第14课 丝绸之路的开辟

14、丝绸之路的开辟
The route map of the Silk Road
M aterial and cultural life of the states involved, and made significant contri-bution to the progress of civilization in China. Zhang Qian’s missions to the Western Regions successfully opened the Silk Road. It started from Chang’an, along the Hexi corridor, and was divid-ed into the south and north route after it passed the Yumen Pass (or Yang Pass), and converged at Shule (present-day Kashi, Xinjiang). From Shule, across the Pamirs, it diverged again: towards the southwest, it would reach Darouzhi, Anxi, and Daqin; toward the north, it would reach Dawan, Kangju. After the Silk Road was opened, the envoys of the Han Dynasty and mer-chants traveled the road frequently. Large quantities of silk products were transported to the Western Regions along the road. Meanwhile, rare treasures from the Western Regions were imported by the Han Dynasty. The opening of the Silk Road was an important historical milestone. Thanks to the Silk Road, China had frequent economic and cultural exchanges with states in Central, West, and South Asia. Iron tools and silk, along with the techniques of raising silkworms, casting iron, digging channels, and papermaking were introduced to the Western Regions due to the Silk Road. Spanning the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, the Silk Road also helped spread Buddhism to China.
The Maritime Silk Road
During the reign of Emperor Wu, Han sailboats succeeded in opening up a route to the Indian Ocean via the South China Sea, and conducted regular trade with coastal countries. Modern scholars call this route the Maritime Silk Road. Leaving from the coastal port of Guangdong Province, China’s ships sailed to the Indian Ocean f rom the South China Sea via the Malacca Strait in Southeast Asia. Finally, the ships arrived in coastal countries around the Bay of Bengal. The ships had even reached as far as the southern tip of the Indian Peninsula. The opening of this Maritime Silk Road increased the frequency of exchanges between China and countries in Southeast and South Asia, thus establishing the relations between the East and the West via the sea. Anxi (compris-ing present-day Iranian Plateau and the Tigris and Map of the Maritime Silk RoadEuphrates River valleys) was a large country in west Asia with close connections to the Han Dynasty. The Anxi not only conducted trade with the Han Dynasty through the Silk Road, but also transferred silk to Daqin (ancient Rome, now the capital o f modern Italy), making large profits from the switch trading. Liu Xiu Established the Eastern Han Dynasty.The Wester n Han Dynasty de-cli ne d after Emperor Wu’s reign. The ruling class became corr upt and land annexation grew com-mon. Amid this chaos Wang Mang who acted as rege nt, usurped the throne and established the short-lived Xin Dynasty. In AD 184, during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the followers of the Taiping Dao from all regions revolted simultaneously. They wore yellow turbans and called themselves the “Yellow Turban Army.” Zhang Jiao was given the title “General of Heaven,” his disciple Zhang Bao was honored as “Gen-eral of Earth,” while Zhang Bao’s disciple Zhang
Liang held the title “General of Men.” They burned down government palaces, occupied the seats of prefectures, and caused mayhem in the capital. However, the Yellow Turban rebellion was finally curbed and stamped out by the imperial government. They gathered several hundred thousand people in Jizhou, Nanyang, and so on, and inflicted heavy damage to the imperial army, which arrived to squash the revolt. The Han Kingdom had to rely on local forces, and the main force of the army was subjugated after nine months’ fighting, while the rest kept fighting in local areas for over twenty years. The Yellow Turban Uprising impacted the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty heavily, hastening the fall of the Eastern Han regime.。