Narratives of the Roman-Byzantine World in Ancient Chinese Sources*
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Jialing Xu Narratives of the Roman-Byzantine World in Ancient Chinese Sources* In ancient times Rome/Byzantium and China were two powerful empires in the western and eastern extremities of the Eurasian continent. The accounts of the Roman Empire in Chinese sources can be traced back to the Earlier Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 25 CE) References are quite common to the silk trade or to the Silk Roads during the period from the Earlier Han to the Tang dynasties (ninth century CE). In Chinese sources, especially in the dynastie histories such as the Er-shi-si-shi (Histories of the Twenty-Four Dynasties) compiled by the royal historians of different dynasties, it is easy to find some specific chapters for 'foreign countries': in Shi-ji (The Great Historian's Records), we find Da-wan lie-zhuan (Records on Ta-wan); in Han-shu 1 (History of the Earlier Han Dynasty), Hou-han-shu 2 (History of the Later Han Dynasty), and in other later dynastie histories, we find Xi-yu-zhuan (Records of the Western Regions) or Zhu-yi-zhuan (Records of the Barbarians). From those accounts, we come to know what relations the peoples had among themselves and with China in ancient times. Generally, the Chinese sources on the Roman and Byzantine Empires could be categorized into three groups according to the date of their compilation. The first contains the sources of the period from the second century BCE to the early fourth century CE, which includes the two Han Dynasties (the Earlier Han dynasty, 206 BCE - 25 CE; the Later Han Dynasty, 25-220 CE), the Three Kingdoms (220-265 CE) and the Earlier Jin Dynasty, (265-316 CE). In this period, which could be named the pre-Byzantine or the Graeco-Roman period, the Greek empire built by Alexander the Great was broken up into several kingdoms in Western Asia and Egypt. The Parthian Empire (c.250 BCE - 226 CE) became a large power and reached its height in intluence and territory at the beginning of the first century BCE on the Iranian plateau. Bactria, the previous colony of the Greeks, became an independent country (250-139 BCE) but shortly after was destroyed by nomadic tribes. In the first century CE, the Roman Empire expanded its conquest to Western Asia and made the Mediterranean Sea its 'inner-lake'. From then on, the two greatest empires of the Eurasian continent began to recognize each other's existence, and tried to make direct contact with each other; however, their efforts were hindered by the Parthian empire because of the latter's wish to monopolize the lucrative trade of the Silk Road through the * I wish to acknowledge the encouragement and help in preparing this paper and attending this conference that I have received from Professors John Melville Jones (Western Australia) and Elizabeth Jeffreys (Oxford). 1. In this paper, translations of ancient Chinese sources refer to F. Hirth. China and the Roman Orient: Researches info their Ancien/ and Medieval Relations as Represented in Old Chinese Records (Shanghai & Hong Kong 1885, rp. NewYork 1996). See also the website: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin l .html 2. Compiled by Fan Yeh of the Liu Song Dynasty (420-77 CE). Byzantine Narrative. Papers in Honour of Roger Scott. Edited by J. Burke et al. (Melbourne 2006). 498 .lialing Xu Parthian empire. But the Chinese and Roman efforts to open relations find their echoes in historica! sources of both sides. The second group of sources contains records of the period from the early fourth century to the tenth century and includes the sources of the Later Jin Dynasty (317-420 CE), the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 CE), the Sui (581-618 CE) and Tang Dynasties (618-907 CE); it corresponds to the period of.the early and middle Byzantine Empire in chronology. In this ·period, China, Rome and the Persian Empire suffered painfully the invasions of nomadic tribes (Huns, White Huns, Germans and Turkish tribes etc.). As a result, the west half of the Roman Empire was destroyed in 476 by the Gennans. In the eastern Mediterranean, Byzantium survived the crisis of the barbarian invasions and was gradually restored to its vitality. Sassanian Persia had emerged as a powerful empire and formidable rival of the Romans, becoming an unshakable obstacle to any direct exchanges between China and the Byzantine Empire until it feil to the Arabs in the seventh century. From the middle of the seventh century, with the rise of the new lslamic power of Arabia in western Asia and northern Africa, relations between Byzantium and China were even more intercepted. However in some Chinese sources, it is found that the Byzantine emperor tried to persuade the Chinese emperor to join in an alliance to fight against the invasions of the Arabs. 3 In China, after three hundred years of turbulence and confusion, the new Sui Dynasty reunified the whole of China in 589 CE and the Great Tang replaced the Sui and brought China to a summit of brilliance. When the Chinese power re extP.nded into the Western Regions and controlled east-west traffic, the Silk ?'1ad began to recover its prosperity. During this period, several religions were tr:m~. ·itted from the West to the East. Nestorianism and Islam spread into the hinter!,m( of China at a time when Buddhism also reached its zenith. The famous èu,"ihist monk Xuan-zang travelled for more than ten years in India to study Sutr.i. People travelled peacefully on the Silk Road and preached their beliefs in d, ferent religions. The records of traffic on the Silk Road are relatively • :ch in Chinese, Greek and Arabic sources. The thiro ~roup of sources covers those collected and compiled from the tenth century ,.) the middle of the seventeenth and includes the sources for dynasties of the North Song (960-1127), the South Song (1127-1279), the Yuan 3. Xin-tang-shu (The New History of the Tang Dynasty) ch. 221. The text runs as follows: During the 17th year of Zheng-guan (643 CEJ the king Po-to-li sent an embassy offering red glass and lu-chin-ching [green gold gems], and a cabinet order was issued as an acknowledgment. When the Ta-shih (Arabs] usurped power over these countries, they sent their genera!. Mo-i [Mo ·awiya, then Govcrnor of Syria, afterwards Caliph 661-80 CEJ, to reduce them to order. fu-lin obtained peace by an agreement. but in the sequel bccame subject to Ta-shih. From the period Qian-feng (666-8 CE] till the period Ta-tsu [701 CE] they have repeatedly offered tribute to the Han [Chinese] court. In the seventh year of the K'ai-yuan period [719 CEJ they offered through the ta-yu [a high official] ofT'u-huo-lo [Tokharistan] lions and ling yang [antelopes]. .