Zhang Qian

Zhang Qian the Chinese imperial envoy and explorer of the Han dynasty (c. 164-113 BC) who undertook the first great missions into Central Asia and brought back the intelligence that opened the Silk Road. His journeys established the first sustained contact between China and the kingdoms of the west and made him the pioneer of Chinese exploration beyond the frontiers of the empire.

Early Life and the Imperial Mission

Zhang Qian was born around 164 BC in Hanzhong commandery, in what is now Shaanxi province, and entered the service of the Han court in the reign of Emperor Wu. His early career is little recorded, but he was evidently a man of courage, endurance and diplomatic skill, qualities that led the emperor to select him for a mission of extraordinary difficulty.

In 138 BC the emperor sent him westward to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi, a people who had been driven from their lands by the Xiongnu and had migrated to the region of the Amu Darya in Central Asia. The plan was to open a second front against the Xiongnu, the nomadic confederation that dominated the northern steppe and posed the gravest threat to the Han. The emperor hoped that the Yuezhi, resentful of their expulsion, would join him in attacking their common enemy.

Zhang Qian set out with a party of about a hundred men, including a Xiongnu guide. The journey took him through the Hexi Corridor and into the desert territories controlled by the Xiongnu, and he was captured and held prisoner for many years. He was treated with respect, given a wife and pressured to abandon his mission, but he preserved the imperial credentials he carried and eventually escaped with a small remnant of his party.

Journeys and Discoveries

After his escape Zhang Qian pressed on westward, passing through the kingdoms of Dayuan in the Ferghana valley, Kangju and the lands of the Yuezhi, reaching them more than a decade after his departure. He found that the Yuezhi had settled in a rich and peaceful territory and had little interest in returning to war against the Xiongnu. The alliance he sought could not be arranged, and he began the long journey home.

His return in 126 BC, after some thirteen years, was itself an adventure. Captured again by the Xiongnu, he escaped once more during a period of internal disorder and reached the Han court accompanied by only one companion. Although he had failed in his diplomatic aim, the emperor rewarded him richly, for he brought back something of even greater value: detailed knowledge of the geography, peoples, products and politics of the many kingdoms to the west.

He reported on the great cities and fertile lands of Central Asia, on the warhorses of Ferghana that were superior to any the Chinese possessed, on the cultivation of grapes and alfalfa, on the flourishing trade routes that connected Persia, India and the Mediterranean world. He described the customs of the pastoral and agricultural peoples he had met and the wealth of the markets of the west, and he recommended that the emperor cultivate relations with these states.

The Opening of the Silk Road

The information brought back by Zhang Qian transformed Han policy. The emperor, impressed by the report of the Ferghana horses and by the opportunities for trade and alliance, dispatched further missions to the west and mounted campaigns to secure the corridor through the Gansu region. A series of expeditions followed Zhang Qian's routes, and in 119 BC a second great mission, with a large retinue, was sent to establish formal relations with the states of the west.

These missions led to the establishment of regular contact between China and Central Asia, and the trade routes that came to be known as the Silk Road developed along the paths he had travelled. Chinese silk, lacquer and metalwork moved westward in exchange for horses, glass, precious stones, spices and other goods, while ideas, technologies and religions travelled in both directions. Buddhism reached China from India along these roads in the centuries that followed.

Zhang Qian is often called the father of the Silk Road and the first Chinese to bring back reliable knowledge of the world beyond the frontiers. The title of his account, the Report on the Regions of the Western World, was preserved in the official history of the Former Han, and the ambassadors and merchants who followed him built upon the foundations he had laid. His name became a synonym in Chinese for the intrepid envoy who carries the prestige of the empire to distant lands.

Character and Later Career

Zhang Qian was distinguished by his physical stamina and his composure in hardship. Sima Qian, who recorded his career, noted his strength and his generosity, and observed that he won the loyalty of his companions by sharing their dangers and treating them with kindness. The story of his long captivity, his escape and his unshaken commitment to the mission became a model of the faithful servant of the state.

After his return he continued to serve the empire as an official and adviser. He accompanied military campaigns against the Xiongnu and used his knowledge of the western territories to guide Han strategy. In 115 BC he led a further mission to the Wusun people of the Ili valley, seeking to draw them into alliance and to open the way to the states beyond. The negotiations produced limited results, but they established a permanent Han presence and diplomatic relationships in the region.

He died around 113 BC, shortly after his last journey. His missions had cost enormous sums and many lives, and some at court criticised the expense and the modest diplomatic returns. Yet the emperor and later generations judged that the opening of the west was worth the cost, and the connection between China and the wider world that Zhang Qian began proved to be one of the most consequential developments of the Han period.

Historical Significance

Zhang Qian's journeys mark one of the decisive moments in the history of contact between civilisations. Before him, China's knowledge of the lands beyond the Gobi was vague and legendary; after him, the Han state possessed accurate information about the kingdoms of Central Asia and the routes that connected them. This knowledge made possible the exchange of goods and ideas that shaped the development of both East and West for centuries.

His missions opened the trade in horses that strengthened the Han cavalry and helped the empire to defeat the Xiongnu, and they introduced crops such as the grape, the walnut and the alfalfa to Chinese agriculture. They also brought back the first Chinese reports of India, Persia and the Hellenistic kingdoms of the west, extending the geographical horizons of Chinese civilisation and preparing the way for the exchange of religious and philosophical ideas.

He stands as one of the great explorers and envoys of world history, comparable to the travellers who later connected distant regions. His name is honoured in China as the symbol of cross-cultural contact and of the courage and curiosity that carry men beyond the known world. The roads he opened became the arteries through which the great civilisations of Eurasia encountered one another, and his journeys are remembered as a turning point in global history.

See also

• Silk Road
• Emperor Wu of Han
• Xiongnu
• Central Asia