THE PRODUCTS OF DA QIN
“This country produces plenty of gold, silver, and precious jewels, luminous jade, - 'bright moon pearls, fighting cocks,? rhinoceroses, coral, yellow amber,- opaque glass, whitish chalcedony,& red cinnabar,? green gemstones, drawn gold-threaded and multi-coloured embroideries, woven gold-threaded net, delicate polychrome silks painted with gold, and asbestos cloth.
They also have a fine cloth which some people say is made from the down of 'water sheep,' but which is made, in fact, from the cocoons of wild silkworms. They blend all sorts of fragrances, and by boiling the juice, make storax. [They have] all the precious and rare things that come from the various foreign kingdoms. They make gold and silver coins. Ten silver coins are worth one gold coin. They trade with Anxi (Parthia) and Tianzhu (Northwestern India) by sea. The profit margin is ten to one.
The people of this country are honest in business; they don't have two prices. Grain and foodstuffs are always in good supply. The resources of the state are abundant. When envoys from a neighbouring kingdom arrive at their border, they use the courier stations to get to the royal capital, and when they arrive, they give them gold coins.
The king of this country always wanted to send envoys to the Han, but Anxi (Parthia), wishing to control the trade in multi-coloured Chinese silks, blocked the route to prevent [the Romans] getting through [to China].
In the ninth yanxi year [166 CE], during the reign of Emperor Huan, the king of Da Qin (the Roman Empire), Andun (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus), sent envoys from beyond the frontiers through Rinan (Commandery on the central Vietnamese coast),& to offer elephant tusks, rhinoceros horn, and turtle shell. This was the very first time there was [direct] communication [between the two countries]. The tribute brought was neither precious nor rare, raising suspicion that the accounts [of the 'envoys'] might be exaggerated.
It is said that to the west of this kingdom is Ruoshui (the 'Weak River') and Liusha (the
'Shifting Sands') which are close to the place where Xiwangmu ('Spirit-Mother of the West') lives, and which go almost as far as the place where the sun sets.
The Hanshu says: "Leaving Tiaozhi (Characene and Susiana), if you head west for more than two hundred days, you approach the place where the sun sets." This does not agree with the books of today. [The reason is that] the Han envoys under the first [Han] dynasty all returned after reaching Wuyi (Arachosia and Drangiana), and none of them went as far as Tiaozhi (Characene and Susiana).
It is said, leaving Anxi (Parthia) by the land route, you circle through Haibei (North of the Sea'), and come into Haixi (Egypt), to reach Da Qin (Roman territory). The population there is dense. Each ten li (4.2 km) there is a postal stage, and each thirty li (12.5 km) a postal station. Finally, there is no trouble with bandits, but there are many ferocious tigers and lions on the road that obstruct and kill travellers. If the caravans don't have more than a hundred men carrying arms, they will be devoured.
Also, it is said that there is a raised bridge, several hundred li long, which crosses over to Haibei ('North of the Sea'). They [the vassal kingdoms of Da Qin] produce curious gems and so many other peculiar and bizarre things that I will not record what is reported.”
Book of the later Han
