Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

4 .7
route through Hami, Lake Barkul, the base of the Turkic Khagan at Lake Issyk Kul,
the steppes of southern Kazakhstan, the Volga region, and then, probably, through
the northern Caucasus to Byzantium and the Mediterranean Sea.
The second, middle road, began at Turfan and went via Karashar, Kucha and
the Pamirs to Ustrushana and Samarkand, and then on through Bukhara, Merv and
Sassanian Iran to the Mediterranean Sea. The third, southern road from Dunhuang
went around the lake at Lop Nor, crossed the Taklamakan desert, passed through
the Wakhan Corridor, and went through Tokharistan along the Hindu Kush through
Sassanian Iran to the Mediterranean Sea. Pei Ju added ‘from each country roads
also branch off, and in turn intersect other roads in the south and north. Thus, by
following (those roads) one may reach anywhere. Therefore, it is known that Qu,
Gaochang and Shanshan are the gateways to the Western Regions.’ Thus, over the
centuries, after Zhang Qian’s journey, a network of roads connecting the East and the
West was established, which became known to scholarship as the Silk Road.
The Chinese and Hellenic, Iranian- and Turkic-speaking peoples all played a
significant role in its creation. Two Chinese figures, Zhang Qian and Gan Ying were
instrumental in bringing together the civilisations of the Far East and the West.
Zhang Qian had discovered the Western Regions (Central Asia) for China, and
Gan Ying, the Eastern Mediterranean – the civilisations of the ancient Near East,
Ancient Rome and Greece. It is assumed that somewhat earlier, at the end of the
4th to the 3rd century BC, Sogdians had begun to move to the oases of Xinjiang
along roads familiar to them. These roads might have connected Central Asia and this
region since the Bronze Age, and possibly even earlier.
At about the same time, the Hellenes had reached the far north-eastern borders
of Central Asia; it is possible that they had already heard about the country of the
‘Seres-Chinese’ from the locals. Only one more step was needed to connect the
roads coming from the West and the Far East and transform them into one long
transcontinental route. This step was taken by Zhang Qian, as is explained in greater
detail in Chapter 6 of Part II in the section ‘International relations in ancient states
in Central Asia ’.
The journeys of Gan Ying
Zhang Qian had paved the way to Central Asia – the Western Regions. More than two
hundred years later, another Chinese pioneer, Gan Ying, first made his way further
west to the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Chinese chronicle the Hou Hanshu – Book of the Later Han – tells us that
‘in the ninth year [97 BC], Ban Chao sent his Subaltern Gan Ying, who probed as
245