border were of the small, shaggy, pony-like variety, and Wudi’s ongoing war
with the Xiongnu had severely depleted their stock. Zhang Qian had
reported seeing special breeds of horses – large, muscular, swift, sleek,
beautiful, and superior in every way–in the Ili Valley and Ferghana. The
surplus from these herds was normally sent south into India, but the local
people kept the best for themselves. On request, the chief of the Wusun
twice sent gifts of 1,000 horses from the Ili Valley, but Chinese envoys to
Ferghana learned that the people there had a small number of horses that
were so special they were kept hidden whenever Chinese envoys came
around. Wudi, who was becoming increasingly obsessed with obtaining
horses, was familiar with a passage from a divination text predicting that
“supernatural horses” would come from the northwest. The horses of
Ferghana, so Zhang Qian had been told,“were descended from the Heavenly
Horses,”and they sweated blood as a manifestation of their special nature.
Apparently these horses exuded a reddish lather that has never been
explained to everyone’s satisfaction, one suggestion being that this resulted
from a particular parasite that afflicted them. The Chinese believed that
heavenly horses emerged from a mystical river that was also the home of a
dragon, and like dragons these horses had magical powers, including the
ability tofly. On his death, the emperor would be carried into heaven by
such horses.
In 107– 106 BCE, Wudi sent a mission to Ferghana carrying 1,000 pieces
of gold and the statue of a horse (size unknown) made of pure gold in
exchange for some of the heavenly horses. However, the request was denied,
the Ferghanans reasoning:“China is far off and the road is long; travelers
lack both fodder and water....How could an army reach us? China can do
nothing to harm us. The inestimable horses...shall remain the horses of
Ferghana.”The envoys, realizing that they would be in very hot water if they
returned empty handed,“spoke in anger and without restraint, and went
away after smashing the golden horse.”This was taken as a deep insult by the
Ferghanans, who had the envoys murdered in retaliation soon after they departed.
When word of this debacle reached Wudi he was furious, and his appetite
for the horses now became whetted to a ravenous pitch. In 104BCEhe dis-
patched an army on a 2,500 mile journey that included crossing the
Taklamakan, one of the most formidable deserts in the world, and going
over the Pamirs, one of the highest mountain ranges in the world. The army,
described by Ban Gu as consisting of “some tens of thousands of ill-
disciplined young men,”tried to live off the land it traveled through, pro-
voking hostility along the way. After two disastrous years, an estimated
10 – 20 percent of the original force straggled back to the Jade Gate, having
never reached the capital of Ferghana. Wudi was so angry he ordered the
gate closed, locking the survivors out.
In 103BCEa second expedition, this time consisting of 100,000 men (or
60,000; the sources are at variance) accompanied by bountiful supplies
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