In the ninth year of Yanxi (AD 166), Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, when Cao Cao was eleven years old, a foreign mission came to Luoyang.They brought ivory, rhino horn, and tortoise shell in homage to a strange empire. No one knows how long they walked together, but it must have been difficult.Because this country was far away in the sky, it was called Haixi Country by the Chinese at that time, also called Liqian (read Rujian), and the name recorded in the official history of the Eastern Han Dynasty was "Daqin". Great Qin is Rome. The "Da Qin King Anton" who sent the mission was most likely the Roman Emperor Marco Aurelius Antony.

This is the first close contact between two great civilizations, which had been missed before.In the ninth year of Emperor Yongyuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 97), the diplomat Gan Ying was sent to Rome by Dingyuan Hou Banchao, but he was discouraged from going to today's Iran on the coast of the Persian Gulf.The local people told them that it takes three years to prepare food for crossing the Mediterranean Sea, and people will be homesick and die at sea. Gan Ying and others had no choice but to give up. Fortunately, sixty-nine years later, the Romans themselves came. Now it is impossible to know for sure why those Romans came to China.Even whether they were really sent by the Roman emperor can only be left alone.Perhaps they were not missions, but caravans.The purpose is naturally silk.

Chinese silk was introduced to Rome very early and became the favorite clothing fabric of Roman Senate members and ladies.The Romans even called China Seres because of this, the Latin word meaning silk. The silk transported to Rome went through a long journey. First, it reached Xinjiang through the Hexi Corridor, then took the southern route along the northern foot of Kunlun Mountains, and then took the northern route along the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain to the west.Both roads have to pass through Congling (Pamirs) at the end, both start from Chang'an, and both lead to Daqin. Moreover, they have a beautiful name: Silk Road.

The opening of the Silk Road was due to the strategic concept of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. He wanted to unite with the Huns' old enemies to deal with the Xiongnu.The object of the alliance was Yuezhi (the pronunciation is controversial, it can be read as Yuezhi or Rouzhi) who was defeated by the Huns.These people were deported and have long since disappeared, so the first step is to find them. And so, a great explorer set out. His name is Zhang Qian. Zhang Qian's trip to the Western Regions has always been a good story, but his travels were very difficult and dangerous.Flying sand and rolling rocks in the Gobi Desert, rolling hot waves, Pamirs covered with snow and ice, and the Huns' cavalry galloping across the vast land, Zhang Qian and his party would bump into each other anytime and anywhere.

In fact, when they hurried through the Hexi Corridor, they were captured without any suspense and taken to the court of the Huns near present-day Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.The military official Shan Yu said to Zhang Qian confidently: "The Yue family is to the north of me. How can the Han people go?"If I want to go to Vietnam, will the big man agree? Of course he would not agree, and Zhang Qian had to stay in the Huns for ten years. What made Zhang Qian even more frustrated was that although he escaped later and found the Yuezhi in the Amu Darya Valley with the help of the Dawan people and the Kangju people, the Yuezhi had long since lost the idea of ​​revenge against the Huns.They are quite content to live there, and thank themselves for being a blessing in disguise.

Zhang Qian had no choice but to return home. Although Zhang Qian, who was captured again and narrowly escaped death, failed to form an alliance, he brought back enough world knowledge and exoticism.Through the investigation report he submitted to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese opened their eyes to see the world for the first time, and experienced the customs of many ethnic groups outside the Western Regions. Here are some unheard of crowds.Some of them are nomads, such as Wusun, Kangju, Yancai, and Yuezhi, called "Xingguo".Some are agricultural or commercial peoples, such as Dawan, Anxi, Tiaozhi, and Daxia, called "indigenous peoples".

However, no matter whether it is a native or a foreign country, it is very far away from the big man.Anxi is equivalent to today's Iran, and Tiaozhi is equivalent to Syria.For the rest, Zewusun is located in Ishtik, southeast of Issyk Lake in Kyrgyzstan, Kangju is located between Lake Balkhash and the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, Yancai is in the grasslands in the northern part of the Aral Sea and Caspian Sea, and Dawan is in Fergan, Uzbekistan. Na Basin, Bactria is south of the Amu Darya River in Central Asia and north of the Hindu Kush Mountains. The Greeks call it Bactria. As for Yuezhi, it may be in northern Afghanistan.

In addition, there are Shendu and Liqian.Shendu is also called Tianzhu, but it is actually India.Liqian is also called Lixuan, that is, Daqin, that is, Rome.However, Zhang Qian has only heard about these two countries. However, this was enough to make Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fascinated.Especially Dawan's wine and bloody horses are very tempting.The caravan followed the army, but the caravan lasted longer and brought more profits. The huge profits made the camel bells of the Silk Road sound all the way, and the countries along the route, including Parthia, enjoyed the profits.Parthia is Anxi, but the Chinese call them Anxi, and Westerners call them Parthia.

Parthia was founded in 247 BC and then fell to the Sasanian dynasty of Iran in 226 AD.When Gan Ying arrived on the day of rest, it was the time when the Parthians were proud.They made up stories to scare off the envoys of the Eastern Han Dynasty, just because they didn't want to lose the benefits of the middlemen.Apparently, these Parthians preferred to buy goods from Chinese merchants and resell them to the Mediterranean region. Therefore, from Zhang Qian’s mention of Liqian to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in 126 BC, to the Roman mission’s visit to China in 166 AD, the exchanges between the two civilizations could only be carried out slowly through other countries and ethnic groups for nearly three centuries. .Although in Parthian markets, Chinese merchants had bargained with Roman merchants and were amazed at their use of silver coins and writing on leather.

This does not prevent China and Rome from growing independently and becoming super empires and world civilizations.In fact, half a century before the mission's visit to China, Rome's territory had reached its apex: from the Euphrates River in the east to the British Isle in the west, the Danube River in the north, and North Africa in the south. Interestingly, the Roman emperor who sent the mission and the Chinese emperor who received them are also two iconic figures.Marco Aurelius Antony marked the prosperity and decline of the Roman Empire, and Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty meant the end of the Eastern Han Empire, just as the end of the Roman Republic and the Western Han Dynasty, and the beginning of the Roman Empire and the Eastern Han Dynasty were almost at the same time.

All kinds of coincidences in history can not but make us have a lot of reverie, and lead our eyes to the vast world stage.Because only there, can we truly see the two great empires and the two great civilizations.