Читать книгу Chinese Art - Stephen W. Bushell - Страница 5

The next dynasty, the Han, was the first to open up regular communication with western countries by sending Chang Ch’ien on a mission to the Yueh-ti, or Indo-Scythes, whose capital was then on the northern bank of the Oxus River. The envoy started in 139 B. C., was kept prisoner for ten years by the Hiung-nu Turks, who ruled Eastern Turkestan, but at last reached his destination through Ta Yuan (Fergana). Travelling through Bactria, he tried to return by the Khotan Lobnor route, but was again stopped by the Hiung-nu, until he finally escaped and got back to China in 126 B. C., after an absence of thirteen years. Chang Ch’ien found bamboo staves, cloth, and other goods offered for sale in Bactria, which he recognised as products of Szechuan, and was told that they were brought there from Shên-tu (India). He reported to the emperor the existence of this southwestern trade between China and India, and also the name of Buddha and of Buddhism as an Indian religion. The grape vine (pu-t’ao), the lucerne (Medicago sativa), the pomegranate from Parthia (Anhsi), and several other plants were introduced into China by him, and were cultivated in the Shang Lin Park at the capital.

The Emperor Wu Ti subsequently sent friendly embassies to Sogdiana, and to Parthia in the beginning of the reign of Mithradates II., and sent an army to Fergana in 102–100 B. C., which conquered the Kingdom of Ta Yuan, and brought back in triumph thirty horses (of classical fame). In the far south, Kattigara (Indochina China) was annexed in 110 B. C., given the Chinese name of Jih Nan, “South of the Sun,” and a ship was dispatched from that port to get a supply of the coloured 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 the pavillion, was told by his council that it must have been an apparition of Buddha, and at once sent a special mission of inquiry to India. The envoys returned to the capital, Lo Yang, with two Indian monks, bringing with them Sanskrit books, some of which were forthwith translated, and pictures of Buddhist figures and scenes, which were copied to adorn the walls of the palace halls and of the new temple which was built on the occasion. This was called Pai Ma Ssu, the White Horse Temple, in memory of the horse which had carried the sacred relics across Asia, and the two Indian sramana lived there until they died. The subsequent influence of Buddhist ideals on Chinese art has been all-pervading, but there is no space to pursue the subject here.

In 97 A. D., the celebrated Chinese general Pan Ch’ao led an army as far as Antiochia Margiana, and sent his lieutenant Kan Ying to the Persian Gulf to take a ship there on an embassy to Rome, but the envoy shirked the sea journey and came back without accomplishing his mission. Roman merchants came by sea to Kattigara (Indochina China) in 166 A. D., appearing in the annals as envoys from the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and later arrivals of Roman traders were reported at Canton in 226, 284. Meanwhile, the overland route to the north, which had been interrupted by the Parthian wars, was re-opened, and many Buddhist missionaries came to Lo Yang from Parthia and Samarkand, as well as from Gandhara in Northern India.