Download PDF | (East and West_ Culture, Diplomacy and Interactions_ 14) Xinjiang Rong, Imre Galambos (editor) - The Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges Between East and West-Brill (2022).
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Preface
Translated by Sally K. Church China is bordered by ocean on its southern and eastern sides, desert and high mountains to its west, and the Gobi desert and Siberian forests in the north. This geographical setting, so enclosed by its environment, would not seem conducive to contact with the outside world. Surprisingly, however, China did not isolate itself from the rest of humanity, even in ancient times. Instead, there has been contact with other regions of the world via both the land-based and maritime silk routes. Through such extensive connections with the outside world, China has both made contributions to other civilisations and received influences from them. The Silk Road has unquestionably played an important role in the history of cultural interaction between the East and the West. Below I shall discuss briefly, from five perspectives, several questions concerning the study of the Silk Road and East-West cultural exchange that have arisen during the course of my research.
The Silk Road as a Living Road The Silk Road is the name given by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833–1905) to the communications route, primarily based on the silk trade between Han 漢 dynasty China (206 BCE–220 CE), southern and western Central Asia, and India. However, the term “Silk Road” has widened in its connotations and enlarged in scope, as academic studies have delved deeper into the subject in modern times and as progress has been made in archaeological excavation. As a matter of fact, the Silk Road between China and the West existed even before the Han dynasty, nor was it limited only to the exchanges between China and Central and South Asia. It also included Western Asia (i.e. the Middle East and the Caucasus), the Mediterranean world, and the regions connected by the Maritime Silk Road, such as the Korean peninsula, Japan and Southeast Asia. Moreover, silk was not the only trade good that travelled along these routes. Many other items, such as handicrafts, plants, animals, artwork, and even people were carried as commodities along it. Because China’s fine silk products played such an important role in the history of the Silk Road for such a long time, the term “Silk Road” has been adopted to refer to the entire set of ancient exchange routes between the East and the West that originated in China.
Like silk itself, the Silk Roads are perhaps best thought of in the plural, sometimes consisting of single, separate threads of varying lengths, elongating across large distances. Some threads are clear and lucid and others are short and irregular. Sometimes they seem like a vast network spread over a large area, while at other times they appear to weave a splendid, intricate brocade. This is why we cannot look at the Silk Roads with a closed mind. Each era had its own unique set of Silk Roads. During the period from the Han through the Tang 唐 dynasty (618–907), the Silk Roads primarily extended in the direction of the overland route, beginning at Chang’an 長安 or Luoyang 洛陽, passing through the Hexi 河西 corridor and the Tarim basin, crossing the Pamir plateau, and entering into Central Asia, Iran, Arabia and the Mediterranean world.
The maritime routes began on the south-eastern coast of China, crossed the South China Sea, passed through the Melaka (Malacca) Strait, and reached the eastern and western coasts of India. It then proceeded to the Persian Gulf, the Arabian peninsula, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and all the way to the eastern coast of northern Africa. However, the Silk Road was a living road. Because of influences from political, religious, natural and other factors, it took different directions in different historical periods. For example, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties 南北朝 (420–589), the northern part of Central China was occupied by northern nomadic rulers of the Xianbei 鮮卑 people who not only saw the dynasties of South China as their enemies but also frequently fought against their northern neighbour the Rouran Qaghanate 柔然汗國. We have discovered a document from 474–475 among the excavated texts at Turfan 吐魯番 recording that the Gaochang 高昌 kingdom ruled by the Kan 闞 family escorted ambassadors from various regimes outside its borders. From this short text, merely a few lines long, we learn that ambassadors from various places, including the Liu-Song 劉宋 dynasty (420–479) in South China, the Tarim basin states of Yanqi 焉耆 (Karashahr) and Zihe 子合, Wuchang 烏萇 in north-western India, and the Poluomen 婆羅門 state of Central India, had to pass through Gaochang (Turfan) if they wanted to go to the Rouran court on the Mongolian plateau.
This document thus delineates the exchange routes that flourished in the second half of the 5th century, from north to south and east to west. It also tells us that, despite the military chaos of this period, the Silk Road communications routes connecting East Asia, North Asia, Central Asia and even South Asia were still unobstructed.
The relay trade provided some regions along the main route of the Silk Road with significant income, even if they were not totally dependent on it. This was particularly true of the places located in the so-called “Western Regions” 西 域 in the narrow sense of the term, i.e. the Tarim basin and Turfan depression, and especially the oasis kingdoms in these regions. Their cultural prosperity also relied on the spread and mutual permeation of Eastern and Western civilisations. For this reason, these oasis kingdoms expended massive efforts to protect the Silk Road and keep it open; the route had to be convenient for commerce, trade and cultural exchange to take place along the Silk Road, and they hoped to keep it firmly under their own control.2 The great powers along the main routes of the Silk Road also aspired to control this important communications route, which could bring both economic benefit and military advantage. This was true for all the Central Asian regimes, from the Xiongnu 匈奴 in the Han to the Han empire itself, and further to the Rouran, Hephthalites, Turks, the Tang empire, Uighurs and others. After the Tang secured their control of Central China, from the year 640, when they advanced their troops to Gaochang, to the year 658, when they destroyed the Western Turkic Qaghanate 西突厥汗國 (581–658), Chinese emperors held sovereignty over all the kingdoms of the Western Regions and Central Asia until the middle of the 8th century, establishing the protectorates of Anxi 安西 and Beiting 北庭 to control the Western Regions north and south of the Tianshan 天山 mountains. They also extended the communications system of Central China to these regions, establishing post houses and inns in various outposts, and operating the beacon tower alert system to guarantee unhindered movement along the Silk Road.3 The documents excavated in Turfan contain records of commercial travel on these routes, and also record the extensive efforts expended by the most powerful states to maintain and preserve the routes.4 At various times in history, many cities and garrisons along the route took part in maintaining the Silk Road and contributed to cultural communication between East and West. These include such places as Khotan (Yutian 于闐) and Loulan 樓蘭 on the southern Silk Route, Kucha (Qiuci 龜茲), Yanqi and Gaochang on the northern road, and Dunhuang 敦煌 and Wuwei 武威 in the Hexi corridor. Even in Central Chinese regions, such key places as Guyuan 固原, Chang’an and Luoyang played important roles. Some cities that seem remote to us today performed extremely important functions at certain periods in the history of Sino-Western communications. Take, for example, Tongwancheng 統萬城, in Jingbian 靖邊 county in the northern part of modern Shaanxi 陝西 province. In 439, the Northern Wei 北魏 (386–535) forces destroyed the Northern Liang 北涼 dynasty (397–439) in Hexi and fought their way from there to Bogulü 薄骨律 (Lingzhou 靈州) and Xiazhou 夏州 (Tongwancheng), following along the southern edge of the Ordos desert, which was a shortcut to the Northern Wei capital Pingcheng 平城. In this way, Tongwancheng became an important point of exchange and contact between Pingcheng and the Western world.5 Thus the Silk Road was a living road. As long as the Silk Road flourished, the states and cities along it also came to life. The route itself experienced changes according to political and religious fluctuations in different periods. For this reason, the various cities and towns along this route rose to prominent positions during certain periods and played important historical roles.
The Silk Road as a Locus of Dynamic Cultural Exchange The greatest contribution of the Silk Road to human civilisation was to promote contact and establish connections between different states and peoples. It also fostered cultural exchange between East and West. When relations between states and peoples were favourable, there was no obstacle to cultural exchange, either official or private. At times, such relations broke down for political or other reasons, but since culture is dynamic in nature, contact does not completely break down in the face of political standoffs. Cultural elements will find other ways to enter and spread, to come and go. History provides us with many examples of such ups and downs. From the Northern Dynasties period through the Sui 隋 (579–618) and Tang periods, China maintained good relations with the Sasanian Empire of Persia (224–651), and ambassadors were sent back and forth without interruption. Apart from these diplomatic contacts, there were also many other types of cultural exchange, not only on the level of material culture, as in the exchange of gold and silver objects, but also on the intangible, spiritual level. Such religions as Zoroastrianism 祆教, Jingjiao 景教 (Church of the East) and Manichaeism 摩尼教 spread to China via Persia, thereby enriching China’s traditional culture.6 Persian and Chinese cultural elements intermingled during the Tang period, resulting in, for example, Tang craftspeople using Persian patterns to decorate their objects, and imitating their gold and silver vessels in their manufactures. These new ideas spread from Chang’an to Silla 新羅 and Japan. The extent of cultural exchange that took place often exceeds our imagination. We frequently think of the great feat accomplished by Zheng He 鄭和 (1371–ca. 1433) on his maritime expeditions (1405–1433) in the Ming 明 dynasty (1368–1644), but we should not forget that there was another “Zheng He” in the Tang period, named Yang Liangyao 楊良瑤 (736–806). In the first year of the Zhenyuan 貞元 reign period (785) Emperor Dezong 德宗 (r. 779–805) appointed Yang as ambassador to the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258). Departing from Guangzhou 廣州, he travelled on the maritime Silk Route, and in three years (785–788) he completed his political mission of allying with the Arabs to isolate the Tibetans (Tubo 吐蕃) before returning to the Tang court. A more important result of Yang’s ambassadorial mission was that he brought back a work of great value to the Tang court: a complete navigation diary of the maritime Silk Road. This diary must have been Jia Dan’s 賈耽 (730–805) Huang hua sida ji 皇華四達記 (Record of Imperial China’s Four Reaches), a record of the route Yang took from Guangzhou to Fuda 縛達 (Baghdad). The collection of Islamic style glass vessels deposited in the underground chamber of the Famen Monastery 法門寺 during the late Tang was probably also connected with Yang Liangyao’s embassy to the Arabs.7 The reason why Yang Liangyao took the maritime route on his embassy to the Arabs is that the Tibetans had taken advantage of the disorder following the An Lushan 安祿山 rebellion (755–763). They had attacked and occupied the Tang territories in Hexi, and advanced troops toward the Western Regions. This military conflict between Tibetan and Tang forces made it difficult for diplomatic envoys like Yang Liangyao to take the overland Silk Route to the West. In the past, it has been commonly recognised in academic circles that after the monk Wukong 悟空 (b. 730) returned to Chang’an from India in the 6th year of the Zhenyuan reign period (790), contacts between China and India were completely blocked. During the late Tang and Five Dynasties 五代 periods (907–960), there are no records of contact or exchange on the north-western land route due to military activity in the region. Actually, much of the history has never been recorded in the transmitted literature, but we can learn about them from texts that have emerged in archaeological excavations. The Chinese and Tibetan texts discovered in Dunhuang tell us that through the late Tang and Five Dynasties periods and the beginning of the Song 宋 dynasty (960–1279), there was no interruption in the transit of monks to and from India, nor in the transmission of texts into China, as well as other Buddhist cultural exchanges. Because the Tibetan Kingdom was also an area of Buddhist prevalence, these monks were unobstructed in their activities. They continued to carry out missions of cultural exchange, travelling back and forth on the overland Silk Road.8 The cultural dynamic was so strong that exchanges occurred not only between China and the West, but also with the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago in the east, via the Maritime Silk Road. Thanks to the superb collections in the Shōsōin in Nara, Japan, and in the ancient temples in Korea and Japan, objects of exchange have been preserved in large quantities. There are many examples of this. We also continue to find further confirmation of such exchanges from extant historical sources as well as newly discovered stone inscriptions .
The Spread of Chinese Culture to the West Cultural exchange on the Silk Road therefore faces in two directions. However, because of their distinct academic training and background, Chinese scholars tend to concentrate on the foreign cultural elements that have come into China. I have spent years investigating and collecting the materials excavated in the Western Regions, in an effort to explore the reification of spiritual culture – the spread of the Chinese classics to the Western Regions is one important aspect of Silk Road studies that has been somewhat neglected in former scholarship. When Tang power extended into the Western Regions, the Buddhist monastic systems in existence there also became sinicised. As far away as the archaeological site of Suiye 碎葉 (Suyab, near Tokmok) at Ak-beshim in present-day Kyrgyzstan, the Dayun Monastery 大雲寺 was constructed by imperial edict at the time of Empress Wu Zetian 武則天 (r. 690–705).10 Some of the leaders of monasteries in the Western Regions even came from the large monasteries of Chang’an.11 Along with them came the Chinese translations of the Buddhist texts. At that time, the Da bore boluomiduo jing大般若波羅蜜多經 (Great Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom), Jingang bore boluomi jing 金剛般若波羅蜜經 (Diamond Sutra), Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經 (Lotus Garland Sutra of the Wondrous Dharma), Daban niepan jing 大般涅槃經 (Great Parinirvāṇa Sutra), and Weimojie suoshuo jing 維摩詰所說經 (Sutra Spoken by Vimalakīrti), which were popular in Central China, also circulated in the Western Regions. Even some of the texts of Chan 禪 Buddhism, such as the Shenhui yulu 神會語錄 (Recorded Sayings of Shenhui) from Central China, and some Chinese apocryphal scriptures were also transmitted to the distant Western Regions. Such representative Confucian texts, like the Shangshu Zhengyi尚書正義 (Orthodox Meanings of the Book of History), Jingdian shiwen 經典釋文 (Explanations of the Classics), Qieyun 切韻 (The Rhymes), the Daoist text Liuzi 劉子 (Master Liu), and the historical works Shiji 史記 (Records of the Grand Historian) and Hanshu 漢書 (History of the Former Han Dynasty) also spread to the desert oases.12 Tang Chinese calligraphy model books for students with Wang Xizhi’s 王羲之 (ca. 303–361) “Lanting xu” 蘭亭序 (Preface to the Orchid Pavilion) and “Shang xiang Huang Qi tie” 尚想黃綺帖 (In Admiration of Huang and Qi) were also popular for teaching children in the Western Regions to write Chinese characters.13 Thus we can see the extent to which works of specifically Chinese cultural background spread to the Western Regions. Although so far no documents of the kind found at archaeological sites in Xinjiang 新疆 have been discovered in the even more remote areas of Central Asia or Western Asia, the wall paintings in Samarkand, depicting Tang ambassadors presenting silk, the records in Persian and Arabic sources of Chinese objects and handicrafts coming into their regimes, and the archaeological discoveries of large quantities of porcelain and silk,14 all show how deeply and widely Chinese culture penetrated westward over time.
The Contribution of Material Culture from Abroad In the wake of the large number of new archaeological discoveries, the excavation and publication of grave objects and texts, and the digitisation of existing documents, we now have a much clearer understanding than our predecessors of the spread of material culture and religious beliefs from Central Asia, Western Asia and even Europe eastward along the Silk Road. We have a much richer and more colourful picture of the past, especially concerning the importance of the lively activities of Sogdian merchants on the Silk Road in the Middle Ages. The ancient letters found in the beacon tower of the Great Wall at Dunhuang record information written in the Sogdian language about the trade networks and commercial practices of Sogdian merchants along the Silk Road.15 The scale-fee documents excavated at Turfan from the Gaochang kingdom show that the Sogdian merchants used relay trade to carry out the exchange of valuable products on the Silk Road.16 The excavated grave inscriptions and images of the Sogdian leaders An Jia 安伽 (d. 579) and Shi Jun 史君 (494–579) at the end of the Northern Dynasties period show the conditions of the daily life of the sabao 薩保, leaders of Sogdian merchants, the vessels they used, their songs and dances, and their drinking and banqueting customs.17 This evidence helps us understand more deeply the activities of the Sogdian merchants on the Silk Road, and the Sogdian and Persian culture they brought with them. It also provides first-hand material that helps us assess the scattered excavations of Sogdian and Persian objects and related historical records.18 The Sogdian merchants not only monopolised the overland silk trade of the medieval period, but also used Sasanian silver coins to monopolise the circulation of currency on the Silk Road, which allowed them to control commodities and to set the price of the objects they traded.
In the 9th and 10th centuries, after the Sogdians gradually lost their monopoly on the Silk Road trade, some of the oasis kingdoms and local powers on the Silk Road began to operate the traditional relay trade. From the documents discovered at Dunhuang, we can see that during the Tibetan (786–848) and Guiyijun 歸義軍 (Return to Allegiance Circuit, 851–1036) periods, Khotan, Dunhuang, the Ganzhou 甘州 Uighurs, the Xizhou 西州 Uighurs and other local powers carried out the relay trade between smaller kingdoms using silk from Central China and local products such as Khotanese jade. Records found among the Dunhuang documents show that silk produced in Central China and even in the kingdoms of the Western Regions was, as before, one of the commodities most in demand on the Silk Road.20 Hence “Silk Road” is a fitting name for these trade routes.
The Transmission of the Three Foreign Religions As for the spread of ideas eastward to China along the Silk Road during the HanTang period, Buddhism doubtlessly had the greatest influence. Through the process of reception and absorption, Buddhism gradually became a Chinese religion in its own right. By the Sui and Tang periods, Chinese type Buddhist sects had appeared, in particular, the Chan sect, which is rich in Chinese cultural characteristics. In comparison, the so-called “three foreign religions” also spread to China from Persia and Central Asia via Sogdiana and Tokharistan during this period. These were Zoroastrianism, Jingjiao and Manichaeism, which have even greater research interest. Zoroastrianism was a traditional religious belief among the Iranian people, and came into China with the Sogdian merchants. These merchants established colonial settlements in the cities and garrisons along the Silk Road, and often established Zoroastrian temples where they could worship their god. These temples became centres of their religious beliefs. The Sogdian ancient letters discovered at Dunhuang reveal that by the beginning of the 4th century Zoroastrianism had already spread to the Hexi corridor. Moreover, the colophon of a copy of Jin guangming jing 金光明經 (Golden Light Sutra), discovered in Turfan, proves that as early as 430, in the eastern part of Gaochang there was a Zoroastrian temple where the Zoroastrian god was worshipped.21 Zoroastrianism continued to spread primarily through Hu 胡 (foreign, Iranian) settlements into the mid- and late-Tang periods. The rituals of sacrifice in the Hu settlements of Yingzhou 營州 and Youzhou 幽州 under An Lushan’s rule were not much different from those in the 4th and 5th century Hu communities of Gaochang and Hexi. In contrast to the Zoroastrian form of religious proselytisation, in which the religion was brought in by people with relatively strong ethnic characteristics who accompanied caravans of merchants, Jingjiao and Manichaeism were transmitted by a group of brave, devoted missionaries. After having travelled long distances, these missionaries reached Chang’an and Luoyang in the beginning of the Tang, in the 9th year of the Zhenguan 貞觀 reign period (635) and the first year of the Yanzai 延載 reign period of Empress Wu (694) respectively, these dates thus symbolise the formal introduction of these two religions in China. However, from the point of view of Buddhism and Daoism, which were firmly established in China, both Jingjiao and Manichaeism were so-called “heretical ways”, which should be destroyed.22 Yet the Jingjiao leaders who did well in China came in on a high road, interacting primarily with the upper social strata. By taking advantage of their special skills, astronomical calculations and other technological methods, they were able to plant their feet firmly in Chang’an. Also, because they helped the Northern Army put down the An Lushan rebellion, they were able, after the war was over, to set up the famous “Stele Commemorating the Propagation of the Da Qin Luminous Religion in the Middle Kingdom” 大秦景教流行中國碑 in Chang’an.23 The Manichaeans, on the other hand, used the strategy of relying on Buddhism for their entry into China. They used Buddhist terminology to translate their religious texts, for the most part. However, their philosophy harboured a denial of the material world. For this reason, the only time the official establishment permitted Manichaeism to be transmitted was from the reign of Empress Wu to the Kaiyuan 開元 era (713–741). This was probably because, in the eyes of Empress Wu, the white religious robes of the Manichaean disciples resembled those of the Buddhists who believed in Maitreya, of which she was one. However, when in the 19th year of the Kaiyuan era (731) Emperor Xuanzong 玄宗 (r. 713–756) read the Moni guang fo jiaofa yilüe 摩 尼光佛教法儀略 (Compendium on the True Teachings of Mani, the Buddha of Light), edited and translated by a Manichaean priest, and finally understood the true teachings of Manichaeism, he banned it the following year. The Manichaean faith then went underground. When the Uighur Qaghan came to Luoyang to help the Tang suppress the An Lushan rebellion, the Manichaeans converted him and spread the religion among the Uighurs north of the Gobi, where it became established as the state religion of the Uighur Qaghanate (744–840). In 840, when the Uighur Qaghanate was destroyed, the tribes moved westward to the region east of the Tianshan mountains. Manichaeism also became the state religion of the Xizhou Uighurs who were established subsequently. For this reason we can call Gaochang and its environs the last paradise of the Manichaean religion on earth.24 The Silk Road was a route along which many religions spread. In some of the cities and garrisons along this route, the three religions, in addition to Buddhism and Daoism, all operated parallel to each other. Although today we often see two religions, as in the case of Jerusalem, violently struggling against each other in the same city, in the history of the cities and towns along the Silk Road, different religions occupying the same space often co-existed peacefully, even sometimes merging together, to the point that some of the paintings and texts included the teachings of other religions. We often see this in Buddhist temples in Khotan: the place of honour is occupied by the image of the Buddha, and the thousand buddhas are featured on the right and left sides of the Buddha on the upper register, but below this, local gods are often depicted, some of them very similar to Zoroastrian deities. If any Sogdian merchants travelling through this area came to this place, they would see at one glance their resemblance to Zoroastrian deities. Actually, those deities had long before been included among the many gods of the Buddhist pantheon.25 In fact, throughout history, the norm was for more than one religious culture to operate on the Silk Road at the same time. Above I have briefly discussed, from five perspectives, the contributions made by the Silk Road to the interaction between the civilisations of the East and West, especially the important roles it played in the contact between China and the rest of the world.
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