![]() 100 – 200 CE, via the Met Museum, New York This opened the way for further economic and cultural contacts between the Chinese and Central Asia, and could be considered the historic beginning of Silk Road trade.Ĭentral Asian Traders and Kingdoms This sculpture shows the fusion between the Parthians and Romans, ca. To get these horses, Emperor Wu sent an army of several thousand men to Fergana. Emperor Wu was especially interested in the “blood-sweating” horses of the Fergana Valley, which were supposed descendants of the legendary horses of heaven. The emperor hoped that the Yuezhi would become an ally against the Xiongnu, a nomadic people based in present-day Mongolia, and known to Western readers as the “Huns”.Īlthough the desired pact with the Yuezhi never came about, Zhang Qian brought reports to the imperial court that considerably expanded their geographical, ethnographic, and political knowledge of Eurasia. Zhang Qian had been sent to make contact with the nomadic tribes of the Yuezhi, based in the Fergana Valley (present-day Uzbekistan). He traveled from Chang’an to Central Asia on behalf of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The first reliable written reports about the trade along the Silk Road concern the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian (d. When Did the Silk Road Begin? Sancai horse statue depicting a blood-sweating horse of Fergana, Tang Dynasty, via Christie’s Only the dried bones of the dead served as signposts.” One looked as far as one could in all directions for a path to cross, but there was none to choose. Above there were no birds, while on the ground there were no animals. “ In the desert were numerous evil spirits and scorching winds, causing death to anyone who would meet them. The Chinese monk Faxian, having returned from his adventurous journey to India, reported as early as 414 CE of the agonizing and inhospitable challenges of the Taklamakan Desert: ![]() Travelers would have to navigate wars, bandits, earthquakes, and sandstorms. Painting of a traveling monk, Tang dynasty, via the British Museum, London This was an important route for the tea trade throughout South China and Southeast Asia but also contributed to the spread of religions like Taoism and Buddhism across the region. The Southern Silk Road (also known as the Tea-Horse Road) extended from the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China, south through Yunnan into India and the Indochina Peninsula, and extended westwards into Tibet. There, the caravans might go northwards into the Mongolian Plateau, to the great Mongol city of Karakorum, or they would cross the Taklamakan Desert, moving from one small oasis town to the next westwards into Central Asia and on to the Mediterranean Sea. From the starting point of Chang’an (modern Xi’an, China), travelers would go west through the Gansu Corridor to Dunhuang. ![]() The Northern Silk Road is the more famous of the two. Religions, languages, technologies, cultural customs, and even diseases were also brought along the routes.ĭue to geographic and cultural factors, the Silk Road can be divided into northern and southern branches. Other commodities traded included spices, tea, precious metals, clothes, and, above all, paper. But silk was not the only thing brought along the Silk Road. From around the time of Christ, the export of silkworm eggs and mulberry seeds from China was forbidden under the death penalty. Chinese emperors recognized the enormous economic opportunities that would come from monopolizing the luxury product. The best-kept secret of East Asia in ancient times was the manufacture of silk. The naming became the general standard in 1936, when Sven Hedin’s book about his discoveries in Central Asia was titled “The Silk Road”.Ĭeramic figure of a Sogdian trader riding a Bactrian camel, 8th century. Many of Richthofen’s students became important explorers along the Silk Road, among them Sven Hedin, Albert Grünwedel, and Albert von Le Coq. It was first coined in 1877 by the German geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen. The Silk Road was not even known in premodern times, the magical name being a 19th century creation when the West was fascinated by the exotic and oriental East. ![]() This is especially difficult because the Silk Road was not a continuous stretch of road, but a huge network of unmarked and frequently changing routes. What is the Silk Road? The Diamond Sutra, by unknown artist, 868, British Library, Londonĭescribing the history of the millennia-old Silk Road is a challenging undertaking it is a reminder of the difficulties the traveling merchant once faced with his camel caravan, as they traveled across waterless, scorching hot desert stretches and the highest mountain ranges on earth.
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