Foreign Relations of Imperial China - Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The period of the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) was a groundbreaking era in the history of Imperial China's foreign relations. During the long reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC), the travels of Chinese ambassador Zhang Qian opened up China's relations with many different Asian territories for the first time. While traveling to the Western Regions in order to seek out an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu, Zhang was imprisoned by the Xiongnu for many years, but he brought back detailed reports of lands that had been previously unknown to the Chinese. This included details of his travels to the Greek-Hellenized kingdoms of Fergana (Dayuan) and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (Daxia), as well as reports of Anxi (Persian Empire of Parthia), Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), Shendu (India), and the Wusun Central Asian nomads. After his travels, the famous land trading route of the Silk Road leading from China to the Roman Empire was established. Emperor Wu was also known for his conquests and successful campaigns against the Xiongnu. He warred against the Kingdom of Wiman Joseon in order to establish the Four Commanderies of Han in Manchuria, one of which was established in northern Korea, the Lelang Commandery. By 111 BC, Emperor Wu reconquered northern Vietnam. It had had been under the Nanyue Kingdom's rule since the Qin naval officer Zhao Tuo had broken ties with mainland rule in the fall of Qin and establishment of Han.

Yet Chinese trading missions to follow were not limited to travelling across land and terrain. During the 2nd century BC, the Chinese had sailed past Southeast Asia and into the Indian Ocean, reaching India and Sri Lanka by sea before the Romans. This sea route became well traveled not only by merchants and diplomats, but also Chinese religious missionaries in search of further Indian Buddhist texts to translate from Sanskrit to Chinese. In AD 148, the Parthian prince known as An Shigao was the first to translate Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. There were many other Buddhist missionaries as well, including Yuezhi missionaries and Kushan Buddhist missionaries from northern India who introduced Buddhism to China. The Emperor Ming of Han establishing the White Horse Temple in the 1st century AD is demarcated by the 6th century Chinese writer Yang Xuanzhi as the official introduction of Buddhism to China. Also by the 1st century AD, the Chinese made sea contacts with Yayoi period Japan, inhabited by what the Chinese termed as the Wa people. By the 1st century, the Chinese also established relations with the Kingdom of Funan, centered in what is now Cambodia, but stretched partly into Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The Han general Ban Chao (AD 32-102) reconquered the states in the Western Regions (modern day Tarim Basin in Xinjiang) after pushing the Xiongnu out of the region. This included the kingdoms of Kashgar, Loulan, and Khotan, which were returned to Chinese control. He also sent his emissary Gan Ying even further in order to reach Rome (Daqin). Gan Ying perhaps made it as far as the Black Sea and Roman-era Syria, but turned back. He did however bring back reports of the Roman Empire, and there is evidence that subsequent Roman embassies to China took place.

The first diplomatic contact between China and the West occurred with the expansion of the Roman Empire in the Middle-East during the 2nd century, the Romans gained the capability to develop shipping and trade in the Indian Ocean. The first group of people claiming to be an embassy of Romans to China is recorded in 166, sixty years after the expeditions to the west of the Chinese general Ban Chao. It came to Emperor Huan of Han China, "from Antun (Emperor Antoninus Pius), king of Daqin (Rome)". Although, as Antoninus Pius died in 161, leaving the empire to his adoptive son Marcus Aurelius (Antoninus), the convoy arrived in 166, and the both Emperor being "Antonius" the confusion arises about who sent the embassy.