The Silk Road (or Silk Route) was a network of caravan tracks that crossed Central and West Asia. The Silk Road was used to carry trade goods between Asia and Europe from the second century BCE until the fifteenth century CE. From a European perspective, the road (or roads) began in Rome and ended in Chang’an (長安), China.
In Rome, silk accounted for about 90% of the imports from Asia. Silk production actually began in China sometime prior to 1500 BCE and by the second century BCE, silk had become China’s primary export product. Silk production in China was a highly guarded secret and anyone who attempted to take this secret out of China was subject to execution. China was successful at guarding the secret of silk production and the Roman historian Ptolomy wrote that silk was made from the hairs on certain tree leaves.
While silk was important, it was not the only valuable product that was transported on the Silk Road. Precious gems and metals, such as jade and gold, were also carried by the traders. Agricultural products such as apricots, melons, and raisins, as well as manufactured goods, were also in great demand at various points along the routes. People, technology, and religions also flowed along the road. The Silk Road was a major route for the diffusion of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism and Islam.
Official trade along the Silk Road began when the Han Emperor Wudi (漢武帝)in 139 BCE commissioned military commander Zhang Qien (張騫) to explore the possibility of a military alliance with the Persian Empire against their common enemy, the Xiongnu. Zhang Qien traveled 3,000 miles (4,800 km) before returning home to China in 126 BCE. During his trip he not only negotiated a trade agreement with the Persians, but he also arranged for the import of a new breed of war horse from Ferghana. This new war horse contributed greatly to China’s military strength.
A statue of Zhang Qien is shown above.
Zhang Qien described the people of Ferghana as cultivating grain and rice. He reported that they made wine from grapes. With regard to their horses, he reported that they sweated blood (they were probably subject to parasitic attacks (Parafilaria multipapillosa) that causes minor bleeding of the skin, thus making their sweat appear pink.) These horses, he reported, were descended from heavenly horses.
Wudi officially sanctioned the silk trade which continued with a few minor interruptions until the breakup of the Mongol Empire and the collapse of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in the fifteenth century CE.
With regard to the Silk Roads routes, caravans would head west from Chang’an, cross the Yellow River, go through Jiayu Guan Pass (嘉峪關), and then enter 1,200 miles (1,931 km) of trackless desert, the Gobi and the Takalamakan. This is an area with an average rainfall of less than an inch and crossing it was made possible by a chain of oasis communities.
At Jiayu Guan, the Silk Road caravans could travel either by a northern route or a southern route across the Pamir Mountains (蔥嶺),often called “The Roof of the World” because they are among the world’s highest mountains. The southern route passed through Dunhuang (敦煌), the site of the Moagao Buddhist Cave complex, and then through Miran, Khotan (west of present-day Hotan (和田)), and Yarkland. The northern route passed through Hami (哈密地區 ), Turfran (吐魯番), and Kuqa (龜茲 ). The two routes then rejoined at Kashgar (喀什, also Qäshqär) at the western edge of the Tarim Basin.
Shown above is a watchtower from the Han Dynasty at Dunhuang.
A map of the third century Tarim Basin is shown above.
Kashgar, whose name seems to come from Sanskrit, was a major emporium. During the Han period, it had a population of about 18,647. There were markets with stalls in the town and it served as a garrison for the Western Han dynasty. During the early first century CE, Kashgar was under the influence of the Kushans, an empire established in Bactria by Yuezhi refugees from East Central Asia. Buddhism had entered the Tarim Basin by this time and the monk Xuanzang (玄奘) reported that the people flattened the heads of their infants against the cradleboard, that they were tattooed, and that they had green eyes.
Xuanzang is shown above.
Caravans leaving Kashgar had a choice of two routes. The southern route would take caravans through the Wakan Corridor to Balkh in what is now Afghanistan. The northern route would take the caravans through Samarkind. At Merv, on the eastern edge of the Old Persian Empire, the two routes rejoined.
From Merv, caravans would cross Persia into the Tigris-Euphrates valley, then to the Mediterranean Sea. From here, goods could be taken by ship to Rome or overland through what is now Turkey and into eastern Europe.
While Wudi in the second century BCE officially sanctioned the silk trade, archaeological evidence shows that silk was travelling the road much earlier than this. Silk found in the hair of an Egyptian mummy dating to 1000 BCE shows trade between Egypt and China at least 800 years before the “official” opening of the Silk Road. In addition, archaeologists have found Chinese silk in seventh-century BCE German graves and in fifth-century BCE Greek tombs. All of these data suggest that a land-based trading system was in place long before the Silk Road was officially opened.
It would have been unusual for any one trader to travel the entire Silk Road. Instead, trade was conducted in stages. A few adventurers, however, did travel the entire length of the Silk Road: the Italian Marco Polo traveled from Italy to China and back; and Rabban Sauma (拉賓掃務瑪), a Nestorian Christian, traveled the road from China to Rome.
The map shown above depicts the possible journeys of Marco Polo.
With regard to the journeys of Marco Polo (1254-1324), who is often regarded as one of the greatest travelers in human history, J.P. Mallory and Victor Mair in their book The Tarim Mummies write:
“Viewed in the best possible light, the most sympathetic reader must admit that there are serious gaps, contradictions, inconsistencies, plagiarisms and inaccuracies in the fabled Venetian’s account.”
The map shown above shows the route of Rabban Sauma who travelled with a large retinue of assistants and riding animals.