| Abstract: |
This article studies anew the history of relations between China and the Irano- Persian world, taking into account recent archeological discoveries of Han and Six Dynasties sites, and at the same time that it re-analyses historical and even mythical sources dealing with a much earlier antiquity. This leads the authors to date contacts between these two civilizations to the Zhou period, to consider that the Achaemenid empire may have influenced the creation of the Chinese empire by Qin Shihuangdi, and to lend credibility to the texts, heretofore considered fabricated, that mention a first attempt to introduce Buddhism into China during that Emperor's reign. Regarding Han and Six Dynasties periods, archeological finds confirm textual evidences hinting at merchant routes going from Central Asia to what are today Yunnan and Vietnam, and from there to the Wu state during the Three Kingdoms period, and then, by sea, to former Qingzhou, in Qiaozhou (Shandong) Bay, which was also the port from which Chinese pilgrims left for India.
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