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1、The Silk RoadPart 1: Annotate the article below. Determine what major products and ideas traveled through the different Silk Road routes. Note the impact the different cities and traders had on the world based on what they produced, who they met, traded with, etc. “My musical journeys have reminded
2、me that the interactions brought about by globalization dont just destroy culture; they can create new culture and invigorate and spread traditions that have existed for ages.” YO-YO MAPart 2: After reading the above quote, type a one page response to it based on the Silk Road reading below. Chinas
3、Southwestern Silk Road in World History James A. Anderson As Robert Clark notes in The Global Imperative, there is no doubt that trade networks like the Silk Road made possible the flourishing and spread of ancient civilizations to something approximating a global culture of the times.1 Goods, peopl
4、e and ideas all travelled along these long-distance routes spanning or circumventing the vast landmass of Eurasia. From earliest times, there have been three main routes, which connected China with the outside world.2 These were the overland routes that stretched across Eurasia from China to the Med
5、iterranean, known collectively as the Silk Road; the Spice Trade shipping routes passing from the South China Sea into the Indian Ocean and beyond, known today as the Maritime Silk Road; and the Southwestern Silk Road, a network of overland passages stretching from Central China through the mountain
6、ous areas of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces into the eastern states of South Asia. Although the first two routes are better known to students of World History, the Southwestern Silk Road has a long ancestry and also played an important role in knitting the world together. Marco Polo himself w
7、rote of his travels along the spur of this route into Tibet following the Mongol conquest of the Dali kingdom of Yunnan in the early 13th century.3 Moreover, the Southwestern Silk Road has remained relevant even through the present day. One of the main routes from Kunming into north central Myanmar
8、was revived with the creation of the 717-mile-long Burma Road logistical supply line of WWII. A section of this same route carries convoys of lumber-laden trucks across the Sino-Burmese border today as part of the modern Dian-Myanmar Highway (dianmian gonglu 滇緬公路).Ancient East-West Connections The S
9、outhwestern Silk Route was an important point of contact between the two great civilizations of China and India, as well as a major conduit for the passage of East-West trade. Bin Yang in his recent book on the Southwestern Silk Road, Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan, concluded that th
10、e southwestern route supported regional trade between China and India since at least the third century BCE, but that current archeological evidence does not provide enough detail to confirm either the volume or specific nature of trade in this earlier period.4 There is the oft-cited account from the
11、 Sima Qians Records of the Historian (Shiji 史記), in which Zhang Qian 張騫 (d. 133 BCE), chief envoy of the Han emperor Wudi 武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE) visited the region of Afghanistan - then known as Bactria (Daxia 大夏) - in 122 BCE. In Bactria Zhang saw merchants from northern India (Shendu 身毒) peddling two
12、trade articles from the Shu 蜀 region (modern-day Sichuan),: Qiong bamboo poles (qiongzhu zhang 邛竹杖) and Shu brocade (Shujin 蜀錦).5 Zhang Qian concluded that there must be a direct trade route from Sichuan to India to the south, because northern routes were then in the hands of rival Qiang 羌 and Xiong
13、nu 匈奴 chieftains.6 Zhangs account is the first documented claim for such a route in the Chinese historical record. The regional market for these trade items continued to grow throughout the early Imperial period. Qiong bamboo (Qiongzhuea tumidissinoda) was first grown in Qiongdu 邛都, which is today p
14、art of Xichang 西昌, a town in Sichuan that is now better known for satellite launches than it is for bamboo. Shu brocade was a variety of woven silk cloth, or, as other scholars argue, a type of linen that had been produced in Sichuan since the Warring States period (475-221 BCE), at which time it wa
15、s already widely imitated.7 Following Zhang Qians discovery, domestic trade in Shu brocade continued to grow. The Han emperor Chengdi 成帝(r.32-7 BCE) ordered that Yizhou 益洲 (near modern Chengdu) officials collect and transport three years worth of taxes in local Shu brocade to produce seven fully fin
16、ished brocade robes.8 From the fall of the Han through the establishment of the Sui (581-618 CE), most of China suffered from periodic turmoil that affected local economic production. However, the Xichuan region was largely unaffected by the interregional fighting, and brocade production continued l
17、argely unabated. During the Tang, the central court continued to accept cloth brocade as tribute (gongjin 貢錦) from Sichuan, and a market for Shu brocade could still be found in the Western Regions (Xiyu 西域), including modern-day Xinjiang and other parts of Central Asia.Along with Qiong bamboo and Si
18、chuan brocade, other local products such as Shu ironware and cinnabar could be found along the Southwestern Silk Road routes as far west as India and Afghanistan. West Asian, Indian and Burmese glassware, gem stones and pearls were the primary products that made their way into China as imports. The
19、specific trade articles of the Southwestern Silk Road contributed to the definition of the network itself, emphasizing certain trade routes over others. As Bin Yang notes, Yunnan shared the mineral wealth of northern Myanmar (Burma) as a location rich in gold, silver, tin, lead, and copper deposits,
20、 among other minerals.9 However, interregional exchanges were not limited to luxury commodities. Guanghan, located to the south of Chengdu, is the site of the ancient Sanxingdui 三星堆 bronze culture that flourished as it borrowed from southern China to the east and the various non-Han kingdoms to the
21、south, while remaining distinct from the Anyang bronze culture of the North China Plain.10 Traveling the RoadThe starting point of the Southwestern Silk Road on the Chinese side was modern Sichuans provincial capital of Chengdu. The primary route passed through Yunnan, Myanmar (Burma), and into Sout
22、h Asia. This route, known as either the India Route (shendu guo dao 身毒國道) or the Old Sichuan-Yunnan-Myanmar-India Route (chuan dian mian yin gudao 川滇緬印古道), split into two main branches as it passed through Sichuan into Yunnan. One branch, known as the Old Yak Route (gu maoniu dao 古旄牛道) extended from
23、 Chengdu southwest across the Sichuan Basin plain to the foothills of Mingshan 名山 mountains. 11 From here the route continued southwest along the Qingyi 青衣 River to Yaan 雅安, once an important center for tea trade with connections through the Tibetan Plateau, linking up with the Tea and Horse Trade r
24、outes to Tibet, an important offshoot of the Southwestern Silk Road. The Tea and Horse Trade was important, because it illustrates a strong reciprocal relationship between China and its neighbors; Tibetans desired tea for use in meditation and for added nutrition, while war horses were vital to the
25、Chinese dealing with aggressive nomadic cavalries to the north.12 Chinese courts until the Ming dynasty utilized tea as a precious commodity to trade with the Tibetans and other upland peoples of Sichuan and Yunnan for the valuable horses that were bred in the western region.13 This route to Lhasa,
26、about 1500 miles in length, carried merchants and pilgrims between these two regions for 4,000-5,000 years.14 As Tansen Sen writes, the shortest route between India and China by the Song (960-1279) period was through Tibet.15 Along these routes travelers carried on trade in Buddhist religious articl
27、es through the 11th century.16 For travelers engaged in trade with Southeast Asian and South Asian centers, the route proceeded southward away from these Tibet linkages. From Yaan these merchants and pilgrims traveled upstream along the Jinsha 金沙 River, winding in a southerly direction through a sys
28、tem of river valleys to Qiongdu 邛都, the ancient site of Shu brocade, and finally southwest to Dali 大理 on Lake Erhai, the seat of political power for the Dali Kingdom (937-1253 CE). From Dali one took one of three routes to cross through Myanmar (Burma) on ones way to present-day India. These routes
29、were collectively known as the Bonan Route (Bonan dao 博南道) or the Yongchang Route (Yongchang dao 永昌道) in the Han period, and the Western Dian-Tianzhu Route (Xidian Tianzhu dao 西滇天竺道) in the Tang. The most traveled of these routes left Dali and proceeded south past the former garrison town of Baoshan
30、 保山, through the rolling hills around Ruili 瑞麗, and across the modern Burmese border. Ruili still remains one of the most trafficked border-crossing towns on the Sino-Burmese border. From this point the route passed by Mogok, a town known for its gemstones, past the ancient temple-filled capitals of
31、 Bagan and Py, across the Arakan Yoma mountain range in western Myanmar through modern Indias easternmost state of Assam to Bogra in Bangladesh, and finally to the river plains of the Ganges River.Routes of the SpiritReligious teachings traveled the Silk Road routes as well. There is much controvers
32、y surrounding the earliest arrival of Buddhism on the Southwestern Silk Road. Several prominent Chinese scholars concluded in the 1980s that the arrival of Buddhism along the overland route through Southwest China predated its spread into the Central China Plain.17 This bit of historical revisionism
33、 now seems premature, as archaeological evidence indicates that the overland Southwestern Silk Road was only connected by the Eastern Han period, after Buddhist pilgrims had already crossed into the Han Empire to the north. Nonetheless, in areas of Sichuan and Yunnan one can see evidence of Buddhist
34、 statuary produced by pilgrims who arrived early in the Common Era.18 Almost all scholars agree that after the third century CE Buddhist pilgrims traveling along southwestern routes to and from South Asian centers of Buddhist learning increased considerably, thereby creating cultural overlaps of his
35、torical significance.19Buddhism entered the region of Southwest China by several different routes, and the three leading schools of Buddhist thought, Theravada, Mahayana, and Tibetan Buddhism all made their presence felt along different spurs of the Southwest Silk Road. The kingdoms of Nanzhao and D
36、ali in turn absorbed elements of all three traditions. As mentioned above, the northeastern region of South Asia around Assam produced the original Tantric Buddhist teachings that spread to Tibet by way of the Tea and Horse Trade routes into northwestern Yunnan.20 Theravada teachings spread along ma
37、ritime routes and through northern Mainland Southeast Asia into southern and central Yunnan. The southwest border region of Sipsongpann has long practiced Theravada Buddhism, although this particular school may not predate the early Ming dynasty.21 Mahayana teachings came into eastern Yunnan from Ch
38、ina and northern Vietnam. Buddhism had a profound effect on the political states that emerged along the Southwestern Silk Road before the period of Mongol conquest. Both the Nanzhao and the later Dali rulers of Yunnan enhanced their authority and political control with notions of Buddhist kingship.I
39、slam began to spread more widely in the region in the 13th century with the Mongol Conquest of Southwest China, but after that point Muslim Hui merchants were able to settle in communities along the trade routes. The Mongol ruler Kublai Khan appointed Sayyid Ajali Omar Shams ud-Din, a native of Bukh
40、ara, governor-general of Yunnan, and filled other positions with high-ranking Muslim personnel. From the Ming dynasty caravan routes used by Hui merchants from Dali and Kunming southwest to Chiang Mai (in modern-day northern Thailand) became important trade routes, carrying 700 to 1,000 mules in tra
41、de by the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.22 From Chiang Mai and the Burmese trade market, this overland trade would also link up with ports on the Indian Ocean trade network, and circulate goods throughout the region. Chinese Muslims with roots in Yunnan were among the seamen taken on board by t
42、he eunuch admiral Zheng He, himself a Yunnan native, when he sought out able sailors for his famous seven voyages of the Star Fleet (1403-1433).Silk Road in the Song (960-1279) By the early 10th century, trading activities conducted along Chinas long northern and western frontiers faced greater mili
43、tary obstacles than did Southwestern Silk Road or South Sea trade. The southern ports of Nanhai (modern-day Guangzhou) and Thng Long (modern-day Hanoi) offered products prized since the Han Dynasty, such as incense, drugs, elephant tusk, rhinoceros horn, tortoiseshell, coral, parrots, kingfishers (a
44、nd) peacocks.23 Numerous local chieftains throughout Southwestern China approached the Song shortly after the dynastys founding because control of trade contacts with the larger courts of the region would be an important aspect of their political authority. Rulers of the Song preferred trade in the
45、Southwestern Silk Road region, where vassal kingdoms displayed much less aggression than did their northern counterparts, and rare commodities could be obtained in the course of observing tributary protocol. The Dali kingdom lay at the center of regional trade in the Song dynasty. By the late Tang p
46、eriod, travel from the Burmese Py kingdom to Dali took approximately 71 days and travel from Dali to Chengdu took 75 days.24 Merchants travelled mostly on foot while goods were transported by mules oxen, or horses25 Traders likely did not travel the entire length of these routes, as evidence from la
47、ter periods demonstrates, but instead focused their trading activity on particular circuits, selling their goods in prominent market towns to others who continued to forward these goods along other set routes.26 Tansen Sen writes that the earlier Nanzhao kingdom had kept the region at peace and its
48、trade flourishing through the mid-9th century.27 In the Song the Dali maintained trade ties with its southern neighbors such as Bagan, which offered gold and cowries to continue trade links. Dali, in turn, supplied horses through Guangxi to the Song court, with which the Yunnanese kingdom also engag
49、ed in salt trade.28 This trend toward trade-centered ties would have a dramatic impact on imperial Chinese relations with these emerging frontier kingdoms. The Chinese leadership revived relations with Dali shortly after the fall of Kaifeng to the invading Jurchen and the establishment of the Southern Song capital at Hangzhou. The commodity that drew the Song court to Dali was horses,