The Western Regions chapter of the Book of the Later Han
A fifth-century Chinese history chapter on the kingdoms, roads and trade west of China in the first two centuries CE.
Full title Hou Han Shu: Western Regions, chapter 88
Fan Ye; earlier Han records
Fan Ye compiled the Hou Han Shu, the history of the Later Han dynasty, in the fifth century from earlier Han records and reports. Chapter 88 covers the Western Regions: the oasis states of the Tarim Basin and the lands beyond, with their routes, products and rulers for the years 25 to 220 CE. The card lists John E. Hill's 2003 web translation of this one chapter. The atlas does not hold the text of this edition: no copy was harvested into the corpus, so nothing from it was read for this guide.
- How they knew
- Compiled from others
- Who “Tartar” means here
- Not recorded, and the word is not expected here. The chapter deals with the first to third centuries CE, and the steppe peoples it mentions carry other names, such as the Xiongnu.
- Why read it
- It gives a Chinese view of the Tarim Basin towns and trade roads long before the name Tartary existed, a baseline for what those places were.
- Watch out
- The chapter was written centuries after the events and draws on earlier reports. The catalogue entry covers this one chapter only.
What it says
No quotes from this one yet. Its text is out of reach for now, or the scan could not be read.
The fine print
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
Court compilation drawing on earlier reports
Research notes
- Composition date differs from events; one chapter only.
Why it matters
Neighboring descriptions of states, trade and travel routes.
Places named
Tarim Basin; Central Asia