【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 atterns. The most famous silk was from Shandong province. Clothes of royal families were made of contributed silk from Xiangyi. The Han royal government gave more than ten thousand Pi silk as presents to chiefs of the Hun and other western tribes. The Emperor Wu of Han, Che Liu was a kind of crave for greatness and success. As the Hun threaten the Empire for many years, he decided to defeat it. The aim of Qian Zhang’s Mission to Western Regions for an alliance with the Darouzhi, nomadic people who migrated from north areas of the Central Plains to west for escape from the Hun’s hitting decades ago, to strike the Hun together. With the national mission, Qian Zhang started with over 100 people for Western Regions in 139 BC. when Qian Zhang returned from Western Regions after suffering hardship travelling and mang setbacks of thirteen years, the whole country was excited, although he did not reach the Darouzhi, and lose almost all people on the his mission trip but two. He described the geography, products, and ethnic customs and everything what he caught in his sight, which greatly widen the eyesight of Chinese, especially the fine horses, grapes, and other unknown fruits. Then, the Emperor Wu of Han realized the important political meanings and the irresistible economic benefits from controlling the paths via Western Regions by military power. The royal government sent Qian Zhang as the specia envoy to Western Regions again (119 BC115 BC). Just as what Wenlan Fan said: “The return of Qian Zhang brought news of Western Regions and promoted the culture municaton of the EastWest. His return was a memorable event in human history.” People even pared impacts of the return of Qian Zhang on the Central Plains with the inspirations of Columbus Discovery to the world, and they spoke highly of the former over the later. In a word, afterwards, the way from Central Plains to Western Regions kept smooth, guaranteeing the safety of diplomats and merchants. The silk trade became flourished gradually. The two missions of Qian Zhang to Western Regions formed the basic route of Silk Road, namely the Silk Road in a narrow meaning. According to the political and geographical distribution at that time, people divided the entire Silk Road into three sections from the east to the west: the eastern section, the middle section, and the western section. The eastern section started from the Capital Chang’an (Xi’an , Shaanxi province now) in the Western Han Dynasty or the Capital Luoyang (Henan province now) in the Eastern Han Dynasty, across the Hexi Corridor, Yumen Pass or Yang Pass, entering the middle section of Silk Road, namely the section in Western Regions. In Han Dynasty, the section of Silk Road in Western Regions included the south path and the north path. The north path ran through the south side of Tianshan and the north edge of Taklimakan Desert. The south path was between the north side of Kunlun Mountains and the south edge of Taklimakan Desert, across Congling (Pamir now), entering the western section of Silk Road, passing Dayuan (Ferghana now), Bactria (in Afghanistan today), Sogdiana (in Uzbekistan today), Anxi (Iran now), and reaching Liqian of Daqin (the ancient Roman empire). Encouraging by Qian Zhang’s missions to Western Regions, a group of ministers and merchants requested to visit Western Regions. According to the record in the book History of Han Dynasty, envoys and merchants were so many that they could see eath other on the road. The large group of envoys included several hundreds of people, and the small group included more than one hundred people. In one year, five to six, or even ten groups of envoys started or acplished their missions. They followed different ways in the mission. They spent eight or nine, at least several years in their travelling. These envoys, sent by the royal government, were not only for the sake of politics, but also for the sake of trade. They usually carried a number of modities, mainly amounts of delicate silk, as the medium of exchange. Qian Zhang was not an exception. In his second mission, he brought “ten thousands of cattles and sheep, and thousands of golden coins and silk”. His vice envoy and business team took amounts of Chinese silk and other local products to the west places, such as Dayuan (Ferghana now), Kangju (in Uzbeks today), Darouzhi (now the upper reaches of the Amu Darya, the north of Afghanistan), Bactria (in Afghanistan today), Anxi (Iran now), Sindhu (India), Khotan (now Hotan in Xinjiang), and Wuni (now Ruoqiang in Xinjiang). Private merchants also took a part in trade with the west. 3. The Development of SinoWestern Silk Trade Qian Zhang and his vice envoy did not establish the silk trade with Rome directly. At the right time after Qian Zhang’s mission to Western Regions, the Rome Empire grew strongly and powerfully. They had an increasing need for Chinese silk. How did Chinese silk reach Rome market? Pliny pointed out in his book Natural History that Chinese silk was transported from land or shipped to India firstly. Then, the Indian merchants took them to the west. Route Before Qian Zhang’s mission to Western Regions, a minister of the ancient India Dynasty of Peacock wrote a book named Political Comments , which describe