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THE ROLE OF THE GREAT SILK ROAD AND THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE
AND CENTRAL ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS
Chu Bei Bei
Researcher at the Department of World History of the NUUz, Wannan Medical College, Wuhu (PRC),
Uzbekistan
AB O U T ART I CL E
Key words:
civilizations, Silk Road, China, Central
Asia, Qin, Han, Ming, Qing.
Received:
01.11.2024
Accepted
: 05.11.2024
Published
: 07.11.2024
Abstract:
This article reveals the role of the Great
Silk Road and the historical development of
Chinese and Central Asian civilization. Including
the role of the formation and development of the
Great Silk Road in the history of China, in
particular, the efforts to develop this trade route
during the Qin, Han, Ming and Qing dynasties.
INTRODUCTION
A remarkable feature of the past and what is now known as the Great Silk Road is one of the greatest
achievements of the ancient Orient. The Great Silk Road is a monument to human inquisitiveness,
entrepreneurship, and an unquenchable thirst for ever new knowledge and a desire to go beyond.
Human civilization does not know any other road as famous as this trans-Eurasian system of routes
linking together China and Western Europe. It was, in fact, a channel through which the unprecedented
number of nations exchanged their wares, cultural and artistic achievements, and most revolutionary
ideas.
The beginning of the Silk Road history coincides with the end of the II century B.C. For more than 15
centuries since then this caravan road system had been in the service of people, and this is an overall
record for any overland road. The great civilizations of China, Hindu Valley, the Middle East, and Europe
had lived through their ups and downs, wars to set control over the strategic stretches of this system or
been pushed away from the mainstream. A glimpse of the map of the Great Silk Road immediately
suggests that it’s like a huge river taking in smaller streams and rivulet
s, and flowing around obstacles.
The obstacles were numerous and many in the Great Silk Roads. In the 550s, the Sogdians made two
attempts to reach Byzantium and failed because of the Iranian shahs. The first time they burned down
the silks of Soghdian tra
ders, and the second, they poisoned the Soghdian envoys. However, this didn’t
stop the Sogdians and they found another way
–
along the northern shores of the Caspian they reached
Byzantium and established diplomatic and trade relations. Time went on, and the roads became more
ramified and comfortable for travel. The road had been acquiring caravanserais, or inns, warehouses,
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Pages: 11-15
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money changing, safety measures to protect foreign guests. The Great Silk Road was in need of many
professions
–
cameleers, guardsmen, interpreters, moneychangers. Following the Templars, Oriental
traders introduced the circulation of paper receipts. Leaving Khorassan for Soghd, for instance, one
could give his gold coins to an Iranian moneychanger and receive a note which could then be exchanged
for real money at Soghd.
he vastness of the Great Silk Road could not understandably be controlled by a single nation, and the
resultant wars only damaged trade along the Road. However, the Great Silk Road has proved its viability
and outlived feudal strife, the fall of statehoods, the plunder of cities, and caravans, and the end of
dynasties. Risks and profits were high. And what one could buy for almost nothing at one end of the
Great Silk Road became real gold at its end.
The Chinese had enriched their culture by adopting Central Asian horses known for their beauty and
endurance, and such plants as alfalfa, chestnut, vine, pomegranate, etc. that proved to be very effective
there. It is from Central Asia that China had adopted cotton growing, while the Sogdians took over from
the Chinese such arts and crafts as silk-making and gold and silver jewelry, paper making and weaponry.
Remarkably, the Europeans were unable to offer similarly lucrative wares in exchange and had to pay
in gold and silver. This resulted in the amassing of huge treasures in the Orient, which fact could not
help concerning the European rulers.
Genghis Khan was the first to stretch his rule over the Great Silk Road in the XIII-XIV centuries, and
these were the years of flourishing trade and prosperity. But thereafter trade was again damaged by
feudal strife that ended in that the Great Silk Road was divided between the four owners: China, Central
Asia, Iran, and the Golden Horde, who was trying to provide security for everydiv on the Great Silk
Road
–
no matter which faith or nationality they belonged to.
During the pre-Qin period, a channel connecting the East and West of China already existed, the formal
spread of silk to the West began in the Western Han through the Western Regions, and the Silk Road
really took shape when Zhang Qian opened it up in the Western Han. During this period, the source of
the spread of silk, the destination of the spread, the route of the spread is very clear, there is history to
support, there is evidence, the number of spread is also very large, the East and West is planned, and
even organized silk trade, so the Silk Road really opened up in the Western Han Dynasty[1, P. 3].
When Emperor Wu of Han heard that the Da Yue Clan, who had been invaded by the Xiongnu and moved
west, had a desire to take revenge on the Xiongnu, he sent a mission to the Da Yue Clan to contact them
to attack the Xiongnu from the east and the west.
Zhang Qian, a native of Hanzhong in Shaanxi province, answered the call. In the second year of Jian Yuan
(139 BC), Zhang Qian led more than 100 people to the West, but was captured by the Xiongnu on the
way and was stranded for 10 years. Zhang Qian failed to achieve his goal and stayed in the West for over
a year before returning back, but was detained by the Xiongnu for over a year on the way. The trip lasted
more than ten years, and although it did not achieve its goal, it did yield a great deal of information
about the Western Regions, and the historian Sima Qian called Zhang Qian's act "chiseling the sky"[2, P.
3].
After Zhang Qian's return, Emperor Wu of Han sent an envoy to explore the opening of a
transportation route through Rome to Daxia without going through Xiongnu, but without success. The
Han army later defeated the Xiongnu and gained the Hexi Corridor region, opening up the passage
between the Western Han and the Western Regions. Although Zhang Qian's earliest missions to the
West were for political purposes, the establishment of the Western Capital Protection Office after the
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military resistance was a watershed, and the Silk Road, a road of exchange between East and West from
the Western Han Dynasty, began to enter an era of prosperity[3, P. 3].
During the Wei, Jin and North-South Dynasties, the Silk Road continued to develop, with three main
routes: the Northwest Silk Road (also known as the Oasis Silk Road or the Desert Silk Road), the
Southwest Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road. It was characterized by the transition from the Han
Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the further development of the Maritime Silk Road, and the
frequent interactions between the two regimes in the north and south with the west at the same time[4,
P. 3].
The heyday of the Silk Road interactions was the powerful Tang Dynasty, established after the Sui. Li
Shimin, the second emperor of the Eastern Tang Dynasty, defeated the Turkic Tugun, and submitted to
the North and South of the desert. Li Zhi, the third emperor of the Tang dynasty, also defeated the
Western Turkic peoples and set up two capitals, Anxi and Beiting. The Tang Empire, which stretched
from the Korean seashore in the east to the Dachang Water (Amu Darya, or Tigris River) in the west,
was the most developed and powerful country in the world at the time, with the highest level of
economic and cultural development in the world.
The Silk Road was used as a bridge between the East and the West, and there was full-scale friendly
interaction between the official and private sectors. In the eastern section of the Silk Road, north and
south of the desert and the countries of the Western Regions, many branch lines were built through the
Silk Road, also known as the "Senkhan Road" (Tiankhan refers to Emperor Tang Taizong). Da Shi[5, P.
3] and the Eastern Roman Empire also sent envoys to Chang'an to communicate with China. Dunhuang,
Yangguan and Yumen became the “sea markets on land”of the time. On the sea route, China could also
travel by ship to Linyi (modern southern Vietnam), Chenla (Cambodia), Hailing (modern Java), Phyu
(modern Burma), via Tianzhu (modern India) to the Great Food, and to European countries. Guangzhou,
Quanzhou and Liujiagang (near the mouth of Wusong in modern Shanghai) were the most famous
foreign ports. History records that Guangzhou was home to barge docks for ships of the South Sea,
Kunlun, Lion, Brahmin, Western and Persian. The Western countries travelled by land through Central
Asia and the West, with constant camel and horse traders along the way, and by sea from Baghdad, the
capital of the Da Shi, to the Persian Gulf, with ships coming to the East almost every day[6, P. 3].
The actual territory of the Northern Song Dynasty was drastically reduced, with the government failing
to control the Hexi Corridor, and by the time of the Southern Song Dynasty it was even less able to
venture into the northwest, and the decline of the Silk Road became increasingly evident, while the rise
of the Maritime Silk Road gradually showed signs of replacing the land-based Silk Road. [7, P. 3].
During the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties, when the Silk Road was open and economic exchanges
between Europe and Asia were flourishing at all levels, a number of trade centers were formed and
developed as hubs of international trade between East and West or as regional and national markets
and distribution centres for goods and materials with close ties to international trade. Almost all
Chinese and foreign histories of the Yuan dynasty record the undisputed status of Yuandu as an
international trade Centre in the East. It was a place where "merchants from all countries converged
and department stores gathered"[8, P. 3].
During the Ming Dynasty the Maritime Silk Road routes had expanded globally and entered a period of
great prosperity. The seven voyages of Zheng He to the west, organized by the Ming government,
reached 39 countries and regions in Asia and Africa, and were a precursor to the local routes from
Europe to India set up by Da Gama and to Magellan's voyage around the world. The 'Guangzhou-Latin
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America Route' (1575) sailed east from Guangzhou, out to sea via Macau, to the port of Manila in the
Philippines, across the strait into the Pacific Ocean and east to the west coast of Mexico.
The Maritime Silk Road trade in Guangzhou during the Ming Dynasty developed even more than during
the Tang and Song Dynasties, creating an unprecedented global trade cycle that continued until the eve
of the Opium War. After the Opium War, China lost its maritime power and the coastal ports were forced
to open up and become markets for Western dumped goods. From then on, the maritime silk route fell
into decline. This state of affairs continued throughout the Republican period until the eve of the
founding of New China[9, P. 3].
The Oasis Road of the Ming Dynasty was an important part of the Silk Road. It refers to the great corridor
of commerce and trade between the Mongolian steppe belt and the Eurasian continent. As the artery of
nomadic cultural exchange at the time, it ran from the Central Plains northwards across the ancient
Yinshan Mountains (present-day Daqing Mountains) and Yanshan Mountains along the Great Wall,
northwestwards across the Mongolian Plateau, the steppes of Southern Russia and northern Central
and Western Asia, and directly to the European region on the northern continent of the Mediterranean
Sea[10, P. 3].
The Oasis Road during the Ming and Qing dynasties was no longer a single channel for trade in silk and
porcelain goods and limited cultural exchange as it had been in ancient times, but more diverse and
modern. The nomads, especially the Mongolian nomads, made an important contribution to the
expansion and operation of the Silk Road, reflecting the important position of the nomads in the Silk
Road.
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