The Silk Road had already appeared in the pre-Qin period, and the official opening was during the western Han Wudi period, Zhang Qian's envoy to the western region. After the opening of the Silk Road, it promoted economic, political and cultural exchanges between China and the West, but also a serious technical leak occurred during this opening, and foreign merchants stole a few bamboo sticks from China, resulting in hundreds of billions of losses.
The Silk Road departed from Chang'an City, passing through the Central Asian countries and ending with Rome as its final point. During the Western Han Dynasty, Yangguan and Yumen Pass were west of the Western Regions, and Emperor Wudi of han wanted to communicate with the Western Regions and ordered Zhang Qian to communicate, but Zhang Qian was captured by the Xiongnu for more than ten years, and he received a large amount of information from the Western Regions.
After emperor Wudi of Han sent Huo to defeat the Xiongnu, the Silk Road began to run, but the Xiongnu ordered Loulan and Cheshi and other countries to rob the convoy to the western region, and Emperor Wudi of Han was helpless and sent people to break Loulan and Cheshi one by one.
In the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (105 BC), the Western Han Dynasty married King Wusun and sent people to attack Dawan, and the Silk Road was safe and officially unimpeded from then on.
On the Silk Road, a lot of supplies would be transported, the most important of which was silk. Silk was unique at that time, and in Chinese legend, it was invented by the Yellow Emperor's wife, Changzu, who began to raise silkworms, take silk and weave silk as early as 5,000 years ago. During the Shang Dynasty, silk technology had already reached a certain level. During the Qin and Han dynasties, it was vigorously developed, and the focus of silk production in the Western Han Dynasty was in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
The advantages of silk are too many, it is comfortable to wear, the surface is smooth, and it can also help the body to moisturize. Heat dissipation and warmth are very good, so when silk arrived in the western region from the Silk Road, it was loved by the countries in the western region. The Roman Empire was particularly fond of this kind of comfortable and flowy thing, but it was expensive. The Roman Empire wanted to exchange precious stones, jadeite and other treasures, and their high society at that time was proud to wear silk products.
Such an expensive thing, they will not, China is in a monopoly position. The monopoly time is very long, and the circulation of silk manufacturing and silkworm farming technology is strictly controlled, and it is not allowed to spread to foreign countries. This also became a high-level item that Chinese merchants absolutely could not do in their foreign trade, and then slowly, Korea and India gradually obtained technology, and Rome did not have it.
They didn't know the technology of this kind of thing, and they wanted what they didn't have, not to mention that the price of silk was very expensive at that time. The Romans wanted to have this technology, but China had a monopoly and forbade its circulation to the outside world, so they sent a group of people to China to investigate in the name of exchange and trade. It was a long time before I realized that this was a kind of worm spitting silk, that the bug was a living thing, and that the way out was checked very strictly.
They thought about it and found a way. The middle of the bamboo was empty, and they punched a small hole to put the silkworm in and brought it out, and sure enough, the Romans finally successfully took the silkworm out, which also cost China hundreds of billions. With their own technology, Chinese silk became cheap or even unnecessary. Originally, the Money that the Romans needed a lot of silk to earn every year was gone, and rome existed for enough time to earn hundreds of billions of dollars on silk.
First references: "History", "The Story of the Romans", "Book of Han"