PAN CH'AO

born AD 32, , An-ling, Ku-fang [now Hsien-yang, Shensi province], China died 102, Lo-yang, Honan province, China Pinyin Ban Chao Chinese general and colonial administrator of the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220) who reestablished Chinese control over Central Asia. The brother of the historian Pan Ku (32?92), Pan Ch'ao early tired of literary pursuits and turned to military affairs. In 73 he was dispatched with a small force on a mission to pacify the Hsiung-nu tribes who had been raiding China's northwestern borders. By playing on the internal dissensions among the tribes, he quickly succeeded. His efforts were frustrated, however, by his recall three years later. Several years elapsed before Pan Ch'ao was permitted to resume his mission, but he soon had the entire Tarim Basin (in modern Sinkiang) under his control. He was made tu hu (protector general) of the western regions in 91, and he expanded his conquests across the Pamirs to the shores of the Caspian Sea. In 102 Pan Ch'ao's sister, Pan Chao, a well-known scholar, successfully petitioned the emperor to allow Pan Ch'ao to return home, where he died a month later. Two of his sons maintained Chinese control in Central Asia for a brief period.