The state of Daqin大秦國
1Daqin, west of the Western Sea
大秦國一名犁鞬，在西海之西，其地東西南北各數千里。有城邑，其城周回百餘里。屋宇皆以珊瑚爲棁栭，琉璃爲牆壁，水精爲柱礎。其王有五宮，其宮相去各十里，每旦于一宮聽事，終而復始。若國有災異，輒更立賢人，放其舊王，被放者亦不敢怨。有官曹簿領，而文字習胡，亦有白蓋小車、旌旗之屬，及郵驛制置，一如中州。其人長大，貌類中國人而胡服。其土多出金玉寶物、明珠、大貝，有夜光璧、駭雞犀及火浣布，又能刺金縷繡及積錦縷罽。以金銀爲錢，銀錢十當金錢之一。安息、天竺人與之交市於海中，其利百倍。鄰國使到者，輒廩以金錢。途經大海，海水鹹苦不可食，商客往來皆齎三歲糧，是以至者稀少。
The state of Daqin is also called Lijian. It lies west of the Western Sea, and its land runs several thousand li from east to west and from north to south. It has walled towns, and the wall of its city runs more than a hundred li around. The houses all have ridgepoles and bracket blocks of coral, walls of colored glass, and column bases of rock crystal. Its king has five palaces, each ten li from the next, and every morning he hears affairs in one palace; when he has gone through them all he begins again. If there is a calamity or a strange portent in the country, they at once set up a worthy man in his place and cast out the old king, and the one cast out does not dare to resent it. They have offices and registers and account books, and for writing they practice the letters of the Hu. They have small carriages with white canopies, banners and the like, and a system of post stations, all as in the Central Provinces. The people are tall and large, and in their look they resemble the people of China, but they wear Hu clothing. Their land yields much gold and jade and treasure, bright pearls and great cowries. They have jade that shines in the dark, rhinoceros horn that startles fowl, and cloth that is washed clean in fire, and they are skilled besides at embroidering with gold thread and at weaving figured woolen stuffs of layered brocade. They make coin of gold and silver, and ten silver coins are worth one gold coin. They trade with the people of Anxi and Tianzhu out in the middle of the sea, and their profit is a hundredfold. When an envoy of a neighboring country arrives, they at once provide for him with gold coin. The road passes over the great sea, and the seawater is salt and bitter and cannot be drunk, so merchants coming and going all carry three years' provisions with them. For this reason few are those who arrive.
2Gan Ying could not cross the sea
漢時都護班超遣掾甘英使其國，入海，船人曰：「海中有思慕之物，往者莫不悲懷。若漢使不戀父母妻子者，可入。」英不能渡。武帝太康中，其王遣使貢獻。
In the time of the Han, the protector general Ban Chao sent his clerk Gan Ying as envoy to that country. When he was about to put out on the sea, the boatmen said, "There is something in the midst of the sea that stirs up longing, and none who go there fail to sink into sorrow. If the Han envoy can hold himself free of longing for father and mother, wife and children, then he may enter." So Ying did not cross. In the Taikang years of Emperor Wu, its king sent an envoy to bring tribute.