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Machine transcription
the Hsiungnu envoys more than the Han envoys who were made
to pay for what they needed.
In Tayuan and the nearby countries to its east and west,
people used to make wine with grapes. The rich stored wine up
to ten thousand Shih (100 litre) and more, and the wine remained
good for scores of years. The people there were fond of wine,
and the horses fond of clover. The Han envoys brought their
seeds, and the Emperor began to have clover and grapes grown
on fertile land. When later many heavenly horses were brought,
and many foreign envoys came to China, grapes and clover were
planted all around the guest houses, as far as the eye could go.
Although the countries from Tayuan westward to Anhsi differed in
their tongues, yet they had similar customs and generally
knew each other's tongue. The people had deep-set eyes and much
moustache and beard. They were skilled in trade and very
particular about small amounts of money. They had great respect
for women. Husbands made decisions according to what their
wives said. There was no silk, nor lacquer. The people there did
not know how to cast ironware. It was only after being taught
by stray soldiers from Han that they learnt to make iron weapons.
When they got gold and silver from Han, they usually made
it into utensils and not into coins.
Among the many Han envoys, some ill-advised ones coun-
selled the Emperor that there was in Tayuan a very good steed
which the King of Tayuan had hidden in the city of Erhshih
and refused to offer to the Han envoy. Being fond of Tayuan
horses, the Emperor hearing this grew covetous and dispatched Guards-
man Chuling and others taking a thousand pieces of gold and a
gold statuette of a horse to the King Tayuan to ask for the steed in
the city of Erhshih. Tayuan had plenty of Han products, its elders
pondered that Han was far away, and among the desert and
salt water on the way here many had died; that to the north
of the route there were the Huns and to the south there was
no oasis and often for long stretches there were no cities and
no food to be found; that the Han envoys often started as
groups of several hundred men but when they arrived more than
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Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.