Chinese Studies in History , Volume 53, Issue 3 (2020): Dunhuang on the Silk Road: A Hub of Eurasian Cultural Exchange

Table of Contents:

Article 研究論文

Dunhuang on the Silk Road: A hub of Eurasian cultural exchange—Introduction
Huaiyu Chen  &  Q. Edward Wang
陳懷宇、王晴佳：導論

Mani and the Messiah in the Record of the Dharma-Jewel through the Generations—The origins of Manichean and Nestorian elements in Tibetan texts
Rong Xinjiang

榮新江：《歷代法寶記》中的末曼尼和彌師訶：兼談吐蕃文獻中的摩尼教和景教因素的來歷

A reexamination of the reasons for the closure of the Dunhuang Library Cave
Sha Wutian

沙武田：敦煌藏經洞封閉原因再探

The cult of the Cintāmaṇi: The nature and context of the Dunhuang manuscript P. 4518 (10)
Huaiyu Chen

陳懷宇：摩尼寶珠崇拜：試論敦煌出土P. 4518 (10) 紙本畫頁之性質及其背景

On the development of Buddhist scripture illustration form and function from Dunhuang Buddhist texts and murals
Zheng Acai

鄭阿財：從敦煌佛教文獻、壁畫論佛經繪圖形式與功能之發展

On the origin and presentation of images of traveling Buddhist monks on pilgrimage for sutras with tame tigers in the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes
Zhou Xiaoping

周曉萍：敦煌莫高窟行僧取經伏虎圖像之源起與表現研究

Infractions of moral precepts by monks and nuns in the Buddhist community of Dunhuang during the late-Tang and Five Dynasties period—The case of alcohol drinking
Zheng Binglin  &  Wei Yingchun

鄭炳林、魏迎春：晚唐五代敦煌佛教教團僧尼違戒：以飲酒為中心的探討

シルクロード世界史

Author:
森安孝夫 (Moriyasu Takao)

Publication:
講談社

Publication date:
September 2020

Abstract:
かつて、「歴史」を必要としたのは権力者だった。権力者は自らの支配を正当化するために歴史を書かせた。歴史家は往々にして、権力者に奉仕する者だったのである。しかし、近代歴史学の使命は、権力を監視し、批判することにこそある。近代世界の覇権を握った西洋文明を相対化し、西洋中心史観と中華主義からの脱却を訴える、白熱の世界史講座。近代以前の世界では、中央ユーラシア諸民族の動向が、歴史を動かしていた。騎馬遊牧民はどのように登場し、その機動力と経済力は、いかに周辺諸国家に浸透していったのか。シルクロードのネットワークを媒介とした「前近代世界システム論」とは。ソグド人やウイグル人のキャラバン交易や、キリスト教の最大のライバルだったマニ教の動向などを、ユーラシア各地に残る古文書、石碑の読解から得たオリジナルな研究成果をもとに解明していく。そこから見えてくるのは、あらゆるモノは歴史的所産であり、文化・言語・思想から、政治・経済活動まで、すべては変化し混ざり合って生み出され、純粋な民族文化や普遍的な国家など存在しない、という真実である。さらに、近年日本で発見されて世界的な注目を浴びるマニ教絵画から、日本伝来の史料で明らかになるシルクロードの実像まで。「興亡の世界史」シリーズ最大の話題作『シルクロードと唐帝国』の著者による、待望の書下ろし。

Table of Contents:

序章　世界史を学ぶ理由
　1　歴史を必要とするのは誰か
　2　歴史と権力・権威・宗教
　3　現代歴史学の使命
第一章　ユーラシア世界史の基本構造
　1　人類史の潮流
　2　歴史時代の始まり──農業革命から鉄器革命へ
　3　戦争・交流・グローバル化の時代──騎馬遊牧民の登場から現代まで
第二章　騎馬遊牧民の機動力
　1　馬の家畜化
　2　ユーラシアの民族大移動
第三章　シルクロードの世界システム論
　1　前近代の世界システム
　2　遊牧国家とシルクロード
第四章　ソグドからウイグルへ
　1　宗教の道
　2　ソグドとウイグルの接点
　3　マニ教から仏教へ
第五章　ウイグル=ネットワークの活況
　1　古ウイグル語文書を解読する
　2　キャラヴァンの往来と社会生活
第六章　シルクロードと日本
　1　シルクロードの終着点
　2　マニ教絵画の日本伝来
あとがき

Silk Roads: From Local Realities to Global Narratives

Editors:
Jeffrey D. Lerner & Yaohua Shi

Publication date:
August 2020

Publisher:
Oxbow Books

Abstract:
In recent decades, there has been a new surge of interest in the history and legacies of the Silk Roads both within academic and public discourses. A field of Silk Roads Studies has come into its own. Consciously mirroring the temperament of its subject, the field has moved out of the narrow niches of particular disciplines to become a truly interdisciplinary endeavor. New research findings about the historical operations of the Silk Roads and interpretations of their legacies for the modern and contemporary world have broken down geographical and temporal divides that once demarcated the Silk Roads as primarily pre-modern and Old World-centered conduits of globalization. In light of these developments, the time is ripe to begin formulating a new definition of the contour of Silk Roads Studies and laying a new foundation for further work in this field.

Silk Roads: From Local Realities to Global Narratives brings together leading scholars in multiple disciplines related to Silk Roads studies. It highlights the multiplicity of networks that constituted the Silk Roads, including land and maritime routes, and approaches the Silk Roads from Antiquity to China’s One Belt One Road Initiative from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas. This holistic approach to understanding ancient globalization, exchanges, transformations, and movements - and their continued relevance to the present - is in line with contemporary academic trends toward interdisciplinarity. Indeed, the Silk Roads is such an expansive topic that many approaches to its study must be included to represent accurately its many facets.

The volume emphasizes exchange and transformation along the Silk Roads - moments of acculturation or hybridization that contributed to novel syncretic forms. It highlights the multiplicity of networks that constituted the Silk Roads, including land and maritime routes, and approaches to the Silk Roads from Antiquity to China’s One Belt One Road Initiative from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas.

Table of Contents:
Introduction

Section One: Acculturation and Hybridization
1. The “Birth” of the Silk Road Between Ecological Frontiers and Military Innovation
Nicola Di Cosmo

2. Sogdians in Shanxi (386 CE-618 CE): Literary and Archeological Evidence
Xiaoyan Qi

3. From Exotic Toys to Objects of Scientific Inquiry: A Special Way of Transmitting European Optical Knowledge in the Qing Dynasty
Yunli Shi

4. The Karakorum Highway: Gateway of Empires, Religions, and Commerce
Saba Samee

Section Two: Understanding Spice Through Interdisciplinarity
 5. A TRP Along the Silk Roads: How and Why We Detect and Use Spices
Wayne Silver and Cecil J. Saunders

6. Silk Road Pharmacy: Debating Theriac and Defining the Natural World
Monique O’Connell

7. Spice and Taste in the Culinary World of the Early Modern Mediterranean
Eric Dursteler

Section Three: Tradition as Continuity and Change
8. Devotional Prints and Practice: Woodcuts from the Library Cave at Dunhuang
Bernadine Barnes

9. Dome of Heaven: From the Lantern Ceiling to the Chinese Wooden Dome
Di Luo

10. “Malacca” – From Fabled Port to Muddy Lagoon: A Cautionary Tale of Ecological Disaster
Margaret Sarkissian

11. Twenty-first Century Trading Routes in Mongolia: Changing Pastoral Soundscapes and Lifeways
Jennifer Post

12. Erasing the Local, Celebrating the Local: Tracing the Contradictions of the Silk Road in Pakistan
Chad Haines

Section Four: Cultural Transactions
13. Arsacid Economic Activity on the Silk Road
Touraj Daryaee

14. Pearls and Power: Chōla's Tribute Mission to the Northern Song Court within the Maritime Silk Road Trade Network
James A. Anderson

15. “Flying Cash”: Credit Instruments on the Silk Roads
Dan Du

Section Five: Long-Distance Commodity Trade
16. The Case for Shipwrecked Indians in Germany
Jeffrey D. Lerner

17. Samuel Shaw’s ‘Maritime Silk Road’ from American Independence towards Monopoly, 1784–1794
John A. Ruddiman

[Dissertation] Kingly Exchange: The Silk Road and the East Eurasian World in the Age of Fragmentation (850-1000)

Author:
WEN, Xin

School:
Harvard University

Date Submitted:
2017

Abstract:
This dissertation is a cultural history of travel on the Silk Road in East Eurasia in the ninth and tenth centuries from the vantage point of Dunhuang, an oasis town situated between China proper and Central Asia. Following the near-simultaneous fall of the Tibetan empire, the Uyghur empire, and the Tang empire in the mid-ninth century, the East Eurasian world experienced a long period of political fragmentation. Such political fragmentation, together with the collapse of the extensive Sogdian diasporic network around the same time, is generally considered to have resulted in a relatively inactive period of travels on the Silk Road. In this dissertation, by examining medieval manuscripts in Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Khotanese, and Sogdian discovered in the sealed library-cave in Dunhuang and reading them in the contexts of transmitted Chinese texts produced in China proper, I argue that activities on the East Eurasian Silk Road during this period of political fragmentation not only persisted, but also took on a distinct and non-commercial form.

Informed by anthropological theories on gift exchange and hospitality, I argue that trans-regional travels in my sources were primarily the results of state endeavor: travelers were predominantly described as state envoys rather than private merchants, and that these envoys participated not in economic networks of commodified exchange, but in diplomatic networks of competitive gifting. That is to say, contrary to widespread assumptions about the Silk Road as a busy trading highway, the movements of people and goods in the area under my investigation were motivated primarily by the royal pursuit of glory rather than interest in profit. Political fragmentation and the presence of a much greater number of state entities in East Eurasia in the ninth and tenth centuries only enhanced such pursuit. Through investigating the non-commercial aspect of travel and the mechanism of negotiating social life on the road, I argue that the networks of competitive diplomacy through long-distance personnel and material exchange were as effective as commercial networks in facilitating trans-regional connections on the Silk Road.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Part one – Geography and Diplomacy: Opening the Road

CHAPTER 1: THROUGH BROKEN GEOGRAPHIES: THE RE-CREATION OF
GEOGRAPHICAL INTELLIGIBILITY BETWEEN CHINA AND CENTRAL ASIA

CHAPTER 2: “BY THE ROAD WE BECOME ONE FAMILY”: DIPLOMACY ON THE
SILK ROAD

Part two: Gifts and Guest: Practices of Travel

CHAPTER 3: MOVING GIFTS

CHAPTER 4: WELCOME THE GUEST, PRAISE THE HOST

Part three: Economy and ideology: Results of Travel

CHAPTER 5: RECONSIDERING THE SILK ROAD ECONOMY

CHAPTER 6: KING OF KINGS OF CHINA: HYBRID STATE IDEOLOGY

Conclusion

Silk Roads: Peoples, Cultures, Landscapes

Editor:
Susan Whitfield

List of Contributors:
Peter Sellars, Idriss Abduressul, Alison Aplin Ohta, Warwick Ball, Bérénice Bellina, Arnaud Bertrand, Jonathan M. Bloom, Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud, Robert Bracey, Sonja Brentjes, Ursula Brosseder, Cristina Castillo, Tamara T. Chin, Joe Cribb, Rebecca Darley, T. Daryaee, Sophie Desrosiers, Claire Dillon, K. Durak, John Falconer, Anna Filigenzi, Frantz Grenet, Zsuzsanna Gulácsi, Anne Hedeager Krag, Julian Henderson, Georgina Hermann, B. Hildebrandt, P. P. Ho, Mark Horton, Susan L. Huntington, Karel C. Innemée, Jun Kimura, Elizabeth A. Lambourn, Lewis Lancaster, George Lane, Li Tang, Li Wenying, Xinru Liu, George Manginis, Kate Masia-Radford, James A. Millward, Sergey Miniaev, Noriko Miya, Valentina Mordvintseva, Davit Naskidashvili, Lukas Nickel, Jebrael Nokandeh, Luca M. Olivieri, Mehmet Ölmez, Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, Charles R. Ortloff, Sara Peterson, Marinus Polak, Gethin Rees, Nicolas Revire, W. K. Rienjang, Rong Xinjiang, Eberhard W. Sauer, Nikolaus Schindel, Angela Schottenhammer, Assaad Seif, Eivind Heldaas Seland, Angela Sheng, Nicholas Sims-Williams, Ursula Sims-Williams, Robert N. Spengler, Sarah Stewart, Ingo Strauch, Richard J. A. Talbert, Ilse Timperman, Marina Tolmacheva, Dmitry Voyakin, Rosalind Wade Haddon, Helen Wang, Wang Xudong, Daniel C. Waugh, Peter Webb, Peter Whitfield, Tim Williams, Paul D. Wordsworth, Zhao Feng

Publisher:
October 2019

Publisher:
University of California Press

Abstract:

The Silk Roads continue to capture the imagination of the public, and, in 2014, a section of the land routes was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Yet there was no single "Silk Road." Instead, a complex network of trade routes spanned Afro-Eurasia’s mountains, plains, deserts, and seas. From silk to spices, religion to dance, traffic in goods and ideas was crucial to the development of civilizations through rich cultural interactions and economic activity.

Centered around the dramatic landscapes of the Silk Roads, this beautiful volume honors the great diversity of medieval Afro-Eurasian cultures. Each section—from steppe to desert to ocean—includes maps, a historical and archaeological overview and thematic essays by leading scholars worldwide, as well as sidebars showcasing objects that exemplify the art, archaeology and architecture of the Silk Roads.

Table of Contents:

photo credit:
Silk Road Digressions

Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat

Author:
Robert N. Spengler III

Publisher:
University of California Press

Publication date:
July 2019

Abstract:
The foods we eat have a deep and often surprising past. From almonds and apples to tea and rice, many foods that we consume today have histories that can be traced out of prehistoric Central Asia along the tracks of the Silk Road to kitchens in Europe, America, China, and elsewhere in East Asia. The exchange of goods, ideas, cultural practices, and genes along these ancient routes extends back five thousand years, and organized trade along the Silk Road dates to at least Han Dynasty China in the second century BC. Balancing a broad array of archaeological, botanical, and historical evidence, Fruit from the Sands presents the fascinating story of the origins and spread of agriculture across Inner Asia and into Europe and East Asia. Through the preserved remains of plants found in archaeological sites, Robert N. Spengler III identifies the regions where our most familiar crops were domesticated and follows their routes as people carried them around the world. With vivid examples, Fruit from the Sands explores how the foods we eat have shaped the course of human history and transformed cuisines all over the globe.

Table of Contents:

A Word on Semantics
A Note on Dates
Map of Central Asia

Part i. How the Silk Road influenced the food you eat

1. Introduction
2. Plants on the Silk Road
3. The Silk and Spice Routes

Part i i. Artifacts of the Silk Road in your kitchen

4. The Millets
5. Rice and Other Ancient Grains
6. Barley
7. The Wheats
8. Legumes
9. Grapes and Apples
10. Other Fruits and Nuts
11. Leafy Vegetables, Roots, and Stems
12. Spices, Oils, and Tea

13. Conclusion

Appendix: European Travelers along the Silk Road

Ships of the Silk Road: The Bactrian Camel in Chinese Jade

Author:
Angus Forsyth

Publication date:
December 2018

Publisher:
Philip Wilson Publishers

Abstract:

For hundreds of years the Bactrian camel ploughed a lonely furrow across the vast wilderness of Asia. This bizarre-looking, temperamental yet hardy creature here came into its own as the core goods vehicle, resolutely and reliably transporting to China – over huge and unforgiving distances – fine things from the West while taking treasures out of the Middle Kingdom in return. Where the chariot, wagon and other wheeled conveyances proved useless amidst the shifting desert dunes, the surefooted progress of the camel – archetypal 'ship of the Silk Road' – now reigned supreme. The Bactrian camel was a subject that appealed particularly to Chinese artists because of its association with the exotic trade to mysterious Western lands. In his lavishly illustrated volume, Angus Forsyth explores diverse jade pieces depicting this iconic beast of burden. Almost one hundred separate objects are included, many of which have not been seen in print before. At the same time the author offers the full historical background to his subject. The book will have a strong appeal to collectors and art historians alike.

絲路、遊牧民與唐帝國 (シルクロードと唐帝国)

Author:
森安孝夫  (MORIYASU Takao) 

Translator:
張雅婷

Publication date:
April 2018

Publisher:
八旗文化 (gūsa publishing)

Table of Contents:

序章＿何謂真正的「自虐史觀」？
◎ 本書的目的
被絲路與唐帝國吸引的日本人／現代日本人對歐美的自卑情結／先進的亞洲和落後的歐洲／從「國民史」邁向「全球通史」／歷史學的意義／本書的論述結構與目的
◎ 人種、民族、國民的根據何在？
人種並無優劣之別／民族與國民是近代的產物／土耳其民族的情形／唐代與現代的「回鶻族」／企圖混淆國民與民族／漢族的真相／勝利者的邏輯／何謂真正的愛國者？
◎ 打破西洋中心史觀
近代西歐文明的優越與侷限／理科類歷史學、文科類歷史學、歷史小說／何謂真正的「自虐史觀」／反思日本人的歷史意識

第一章＿絲路與世界史
◎ 從中央歐亞的視角出發
何謂「中央歐亞」？／遊牧騎馬民族的故鄉／北中國和中亞／農牧接壤地帶
◎ 何謂絲路？
絲路的定義與變遷／東西南北的網絡／絲路貿易的本質／壁畫遺跡的涵義
◎ 絲路史觀論爭
抹煞「絲路」的行為／回鶻文書的反證／環境史的視點／在世界史的重要性／歐亞大陸史的時代區分／對強調伊斯蘭化的質疑／對世界史時代區分的新建議

第二章＿粟特人的登場
◎ 絲路的主角
粟特研究小史／粟特人的故鄉──索格底亞那／粟特文字與粟特語
◎ 粟特人的社會與商業
粟特商人的記錄／從書簡看遠距商業／稱價錢文書與史料殘存的偶然性／商業立國的社會構成
◎ 粟特網絡
漢文史料中的粟特人的分辨法／粟特網絡的推測復原
◎ 前進東方
商人與武人的兩面性／在外交、政治上也很活躍／西魏的正式使節──安諾槃陀／虞弘墓出土的衝擊／作為國際通用語的粟特語
◎ 河西走廊的粟特人軍團
河西第一大都市──涼州／粟特人聚落的領導者──薩寶／關於粟特人與唐建國的新學說

第三章＿唐朝的建立與突厥的興亡
◎ 多民族國家──唐帝國
唐朝不是漢族王朝／唐建國的功臣──鮮卑／鄂爾多斯地區的重要性／拓跋國家與突厥第一帝國／突厥的東西分裂／唐草創期的突厥優勢
◎ 太宗擊敗突厥
玄武門之變與太宗即位／唐的優勢與東突厥的歸順／如何處理突厥遺民？／冊封前王族──阿史那思摩
◎ 唐朝的極盛期
天可汗的稱號／從昭陵看北族的影響／漠北漠南的羈縻州與都護府／隋唐的踏足西域／西突厥的一時強盛／唐鼎盛期的西域支配／隋唐是「征服王朝」？

Great Journeys across the Pamir Mountains: A Festschrift in Honor of Zhang Guangda on his Eighty-fifth Birthday

Editors: 
Huaiyu Chen 陳懷宇 and Xinjiang Rong 榮新江

Publication Date: 
24 May 2018

Publisher:
Brill

Abstract:

Drawing upon numerous manuscripts from China and Central Asia, the articles presented in this volume by leading scholars in the field examine a broad range of topics on the multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic communities along the Silk Road in the medieval period, and cover such topics as the social history of Kucha, book history in Dunhuang, the spread of Manichaeism, the political history of Turkic and Khotanese Kingdoms, and the travelogue of the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang. They demonstrate that Han Chinese, Khotanese, Sogdians, Tocharians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs have all contributed to constructing a sophisticated international network across Asia.

Table of Contents:

A Note from the Editors

A Chronological Bibliography of Professor Zhang Guangda

1 On the Word ṣau Found in the Kuchean Secular Documents
Ching Chao-jung 慶昭蓉

2 Dunhuang and Two Revolutions in the History of the Chinese Book
Jean-Pierre Drège

3 Two Fragments of Tocharian B laissez-passers Kept in the Berlin Collection
Ogihara Hirotoshi 荻原裕敏

4 Possible Adaptation of the Book of the Giants in the Manichaean Traité
Ma Xiaohe 馬小鶴

5 The Rouran Qaghanate and the Western Regions during the Second Half of the Fifth Century based on a Chinese Document Newly Found in Turfan
Rong Xinjiang

6 A Sogdian Fragment from Niya
Nicolas Sim-Williams and Bi Bo 畢波

7 On the Chinese Name for the Syr Darya in Xuanzang’s Account of Western Regions
Takata Tokio 高田時雄

8 A New Study on Mouyu Qaghan’s Conversion to Manichaeism
Wang Xiaofu 王小甫

9 Beyond Deciphering: An Overview of Tocharian Studies over the Past Thirty Years
Xu Wenkan 徐文堪

10 Historical Background of the Sevrey Inscription in Mongolia
Yoshida Yutaka 吉田豊

11 “The Annals of the Noble Land Khotan”: A New Translation of a Chapter of rGya bod yig tshang chen mo
Zhu Lishuang

12 Kaniṣka in the Old Turkic Tradition
Peter Zieme

Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE

Author: 
Craig Benjamin

Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press

Publication Date:
April 2018

Abstract:

The Silk Roads are the symbol of the interconnectedness of ancient Eurasian civilizations. Using challenging land and maritime routes, merchants and adventurers, diplomats and missionaries, sailors and soldiers, and camels, horses and ships, carried their commodities, ideas, languages and pathogens enormous distances across Eurasia. The result was an underlying unity that traveled the length of the routes, and which is preserved to this day, expressed in common technologies, artistic styles, cultures and religions, and even disease and immunity patterns. In words and images, Craig Benjamin explores the processes that allowed for the comingling of so many goods, ideas, and diseases around a geographical hub deep in central Eurasia. He argues that the first Silk Roads era was the catalyst for an extraordinary increase in the complexity of human relationships and collective learning, a complexity that helped drive our species inexorably along a path towards modernity.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
1. Pastoral nomads and the empires of the Steppe
2. Early China: prelude to the silk roads
3. Zhang Qian and Han expansion into Central Asia
4. The early Han dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
5. Rome and the Western Silk Roads
6. The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
7. The Kushan Empire: at the crossroads of ancient Eurasia
8. Maritime routes of the first Silk Roads era
9. Collapse of Empires and the decline of the first Silk Roads era
Conclusion.

[Dissertation] First steps to office of the Western Han commandery of Dunhuang (2nd – 1st century BCE)

Author:
Arnaud Bertrand

Defended:
2017

School:
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (CRCAO)

Abstract:

This dissertation centers on the history, archeology and historical geography of Early China. It examines the steps of establishment of the imperial commanderies founded in the vicinity of the Western Han dynasty boundaries (206 BCE– 9 AD). At the turn of the second and the first centuries BCE, the imperial strategical efforts made to stabilize of newly conquered territories passed through a complex system. Starting with the military occupation, it lead to the migration of populations from the center of the empire. Focusing on Dunhuang (Gansu Province)–the westernmost commandery established within the Empire borders–we follow at regional scale those strategies of conquest and occupation. In addition of various fieldwork performed by the author, this research is based on a different approach of the Dynastic Histories, the use of archaeological data and the exploitation of untrodden epigraphic material. By using a new methodology, we have managed to individualize its development within a territory located at the crossroads of commercial and diplomatic highways with the Central-Asian kingdoms and cultures. As a result of its cartography and chronology being put up to date, we have obtained a complete revision of the first steps of organization of the main military and civilian centers of Dunhuang.

Table of Contents:

INTRODUCTION GÉNÉRALE
PARTIE I  LES SOURCES : ENTRE TEXTES ET VESTIGES
PARTIE II  FONDATION DE LA COMMANDERIE DE DUNHUANG
PARTIE III  LE DISTRICT DE YUANQUAN
PARTIE IV  LE DISTRICT DE MINGAN
PARTIE V  LE DISTRICT DE GUANGZHI ET LE DUWEI DE YIHE
PARTIE VI  LE DISTRICT DE XIAOGU 
PARTIE VII  LE DISTRICT DE DUNHUANG
PARTIE VIII  LE DISTRICT DE LONGLE
CONCLUSION GÉNÉRALE

* For more information, see here:
https://www.academia.edu/35970509/First_steps_to_office_of_the_Western_Han_commandery_of_Dunhuang_2nd_1st_century_BCE_

Silk, Slaves, and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road

Author:
Susan Whitfield

Publication Date:
March 2018

Publisher:
University of California Press

Abstract:
Following her bestselling Life Along the Silk Road, Susan Whitfield widens her exploration of the great cultural highway with a new captivating portrait focusing on material things. Silk, Slaves, and Stupas tells the stories of ten very different objects, considering their interaction with the peoples and cultures of the Silk Road—those who made them, carried them, received them, used them, sold them, worshipped them, and, in more recent times, bought them, conserved them, and curated them. From a delicate pair of earrings from a steppe tomb to a massive stupa deep in Central Asia, a hoard of Kushan coins stored in an Ethiopian monastery to a Hellenistic glass bowl from a southern Chinese tomb, and a fragment of Byzantine silk wrapping the bones of a French saint to a Bactrian ewer depicting episodes from the Trojan War, these objects show us something of the cultural diversity and interaction along these trading routes of Afro-Eurasia.

Exploring the labor, tools, materials, and rituals behind these various objects, Whitfield infuses her narrative with delightful details as the objects journey through time, space, and meaning. Silk, Slaves, and Stupas is a lively, visual, and tangible way to understand the Silk Road and the cultural, economic, and technical changes of the late antique and medieval worlds. 

Table of Contents:

A pair of steppe earrings
A hellenistic glass bowl
A hoard of Kushan coins
Amluk Dara Stupa
A Bactrian Ewer
A Khotanese plaque
The Blue Qur'an
A Byzantine hunter silk
A Chinese almana
The unknown slave

Silk: Trade and Exchange along the Silk Roads between Rome and China in Antiquity

Editor:
Berit Hildebrandt

Publisher:
Oxbow Books

Publication Date:
2017

Abstract:

Already in Greek and Roman antiquity a vibrant series of exchange relationships existed between the Mediterranean regions and China, including the Indian subcontinent, along well-defined routes we call the Silk Roads. Among the many goods that found their way from East to West and vice versa were glass, wine spices, metals and precious stones as well as textile raw materials and fabrics of wool and silk, a precious fibre that was highly appreciated in many of the cultures along the roads that were named after it by modern scholars.

These collected papers bring together current historical, philological and archaeological research from different areas and disciplines in order highlight the use, circulation and meaning of silk as a commodity, gift, tribute , booty, and status symbol in varying cultural and chronological contexts between East and West, including technological aspects of silk production. Rome and China in antiquity provide the geographical and chronological frame for this volume (c. from the third century BCE to the fifth century CE), but also earlier and later epochs and cultures in between these empires are considered in order to build and intercultural and diachronic understanding of long-distance relations that involved silk.


Table of Contents:

Preface
Introduction: Silk on the Silk Roads. Exchange between East and West in Antiquity.
Berit Hildebrandt

1. Looking towards the West – how the Chinese viewed the Romans
Liu Xinru

2. Textiles and Trade in South Asia during the Proto-Historic and Early Historic Period
J. Mark Kenoyer

3. Word migration on the Silk Road: the etymology of English silk and its congeners
Adam Hyllested

4. Silk production and trade in the Roman Empire
Berit Hildebrandt

5. Perspectives on the wide world of luxury in later Antiquity: silk and other exotic textiles found in Syria and Egypt
Thelma K. Thomas

6. Decoration, astrology and empire: inscribed silk from Niya in the Taklamakan Desert
Lillian Lan-ying Tseng

7. Domestic, wild or unravelled? A study on tabby, taqueté and jin with spun silk from Yingpan, Xinjiand, thierd-fourth centuries
Zhao Feng

8. Chinese silks that circulated among people north and west: implications for technological exchanges in early times?
Angela Sheng

Dr. Irene Lee Good (April 24 1958 – February 3 2013). An appreciation

Robert E. Murowchick, Angela Sheng and Kaoru Ueda

The Silk Roads of the Northern Tibetan Plateau during the Early Middle Ages (from the Han to Tang Dynasty) : As Reconstructed from Archaeological and Written Sources

Author:
Tong Tao 仝濤

Publisher:
Archaeopress

Publication Year:
2013

Abstract:

The excavation of Tuyuhun-Tubo (Tibetan) elite graves at Dulan 都蘭 and Delingha 德令哈 in the modern province of Qinghai has necessitated a rewriting of the history of the Silk Road of the north-western China, especially during the 5th-8th centuries AD. This work analyses the history and archaeological evidence reflecting the Han Chinese, Tuyuhun and Tibetan domination of the northern Tibetan Plateau, on which the Qinghai Silk Road features. The study focuses on the Tuyuhun-Tubo cemeteries and artefacts, including silks, gold and silver objects, coffin paintings and other significant findings made during the past decades. The result gives fresh insights into the complicated cultural dimensions and interactions along the Silk Road, which contributed greatly to the shaping of the Tibetan culture.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction

2. The natural environment of the northern Tibetan plateau

3. Transport routes on the northern Tibetan plateau as mentioned in Chinese sources

4. Archaeological materials of the Han and Jin periods (3rd century BC-3rd century AD)

5. Archaeological study of sites on the northern Tibetan plateau along the silk road during the early Tuyuhun period (4th-mid 7th century AD)

6. Archaeological study of sites on the northern Tibetan plateau along the silk road during the Tubo period (the later Tuyuhun period, mid 7th-8th century AD) 

7. Conclusions

Between Rome and China: History, Religions and Material Culture of the Silk Road

Editors:
S. N.C. Lieu, G. Mikkelsen

Publication Date:
2016.6

Publisher:
Brepols Publishers

Abstract:

This book contains a key study on sericulture as well as on the conduct of the trade in silk between China and the Roman Near East using archaeological and literary evidence.

The eight studies in this volume by established and emerging scholars range geographically and chronologically from the Greek Kingdom of Bactria of the 2nd century BCE to the Uighur Kingdoms of Karabalgasun in Mongolia and Qočo in Xinjiang of the 8th-9th centuries CE. 

It contains a key study on sericulture as well on the conduct of the trade in silk between China and the Roman Near East using archaeological as well as literary evidence. Other topics covered include Sogdian religious art, the role of Manichaeism as a Silk Road religion par excellence, the enigmatic names for the Roman Empire in Chinese sources and a multi-lingual gazetteer of place- and ethnic names in Pre-Islamic Central Asia which will be an essential reference tool for researchers. The volume also contains an author and title index to all the Silk Road Studies volumes published up to 2014. The broad ranging theme covered by this volume should appeal to a wider public fascinated by the history of the Silk Road and wishing to be informed of the latest state of research. Because of the centrality of the topics covered by this study, the volume could serve as a basic reading text for university courses on the history of the Silk Road.


Table of Contents

1. JOSEF WIESEHÖFER
    Greeks, Iranians and Chinese on the Silk Road                

2. ULRICH HÜBNER
    Palestine, Syria and the Silk Road                          

3. WERNER SUNDERMANN
     Manichaeism on the Silk Road: Its Rise, Flourishing and Decay      

4. THOMAS THILO
    Chang’an – China’s Gateway to the Silk Road   

5. GUNNER MIKKELSEN
    Religious Convergence in Sogdian Funerary Art from Sixth-Century North 
    China          

6. SAMUEL N. C. LIEU
    Da Qin 大秦 and Fulin 拂林 – the Chinese Names for Rome   
  
7. SAMUEL N. C. LIEU  &  GUNNER MIKKELSEN
    Places and Peoples in Central Asia and in the Graeco-Roman 
    Near East – A Multilingual Gazetteer from Select Pre-Islamic Sources             

8. LYNDON A. ARDEN-WONG
    Some Thoughts on Manichaean Architecture and its Application  in the 
    Eastern Uighur Khaganate

シルクロードの来世観 Ancient Afterlife Beliefs along the Silk Road

Editor:
白須淨眞

Publisher:
勉誠出版

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:

「生前中は、皆様より格別なご厚情、ご愛顧をいただき…」という遺族の挨拶に、違和感を持つ人はいない。東アジア世界が、「現世」を「生前」と認識してきたのは、過去世、現世、来世の三世のうち、「来世」に対する尋常でない関心の強さが背景にあるからであろう。そのような観念的虚構世界は、独自の固有性を保ちながらも、多くの共通点とともに、世界各域に数多く見出すことができる。広大なユーラシアの大地を媒体とする巨大な交流総体「シルクロード」が持っている文化交流の蓄積のなかに浮かび上がる、ひとびとの来世観。

Table of Contents:

［総論］
シルクロードの来世観　白須淨眞

［Ⅰ　来世観への敦煌学からのスケール］
シルクロードの敦煌資料が語る中国の来世観　荒見泰史

［Ⅱ　昇天という来世観］
シルクロード古墓壁画の大シンフォニー―四世紀後半期、トゥルファン地域の「来迎・昇天」壁画　白須淨眞

シルクロードの古墓の副葬品に見える「天に昇るための糸」―五～六世紀のトゥルファン古墓の副葬品リストにみえる「攀天糸万万九千丈」　門司尚之

シルクロードの古墓から出土した不思議な木函―四世紀後半期、トゥルファン地域の「昇天アイテム」とその容れ物　白須淨眞

［Ⅲ　現世の延長という来世観］
シルクロード・河西の古墓から出土した木板が語るあの世での結婚―魏晋期、甘粛省高台県古墓出土の「冥婚鎮墓文」　許飛

［Ⅳ　来世へのステイタス］
シルクロードの古墓から出土した偽物の「玉」―五～六世紀のトゥルファン古墓の副葬品リストに見える「玉豚」の現実　大田黒綾奈

［Ⅴ　死後審判があるという来世観］
十世紀敦煌文献に見る死後世界と死後審判―その特徴と流布の背景について　髙井龍

Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity

Editors: 
Victor H. Mair and Jane Hickman

Publisher: 
University Penn Press

Publication Year: 
2014

Abstract:

From the Bronze Age through the Middle Ages, a network of trade and migration routes brought people from across Eurasia into contact. Their commerce included political, social, and artistic ideas, as well as material goods such as metals and textiles. Reconfiguring the Silk Road offers new research on the earliest trade and cultural interactions along these routes, mapping the spread and influence of Silk Road economies and social structures over time. This volume features contributions by renowned scholars uncovering new discoveries related to populations that lived in the Tarim Basin, the advanced state of textile manufacturing in the region, and the diffusion of domesticated grains across Inner Asia. Other chapters include an analysis of the dispersal of languages across the Eurasian Steppe and a detailed examination of the domestication of the horse in the region. Contextualized with a foreword by Colin Renfrew and introduction by Victor Mair, Reconfiguring the Silk Road provides a new assessment of the intercultural evolution along the steppes and beyond.

Table of Contents:

Foreword: the Silk Roads before silk / Colin Renfrew -


Introduction: reconceptualizing the Silk Roads / Victor H. Muir -


At the limits: long-distance trade in the time of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Kings / J.G. Manning -


The Silk Road in late antiquity / Peter Brown -


The northern cemetery: epigone or progenitor of Small River Cemetery no. 5 / Victor H. Muir -


More light on the Xinjiang textiles / Elizabeth Wayland Barber -


Seeds for the soul: ideology and diffusion of domesticated grains across Inner Asia / Michael D. Frachetti -


Horseback riding and Bronze Age pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes / David W. Anthony and Dorcas R. Brown -


Indo-European dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe / J.P. Mallory -


Concluding comments: reconfiguring the Silk Road, or when does the Silk Road emerge and how does it qualitatively change over time? / Philip L. Kohl -


Index.

The Silk Road: A New History 《絲路新史》

Author:
Valerie Hansen

Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Publication Year:
2012

Abstract:

The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different--and far more interesting--as revealed in this new history.

In The Silk Road, Valerie Hansen describes the remarkable archeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes. For centuries, key records remained hidden-sometimes deliberately buried by bureaucrats for safe keeping. But the sands of the Taklamakan Desert have revealed fascinating material, sometimes preserved by illiterate locals who recycled official documents to make insoles for shoes or garments for the dead. Hansen explores seven oases along the road, from Xi'an to Samarkand, where merchants, envoys, pilgrims, and travelers mixed in cosmopolitan communities, tolerant of religions from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. There was no single, continuous road, but a chain of markets that traded between east and west. China and the Roman Empire had very little direct trade. China's main partners were the peoples of modern-day Iran, whose tombs in China reveal much about their Zoroastrian beliefs. Silk was not the most important good on the road; paper, invented in China before Julius Caesar was born, had a bigger impact in Europe, while metals, spices, and glass were just as important as silk. Perhaps most significant of all was the road's transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic motifs.

Table of Contents:

At the crossroads of Central Asia : The Kingdom of Kroraina --

Gateway to the languages of the Silk Road : Kucha and the Caves of Kizil --

Midway between China and Iran : Turfan --

Homeland of the Sogdians, the Silk Road traders : Samarkand and Sogdiana --

The cosmopolitan terminus of the Silk Road : historic Chang'an, modern-day Xi'an --

The time capsule of Silk Road history : The Dunhuang caves --

Entryway into Xinjiang for Buddhism and Islam : Khotan --

Conclusion: The history of the overland routes through Central Asia.