Around 139 BC the Chinese Han emperor sent an envoy, Zhang Qian, to the Yuezhi nomads. He was attempting to win their support in his conflict with their mutual enemies the Xiongnu. Although unsuccessful in this, the expedition brought China detailed knowledge of the western world and opened up trade links.
The Xiongnu had defeated the king of the Yuezhi and made his skull into a drinking vessel. As a result the Yuezhi had fled... The Han..emperor..decided..to send an envoy to establish relations with the Yuezhi.To reach them, however, an envoy would inevitably have to pass through Xiongnu territory...
Zhang Qian.. set out from Lung-hsi, accompanied by Kan-fu, a Xiongnu ..whenever he and Zhang Qian were short of food he would shoot birds and beasts to keep them supplied .. They travelled west through the territory of the Xiongnu and were captured.
The king detained them... "The Yuezhi people live north of me," he said. "What does the Han mean by trying to send an envoy to them! Do you suppose that if I tried to send an embassy to..the south-east the Han would let my men pass through China?"
The Xiongnu detained Zhang Qian for over ten years and gave him a wife from their own people, by whom he had a son... he and his party finally managed to escape and resume their journey towards the Yuezhi.
After hastening west for twenty or thirty days, they reached Fergana...The people are settled on the land, growing rice and wheat... .The region has many fine horses which sweat blood... The king ..had heard of the wealth of the Han empire and wished to establish communication with it.
The king.., giving him guides and interpreters,.. sent him on his way to..the land of the Great Yuezhi. They are a nation of nomads, moving from place to place with their herds and their customs are like those of the Xiongnu. They have some one or two hundred thousand archer warriors.
The king of the Great Yuezhi ..had forced the kingdom of Bactria to recognise his sovereignty. The region.. was rich and fertile.. and the king thought only of his own enjoyment. He considered the Han too far away to bother with and had no particular intention of .. attacking the Xiongnu.
From the court of the Yuezhi, Zhang Qian traveled on to the state of Bactria..Its people.. are poor in the use of arms and afraid of battle, but they are clever at commerce..The capital .. has a market where all sorts of goods are bought and sold.
After spending a year or so in the area, he began to journey back along the Nan-shan or Southern Mountains, intending to reenter China through the territory of the Ch'iang barbarians, but he was once more captured by the Xiongnu and detained for over a year.
Just at this time the king died...As a result .. Zhan Qian.. was able to escape..When Zhang Qian first set out on his mission, he was accompanied by over a hundred men but after thirteen years abroad, only he and Kan-fu managed to make their way back to China.
