The Demise of Silk on the Silk Road: Textiles as Money at Dunhuang from the Late Eighth Century to the Thirteenth Century

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC TROMBERT
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Accounting Report ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Silk Road

The extensive documentary evidence collected and analysed in the previous studies in this issue suggest a preliminary conclusion that can be summarised as follows: from the collapse of the Han dynasty to the glorious days of the Tang dynasty, the peoples living in the Western Regions along the Silk Road used multiple co-existing forms of money – grain, cloth and coins – with one of these three items becoming predominant according to changes in political and/or economic circumstances. However, this multicurrency system did not outlive the political, economic and fiscal upheavals that shook the Tang empire from the mid-eighth century onwards. As far as the materials from Turfan and Dunhuang are concerned, the latest evidence for this monetary system is provided by a manuscript found at Dunhuang (P 3348 V°), already quoted in Arakawa Masaharu's article, which permits us to see how such a complex monetary system worked in real life once the silk shipped by the Tang government arrived in the Western Regions. In particular, a subsidiary account (P 3348 V°2 B) inscribed in this accounting report reveals how a local official called Li Jingyu 李景玉, who was vice-commissioner in the army stationed in that region, received his salary for the first semester of the year 745 ce.

scholarly journals Textual Research on Henna Art Introduced into Ancient China Through the Silk Road

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Xue Yang ◽  
Yu Liu
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Ancient China ◽  
Chinese Traditional Culture ◽  
Jin Dynasty ◽  
Mixed Use ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Textual Research ◽  
The Silk Road

Since ancient Egypt, henna has been widely used as dyes for women’s henna body art. Through the Silk Road, China assimilated cultures of its Western Regions, India, and Persia, such as the henna art. In Ancient China the "garden balsam" is always called "henna". Nevertheless, they belong to two different kinds of flowers. Folks’ mixed use of these two kinds of flower names reflects the profound impact of the henna art on Chinese traditional culture of decorative nails. This textual research results revealed that in ancient China the customs of dye red nails are affected by foreign henna art and there were three development stages: the introduction period (from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty), the development period (in the Song-Yuan Dynasty) and the popularity period (in the Ming-Qing Dynasty).

scholarly journals Introduction

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-163
Author(s):  
VALERIE HANSEN ◽  
HELEN WANG
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Financial System ◽  
Credit Cards ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The World ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Silk Road

Most economists and historians today conceive of money in narrow terms – probably because they have grown up in the modern world and are used to our system of coins, paper notes, cheques and credit cards. Although economic historians are generally aware that some earlier societies (in Africa, Scandinavia and elsewhere) used other items as money, they do not usually pay much attention to these examples. Few realise that the government of China, governing an empire of some 60 million people during the Tang dynasty (618–907), implemented a complex financial system that recognised grain, coins and textiles as money. The government received taxes in coin and in kind, produced to specific standards (specific widths and lengths of textiles) that would then be redistributed, being used for official salaries and military expenses among other expenditures. Although some of the surviving evidence comes from the Silk Road sites of Turfan, Dunhuang and Khotan in northwest China (where the dry climate has preserved many documents and some actual examples of tax textiles), this multicurrency system was in use throughout the entire empire during the seventh to tenth centuries. At the time, Tang China was possibly the largest economy in the world, rivalled only by the Abbasid Empire (751–1258).

scholarly journals Technical features of a ninth-century silver vessel of southern China uncovered from Famen Monastery, Shaanxi province

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Panpan Tan ◽  
Junchang Yang ◽  
Xinlai Ren
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Shaanxi Province ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Cu Alloy ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Technical Details ◽  
Technical Features

AbstractSilver art is an important feature of the Tang dynasty in China and the manufacturing center for silver shifted from north to south after the mid-eighth century CE. The typology, stylistics, and iconography of silver vessels from both regions have been studied in detail. However, their technical characteristics have rarely been discussed, in particular, those of the southern ones. The current study presents a non-invasive scientific analysis on a partially-gilded silver box from Jiangnanxidao of Tang (southern China), uncovered from the pagoda crypt of the Famen Monastery, Shaanxi province. The results reveal that the box was made of refined silver from cupellation, and composed of five pieces, brazed together with hard solder. Ag–Cu alloy was identified to braze the ring foot and the box bottom. Brazing, hammering, engraving, repoussé, chasing, punching, and partial fire-gilding were employed to shape and decorate the box. More strikingly, the comparative analysis of technical details between this southern box and the previously reported northern silver vessels demonstrates that the former is more precise. Moreover, the similarities in motif expressions of southern-origin silver vessels after the mid-eighth century CE and northern-origin silver vessels before the mid-eighth century CE reflect the inheritance of decorative style. These differences and inheritance indicate that southern artisans after the mid-eighth century CE inherited the decorative technology of the northern-origin silver vessels before the mid-eighth century CE and developed them to greater perfection. The current study presents novel insights into the silver technology of southern China during the late Tang dynasty.

African Perceptions of Trade Partners: A Ghanaian and Togolese Perspective of Sino-African Relations

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-128
Author(s):  
Akorkor Kehinde Awoonor ◽  
Joseph Ato Forson
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Qualitative Variables ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
National Economies ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Trade Partners

Studies on perception in both development studies and international relations have shown that most nations have mutual perceptions predicated on and influenced by either fact, biases or stereotypes, or a combination of other identifiable qualitative variables. In this study, we explore and demonstrate that African perceptions differ from country to country and are well influenced by factors such as the country of origin, the knowledge base and orientation towards China. The connection between Africa and China is long etched in history (206 bce to 220 ce) evidenced by a series of cultural and trade exchanges between China and Egypt, and long since antiquated in historical records by the Chinese traveller, Du Huan, of the Tang Dynasty. With a combination of primary and secondary data collected via social survey using google forms with questionnaires administered to participants of 10 and 6 tertiary institutions in Ghana and Togo, respectively, and bolstered with documentary evidence, we find that there are no singular overarching African perceptions of China, as the African continent is a 55-state region with diverse conflicting political, economic and sociocultural proclivities. The study further observed that compared to Togolese, more Ghanaians perceive China to be a goodwill partner predicated on its involvement on public health emergencies of international concerns (PHEIC) and influence on national economies through debt reliefs and other form of assistance.

The Tang Empire

2021 ◽  
pp. 380-400
Author(s):  
Mark Edward Lewis
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Interregional Trade ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Labor Service ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

The Tang dynasty reunited continental East Asia using institutions inherited from the nomad-dominated Northern dynasties: state-owned land; exactions of grain, cloth, and labor service levied on notional “average” households; a hereditary “divisional army” concentrated around the capital and professional soldiers at the frontier, cities divided into walled wards with state-administered markets; a hereditary, imperial super-elite; and state-sponsored Buddhism and Daoism. The An Lushan Rebellion in the mid-eighth century eliminated these institutions. In their place emerged the major characteristics of late-imperial China: a fiscal system that assessed actual wealth and taxed trade; a new pattern of state service based on textual, technical, and military expertise measured by examinations; large-scale interregional trade through purely commercial entrepôts and local market towns; the incorporation of China into a multistate East Asian world; and the linkage of continental East Asia into a world economy through oceanic trans-shipment of commodities.

scholarly journals The Political Economics of the New Silk Road

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balázs Sárvári ◽  
Anna Szeidovitz
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World Order ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Sea Transport ◽  
Road Project ◽  
Silk Road Economic Belt ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Trade And Investment ◽  
The Silk Road

AbstractWhat has now been coined the term XXI Century Silk Road had evolved from a speech given by Chinese premier Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan in 2013. It was initially a plan aimed at promoting the bilateral relations of China and its neighbors; however, the initiative had since then traversed the region’s borders and become a global project. This paper examines the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative in light of Chinese-EU relations. It reviews the initiation of the Silk Road Project and focuses on its political economic analysis through investigating the potential routes the Belt can take, the EU-Chinese trade and investment standings as well as the global political context that the increased cooperation and connection is likely to influence. The paper uses the Modern Silk Road concept as an example of China’s foreign policy in the wake of globalization and the emergence of a new multipolar world order. To set the stage we will begin with a political-economic approach of the New Silk Road. Highlighting the possibilities of Chinese high culture, which accommodate global governance, we state that the Modern Silk Road project is one of its materialized forms. The concept of the New Silk Road (together with the Eurasian Union) denies the previous era of corruption and personality cult and indicates a milestone in the development of China, proving that it is already a globally responsible power (Värk, 2015). Even if transport by land is significantly more expensive than transportation by sea, the New Silk Road may have significant advantages: It may take only two weeks, saving potentially a week in shipping time, and diversify China’s dependence on sea transport that could reduce the importance of its regional diplomatic conflicts. Already these aspects show that the purpose of the Modern Silk Road is basically not to explore cost-efficiency but to contribute to the establishment of a new, multipolar world order. The fact that the Modern Silk Road is a supply-driven concept in spite of the historical one underlines this argument. Even if politics dominate, henceforward directing the economic activities, we will nonetheless examine the China-Eastern European relations through the lenses of trade and investment as well. After the initial analysis and description of the Silk Road Economic Belt as a tool of Chinese foreign policy, the paper goes on to examine the potential routes the railway takes from China to Europe. It reviews the trade and investment ties that the two entities share and assesses how this initiative contributes to the rise of Europe and China beside the USA. Lastly, it outlines how various regional and global powers are affected by the renewal of the Silk Road.

The Kingdoms of Nanzhong China's Southwest Border Region Prior to the Eighth Century

T oung Pao ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-286
Author(s):  
John Herman
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Indelible Mark ◽  
Southwest Region ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

AbstractThis article utilizes recent ethno-historical scholarship and archaeological discoveries in southwest China to examine the accuracy of the earliest Chinese historical sources dealing with the peoples and cultures in Nanzhong, the most common name for the southwest region (Yunnan, Guizhou, and southern Sichuan) prior to the Tang dynasty. Archaeology makes clear that Nanzhong was a settled border region with several highly sophisticated and divergent cultures. Early Chinese incursions into Nanzhong left an indelible mark on the peoples living there, but these brief and generally unsuccessful forays also influenced the views of China's elites regarding China's relations with this region. Since at least the Qin and Han, China's scholar-officials considered Nanzhong not only as an inhospitable frontier populated with uncivilized barbarians (manyi), but also as a peripheral part of China where intrepid commanders such as Tang Meng in the second century BCE and Zhuge Liang at the beginning of the third century CE had staked China's claim. This article casts doubt on the historical fiction of a staked claim. Cet article s'appuie sur les recherches ethno-historiques et des découvertes archéologiques récentes pour vérifier l'exactitude des sources chinoises les plus anciennes concernant les peuples et les cultures du Nanzhong, comme était communément appelé le Sud-Ouest (le Yunnan, le Guizhou et le sud du Sichuan) avant la dynastie des Tang. L'archéologie montre à l'évidence que le Nanzhong était une région frontière habitée, siège de plusieurs cultures hautement sophistiquées et différenciées. Si les premières incursions chinoises dans le Nanzhong ont laissé une empreinte indélébile sur les populations locales, ces campagnes brèves et en général infructueuses ont également influencé l'opinion des élites chinoises concernant les relations de la Chine avec le Sud-Ouest. Depuis au moins les Qin et les Han les lettrés-fonctionnaires chinois considéraient le Nanzhong non seulement comme une frontière inhospitalière peuplée de barbares dénués de civilisation (manyi), mais aussi comme un territoire périphérique de la Chine où des généraux intrépides comme Tang Meng au iie siècle avant notre ère et Zhuge Liang au début du iiie siècle de notre ère avaient établi des droits pour la Chine. L'article met en doute cette fiction historique d'un droit établi.

scholarly journals IMPORTANCE OF THE SILK ROAD AND THE SILK ROAD ECONOMIC BELT PROJECT

THE BULLETIN ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 389 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-103
Author(s):  
A.Yu. Baltabayeva ◽  
A. Abubakirova ◽  
А.О. Syzdykova
Keyword(s):  
Silk Road ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Environmental Threats ◽  
Transport Project ◽  
Silk Road Economic Belt ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Transportation Route ◽  
The Silk Road

The interaction of different political, economic, historical and cultural dynamics of societies play an important role in the emergence of civilizations. The interaction of these dynamics with each other was realized by means of transportation due to reasons such as trade, migration, war, diplomacy. Transportation routes have been the most important element that provides the relationship of space between people and societies through the means that have developed in the historical process. The factor that makes the transportation route valuable and lasting depends on its geopolitical and geostrategic position, on ensuring that the societies carry out their social and economic relations safely. In this context, the oldest and most valuable transportation route in human history is the Silk Road, which covers a large geography from Europe to Asia to Asia to Africa, where many ancient civilizations were born. Along with the increase in the importance of energy resources in recent years, the importance of the Silk Road has increased as a result of the growing role of the countries concentrated in the region along the Silk Road in the world economy. On September 7, 2013, Chinese President XI Jinping delivered an important speech at Nazarbayev University in Astana, calling on China and Central Asia to join the creation of a new "silk road Economic belt". According to some researchers, this project covers the European economic zone from China and the Eurasia and Asia-Pacific economy corridor. China's project to revive the Silk Road has emerged as a result of China's economic and political-based regional and global expectations and concerns, rather than being a utopian initiative. In this study, new projects in the revitalization of the Silk Road were evaluated and the Silk Road Economic Belt project was studied. The environmental threats posed to the region by the world's largest transport project, which is being implemented with the participation of 65 countries, were discussed.

The Concept of the Silk Road in the 19th and 20th Centuries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin M. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
String Ensembles ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Silk Road

The concept of the Silk Road first attained prominence in the latter half of the 19th century as part of European attempts to impose economic and political claims upon the lands and peoples of Xinjiang (also known as East Turkestan, Chinese Central Asia, or Chinese Turkestan). These claims were given cultural substance at the turn of the century by a series of expeditions undertaken by Western explorers and archaeologists, who ventured into the deserts of northwestern China in search of Greco-Indian art and antiquities. The study and display of such artifacts were motivated primarily by a desire to highlight the eastward migrations of Indo-European speakers into Central Asia. When these same expeditions began to reveal the presence of ancient Chinese ruins and antiquities as well, Chinese scholars and officials joined their Western counterparts in the field, using the material proceeds of their excavations to construct competing narratives of the westward influence of Chinese civilization. In the decades since the end of World War II, the concept of the Silk Road has come to dominate popular and scholarly associations with the region, monopolizing everything from the advertising of Central Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine to the names of academic monographs and international string ensembles. The elusive and malleable idea of “the Silk Road” has provided an attractive ideological platform over the past 200 years for major political, economic, and cultural actors throughout Eurasia to assert their imagined historical importance across both time and space, often with a highly romanticized gloss. In that sense, it is a purely modern intellectual construct, one that would have been utterly unfamiliar and likely incomprehensible to those historical agents it purports to describe.

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