The Birth of Silk Road

As an interconnected series of routes, the Silk Road ( 丝绸之路 ) is through Southern Asia traversed by caravan and ocean vessel, and connecting Chang'an, China with Antioch, Syria, as well as other points. Its influence carries over on to Korea and terminates eventually in Japan .

The continental Silk Road diverges into North and South routes as it extends from the commercial centers of North China, the North route passing through the Bulgar-Kypchak zone to Eastern Europe and the Crimean peninsula, and from there across the Black Sea, Marmara Sea and the Balkans to Venice; the South Route passing through Turkestan-Khorasan, through Iran into Mesopotamia and Anatolia, and then through Antioch in Southern Anatolia into the Mediterranean Sea or through the Levant into Egypt and North Africa.

These exchanges were critical not only for the development and flowering of the great civilisations of Rome , China and India , but they laid the foundations of our modern world. While goods and religious ideas may have travelled the whole way, ancient trade was probably conducted over sections of the routes and it is probable that merchants and travellers very rarely, if ever, covered the whole distance between Europe, or the Middle East, and China , by land.

These route can be traced back to Han Dynasty, from 138 BC, Emperor Wu dispatched Zhang Qian ( 张骞 ) twice as his envoy to the Western Regions, and in the process pioneered the route known as the Silk Road from Chang'an, through Xinjiang and Central Asia, and on to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Following Zhang Qian' embassy and report, commercial relations between China and Central as well as Western Asia flourished, as many Chinese missions were sent throughout the 1st century BC, initiating the development of the Silk Road.

In 97 AD the Chinese general Ban Chao ( 班超 ) went as far west as the Caspian Sea with 70,000 men and established direct military contacts with the Parthian Empire, also dispatching an envoy to Rome. Several Roman embassies to China soon followed from 166 AD. Good exchanges such as Chinese silk, African ivory, and Roman incense increase the contacts between the East and West. Contacts with the Kushan Empire led to the introduction of Buddhism to China from India in the first century.

The height of the importance of the Silk Road was during the Tang dynasty, with relative internal stability in China after the divisions of the earlier dynasties since the Han. In the seventh century, the Chinese traveler Xuan Zhuang ( 玄奘 ) crossed the region on his way to obtain Buddhist scriptures from India.

The art and civilization of the Silk Road achieved its highest point in the Tang Dynasty. Chang'an, as the starting point of the route, as well as the capital of the dynasty, developed into one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities of the time.

After the Tang, however, the traffic along the road subsided, along with the grotto building and art of the period. The Five Dynasties period did not maintain the internal stability of the Tang dynasty, and again neighbouring states started to plunder the caravans. China was partially unified again in the Song dynasty, but the Silk Road was not as important as it had been in the Tang.

From its birth before Christ, through the heights of the Tang dynasty, until its slow demise six to seven hundred years ago, the Silk Road has had a unique role in foreign trade and political relations, stretching far beyond the bounds of Asia itself. It has left its mark on the development of civilizations on both sides of the continent. However, the route has merely fallen into disuse; its story is far from over.