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Zhang Qian's mission, 138 BC
The overland Silk Road was the great axis of t...
The overland Silk Road was the great axis of trans-continental exchange in antiquity: from Chang'an or Luoyang through the Hexi Corridor, out the Jade Gate, along the two rims of the Tarim Basin, over the Pamirs and through Central Asia to Persia and the Mediterranean — more than seven thousand kilometers binding the Central Plains, the Western Regions, Central Asia and Europe into one. After Zhang Qian 'carved through' the Western Regions the road ran for two millennia: silk and porcelain went west; Buddhism and grapes came east; China's four great inventions reached Europe along it. It was a trade road, a road of religions and technologies, and the first large-scale meeting of civilizations in human history.
The Silk Road began with a failed military embassy. In 138 BC Emperor Wu of Han sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions to seek an alliance against the Xiongnu — he was twice captured and returned after thirteen years, the alliance unfound, but carrying knowledge, goods and friendship from the states of Central Asia. The histories call the journey 'carving through': a hole cut in a closed wall, never sealed again.
In 121 BC Huo Qubing opened the Hexi Corridor and the four commanderies of Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang were founded; in 60 BC the Han established the Protectorate of the Western Regions. A road runs only as far as order along it — the Chinese understood early that globalization presupposes governance.
From Chang'an the road ran west through the Hexi Corridor to Dunhuang, then split: a northern route out the Jade Gate along the northern foot of the Tianshan, a southern route out the Yang Gate along the northern foot of the Kunlun, the two rejoining at Shule (today's Kashgar), over the Pamirs, through Dayuan, Kangju and Parthia to the Roman Mediterranean.
No one walked the whole distance — the Silk Road was run in relay: Chinese silk changed hands among Sogdian merchants, moved through Persian intermediaries to Rome, where silk worn by Caesar was worth its weight in gold. Every station took its margin; every civilization knew only its neighbor — yet goods, ideas and technologies crossed Eurasia, station by station.
More went west than silk: lacquer, porcelain, papermaking, iron-smelting and well-digging traveled the whole line; coming east were grapes, alfalfa, walnuts and carrots — and Buddhism, Nestorianism, Manichaeism and Persian craft. In the murals of Dunhuang, Greek columns, Indian apsaras and Central-Plain robes share one wall: the depth of a road is painted on its walls.
The road bent the course of the world: papermaking passed west after the Battle of Talas in 751 and centuries later helped carry Europe's Renaissance; meanwhile Rome's gold drained east for silk — a senator complained that 'luxury empties Rome.' Encounters between civilizations cut both ways — but the good things always stayed.