Daxia

Daxia, Ta-Hsia, or Ta-Hia (Chinese: 大夏; pinyin: Dàxià) is the name given in antiquity by the Han Chinese to the territory of Bactria in what is now northern Afghanistan, and parts of southern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The name Daxia appears in Chinese accounts from the 3rd century BCE to designate a mythical kingdom in the far west – possibly a consequence of the first contacts with the expansion of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom – and then is used by the explorer Zhang Qian in 126 BCE to designate Bactria.

It is possible that Daxia is conflated or confused, in some sources with the country of the Dahae (on the south-eastern shores of the Caspian Sea), who were known in classical Chinese sources as the Dayi (Chinese: 大益; pinyin: Dayi).

Daxia is mentioned by, for instance, Chapter VIII (Xiao Kuang) of the Guanzi (7th Century BCE): "In the west [Duke Huan]... having passed through the valleys of the Taihang and Bier, took captive the chief of the Da Xia. Further to the west, he subjugated the Xi Yu of Liusha, and for the first time the Rong People of Qin were obedient." (Taihang and Bier are located along the Shanxi-Hebei border in China.)

Daxia (disambiguation)

Daxia or Ta-hsia may refer to: