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{| align=right style="border:1px solid"|colspan="3" align=center|
Portrait of
Ban Chao (32-
102).|-!style="background:#ccffcc;" colspan=3|
Ban Chao's Chinese name:|-| || Chinese name ||
Chinese style name|-|
Traditional Chinese || 班超 || 仲升|-|Simplified Chinese || 班超 || 仲升|-|
Pinyin ] || Pan Ch'ao || Chung Sheng|}
Ban Chao (
Chinese language: 班超; Wade-Giles:
Pan Ch'ao, 32-
102), born in
Xianyang,
Shaanxi, was a Chinese general and cavalry commander in charge of the administration of the "
Western Regions" (Central Asia) during the
Eastern Han dynasty. He repelled the Xiongnu and secured Chinese control on the Tarim Basin region, and led a military expedition to the doorstep of Europe, as far as
Parthia and beyond the
Caspian Sea. He fought for 31 years.
Control of the Tarim Basin
Ban Chao, like his predecessors
Huo Qubing and Wei Qing from the earlier-half of the Han Dynasty before him, is said to have been extremely effective at expelling the Xiongnu from the Tarim Basin, and at bringing the various people of the Western Regions under Chinese rule during the time of the Emperor Ming of Han China Emperor (57-75). This helped secure and flourish the trade routes we have come to know nowadays as the Silk Road. He was generally outnumbered, but skillfully played on their divisions. The kingdoms of Loulan, Khotan and
Kashgar came under Chinese rule.
Ban Chao was recalled to Luoyang, but then sent again to the Western Region area four years later, during the reign of the new emperor Emperor Zhang of Han China. He obtained the military help of the
Kushan Empire in 84 in repelling the
Sogdians who were trying to support the rebellion of the king of Kashgar, and the next year in his attack on
Turpan, in the eastern Tarim Basin. Ban Chao ultimately brought the whole of the Tarim Basin under Chinese control.
In recognition for their support to the Chinese, the Kushans (named Yuezhi in Chinese sources) requested, but were denied, a
Han Chinese princess, even after they had sent presents to the Chinese court. In retaliation, they marched on Ban Chao in 90 with a force of 70,000, but, exhausted by the expedition, were finally defeated by the smaller Chinese force. The Yuezhi retreated and paid tribute to the Chinese Empire from then on, until they managed to set their own king in
Kashgar in
116.
Expedition to the doorstep of Europe
,
2nd century BCE.Ban Chao became Protector General (都護;
Duhu) in 91, and was based at
Kucha. In 97, Ban Chao crossed the Tian Shan and
Pamir Mountains mountains with an army of 70,000 men in a campaign against the
Xiongnu, who were harassing the trade routes now known as the Silk Road. The Han made an alliance with the Parthians and established base on the shore of the Caspian Sea, although some suggest that the most western point he reached with the Han army was
Antiochia Margiana (
Merv), near the Parthian Kingdom. From here he reportedly sent an envoy named
Gan Ying to
Daqin (
Rome). Gan Ying left a detailed account of western countries, although he probably only reached the
Black Sea before turning back.
The Han Chinese army's alliance with the Parthians had established some forts at a distance of only a few days march for the Han soldiers to the Parthian capital
Ctesiphon, itself only about 32 miles from present-day Baghdad, and held the region for several years. In 116, the Roman Emperor
Trajan advanced into Parthia to Ctesiphon and came within one day's march of the Chinese border garrisons, but direct contacts apparently never took place. However, J. Innes Miller speculates that Trajan's Parthian campaigns "should be interpreted to some extent in the light" of these Chinese actions.J. Innes Miller,
The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 236. Some time after this, the first of several
Roman embassies to China is recorded in Chinese sources, coming from the sea route in
166, and a second one in
284.
Ban Chao was created the Marquess of Dingyuan (定遠侯, i.e., "the Marquess who stabilized faraway places") for his services to the Empire and returned to the capital Loyang at the age of 70 years old, and before long died there in 102. Following his death, the power of the Xiongnu in Western Territory increased again, and subsequent Chinese emporers were never to reach so far to the west.
According to a Chinese saying Ban Chao was one of the most prominent actors in the expansion of China to the west, on a level with Zhang Qian:
"In the time of the Western Han there was Zhang Qian,
In the Eastern Han there was Ban Chao."
A family of historians
Ban Chao also belonged to a family of historians. His father was
Ban Biao (3-54 CE) who started the
History of the Western Han Dynasty (
Hanshu;
The Book of Han) in 36, which was completed by his son
Ban Gu (32-92) and his daughter (Ban Chao's brother and sister)
Ban Zhao. Ban Chao was probably the key source for the cultural and socio-economic data on the Western Regions contained in the
Hanshu.
Ban Chao's son Ban Yong (班勇 Bān Yŏng) participated in military campaigns with his father and continued to have a central military role in the Tarim Basin into the 120s.
Ban Chao's family:
- Ban Biao (:zh:班彪; 3-54; father)
Famous Quotes
- "If you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you catch the tiger's cub?" (不入虎穴,焉得虎子)
- "Clear water can not harbor big fish, clean politics (or strict enforcement of regulations) can not foster harmony among the general public" (水清無大魚,察政不得下和)
Ban Chao in idioms
See four-character idiom:
- "Throw away your ink brush and join the military!" (投筆從戎) based on his words "A brave man has no other plan but to follow Fu and Zhang Qian's footsteps and do something and become somebody in a foreign land. How can I waste my life on writing? (大丈夫無他志略,猶當效傅介子、張騫立功異域,以取封侯,安能久事筆硯間乎?) in Hou Hanshu.
- "Clear water harbors no fish." (水清無魚)
Ban Chao of today
Pan Chao (1108) is a
frigate built in Taiwan based on the Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate-design. It is currently in service for the
Republic of China Navy.
See also
References
- The Tarim Mummies, J.P. Mallory and Vitor H. Mair, Thames & Hudson, ISBN 0-500-05101-1