Editing Silk Road (section)

=== Initiation in China (130 BCE) ===
{{Main|Protectorate of the Western Regions|War of the Heavenly Horses|Han–Xiongnu War|History of the Han dynasty}}
{{See also|Sino-Roman relations|China–India relations|Zhang Qian}}
{{multiple image| align = right | direction = horizontal | header = | header_align = left/right/center | footer = Woven [[silk]] textiles from Tomb No. 1 at [[Mawangdui]], [[Changsha]], [[Hunan]] province, China, [[Western Han dynasty]] period, dated 2nd century BCE| footer_align = left | image1 = Silk from Mawangdui 2.jpg | width1 = 150 | caption1 = | image2 = Silk from Mawangdui.jpg | width2 = 150 | caption2 = }}

The Silk Road was initiated and spread by China's Han dynasty through exploration and [[Protectorate of the Western Regions|conquests in Central Asia]]. With the Mediterranean linked to the [[Fergana Valley]], the next step was to open a route across the [[Tarim Basin]] and the [[Hexi Corridor]] to [[China Proper]]. This extension came around 130 BCE, with the embassies of the Han dynasty to Central Asia following the reports of the ambassador [[Zhang Qian]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hogan |first=C. M. |date=19 November 2007 |editor-last=Burnham |editor-first=A. |title=Silk Road, North China |url=http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002140921/http://www.megalithic.co.ukb/article.php?sid=18006 |archive-date=2 October 2013 |access-date=13 July 2011 |website=The Megalithic Portal}}</ref> (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the [[Yuezhi]] against the [[Xiongnu]]). Zhang Qian visited directly the kingdom of [[Dayuan]] in [[Ferghana]], the territories of the Yuezhi in [[Transoxiana]], the [[Bactria]]n country of [[Daxia]] with its remnants of [[Greco-Bactrian]] rule, and [[Kangju]]. He also made reports on neighbouring countries that he did not visit, such as Anxi ([[Parthia]]), Tiaozhi ([[Mesopotamia]]), Shendu ([[Indian subcontinent]]) and the [[Wusun]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhang |first=Yiping |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=35L3Ww72M-YC&pg=PA22 |title=Story of the Silk Road |publisher=五洲传播出版社 |year=2005 |isbn=978-7-5085-0832-0 |page=22 |access-date=17 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227164624/https://books.google.com/books?id=35L3Ww72M-YC&pg=PA22 |archive-date=27 February 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Zhang Qian's report suggested the economic reason for Chinese expansion and wall-building westward, and trail-blazed the Silk Road, making it one of the most famous trade routes in history and in the world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lovell |first=Julia|authorlink=Julia Lovell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWS53cuiuVgC&pg=PA66 |title=The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC – AD 2000 |publisher=Grove Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8021-4297-9 |page=73 |access-date=17 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227164624/https://books.google.com/books?id=IWS53cuiuVgC&pg=PA66 |archive-date=27 February 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

After winning the [[War of the Heavenly Horses]] and the [[Han–Xiongnu War]], Chinese armies established themselves in Central Asia, initiating the Silk Route as a major avenue of international trade.<ref name="Li">{{Cite book |last1=Li |first1=Bo |last2=Zheng |first2=Yin |publisher=Inner Mongolia People's Publishing Corp |year=2001 |isbn=978-7-204-04420-7 |page=254 |language=zh |script-title=zh:中华五千年 |trans-title=5000 years of Chinese history}}</ref> Some say that the Chinese [[Emperor Wu of Han China|Emperor Wu]] became interested in developing commercial relationships with the sophisticated urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria, and the [[Parthian Empire]]: "The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan ''"Great [[Ionians]]"'') and the possessions of Bactria ([[Ta-Hsia]]) and Parthian Empire ([[Anxi County|Anxi]]) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China" (''Hou Hanshu'', [[Later Han History]]). Others<ref>Di Cosmo, ''Ancient China and its Enemies'', 2002</ref> say that Emperor Wu was mainly interested in [[Han–Xiongnu War|fighting the Xiongnu]] and that major trade began only after the Chinese pacified the [[Hexi Corridor]].

[[File:HanHorse.jpg|thumb|A ceramic horse head and neck (broken from the body), from the Chinese [[Eastern Han dynasty]] (1st–2nd century CE)]]
[[File:Bronze coin of Contantius II 337 361 found in Karghalik.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Roman currency|Bronze coin]] of [[Constantius II]] (337–361), found in [[Kargilik Town|Karghalik]], [[Xinjiang]], [[China]].]]

The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses (named "[[Ferghana horse|heavenly horses]]") in the possession of the Dayuan (literally the "Great Ionians," the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom|Greek kingdoms of Central Asia]]), which were of capital importance in fighting the nomadic Xiongnu.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Selenium in the Environment |publisher=CRC Press |year=1994 |editor-last=Frankenberger |editor-first=W. T. |page=30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Becker |first=Jasper |title=City of Heavenly Tranquility: Beijing in the History of China |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |location=Oxford |page=18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Liu |first=Xinru |title=The Silk Roads: A Brief History with Documents |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |year=2012 |location=New York |page=6}}</ref><ref name="Rene">{{Cite book |last=Grousset |first=Rene |url=https://archive.org/details/empireofsteppesh00prof/page/36 |title=The Empire of the Steppes |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-8135-1304-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/empireofsteppesh00prof/page/36 36–37, 48]}}</ref> They defeated the Dayuan in the [[Han-Dayuan war]]. The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as [[Seleucid]] Syria.

{{blockquote|Thus more embassies were dispatched to Anxi [Parthia], Yancai [who later joined the [[Alans]] ], Lijian [Syria under the Greek Seleucids], Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), and [[Tenjiku|Tianzhu]] [northwestern India]&nbsp;... As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six. (''Hou Hanshu'', Later Han History).}}

These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire.<ref name="Ebrey">Ebrey (1999), 70.</ref>

The Chinese campaigned in Central Asia on several occasions, and direct encounters between Han troops and Roman legionaries (probably captured or recruited as mercenaries by the Xiong Nu) are recorded, particularly in the 36 BCE battle of [[Sogdiana]] (Joseph Needham, Sidney Shapiro). It has been suggested that the Chinese [[crossbow]] was transmitted to the Roman world on such occasions, although the Greek [[gastraphetes]] provides an alternative origin. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy suggest that in 36 BCE,

{{blockquote|[A] Han expedition into Central Asia, west of [[Jaxartes river|Jaxartes River]], apparently encountered and defeated a contingent of Roman legionaries. The Romans may have been part of [[Mark Antony|Antony]]'s army invading [[Parthia]]. Sogdiana (modern [[Bukhara]]), east of the Oxus River, on the [[Polytimetus]] River, was apparently the most easterly penetration ever made by Roman forces in Asia. The margin of Chinese victory appears to have been their crossbows, whose bolts and darts seem easily to have penetrated Roman shields and armour.<ref>R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy, ''The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 B.C. to the Present'', Fourth Edition (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), 133, apparently relying on Homer H. Dubs, "A Roman City in Ancient China", in ''Greece and Rome'', Second Series, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Oct., 1957), pp. 139–148</ref>}}

The [[Han dynasty]] army regularly policed the trade route against nomadic bandit forces generally identified as [[Xiongnu]]. Han general [[Ban Chao]] led an army of 70,000 [[mounted infantry]] and [[light cavalry]] troops in the 1st century CE to secure the [[trade]] routes, reaching far west to the Tarim Basin. Ban Chao expanded his conquests across the [[Pamirs]] to the shores of the [[Caspian Sea]] and the borders of [[Parthia]].<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/440601/Ban-Chao "Ban Chao"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616061740/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/440601/Ban-Chao |date=16 June 2009 }}. ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref> It was from here that the Han general dispatched envoy [[Gan Ying]] to [[Daqin]] (Rome).<ref>Frances Wood, ''The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia'', University of California Press, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-520-24340-8}}, p. 46</ref> The Silk Road essentially came into being from the 1st century BCE, following these efforts by China to consolidate a road to the Western world and [[India]], both through direct settlements in the area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west. The Silk Roads were a "complex network of trade routes" that gave people the chance to exchange goods and culture.<ref name="Bentley1993p32">Jerry Bentley, ''Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 32.</ref>

A maritime Silk Route opened up between Chinese-controlled [[Giao Chỉ]] (centred in modern [[Vietnam]], near [[Hanoi]]), probably by the 1st century. It extended, [[Indo-Roman trade relations|via ports on the coasts of India]] and [[Sri Lanka]], all the way to [[Ancient Rome|Roman]]-controlled ports in [[Roman Egypt]] and the [[Nabataean]] territories on the northeastern coast of the [[Red Sea]]. The earliest [[Roman glassware]] bowl found in China was unearthed from a Western Han tomb in [[Guangzhou]], dated to the early 1st century BCE, indicating that Roman commercial items were being imported through the [[South China Sea]].<ref name="an 2002 p83">An, Jiayao. (2002), "When Glass Was Treasured in China", in Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner (eds), ''Silk Road Studies VII: Nomads, Traders, and Holy Men Along China's Silk Road'', 79–94, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, {{ISBN|978-2-503-52178-7}}, p. 83.</ref> According to [[Twenty-Four Histories|Chinese dynastic histories]], it is from [[Jiaozhou (region)|this region]] that the [[Sino-Roman relations#First Roman embassy|Roman embassies]] arrived in China, beginning in 166 CE during the reigns of [[Marcus Aurelius]] and [[Emperor Huan of Han]].<ref name="halsall 2000">{{Cite web |last=Halsall |first=Paul |year=2000 |editor-last=Arkenberg |editor-first=Jerome S. |title=East Asian History Sourcebook: Chinese Accounts of Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East, c. 91 B.C.E. – 1643 C.E. |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910050947/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.html |archive-date=10 September 2014 |access-date=16 September 2016 |website=Fordham.edu |publisher=[[Fordham University]] |orig-year=1998}}</ref><ref>de Crespigny, Rafe. (2007). ''A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD)''. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, p. 600, {{ISBN|978-90-04-15605-0}}.</ref><ref>Yü, Ying-shih (1986). "Han Foreign Relations". In Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe (eds.). ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220''. 377–462. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 460–461. {{ISBN|978-0-521-24327-8}}.</ref> Other Roman glasswares have been found in Eastern-Han-era tombs (25–220 CE) further inland in [[Luoyang]], [[Nanyang, Henan|Nanyang]], and [[Nanjing]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Xu |first1=Siwen |last2=Qiao |first2=Baotong |last3=Yang |first3=Yimin |date=2022 |title=The rise of the Maritime Silk Road about 2000 years ago: Insights from Indo-Pacific beads in Nanyang, Central China |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |volume=42 |issn=2352-409X |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103383|bibcode=2022JArSR..42j3383X |s2cid=247004020 }}</ref><ref>An, Jiayao (2002). "When Glass Was Treasured in China". In Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner (eds). ''Silk Road Studies VII: Nomads, Traders, and Holy Men Along China's Silk Road''. 79–94. Turnhout: Brepols. {{ISBN|978-2-503-52178-7}}. pp. 83–84.</ref>