Records of the Historian, Dawan Liezhuan

Dawan is not Scythia. It is one of the settled hinges by which Han learned the geography west of the Xiongnu. The passage matters because it maps the world between China, the steppe, Bactria, and the Iranian frontier.

Cities, fields, grape wine, blood-sweating horses, mounted archers, jade, salt marsh, and the right wing of the Xiongnu all appear together. This is the corridor through which Han frontier knowledge widened into Eurasian history.

The translation below is from the Classical Chinese text of the Dawan liezhuan.

Translation

Dawan lies southwest of the Xiongnu and directly west of Han, about ten thousand li from Han. Its people are settled on the land. They plough fields and grow rice and wheat. They have grape wine. They have many excellent horses; the horses sweat blood, and their ancestors are said to be offspring of heavenly horses.

They have walled cities, houses, and rooms. Their dependent towns, large and small, number more than seventy, and the population may be several hundred thousand. Their soldiers use bows, spears, cavalry, and mounted archery. To the north is Kangju; to the west, the Great Yuezhi; to the southwest, Daxia; to the northeast, Wusun; to the east, Yumi and Yutian.

West of Yutian, all waters flow west and pour into the Western Sea. East of it, waters flow east and pour into the Salt Marsh. The Salt Marsh runs hidden underground; south of it the source of the River comes forth. There are many jades and stones, and the River flows into China.

Loulan and Gushi also have walled towns near the Salt Marsh. The Salt Marsh is about five thousand li from Changan. The right side of the Xiongnu dwells east of the Salt Marsh and reaches to the Longxi Great Wall; on the south it joins the Qiang, blocking the Han road.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Scythian shelf by the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the source text printed below. The English is an independent rendering from the source-language Chinese, with existing public translations used only as controls for difficult or conventional passages.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Shiji, Dawan Liezhuan, Dawan Geography

Classical Chinese source text from the Shiji. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

大宛在匈奴西南，在漢正西，去漢可萬里。其俗土著，耕田，田稻麥。有蒲陶酒。多善馬，馬汗血，其先天馬子也。有城郭屋室。其屬邑大小七十餘城，眾可數十萬。其兵弓矛騎射。其北則康居，西則大月氏，西南則大夏，東北則烏孫，東則扜穼、于窴。于窴之西，則水皆西流，注西海；其東水東流，注鹽澤。鹽澤潛行地下，其南則河源出焉。多玉石，河注中國。而樓蘭、姑師邑有城郭，臨鹽澤。鹽澤去長安可五千里。匈奴右方居鹽澤以東，至隴西長城，南接羌，鬲漢道焉。

Source Colophon

Classical Chinese text inspected from Chinese Text Project, Shiji, Dawan Liezhuan, paragraph 6. The English rendering above is newly prepared from the Chinese, with the CTP English display used only as a control.

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