In ancient China, in the very long history of foreign trade, the land Silk Road was the main route of china's ancient trade development that most people knew. When the Maritime Silk Road was first established, it further enriched the development and exchange of Chinese civilization and its foreign countries.
Ancient Chinese always took the description of the heavens and the earth in the Classic of Mountains and Seas as their own cognition. The Maritime Silk Road gradually extended to the west, gradually breaking the mysterious geographical view of the ancient Chinese. In fact, in many ancient books, there are detailed descriptions of the kingdoms on the other side of the ocean, such as "Wei Luo". Because the ocean is different from the land, many dangerous factors cannot be accurately explored, so the degree of hardship of the Chinese civilization from the ocean at the beginning can also be imagined.
During the Warring States period, Zou Yan, as a yin-yang scholar, proposed his own world geographical imagination of "Great Kyushu". In his view, there are "Kyushu" in the heavens and the earth, and China is one of them, surrounded by the Yinghai Sea. Of course, this was only a hypothesis of Zou Yan at that time, and there was no basis for inquiries beyond the ocean. At that time, in people's minds, the ocean was a truly insurmountable boundary, and the degree of danger far exceeded the lofty mountains, and even exceeded the grasslands and deserts.
However, at the beginning of the Chinese civilization, we can still see the trajectory of people exploring the world from the ocean. In the Neolithic age of Hemudu about 7,000 years ago, the exquisitely carved wood pulp and the canoe-shaped pottery in the red flower set site in Yibin, Hubei Province, proved that people at that time had explored the coastal areas for a short distance. In many ancient tombs in the early days of civilization, sea shells with monetary functions have been unearthed. This shows that in the early days of Chinese civilization, people have already explored this aspect of maritime trade.
In the ancient books, there are also detailed descriptions, which are recorded in the Western Han Dynasty's "Shang Shu Da Biography" and "On Heng": "During the Zhou Dynasty, the envoys who visited from Japan to China offered local rare birds and herbs in Japan. "It has been speculated that the route at that time was roughly from the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula across the sea, passing through the Tsushima Strait, Okijima, and Oshima, and finally arriving at chikuzen Port. This was the route of the ancient Japanese people visiting China at that time, and Chikuzen is now Hokkaido.
In recent years, Japanese archaeologists have also found bronze swords, Ming knife coins, and so on from ancient China in areas where maritime trade was frequent. Different imprints show that from the time when the Chinese civilization first matured, trade on the sea was very prosperous.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, many countries represented by the State of Qi and the State of Chu actively sailed along the coast and offshore areas for various purposes. At that time, the largest naval warships in various countries could accommodate nearly a hundred people, which was enough to see that the navigation capabilities of various countries at that time had begun to take shape.
In the ancient book "Shang Shu Yu Gong", there is a relevant record: the ancients first sailed from the Yellow River into the sea, and then, to the south, passed through the Shandong Peninsula, and then along the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea south. Until the mouth of the Yangtze River, many ports along the way, such as Changli in Hebei, Suzhou in Jiangsu and Guangzhou, are particularly prosperous seaport trade distribution centers.
Moreover, people have long been able to accurately calculate the changes in the marine monsoon and the time suitable for going to sea. Until this time, because the land often caused wars between countries, the routes carrying transportation and trade would always be blocked, and the navigation routes would be more free and convenient, so the maritime trade channels were valued by the rulers.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it was possible to formally open up social relations and trade routes at sea through state behavior. In the early days of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Chinese envoy ships would depart from Ninan, Xuwen, Hepu and other places, and after 5 months of sea voyage, they would come to the present-day Malay Peninsula, and then they would successively reach the ports of Burma and India to complete trade with these countries.
At that time, the most popular among Westerners was Chinese silk. The gold and silk products carried by the mission on board would be exchanged for a large number of pearls and gemstones from these countries. This is also the legend of the "treasure of the sea".
Silk is the most classic representative of Chinese civilization, and it is unique to the world. In the course of China's foreign maritime trade, silk, like land, became the best trade item. Except for North Korea and Japan, which were the first to win the moon near the water tower, Western countries and East Asian countries could not master this exquisite silk production technology.
In 238 AD, the Japanese queen personally visited China, and the Chinese emperor At that time, Emperor Wei Mingdi, in his gifts, Japanese historical facts accurately recorded dozens of fine Chinese silks given by Emperor Wei Ming to the Japanese queen. In the ancient Japanese book "Emperor Yingshen Scroll", it is also highlighted that during the reign of Emperor Inshin, two craftsmen who weave silk in Korea paid tribute to Japan.
Many historical facts show that ancient Chinese textile technology has been admired by the whole world, and thus, China's maritime trade route has been smoothly carried out.
In addition to offering their own specialties and treasures, other countries will also pay tribute to China with some artists who are good at magic along the Maritime Silk Road.
Once, the Roman Empire was called "Great Qin" by the Chinese, and the Maritime Silk Road opened up the exchanges between China and the Roman Empire, and for the first time, the powerful China and Europe were connected through the sea route. Because the Roman Empire has many different places from the Chinese cultural background, customs and local specialties, the trade between the two countries is particularly colorful.
In the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, there are ancient Romans who want to bypass Vietnam and India to trade directly with China in order to obtain profits more than 10 times higher than the original. Pliny, the famous naturalist of ancient Rome, also recorded in the book "Natural History" that the merchants of China and Rome were constantly trading in sapphires, pearls, spices and precious silk products.
At that time, the Maritime Silk Road was quite mature, and the Roman merchant ships could cross the Nile, the Red Sea, cross the Indian Ocean into the southwest Pacific Ocean, and finally, reach Guangzhou. As Chinese's world perspective became wider and wider, the view of heaven and earth described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas was completely broken. During this period, the ancient Chinese were not satisfied with stopping their route in Rome.
When they came to Rome, they chose to further open up to the west, and the envoys to the sea at that time, Such as Zhang Qian and Ban Chao, made the trade exchanges between the two Han Dynasties more prosperous. At the same time, China's large-scale exploration of the outside world has stimulated the development of domestic navigation and shipbuilding technology.
In ancient texts, as well as in the remnants of wooden boats that can be found today, we can find the remains of navigation technology that was already very skilled at that time. Since then, the Maritime Silk Road established by the Han Dynasty has been continuously carrying out trade exchanges. Even during the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, when the war was raging, there was still a large amount of import and export trade.
At that time, most countries still traded various treasures with Chinese silk. Moreover, in foreign countries, many businessmen are also vigorously promoting the wearing of Chinese silk by their own people. In this way, the Silk Road, which was initially just to satisfy the exploration of ancient Chinese civilization, gradually evolved into a state-to-state exchange, and then became an international channel for bulk trade.
Of course, during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Maritime Silk Road also carried the heavy responsibility of communication and exchange between Chinese and Western cultures. At that time, through the Maritime Silk Road, Buddhists from different countries traveled to and from it. So far, many travel notes have been left behind, and today, the Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou, the Southern School of Chinese Buddhism and other Chinese Buddhist classics originate from this period.
In particular, the story of the eastern Jin Dynasty monk Fa Xian illustrates the miracle created by the Chinese Silk Road from the side.
He was a famous monk in the history of Chinese Buddhism, an outstanding Buddhist innovator, the first chinese master to go overseas to learn the scriptures and seek the Dharma, an outstanding traveler and translator.
In the third year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, that is, in 399 AD, the 65-year-old Fa Xian chose to start from Chang'an and travel along the overland Silk Road to India to learn the scriptures, traveled to more than 30 countries, collected a large number of Sanskrit classics, lasted 14 years, and in the ninth year of Yixi, chose to take the waterway and the Silk Road to return to his country. Passing through the outskirts of sri Lanka's capital, people also personally built a dharma cave for dharma to rest, and there are still ruins today. It can be said that the Introduction of Buddhist Culture into China by the Fa Xian had a great influence on Chinese history and culture.
In the subsequent accounts, the elderly Dharma Master could not help but burst into tears when he saw the merchants in the Sri Lankan capital offering themselves with white silk fans made of Chinese specialties.
This also profoundly shows that China at that time had in-depth communication and trade with other countries through the Maritime Silk Road. In his subsequent memoirs, he also clearly recorded that not only did the trade that carried goods at that time, but also from India to Guangzhou, China, there were already large merchant ships that could accommodate 200 people and sail for 50 days.
It can be seen that the Maritime Silk Road in ancient China is not smaller than the overland Silk Road, and even, in the heyday of ancient Chinese trade, the Maritime Silk Road is the most prosperous commercial miracle in the world!
Resources:
["China Maritime Silk Road", "Classic of Mountains and Seas", "Wei Luo", "Shang Shu Da Biography", "On Heng", "Later Han Shu Xiyu Biography"]