Qin and Han · Envoy and Diplomat

Zhang Qian 張騫

Attested BC 141 - BC 87

Passages
41
Chapters
5
Histories
3

Overview

The translated histories identify Zhang Qian as an aristocrat, diplomat, envoy, and general. This record brings together 41 passages from 5 chapters across 3 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

TypeEnglishChinesePinyin
Personal Zhang Qian 張騫 Zhang Qian
Title Marquis of Bowang 博望侯 Bówàng Hóu
Title Marquis of Bowang 博望侯
Title Marquis of Bowang 博望侯 Bowang Hou
Given Qian 騫 Qiān
Given Qian 騫 Qian
Surname Zhang 張 Zhāng
Surname Zhang 張 Zhang
Personal name Zhang Qian 張騫 Zhang Qian
Personal name Zhang Qian 張騫 Zhāng Qiān
Surname 張 Zhang
Given 騫 Qian

Identity

Historicity
Historical
Identification
Named
Sex
Male

Roles

  • Aristocrat
  • Diplomat
  • Envoy
  • General
  • Military Officer
  • Official

Life and dates

Death

  • Statement: died a little over a year after appointment as Director of Foreign Relations
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0078

Attested activity

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

  • Ancestor of Zhang Meng (張猛)
    Kinship Term: grandson / 孫 · Generation Distance: 2
    Kinship Term: grandson / 孫 · Generation Distance: 2
  • Parent of Parent of Zhang Meng (張猛之親)
    Kinship Term: child / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: parent · Object Role: child
    Parentage: biological
  • Parent of Son of Zhang Qian (張騫之子)
    Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
    Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological
  • Spouse of Xiongnu wife of Zhang Qian (胡妻)
    Kinship Term: wife / 妻 · Union Category: marriage · Relationship State: formed
    Kinship Term: wife / 妻 · Union Category: marriage

Career and standing

  • Label: envoy / 使
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0213
  • Label: Director of Foreign Relations / 大行 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0077
  • Label: general of the household / 中郎將 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0071
  • Label: grand counsellor of the palace / 太中大夫 · Action: appointed
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0022
  • Label: colonel / 校尉 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 元朔六年 · Western Year: BC 123
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0048
  • Label: gentleman-at-court / 郎 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 建元中 · Western Interval: Start: BC 140 · End: BC 135
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0002
  • Label: commandant of the guards / 衛尉 · Action: held · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 後二年 · Western Year: BC 121
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0050
  • Title: Marquis of Bowang / 博望侯 · Action: enfeoffed · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 元朔六年 · Western Year: BC 123
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0048, hanshu:071:s0049
  • Title: Marquis of Bowang / 博望侯 · Action: held
    Explicit · shiji:116:s0043
  • Status: commoner · Action: reduced-to
    Explicit · shiji:109:s0099
  • Status: reduced-to-commoner · Action: ransomed-from-death-sentence · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 後二年 · Western Year: BC 121
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0051
  • Label: late for rendezvous, capital offense, ransomed / 留遲後期，當死，贖為庶人 · Action: sentenced
    Explicit · shiji:109:s0099

Places and affiliations

Works and attributed material

Events and relationships

  • Kind: captivity · Role: captive · Action: detained-by-xiongnu · Other Person Id: Chanyu who detained Zhang Qian (單于) · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 去十三歲 · Western Interval: Start: BC 139 · End: BC 126
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0006, hanshu:071:s0009
  • Kind: diplomatic · Role: envoy · Action: returned from Daxia and reported Shu goods via Shendu route · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 元狩元年 · Western Year: BC 122
    Explicit · shiji:116:s0043, shiji:116:s0045
  • Kind: diplomatic · Role: envoy · Action: sent on mission to Daxia · Place: Daxia / 大夏
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0213
  • Kind: diplomatic · Role: envoy · Action: sent-to-Western-Regions · Place: Western Regions / 西域
    Explicit · jiuwudaishi:144:s0091
  • Kind: diplomatic · Role: envoy · Action: sent-to-yuezhi · Place: Longxi / 隴西 · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 去十三歲 · Western Interval: Start: BC 139 · End: BC 126
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0005
  • Kind: scholarly · Role: investigator · Action: traced the Yellow River source after the mission to Daxia
    Strongly inferred · hanshu:071:s0213

Assessments and attributes

  • Assessment: After Zhang Qian's mission to Daxia traced the river source, the so-called Kunlun of the Basic Annals of Yu cannot be verified; the Documents are nearer the truth on the nine provinces' mountains and rivers, while the Basic Annals of Yu and the Classic of Mountains are reckless fancy. · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0213, hanshu:071:s0214, hanshu:071:s0215
  • Assessment: envoy service (奉使) · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · hanshu:068:s0258
  • Assessment: resolute, generous, and trustworthy; frontier peoples loved him · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · hanshu:071:s0023

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Han, Chapter 68Volume 58: Gongsun Hong, Bu Shi and Er Kuan · 1 passage
Open chapter
漢之得人，於茲為盛，儒雅則公孫弘、董仲舒、兒寬，篤行則石建、石慶，質直則汲黯、卜式，推賢則韓安國、鄭當時，定令則趙禹、張湯，文章則司馬遷、相如，滑稽則東方朔、枚皋，應對則嚴助、硃買臣，歷數則唐都、洛下閎，協律則李延年，運籌則桑弘羊，奉使則張騫、蘇武，將率則衛青、霍去病，受遺則霍光、金日磾，其餘不可勝紀。 Never did the dynasty gather talent so thickly: Hong, Dong, and Kuan for classical breadth; the Shi brothers for steadfast service; Ji An and Bu Shi for blunt loyalty; Han Anguo and Zheng Dangshi for lifting others; Zhao Yu and Zhang Tang for codifying law; Sima Qian and Xiangru for voice; jesters Dongfang Shuo and Mei Gao; debaters Yan Zhu and Zhu Maichen; calendar-makers Tang Du and Luoxia Hong; the harmonist Li Yan'nian; the reckoner Sang Hongyang; envoys Zhang Qian and Su Wu; blades Wei Qing and Huo Qubing; regents Huo Guang and Jin Midi—and a cloud of names besides.
Book of Han, Chapter 71Volume 61: Zhang Qian and Li Guangli · 34 passages
Open chapter
Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 144Volume 144: Treatises 6 Music 1 · 1 passage
Open chapter
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 109Biography of General Li · 3 passages
Open chapter
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 116Treatise on the Southwestern Yi People · 2 passages
Open chapter
及元狩元年，博望侯張騫使大夏來，言居大夏時見蜀布、邛竹、杖，使問所從來，曰「從東南身毒國，可數千里，得蜀賈人市」。 In the first year of the Yuanshou era, Zhang Qian, the Marquis of Bowang, returned from his mission to Daxia. He reported that while in Daxia he had seen cloth from Shu, Qiong bamboo, and walking sticks. When he inquired where they came from, the people told him, 'From the kingdom of Shendu to the southeast, several thousand li away, where they are purchased from merchants of Shu.'