In 329 BC, the army of Alexander the Great conquered Bactria and reached Samarcand, more than 4,000 km from Macedonia. At the same time, on the other side of the deserts of Taklamakan 3,000 km to the east, another warrior kingdom by the name of Qin began an astounding expension. A century later, while Alexandria of the Ptolemites was shining its brightest and while Archimedes was discovering the principles of hydrostatics, this powerful of Qin was unifying an empire that spread across an entire continent. When the name of Qin appeared in the Occident, having passed from mouth to mouth across India, it had been transformed to become what we know as China.1
Relations between China and the Near East — the Silk Road
The worlds of ancient China and the ancient West were never truly isolated, even if direct contacts between them were rare. Recent archaeological discoveries[365] [366] in the desert of Taklamakan in Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan) reveal a very old settlement of oases through which the Silk Road will later pass. This area had widespread irrigation in the first millennium BC. It is possible that wheat was brought to the Near East and as far as China by this route in the Neolithic period. The same may also be true for the technology of bronze, as it appeared very suddenly in China about 1600 BC.
In 135 BC an official Chinese envoy named Zhang Qian reaches, with difficulty, the territory of the Yuehzi at the borders of a country called Daxia by the Chinese, thought today to be Bactria.[367] (The Yuehzi later found the Kuchan Empire). There he discovers, among other things, products of South China that reach this country after passing through a region called Shendu (India).[368] In 104 BC a Chinese military expedition establishes effective control over this route, destined soon to become the eastern portion of the Silk Road. The Romans discover silk in the 1st century AD and become infatuated with it. The Parthians begin to serve as intermediaries between the two great empires and before long, caravans begin to link them, through many additional points of contact. These included Palmyra or Antioch to the west, and Chang’an (today Xi’an) in China to the east. Starting in the 2nd century AD, a maritime route passing to the south of India (exploiting the seasonal monsoon winds) establishes a more direct link from east to west. This maritime route is especially used by merchants of Alexandria. It is said that a
Roman diplomatic expedition, likely made up of Syrian merchants, called at ports in South China during the Han Dynasty, successor to the Qin Dynasty.[369] Later on the Arabs serve as intermediaries between the West and China; eventually in the 15th century the Ming Dynasty launches its own junks on grand expeditions.
