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The state of Dayuan大宛國

Jin Shu Siyi Zhuan (Accounts of the Foreign Peoples of the Four Quarters in the Book of Jin) 晉書 四夷傳 · Fang Xuanling and others · 648 (Tang, 22nd year of the Zhenguan era) · 2 passages · 160 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

Jin Shu Siyi Zhuan (Accounts of the Foreign Peoples of the Four Quarters in the Book of Jin) Complete in one volume The neighbours on all four sides as the Jin saw them. Here are the edict that raised up Buyeo again after Murong Hui had broken it; the customs of Mahan and Jinhan and their sacred ground, the sodo; the hosi arrows and stone arrowheads of the Suksin; and the tale of seven generations of Tuyuhun, which began when an elder and a younger brother parted after their horses fell to fighting.

1The country of the blood-sweating horses

大宛國去洛陽萬三千三百五十里,南至大月氏,北接康居,大小七十餘城。土宜稻麥,有蒲陶酒,多善馬,馬汗血。其人皆深目多須。其俗娶婦先以金同心指鐶爲娉,又以三婢試之。不男者絕婚。姦淫有子,皆卑其母。與人馬乘不調墜死者,馬主出斂具。善市賈,爭分銖之利,得中國金銀,輒爲器物,不用爲幣也。

The state of Dayuan lies thirteen thousand three hundred and fifty li from Luoyang. It reaches the Great Yuezhi on the south and borders Kangju on the north, and it has more than seventy walled towns, great and small. The land suits rice and barley; they have grape wine, and there are many fine horses, and the horses sweat blood. The people all have deep-set eyes and thick beards. By their custom, when a man takes a wife he first asks for her with a golden ring of joined hearts, and he is also tried with three maidservants. If he proves to be no man, the marriage is broken off. If a woman bears a child in adultery, in every such case the mother is held low. If a man lends his horse and the rider cannot handle it and falls and dies, the owner of the horse provides the things for laying out the dead. They are good at trade and will fight over the profit of a fraction of a coin, and when they get gold and silver from China they always make vessels of it and do not use it as money.

2Lanyu and Mozhi

太康六年,武帝遣使楊顥拜其王藍庾爲大宛王。藍庾卒,其子摩之立,遣使貢汗血馬,

In the sixth year of Taikang Emperor Wu sent the envoy Yang Hao to appoint their king Lanyu King of Dayuan. When Lanyu died his son Mozhi ascended the throne, and he sent an envoy to present blood-sweating horses.