Chinese merchants describe ancient Rome in the third century

[Angela]

I thought it was quite interesting. See:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/heres-what-third-century-china-thought-about-the-roman-1253007513

There are a few weird bits in addition to things we know to be true.

"This country (the Roman Empire) has more than four hundred smaller cities and towns. It extends several thousand li in all directions. The king has his capital (that is, the city of Rome) close to the mouth of a river (the Tiber). The outer walls of the city are made of stone.This region has pine trees, cypress, sophora, catalpa, bamboo, reeds, poplars, willows, parasol trees, and all sorts of plants. The people cultivate the five grains [traditionally: rice, glutinous and non-glutinous millet, wheat and beans], and they raise horses, mules, donkeys, camels and silkworms. (They have) a tradition of amazing conjuring. They can produce fire from their mouths, bind and then free themselves, and juggle twelve balls with extraordinary skill.

The ruler of this country is not permanent. When disasters result from unusual phenomena, they unceremoniously replace him, installing a virtuous man as king, and release the old king, who does not dare show resentment.
The common people are tall and virtuous like the Chinese, but wear hu(‘Western’) clothes. They say they originally came from China, but left it.

They have always wanted to communicate with China but, Anxi (Parthia), jealous of their profits, would not allow them to pass (through to China)."

"It is said that they not only use sheep’s wool, but also bark from trees, or the silk from wild cocoons, to make brocade, mats, pile rugs, woven cloth and curtains, all of them of good quality, and with brighter colours than those made in the countries of Haidong (“East of the Sea”).
Furthermore, they regularly make a profit by obtaining Chinese silk, unravelling it, and making fine hu (‘Western’) silk damasks."


They apparently liked the entertainment.

I don't know what to make of the second bolded segment.

It's a description singularly lacking in sense imagery, and they obviously had no interest in the religion of this place.

 

[Maciamo]

The account is obviously not very reliable when we read that the Romans had bamboo and silkworms!

They can produce fire from their mouths, bind and then free themselves, and juggle twelve balls with extraordinary skill.

Fire breathers, magicians and jugglers. So they had nothing similar in China at the time?

The common people are tall and virtuous like the Chinese, but wear hu(‘Western’) clothes. They say they originally came from China, but left it.

Probably something that the merchants recounted in order to please the Chinese court or to justify the success of the Romans in the eyes of the Chinese. For much of history the Chinese believed that they were intrinsically superior to other ethnicities. The same feelings were expressed by the Japanese during most of the 20th century, when they conquered their Asian neighbours, then when they became the world's most successful economy in the 1980's. Many ancient Chinese could not conceive that any other civilisation could rival their own, as all foreigners were lowly barbarians. Hence the made-up story about the Romans having Chinese origins in order to legitimise them.

 

[Taranis]

The university of Washington has uploaded a complete English translation of the Chapter of the Later Han Histories that regards the "Western Regions". You might also want to check out the so-called Wei chronicle, a similar document that is slightly younger (Wei was one of the states that emerged after the disintegration of the Han empire), also available as an English translation there, which covers the same area, with a degree of overlap (and also differences).