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The Ta-Yuan (大苑, Ta-Yuan or Dawan, lit. “Great Yuan”) were a people of Ferghana in Central Asia, described in the Chinese Chronicles ( Shiji) and in the Chinese Former Han History (Han Shu), following the travels of Zhang Qian in 130 BCE, and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia thereafter.
These Chinese accounts describe the Ta-Yuan as urbanized dwellers with Indo-European 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 Ta-Yuan are also described as manufacturers and great lovers of wine.
The Ta-Yuan were probably the descendants of the Greek colons who were established by Alexander the Great in Ferghana in 329 BCE and prospered within the Hellenistic realm until they were isolated by the migrations of the Yueh-Chih around 160 BCE. It has also been suggested that the name “Yuan” was simply a transliteration of the words “ Yona”, or “ Yavana”, used througout antiquity in Asia to designate Greeks (“ IoniansThe Ionians were one of the early Greek tribes. Other tribes included Dorians and Achaians. They were later known collectively as Hellenes. Ionians are mainly associated with Ionia, which is the western coast of Anatolia, although the best-known Ionians w”), so that Ta-Yuan (lit. “Great Yuan”) would mean "Great Ionians".
The interaction between the Ta-Yuan and the Chinese is historically crucial, since it represents the first major contact between an urbanized Indo-EuropeanIndo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. By extension, it became a collective name for cultures and religions associated with these languages. Hypothetically, these cultures arose from the expansion of culture and the Chinese civilization, opening the way to the formation of the Silk RoadThe Silk Road ( Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: si chou zhi lu) was an interconnected series of routes through Southern Asia traversed by caravan and ocean vessel, and connecting Chang'an, China with Antioch, Syria, as well as other p that was to link the East and the West in material and cultural exchange from the 1st century BCE to the 15th century.
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, formely 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, Transoxonia 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 governor Diodotus of Bactria, to become the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.