I don’t see any answers posted here yet so I’m going to jump in and answer a bit. I’m sure there’re people who are more qualified than me who can provide you more info. I’m from China and I studied Middle Eastern studies in the Middle East and North America for my BA. However my current studies for MA is translations/interpreting.
I’m summarizing the articles written by the famous Chinese historian Yaoguang Ge from Fudan Univeristy, published in the academic journal by his own university: https://haijiaoshi.com/archives/3342 excerpts: http://wap.kaiwind.com/culture/201512/02/t20151202_3193506.shtml
The original source is written in Chinese though. The title of the article is “Imagining the world - from the Perspectives of Portraits of Periodical Offerings.”
Basically Chinese emperors had the traditions of employing artists to draw and paint the ambassadors whenever they came to China to meet the emperors and submit their offerings. These paintings were official documents and in a way you can see how people at the time perceived foreigners from different countries, and what the “official perspective” was. The earliest painting was from the 6th century by Emperor Yuan of Liang dynasty. The details in the painting pretty much match the descriptions of foreigners from the official records written during that period of time. People from 35 different countries were depicted in the painting. One interesting feature that Professor Ge points is, “the further the country the ambassador is from, the weirder he looks in the picture.” He deduces that people from China at the time had a good understanding of neighbouring countries already, such as Vietnam or Japan. However, people from further West or up North nomadic tribes were depicted as more barbarian and weird looking. One example was the people of Hua (an old country name, residing on the west of Qin. Their west borders reached as far as the later Persia.)
The same thing can be observed in the portrait from Song dynasty as well. People were very curious at the time about the far west, although Persia and Tang dynasty already had close contact through trading and the Silk Road. A lot of persians even settled in China and some obtained titles and ranks through the emperors. The Zoroastrian religion was introduced to China too, known as Xian Jiao 祆教. The generalized stereotype of Persians and even other foreigners from the Northwest was that they did not have any apparent social hierarchy system as prominent as in the Chinese culture. Rulers and civilians would sit and eat together, sharing a drink. Heavy drinking was observed more in foreign nomadic cultures. Also they would wear weird clothes. Their mannerisms seemed rude and uncivilized.
Ge summarizes that the main mentality Chinese emperors had was that they considered themselves as the center of the world, the peak of human civilizations. They were very proud of receiving the offerings and greetings from the ambassadors, aka “the entire world has to bow down to me.” The same mentality could be observed in the very of end of Qing dynasty as well when China was invaded and defeated by the foreigners that they once viewed as “inferior and barbarian.” There are lots of materials and sources on Qing dynasty regarding this topic, so I’m going to stop right here.
I couldn’t find much info in Classical Chinese regarding contact with Rome. If I find any primary sources on that I’ll edit the post and list it here.
To the best of my knowledge, the most substantial Chinese account of the far west in the classical era is found in the Hou Hanshu, the official history of the later (eastern) Han Dynasty. Though compiled in the early fifth century CE, long after the fall of the Han, the Hou Hanshu drew upon a wide array of earlier sources, and probably reflects the late Han court's view of the Roman Empire and its neighbors.
The relevant chapters of Hou Hanshu are, very helpfully, online - so I'll restrict myself to a brief introduction and commentary.
The Chinese court's understanding of Rome was founded on the reports of merchants plying the "Silk Road." Since very few individuals made the journey all the way to Antioch or Alexandria, most of these reports were second- and third-hand, derived from conversations with other merchants working farther west. As might be expected from this chain of transmission, many aspects are badly garbled, and most verifiable details pertain to the sort of things directly pertinent to merchants - products, weights and measures, and entrepots.
The chapters on Da Qin (The Roman Empire) begin:
The Kingdom of Da Qin (the Roman Empire) is also called Lijian. As it is found to the west of the sea, it is also called the Kingdom of Haixi (Egypt). Its territory extends for several thousands of li. It has more than four hundred walled towns. There are several tens of smaller dependent kingdoms. The walls of the towns are made of stone.
Fan Ye (the author of the Hou Hanshu) or his sources seem to have regarded the Roman provinces as a complex of small kingdoms dependent on an imperial center - rather like the early Han Empire. The account continues:
They have established postal relays at intervals, which are all plastered and whitewashed. There are pines and cypresses, as well as trees and plants of all kinds. The common people are farmers. They cultivate many grain crops and silkworm-mulberry trees. They shave their heads, and their clothes are embroidered. They have screened coaches (for the women) and small white-roofed one-horse carts. When carriages come and go, drums are beaten and flags and standards are raised.
Some details here ring true: Fan Ye's sources seem to have encountered the Roman cursus publicus (official post), which had mansiones (relay stations) at regular intervals. The Romans almost certainly didn't have mulberry trees yet, but some - especially in Egypt - did shave their heads. The account of the "screened coaches," likewise, probably reflects eyewitness experience of a Roman carpentum. To continue:
The seat of government (Rome) is more than a hundred li (41.6 km) around. In this city are five palaces each ten li (4.2 km) from the other. Moreover, in the rooms of the palace the pillars and the tableware are really made of crystal. The king goes each day to one of the palaces to deal with business. After five days, he has visited all of them. A porter with a sack has the job of always following the royal carriage. When somebody wants to discuss something with the king, he throws a note in the sack. When the king arrives at the palace, he opens the bag, examines the contents, and judges if the plaintiff is right or wrong.
Rome's Aurelian Walls, which did not enclose the entire city, were only 19 km (about 12 miles) in circumference. Besides the main compound on the Palatine, the emperors possessed various villas and pleasure gardens around the city's outskirts - possibly an inspiration for Fan Ye's source to think that there were five different palaces in Rome. Although the emperors were not customarily followed by a walking suggestion taker, they - or at least the better ones - did respond to petitions from passers-by on certain occasions. Most of an emperor's time, moreover, was indeed spent answering written petitions and delegations - though mostly from provincial cities and notables. Moving on:
There is a government department of archives. [A group of] thirty-six leaders has been established to meet together to deliberate on affairs of state. Their kings are not permanent. They select and appoint the most worthy man. If there are unexpected calamities in the kingdom, such as frequent extraordinary winds or rains, he is unceremoniously rejected and replaced. The one who has been dismissed quietly accepts his demotion, and is not angry.
The Romans did indeed have archives, but the rest of this is pretty garbled. Fan Ye's source may be thinking of the Senate (which actually had about 600 members) with his "35 leaders," and it is possible that the whole bit about selecting and appointing the most worthy man reflects second- or third-hand knowledge of one of the Senate's interventions in the imperial succession during the long crisis of the mid-third century. The rest, however, looks more like Confucian fantasy than anything else. Finally:
The people of this country are all tall and honest. They resemble the people of the Middle Kingdom and that is why this kingdom is called Da Qin [literally, ‘Great China’].
Perhaps Fan Ye's source encountered tall Roman soldiers from the northwest provinces; and as for the honesty - he must have had good luck in his Roman trading partners.
The Hou Hanshu continues with an account of Roman trade goods, which contains a final passage of interest:
In the ninth yanxi year [166 CE], during the reign of Emperor Huan, the king of Da Qin (the Roman Empire), Andun (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus), sent envoys from beyond the frontiers through Rinan (Commandery on the central Vietnamese coast), to offer elephant tusks, rhinoceros horn, and turtle shell. This was the very first time there was [direct] communication [between the two countries]. The tribute brought was neither precious nor rare, raising suspicion that the accounts [of the ‘envoys’] might be exaggerated.
As Fan Ye comments, these envoys (not mentioned by any Roman source) were rather unimpressive. They were almost certainly Roman merchants from India, who had either been blown off course or decided to explore a new market of their own volition. Marcus Aurelius, then beginning his campaigns against the Quadi and Marcomanni, had more pressing things to worry about than a diplomatic mission to the other side of the world.
Hey all,
If you frequent the sub, you know the drill. If you're here from /r/all, or browse only occasionally, please be aware we have strict rules here intended to enforce the very high bar we expect from comments, so before posting, please read our rules. We remove comments which don't comply, and consider everyone forewarned. If you have feedback or commentary about how things are run here, please don't post it in this thread. We'll just remove it. We love to hear thoughtful, constructive feedback via modmail however.
It can take time for an answer to show up, so we thank you for your patience. If you want to be reminded to come check back later, or simply find other great content to read while you wait, this thread provides a guide to a number of ways to do so, including the RemindMeBot- Click Here to Subscribe - or our Twitter.
Again though, please remember the rules, and keep them in mind while you browse. If you don't like how this subreddit is run, keep in mind that this method has seen us continue to succeed and grow for years, and isn't going to change, so at least try and make your complaint original. /r/AskHistory exists, so complaining about the rules to us is like going into a fancy restaurant to complain they don't sell chicken nuggets, even though Chick-fil-A is nextdoor.