since zhang qian’s famous maiden expedition, the silk road had always been the main transport artery between china and the west, func-tioning as an essential channel for china to strengthen and establish eco-nomic and cultural ties with countries and peoples of central asia, west asia, south asia, and europe. the excavation of this channel witnessed the active roles of the emissaries of the countries such as the western han, the eastern han, daqin, and more, among whom a representative pioneer was gan ying.

ⅰ. the reasons for gan ying’s mission to daqin

daqin,also called the“li xuan”in records of the grand historian, refers to the eastern roman empire. the han dynasty saw the delega-tions of famous figures to the western regions, such as zhang qian, ban chao, and gan ying. gan ying was the first person sent to daqin. during the emperor wu’s reign, he established four counties along the hexi corridor, historically called “four hexi counties”, including jiuquan, zhangye, dunhuang and wuwei, in order to consolidate and maintain the connection with the western regions after zhang qian’s missions. the connection between the mainland and the western re-gions, however, was cut off during wang mang’s reign and the early eastern han dynasty, due to the resurgence of the hun forces. ban chao (32-102 ad), following dou gu, fought against the huns in 73 ad and was later ordered to administer the western regions, where he spent almost 20 years strengthening the political order established by the han dynasty. in 91 ad, ban chao was re-appointed as protector general of the western regions, and in 97 ad, he sent his subordinate gan ying (whose exact time of birth and death was unknown) on a mission to daqin, trying to further develop the direct transport between han and the western regions.

there are various opinions on the purpose of ban chao sending gan ying to daqin. one is that ban chao, as a strategist, diplomat, and politician, intended to attack the non-han with the foreigners, or even barbarians by uniting with daqin to attack the northern huns. he was over the age of sixty at that time, thus unable to go to daqin by himself, so he sent his subordinate gan ying in his place. according to another view, the purpose of the mission was to enhance the prestige of the han dynasty and recruit foreign envoys. another opinion reveals the purpose to break through the trade monopoly of parthia in the middle in order to directly explore the great civilized countries in the far west; ban chao sent gan ying to acquire knowledge and detailed information about daqin which was a big country in the west with many rare and precious products, and which, as a consumer of chinese silk, eager to send envoys to communicate with han.

ⅱ. reasons for gan ying’s failure

gan ying was sent by ban chao on a mission to daqin in 97 ad, but he only reached as far as the persian gulf. gan ying led a delegation from kucha (now kuqa, xinjiang), went westward to shule (now kash-gar, xinjiang), crossed congling (now the pamirs), passed dayuan (now fergana basin, uzbekistan), the great rouzhi, hedu (the capital of parthia), aman, spin, yuluo, and finally arrived in tiaozhi (now characene, iraq).

gan ying reached the coast of the western sea (now persian gulf) on the west side of parthia and wanted to cross it. as recorded by “trea-tise on parthia”of“treatise on the western regions”in the book of the later han,the protector general ban chao sent gan ying to daqin in the ninth year of the emperor he’s reign, and gan ying reached tiaozhi, wanting to cross the sea. but after listening to the stories of the parthian sailors, he took a second thought. what they told him was: “since the ocean is huge, it takes as long as three months for the ship to reach there even with favorable winds. however, if you encounter dead winds, it may take about two years. that is why all the men who go by sea take enough supplies for three years. the vast ocean urges men to think of their country, get homesick, and some of them die.” hearing this gan ying discontinued his trip westward and believed what they said about the possibility of spending such a long time at sea, as well as the unex-pected ers during the voyage.

it is speculated that the story that “the vast ocean urges men to think of their country, get homesick, and some of them die” refers to the sirens in greek mythology who lured nearby sailors and passengers with their enchanting singing. in the mythology, it is said that orpheus played his lyre to outweigh their vos, and odysseus sealed his partner’s ears with wax and bound himself to the mast of his ship so as to cross the sea succesully.

in fact, crossing the sea was not necessary at all for gan ying’s trip to rome from parthia; he could have travelled westward directly to syria, a buffer zone between rome and parthia. even if he did wish to cross the sea, the persian gulf should have been easily crossed since the er wasn’t that great. so why did the king of parthia deceive the han ambassador gan ying? according to the “treatise 78 on the western re-gions”in the book of the later han,parthia also made profits of silk and fabrics thanks to its geographical advantage as the transit point of the trade between the han dynasty and daqin. and if the han dynasty di-rectly opened up the route with daqin, “the middleman would no longer earn from the margin”, which would damage the commercial interests of parthia since they would no longer be needed.

gan ying’s well-intentioned mission ended in failure despite the efforts made, ruining the military strategy of the han dynasty to ally with daqin to attack the northern huns. although gan ying failed to reach daqin, he was the first chinese to reach the persian gulf, which enhanced china’s understanding of the central asian countries; he also set the record of the farthest mission in history despite his failure to reach roman empire, since han ambassadors never went beyond parthia before that. the new information gathered by gan ying by traveling as far as the roman empire enriched the han’s knowledge of the far west. in addition, the failure of gan ying’s mission also indicated the extreme difficulty of the exchanges by land between the han dynasty and daqin, so the maritime route ultimately became the best cho for daqin mer-chants.

ⅲ. the romans’ attempt to reach china

just as the chinese tried to go to rome, the romans also tried to find a direct channel to the “silk road” to start facilitating direct trade between the two sides. there were also some wealthy commercial groups in the roman empire trying to bypass the transit stations, such as the persian state,and seek silk directly in“seres”.ptolemy’s geography record-ed a greek named maes titianos, who organized a route survey from the mediterranean to “seres” at the end of the first century. he conducted the survey through a number of agencies and agents. the literature does not document whether the exploration was succesul or not.

as recorded in the book of the later han, roman emperor an-tonine sent an ambassador to the han dynasty via rinan (now vietnam) in 166 ad. when the ambassador arrived in the han dynasty with ivory, rhinoceros horns, tortoiseshells, and toads, he came to the realization that these things were no longer rare in the han dynasty. nonetheless, this voyage s that the roman emperor still hoped to trade directly with china and attempted to find a new route to replace the land route. this might also be related to the popularity of silk in rome and the excessive outflow of gold from rome. the roman empire had been battling and looting for quite some time, and a great amount of gold looted was used to buy silk from persia and the kushan empire, which resold chinese silk at high prs, causing the financial deficit of the roman empire. however, the poor technology and knowledge of shipbuilding and nav-igation at that time failed to afford such long journeys, so the maritime route did not form a normal and direct trade relationship between rome and china.