The Heavenly Horse, the Silk Road, and Two Ambitious Chinese

The Heavenly Horse, the Silk Road, and Two Ambitious Chinese

"May you live in interesting times. May you get that which you prayed for. May you come to the attention of people in high places. May your friends always be at your back. And may your enemies be patient."

Ancient Chinese Blessing?

From the time of Julius Caesar until advances in navigation led to the opening of sea routes to India and China, perhaps the most important route on in the Old World was the famous Silk Road. The origin of this famous trade route goes back to a very unlikely pair of very ambitious men. One of them was Wu-Ti, the "Martial Emperor" of China, was born to rule. The other was Chang Ch'ien, born a laborer.

Wu-Ti was an absolutely ruthless leader, who treated his troups abominably even by the standard of the day. To him they were simply a means of obtaining his goal of enlarging the Han Dynasty's empire throughout China, Tibet and the Indochina area, and also into Mongolia. Extending the empire south seemed to pose no great difficulty, but in the north was an enemy he could not overcome -- the Hsiung-nu, who were later to be themselves displaced by a people whom Europe would come to know as the Huns.

The Hsiung-nu and the Han Chinese had been fighting over their mutual border almost constantly until about 177 BCE, when a peace treaty was signed by Mao-tun, the Shan-yü (roughly an emperor or king) of the Hsiung-nu, and Wen-ti, the then emperor of China. Neither side was happy with the agreement, although it solved (more or less) both sides' problems. Behind each other's backs, each side searched for an advantage over the other. It was Mao-tun who found it first. In 176 BCE, in a letter he wrote to Wen-ti as a means of inquiring as to the whereabouts of two missing embassies he had sent to the Chinese capital:

"Through the aid of Heaven, the excellence of his fighting men and the strength of his horses, [I have] succeeded in wiping out the Yüeh-chih, [and conquered] the 26 states nearby, so that all of them have become part of the Hsiung-nu nation. All the people who live by drawing the bow are now united into one family."

The letter concluded with a "suggestion" that if Wen-ti really wanted peace, he should back his troops away from the Great Wall.

It should be pointed out at this point that the Yüeh-chih were not "wiped out." A large portion of them, those which the Chinese referred to later as the Ta-Yüeh-chih (or "greater" Yüeh-chih; they called themselves the Ywati but we will on this website use their Chinese appellation as, since most of their history is from Chinese sources, this is the name you will most commonly encounter them under) had finally had enough, and had moved away, to "the southwest."

Wen-ti was not having much success with the Hsiung-Nu either, nor had his successor, Wu-ti. Hearing of the Ta-Yüeh-chih from Hsiung-Nu prisoners and deserters, Wu-Ti deemed that if the Ta-Yüeh-chih could be found, perhaps they might desire an alliance with China, and jump at this chance to return to their homeland. Wu-Ti decided to put together an embassy to travel to the west and find the Ta-Yüeh-chih, now thought to be somewhere in Central Asia, on the other side of the Hsiung-Nu lines.

Only the most ambitious of men could lead an embassy directly through enemy lines. When Wu-Ti asked for volunteers, it was Chang Ch'ien who stepped forward. He had become a soldier as a young man, and was one of the very few Chinese officials who had worked his way up through the ranks. Chang Ch'ien left the Imperial Court with 100 associates in 138 B.C.E. and headed for points east. Inevitably, Chang captured by the Hsiung-Nu. Chang Ch'ien did, finally, manage to escape ... ten years (it is said, but it probably was not that long), a wife, a son and a loyal slave later.

For the next two years, Chang Ch'ien travelled throughout Central Asia, and finally he found Ta-Yüeh-chih. They had eventually settled in Bactria (now northern Afghanistan). They had ousted a people called the Wu-sun. The Wu-sun, in turn, had ousted a people in the Ferghana valley (which the Chinese called Ta-yüan in their chronicles). For a year, he tried to persuade them to help Wu-Ti, but by now Wu-Ti's reputation had reached even Bactria, and the Ta-Yüeh-chih wanted nothing to do with either the Han or the Hsiung-nu. In the end Chang Ch'ien decided to return to China and report his lack of success.

Chang Ch'ien travelled very widely in his journey back to China. From Bactria he went north to Herat, then, following a local trade route, west to Tashkent and then into the Fergana Valley. He found the Wu-sun, and their chieftain, Wugua. Of Ferghana/Ta-yüan Chang wrote:

"The people are settled on the land, plowing the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make wine out of grapes. The region has many fine horses which sweat blood; their forebears are supposed to have been foaled from heavenly horses."

A year later, Chang Ch'ien returned to his emperor, with bad news and good news. He regaled the wonderful Parthian steed --swift, untiring, perfect for the Cavalry Wu-Ti was forming to counter the Hsiung-nu cavalry. And best of all, the Parthian was a mystical horse, who sweated blood; a sure sign of the grace of heaven as Chinese legend often repeated. Whoever rode them could not fail in battle.

Wu-Ti was entranced by these "Heavenly Horses," but he was even more sold on the idea of establishing trade (and eventually military) alliances with these wonderful kingdoms of which "China's Marco-Polo" had returned with tales.

Wu-Ti had several embassies assembled, and sent south to India and West to Fergana's two "connected" cities, Khuganda and Kasan. But while the Wu-sun were well known as "clever tradesmen," they were not the greatest of warriors and they knew it. They were much interested in trade with China, but politely declined to take part in any military alliances. They sent Chang back to China with "a small Wu-sun embassy and a gift of a few horses intended for the Emperor."

Meanwhile Chang Ch'ien went on to lead an army into Mongolia itself. He came too late to relieve another general, which lead to a humiliating defeat for the Chinese -- the kind of defeat after which, by law, the surviving generals must be beheaded -- unless one could buy one's way out of the punishment. Chang was able to buy his life, but it cost him everything he owned, including his titles. From the moment he was out of the imperial court, he tried to get back into it. The Heavenly Horses turned out to be the way.

Chang Ch'ien talked up the horses to his friends, and they to their superiors. Soon it became apparent that Wu-ti was becoming obsessed with gaining a herd of Heavenly Horses, which Chinese legend promised would confer wisdom and longevity. He was also becoming obsessed with planting a puppet governor in Ferghana so that the Chinese would fight the Hsiung-nu from a side they could not fight from at the time. Thus Wu-ti sent yet another embassy to Ferghana. They brought several thousand gold pieces and a statue of a horse made of pure gold to trade for "a small breeding stock" of these horses.

But for reasons which are not clear, this time the Wu-sun were trading away no more of their horses; in fact, when the embassy got there, they saw no "heavenly horses" at all; apparently the Wu-sun were hiding them. In the end, the Chinese embassy was killed, the treasure taken, and one or two token horses were sent back to China, "as a gift on the occasion of the death of Chang Ch'ien."

The death of the Chinese embassy was too much humiliation for Wu-ti to endure. This time he sent 60,000 cavalry and 100,000 infantry to sack Ferghana. The Wu-sun fought bravely for a time, but in the end they were well outnumbered. They killed Wugua and sued for peace. The remaining Chinese (less than a quarter of those who started out) were offered the pick of the Heavenly Horses. They took away twenty or thirty heavenly horses for the empire, and two to three thousand common horses for the soldiers to ride on their return to China. Things were not altogether good on the way, however. By the time they reached the Imperial court, because of "hardships along the way," only a thousand of these horses lived to be presented to the Emperor.

When word got around to the smaller states which surrounded Fergana that Fergana had fallen, many of them decided to ally themselves with the Han Dynasty in order to avoid the same fate. They brought gifts of gold and jewels, and, as a token of good will, they returned home with silks. And that was the beginning of the Silk Road.

To Learn More about the Han Dynasty and the Significance of the "Blood Sweating Heavenly Horses":

Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History by Laszlo Torday.

To see an excellent map of the Silk Road, please visit The Silk Road Project. This site also contains much interesting information on the history of the Silk Road.

Divination, Mythology and Monarchy in Han China by Michael Loewe.

China in Central Asia by A F P Hulsewae.

To learn more about "China's Marco Polo," please visit http://www.thehistorynet.com/MilitaryHistory/articles/04964_text.htm