The significance of the Silk Road

What does the Silk Road mean to China and the world?

The history of the Silk Road can be traced back to the Han Dynasty in China. At that time, China caravan or western caravan carried a large number of silk goods with camels and mules and horses, and set out from Chang 'an to Dunhuang, the transportation center, where they were filled with drinking water and necessary items, and then passed through Yumenguan, a desert without birds or animals, lush mountains covered with snow all year round, and after a long and difficult journey, they came to Central Asia, West Asia and Europe.

What does the Silk Road mean to China and the world?

First of all, the Silk Road is one of the earliest windows for China and the western world to understand each other.

After the opening of the Silk Road, China's silk products enjoyed a high reputation in Europe, especially in the Roman Empire, which regarded China's silk products as precious items and called China "the country of silk". Caesar, the consul of Rome and China, once appeared in the theater in a silk robe, causing a sensation. Later, wearing China silk robes became the social fashion of the upper class in Rome.

The Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty in China, from 202 BC to 220 AD, were the initial prosperity stages of China feudal society, and they had already created cultural achievements with world influence, such as Confucianism, the Great Wall and the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. At that time, Europe was in the era of Roman Empire, at the peak of slavery society, and the story of Caesar and Octavian and Christianity was recorded in history. China culture has influenced many countries and regions in East Asia, and Roman culture has also influenced Europe and the Mediterranean. At that time, what the two civilized regions of the East and the West lacked was mutual understanding, mutual communication and mutual absorption. Therefore, the Silk Road to China is a very important event in the history of world cultural exchange, which was earlier than the opening of the new air route 1500 years.

The Silk Road brought the prosperity of China's ancient and later long-term foreign exchanges. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Chao sent Gan Ying to Europe when he was in the Western Regions, which provided favorable conditions for the development of Sino-Western exchanges and economic and cultural exchanges. In 66 AD, King An Dun of Qin was sent to China, which became the earliest record of friendly exchanges between China and Europe. After the Tang Dynasty, the communication between China and foreign countries became more prosperous until Zheng He went to the Western Ocean in the early Ming Dynasty.

Secondly, the Silk Road is a channel for the ancient western minorities in China to accept advanced culture and understand the outside world.

The Silk Road in the Western Han Dynasty passed through the Western Regions. The Western Regions in the Western Han Dynasty refers to the west of Yumenguan and Yangguan, including today's Xinjiang. There are many deserts and little arable land here, and people live in an oasis irrigated by rivers. Every oasis is a country. In the Tarim Basin, there are "southern countries" such as Loulan, Qiemo, Yutian and shache in the south, and "northern countries" such as Chejia Yuli, Yanqi, Qiuci, Gu Mo and Shule in the north. At that time, the country was mostly based on oasis, engaged in agriculture or animal husbandry, and social development was mostly in the early stage of slave society. Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions for the second time and visited many western countries. Other countries also sent envoys to Chang 'an. Since then, there have been frequent exchanges between the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions, and the Han people's cast iron, trenching and sinking techniques, silk products and metal tools have spread to the Western Regions, which greatly promoted the economic and cultural development of the Western Regions.

Thirdly, the Silk Road is one of the greatest feats in China's ancient history.

China's ancient world feats include the Great Wall, the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, the Grand Canal and the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, which are universally recognized, and tourists are like boats. Comparatively speaking, the Silk Road can be regarded as a real feat of China, because it shows the foresight of China people in opening up to the world. How far is China from Europe? This can't be measured by "kilometers", because in ancient times, when there was no convenient means of transportation, it was probably measured by "days"; Moreover, to evaluate the value of the Silk Road in China, we should use "perseverance" and "courage" to measure it, because on the Silk Road, natural and social conditions are extremely insecure. It took eleven years for Zhang Qian to go to the Western Regions for the first time. It was not until Xuanzang went to the "Western Heaven" in the Tang Dynasty that he arrived in Tianzhu, India, and he also encountered the "981 difficulty" fabricated by The Journey to the West. Secondly, Europe had no contact with China, and ancient China people didn't know how big the world was. Even in the late Qing Dynasty, under the influence of China's concept, North Korea had a "map of the world", which occupied the whole map with China as the center, surrounded by a circle of sea and another circle of dams. Numerous small rectangular strips in the ocean represent many islands, including Japan and many unknown "lilliputian countries" and "women's countries". Until the Opium War, the emperor of China thought that China was "the kingdom of China" and made many mistakes. However, as early as the Western Han Dynasty about 2000 years before the Opium War, the people of China made a lot of preparations for the opening of the Silk Road.

Fourthly, the Silk Road is the first story that needs to be understood most in the development of western China in modern times.

Today, speeding up the development of the western region is an important strategic decision made by the party and the country at the turn of the century, and it is also a grand strategy for national development in 2 1 century. Looking at the development of the western region from a historical perspective, one of the first tasks is to understand the prosperity and reasons of the western region, the ancient social and economic center of China, and to understand the history of the Silk Road as far back as 2,000 years ago. Understand the history of the Silk Road