Iranyar: Were the Georgians, Zans, Svans under Persian contr

This is a follow-up question and topic posting after the first one about Batumi.

Pretend that a Marco Polo-type adventurer from the East was coming through your country. The story goes a little something like this:

I got this story when I was studying East Asian culture and history. It is from the Hou Han Shu (annals of the latter Han Dynasty):

"The year was 69 A.D. The Chinese emperors were engaged in a never-ending battle against the Huns in Mongolia. General Ban Ch'ao fought the Huns by going through the Tarim Basin in modern Xinjiang province. They fought to a stalemate and he garrisoned his troops there. A pacifist party in the Chinese imperial court deprecated any advance into the west (Central Asia) as useless and expensive. In A.D. 76, General Ban Ch'ao was recalled on their advice, and his mission in Central Asia left no permanent result. On his departure, the Bactrian and Tochari people of Xinjiang, who had come to respect and admire the justice of the Chinese envoy, and appreciated the peace and order which Chinese suzerainty had introduced into the country, were filled with despair, and implored him to remain. Ban Ch'ao, however, returned obediently to Loyang capital where a new emperor, Tenji (son of heavens)--Han Chang Di, was now reigning.

Four years later, General Ban Ch'ao managed to reverse the policy of the court, by proposing to the emperor a policy by which he said it would be possible to reduce the whole of the west (Central Asia) to the Chinese obedience without costing the lost of great lives. He declared that he would be also be able to use the troops of the submitted Bactrian and Tochari states themselves against the Huns, and that with the larger Chinese armies, he could form a force which would easily reduce the whole country. The emperor agreed to let him make the attempt.

For the next 17 years, Ban Ch'ao carried out this plan with unbroken success. One by one the kings of the Bactrian and Tochari oases were reduced to obedience, until the whole Tarim Valley was under the peaceful rule of the Chinese viceroy. Many "kings" sent their heirs as hostages to China. In 97 A.D., Ban Chao and his armies crossed the Tian Shan mountains in Kazakhstan and advanced unopposed to the shores of the Caspian Sea. The Chinese armies fought an all-out war against the northern Huns. More than 50 Hun tribes were annihilated. The Kagan Bilgun was beheaded in front of his enslaved family. Many of the adult males were killed and the women distributed among the Chinese. The remnants were chased and pursued all the way into Russia and Ukraine. Never before and never since has a Chinese army encamped almost on the frontiers of Europe. Seeing that the enemy has been reduced to mostly children and sickly old, Ban Ch'ao called the campaign off and headed back east. Encamped on the Caspian shore (modern Turkmenistan), Ban Ch'ao dispatched his envoy, Kan Ying to enquire into the nature and state of the western world (Iran and Rome).

For the Persians, it is surprising that an army could have successfully annihilated the nearly invincible armies of the Huns. They got this information from Bactrian merchants. The Arsacid King Bagpour (Bakur) in Iran had to contend against several pretenders throughout his reign, and with this situation in mind, he welcomed the Chinese ambassodor to Iran. The 2 world empires, the Chinese and the Roman were now separated only by the Caspian Sea and the Armenian mountains.

The Hou Han Shu (annals of the latter Han Dynasty) contains an account of the western world (Iran and Rome) which is undoubtedly based on the report made by Kan Ying after his return to China with Ban Ch'ao. The identification of the countries and lands visited by Kan Ying has been the subject of considerable dispute, but recent studies based upon the directions given in the Hou Han Shu have established that it was not the Persian Gulf, but the Black Sea, that Kan Ying reached.

In An Shi (Parthia or Iran), Kan Ying and his troops were saluted everywhere they went. He describes the land as populous with many towns and villages. He describes how big and beautiful-eyed girls raised the banners for them after entry into every villages. Then, Kan Ying reached the coast of the "Great Sea" probably at a point near the modern Batumi. His aim was to reach Da Chin (Great Chin, named after China's 1st dynasty). This land was Rome. However, the seamen at this port warned Kan Ying of the dangers of the voyage, saying:

"This sea is very wide. With a favourable wind one may cross it in 3 months, but if the winds are adverse the voyage may take 2 years. Moreover, there is about this sea something which gives people such a longing for their own country that many die of it. For these reasons, those who embark take at least 3 year's provisions. If the Chinese ambassador is willing to forget his family and his home, he can embark."

Upon hearing these perils, Kan Ying's heart failed him, and he went no further. There is little doubt that the Parthians deliberately misled the Chinese envoy, fearing that close relations between China and Rome would lead to an alliance of the 2 great empires. Ban Ch'ao's success and encroachment in Central Asia must have seemed an alarming portent, and of the hostility of Rome there was no doubt. Nevertheless, the seamen had only exaggerated, not invented the dangers of the route.

Upon leaving, Ban Ch'ao reached an agreement with the Parthians to open up more routes along the Silk Road. And, he stationed some Chinese officers to Parthia to safeguard these routes for Chinese caravans passing through. Some Chinese officers were stationed near the spot where Kan Ying had abandoned (near Batumi). From them, the Chinese were to later learn that the sea voyage across the Black Sea led to Tiao Chih, which has now been identified as the Crimea, the Chinese name being derived from the Greek name Taurica. Thence, ships coasted round to Byzantium, which the Chinese thought and learned as the capital of Rome and called it "An Tu." This was long thought to be a rendering of Antioch, a confusion which led to the belief that Tiao Chih was Mesopotamia. It is now known that in the period between 196 A.D. and 330 A.D., the old Greek city of Byzantium was officially called Augusta Antonina by the Romans and it is from the word "Antonina" in this name that "An Tu" is derived. The land was called "Da Chin" meaning Big Chinese because the people were described as being tall. The women are described as being sexually loose, yet beautiful. Cities were built of stones. People ride of chariots made of white awnings......

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Iranyar: does your people have any recollections of whether or not a party of Chinese envoys had once passed through Georgia during the early 100 A.D.s? I have seen some Georgians with black hair and slit eyes from Tbilisi!

Epilogue: [The Mamigonians settled in Taik county, when they first arrived to Armenia from China. This county is fairly close to Batumi. Perhaps, when they arrived there in the early 200 A.D.s, they already found some remnants of the Chinese officers stationed there during Kan Ying's time? The Arshakuni kings settled them (Mamigonians) in a region where there already was a small Chinese presence?]

Those area's in Caucasus were under the rule of Arsacide (Äshkanian, Arshakuni) Dynasty which was an Iranian dynasty (Parthian origin).

Yes you are right there are many Georgians with dark black hairs and somehow narrow eyes, but I think the contemporary republic of Georgia's scientist would do everything to show that the Georgians are of pure race. I have never heared of Chinese officers passing through Georgia, I will forward your letter to a good professor of the Georgian studies in Tbilisi.

PS. my Country is now Iran , not republic of Georgia, I am Georgian from Iran.

Once again, you shed some light on a little-researched topic that I have brought up numerous times. Thank you, Hakob.