SILK ROAD
Zhang Qian's Trip To Central Asia
From the mouth of a defecting Hun, Wudi learnt about the relocation of Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) Major to the west of the Huns. Hence, in 138 BC, Wudi sent an emissary called Zhang Qian, a Hun guide called Tangyifu and 100 people on a trek across the west. Zhang Qian was arrested by the Huns soon, and he was forced to live among the Huns for dozens of years and he had married and born two children. Zhang, however, did not forget about Wudi's order, and he fled with his Hun guide to the west and reached the state of Dayuan [Dawan] (Kokand?, Fergana Valley). With the assistance from Dayuan [Dawan] king, he was escorted to Kangju where the Kanju king assisted him further on his trip to Bactria, the place where the Yueh-chih (Yuezhi) Major had settled down.
Zhang Qian returned to China after another arrest by the Huns. Sima Qian and history chornicles called Zhang Qian's travel to the west by the term of "piercing the vacuum" as an eulogy of his personal verification of the West. Hitorical Chinese records point to Chinese Turkistan as the source of jade and diamond trade; however, nothing particular beyond Chinese Turkistan was mentioned. The trade on the Silk Road did not flourish till hundreds of years later. In history, there were at least two paths that could have more important roles than Silk Road 2000 years ago. Certainly, the sea routes also existed between Rome and China, by which the silk had actually been shipped rather than via the more precarious land of conflicting statelets and tribes. The precarious nature of the Road across deserts could be see in General Li Guangli's losing 80% of his soldiers when he first campaigned against Dayuan [Dawan] (Kokand?, Fergana Valley) in 104 BC. (People who claimed nomadic propogation of horse and cavalry to China might propose a northern belt route. Should we read Chinese records, then we often encountered passages like the nomads losing 6-7 out of 10 people and cattle during some storms. A good example of the same kind of precarious nature on the steppe could be illustrated in Zhizhi Chanyu's losing the bulk of fighters during the relocation to Kang-ju territory. While Zhizhi Chanyu stationed in Jiankun territory, Sogdia king intended to attack the Wusun Statelet with the Hunnic assistance. Zhizhi Chanyu arrived in the destination with only 3000 remnants.)
Upon Zhang's return from the west, after a span of 13 years, Emperor Wudi first ordered 4 expeditions to the southwest of China to search for a route to India. This is because Zhang Qian reported that he saw Zangke (a place in today's Sichuan Province) bamboo products and Sichuan clothing which the Bactria merchants said were shipped over from India. Wudi got in touch with Yelang Statelet and Dian-Yue Statelet etc.
What Silk Road Contributed To World Civilization
Aly Mazaheri, an ethnic Iranian and a French sinologist, in La Route De La Soie (1983), claimed that China needed only "Fergana stallions" from the rest of the world, while the rest of the world needed everything from China, all faciliated by the Silk Road. Aly Mazaheri stated that at the time Persian King Sha-na-di-er dispatched last mission to Manchu Qing Emperor Qianlong [reign 1736-1795], British had taken over 75% of the trade between Orient and Occident while Russians had the other 25%.
Silk Road, in Aly Mazaheri's opinions, had lost its role not due to the discovery of sea route, but due to the newly manufactured products that had come to replace the traditional Chinese products shipped over from Silk Road: i.e., synthetic musk replacing Chinese musk; products of industrial revolution replacing Chinese iron cast ovens, iron wok, steel nails, pliers, needles, scissors, iron file, and hammers; Venice tin-coated glass replacing Chinese bronze mirrors; Swedish matches replacing Chinese fire-making sickle that Europe had utilized for 18 centuries; and Russian water-mark paper replacing high quality Chinese paper in 19th century. Further, Aly Mazaheri pointed out that the Europeans had confusion about the identity of China by stating that Portuguese governor in India dispatched Benoit Goez on an overland trip via silk road to verify that the Khitay was the same as China, which culminated in Benoit Goez's arrival in Suzhou [Gansu Prov] in AD 1604.
TO BE CONTINUED !
Written by Ah Xiang