The Maritime Silk Road, which originated in the Qin and Han dynasties, was a sea passage for transportation, trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West in ancient times, and had a profound impact on the development of world history and culture. Compared with the land Silk Road, the types of commodities circulating through the Maritime Silk Road are more diverse, in addition to silk, porcelain, tea, incense medicine (also known as spices) and so on are bulk goods, so the ancient Maritime Silk Road has different names such as the Ceramic Road, the Tea Road, and the Aromatic Medicine Road.
Traditional Chinese medicine embodies profound philosophical wisdom and thousands of years of health and wellness concepts and practical experience of the Chinese nation, which is a treasure of ancient Chinese science and the key to opening the treasure house of Chinese civilization. Traditional medicine is an important carrier of excellent traditional culture, and plays an important role in promoting mutual learning between civilizations and safeguarding people's health. Incense medicine is of great significance in the history of the development of traditional Chinese medicine, and is an important commodity on the ancient maritime Silk Road, as well as an important link for cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the rapid development of the Maritime Silk Road enabled a steady stream of incense medicines from Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and other regions to flow into China, and were widely used in seasoning and soup, religious sacrifices, medical and health care, health care, beauty and makeup, interpersonal communication, and cultivation of taste. The import of a large number of incense herbs has supplemented and enriched the content of Chinese materia medica, promoted the development of materia medica and formulae, and played a unique advantage in disease prevention and control. Agarwood, sandalwood, frankincense, myrrh and other more than 100 excellent incense herbs are still widely used in traditional Chinese medicine and have become an inseparable part of traditional Chinese medicine.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has attached great importance to the inheritance and development of China's excellent traditional medicine culture, and has carried out comprehensive planning and systematic deployment for the development of traditional Chinese medicine from the height of national strategy. In order to implement the spirit of the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting the Inheritance, Innovation and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine" and the "Implementation Opinions of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the People's Government of Hainan Province on Promoting the Inheritance, Innovation and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Hainan Free Trade Port", from October 2022 to April 2023, the South China Sea Museum of China (Hainan) and 22 domestic cultural and museum institutions planned and launched a large-scale original theme exhibition of "Sea Medicine and Materia Medica: Aromatic Medicine on the Maritime Silk Road in the Tang and Song Dynasties". Through the perspective of "fragrant medicine", the core connotation of traditional Chinese medicine culture and the internal connection with the excellent traditional Chinese culture are deeply explored, and the traditional Chinese medicine culture is inherited and promoted, and the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit and win-win results is demonstrated through the cultural exchange platform of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
Tang Changsha kiln blue glaze brown green color sailboat pattern holding pot
泉州湾南宋沉船出土木牌、木签
The jade bowl and the frankincense it contains
Northern Song Dynasty gilt silver incense
Northern Song Dynasty gilt silver incense spoon
Northern Song Dynasty Ding kiln white glaze round support five-legged smoker
Southern Song Dynasty chisel flower single-hole silver smoker
This article was edited by Zhou Yun and Zhang Ruiyang from the South China Sea Museum, China, edited "Sea Medicine and Materia Medica: Incense Medicine on the Maritime Silk Road in the Tang and Song Dynasties". The content has been abridged and adjusted.