Thousands of miles to hardships, chiseled air to benefit the ancient and modern
Sima Qian used a word when writing about Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, he called Zhang Qian's behavior "chiseling the void", this is probably a new word created by Sima Gong, but it is very appropriate to think about it, how to say that this Qiantong Western Region is groundbreaking, unprecedented, and the result is unpredictable.
I have seen that some people understand this "chiseling" as "chiseling hole", which means that a thick wall is chiseled through, opening up the hole in the Central Plains to the Western Regions, in fact, it is far less flexible than Sima Gong's "empty" word, because this "empty" word is confused and unknown, and everything is like smoke and fog, there is uncertainty, right.
Zhang Qian's passage to the western region is a well-known thing for the Chinese people, and I don't need to talk nonsense in this, I remember that there was a very popular program called "China on the Tip of the Tongue" before, which mentioned many times that on the table of the Chinese people, many things are related to Zhang Qian, which is incomparably correct.
Now the ingredients on our table are actually closely related to the three nouns of the three periods, namely "Hu", "Hai" and "Fan", and the "Hu" surname is related to Zhang Qian, such as pepper, pepper, pepper, walnut and carrot, etc., all of which were introduced to the Central Plains after Zhang Qian passed through the Western Regions, and some of them are seeds brought back by Zhang Qian himself.
There are many labels on Zhang Qian's body, in addition to being called "the first Chinese who opened his eyes to see the world", there are also "pioneers of the Silk Road" and "Columbus of the East", especially the national policies that China is implementing now, which also increases the weight of Zhang Qian in the minds of the Chinese people.
Zhang Qian,Ziwen Ziwen ,害中郡城固人, was an outstanding diplomat, traveler, explorer and pioneer of the Silk Road in the Han Dynasty of China. After Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he was ordered by Father Gan as a guide, leading more than a hundred people to the Western Regions, opening up the North-South Road from the Han Dynasty to the Western Regions, that is, the famous Silk Road, and Emperor Wu of Han made him the Marquis of Bowang for his military merits.
He spread the Civilization of the Central Plains to the Western Regions, and introduced species such as sweat and blood horses, grapes, alfalfa, pomegranates, and flax to the Central Plains from the countries of the Western Regions, promoting the exchange of civilizations between the East and the West. Later, Zhang Qian died of illness in Chang'an and was buried in his hometown of Hanzhong.
At the beginning of his reign, Emperor Wu decided to solve the Xiongnu, who had long posed a threat to the Great Han, and there was only one way, that is, to fight hard, and when he learned that there was another Dayue clan state on the flank of the Xiongnu that had been beaten to the west by the Xiongnu, he decided to send envoys to contact him in the hope that he could attack the Xiongnu and completely defeat the Xiongnu in one fell swoop; so Zhang Qian, with Gan Father as his guide, led more than a hundred people to the west to find the Great Moon Clan Kingdom.
There are two problems to explain, one is the pronunciation of Ōtsuki, which used to be pronounced as a large meat branch, some said that the ancients misread, some said that it was an ancient sound, but now the official has changed to the original sound, so it can be considered that how to read it is correct.
There is another one is this guide Gan Father, some write Tang Yi Father, in fact, a person, he was originally a Xiongnu, Emperor Wen was captured by the Han army, as a slave reward to Tang Yi Marquis Chen Wu, that is, Emperor Wu of Han's aunt and mother-in-law's husband, so it has this name.
What kind of scene history Zhang Qian was in his early years is not recorded, a blank space, at least until the age of 25, he did not achieve anything, only served as a squire official named "Lang" in the imperial court, almost like Han Xin's "Holding Lang" or He Yan's "guard with a knife", and it is really impossible to see the style of being famous in history.
Soon after entering the Hexi Corridor, the group was captured by the Xiongnu, but did not kill him, imprisoned him, and forced him to submit to the Xiongnu, which of course zhang Qian sternly refused.
The sun rises and sets on the prairie, and spring goes to spring. In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed. During this period, in order to further influence Zhang Qian, the Xiongnu Shan Yu also gave a beautiful Xiongnu woman to Zhang Qian as his wife. However, Zhang Qian still "did not dishonor the king's order" and "did not lose the Han Festival", and had been looking for an opportunity to escape from the Xiongnu, and finally he escaped ten years later, at this time, there were only two people left in the group of more than a hundred people, namely him and Gan's father.
Zhang Qian did not flee back to Chang'an, he still did not forget his sacred mission, and continued to look west for the great moon kingdom, it was his behavior, the sense of mission of nine deaths without regret, that enabled him to stay in history and be admired by my people forever.
Grasslands, deserts, Gobi, mountains, snowy mountains, are all sparsely populated desolate places, sometimes water sources are scarce, sometimes cold winds are biting, sometimes heat waves are rolling, sometimes flying sand and stones, the hardships of this road are very bearable, but Zhang Qian has not forgotten his mission, he continued to trek all the way west, and finally found the Great Moon Clan.
But at this time, the situation had changed, the Great Moon Clan had built another home in a new place, the bitter vendetta had gradually faded with the passage of time, they enjoyed the happy life brought to them by the fertility of the land and the abundance of water and grass, and they had long lost interest in revenge with the Xiongnu against the Han Dynasty, but only treated Zhang Qian with courtesy and promised to trade with the Han Dynasty, so Zhang Qian stayed there for more than a year and returned without success.
Later generations attributed the refusal of the Great Moon Clan to cooperate with the Great Han to attack the Xiongnu, all due to their long-term peacetime and unwillingness to raise a war again, which seems to be a bit of a sense of forgetting their ancestors and not thinking about shu. In fact, if you dig deeper, this is just a pretext, and there should be a deeper reason.
Just like the Great Han did not know the Great Moon Clan, the Great Han was also confused about the Great Moon Clan Kingdom, and only listening to Zhang Qian's one-sided words, the Great Moon Clan could not suppress the fortunes of the People's Livelihood Nation on an unknown that was uncertain of victory or defeat, which was a matter of life and death, and could not be arbitrary.
It is not known whether it is better to jointly attack the Xiongnu than the Great Moon Clan, but it is only possible to directly face a more powerful Han Dynasty, which is probably not a fortunate thing for the Great Moon Clan; and defeat will wipe out the fallen nation, which is too risky, so it is impossible for the Great Moon Clan to attack the Xiongnu with the Han Dynasty.
Sadly, when Zhang Qian returned with Gan's father, he was captured and detained by the Xiongnu, but fortunately, Zhang Qian and his wife and children were reunited.
Zhang Qian escaped and was captured by the Xiongnu, but why has he not been killed, and there is considerable treatment? At least he also married and had children, even after the Plot of Ma Yi, he did not kill Zhang Qian, which was actually the consistent strategy of the Xiongnu towards the Han.
The Xiongnu are a sparsely populated nomadic people, the population is a scarce resource, in the game with the Han Dynasty, manpower is at an absolute disadvantage, as recorded in the "History", "the Xiongnu people can not be a county of han", so the Xiongnu have long practiced the strategy of recruiting and surrendering, whether it is Li Lingwei who surrendered, or Su Wu Zhang Qian who did not surrender, they would not do killing.
Fortunately, Zhang Qian's detention time this time was not too long, and after more than a year, Zhang Qian found an opportunity to escape with his wife and children and Father Gan, and returned to Chang'an after a thirteen-year absence.
It can be said that although Zhang Qian's envoy did not achieve the expected purpose, it made important contributions to the Han Dynasty and even the world geography and humanities. Emperor Wu of Han was very satisfied with the results of Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, and specially appointed Zhang Qian as the Grand Master of Taizhong and conferred on Tang Yi's father the title of "Envoy Jun" in recognition of their merits.
As for the dispute over whether Zhang Qian is a national hero, I think it is meaningless, the concept of the Chinese nation has only been put forward for a hundred years, there is no national hero in history, although Zhang Qian went to the western region to attack the national Xiongnu, he is a hero, a hero full of adventurous spirit and firm conviction, but it is afraid and reluctant to install this national hero on him, at least it is very one-sided.
While praising Zhang Qian, we should not forget Gan Father, who shared happiness and hardships with him, did not abandon him, and did not fail in his mission, as a Xiongnu, during those difficult years, he could return to the Xiongnu at any time, return to his former self, and continue to live a free life.
But he did not, he always pretended to be a member of the Han mission, took advantage of his Xiongnu convenience to take care of Zhang Qian, and assisted Zhang Qian to escape from the cage when the opportunity came, so I think that the monument of the pioneers of the Silk Road should also be engraved with the name of Father Gan.