During one of their campaigns against the barbarian Xiongnu, the Han learnt from some of their prisoners that the Yuezhi people had been driven to the west. They decided to link up with these peoples in order to form an alliance. The first attempt was made in 138 B.C. under the leadership of Zhang Qian. The trip was reminicent of Homer's Odyssey; the travellers have been captrued twice, and wouldn't return until 125 BC. Unfortunately for the Han, the Yuezhi had lost any interest in forming an alliance against the Xiongnu. However, the travellers did bring information about hitherto unknown states to the west, and about a new, larger breed of horse that could be used to equip the Han cavalry. After a few failures, a large expedition managed to obtain some of the so-called `heavenly horses', which helped transform the Han cavalry. Spurred on by their discoveries, the Han missions pushed further westwards, and may have got as far as Persia. They brought back many objects from these regions, especially artwork. By this process, the route to the west was opened up. Zhang Qian is still seen by many to be the father of the Silk Road.
The description of this route to the west as the `Silk Road' is somewhat misleading. Firstly, no single route was taken; crossing Central Asia several different branches developed, passing through different oasis settlements. The routes all started from the capital in Changan, headed up the Gansu corridor, and reached Dunhuang on the edge of the Taklimakan. The northern route then passed through Yumen Guan (Jade Gate Pass) and crossed the neck of the Gobi desert to Hami (Kumul), before following the Tianshan mountains round the northern fringes of the Taklimakan. It passed through the major oases of Turfan and Kuqa before arriving at Kashgar, at the foot of the Pamirs. The southern route branched off at Dunhuang, passing through the Yang Guan and skirting the southern edges of the desert, via Miran, Hetian (Khotan) and Shache (Yarkand), finally turning north again to meet the other route at Kashgar. Numerous other routes were also used to a lesser extent; one branched off from the southern route and headed through the Eastern end of the Taklimakan to the city of Loulan, before joining the Northern route at Korla. Kashgar became the new crossroads of Asia; from here the routes again divided, heading across the Pamirs to Samarkand and to the south of the Caspian Sea, or to the South, over the Karakorum into India; a further route split from the northern route after Kuqa and headed across the Tianshan range to eventually reach the shores of the Caspian Sea, via Tashkent.
Secondly, the Silk Road was not a trade route that existed solely for the purpose of trading in silk; many other commodities were also traded. Caravans heading towards China carried gold and other precious metals, ivory, precious stones, and glass, which was not manufactured in China until the fifth century. In the opposite direction furs, ceramics, jade, bronze objects, lacquer and iron were carried. Many of these goods were bartered for others along the way, and objects often changed hands several times; after all, there are no records of Roman traders being seen in Changan, nor Chinese merchants in Rome. This would obviously have been in the interests of the Parthians and other middlemen, who took as large a profit from the change of hands as they could.
Of all the precious goods crossing this area, though, silk was indeed the most remarkable in the West. It is often thought that the Romans had first encountered silk in one of their campaigns against the Parthians in 53 B.C, and realised that it could not have been produced by this relatively unsophisticated people. They reputedly learnt from Parthian prisoners that it came from a mysterious tribe in the east, who they came to refer to as the silk people, `Seres'. In practice, it is likely that silk and other goods were beginning to filter into Europe before this time, though only in very small quantities. The Romans obtained samples of this new material, and it quickly became very popular in Rome, for its soft texture and attractiveness. The Parthians quickly realised that there was money to be made from trading the material, and sent trade missions towards the east. The Romans also sent their own agents out to explore the route, and to try to obtain silk at a lower price than that set by the Parthians. For this reason, the trade route to the East was seen by the Romans as a route for silk rather than the other goods that were traded. The name `Silk Road' itself does not originate from the Romans, however, but is a nineteenth century term, coined by the German scholar, von Richthofen.
However, the most significant commodity carried along this route was not silk, or any other physical commodity, but religion. Buddhism came to China from India this way, along the northern branch of the route. Art developed, and buildings like monasteries, grottos, and stupa were built alongside the road. Christianity also used the road; the Nestorian sect, after being outlawed by Rome, used the road to go east, and developed in modern-day Iran and East Asia. Manichaeism, a third century Persian religion, also influenced the area.
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. The individual states has mostly been assimilated, and the threats from marauding peoples was rather less. The art and civilisation of the Silk Road achieved its highest point in the Tang Dynasty. Changan, 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, reaching a population of 2 million by 742 AD. Turks, Iranians, Indians and others from along the Road, as well as Japanese, Koreans and Malays from the east, lived there. Many were missionaries, merchants or pilgrims, but every other occupation was also represented. It was at this time that the rise of Islam started to affect Asia, with the Muslims playing the part of middlemen. The sea route to China was explored at this time, and a`Sea Silk Route' was opened, eventually becoming more important as the land route became less profitable.
The partial unification of so many states under the Mongol Empire allowed a significant interaction between cultures of different regions. The route of the Silk Road became important as a path for communication between different parts of the Empire, and trading was continued. Although less `civilised' than people in the west, the Mongols were more open to ideas. A large number of people of different nationalities and creeds took part in the trade across Asia, and settled in China. The most popular religion in China at the time was Taoism, but Buddhism made headway in the 13th century; the two religions existed side by side during the Yuan dynasty. This religious liberalism was extended to all; Christianity first made headway in China in this period, with the first Roman Catholic arch-bishopric set up in Beijing in 1307. The Nestorian church was quite widespread in China; Jews and Muslims also populated several of the major cities, though they do not seem to have made many converts. This was also when Europeans made contact with China; specifically, though Europeans went there earlier, Marco Polo made the first significant trip to China.
However, the Mongolian Empire was to be fairly short-lived; the Yuan dynasty was replaced by the Ming dynasty in 1368. With the disintegration of the Mongol empire, the revival of Islam and the isolationist policies of the Ming dynasty, the barriers rose again on the land route between East and West.
Today, the Silk Road is being reopened. Railroad networks, specifically the Eurasian Land Bridge, allow significant number of goods to travel through desert. The last link in a railway route along the Silk Road was completed in 1990, when the railway systems of China and Kazakhstan connected in Alataw Pass (Alashan Kou). Since July 2011, Chongqing is officially linked to Duisburg, Germany by a freight rail across Eurasia. Compared to the traditional sea trade routes, the rail link cuts travel time from about 36 days by container ship to just 13 days by freight train. Not only is there a New Silk Road (a nickname for the Land Bridge), tourism is being encouraged to see the old one. Since 1993 the United Nations World Tourism Organization has commenced an international programme to develop sustainable tourism along the route to foster peace and understanding.
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 civilisations on both sides of the continent. However, the route has merely fallen into disuse; its story is far from over. With the latest developments, and the changes in political and economic systems, the edges of the Taklimakan may yet see international trade once again, on a scale considerably greater than that of old, the iron horse replacing the camels and horses of the past.
From:
"Silk Road." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Jul 2013. Web. 23 Jul 2013. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road>.
Wild, Oliver. "The Silk Road." . N.p., 1992. Web. 23 Jul 2013. <http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html>.
