Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
3 - Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2018
Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Chapter Three follows the epic journey of Han Envoy Zhang Qian from the Han capital of Chang’an deep into Central Asia and back. It also sketches the main campaigns in the long and bloody war between the Han and Xiongnu, which was the larger geopolitical context in which Zhang Qian’s expedition occurred. As a result of emperor Wudi’s decision to end the heqin policy of his predecessors and adopt a more aggressive military approach to the relationship with the Xiongnu, by the mid-first century BCE the Han military had pushed the Xiongnu back to the northern steppe. The Han government had also established a series of military garrisons along the northwestern borders of the state to safeguard its growing tributary empire in Central Asia.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Empires of Ancient EurasiaThe First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE, pp. 68 - 90Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
References
Selected Further Reading
Benjamin, C., The Yuezhi: Origins, Migration and the Conquest of Northern Bactria. Turnhout: Brepols, Silk Roads Studies XIV, 2007.Google Scholar
Chang, C.-s., The Rise of the Chinese Empire, Volume 1: Nation, State and Imperialism in Early China ca. 1600 BC–AD 8, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Di Cosmo, N., Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Hulsewe, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N., China in Central Asia. The Early Stage: 125 B.C.–A.D. 23. An Annotated Translation of Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. Leiden: Brill, 1979.Google Scholar
Qian, Sima, Shi Ji, Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian – Han Dynasty II, trans. Watson, B., revised edn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Teggart, F. J., Rome and China: A Study of Correlations in Historical Events. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1939.Google Scholar