Zhang Qian
Zhang Qian was the Chinese envoy whose journeys opened the routes later called the Silk Road. Born in Hanzhong, he was an officer of the imperial guard when Emperor Wu of Han sought a volunteer for a mission of extraordinary risk: to cross Xiongnu territory and find the Yuezhi, a people the Xiongnu had driven west, and propose an alliance against them. He set out around 138 BC with about a hundred men and a Xiongnu guide named Ganfu. He was captured almost immediately and held for around ten years, during which he married a Xiongnu wife and had a son, and did not abandon the mission. He escaped, continued west through the Tarim Basin and over the Pamirs, and reached Dayuan in the Ferghana valley, then Sogdiana, and finally the Yuezhi in Bactria. They had settled into prosperous territory and had no interest in a war of revenge. He spent about a year trying to persuade them, failed, and turned back — and was captured again, escaping during a Xiongnu succession struggle. He returned in 125 BC after thirteen years with two survivors. The alliance failed and the intelligence was worth far more. His report described settled urban civilisations to the west that the Chinese had not known existed — Ferghana, Bactria, Parthia, and reports of India and of the Roman world beyond. He described the tall Ferghana horses, which the Han wanted badly enough to go to war for them. A second mission from 119 BC established relations with the Wusun and sent envoys further still. Regular embassies and caravans followed, and the trade in silk, and later Buddhism travelling east, moved along the routes he had found.
- Lived: 164 BCE – 114 BCE
- Nationality: Chinese
- Roles: diplomat, explorer
