JOURNAL

OF THE

NORTH-CHINA BRANCH

OF THE

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.

ARTICLE I.

WHAT DID THE ANCIENT CHINESE KNOW OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.*

IN

BY

JOSEPH EDKINS, D.D.

N DR. BRETSCHNEIDER'S learned account of "The Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs" published in London, 1871, he states that the Chinese accounts of foreign countries contained in their histories are vague and inaccurate.

This is much to be lamented but none the less must we, if we would inquire into the past history of our globe, make strenuous efforts to gather from those same vague and inaccurate accounts safe results, and interesting additions to cur own knowledge. There is little doubt though he has said this, that Dr. Bretschneider will consent to the opinion that the two great historical writers of the Han dynasty, that of Sï-machien and that of Pan-ku, have conferred an unfading glory on the Chinese scholarship of that period. These authors did the best they could with the knowledge they had, and wo Europeans can now reap the benefit to be derived from the study of their works, although they contain inexact descriptions. * Read before the Society on the 9th January, 1883.

One name by which the Roman empire was known was Ta T'sin. The reason is said to be that the inhabitants of that empire resembled the Chinese in stature, erectness and upright conduct.

May there not be another reason for this name? The Chinese may have compared the Tsin dynasty with the Romans on account of the rapidity and success of their military expeditions, and the fact that they subjugated all the surrounding kingdoms. The name first occurs in the Heu-han-shu, the work of Fan-ye, himself an author of the fifth century. It is found only in the histories written after the time of Pan-ku, the historian of the early Han dynasty, and the brother of Pan-c'hau who subdued Turkestan. But this may be regarded as a reason for thinking that, it was the Buddhists who entered from China to teach their religion that [gave the Romans this name. It was in the time of Nero A.D. 64, that they first entered China coming from Affghanistan, then called the country of the Getae. When in the reigns of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus the next Buddhists are mentioned, it was from Affghanistan and Parthia that they came, remaining in China from A.D. 147 till about A.D. 180. The embassy from Marcus Aurelius arrived A.D. 166 by Canton. In the biography of the earliest of the Parthian missionaries it is said that he went to Canton. He was also an excellent translator on account of his good knowledge of the Chinese language. We may conclude then that the name Ta-t'sin for Rome was adopted through the Buddhists, and that the reason of its adoption is to be found probably in some national designation for Rome, in some language current at that time in Affghanistan and India.

Referring to the earlier accounts, Rome can only be detected under the name Li-kan. In the Shi-chi we are told under the heading Parthia (called there an sik or as pronounced at Shanghai Ersik, the Arsacidae) that west of Parthia lay Syria Dio-ti, and north of Parthia lay the Alans and the country of Likan. Fan-ye identifies Likan with Rome. The Shi-ki was written about B.C. 95, before

the Romans under Pompey conquered Syria, which was in B.C. 65, while Greece was divided into Roman provinces about B.C. 146, so that in the time of the Shï-ki the powerful nations of the west were Parthia, Syria, Rome and Egypt. The author knew of all these except Egypt, and he designated them by names current in Affghanistan and Bactria at the time. Unfortunately we do not know the name by which the Parthians called the Romans. If we did we might get light on the origin of the term Li-kan. We may speculate on its resemblance to the word regnum, or Hellenikon or some other word, but with no very satisfactory result. We need more knowledge of names current after the time of Alexander the Great in Persia and India before we can determine this point. Before the Chinese made their way to the countries known as Bactria and Sogdiana, the Greeks under Alexander had gone there and left behind them flourishing colonies, which had existed through revolutions, wars and intervals of peace for nearly two centuries.

The conquest of Bactria and Sogdiana by Alexander the Great, B.C. 328, was followed after sixteen years by the consolidation of the kingdom of the Seleucidae. Bactria was the most distant province of that empire and remained so for about sixty years. At this time the last Cheu emperors were reigning feebly. The time was not favourable for foreign intercourse, or the Chinese and the Greeks might have learned to respect one another as having at about the same time a school of political philosophy and morals, and a literature of history and poetry.

After sixty years the eastern dependencies of the Syrian Kingdom were snatched away by insurgent chiefs. The kingdom of Ansi, or Arsic, as the Chinese name was probably pronounced nineteen centuries ago, appeared in the history of the western nations as Parthia. Bactria was left in peace by Arsaces, and the presence there of Greek colonies, flourishing through the fineness and fertility of the climate and soil, had a little before rendered it possible for Deodotus to change the title and position of a satrap under the Seleucidae into that of an independent king. His son made a treaty with Tiridates,

king of Parthia, and joined him in fighting against Syria. He began to reign about B.C. 250, others say B.C. 255.See Bayer, Historia Regni Græcorum Bactriani.

Euthydemus, a native of Magnesia, effected a revolution in the Bactrian kingdom B.C. 220 and became king. He caused Greek coins to be cast for use in his kingdom as had been done before by the dynasty of Diodotus. After eleven years Antiochus, the great king of Syria, came eastward with an army to reconquer his old possessions and destroy the new kingdoms, Parthia and Bactria, which had sprung up there. He defeated Euthydemus in battle at the river Arius, in the year B.C. 207, a peace was soon made on the submission of Euthydemus, who pleaded that Antiochus would do well to leave him the title of king, because he was surrounded by powerful tribes, who would respect him the more on account of it. Antiochus gave one of his daughters in marriage to the son of Euthydemus. A treaty of alliance was made, and in the invasion of India by Antiochus he was helped by the king of Bactria. The capital of Bactria was Zariaspa, a city on the Oxus.

Euthydemus died B.C. 196 and was succeeded by Menander, who conquered the Penjaub and called himself on his coins king of India and Bactria. He was therefore a powerful king. In the year B.C. 181 he was followed by Eucratides. The kingdom of Parthia was now increasing in size, and B.C. 152 Mithridates, king of that country, added to his possessions Media, Hyrcania and Elymais. In conquering Hyrcania, which is on the south-east of the Caspian sea, he became a more dangerous neighbour than before to the Bactrians and the Dahae. Coins of Eucratides of the date B.C. 148 have been found, eight years earlier than the visit of the Chinese traveller Chang-c'hien to Bactria, when China obtained her first knowledge of the Greeks. On the coins which have been found on both sides of the Paropamisus, the mountain chain which separates the waters of the rivers Indus and Oxus, this king is called Eucratides the Great. Bayer believed that he was succeeded by his son Eucratides the second, but this view is contested. According to Wilson Eucratides was succeeded by his son Heliocles. Coins have been found with Greek and

Arian inscriptions associating the two names in the sovereignty. The Greek Bactrian kingdom was destroyed B.C. 127, thirteen years after the visit of Chang-c'hien and twenty-six years before the successful war waged by the Chinese against the native dynasty, which followed the Greek.

The Chinese name for the country in Sï-ma-t'sien and Pan-ku is Ta-wan. The prefix ta "great" is not properly part of the name. The word is then Wan, and this is probably the Indian Yavan, the name for the Greeks, borrowed by the Hindoos from the Persians. From the time of Alexander and during the reigns of the Seleucidae, the Greeks are known to the Indians by no other name than Yavanas. The v in this word is w, and the sound agrees accurately enough with that of the Chinese so far as we know it, which was probably Yon. The modern Persian taken from the Arabic is Yunan. The Hebrew in Zechariah IX, 13, "when I have raised up thy sons O Zion, against thy sons O Greece" is yawan agreeing exactly with the Sanscrit.

Among the reasons for identifying Bactria with Ta-wan are the customs of the people as described by the Chinese. For example Chang-c'hien found in Bactria the art of winemaking from grapes flourishing, and says that the rich men of the country stored it to the extent of thousands of piculs. After being kept for several tens of years it was still good. They also paid unusual honour to women, consulted them in important matters and adopted their views.

The Ta-wan country was so important that the historian gave all his information respecting western countries under this name. In the work of Si-ma-c'hien it is the heading of the entire section which treats of western countries. This historian would not have classed all western countries under this title, if Chang-chien and Li-kwang-li had not in their accounts described Ta-wan as specially interesting and inportant.

*Si-ma-ts'ien died about B.C. 85. Li-kwang-li conquered Ta-wan B.C. 101. Mayers identifies Ta-wan with Ferghana, de Guignes with Sogdiana. Perhaps both of these authors mean Kho-kand. Remusat makes Ta-wan, Ferghana. The city of Kho-kand is 200 miles N.E. of Sa-mar-kand, Ferghana is the N.E. neighbour to Bochara.