Cover News Reporter Yan Wenwen, Zhou Qin, Liu Yanjun, Wu Yong
In 2016, Peter Francopan, professor of history at the University of Oxford, published his book The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. The author connects almost all the splendid stories in human history, such as Zhang Qian's passage to the Western Regions, Alexander's crusade, the rise of the Roman Empire, the glory of the Persian Empire, the great discovery of America, the prosperity of Wang Yangming's psychology, and the proposal of the "Belt and Road" initiative.
The beginning of the Silk Road was in Zhang Qian.
In 139 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the Western Regions. In the past 30 years, Zhang Qian has twice made missions to the Western Regions. The Silk Road he pioneered, in the following two thousand years, became one of the most important routes between the East and the West in the world, and each era shines brightly.
Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions in the memorial hall is on the road map
Few people know that Zhang Qian also has a certain relationship with Shu Dao. At Zhang Qian's suggestion, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent a five-way deputy envoy into Southwest Yi, and before arriving in Chengdu, he also walked the Shu Road.
Not only that, even the German geographer Richthofen, who first proposed the concept of the "Silk Road", once entered Sichuan along the Shu Road.
Shu Road is a well-deserved road of foreign exchanges.
Zhang Qian's tomb on the convergence point of Shu Road·
Zhang Qian's tomb
There are many ancient celebrity cemeteries in Hanzhong, there are Cai Lun tombs in Yangxian County, there are Wuhou tombs and Ma Chao tombs under Dingjun Mountain in Mianxian County, and Zhang Qian's tomb is inherent in the city.
Unlike Zhuge Liang's Wuhou Tomb, which has been developed into a full-fledged tourist project, the front of Zhang Qian's tomb is directly opposite the village of Raojiaying, the Chenggu County Museum is to the west, and the rest of the place is a large area of farmland. This typical landscape of villages, paddy fields, and dryland in southern Shaanxi is the resting place of Zhang Qian for 2,000 years.
Walking into the sealed mound of Zhang Qian's tomb, you can smell the aroma of cypress trees from a distance, which is simple and long. According to the old tree plaque hanging from the tree, the age of the ancient cypress here is about 800 years old. In addition to the vigorous cypress trees, there are several stone tablets in front of Zhang Qian's tomb, as well as two Shinto stone beasts. In front of the tombstone, there are also unknown tourists, offering a bouquet of flowers.
Zhang Qian's tombstone and the mound of sealed soil behind it
Zhang Qian's tomb has been stolen and destroyed many times in history, and the remaining cultural relics on the ground are all built by the Qing Dynasty, so whether this sealed mound is Zhang Qian's tomb or not, there has been a debate. But the controversy disappeared in 1938, after an archaeological expedition at the Northwest Associated University.
In 1938, the Northwest Associated University carried out a preliminary excavation of Zhang Qian's tomb, and unearthed cultural relics such as Han Li's "Bowang Mingzao" sealing mud and gray pottery pieces, clay pots, and Han five-baht coins. Zhang Qian was named Marquis of Bowang because of his immortal exploits in the Western Regions, so this piece of sealing mud became direct evidence to determine the identity of the owner of the tomb. In May 1939, the Northwest Associated University engraved the stele of "Adding and Repairing the Road Tablet of the Tomb of Zhang Gonghou of Hanbo Wanghou" in front of the tomb of Zhang Qian, which described the archaeological process and research conclusions at that time.
In 1938, the teachers and students of the Northwest Associated University inspected the old photos of Zhang Qian's tomb
In fact, Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions not only communicated with the Central Asian countries, but also connected the small countries in the western territory of China like pearls with the Silk Road, and countless silks, ceramics, and tea went far along the Silk Road.
Zhang Qian suggested that the five deputy envoys take the Shu Road into the southwest Yi ·
In addition to the Silk Road, in the exhibition hall of Zhang Qian's tomb, there is also a personal introduction to his life. One of them mentions that at Zhang Qian's suggestion, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent a five-way deputy envoy into the southwest of Yi.
Why did Zhang Qian make such a suggestion?
"Bowang Mingzao" mud sealing (according to the official website of the National Museum of China)
"Historical Records: The Biography of Dawan Lie" mentions that "when the minister (Zhang Qian) was in Daxia, he saw Qiong bamboo cane and Shu cloth. The people of Daxia said: The people of Daxia said: The people of Wujia went to the city to poison ......." It is recorded in the "Biography of Southwest Yilie": In the first year of Yuanjia, Zhang Qian, Marquis of Bowang, made Daxia come, and said that when he lived in Daxia, he saw Shu cloth and Qiongzhu cane, and asked where he came, saying "From the southeast body poison country (now India), it can be thousands of miles, and it is Shujia City." ”
It turned out that after Zhang Qian returned from the Western Regions, he reported that he had seen "Shu cloth" and "Qiong bamboo cane" in Daxia. The people of Bactria said that they bought it from the Shu merchants of the Poison (India) country thousands of miles southeast of it. This means that in addition to the road that Zhang Qian walked, there is another road in the southwest of Chang'an, which can also lead to Great Xia.
The stone tiger of Zhang Qian's tomb
As a result, the five-way deputy envoy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty went south along the Shu Road and entered Sichuan, where the Southwest Yi region was developed.
In fact, Shu Road is not only the only way for the Han Dynasty to develop Southwest Yi, but also an important link between the Southern Silk Road and the Northern Silk Road.
As one of the centers of China's brocade industry, Shu brocade is a shining business card. The brocade woven in Shu was transported to Chang'an, the starting point of the Silk Road, through the Shu Road, or directly connected with Zhang Qian's Silk Road through the Wenguan Road and Diepan Road, and sent to the Western Regions or beyond.
The statue of Zhang Qian Memorial Hall
Archaeologists found in the Niya site of the "five stars out of the East to benefit China" brocade armband, most likely Shu brocade. On the back of the fragment of the "Lianzhu Dragon Pattern Brocade" unearthed from the excavation of Tomb No. 226 of Astara in Turpan, there is an inscription in ink pen: "Shuangliu County, Jingyun folded a horse in the first year of Jingyun, and the official book of Shuangliu County in August was Shiyu." It is also the empirical evidence that Shu brocade flows into the Western Regions through the Shu Road and the Silk Road.
The proposer of the Silk Road also walked through the Shu Road·
Although Zhang Qian was a pioneer of the Silk Road, the concept of the Silk Road was proposed by the German geographer Richthofen.
In 1877, the German geographer Richthofen published a book called "China: The Results of His Personal Travels and Research Based on It", in which the German "Silk Road" appeared on page 499. This is the first person who proposed the Silk Road.
Schematic diagram of the relationship between Zhang Qian and Shu Dao
Five years before Richthofen first proposed the "Silk Road", he had also been to Chengdu and took the Shu Road. His evaluation of Shu Dao "It is not a trivial matter to build such a road without gunpowder." ”
When entering Sichuan from Shaanxi, Richthofen also wrote down his impressions of the Golden Bull Road: "We often walk up a kind of limestone paved stairs that have been ground very smooth because of perennial use, and sometimes there are 40-50 steps at once, next to a steep cliff. And amazingly, the cattle passed through these places with great agility. ”
The most difficult part of the journey is undoubtedly the Sword Gate, which, according to Richthofen, is "a gate open in the cliff" and "a city gate is built into this rock-formed gate". He described the cypress trees in the Cuiyun Corridor as being planted on both sides of the Shu Road, and most of the trunks were very old, mottled, curved and very beautiful.
During his more than two months in Sichuan, Richthofen traveled to Guangyuan, Mianyang, Chengdu, Ya'an, Leshan, Yibin and other places. For the natural and cultural customs of the land of abundance more than 140 years ago, Richthofen left many precious records.
He felt at ease in Chengdu: "I've never been so comfortable traveling here, and although I haven't seen foreigners in European clothes in the city, I'm free to wander the streets." After inspecting Dujiangyan, Richthofen praised this famous water conservancy project in ancient China, introduced it to the world in detail for the first time, and said that "the perfection of Dujiangyan irrigation method is unparalleled in the world."
The Silk Road and the Shu Road reflect each other·
In 2014, China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan jointly inscribed the Silk Road: The Road Network of the Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Among the 33 heritage sites included in the heritage, there is the tomb of Zhang Qian associated with Shu Dao.
In fact, the Shu Road also has a number of branch lines to the Gansu section of the Silk Road, including Yinping Road, Qishan Road, Jinggu Road, etc., and the areas that these routes lead to, such as the Maijishan Grottoes in Gansu, which are also listed as heritage sites, are also the places where the Shu Road branch line was once connected.
The year before, the Belt and Road Initiative was first proposed. The "belt" refers to the "Silk Road Economic Belt".
Over the past decade, the Belt and Road Initiative has become an open, inclusive, mutually beneficial and win-win platform for international cooperation and a global public good universally welcomed by the international community.
The completion of the China-Kazakhstan Khorgos International Border Cooperation Center and the China-Kazakhstan Lianyungang Logistics Cooperation Base has opened the door to the Pacific Ocean for Central Asian countries; the Anglian-Papu Railway Tunnel, the longest tunnel in Central Asia built by Chinese enterprises, has been successfully completed, ending the history of local people having to travel over mountains and mountains or bypassing other countries; and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Highway has been officially opened to traffic and has become a major international transport artery that crosses the mountains and is unimpeded.
The Shudao is also expanding its own extension: the cumulative number of "steel camel caravan" China-Europe trains (Chengdu-Chongqing) departing from Chengdu has exceeded 20,000, serving a total of 15,000 enterprises across the country; the number of high-speed railways and expressways in and out of Sichuan has reached 42; Chengdu has become the third city in Chinese mainland to have two international airports after Beijing and Shanghai.
Two thousand years ago, Zhang Qian did his best to "hollow out" and use the two roads, in the new era, with a new mission and new responsibility, in the future will be more brilliant.
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