Ironduke

From the Chin-shu, ch. 97 (written early 7th Century C.E.), for 265-419 C.E.:

Ta-ts'in [Roman Syria], also called Li-kan, is in the western part of the western sea [Persian Gulf]. In this country several thousand li in all directions of the compass are covered with cities and other inhabited places. Its capital is over a hundred li in circumference. The inhabitants use coral in making the kingposts of their dwellings; they use opaque glass in making walls, and crystal in making the pedestals of pillars. Their king has five palaces. The palaces are ten li distant from each other. Every morning the king hears cases in one palace; when he has finished he begins anew. When the country is visited by an extraordinary calamity, a wiser man is elected; the old king is relieved from his duties, and the king so dismissed does not dare to consider himself ill-treated. They have keepers of official records and interpreters who are acquainted with their style of writing. They have also small carriages with white canopies, flags, and banners, and postal arrangements, just as we have them in Zhongguo [China]. The inhabitants are tall, and their faces resemble those of the Han [Chinese], but they wear foreign dress. Their country exports much gold and precious stones, shining pearls, and large conches; they have the "jewel that shines at night," the hsieh-chi-hsi, and asbestos cloth; they know how to embroider cloth with gold thread and weave gold-embroidered rugs. They make gold and

silver coins; ten silver coins are worth one gold coin. The inhabitants of Ar-hsi [Arsacids, or Parthia] and T'ien-chu [India] have trade with them by sea; its profit is hundred-fold. When the envoys of neighboring countries arrive there, they are provided with golden money. The water of the great sea which is crossed on the road thither is salt and bitter, and unfit for drinking purposes; the merchants travelling to and fro are provided with three years' provisions; hence, there are not many going.

At the time of the Han dynasty, the tu-hu Pan Ch'ao sent his subordinate officer Kan-ying as an envoy to that country; but the sailors who were going out to sea said, "that there was something about the sea which caused one to long for home; those who went out could not help being seized by melancholy feelings; if the Han envoy did not care for his parents, his wife, and his children, he might go." Ying could not take his passage. During the T'ai-k'ang period of the emperor Wu-ti [280-290 C.E.] their king sent an envoy to offer tribute.

From the Sung-shu, ch. 97 (written c. 500 C.E.), for 420-478 C.E.:

As regards Ta-ts'in [Roman Syria] and T'ien-chu [India], far out on the western ocean [Indian Ocean], we have to say that; although the envoys of the two Han dynasties [Chang Ch'ien, and Pan Ch'ao] have experienced the special difficulties of this road, yet traffic in merchandise has been effected, and goods have been sent out to the foreign tribes, the force of winds driving them far away across the waves of the sea. There are lofty ranges of hills quite different from those we know and a great variety of populous tribes having different names and bearing uncommon designations, they being of a class quite different from our own. All the precious things of land and water come from there, as well as the gems made of rhinoceros' horns and king-fishers' stones [chrysoprase], she-chu [serpent pearls] and asbestos cloth, there being innumerable varieties of these curiosities; and also the doctrine of the abstraction of mind in devotion to the shih-chu ["lord of the world" or "the Buddha"---here meaning "the Christ"] all this having caused navigation and trade to be extended to those parts.

From the Liang-shu, ch. 54 (written c. 629 C.E.), for 502-556 C.E.:

In the west of it [viz., Chung T'ien-chu, or India] they carry on much trade by sea to Ta-ts'in [Roman Syria] and Ar-hsi [Arsacids, or Parthia], especially in articles of Ta-ts'in, such as all kinds of precious things, coral, amber, chin-pi [gold jadestone], chu-chi [a kind of pearl], lang-kan, Yu-chin [turmeric?] and storax. Storax is made by mixing and boiling the juice of various fragrant trees; it is not a natural product. It is further said that the inhabitants of Ta-ts'in gather the storax plant, squeeze its juice out, and thus make a balsam [hsiang-kao]; they then sell its dregs to the traders of other countries; it thus goes through many hands before reaching Zhongguo [China], and, when arriving here, is not so very fragrant. Yu-chin [turmeric ?] only comes from the country of Chi-pin [a country near the Persian gulf], etc., etc.

In the ninth year of the Yen-hsi period of Huan-ti of the Han dynasty [166 C.E.] the king of Ta-ts'in, An-tun [Marcus Aurelius Antoninus], sent an embassy with tribute from the frontier of Jih-nan [Annam]; during the Han period they have only once communicated with Zhongguo. The merchants of this country frequently visit Fu-nan [Siam] Jih-nan [Annam] and Chiao-chih [Cochin China]; but few of the inhabitants of these southern frontier states have come to Ta-ts'in. During the fifth year of the Huang-wu period of the reign of Sun-ch'uan [226 C.E.] a merchant of Ta-ts'in, whose name was Ts'in-lun, came to Chiao-chih [Cochin China]; the prefect [t'ai-shou] of Chiao-chih, Wu Miao, sent him to Sun-ch'uan [the Wu emperor], who asked him for a report on his native country and its people. Ts'in-lun prepared a statement, and replied. At the time Chu-ko K'o [Nephew to Chu-ko Liang, alias K'ung-ming] chastised Tan-yang [or Kiang-nan] and they had caught blackish colored dwarfs. When Ts'in-lun saw them he said that in Ta-ts'in these men are rarely seen. Sun-ch'uan then sent male and female dwarfs, ten of each, in charge of an officer, Liu Hsien of Hui-chi [a district in Chekiang], to accompany Ts'in-lun. Liu Hsien died on the road, whereupon Ts'in-lun returned direct to his native country.