Silk Road Talk

XiongNu - Rise of Steppe Empires This episode is about the Steppe people, the nomadic tribes scattered along the Eurasian steppe. These people fascinate and excite history lovers of all kinds. The imagery they provoke is still alive and powerful, even though there is a big distance between our era and theirs. You probably all know about the Mongols, the massive conquest of much of Asia under their famous leader Genghis Khan in the 12th century is the stuff of legend or nightmares depending who you ask, but maybe you don’t know much about the Xiongnu. (Xiongnu map by Gabagool)  Introducion Often neglected, the Xiongnu were an important historical player. They’re basically proto-Mongols or the beta version of what evolved into superior nomadic lifestyle of Mongols and others like them. Xiongnu empire ruled much of Mongolia, Siberia and northern China from 3rd century BC to 1st century AD. Mongols just perfected the art which was already there. Xiongnu and other first...

Hepu and the Opening of the Han Dynasty's Maritime Silk Road   Today, many Chinese scholars believe that China’s first turn to the sea was during the Han Dynasty and took place in Southern China. To explore this theory, we have to travel to the most southern coastal regions of China bordering the South China Sea. This area, historically called Lingnan, roughly corresponds to the present-day provinces of Guangxi and Guangdong. When looking at a map of China, these two provinces are at the most southern point of China. According to Chinese historians this region is the cradle of the maritime silk road in China and there are two reasons why they think so: first, in Lingnan they have discovered the remains of two Han-period ports that are mentioned in an early historical text; and secondly also in this region they have found a large number of so-called ‘oversea goods’ in Han-dynasty tombs. Historical Evidence: The Book of Han Let’s first have a look at this historical text, whic...

The Silk Road(s): A Short Introduction Defining the Silk Roads Ferdinand von Richthofen  (1833 - 1905) The term Silk Road was coined in 1877 by the German geographer and historian Ferdinand von Richthofen. The singular “Die Seidenstraße” (Silk Road) or plural “Seidenstraßen” (Silk Roads) were first used by Richthofen in one of his lectures, but only in the twentieth century these terms became more commonly mentioned by scholars. Since then, the Silk Road has come to mean many things beyond its original usage. You can think of the Silk Road as the original globalisation before the rise of modern globalisation. It is, in a nutshell, the intercultural movement of goods and ideas. Besides, the well-known overland silk road, there also exists a network of maritime routes, called the Maritime Silk Road. Sometimes referred to as “the Spice Routes” or “Ceramic Routes”, these maritime routes also played a major role in the intercultural interactions between regions in Eurasi...

Flying Horse of Gansu.  Source: Wang Lei (2008) The Heavenly Horses of the Han Dynasty The most well-known part of the Silk Road are the so-called northern routes of the overland Silk Road. These routes linked Xi’an in China, with Lanzhou, Dunhuang, Turfan and Kashgar. Traditionally the “opening” of this branch of the Silk Road is attributed to the military and commercial missions of Emperor Wudi, who ruled from 157 to 87 BC during the Han Dynasty. Although silk is often considered to be the main commodity exchanged, but what really kick started the trade over these northern routes was the Chinese demand for horses, and in particular ‘heavenly horses.’ But, as you may wonder, what were heavenly horses? Where did they come from? And what were the motives behind the desire for horses in Han-period China?  The Discovery of Heavenly Horses Unfortunately, the breeds of horses associated with these ‘heavenly horses’ are extinct today, but archaeological discoveries can ...