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History of the Silkroad

From Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia
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The technique of silk production and weaving was fully developed in the beginning bronze age of China (Shang period 商), and at the begin of Han the neighboring people of the northwestern steppe highly estimated silk fabrics. Peoples like the Wusun 烏孫, Yuezhi 月氏, and Xiongnu 匈奴 controlled the ways to Inner Asia and acted as intermediary traders. In the late 2nd century BC the belligerent emperor Han Wudi 漢武帝 conquered the territories of the northwest to get rid of the tributary pressure of the intruding and robbing Xiongnu tribes. He installed the commanderies Jiuquan 酒泉, Wuwei 武威, Zhangyi 張掖, and Dunhuang 敦煌 where Chinese soldiers were deployed and had to supply themselves with agrarian military colonies (tuntian 屯田). Additionally, forts and fortified walls (later known as the Great Wall, Changcheng 長城) were constructed to prevent the Xiongnu from plundering Chinese villages. To administer and to control these regions, a Protectorate of the Western Regions (Xiyu duhu 西域都護) was installed, and the Han court often interfered into the politics of the city states along the silkroad. Along the silkroad, China sent embassadors to kingdoms and empires in the west, one of them called Daqin 大秦 that some scholars identify with Rome.

After the political center of the unified empire collapsed with the end of Eastern Han, and during the three centuries of the division between north and south (Southern and Northern Dynasties, Nanbeichao 南北朝) trade and political and cultural exchange along the silkroad increased, and trade centers like the commandery Dunhuang developed a vivid cultural and religious Life. With the foundation of the Sui 隋 and shortly after the Tang Dynasty 唐 the regular trade with the [[Wikipedia:Central Asian|Central Asian]] kingdoms became crucial for the social and economic Life of the capital Chang'an. The Tang government installed four garrisons (sizhen 四鎮) to administer the protectorate of the "Pacified West" (Anxi duhufu 安西都護府), Qiuci 龜茲 (Kucha), Yanqi 焉耆 (Karashar), Yutian 于闐 (Khotan), and Shule 疏勒 (Kashgar). After the end of Tang the Chinese government and economy of Song 宋 oriented more to the seashore and the trade with Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, and the trade routes along the silkroad were again controlled by Non-Chinese empires like the Khitan-Liao 遼, Jurchen-Jin 金 and Tangut-Xixia 西夏. The Mongols that controlled Asia from China to Eastern Europe again allowed a continuous passage from the Near East to the capital in modern Beijing. Marco Polo and many other traders and missionaries followed the silkroad to enter the realm of the mighty qaghan Khubilai.

Source

www.chinaknowledge.de [[Category:Silk Road]]