This posthumous volume by Dr Kenneth Gardiner is a richly fascinating account of China’s contact with the nomadic peoples on the steppe through war and diplomacy. Drawing on a broad range of primary and secondary sources in several classical and modern languages and adopting a cross-disciplinary approach, combining history, archaeology, philosophy, mythology, art, literature and philology, the author has examined a range of issues concerning the frontier policy of early Han and the complex integratory processes of the dynamics of early relations between East and West with extraordinary sophistication and succinctness. Some of the topics that this book? analyses and addresses are: image of central Asian peoples in Chinese mythology;? penetration of Han China into the oasis kingdoms of the Tarim basin and beyond to Parthia and Mesopotamia in search of the celebrated “blood-sweating horses,” grapes and even slaves; and? role of Zhang Qian, envoy of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141-87 BCE)? in the intricate politics of Central Asia.?

Table of Contents
Author
Editor’s Foreword
Select Publications of Dr Kenneth H. J. Gardiner
Introduction
Chapter One.
Tales of Travellers and Stay-at-Homes
Chapter Two.
The Road to the West
Chapter Three.
Blood-Sweating Horses
Chapter Four.
Extensions of Diplomacy
Chapter Five.
Divide and Rule
Chapter Six.
The Golden Age: Han China and the Sogdians
Chapter Seven.
The End of an Era
Appendix 1:
Population Statistics for Western Regions in the Hanshu
Appendix 2: Notes on China and the Mediterranean World in the Later Han Period
(a) Gan Ying’s Mission to Daqin in 97 CE: Circumstances and Background
(b) The Conjurors of 120 CE: Backgound and Circumstances
(c) The Daqin ‘mission’ of 166: Background and Reliability of the Record
(d) The Account of Daqin in the Houhan Ji
(e) Stages of the journey from Anxi to Daqin
Footnotes
Copyright