DBQ Sources: Roman Empire and Han Dynasty China
WORLD HISTORY PROJECTORIGINS/ LESSON 5.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: ROMAN EMPIRE AND HAN DYNASTY CHINAUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “DBQ Sources:Roman Empire and Han Dynasty China”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeUse a variety of primary and secondary sources to deepen your understanding of the collapse of the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty China.ProcessAnalyze the following sources. If you are using these sources to respond to an essay prompt, you should underlineor highlightany evidence that will support your claim. You can also use theQuick Sourcing Tool.Document 1This excerpt is from a letter written between Sogdian merchants of the Silk Roads, most likely in the fourth century. The Sogdians were Central Asians with roots in Persia (Iran) and based around Samarkand (today Uzbekistan).To the noble lord, the chief merchant Aspandhat –Sent by your servant Fri-khwataw.From inside China I have heard worse, not better, news day by day, and ... I have become isolated, and, behold, I stay here in Guzang and there is no caravan departing from here. In Guzang there are 4 bundles of white [lead powder for cosmetics] for dispatch, and 2,500 measures of pepper for dispatch [and other goods] ... and half a stater of silver. When Ghawtus left Guzang I went after him, and I came to Dunhuang, but I was prevented from leaving China... Many Sogdians were ready to leave, but could not ... I would have remained at Dunhuang, but the Sogdians were destitute. I depend on charity ... I am very wretched ... And [they] took the silver, for they said thus: We have no money. For according to them it is better that I should be wretched than they! If you should hear how they have done me harm, then you should pay heed to this too.Sent by your servant Fri-khwataw. This letter was written from Guzang in the third month on the thirtieth day.Source: Grenet, Frantz, Nicholas Sims-Williams, and Étienne de la Vaissière. “The Sogdian Ancient Letter V.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute12 (1998 [2001]): 91-104. Reproduced here: http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/sogdlet.html.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 5.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: ROMAN EMPIRE AND HAN DYNASTY CHINA2Document 2In this excerpt, historian Valerie Hansen recounts two transactions along the Silk Roads in the eighth-century oasis town of Turfan or Xizhou during the Tang Dynasty.In 731 the Sogdian merchant Mi Lushan sold an eleven-year-old girl to a resident of Chang’an for forty bolts of silk. Five men served as guarantors, vouching that she was not a free person who had been enslaved (The Tang Codebanned the enslavement of commoners). Of the four with household registration in Xizhou (Tang-dynasty Turfan), three had Sogdian last names (Shi, Cao, and Kang) and the one with the surname Luo was probably a member of the Tuhuoluo tribe, whose primary home was Tokharistan. The fifth guarantor, also with the surname Kang, was designated a temporary resident of Xizhou.In 733 a Sogdian commoner resident in Xizhou, Shi Randian bought a horse for eighteen bolts of silk from a Sogdian named Kang. Historian, Jonathan Skaff has pieced together information from different documents to follow Shi Randian’s route from Hami to Dunhuang, and concluded that he may have traveled the entire route specified by his travel permit from Guazhou, Gansu, to Kucha. When Shi Randian purchased the horse, three guarantors vouched that the horse was not stolen: one Tuhuoluo non-resident merchant, one non-resident merchant from Bukhara and one commoner resident in Xizhou, a Sogdian named Shi.Although no document says so explicitly, it seems likely that the seller paid the guarantors a small fee to vouch for the legality of the goods being sold, since the guarantors were financially liable should the slave or animal in question turn out to be stolen. The presence of resident and non-resident Sogdian guarantors indicates that Sogdian trade networks included both non-resident merchants as well as those entered on the household registers of Xizhou and other localities as commoners.Source: Hansen, Valerie. “The Impact of the Silk Road Trade on a Local Community: The Turfan Oasis, 500–800.” In Les Sogdiens en Chineedited by Etienne de la Vaissière and Eric Trombert. Paris: École Française d’Extrême Orient, 2005, pp. 283-310. https://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/hansen-silk-road-trade.pdf.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 5.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: ROMAN EMPIRE AND HAN DYNASTY CHINA3Document 3This excerpt is from Procopius’ (c. 500–570 CE) Secret History(c. 550), unpublished in the Byzantine historian’s lifetime, but considered to be a sensational reflection of Procopius’s disillusionment with the rulers of the Byzantine Empire.The manufacture of silken garments had for many generations been a staple industry of Beirut and Tyre, two cities of Phoenicia. The merchants who handled these and the skilled and semi-skilled workmen who produced them had lived there from time immemorial,and their wares were carried from there into every land. When Justinian was on the throne, those engaged in this business in Byzantium and the other cities began to charge a higher price for dress materials of this kind, justifying themselves on the ground that they were now having to pay the Persians more for it than in the past, and that it was no longer possible to avoid paying the ten per cent duty on imports.The importers who had hitherto been occupied with this trade in Byzantium and all the other cities, whether operating on sea or on land, naturally had to endure the hardships resulting from these operations. And in the cities referred to almost the whole population suddenly found themselves beggars. Mechanics and handicraftsmen were inevitably compelled to struggle against starvation, and many in consequence abandoned the community to which they belonged and fled to refuge to the land of Persia. Year after year the whole profit from this trade came into the hands of one man, the Treasurer, who as we have said was good enough to hand a portion of his receipts from this source to the Emperor, but secured the bulk for himself and grew rich at the cost of publicmisery.Source: Procopius. The Secret History. Translated by G.A. Williamson. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1966, pp. 167-68.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 5.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: ROMAN EMPIRE AND HAN DYNASTY CHINA4Document 4The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Xuanzang (602–664 CE), traveled from China to the west (present day Tibet, Xinjiang, Central Asia, and India), and recorded his trip in “Record of the Western Regions.” The country of Sa-mo-kien [Samarkand, today Uzbekistan] is ... completely enclosed by rugged land and very populous. The precious merchandise of many foreign countries is stored up here. The soil is rich and productive, and yields abundant harvests. The forest trees afford a thick vegetation, and flowers and fruits are plentiful. The Shen horses are bred here. The inhabitants are skillful in the arts and trades beyond those of other countries. The climate is agreeable and temperate. The people are brave and energetic. This country is in the middle of the Hu people ... They are copied by all surrounding people in point of politeness and propriety. The king is full of courage, and the neighboring countries obey his commands. The soldiers and the horses are strong and numerous, ... naturally brave and fierce, and meet death as a refuge (escape or salvation). When they attack, no enemy can stand before them.In the country of “the lord of treasures” [a region of northern India] the people have no politeness or justice. They accumulate wealth. Their dress is short, with a left skirt. They cut their hair and cultivate their moustache. They dwell in walled towns and are eager in profiting by trade.Source: Beal, Samuel. Buddhist Records of the Western World. London: Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1884. Reproduced here: https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/ texts/xuanzang.html.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 5.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: ROMAN EMPIRE AND HAN DYNASTY CHINA5Document 5These excerpts from The New Tang Historydescribe interactions between China and its neighbors to the northwest, the Uighurs (Uyghurs).Following on the Ch’ien-yüan period (758–60), the Uighurs took even more advantage of their services to China by taking as a price forty pieces of silk for every horse they brought in as tribute ... The horses were inferior, weak, and unusable. The emperorgave them generous presents, wanting by this means to shame them, but they did not recognize this ...In the thirteenth year (778), the Uighurs made a surprise attack on Chen-wu, they made an onslaught on Tung-hsing and invaded T’ai-yüan. The Military Governor of Ho-tung, Pao Fang, had a battle with them in Yang-ch’ü. Fang was defeated. The injured and dead numbered 10,000. The Governor-general of Tai-chou, Chang Kuang-sheng, again had a battle with them in the Yang-hu Valley and defeated them, whereupon the barbarians went away ...[From an 814 memorial to the emperor by the Minister of Rites] The Uighurs are very strong and the northern borders are deserted. Once they stir up trouble, our weak soldiers will not be able to withstand them, and there will be no one to guard the isolated cities ... The northern barbarians are covetous and grasping. All they care about is profit. This is the second year that their normal yearly consignment of horses has not arrived. Can it be that they have become satiated with the profit of silken fabrics?... Our armies have not yet reached full strength, our patrol system is not yet effective, our lances and armor are not yet ready, our walls and moats are not yet firmly established... and the evacuation of the Western [Shou-hsiang] Fortress has left the desert roads with nothing to depend on ...Source: Mackeras, Colin. The Uighur Empire According to the T’ang Dynastic Histories: A Study in Sino-Uighur Relations 744–840. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1972. Reproduced here https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/tangshu/tangshu.html.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 5.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: ROMAN EMPIRE AND HAN DYNASTY CHINA6Document 6The postures of the two figures reveal that the Central Asian Buddhist monk (possibly Sogdian) on the left is teaching the East Asian monk (possibly Chinese) on the right. The image is from the “Thousand-Buddha Cave” in the oasis town of Turfan (today Xinjiang in northwestern China).Source: Monks from Central Asia and China wearing traditional kāṣāya. Bezeklik Caves, eastern Tarim Basin, 9th–10th century. Reproduced here http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/LFc-42/V-1/page/0089.html.en.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT ORIGINS / LESSON 5.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: ROMAN EMPIRE AND HAN DYNASTY CHINA7Document 7Benjamin of Tudela (1130–1173 CE) was a Jewish traveler whose “itinerary” took him through Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa. This is an account of Constantinople (today Istanbul).All sorts of merchants come here from the land of Babylon, from the land of Shinar, from Persia, Media, and all the sovereignty of the land of Egypt, from the land of Canaan, and the empire of Russia, from Hungaria, Patzinakia, Khazaria, and the land of Lombardy and Sepharad. It is a busy city, and merchants come to it from every country by sea or land, and there is none like it in the world except Bagdad, the great city of Islam. In Constantinople is the church of Santa Sophia, and the seat of the Pope of the Greeks, since the Greeks do not obey the Pope of Rome. There are also churches according to the number of the days of the year ... And in this church there are pillars of gold and silver, and lamps of silver and gold more than a man can count. Close to the walls of the palace is also a place of amusement belonging to the king, which is called the Hippodrome, and every year on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus the king gives a great entertainment there. And in that place men from all the races of the world come before the king and queen with jugglery and without jugglery, and they introduce lions, leopards, bears, and wild asses, and they engage them in combat with one another; and the same thing is done with birds. No entertainment like this is to be found in any other land.Source: Adler, Marcus Nathan. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Critical Text, Translation and Commentary. New York: Phillip Feldheim, Inc., 1907. Reproduced here https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/tudela.html.