張騫 Zhang Qian. The Secret Envoy of Han Emperor Wu in Search of the Arsi (Yuezhi) and the Fall of the Græco-Bactrian Kingdom. (Annotated Compilation of Eastern and Western Sources)

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ebenso nach Westen, gegen das jetzige Bokhara, als nach Südwesten bis zum Oxus ausgebreitet zu haben, während das unkriegerische, verweichlichte Volk der Ta-hiâ die reichen Handelsplätze im Süden des Oxus nebst grossen Strecken auf dem rechten Ufer desselben inne hatte ... Die Yue-tshî breiteten sich aus und mögen die Ta-hiâ nach Westen gedrängt haben, da die Dahae oder Daoi der griechischen Schriftsteller am Kaspischen Meer wohnten ... With so many contradictory explanations of one and the same source text, it was about time for another — closer — look at Shiji 123 by those who read Chinese. SPECHT does, and, in 1883: 348, explains: Les Yué-tchi, ou Indo-Scythes, qui habitaient primitivement entre le pays des Thun- Hoang et le mont Ki-lian (les monts Célestes), furent vaincus, en 201 et en 165 avant notre ère, par les Hioung-nou. Ils s’enfuirent au-delà des Ta-Ouan, battirent les Ta-hia de la Bactriane dans l’ouest, et les subjuguèrent. Leur roi fixa sa résidence au nord de l’Oxus; c’est dans cette contrée que Tchang-kian, ambassadeur chinois, les trouva en 126 avant notre ère. Après le départ de ce dernier, la ville de Lan-chi, capitale des Ta-hia, tomba au pouvoir des Grands Yué-tschi qui s’établirent définitivement dans la Bactriane … Here the Ruzhi 月氏 are termed “Indo-Scythians” — an epithet which shall reapear regularly from now on. The mistaken appellation “Skythai” for the 月氏 dates p b ack to Strabo, for whom nine tenth of the Asian Continent were yet unknown. In his t ime, the 月氏 were known to have come from regions just beyond the Jaxartes. The G ræco-Roman historian, therefore, took it for granted that the Ruzhi 月氏 were just another branch of the Sakas — called Scythians by the earliest Greek historians like H erodotos. When the easternmost Saka tribe, the Sakaraukai/Sacaraucae, finally r eached India in the first century BCE, it was natural to name these genuine Scythians “ Indo-Scythians.” The Ruzhi 月氏 , however, have never been Scythians — let alone Indo-Scythians. Two thousand years after Strabo we know that the 月氏 originated, not from regions near the Jaxartes, but thousands of kilometers further east from regions north and w est of the Yellow River where they were neighboring the proto-Huns and the archaic Chinese. The Ruzhi 月氏 came, not from Central Asia, but from the Far East and ori- were, not of Indo-European, but of Mongoloid stock (see below, p. 71). They ginally surely looked a great deal different from any of the Scythian tribes of our classical sources with whom the 月氏 only shared the pastoral way of life. The appellation “Indo-Scythians” for the Ruzhi 月氏 is a gross misnomer. It can be traced back to our classical Western and Eastern sources and the painfully difficult and time-consuming process towards their correct interpretation in modern times. In the Periplus, composed around the middle of the first century CE, the Indus Val- from the Kabul River down to the Erythræan Sea, is still simply called Skythia. In ley, t he early first century CE this part of India was in the hands of the foreign Parthians w ho had inherited it from the equally foreign Sakas or Scythians. The name “Skythia,” then, for a country formerly occupied by the Sakaraukai, a branch of the nomadic Scy- makes good thians, sense. (CASSON 1989: 73–74; 77) Periplus 38–39; 41 After this region ... there next comes the Met¦ d taÚthn t¾n cèran ... kdšcetai seaboard of Skythia, which lies directly to paraqal£ssia mšrh tÁj Skuq…aj par' aÙtÕn the north; it is very flat and through it keimšnhj tÕn boršan, tapein¦ l…an, x ïn flows the Sinthos River, mightiest of the potamÕj S…nqoj, mšgistoj tîn kat¦ t¾n rivers along the Erythraean Sea ... 'Eruqr¦n q£lassan potamîn ... The river has seven mouths, narrow and `Ept¦ d oátoj Ð potamÕj œcei stÒmata, lept¦ full of shallows; none are navigable except d taàta kaˆ tenagèdh, kaˆ t¦ mn ¥lla di£ - the one in the middle. ploun oÙk œcei, mÒnon d tÕ mšson, f' oá kaˆ At it, on the coast, stands the port of trade tÕ paraqal£ssion mpÒriÒn stin Barbari- — 10 —
of Barbarikon. There is a small islet in front of it; and be- it, inland, is the metropolis of Skythia hind itself, Minnagar. The throne is in the hands of Parthians, w ho are constantly chasing each other off it. Vessels moor at Barbarikon, but all the cargoes are taken up the river to the king at the metropolis ... The part inland, which borders on Skythia, is called Abêria, the part along the coast Syrastrênê. kÒn. PrÒkeitai d aÙtoà nhs…on mikrÒn, kaˆ kat¦ nètou mesÒgeioj ¹ mhtrÒpolij aÙtÁj tÁj Sku- q…aj Minnag£r: basileÚetai d ØpÕ P£rqwn, sunecîj ¢ll»louj kdiwkÒntwn. T¦ mn oân plo‹a kat¦ t¾n Barbarik¾n diorm…zontai, t¦ d fort…a p£nta e„j t¾n mhtrÒ- ¢nafšretai di¦ toà potamoà tù ba- polin sile‹ ... TaÚthj t¦ mn mesÒgeia tÍ Skuq…v sunor…- zonta 'Abhr…a kale‹tai, t¦ d paraqal£ssia Su[n]rastr»nh ... More than a century after the unknown author of the Periplus, but writing in the s ame Alexandria in Egypt, it is the erudite Klaudios Ptolemaios who, in his Geography of about 170 CE, introduces the appellation “Indoskythia.” He uses the name for the very same region — the lands on both banks of the Indus River from where the latter receives the waters of the Kabul River down to the ocean. Up north, Ptolemaios had named two other geographic regions “Skythia”: the “Skythia this side of the Imaon Mountains” and the “Skythia beyond the Imaon Mountains.” This may have been the simple reason why he wanted to give the Skythia in India a more dictinct name and so change the name in the Periplus, Skythia, to “Indoskythia.” As far as these classical writers were concerned, the name Skythia/Indoskythia had a lot to do with the Sakas or Scythians — and nothing with the Ruzhi 月氏 . The latter arrived on the scene some time after the Sakas: in any case after the name “Skythia” had already been applied to the Panjab and the lower reaches of the Indus River. (MCCRINDLE 1885: 136) India within the (river) Ganges ... And furhter, all the country along the rest of the course of the Indus is called by the general name of Indo-Skythia. Of this the insular portion formed by the bifurcation of the river towards its mouth is Patalênê, and and the region above this is Abiria, and the region about the mouths of the Indus and Gulf of Kanthi is Syrastrênê ... MCCRINDLE, in his translation of Ptolemaios’ Indian chapters, 1885: 136–139, writes a short comment on the name “Indoskythia”: it shows that the greatest misunderstandings started in modern times: Geographia 7.1.55 TÁj ntÕj G£ggou 'IndikÁj qšsij ... P£lin ¹ mn par¦ tÕ loipÕn mšroj toà 'Indoà p©sa kale‹tai koinîj mn 'Indoskuq…a, taÚthj d ¹ mn par¦ tÕn diamerismÕn tîn stom£twn Patalhn», kaˆ ¹ Øper- keimšnh aÙtÁj 'Abir…a, ¹ d perˆ t¦ stÒmata toà 'Indoà kaˆ ¹ perˆ tÕn K£nqi kÒlpon Surastrhn» ... Indo-Scythia, a vast region which comprised all the countries traversed by the Indus, from where it is joined by the river of Kâbul onward to the ocean ... The period at which the Skythians first appeared in the valley which was destined to bear their name for several centuries has been ascertained with precision from the Chi- horde of Tibetan extraction called Yuei- nese sources. We thence gather that a wandering chi or Ye-tha in the 2nd century B.C. left Tangut, their native country, and, advancing west- the pasture-lands of Zungaria. Here they ward found for themselves a new home amid had been settled for about thirty years when the invasion of a new horde compelled them to migrate to the Steppes which lay to the north of the Jaxartes. In these new seats they halted for only two years, and in the year 128 B.C. they crossed over to the southern bank of the Jaxartes where they made themselves masters of the rich provinces between that river and the Oxus, which had lately before belonged to the Grecian kings of Baktriana. This new conquest did not long satisfy their ambition, and they continued to advance — 11 —
Page 1: Chris M. Dorn’eich 張騫 Zhang
Page 4 and 5: CHRIS M. DORN’EICH 2004 “ The B
Page 6 and 7: I M P R E S S U M Zhang Qian. The S
Page 8 and 9: S U M M A R Y The following study g
Page 11 and 12: 張騫 Zhang Qian THE SECRET MISSI
Page 13 and 14: The modern reading of the Chinese c
Page 15 and 16: plusieurs dizaines de journées du
Page 17 and 18: die Szu nach Süden gedrängt finde
Page 19: with the Chinese calendar ?). LASSE
Page 23 and 24: king is not known — GUTSCHMID is
Page 25 and 26: whereas in transcribing foreign nam
Page 27 and 28: Dans son voyage de retour, il fut d
Page 29 and 30: written “très tôt en 126” ins
Page 31 and 32: tim g e. Before him, Sima Qian, in
Page 33 and 34: The last but most important point t
Page 35 and 36: Der Vorstoß der Nomaden erfolgte i
Page 37 and 38: In the south it is controlled by th
Page 39 and 40: ment vers le sud en s’appuyant su
Page 41 and 42: tried in vain to communicate with i
Page 43 and 44: 西擊大夏 Im Westen schlugen
Page 45 and 46: Wenn auch diese Tatsache an sich ni
Page 47 and 48: M. Sten Konow écarte le rapprochem
Page 49 and 50: then evicted the Sakaraukai/Saiwang
Page 51 and 52: 16), that these easternmost Scythia
Page 53 and 54: Köl (Ïssïγ Köl = “Hot Lake
Page 55 and 56: HULSEWÉ/LOEWE, whose English trans
Page 57 and 58: 1990: 96-97, BOPEARACHCHI writes: T
Page 59 and 60: the face of their king. (When) the
Page 61 and 62: (JONES 1928: 281) Their cities were
Page 63 and 64: und teilte dort sein Reich in fünf
Page 65 and 66: Chinese, politically deeply involve
Page 67 and 68: well settled on the land since cent
Page 69 and 70: Well said. It is, however, not a Gr
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in such an abrupt way. In the Weste
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(13) 然騫持漢節不失 (1
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Here, we seem to be getting a fleet
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occupied the country until the Yue-
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passage in the section about Ki-pin
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Most of this we could have learned
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al thousand ›li‹. Its people ar
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schiedenheit und auf sie allein gr
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Strabo’s list with the four ethni
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zu den Erstern rechneten sie außer
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Sakaraukai of the second wave — a
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and suckled him (so that he was abl
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月氏 wh the Hanshu the same Zhan
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and well settled. With this, we are
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Now, what we have to deduce so pain
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ALY 1956: 69 Vat. Gr. 2061 A, fol.
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others — could boast to have had
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These were just two of an untold nu
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Bibliography ALONSO-NÚÑEZ 1989 ..
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DEGUIGNES 1759 .............. DEGUI
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KONOW 1920 ...................... K
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RÉMUSAT 1829 ................... R
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XUÁN ZÀNG (BEAL) ........... YARD
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Fig.1 Letter envelope in memory of
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Fig.5 Zhang Qian in audience with t
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張騫 Zhang Qian. The Secret Envoy of Han Emperor Wu in Search of the Arsi (Yuezhi) and the Fall of the Græco-Bactrian Kingdom. (Annotated Compilation of Eastern and Western Sources)

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