View source for Daxia

{{Short description|Name for Tushara or Tokharistan}}
{{other uses}}
{{History of Afghanistan}}
{{History of Tajikistan}}
{{Historical Chinese exonyms}}
[[File:Daxia.jpg|upright|thumb|Chinese characters for '''Ta-Hsia''' or '''Daxia''']]

'''Daxia''', '''Ta-Hsia''', or '''Ta-Hia''' ({{zh|c=大夏|p=Dàxià}}; literally: 'Great Xia') was apparently the name given in antiquity by the [[Han Chinese]] to [[Tushara|Tukhara]] or [[Tokharistan|Tokhara]]: the main part of [[Bactria]], in what is now northern [[Afghanistan]], and parts of southern [[Tajikistan]] and [[Uzbekistan]].

The name "Daxia" first appears in Chinese accounts from the 3rd century BCE, to designate a kingdom in the far west – possibly a consequence of the first contacts with the expansion of the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]] – and then is used by the explorer [[Zhang Qian]] in 126 BCE to designate Bactria.

It is possible that "Daxia", in part, conflated or confused Tokhara with the country of the [[Dahae]] (on the south-eastern shores of the Caspian Sea), who were usually known in classical Chinese sources as the ''Dayi'' ({{zh|c=大益|p=Dayi}}).<ref>According to the Chinese historian Yu Taishan, the ''Shijii'' mentions separate envoys from ''Huanqian'' 驩潛 ([[Khwarezm]]), ''Dayi'' 大益 (the [[Dahae]]), and ''Suxie'' 蘇薤 ([[Soghdia]]), among others. ([spp131_chinese_dynasties_western_region.pdf  Yu Taishan, 2004, "A History of the Relationship Between the Western & Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern & Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions", ''Sino-Platonic Papers'', no. 131 (March)], p. 19.</ref>

Daxia is mentioned by, for instance, Chapter VIII (Xiao Kuang) of the ''Guanzi'' (7th Century BCE): "In the west [Duke Huan]... having passed through the valleys of the Taihang and Bier, took captive the chief of the Da Xia. Further to the west, he subjugated the Xi Yu of Liusha, and for the first time the Rong People of Qin were obedient." (Taihang and Bier are located along the Shanxi-Hebei border in China.)

The reports of Zhang Qian are preserved in ''[[Shiji]]'' ("Records of the Great Historian") by [[Sima Qian]] in the 1st century BCE.

They describe an important [[urban civilization]] of about one million people, living in walled cities under small city kings or [[magistrate]]s. Daxia was an affluent country with rich markets, trading in an incredible variety of objects, coming as far as Southern China. By the time Zhang Qian visited Daxia, there was no longer a major king and the Bactrians were suzerains to the nomadic [[Yuezhi]], who were settled to the north of their territory beyond the [[Oxus]]. Overall, Zhang Qian depicted a rather sophisticated but demoralized people who were afraid of war.

Following these reports, the Chinese emperor [[Emperor Wu of Han China|Wudi]] was informed of the level of sophistication of the urban civilizations of [[Ferghana]], Bactria and [[Parthia]], and became interested in developing commercial relationships with them:

{{quote|Thus the emperor learned of [[Dayuan]], Daxia, [[Anxi (Parthia)|Anxi]], and the others, all states rich in unusual products whose people cultivated the land and made their living in much the same way as the Chinese. All these states, he was told, were militarily weak and prized Han goods and wealth. (''Shiji'' 123)<ref>Sima Qian,''The Records of the Grand Historian. Han Dynasty II (Revised Edition)'', p. 236, translated by Burton Watson. Columbia University Book. 1993. {{ISBN|0-231-08167-7}} (pbk)</ref>}}

These contacts immediately led to the dispatch of multiple embassies from the Chinese, initiating the development of the [[Silk Road]].

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Historical Chinese exonyms]]
[[Category:Historical geography of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples]]
[[Category:Bactria]]
[[Category:History of the foreign relations of China]]