation of the mission and the beginning of an escape. What Zhang Qian and the others had to do was to break through the xiongnu-controlled areas and go to the western region. After ten years of Xiongnu life, zhang qian and others learned the language and living habits of the Huns, and when they put on the Hu costume, even the Huns could not recognize them.
Zhang Qian's journey to find the Yue clan was extremely arduous, and after decades, Zhang Qian and others did not know where the Yue clan people had gone, and they could only keep moving forward in the desert. After a long and arduous journey, many people died on the road, but Zhang Qian and others never wavered in their faith.
"Bitter people, the sky is not worthy", when Zhang Qian and others experienced hardships, they finally arrived at the new country established by the Yue people with the help of the Great Wanguo - Bactria . Regrettably, however, the Kingdom of Bactria was far from where the Former Yueshi lived, and the Huns were no longer a threat to Bactria, preferring to abandon their homeland rather than take the risk of attacking the Xiongnu in alliance with the Han Dynasty.
In this way, Zhang Qian's mission was a failure, and he could only return to China with his subordinates. On the way back to China, Zhang Qian was again captured and detained by the Xiongnu, until the Xiongnu civil unrest, Zhang Qian and others took the opportunity to flee back to Chang'an. From the second year of Emperor Wu's Jianyuan (139 BC) to the third year of Yuan Shuo (126 BC) to the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian's first mission to the Western Regions lasted for thirteen years. When Zhang Qian set out, he took more than a hundred people with him, and when he returned thirteen years later, he was left with only his father Andi and his wife of the Xiongnu.
Such tribulations were enough to cause people to collapse, but Zhang Qian was not afraid, and in the fourth year of the Yuan Hunt (119 BC), Zhang Qian was ordered to go to the Western Regions for the second time. This time, Zhang Qian's mission was to send an envoy to Wusun and unite with Wusun to fight against the Xiongnu. However, this time Zhang Qian still did not succeed, and King Wusun did not agree to return to the east due to fear of the Xiongnu, but he sent dozens of emissaries to the Han Dynasty with Zhang Qian. In addition, Zhang Qian also sent deputy envoys to dawan, Kangju, Yueshi, Bactria and other countries, and established contacts with the western regions. In the process, the envoys of the Han Dynasty also went to the Place of Rest (Persia), The Poison (India), The Lotus (between the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea), tiaozhi (the state of the Abode), and the Lixuan (the city of Alexandria, Egypt, which was attached to the Great Qin).
In the second year of Yuan Ding (115 BC), Zhang Qian returned to the Han Dynasty, and he died the following year. Looking back at Zhang Qian's life, judging only from the mission given to him by Emperor Wu of Han, he failed, and neither the Yue clan nor Wusun agreed to the joint plan of the Han Dynasty. However, if we look at the role and influence of Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, his mission is undoubtedly a great success.
Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the political and cultural power of the Central Plains Dynasty has expanded mostly to the Xirong region, and the western region outside the Yumen Pass has always been an unknown territory for the Qin and Han Dynasties. After Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, he not only strengthened the ties between Xinjiang and the hinterland, but also established and strengthened China's direct exchanges with Central Asia, West Asia, and even southern Europe.
Under the communication of Zhang Qian, the economic and cultural exchanges between the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions became more and more frequent, and the Han Dynasty's cast iron, canal opening, well sinking and other technologies and silk fabrics, metal tools, etc. spread to the Western Regions, promoting the economic development and social progress of the Western Regions. Fine stallions such as pegasus and sweat horses in the western region, as well as grapes, carrots, carpets, etc., were also introduced to China, which greatly enriched the economic life of the Han people.
It can be said that it was Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions that laid the foundation for the "Silk Road". As Professor Zhang Yizhi praised in "The Great QinLing Mountains": "Without Zhang Qian's envoy to the Western Regions, there would be no opening of the Silk Road." Without the opening of the Silk Road, there would be no exchanges between the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions and with European cultures, so the significance of the Western Regions is very important. ”
Resources:
Sima Qian, Chronicle of History