How Ban Chao Reopened the Western Regions

The Western Regions returned to Eastern Han attention, and Ban Chao's mission became the turning point in restoring Han influence.

In the previous episode, Emperor Ming's domestic rule carried Eastern Han upward. But if the empire wanted to restore the old Han sense of power, it had to face an old question again: the Western Regions.

The Xiongnu Pulled the Western Regions Back

In Western Han, the court had established the Protectorate of the Western Regions and overseen the thirty-six states there. But by Wang Mang's time, the central plains were in chaos and policy swung back and forth. Ties between Han and the Western Regions broke, and many small states again obeyed the Xiongnu.

For Eastern Han, the Western Regions could not be separated from the Xiongnu problem. The small oasis states were limited in power. Usually they leaned either toward Han or toward the Xiongnu. Whoever could dominate the steppe and the Hexi Corridor carried more weight in the west.

Around 46 CE, the Xiongnu suffered severe disasters. People and animals died in large numbers, and aristocrats fought over power. Two years later, Bi, the Rizhu King, led followers south and submitted to Han. They were settled around the Hetao region and became the Southern Xiongnu. Those who remained north of the desert became the Northern Xiongnu.

The Southern Xiongnu entered the Han system, received gifts and titles, and often helped Han against the Northern Xiongnu. The Northern Xiongnu continued harassing the frontier and supporting separatist powers so Han borderlands could not rest.

But the Northern Xiongnu still needed goods from the central plains: oil, salt, iron tools, cooking vessels, and cloth. In peace these could be traded. In war, trade was cut off, and they returned to raiding.

Repeated raids increased frontier pressure. Yet raiding also had costs. After fighting for a while, the Northern Xiongnu sent envoys to Luoyang asking to restore border markets.

Zheng Zhong Would Not Kneel

Emperor Ming at first thought that if trade could calm the frontier, it would be cheaper than a large war. He agreed to negotiate and sent Zheng Zhong, Cavalry Sima of the Yue Cavalry, to the Northern Xiongnu.

Zheng Zhong was a respected scholar-official with integrity. When he reached the Xiongnu, the chanyu tried to frighten the Han envoy and demanded that Zheng Zhong kneel.

Zheng Zhong refused.

He was the envoy of the Han emperor. If he bent his knees before the chanyu, Han dignity would be humiliated. The chanyu was furious, detained him, and withheld food to force submission.

Zheng Zhong would rather draw his sword and kill himself than kneel. The chanyu feared that if the Han envoy died, trade would fail and war might follow. He stopped pressing and sent men back with Zheng Zhong to Luoyang.

On the surface, this mission preserved Han dignity. But not long after trade resumed, the Northern Xiongnu again raided frontier commanderies. Border cities had to close gates even in daylight. Emperor Ming became angry and prepared to send another envoy to rebuke the chanyu.

Zheng Zhong advised against it.

He said the Northern Xiongnu did not truly want peace. They wanted Han envoys to come and go so they could show the Western Regions: see, Han is on good terms with us. If so, small states inclined toward Han would hesitate, and the Southern Xiongnu might also waver.

Zheng Zhong saw clearly. The Northern Xiongnu were not only seeking commerce. They were competing for the loyalties of the Western Regions and the Southern Xiongnu.

Emperor Ming did not fully accept the advice and sent another envoy anyway. Later events moved in the direction Zheng Zhong feared. The Northern Xiongnu kept raiding, and the Western Regions and Southern Xiongnu were increasingly affected.

Eastern Han Looked West Again

When peaceful methods failed to restrain the Northern Xiongnu, Emperor Ming finally decided on war.

In Yongping year sixteen, Han armies attacked beyond the northern frontier in four routes. Some columns lost their way, and others did not meet the enemy. The results were not spectacular. The force that gained something was led by Dou Gu, from Dou Rong's family.

Still, the campaign itself sent a signal: Han and the Northern Xiongnu had broken. The Western Regions had to choose sides again.

But one not very brilliant military action was not enough to make the oasis states immediately turn toward Han. To reopen the western route, the court needed envoys to enter the kingdoms, persuade them, draw them in, and frighten them enough to believe Han had truly returned.

At this point, Ban Chao appeared.

Ban Chao came from a scholarly family. His father Ban Biao was a historian, and his elder brother Ban Gu was also writing history. The family was full of literary culture. Ban Chao was different from his father and brother. He read history not only to study but to widen his view and sharpen his ambition.

After Ban Biao died, the family was not wealthy. Ban Chao followed his mother to Luoyang and joined Ban Gu, who was serving as a court editor. Ban Gu's salary was limited, and supporting the family was difficult, so Ban Chao took a job copying documents for the government.

The work was exhausting and dull. Day after day he bent over the desk, and the more he wrote, the more he felt this was not his destiny.

One day he threw down his brush and said that even if a great man had no other ambition, he should imitate Fu Jiezi and Zhang Qian, win merit in foreign lands, and be made marquis. How could he spend his life buried among brush and inkstone?

Others laughed. A copying clerk talking about being made marquis ten thousand li away sounded absurd.

Ban Chao replied: how can little men understand a strong man's ambition?

Around that time, he also met a physiognomer in the street. The man looked at his face and said he would one day be made marquis in lands ten thousand li away. Ban Chao may not have fully believed it, but he remembered the words.

To others, this was a copyist's complaint. To Ban Chao, the lives of Fu Jiezi and Zhang Qian were not remote stories in books. They were paths he still wanted to follow.

From Copyist to Han Envoy

Later Emperor Ming asked about Ban Gu and learned that Ban Chao was copying documents for the government. Remembering the Ban family's service, he appointed Ban Chao as a clerk in the Orchid Terrace.

It was still a literary post. Ban Chao did not hold it long before being dismissed for an offense. It looked like he had fallen low again. But opportunity soon came.

In Yongping year sixteen, Dou Gu campaigned against the Northern Xiongnu, and Ban Chao joined the army. The Dou and Ban families had ties, and Dou Gu appointed Ban Chao acting Sima, giving him troops to attack Yiwu.

Ban Chao fought near Lake Puli and gained kills and captures. Dou Gu saw that he was not only a reader and writer, so he sent him with the staff officer Guo Xun on a mission to the Western Regions.

Ban Chao's thirty-one years in the west began with this mission.

The first stop was Shanshan.

The king of Shanshan, Guang, treated Ban Chao well at first. After several days, however, his attitude suddenly cooled. The reception became careless.

The followers thought this was just the inconsistency of western peoples. Ban Chao judged otherwise. If the king had suddenly changed, Northern Xiongnu envoys had probably arrived and were forcing him to choose sides.

Ban Chao summoned an attendant and deliberately bluffed: how many days have the Xiongnu envoys been here, and where are they staying?

The attendant was startled and thought the Han envoy already knew. He answered that the Xiongnu envoys had arrived three days earlier and were camped thirty li away.

Ban Chao detained the attendant and gathered his thirty-six followers to drink. When the wine had warmed them, he stirred them up. They were in a distant land, he said. Once the Xiongnu envoys arrived, the king's face changed. If Shanshan arrested them and handed them to the Xiongnu, their bones would remain in the desert.

The men asked what they should do.

Ban Chao answered with the line that became famous: without entering the tiger's den, how can one get the tiger cub?

Burning the Xiongnu Camp at Night

Ban Chao decided to attack the Xiongnu mission at night.

Someone suggested discussing it first with Guo Xun. Ban Chao refused. Success or failure lay in that night. Guo Xun was only a civil clerk. If he became afraid and leaked the plan, everyone would die without knowing why.

At night, a strong wind rose. Ban Chao led his men to the Xiongnu camp. He placed ten men behind the tents; when fire rose, they were to beat drums and shout. The rest held blades, bows, and crossbows on both sides of the entrances.

Once the fire started, drums and shouting burst out from behind the tents. Killing cries pressed in from every direction. The Xiongnu envoys did not know how many Han troops there were and fled in panic.

Ban Chao personally killed three men. His followers killed more than thirty. More than one hundred others were burned to death. Thirty-six Han envoys had destroyed the entire Northern Xiongnu mission.

The next day, Ban Chao told Guo Xun what had happened. Guo Xun was first shocked, then his face turned unhappy. Ban Chao immediately understood and said that although Guo Xun had not joined the action, he would naturally share the credit.

Guo Xun relaxed.

Ban Chao then summoned King Guang of Shanshan and showed him the heads of the Xiongnu envoys. The whole kingdom was terrified. Guang immediately declared submission to Han and sent a prince to Luoyang as hostage.

Ban Chao reported to Dou Gu. Dou Gu was delighted, memorialized the achievement, and asked the court to choose another envoy to continue the Western Regions mission.

When Emperor Ming read the report, he said that since they already had a man like Ban Chao, why choose another? He appointed Ban Chao Military Sima and ordered him to continue the mission.

The next stop was farther and stronger: Khotan. Ban Chao still took only the same thirty-six men west. Khotan was under Xiongnu supervision and deeply influenced by shamans. The fire Ban Chao had lit in Shanshan was only the beginning. The real western problem had just opened.