Primary Source Analysis: Zhang Qian’s Expedition

The Han dynasty’s Grand Historian wrote of Zhang Qian’s expedition to glorify Qian’s loyalty to his king, and to show evidence of the Han Dynasty’s ideology of expansion and their need to obtain distant lands. During this time there was no true leading state and each of the separate states were constantly at each other’s throats. The Emperor Han Hudi (source) sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the Yuezhi kingdom to establish an alleigance with them so they could find out if their lands were worth conquering, which is obvious evidence of their ideology of expansion. Before Qian could reach the Yuezhi kingdom, he was captured by the Xiongnu and detained for ten years, but he escaped and completed his mission returning to his country and earning the honorable title “Lord who carries out his mission” (source).

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