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Starting and building

Zhang Qian

Going first

Zhang Qian (Western Han · d. 114 BCE) — Going first.

Starting and buildingQin, Han and the Six DynastiesGoing first

What actually happened?

Arriving late to a battle against the Xiongnu, Zhang Qian was sentenced to death, paid a ransom, and lost his title. He then proposed to the emperor that the Wusun in the far west could be won over. He was sent again with three hundred men, two horses each, herds in the tens of thousands and a fortune in gold and silk. The Wusun would not move east, so he sent his deputies on to other kingdoms. He died about a year after returning. A year later the deputies began arriving with envoys from those kingdoms.

Others travelled under his name

After his death, Han envoys going west all called themselves by his title, the Marquis of Bowang, to win trust abroad, and it worked. The first one through leaves a road and also a credit others can borrow.

In a new industry, the first firm known for keeping its word lets later firms skip rounds of negotiation by citing it.

A road inferred from a walking stick

In Bactria he saw bamboo canes and cloth from Shu, in the southwest of Han, and was told merchants bought them in India. He reasoned that India could not be far from Shu. The emperor sent men to find that road; hill peoples blocked them and it was never opened.

On a shelf in a foreign market, notice the thing that should not be there, and ask how it arrived.

After the disgrace, his knowledge was the asset

Stripped of his title, he did not recover by begging. He recovered because he knew better than anyone which kingdoms lay west and how each stood with the Xiongnu. What the failed first trip gathered paid for the second.

When the project dies and the role goes with it, what you learned on the front line is often what you still own.

How do I use it today?

Today, write three lines about the new thing you are working on: the original goal; if it fails, what this trip can still bring back; and where you are recording what you see.

Deep read

A Hundred Went, Two Came BackThe mission failed; what he wrote down on the road became the capitalSent to recruit an ally against the Xiongnu, he found it had no wish to fight, and came home thirteen years later with a map of the WestTen Years Holding the TallyIn the years you are stuck halfway, keep hold of where you were goingHeld by the Xiongnu for over ten years, married with a son, he never gave up the envoy's tally, and when the guard slackened he went west, not home

Read alongside

Duan YongpingDuan Yongping prefers to come second, entering only once the ground is clear. Zhang Qian went first, when even the Yuezhi's location was hearsay. One warns you off racing to be first; the other says that if you do go first, expect the original goal to fail and be ready to live on what you recorded along the way.

Further

Emperor Wu of Han Duan Yongping Xu Xiake

Lines to keep

Every envoy after him spoke in his name.

The first one through leaves trust behind.

He lost the title and kept the map.