552 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



ing the Hsiung Nu was the primary purpose of that western journey 

 upon which Wu sent his general, Chang Ch'ien, thereafter maintain- 

 ing regular touch with Iranian lands. 



Hand in hand with the determination to repulse the Hsiung Nu, 

 went the Chinese desire for a supply of those fine Iranian horses which 

 in China were called "blood-sweating horses," fabled to be the off- 

 spring of a heavenly steed, for it was at this time that the Chinese, 

 in response to Hsiung Nu attacks from the North, were developing a 

 new technique of warfare in which cavalry played the preponderant 

 part. The fodder of these noble beasts was alfalfa (Medicago sativa), 

 and Chang Ch'ien, being a man of judgment, not only brought back 

 the horses but also alfalfa seeds, leading to the rapid diffusion of the 

 plant through northern China. The best horses appear to have come 

 from Ferghana, now the eastern portion of Russian Turkestan, where 

 alfalfa still yields four or five crops a year and is cultivated up to a 

 height of 5,000 feet. 8 



Another gift brought by Chang Ch'ien from the West was the grape 

 used in Ferghana to make wine; the vine was, however, cultivated 

 for centuries in its new home before the Chinese made wine from it, 

 first apparently in the seventh century. 9 



It was Chang Ch'ien's quest for the "blood-sweating" horses that 

 established the first contacts between China and the Mediterranean 

 world, for the Ta Yuan, the owners of the coveted horses, were the 

 inhabitants of Sogdiana (between Oxus and Jaxartes), while Ta Hsia, 

 the country newly settled by the Ta Yueh-chih, was Bactria, both 

 occupying the furthest extremity of the great Bactrian-Sogdian 

 satrapy of Alexander's Empire. Although at this time the Seleucids 

 had lost their outlying possessions, especially in the East, 10 even the 

 remotest territories had been so thoroughly permeated by Hellenistic 

 influence that they retained something of Hellenism long after this 

 period, though exposed to the enmity of the rising Parthian Empire. 11 



Chang Ch'ien's report has been preserved, perhaps in his own 

 words. Mr. Fitzgerald's translation runs as follows: 



Ta Yuan [Ferghana], the people are sedentary [not nomads] and cultivate the 

 soil. They have many superb horses, which sweat blood when they perspire. 

 There are cities, houses, and mansions as in China. To the northeast is the 

 country of the Wu Sun (the Hi Valley], to the east is Yu T'ien [Kashgaria]. West 

 of Yu T'ien the rivers flow westward into the Western Sea [the Caspian and 



8 Laufer, B., Sino-Iranica, p. 210, Chicago, 1919. Several aspects of the quest for the superior horse are 

 Investigated by Yetts (The horse, a factor in early Chinese history, Eurasia, Septentrionalis Antiqua, vol. 

 9, pp. 231-255, 1934). 



8 Laufer, op. cit., pp. 221 et seq. 



"• In 255 B. C. or thereabouts, Bactria revolted under Diodotus and gradually became independent, 

 Diodotus II becoming king some time before 227 (Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 7, pp. 719, 720). 



" The Parthians dated their era from the year 247 B. C (loc. cit.). In order to emphasize the high degree 

 in which Hellenistic influence was present in the Satrapy, it is worth remembering that both Herat and 

 Kandahar when founded bore the name of Alexandria. I may also refer to a passage by Bostovtzefl bear- 

 ing on this point (Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 7, pp. 157-8). 



