The 2,000-Year-Old Threat China Still Quotes | Chen Tang and the Han Dynasty’s War on the Xiongnu

In the winter of 36 BC, two Chinese officers wrote a letter to their emperor. They had just crossed half of Asia without permission, on the strength of an order one of them had forged, and killed Zhizhi, chanyu of the Xiongnu, in his own city on the Talas River, in today's Kazakhstan. The letter ended with a sentence China has never forgotten: "Whoever offends mighty Han, however far away, will be put to death." Chen Tang, the poor scholar who climbed every hill to read the land; the chanyu of the west and his city of timber and earth; the forged order; six columns over the Onion Mountains; the night of the siege, the burning palisade and the dawn; the theory of the lost Roman legion; the court that could not decide whether to reward him or punish him; and the sentence that came back in 2017. Chapters: 0:00 Opening 1:15 I · The Man Who Read The Land 2:49 II · The Chanyu Of The West 5:20 III · The Forged Order 6:52 IV · The Onion Mountains 7:54 V · The City On The Talas 11:31 VI · The Letter 14:11 VII · The Last Service 16:28 Epilogue · However Far Away Period sources: the Hanshu (Book of Han), chapter 70 (the biographies of Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou) and chapter 94 (the Xiongnu); the Zizhi Tongjian. Music: "Incantation", "Unraveling", "Echoes", "Hiraeth" by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au "Prepare for War", "Battlefield", "Tranquil Fields (Eastern)" by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords) | https://creatorchords.com | Licensed under CC BY 4.0 "Shenxian" by PeriTune (https://peritune.com) – CC BY 4.0 "Atlas • Mongolia" – Pixabay (pixabay.com/music) "Borodin, In the Steppes of Central Asia" – Musopen Symphony (public domain) Maps: territories adapted from Cliopatria (Seshat Global History Databank), CC BY 4.0; land and rivers © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); relief from Terrain Tiles (Mapzen / AWS). Han Chang'an and the Weiyang Palace are reconstructions after the excavations of the Institute of Archaeology, CASS, and OpenHistoricalMap (ODbL); Zhizhi's city and the Han camps are reconstructions from the Hanshu's account. Images under attribution licenses (Wikimedia Commons file – author – license): · Trajan's Column - NMR - panel 057 A.jpg – Joe Mabel (photo); relief of Trajan's Column, 107-113 AD; plaster cast 1937-1941 – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Alabastron 490 BC with Amazon and man 01.jpg – User:MatthiasKabel – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fired clay plaque showing a mounted archer, Parthian period, circa 1st-3rd century (BM 135684).jpg – unknown author – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ancient Siberian tapestry, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.jpg – Garrett Ziegler – CC BY-SA 2.0 · Orlat plaque (horserider 2).jpg – ALFGRN – CC BY 2.5 · Orlat plaque (horserider).jpg – ALFGRN – CC BY 2.5 · Orlat plaque (horserider 3).jpg – ALFGRN – CC BY 2.5 · Orlat archer.jpg – ALFGRN – CC BY 2.5 · Qin Shi Huang Emperor Exhibition in Thailand by Trisorn Triboon 11.jpg – Tris T7 – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Merchant from Hatra, Iraq. 2nd to 3rd century CE. Iraq Museum.jpg – Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hatra military man.jpg – Solider 16IQ – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Parthian Iran Museum.jpg – Statue: Arashk rp2 Background: Gary Todd – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Orlat axeman.jpg – ALFGRN – CC BY 2.5 · 西汉错银青铜环首刀.jpg – 三猎 – CC BY-SA 4.0 · 廣地南部永元五年至七年官兵釜磑月言及四時簿（俯視）.jpg – 氏子 – CC BY-SA 4.0 · 长信宫灯1.png – 陳寅恪 – CC BY-SA 4.0 · 麟趾金 海昏侯国遗址.JPG – 三猎 – CC BY-SA 4.0 · 马蹄金 海昏侯国遗址.JPG – 三猎 – CC BY-SA 4.0 · 居延漢簡（燃放苣火）.jpg – 氏子 – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bamboo Slips of Qin Dynasty Unearthed from Shuihudi 2013-01.JPG – 猫猫的日记本 – CC BY-SA 3.0 · Yangling Mausoleum of Han Artifacts 48.jpg – Thebrainchamber1 – CC BY-SA 4.0 All other images are public domain or CC0: Wikimedia Commons, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the British Museum and others. No portrait of any of these people survives: the portraits are modern illustrations generated for this video, in the style of an oil painting. #HanDynasty #AncientChina #SilkRoad