(Redirected from Silk road)
The Silk Road
:''"Silk Route" redirects here. For other uses, see
Silk Road (disambiguation).''
The 'Silk Road', or 'Silk Route', is an interconnected series of ancient trade routes through various regions of the Asian continent mainly connecting
Chang'an (today's
Xi'an) in
China, with
Asia Minor and the
Mediterranean. It extends over 8,000 km (5,000 miles) on land and sea. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great
civilizations of
China,
Egypt,
Mesopotamia,
Persia,
Indian subcontinent, and
Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world.
The first person who used the term ''Seidenstrassen'' or
Silk Road was the
German geographer
Ferdinand von Richthofen in
1877.
[1]
Routes
The
Silk Road in the 1st century.
As it extends westwards from the commercial centers of
North China, the continental Silk Road divides into north and south routes to avoid the
Tibetan Plateau.
The northern route passes through the
Bulgar–
Kypchak region. It travels northwest through the Chinese province of
Gansu, and splits into three further routes, two of them passing north and south of the
Taklamakan Desert (through modern day
Kyrgyzstan and
Xinjiang) to rejoin at
Kashgar; and the other going north of the
Tien Shan mountains through
Turfan and
Almaty (in what is now southeast
Kazakhstan).
All of these routes join up at
Kokand in the
Fergana Valley, and the roads continue west across the
Karakum Desert towards
Merv, joining the southern route briefly.
One route turns northwest along the
Amu Darya (river) including
Bukhara and
Samarkand the center of Silk Road trade to the
Aral Sea, through ancient civilizations under the present site of
Astrakhan, and on to the
Crimean peninsula. From there it crosses the
Black Sea,
Marmara Sea and the
Balkans to
Venice, another crosses the
Caspian Sea and across the Caucasus to the
Black Sea in Georgia, thence to
Constantinople.
'The southern route' is mainly a single route running through northern
India, then the
Turkestan–
Khorasan region into
Mesopotamia and
Anatolia; having southward spurs enabling the journey to be completed by sea from various points. It runs south through the
Sichuan Basin in
China and crosses the high mountains into northeast
India, probably via the
Ancient tea route. It then travels west along the
Brahmaputra and
Ganges river plains, possibly joining the
Grand Trunk Road west of
Varanasi. It runs through northern
Pakistan and over the
Hindu Kush mountains to rejoin the northern route briefly near
Merv.
It then followed an almost straight line west through mountainous northern
Iran and the northern tip of the
Syrian Desert to the
Levant. From there
Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to
Italy, and land routes went either north through
Anatolia or south to
North Africa.
Another branch traveled from
Herat through
Susa to
Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to
Petra and
Alexandria from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome and other Mediterranean ports.
[2]
Railway
The last missing link on the Silk Road was completed in
1994, when the international railway between
Almaty in
Kazakhstan and
Urumqi in
Xinjiang opened.
Sea
As long as two thousand years ago, during the
Eastern Han Dynasty in China, the sea route led from the mouth of the
Red River near modern
Hanoi, all they way through the
Malacca Straits to Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India, and then on to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. From ports on the Red Sea goods, including silks, were transported overland to the Nile and then down to Alexandria from where they were shipped to Rome and other Mediterranean ports.
[3] Another branch of these sea routes led down the East African coast (called Azania by the Greeks and Romans and Zesan by the Chinese) at least as far as the port known to the Romans as Rhapta, which was probably located in the delta of the
Rufiji River in modern
Tanzania.
[4]
[5]
The Silk Road on the Sea extends fcm
southern China to present-day
Brunei,
Thailand,
Malacca,
Ceylon,
India,
Pakistan,
the Philippines, and
Iran. In
Europe it extends from
Israel,
Lebanon,
Egypt, and
Italy in the
Mediterranean Sea to
Portugal and
Sweden.
Cross-continental journeys
As the
domestication of efficient
pack animals and the development of
shipping technology both increased the capacity for
prehistoric peoples to carry heavier loads over greater distances,
cultural exchanges and
trade developed rapidly.
In addition, grassland provides fertile grazing, water, and easy passage for
caravans. The vast grassland
steppes of Asia enabled
merchants to travel immense distances, from the shores of the
Pacific to
Africa and deep into
Europe, without trespassing on agricultural lands and arousing hostility...
Evidence for ancient transport and trade routes
The ancient peoples of the
Sahara imported domesticated animals from
Asia between
7500 and
4000 BC.
Foreign
artifacts dating to the
5th millennium BC in the
Badarian culture of
Egypt indicate contact with distant
Syria.
[6]
In
predynastic Egypt, by the
4th millennium BC shipping was well established, and the
donkey and possibly the
dromedary had been domesticated. Domestication of the
Bactrian camel and use of the
horse for
transport then followed (see
Domestication of the horse).
Also by the beginning of the
4th millennium BC,
ancient Egyptians in
Maadi were importing
pottery[7] as well as
construction ideas from
Canaan.
By the second half of the
4th millennium BC, the gemstone
lapis lazuli was being traded from its only known source in the ancient world —
Badakshan, in what is now northeastern
Afghanistan — as far as
Mesopotamia and
Egypt. By the
3rd millennium BC, the
lapis lazuli trade was extended to
Harappa and
Mohenjo-daro in the
Indus Valley Civilization of modern day
Pakistan and northwestern
India. The Indus Valley was also known as
Meluhha, the earliest
maritime trading partner of the
Sumerians and
Akkadians in Mesopotamia.
Routes along the
Persian Royal Road, constructed in the
5th century BC by
Darius I of Persia, may have been in use as early as
3500 BC. Charcoal samples found in the tombs of
Nekhen, which were dated to the
Naqada I and II periods, have been identified as
cedar from
Lebanon.
In 1994 excavators discovered an incised ceramic
shard with the
serekh sign of
Narmer, dating to circa
3000 BC. Mineralogical studies reveal the shard to be a fragment of a wine jar exported from the
Nile valley to
Israel (see
Narmer).
The ancient harbor constructed in
Lothal,
India, may be the oldest
sea-faring harbour known.
Egyptian maritime trade
The
Palermo stone mentions King
Sneferu of the
4th Dynasty sending ship to import high-quality
cedar from
Lebanon (see
Sneferu). In one scene in the pyramid of Pharaoh
Sahure of the
Fifth Dynasty, Egyptians are returning with huge
cedar trees. Sahure's name is found stamped on a thin piece of gold on a
Lebanon chair, and 5th dynasty
cartouches were found in Lebanon stone vessels. Other scenes in his temple depict
Syrian bears. The
Palermo stone also mentions expeditions to
Sinai as well as to the
diorite quarries northwest of
Abu Simbel.
The oldest known expedition to the
Land of Punt was organized by Sahure, which apparently yielded a quantity of
myrrh, along with
malachite and
electrum. The
12th-Dynasty Pharaoh Senusret III had a
"Suez" canal constructed linking the
Nile River with the
Red Sea for direct trade with Punt. Around 1950 BC, in the reign of
Mentuhotep III, an officer named
Hennu made one or more voyages to Punt. In the
15th century BC,
Nehsi conducted a very famous expedition for Queen
Hatshepsut to obtain
myrrh; a report of that voyage survives on a
relief in Hatshepsut's funerary temple at
Deir el-Bahri. Several of her successors, including
Thutmoses III, also organized expeditions to Punt.
Iranian and Scythian Connections
The expansion of
Scythian Iranian cultures stretching from the Hungarian plain and the
Carpathians to the Chinese
Kansu Corridor and linking Iran, and the Middle East with Northern India and the
Punjab, undoubtedly played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. Scythians accompanied the
Assyrian
Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive triangular arrowheads have been found as far south as
Aswan. These nomadic peoples were dependent upon neighbouring settled populations for a number of important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for these commodities, also encouraged long distance merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs.
Soghdian Scythian merchants were in later periods to play a vital role in the development of the Silk Road. (See
Saka)
Chinese and Central Asian contacts
From the
2nd millennium BC nephrite jade was being traded from
mines in the region of
Yarkand and
Khotan to
China. Significantly, these mines were not very far from the
lapis lazuli and
spinel ("Balas Ruby") mines in
Badakhshan and, although separated by the formidable
Pamir Mountains, routes across them were, apparently, in use from very early times.
The
Tarim mummies, Chinese mummies of non-Chinese, apparently western, individuals, have been found in the
Tarim Basin, such as in the area of
Loulan located along the Silk Road 200
km east of Yingpan, dating to as early as
1600 BC and suggesting very ancient contacts between East and West. It has been suggested that these mummified remains may have been of people related to the
Tocharians whose
Indo-European language remained in use in the
Tarim Basin (modern day
Xinjiang) of
China until the
8th century.
Some remnants of what was probably Chinese
silk have been found in
Ancient Egypt from
1070 BC. Though the originating source seems sufficiently reliable, silk unfortunately degrades very rapidly and we cannot double-check for accuracy whether it was actually cultivated silk (which would almost certainly have come from China) that was discovered or a type of "
wild silk," which might have come from the
Mediterranean region or the
Middle East.
Following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western and northwestern border territories in the
8th century BC,
gold was introduced from
Central Asia, and Chinese
jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the
steppes, adopting the
Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (descriptions of animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of
gold and
bronze with alternate versions in
jade and
steatite.
Persian Royal Road
By the time of
Herodotus (c.
475 BC) the
Persian Royal Road ran some 2,857 km from the city of
Susa on the lower
Tigris to the port of Smyrna (modern
İzmir in
Turkey) on the
Aegean Sea. It was maintained and protected by the
Achaemenid Empire (c.700-330 BC) and had postal stations and relays at regular intervals. By having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages the entire distance in 9 days, though normal travellers took about three months. This
Royal Road linked into many other routes. Some of these, such as the routes to India and Central Asia, were also protected by the
Achaemenids, encouraging regular contact between India, Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. There are accounts in
Esther of dispatches being sent from Susa to provinces as far out as India and
Cush during the reign of
Xerxes (485-465 BC).
History
Hellenistic Era
The first major step in opening the Silk Road between the East and the West came with the expansion of
Alexander the Great's empire into
Central Asia. In
329 BC, at the mouth of the
Fergana Valley in
Tajikistan he founded the city of
Alexandria Eschate or "Alexandria The Furthest". This later became a major staging point on the northern Silk Route.
In
323 BC,
Alexander the Great’s successors, the
Ptolemies, took control of Egypt. They actively promoted trade with
Mesopotamia,
India, and
East Africa through their
Red Sea ports and over land. This was assisted by a number of intermediaries, especially the
Nabataeans and other
Arabs.
The
Greeks remained in
Central Asia for the next three centuries, first through the administration of the
Seleucid Empire, and then with the establishment of the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom in
Bactria. They continued to expand eastward, especially during the reign of
Euthydemus (230–200 BC) who extended his control beyond
Alexandria Eschate to
Sogdiana. There are indications that he may have led expeditions as far as
Kashgar in
Chinese Turkestan, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around
200 BC. The Greek historian
Strabo writes ''“they extended their empire even as far as the
Seres (China) and the Phryni”'' (
Strabo XI.XI.I).
Chinese exploration of Central Asia
Main articles: Sino-Roman relations
The next step came around
130 BC, with the embassies of the
Han Dynasty to Central Asia, following the reports of the ambassador
Zhang Qian (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the
Yuezhi against the
Xiongnu, in vain). The Chinese emperor
Wu Di became interested in developing commercial relationship with the sophisticated urban civilizations of
Ferghana,
Bactria and
Parthia: “The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus:
Ferghana (
Dayuan) and the possessions of
Bactria (
Ta-Hsia) and
Parthia (
Anxi) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China” (''Hou Hanshu'',
Later Han History).
The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses in the possession of the
Dayuan (named “Heavenly horses”), which were of capital importance in fighting the nomadic Xiongnu. The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as
Seleucid Syria. “Thus more embassies were dispatched to Anxi [Parthia], Yancai [who later joined the
Alans ], Lijian [Syria under the Seleucids], Tiaozhi [Chaldea], and Tianzhu [northwestern India]… As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six.” (''Hou Hanshu'', Later Han History). The Chinese campaigned in Central Asia on several occasion, and direct encounters between Han troops and Roman legionaries (probably captured or recruited as mercenaries by the Xiong Nu) are recorded, particularly in the 36 BC battle of
Sogdiana (Joseph Needham, Sidney Shapiro). It has been suggested that the Chinese
crossbow was transmitted to the Roman world on such occasions, although the Greek
gastraphetes provides an alternative origin.
The Roman historian
Florus also describes the visit of numerous envoys, included ''
Seres'' (Chinese), to the first Roman Emperor
Augustus, who reigned between
27 BC and
14:
: ''"Even the rest of the nations of the world which were not subject to the imperial sway were sensible of its grandeur, and looked with reverence to the Roman people, the great conqueror of nations. Thus even
Scythians and
Sarmatians sent envoys to seek the friendship of Rome. Nay, the
Seres came likewise, and the
Indians who dwelt beneath the vertical sun, bringing presents of precious stones and pearls and elephants, but thinking all of less moment than the vastness of the journey which they had undertaken, and which they said had occupied four years. In truth it needed but to look at their complexion to see that they were people of another world than ours."'' ("Cathay and the way thither",
Henry Yule).
The "Silk Road" essentially came into being from the
1st century BC, following these efforts by China to consolidate a road to the Western world and India, both through direct settlements in the area of the
Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west. The Han Chinese army regularly police the
trade route against nomadic bandit forces. Han general
Ban Chao led an army of 70,000
mounted infantry and
light cavalry troops in the
1st century AD to secure the
trade routes, reaching far west across central Asia to the doorstep of Europe, and setting up base on the shores of the
Caspian Sea.
A maritime "Silk Route" opened up between Chinese-controlled
Jiaozhi (centred in modern
Vietnam [see map above], near
Hanoi) probably by the
1st century. It extended, via ports on the coasts of
India and
Sri Lanka, all the way to
Roman-controlled ports in
Egypt and the
Nabataean territories on the northeastern coast of the
Red Sea.
The Roman Empire
Maenad in silk dress,
Naples National Museum.
Sassanid silk twill textile of a
Senmerv in a beaded surround, 6–7th century
Soon after the
Roman conquest of
Egypt in
30 BC, regular communications and trade between
India,
Southeast Asia,
Sri Lanka,
China, the
Middle East,
Africa and
Europe blossomed on an unprecedented scale. The party of
Maës Titianus became the travellers who penetrated farthest east along the Silk Road from the Mediterranean world, probably with the aim of regularizing contacts and reducing the role of middlemen, during one of the lulls in Rome's intermittent wars with
Parthia, which repeatedly obstructed movement along the Silk Road. Land and maritime routes were closely linked, and novel products, technologies and ideas began to spread across the continents of Europe,
Asia and Africa. Intercontinental trade and communication became regular, organised, and protected by the 'Great Powers.' Intense
trade with the Roman Empire followed soon, confirmed by the
Roman craze for Chinese
silk (supplied through the
Parthians), even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees. This belief was affirmed by
Seneca the Younger in his
Hippolytus and by
Virgil in his
Georgics. Notably,
Pliny the Elder knew better. Speaking of the ''bombyx'' or silk moth, he wrote in his
Natural Histories "They weave webs, like spiders, that become a luxurious clothing material for women, called silk."
[8]
The
Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the importation of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered to be decadent and immoral:
: ''“I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes… Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body”'' (
Seneca the Younger (''c.''
3 BC–
65, Declamations Vol. I).
The ''
Hou Hanshu'' records that the first Roman envoy arrived in China by this maritime route in 166, initiating a series of
Roman embassies to China.
Medieval Era
Blue-eyed Central Asian Buddhist monk, with an East-Asian colleague,
Tarim Basin, China, 9th-10th century.
The main traders during Antiquity were the Indian and Bactrian Traders, then from the fifth to the eighth c. the Sogdian traders, then the Persian traders.
The unification of Central Asia and Northern India within
Kushan empire in the first to third centuries reinforced the role of the powerful merchants from
Bactria and
Taxila [ Sogdian Trade, ''Encyclopedia Iranica'', (retrieved 15 June 2007) ]. They fostered multi-cultural interaction as indicated by their
2nd century treasure hoards filled with products from the Greco-Roman world, China and India, such as in the
archeological site of Begram.
The heyday of the Silk Road corresponds to that of the
Byzantine Empire in its west end,
Sassanid Empire Period to
Il Khanate Period in the
Nile-
Oxus section and
Three Kingdoms to
Yuan Dynasty in the Sinitic zone in its east end. Trade between East and West also developed on the sea, between
Alexandria in Egypt and
Guangzhou in China, fostering the expansion of Roman trading posts in India. Historians also talk of a "Porcelain Route" or "Silk Route" across the
Indian Ocean. The Silk Road represents an early phenomenon of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. In its heyday, the Silk Road sustained an international culture that strung together groups as diverse as the
Magyars,
Armenians, and
Chinese.
Under its strong integrating dynamics on the one hand and the impacts of change it transmitted on the other, tribal societies previously living in isolation along the Silk Road or pastoralists who were of barbarian cultural development were drawn to the riches and opportunities of the civilizations connected by the Silk Road, taking on the trades of marauders or mercenaries. Many barbarian tribes became skilled warriors able to conquer rich cities and fertile lands, and forge strong military empires.
The
Sogdians dominated the East-West trade after the
4th century AD up to the
8th century AD, with
Suyab and
Talas ranking among their main centeres in the north. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia. Their commercial interests were protected by the resurgent military power of the
Göktürks, whose empire has been described as "the joint enterprise of the
Ashina clan and the Soghdians"
[9] . Their trades with some interruptions continued in 9th century. It is occurred in 10th century within the framework of the
Uighur Empire, which until 840 extended all over northern Central Asia and obtained from China enormous deliveries of silk in exchange for horses. At this time caravans of Sogdians traveling to Upper Mongolia are mentioned in Chinese sources. They played an equally important religious and cultural role. Part of the data about eastern Asia provided by Muslim geographers of the 10th century actually goes back to Sogdian data of the period 750-840 and thus shows the survival of links between east and west. However, after the end of the Uighur Empire, Sogdian trade went through a crisis. What mainly issued from Muslim Central Asia was the trade of the
Samanids, which resumed the northwestern road leading to the Khazars and the Urals and the northeastern one toward the nearby Turkic tribes
.
The Silk Road gave rise to the clusters of military states of nomadic origins in North China, invited the
Nestorian,
Manichaean,
Buddhist, and later
Islamic religions into
Central Asia and China, created the influential
Khazar Federation and at the end of its glory, brought about the largest continental empire ever: the
Mongol Empire, with its political centers strung along the Silk Road (
Beijing in North China,
Karakorum in central Mongolia,
Sarmakhand in
Transoxiana,
Tabriz in Northern Iran,
Astrakhan in lower
Volga,
Solkhat in
Crimea,
Kazan in Central Russia,
Erzurum in eastern
Anatolia), realizing the political unification of zones previously loosely and intermittently connected by material and cultural goods.
The Roman Empire, and its demand for sophisticated Asian products, crumbled in the West around the 5th century. In Central Asia,
Islam expanded from the 7th century onward, bringing a stop to Chinese westward expansion at the
Battle of Talas in
751. Further expansion of the Islamic Turks in Central Asia from the
10th century finished disrupting trade in that part of the world, and Buddhism almost disappeared.
Mongol era
:''See main article,
Mongol Empire: Silk Road.''
The Mongol expansion throughout the Asian continent from around
1215 to
1360 helped bring political stability and re-establish the Silk Road (vis-à-vis
Karakorum). The 13th century saw a
Franco-Mongol alliance with exchange of ambassadors and even military collaboration in the
Holy Land. The Chinese Mongol
Rabban Bar Sauma visited the courts of Europe in 1287-1288. In the late 13th century, a
Venetian explorer named
Marco Polo became one of the first Europeans to travel the Silk Road to
China. Westerners became more aware of the Far East when Polo documented his travels in ''
Il Milione''. He was preceded by numerous Christian missionaries to the East, such as
William of Rubruck,
Benedykt Polak,
Giovanni da Pian del Carpini,
Andrew of Longjumeau, and followed by others such as
Odoric of Pordenone,
Giovanni de Marignolli,
Giovanni di Monte Corvino,
Niccolò da Conti, or
Ibn Battuta, a
Moroccan muslim traveller, who passed through the present day
Middle-east and took the Silk Road from
Tabriz, between 1325-1354.
[10].Luxury goods were traded from one middleman to another, from China to the West, resulting in high prices for the trade goods.
Disintegration
However, with the disintegration of the Mongol Empire also came discontinuation of the Silk Road's political, cultural and economic unity.
Turkmeni marching lords seized the western part of the Silk Road — the decaying
Byzantine Empire. After the Mongol Empire, the great political powers along the Silk Road became economically and culturally separated. Accompanying the crystallization of regional states was the decline of nomad power, partly due to the devastation of the
Black Death and partly due to the encroachment of sedentary civilizations equipped with
gunpowder.
The effect of
gunpowder and early
modernity on
Europe was the integration of territorial states and increasing
mercantilism; whereas on the Silk Road, gunpowder and early modernity had the opposite impact: the level of integration of the Mongol Empire could not be maintained, and trade declined (though partly due to an increase in European maritime exchanges).
The Silk Road stopped serving as a shipping route for silk around
1400.
The great explorers: Europe reaching for Asia
The Great Silk Road, an ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean.
The disappearance of the Silk Road following the end of the Mongols was one of the main factors that stimulated the Europeans to reach the prosperous Chinese empire through another route, especially by the sea. Tremendous profits were to be obtained for anyone who could achieve a direct trade connection with Asia.
When he went West in
1492,
Christopher Columbus reportedly wished to create yet another Silk Route to China. It was allegedly one of the great disappointments of western nations to have found a continent "in-between" before recognizing the potential of a "New World."
In 1594
Willem Barents left
Amsterdam with two ships to search for the
Northeast passage north of Siberia, on to eastern Asia. He reached the west coast of
Novaya Zemlya, and followed it northward, being finally forced to turn back when confronted with its northern extremity. By the end of the 17th century, the Russians reestablished a land trade route between Europe and China under the name of the
Great Siberian Road.
The wish to trade directly with China was also the main drive behind the expansion of the Portuguese beyond Africa after
1480, followed by the powers of the
Netherlands and
Great Britain from the 17th century. As late as the
18th century, China was usually still considered the most prosperous and sophisticated of any civilization on earth, however its per capita income was low relative to
western Europe at that time.
Leibniz, echoing the prevailing perception in Europe until the
Industrial Revolution, wrote in the 17th century: ''“Everything exquisite and admirable comes from the East Indies… Learned people have remarked that in the whole world there is no commerce comparable to that of China”'' (Leibniz).
In the 18th century,
Adam Smith, declared that China had been one of the most prosperous nations in the world, but that it had remained stagnant for a long time and its wages always were low and the lower classes were particularly poor
[11]:
: ''“China has been long one of the richest, that is, one of the most fertile, best cultivated, most industrious, and most populous countries in the world. It seems, however, to have been long stationary. Marco Polo, who visited it more than five hundred years ago, describes its cultivation, industry, and populousness, almost in the same terms as travellers in the present time describe them. It had perhaps, even long before his time, acquired that full complement of riches which the nature of its laws and institutions permits it to acquire.”'' (
Adam Smith,
The Wealth of Nations,
1776).
In effect, the spirit of the Silk Road and the will to foster exchange between the East and West, and the lure of the huge profits attached to it, has affected much of the history of the world during these last three millennia.
Modern revivals
In the 1960s and 1970s a substantial number of people traveled the
Hippie trail, from
Turkey to
Nepal. While not quite the classic Silk Road, it was an overland passage that at least paralleled the ancient route. In the early 21st Century tours that follow parts of the original Road are fairly common.
Cultural Exchanges on the Silk Road
Notably, the
Buddhist faith and the
Greco-Buddhist culture started to travel eastward along the Silk Road, penetrating in China from around the
1st century BC.
The 'Silk Road transmission of Buddhism' to
China started in the
1st century CE with a semi-legendary account of an embassy sent to the West by the Chinese Emperor
Ming (58 – 75 CE). Extensive contacts however started in the
2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the
Kushan empire into the Chinese territory of the
Tarim Basin, with the missionnary efforts of a great number of Central Asian
Buddhist monks to Chinese lands. The first missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either
Parthian, Kushan,
Sogdian or
Kuchean.
From the 4th century onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel to
India, the origin of
Buddhism, by themselves in order to get improved access to the original scriptures, with
Fa-hsien's pilgrimage to India (395-414), and later
Xuan Zang (629-644). The
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.
Artistic transmission on the Silk Road
First known Chinese Buddha statue, found in a late
Han Dynasty burial in
Sichuan province. Dated circa
200. The hair, the moustache, the robe indicate heavy influence by
Gandharan styles.
Many artistic influences transited along the Silk Road, especially through the
Central Asia, where
Hellenistic,
Iranian,
Indian and
Chinese influence were able to intermix. In particular
Greco-Buddhist art represent one of the most vivid examples of this interaction.
Buddhist deities
The image of the
Buddha, originating during the
1st century in northern
India (areas of
Gandhara and
Mathura) was transmitted progressively through
Central Asia and
China until it reached
Korea in the
4th century and
Japan in the
6th century. However the transmission of many iconographical details are clear, such as the
Hercules inspiration behind the
Nio guardian deities in front of Japanese Buddhist temples, and also representations of the Buddha reminiscent of Greek art such as the Buddha in
Kamakura.
Another Buddhist deity,
Shukongoshin, is also an interesting case of transmission of the image of the famous Greek god
Herakles to the Far-East along the Silk Road.
Herakles was used in Greco-Buddhist art to represent
Vajrapani, the protector of the Buddha, and his representation was then used in China, Korea, and Japan to depict the protector gods of Buddhist temples.
Wind god
The name of the west wind in Latin is Zephyr. Various other artistic influences from the Silk Road can be found in Asia, one of the most striking being that of the Greek Wind God
Boreas, transiting through Central Asia and China to become the Japanese
Shinto wind god
Fujin.
Floral scroll pattern
Finally the Greek artistic motif of the floral scroll was transmitted from the Hellenistic world to the area of the
Tarim Basin around the
2nd century, as seen in
Serindian art and wooden architectural remains. It then was adopted by China between the
4th and
6th century and displayed on tiles and ceramics; then it transmitted to Japan in the form of roof tile decorations of Japanese Buddhist temples circa
7th century, particularly in
Nara temple building tiles, some of them exactly depicting
vines and
grapes .
Technological transfer to the West
Main articles: Medieval technology
The period of the
High Middle Ages in Europe saw major
technological advances, including the adoption through the Silk Road of
printing,
gunpowder, the
astrolabe, and the
compass.
Korean maps such as the
Kangnido and Islamic mapmaking seem to have influenced the emergence of the first practical world maps, such as those of
De Virga or
Fra Mauro. Ramusio, a contemporary, states that Fra Mauro's map is "an improved copy of the one brought from Cathay by Marco Polo".
Large Chinese
junks were also observed by these travelers and may have provided impetus to develop larger ships in Europe.
: ''“The ships, called junks, that navigate these seas carry four masts or more, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller.”'' (Text from the
Fra Mauro map, 09-P25)
: ''“A ship carries a complement of a thousand men, six hundred of whom are sailors and four hundred men-at-arms, including archers, men with shields and
crossbows, who throw
naphtha… These vessels are built in the towns of Zaytun ''(a.k.a ''Zaitun'', today's
Quanzhou; 刺桐)'' and Sin-Kalan. The vessel has four decks and contains rooms, cabins, and saloons for merchants; a cabin has chambers and a lavatory, and can be locked by its occupants.”'' (
Ibn Battuta).
See also
★
Karakoram Highway
★
Cities along the Silk Road
★
Incense Road
★
History of Silk
Notes
1. "Approaches Old and New to the Silk Roads" Vadime Eliseeff in: ''The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce''. Paris (1998) UNESCO, Reprint: Berghahn Books (2000), pp. 1-2. ISBN 92-3-103652-1; ISBN 1-57181-221-0; ISBN 1-57181-222-9 (pbk)
2. Draft translation of the ''Weilüe'' by John Hill [1]
3. Casson, Lionel. 1989. The ''Periplus Maris Erythraei''. Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04060-5.
4. Draft translation of the ''Weilüe'' by John Hill [2]
5. "The Egypto-Graeco-Romans and Paanchea/Azania: sailing in the Erythraean Sea" by Felix A. Chami. 2002. [3]
6. http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/badari/trade.html
7. http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/neolithic/maadi.html
8. Pliny the Elder, ''Natural Histories'' 11.xxvi.76
9. Wink, André. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. ISBN 0391041738.
10. The Pax Mongolica, by Daniel C. Waugh, University of Washington, Seattle
11. ''“The accounts of all travellers, inconsistent in many other respects, agree in the low wages of labour, and in the difficulty which a labourer finds in bringing up a family in China. If by digging the ground a whole day he can get what will purchase a small quantity of rice in the evening, he is contented. The condition of artificers is, if possible, still worse. Instead of waiting indolently in their work-houses, for the calls of their customers, as in Europe, they are continually running about the streets with the tools of their respective trades, offering their service, and as it were begging employment. The poverty of the lower ranks of people in China far surpasses that of the most beggarly nations in Europe. In the neighbourhood of Canton many hundred, it is commonly said, many thousand families have no habitation on the land, but live constantly in little fishing boats upon the rivers and canals. The subsistence which they find there is so scanty that they are eager to fish up the nastiest garbage thrown overboard from any European ship. Any carrion, the carcass of a dead dog or cat, for example, though half putrid and stinking, is as welcome to them as the most wholesome food to the people of other countries. Marriage is encouraged in China, not by the profitableness of children, but by the liberty of destroying them. In all great towns several are every night exposed in the street, or drowned like puppies in the water. The performance of this horrid office is even said to be the avowed business by which some people earn their subsistence.”'' (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776).
References
★ Boulnois, Luce. 2004. '''Silk Road:' Monks, Warriors & Merchants on the Silk Road''. Translated by Helen Loveday with additional material by Bradley Mayhew and Angela Sheng. Airphoto International. ISBN 962-217-720-4 hardback, ISBN 962-217-721-2 softback.
★ Bulliet, Richard W. 1975. ''The Camel and the Wheel''. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-09130-2.
★ Choisnel, Emmanuel : ''Les Parthes et la route de la soie'' ; Paris [u.a.], L' Harmattan [u.a.], 2005, ISBN 2-7475-7037-1
★ de la Vaissière, E., Sogdian Traders. A History, Leiden, Brill, 2005, Hardback ISBN 90-04-14252-5
[4], French version ISBN 2-85757-064-3 on
[5]
★ de la Vaissière, E., Trombert, E., Les Sogdiens en Chine, Paris, EFEO, 2005 ISBN 2-85539-653-0
[6]
★ Elisseeff, Vadime. Editor. 1998. '''The Silk Roads:' Highways of Culture and Commerce''. UNESCO Publishing. Paris. Reprint: 2000. ISBN 92-3-103652-1 softback; ISBN 1-57181-221-0; ISBN 1-57181-222-9 softback.
★ Foltz, Richard C. 1999. ''Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century.'' New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-21408-1.
★ Hill, John E. 2004. ''The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu.'' Draft annotated English translation.
[7]
★ Hill, John E. 2004. ''The Peoples of the West from the Weilüe'' 魏略 ''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between
239 and
265.'' Draft annotated English translation.
[8]
★
Hopkirk, Peter: ''The Great Game: the Struggle for Empire in Central Asia''; Kodansha International, New York, 1990, 1992.
★ Hopkirk, Peter: ''Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia''. The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1980, 1984. ISBN 0-87023-435-8
★ Huyghe, Edith and Huyghe, François-Bernard: "La route de la soie ou les empires du mirage", Petite bibliothèque Payot, 2006, ISBN 2-228-90073-7
★ Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. ''China in Central Asia: The Early Stage
125 BC –
23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty''. E. J. Brill, Leiden.
★
Harmatta, János, ed., 1994. ''History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations:
700 BC to
250''. Paris, UNESCO Publishing.
★ Juliano, Annettte, L. and Lerner, Judith A., et al. 2002. ''Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China: Gansu and Ningxia, 4th-7th Century''. Harry N. Abrams Inc., with The Asia Society. ISBN 0-8109-3478-7; ISBN 0-87848-089-7 softback.
★ Klimkeit, Hans-Joach, im. 1988. ''Die Seidenstrasse: Handelsweg and Kulturbruecke zwischen Morgen- and Abendland.'' Koeln: DuMont Buchverlag.
★ Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim. 1993. '''Gnosis on the Silk Road': Gnostic Texts from Central Asia''. Trans. & presented by Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0-06-064586-5.
★ Knight, E. F. 1893. ''Where Three Empires Meet: A Narrative of Recent Travel in: Kashmir, Western Tibet, Gilgit, and the adjoining countries''. Longmans, Green, and Co., London. Reprint: Ch'eng Wen Publishing Company, Taipei. 1971.
★ Li, Rongxi (translator). 1995. ''A Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Ci’en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty''. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. Berkeley, California. ISBN 1-886439-00-1
★ Li, Rongxi (translator). 1995. ''The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions''. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. Berkeley, California. ISBN 1-886439-02-8
★
Litvinsky, B. A., ed., 1996. ''History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations:
250 to
750''. Paris, UNESCO Publishing.
★ Liu, Xinru, 2001. “Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies.” ''Journal of World History'', Volume 12, No. 2, Fall 2001. University of Hawaii Press, pp. 261–292.
[9].
★ McDonald, Angus. 1995. ''The Five Foot Road: In Search of a Vanished China''. HarperCollins''West'', San Francisco.
★ Malkov, Artemy. 2007. The Silk Road: A mathematical model. ''History & Mathematics'', ed. by
Peter Turchin et. al. Moscow: KomKniga. ISBN 978-5-484-01002-8
★ Mallory, J. P. and Mair, Victor H., 2000. ''The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West''. Thames & Hudson, London.
★ Osborne, Milton, 1975. ''River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition'', 1866–73. George Allen & Unwin Lt.
★ Puri, B. N, 1987 ''Buddhism in Central Asia'', Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi. (2000 reprint).
★ Ray, Himanshu Prabha, 2003. ''The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia''. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80455-8 (hardback); ISBN 0-521-01109-4 (paperback).
★
Sarianidi, Viktor, 1985. ''The Golden Hoard of Bactria: From the Tillya-tepe Excavations in Northern Afghanistan''. Harry N. Abrams, New York.
★ Schafer, Edward H. 1963. ''The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A study of T’ang Exotics''. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1st paperback edition: 1985. ISBN 0-520-05462-8.
★
Stein, Aurel M. 1907. ''Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan'', 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford.
[10]
★ Stein, Aurel M., 1912. ''Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China'', 2 vols. Reprint: Delhi. Low Price Publications. 1990.
★ Stein, Aurel M., 1921. ''Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China'', 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980.
[11]
★ Stein Aurel M., 1928. ''Innermost Asia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran'', 5 vols. Clarendon Press. Reprint: New Delhi. Cosmo Publications. 1981.
★ Stein Aurel M., 1932 ''On Ancient Central Asian Tracks: Brief Narrative of Three Expeditions in Innermost Asia and Northwestern China''. Reprinted with Introduction by Jeannette Mirsky. Book Faith India, Delhi. 1999.
★ von Le Coq, Albert, 1928. Buried Treasures of Turkestan. Reprint with Introduction by Peter Hopkirk, Oxford University Press. 1985.
★ Whitfield, Susan, 1999. ''Life Along the Silk Road.'' London: John Murray.
★ Wimmel, Kenneth, 1996. ''The Alluring Target: In Search of the Secrets of Central Asia''. Trackless Sands Press, Palo Alto, CA. ISBN 1-879434-48-2
★ Yan, Chen, 1986. “Earliest Silk Route: The Southwest Route.” Chen Yan. ''China Reconstructs'', Vol. XXXV, No. 10. Oct. 1986, pp. 59–62.
★ Ming Pao. ''Hong Kong proposes Silk Road on the Sea as World Heritage'',
August 7 2005, p. A2.
Further reading
★ Il Milione by Marco Polo
★ Liu, Xinru, and Shaffer, Lynda Norene. 2007. ''Connections Across Eurasia: Transportation, Communication, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads''. McGraw Hill, New York. ISBN 13: 978-0-07-284351-4; ISBN 10: 0-07-284351-9
★ Miller, Roy Andrew (1959): ''Accounts of Western Nations in the History of the Northern Chou Dynasty''. University of California Press.
External links
★
China National Tourist Office
★
Silk Road Atlas (University of Washington)
★
The history of the Silk Road by Oliver Wild
★
Introduction of the Silk Road from a Turkish tour guide
★
International Dunhuang Project
★
Old World Traditional Trade Routes Project
★
Travel report incl. photos along the Silk Road
★
Silkroad Foundation
★
Silk Road Project
★
Silk Road Society
★
Playing Polo: Silk Road games from Athens to Beijing
★
Poems (with photos) of the Chinese Silk Road
★
Miami University Silk Road Project
★
The free Silk Road Online MMORPG game
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