Page 42 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

whose capital was then on the northern bank of the
Oxus River, The envoy started B.C. 139, was kept

ten years a prisoner by the Hiung-nu Turks, who ruled

Eastern Turkistan, but at last reached his destination

through Ta Yuan (Fergana), the name of which is sup-
posed to be derived from the Asiatic name of the Greeks
Ta being "Great," and Yuan equivalent to 'Idoi^e:: or
lonians. The Chinese envoy returned through Bactria,
and tried the Khotan Lobnor route, but was again stop-
ped by the Hiung-nu, and got back at last in B. C. 126,

after an absence of thirteen years. Chang Ch'ien found
bamboo staves, cloth and other goods offered for sale
in Bactria, which he recognized as products of Sze-
chuan, and was told that they were brought there from
Shentu (India). He reported to the emperor the ex-
istence of this southwestern trade from China to India,

and also the name of Buddha and of Buddhism as an

Indian religion. The grape vine with its Greek name

(pu-t'ao from ^ozpu::), the lucerne {Medicago saliva),

the pomegranate from Parthia (Ansi), and several

other plants were introduced into China by him, and

were first planted at the capital in the Shang Lin Park.
WuThe emperor,
Ti, subsequently sent friendly em-

bassies to Sogdiana, and to Parthia in the beginning of

the reign of Mithradates II, followed by an army to

Fergana in B. C. 102-100, which conquered the Ta

Yuan kingdom, and brought back in triumph thirty

blood-sweating Niscean horses (of classical fame).

In the far south Kattigara (Cochin China) had been

annexed in 1 10 B. C, and given the Chinese name of
jih Nan (South of the Sun), and a ship was despatched

from that port to get a supply of the colored glass of
Kabulistan, which was becoming so highly valued at

the Chinese court.

The official introduction of Buddhism followed in the

year 67 A.D. The emperor Ming Ti, having seen in a
dream a golden figure floating in a halo of light across

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