After Zhang Qian passed through the western regions, it officially opened the land passage from China to Europe and Africa. This road starts from Chang 'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, passes through the Hexi Corridor, and then divides into two routes: one starts from Yangguan, passes through Shanshan, goes west along the northern foot of Kunlun Mountain, passes through shache, goes west through Qingji, leaves Dayuejia, goes to rest, goes west through the plough (jiān, now Alexandria, Egypt, annexed by the Roman Empire in 30 BC), or enters the body from the south of Da Yue. The other one goes out of Yumenguan, passes through the former Cheshi country, goes west along the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain, goes out of Shule, crosses Qingji in the west, crosses Daguan Bay, and reaches Kangju and Chae Yeon (nomadic in the northwest of Kangju in the Western Han Dynasty, that is, the grassland in the North Caspian Sea, and belongs to Kangju in the Eastern Han Dynasty).
Maritime?Silk?Road
The Maritime Silk Road refers to the maritime traffic route between China and other parts of the world. China's silk is not only exported to countries in Central Asia, West Asia, Africa and Europe through transcontinental land transportation lines, but also exported to countries all over the world through maritime transportation lines. Therefore, after German geographer Richthofen named the land traffic route across the east and west as the Silk Road, some scholars further extended it and named the maritime traffic route between the east and the west as the Maritime Silk Road. Later, China's famous ceramics were also sold to other countries through this maritime traffic route, and western incense medicines were also imported into China through this route, so some scholars also called this maritime traffic route the Ceramic Road or the Fragrant Porcelain Road.
The Maritime Silk Road was formed in the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. Sailing westward from China, the South China Sea route is the main line of the Maritime Silk Road. At the same time, there is an East China Sea route from China to the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, which occupies a secondary position in the Maritime Silk Road.
With regard to the South China Sea route of the Silk Road in Han Dynasty, Geography of Han Dynasty recorded the voyage that Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty sent envoys and businessmen to the sea for trade, saying that they started from Rinan (now central Vietnam) or Xuwen (now Guangdong) and Hepu (now Guangxi), went south along the east coast of Indo-China Peninsula, and arrived in Du Yuan (now Di City in southern Vietnam) for five months. After four months' voyage, it arrived in Lu Yi (now a Buddhist sect in Thailand) at the mouth of Chao Phraya River. After that, he went south along the east coast of Malay Peninsula and arrived in Li Zhan (now Bashu, Thailand) more than 20 days later. He abandoned the ship and landed here, crossed the isthmus, walked 10 for more than 0 days, and arrived in the capital Lu (now Dana Shalin, Myanmar). Then he boarded the ship and sailed west in the Indian Ocean. After more than two months, I arrived at Huang Zhiguo (now Kangchepland on the southeast coast of India). After returning home, I went down to Putrajaya (now Sri Lanka) from the south of the Yellow River, and then sailed directly to the east. Eight months later, I arrived in Malacca Strait, anchored in Pizong (now Pisan Island in western Singapore), and finally sailed for more than two months, from Pizong to Xianglin County in Rinan County (Chaqiao is located in the south of Weichuan County in Vietnam).
The Silk Road is a vivid and appropriate name. In the ancient world, only China was the first country to grow mulberry, raise silkworms and produce silk products. Archaeological discoveries in China in recent years show that silk production technology has developed to a fairly high level from Shang Dynasty to Warring States Period. China's silk products are still one of the most important products that China has dedicated to the people of the world. They spread widely, covering the contribution of China people to world civilization. Therefore, for many years, many researchers have tried to give this road another name, such as the jade road, the gem road, the Buddhist road, the ceramic road and so on. However, all of them can only reflect a certain part of the Silk Road. After all, they cannot replace the name "Silk Road".
The basic trend of the Silk Road was formed in the Han Dynasty around AD. It starts from Chang 'an (Jin 'an), the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, or Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, passes through Longxi or Guyuan westbound to Jincheng (now Lanzhou), then passes through Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang counties in the Hexi Corridor, exits Yumenguan or Yangguan, and passes through Bailongdui to Loulan, Lop Nur. In Han Dynasty, the Western Regions were divided into South Road and North Road, and the two roads diverged in Loulan. To the north, it passes through Quli (now Korla), Qiuci (now Kuqa) and Gu Mo (now Aksu) to Shule (now Kashgar). South Road starts from Shanshan (now Ruoqiang) and passes through Qiemo, Jingjue (now Minfeng Niya Site), Khotan (now Hotan), Pishan and shache to Shule. From Shule to the west, across Congling (now Pamir) to Dawan (now Fergana). From here, we can go west to Daxia (now Afghanistan), Sogdian (now Uzbekistan), Rest in Peace (now Iran), and as far as the plowshare in Daqin (the eastern part of the Roman Empire) (also known as Li Xuan, in Alexandria, Egypt). The other road runs from the southwest of Pishan, crossing the crossing (now Darier, Pakistan), passing through Cobin (now Kabul, Afghanistan) and Wuyishan (now Sistan), and heading southwest to Tiaozhi (now the head of Persian Gulf). If you go south from Bin to India (now Karachi, Pakistan), you can also reach Persia and Rome by sea. This is the basic trunk line of the Silk Road formed after Zhang Qian made two missions to the Western Regions in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In other words, the narrow Silk Road refers to the above-mentioned roads.
The Silk Road in history is not static. With the change of geographical environment and the evolution of political and religious situation, some new roads are constantly opened up, and some roads have changed or even been abandoned. For example, Bailongdui between Dunhuang and Lop Nur is a Ya Dan terrain, which often disorients travelers. In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, the northern Xiongnu on the Mongolian plateau was defeated and forced to move westward. After the Central Plains dynasty firmly occupied Yiwu (now Hami), it opened up a "new road to the north" from Dunhuang to Yiwu. From Yiwu via Gaochang (now Turpan) and Yanqi to Qiuci, it meets the former Silk Road North Road. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the north and the south of China were antagonistic, and the east and the west in the north were also harmonious. Under such circumstances, most of the exchanges between the Southern Dynasties, Song Dynasty, Qi Dynasty, Liang Dynasty and Chen Dynasty and the Western Regions were along the Yangtze River to Yizhou (now Chengdu), then to Longhe (now Songpan) in the north, passing through Tuguhun Capital on the shore of Qinghai Lake, passing through Qaidam Basin to Dunhuang in the west, and meeting with the main road of the Silk Road. Or cross the Altun Mountain Pass to the west, enter the Shanshan area of the Western Region, and meet with Silu South Road. This road is called "Tugu Hundao" or "Henan Road", and today people also call it "Qinghai Road". From the Central Plains or the north of Hexi Corridor to the Mongolian Plateau, then to the northern foot of Tianshan Mountain in the west, across the Ili River to the broken leaves (near tokmak today), and into Central Asia. This road was later called "Beixin Road", which was very prosperous during the Mongol Khanate and the Yuan Dynasty.
Apart from the Silk Road on land, from the Han Dynasty, China people opened a waterway from Guangdong to India. After the Song Dynasty, with the further development of southern China and the shift of the economic center of gravity to the south, the sea routes from Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Hangzhou and other places became increasingly developed, going further and further, from Nanyang to the Arabian Sea and even as far as the east coast of Africa. People call these maritime trade routes "Maritime Silk Road".
Let me put it this way:
The Silk Road refers to the land passage opened by Zhang Qian in the Western Han Dynasty (202 -8 BC) from Chang 'an (Jin 'an) to Central Asia and West Asia via Gansu and Xinjiang, connecting Mediterranean countries (this road is also called "Northwest Silk Road" to distinguish it from the other two traffic routes later named "Silk Road"). Because silk products have the greatest influence on the goods transported to the west, it is named. Its basic trend was set in the Han Dynasty, including three routes: South Road, Middle Road and North Road.
The Silk Road in a broad sense refers to the long-distance commercial, trade and cultural exchange routes that have been formed since ancient times and spread all over Eurasia, even including North Africa and East Africa. In addition to the above routes, it also includes the Maritime Silk Road, which was formed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and played a great role in the late Ming Dynasty, and the Southern Silk Road, which appeared at the same time as the Northwest Silk Road and replaced the Northwest Silk Road as a communication channel on the road at the end of Yuan Dynasty.
The word "die Seidenstrasse" originated from China published by German geographer ferdinand von richthofen in 1877, sometimes referred to as the Silk Road for short.
Although the Silk Road is the product of the economic and trade development promoted by countries along the route, many people think that Zhang Qian in China has opened a new era of Sino-foreign exchanges twice. And successfully opened the last bead curtain between East and West. Since then, this route has been stepped out of the "national highway", and ambassadors and businessmen from all countries have poured in along the road opened by Zhang Qian. From princes and nobles to beggars and prisoners, the most famous is that Ban Chao once again passed through the Western Regions and Xuanzang to learn from India. They all left footprints on this road. This east-west passage closely links the Central Plains and the Western Regions with Arabia and the Persian Gulf. After centuries of continuous efforts, the Silk Road has extended westward to the Mediterranean Sea. Broadly speaking, the eastern section of the Silk Road reached South Korea and Japan, and the western section reached France and the Netherlands. Italy and Egypt can also be reached by sea, becoming the road of friendship for economic and cultural exchanges between Asia, Europe and Africa.
By the Han Dynasty, the famous "Silk Road" had communicated the cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, and China was gradually called the "Silk Country". After entering the Middle Ages, with the export of China porcelain, China became famous as "the country of porcelain". China ceramics have been exported since the end of the 8th century. From the late Tang Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty, it reached its climax. The varieties of ceramics exported at this stage include Tang Sancai, Xing Kiln (including Ding Kiln) White Porcelain, Yue Kiln Celadon, Changsha Kiln Colored Porcelain, and Olive Glazed Celadon (bowls produced by kilns in Guangdong coastal areas and jars used as storage containers). The export regions and countries are: North Korea and Japan in Northeast Asia; Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines in Southeast Asia; Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India in South Asia; Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Oman in West Asia; Egypt in North Africa; Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. At this time, there are two main maritime traffic routes, one is from Yangzhou or Mingzhou (now Ningbo) via North Korea or directly to Japan; The second route is from Guangzhou to Southeast Asian countries, or out of the Straits of Malacca, into the Indian Ocean, and through Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan to the Persian Gulf. At that time, some ships continued to sail westward along the Arabian Peninsula and reached Africa. Porcelain unearthed from medieval sites in Asian and African countries in the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty were transported through these two routes.
The Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties were the second stage of China porcelain export. At this time, the porcelain varieties exported abroad mainly include Longquan celadon, Jingdezhen celadon, blue and white porcelain, underglaze red porcelain, underglaze black porcelain, Jizhou kiln porcelain, Ganzhou kiln porcelain, celadon produced in some kiln sites in Fujian and Guangdong, Jianye kiln black porcelain, Zhejiang Jinhua Tiedian kiln imitation jun glaze porcelain, Cizhou kiln porcelain, Dingyuan kiln porcelain, Yaozhou kiln porcelain and so on. It is particularly worth mentioning that 1 1 times was excavated in the aforementioned sinking of the ship in Xin 'an, North Korea, and more than 20,000 pieces of ceramics were unearthed. Except for a few Korean and Japanese porcelains, they are all produced in China, and most of them have been identified as Yaokou. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, porcelain exports increased greatly, including all countries in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, most countries in South Asia and West Asia, countries on the east coast of Africa and inland Zimbabwe. During the Song, Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, there were mainly routes to Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean routes to the Persian Gulf. During this period, China's achievements in navigation were mainly manifested in the Indian Ocean route. First, you can go west from the Persian Gulf along the coast to Jeddah Port in the Red Sea, and then land in Mecca; You can also go ashore at the port of Ed Hab on the Sudanese border, carry it to the Nile, and then go downstream to Fausta (ancient Cairo); You can also cross the Mande Strait from Hongkoukou to East African countries. The second is to open a route across the Indian Ocean from Malé Port in Maldives to the east coast of Africa.
More than 200 years from the middle and late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty was the golden period of China porcelain export. The exported porcelains are mainly Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain, colored porcelain, Guangdong Shiwan porcelain, Fujian Dehua white porcelain and blue-and-white porcelain, Anxi blue-and-white porcelain and so on. Among them, the more exquisite export porcelain are mostly foreign products, and their shapes and decorations are mostly western colors. Some have family, company, group, city and other patterns painted on the decorative patterns, which are called heraldic porcelain. During this period, there were a large number of exported porcelain, with an annual output of about 200,000 pieces in17th century and a maximum of about one million pieces in18th century. The exporting countries are the Korean Peninsula in East Asia, Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe and America. One transportation route is from China, Fujian and Guangdong coastal ports to Africa, then bypassing the Cape of Good Hope and sailing along the west coast of Africa to western European countries; The other is from Zhangzhou and Xiamen ports in Fujian to Manila in the Philippines, and then across the Pacific Ocean eastward to Acapulco port in Mexico. After landing, it will land, pass through Mexico City to the port of Veracruz on the Atlantic coast, and then the shipowner will go to Western European countries. 17 and 18 centuries, China porcelain was sold all over the world by sea and became a world commodity, which played a positive role in the development of human history.