The world of the ancient Silk Road

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]

The World of the Ancient Silk Road is edited by Liu Xinru,[1] a distinguished Chinese scholar in Silk Road studies.[2] Her rich academic experience and connections leads to the successful cooperation of international scholars and Chinese scholars in this book (28 contributors, half of whom are Chinese), and to her goal in the preface, “the aim of The World of the Ancient Silk Road is to expand Silk Road studies from the field of Chinese studies to the stage of world history”. (p. 1)

In addition to a detailed introduction, the richly illustrated The World of the Ancient Silk Road consists of four parts: Landscape of the Silk Road; Pastoral Nomads and Agricultural Societies; Silk Trade and Cities; Empires and Religions. Rather than attempting to summarize all twenty-eight contributions, I will selectively focus on papers that reflect the most important themes of this volume and exhibit the research dynamics of Silk Road studies in China.

Archaeology plays a crucial role in the study of the Silk Road, especially over the past two decades, as Wang Binghua, the author of “Kongquehe Bronze Age Culture” emphasizes: “the information from the archaeological works, none of it available in literary records, is invaluable for research on early Eurasian civilizations” (p. 21). As an eminent Chinese archaeologist who has devoted more than 40 years to the archaeological excavations in Xinjiang, China, Wang Binghua discusses the Bronze Age culture of the Kongqueche Valley (near Lake Lop-nor in the eastern part of the Tarim Basin, China), which has important sites on the Silk Road but which has received less notice until recently. With abundant data and illustrations from the excavations, Wang Binghua depicts a vivid image of local life with “the connections between early populations in China, South Asia, southwest Asia, and Caucasus mountainous regions” (p. 21), showing the long-existing and complicated connections and communications on the Silk Road in very early period.

People are the core of Silk Road studies. They were not only the inhabitants, but also the participants and undertakers of trade, cultural exchange, religious spreading, and diplomatic missions along the Silk Road. In the past, because of the limitations of sources, archaeological evidence, and the focus of historical research on great civilizations, the people and their cultures on the Silk Road were not given enough attention. However, this phenomenon has been much transformed in the last decades, especially with the rapid development of the studies of Late Antiquity and global history.[3] In two chapters, “Qïrqïz, in the Forest and on the Steppe” and “Qïrqïz? Kyrkyz, a People Lived Between Empires,” Jia Yiken, an expert on the peoples of Central Asia, analyzes Chinese sources in detail and explains the early and later history of the Qïrqïz. Compared with other nomadic people, though Qïrqïz did not play so great a role on the Silk Road, they did integrate into the network of the political and economic interaction of the Eurasian steppes. As Jia Yiken’s comment, “Since the Qïrqïz people entered into historical records, they survived the rivalry, competition, conflicts among the empires surrounding the steppe, and rise and fall of hegemons on the steppe and even became a dominant force on the steppe… Their engagement in the complicated politics of pastoral nomadic and agricultural sedentary empires and forest communities…displays the dramatic geopolitical changes and socio-economic evolvement in the vast region that hosted the Steppe Silk Road.” (p. 221)

Sogdians, as the most crucial intermediaries between great powers active on the Silk Road, with their abundant remains in archaeology and texts (letters, manuscript fragments and religious works), attract much attention because of the continuous discoveries of the Sogdians’ remains in recent decades in China.[4] Over the past two decades, there has been much cooperation between international and Chinese scholars, with many international conferences held in China on Sogdian studies.[5] Zhang Xiaogui, an outstanding scholar of Zoroastrianism, analyses Chinese sources recording Zoroastrianism in medieval China with the evidence from the Sogdians’ graves in China in his paper “Sogdian Religion along the Silk Road”. He concludes that Zoroastrianism among the Sogdians in China became less influential over time and was gradually absorbed into Chinese folk cults.

Although the relations between Byzantium and ancient China have been studied for more than a century, this topic still has not attracted widespread attention. [6] With the increasing amount of new findings and further discussions coming out of China in the last 20 years, the studies have been updated a lot.[7] Lin Ying is the expert in Byzantine-Chinese relations,[8] and her research extends from Byzantine coins discovered in China to the literature and art of Byzantium recorded in Chinese sources. In her contribution, she clearly and vividly presents the image of Byzantium as described as a western state of treasure in Chinese sources and Buddhist texts, an impression supported by Byzantine coin findings. She persuasively concludes that the admiration of Byzantium (also being called Western “Lord of Treasures” [宝主] in Chinese Buddhist texts) from Chang’an was based on a beautiful mirage. (p. 450)

In addition to these papers, other papers in this volume from Chinese scholars and international scholars from different perspectives show the significance of the Silk Road in world history. The importance of this volume is, as the editor explains in the preface: “most scholars have been focusing on a particular region or a couple of regions, a particular culture or a couple of related cultures, or, following their expertise in one discipline. Pooling the expertise of scholars of various fields and regions into a structured volume will provide insights into several poorly understood but nonetheless prevailed historical phenomena.” (p. 1)

Editing a volume with so many scholars from different countries and fields is not an easy job, so it is understandable that there are some minor errors in spelling and inconsistencies in transcribing names which could be confusing for readers, such as Qirqiz/Kyrgyz (p. 10) and Qïrqïz (p.73). There are many such issues in the paper of Song Xian: Tianbao (天宝) was wrongly transcribed as Tianbo in p. 293. Yazdegerd III, also spelled Yazdgerd III and Yazdgird III, was spelled Yezdjerd in pp. 294-295. Peroz, was spelled as Peyrooz in p. 294.

Though some international scholars have voiced suspicions about even the existence of the Silk Road (or Roads),[9] in recent years, the Silk Road has been becoming a very popular subject in academic and non-academic circles all around the world. Especially in China, Silk Road studies are nowadays among the most popular fields in Chinese academia. This is much because of the infrastructure development of China and the well-known “Belt and Road Initiative”, which not only show the need but also provide the chance and platform for the development of Silk Road studies.[10] On the other side, Silk Road studies are also rapidly developing outside of China. Influenced by globalization and eagerness to know more about China, especially its history with the world, an increasing number of international scholars have also undertaken Silk Road studies.[11] Hence, The World of the Ancient Silk Road is particularly timely.

No doubt, The World of the Ancient Silk Road is more attractive to the western audience who are interested in Chinese research in Silk Road studies, and with its rich archaeological, cultural, and linguistic information, it will be a useful reference work for the students and scholars in the field. And it is reasonable to believe that more works on the Silk Road like the Ancient Silk Road will come out with the increasingly frequent cooperations between Chinese and international scholars.

Authors and Titles

Introduction: Changing landscape of the world of Silk Roads: terrains, ecology, languages, technology, Xinru Liu

Part I: Landscape of the Silk Road: from the Bronze age to the Beginning of Historical Records

1. Kongquehe Bronze Age Culture – A Page of Early Eurasian History, Wang Binghua
2. Tocharian Controversy: A Mobile Language Landscape of Central Asia, Xinru Liu
3. Aramaic in the First Millennium BCE: Its Reception and Diffusion, Liu Jian
4. Qirqiz, a People in the Forest and on the Steppe, Jia Yiken
5. Invention and spread of horse chariots around Afro-Eurasia, Bruno Genito
6. Horse Wagon with Bronze Wheel Felloe from Zhouyuan – Implication to the Exchanges between the East and West, Wang Peng
7. Natural and Cultural History of the Camel, Renato Sala
8. Cannabis and other plants with Peculiar Properties on the Silk Road, Kazim Abdullaev

Part II: Pastoral Nomads and Agricultural Societies

9. Horse Archery Warfare and Rises and Falls of Nomadic Empires on the Eurasian Steppe, Craig Benjamin
10. The Kushans, viz. the Dà Yuèzhī: A Century-Long Fallacy, Kuwayama Shoshin
11. Looking for the city of horse, Mingtepa during the time of Dayuan Kingdom, Zhu Yanshi and Liu Tao
12. Qirqiz/Kyrgyz, a People lived between Empires, Jia Yiken
13. Images of Knights on the Great Silk Road, Kazim Abdullaev

Part III: Silk Trade and Caravan Cities

14. Rise and Demise of Jingjue Kingdom, a Case of Tarim Oasis Politics, Ye Junshi
15. Astana, Jiaohe, and other Turfan Cemeteries: the Movement of People, Ideas, and Objects in Gaochang Kingdom (442-640), Armin Selbitschka
16. Turfan, the Frontier transmitting Smallpox to Tang China, Song Xian
17. Caravan cities in the Roman Near East: Palmyra and Petra, Hamish Cameron
18. The Chitral Yaβγu雙靡翕侯and a Route Southward in the First Century BCE, Shoshin Kuwayama
19. Kābul and the Regional Centers of Eastern Afghanistan in their Historical Perspective, Minoru Inaba
20. Routes of Swat, New Perspectives, Luca M. Olivieri
21. The Silk Road and the ‘Cotton Road’: Buddhist Art and Practice between Central Asia and the Western Deccan, Pia Branccacio
22. Egyptian Textiles and Networks of Exchange prior to and following the Arab-Islamic Conquest, Arielle Winnik
23. Sino-Arabian Economic and Cultural Exchanges from the 8th to the 15th centuries, Lin Meicun and Ran Zhang, Part IV: Empires and Religions
24. Elephants, Greeks, and Gold: The Silk Road in the Age of Hellenistic Empires, Benjamin Abbott
25. The Western Lord of Treasures – Viewing the Byzantine Empire from Tang Dynasty Chang’an, Lin Ying
26. Sogdian Religion along the Silk Road: Variations of Zoroastrianism in Medieval China, Zhang Xiaogui
27. Buddhist Propagation and Language Barriers, Xinru Liu
28. Silk-Horse between the Tang Empire and the Xiagasi/Kyrgyz, Li Jinxiu
29. Roman market for silks, heavy brocade or light crepe?, Berit Hildebrandt
30. Christian discourses about silks in antiquity, Berit Hildebrandt
31. The Creation and Spread of Tiraz Textiles across the Silk Road, Arielle Winnik
32. Virtual Silk Roads: Objects, Exhibitions, Learners, Daniel Waugh

Notes

[1] I appreciate the editors’ suggestions and English proofreading and Dr. Douglas Whalin for his English proofreading.

[2] She used to study in China and also be an assistant researcher in the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Then she finished her PhD in the US in 1985 and worked at the College of New Jersey. Now she is Professor Emeritus there. She has published many works in the field, including The Silk Road in World History (New York, 2010), The Silk Roads: A Brief History with Documents (New York, 2012).

[3] A good example for the extension of Late Antiquity into Central and East Asia is: Nicola Di Cosmo, Michael Maas (eds.), Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca. 250–750 (Cambridge, 2018).

[4] Rong Xinjiang, Hua Lan & Zhang Zhiqing (eds.), Sogdians in China: New Explorations in History, Archaeology and Linguistics (粟特人在中国：历史、考古、语言的新探索) (Beijing, 2005) ; Rong Xinjiang & Luo Feng (eds.), Archaeological Discoveries and New Evidence from the Excavated Documents (粟特人在中国：考古发现与出土文献的新印证) (Beijing, 2016).

[5] “Sogdians in China: Archaeological Discoveries and New Evidence from the Excavated Documents, the Second International Conference of Silk Road,”(粟特人在中国：考古发现与出土文献的新印证) Peking University, China, 13-16-08-2014;“Promotion and Interaction of Civilization: International Academic Conference on Sogdians on the Silk Road,” (​文明的推动与互动——丝绸之路上的粟特国际学术研讨会) Shaanxi Normal University, China, 26-27-6-2021.

[6] Friederich Hirth, China and the Roman Orient: Researches into their Ancient and Medieval Relations as Represented in Early Chinese Records (Hongkong, 1885) is regarded as the first fundamental work on the Byzantium and ancient China. My 2015 thesis is about the image of the Roman-Byzantine Empire in Chinese sources (Li Qiang, The Image of the Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) in Chinese Sources: 1st-7th C, PhD Dissertation, University of Ioannina, 2015.

[7] The newly published works in China on the subject are Guo Yunyan, The Roman-Byzantine Empire along the Silk Road: Based on the Coin Research (罗马-拜占庭帝国嬗变与丝绸之路：以考古发现钱币为中心), (Beijing, 2022); Zhang Shuang, The Relationship between Byzantium, the Intermediary Peoples and China: As Investigation from the Perspective of the Silk Road (丝路视域下拜占庭、中介民族与中国关系研究), (Beijing, 2022); Sven Günther, Li Qiang, Lin Ying, and Claudia Sode (eds.), From Constantinople to Chang’an. Byzantine Gold Coins in the World of Late Antiquity, (Changchun, 2021).

[8] Her representative work is: Lin Ying, A Comprehensive Study of Fulin (the Byzantine Empire) in Tang (唐代拂菻丛说) (Beijing, 2006).

[9] Khodadad Rezakhani tries to prove that “the notion of the Silk Road (even Roads, land bound or seaborne) as an identifiable route of commercial contact between China and Rome/Byzantium/Europe is an unsupportable one”, and he also wants to emphasizes that the history of central Asia was neglected by the narrative of Silk Road, see Khodadad Rezakhani, “The Road That Never Was: The Silk Road and Trans-Eurasian Exchange,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 30, No.3, 2010, pp. 420-433, doi10.1215/1089201x-2010-025.

[10] In the past ten years, Chinese government has provided much fund on the promotion of Silk Road studies, such as on organization of research centers, conferences and publications.

[11] In the past 10 years, we have had many popular works in Silk Road studies, most are authored by the western scholars, Valerie Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History (New York, 2012), James A. Millward, The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction (New York, 2013), Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (London, 2015), Wen Xin, The King’s Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road (Princeton, 2023).