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Dayuan (Ta-yuan; Old Chinese reconstructed pronunciation: /daːds qon/; Middle Chinese reconstructed pronunciation according to Edwin G. Pulleyblank: /daj ʔuan/; ) was a country in Ferghana valley in Central Asia, described in the Chinese historical works of ''Records of the Grand Historian'' and the ''Book of Han''. It is mentioned in the accounts of the famous Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to the Ferghana Valley. These Chinese accounts describe the Dayuan as urbanized dwellers with Caucasian features, living in walled cities and having "customs identical to those of the Greco-Bactrians", a Hellenistic kingdom that was ruling Bactria at that time in today’s northern Afghanistan. The Dayuan are also described as manufacturers and great lovers of wine.〔Watson, Burton(1993). ''Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian''. Translated by Burton Watson. Han Dynasty II (Revised Edition), pp. 244-245. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08166-9; ISBN 0-231-08167-7 (pbk)〕 The Dayuan were probably the descendants of the Greek colonists that were settled by Alexander the Great in Ferghana in 329 BCE (see Alexandria Eschate), and prospered within the Hellenistic realm of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians, until they were isolated by the migrations of the Yuezhi around 160 BCE. It appears that the name "Yuan" was simply a transliteration of Pali ''Yona'' or Sanskrit ''Yavana'', used throughout antiquity in Asia to designate Greeks (“Ionians”), so that Dayuan would mean "Great Ionians". The interaction between the Dayuan and the Chinese is historically crucial, since it represents one of the first major contacts between an urbanized Western civilization and the Chinese civilization, opening the way to the formation of the Silk Road that was to link the East and the West in material and cultural exchange from the 1st century BCE to the 15th century. ==Hellenistic rule (329–160 BCE)== The region of Ferghana was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE and became his most advanced base in Central Asia. He founded the fortified city of Alexandria Eschate (Lit. “Alexandria the Furthest”) in the southwestern part of the Ferghana valley, on the southern bank of the river Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes), at the location of the modern city of Khujand (also called Khozdent, formerly Leninabad), in the state of Tajikistan. Alexander built a 6 kilometer long brick wall around the city and, as for the other cities he founded, had a garrison of his retired veterans and wounded settle there. The whole of Bactria, Transoxiana and the area of Ferghana remained under the control of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire until 250 BCE. The region then wrested independence under the leadership of its Greek governors Diodotus of Bactria, to become the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dayuan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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