Exporting Chinese Culture via the Silk Road
The West's first knowledge of China came from the silk exported via the Silk Road. During the Tang Dynasty, innovations in weaving and decorative techniques propelled China's silk industry to new heights. The Ming Dynasty continued the Tang tradition of producing a wide range of luxurious silk items. Chinese silk was highly prized around the world, particularly in the West, for its exquisite quality.
As early as the First century BC, the Roman poet Virgil extolled Chinese silk as "More beautiful than fresh flowers, more delicate than woven cobwebs." With the continued export of silk products, Westerners became more familiar not only with Chinese silk, but with China as well. Chinese silk gradually became the most profitable and widely distributed export commodity of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to silk, distinctively Chinese products such as porcelain and lacquer ware became highly sought after throughout the West.
Introduction of Foreign Culture via the Silk Road
A number of plants and local products common in China today actually originated outside of China. Ancient Chinese records frequently use the term hu, originally used to describe the non-Chinese tribes of the northwestern frontier, in plant names. Examples are hutao (walnut), hugua (cucumber), hucong (onion), hujiao (black pepper), and huluobo (carrot), as well as xigua (western melon, or watermelon), almost all of which originated to the west of China.
Starting during the early Han Dynasty, not only plants were transplanted to China. Roman glassware, as well as dance, music, and acrobatics from the Western Regions, are also among the many imports that entered China via the Silk Road. From the Wei-Jin period (221-420 AD) through the Sui-Tang period (581-907 AD), numerous merchants from Anxi (Parthia, present-day Iran) settled in China, bringing with them the dance, cuisine, and apparel of Central and West Asia. The opening and continued use of the Silk Road has been instrumental to both material and cultural exchange between East and West.
Religion and Art along the Silk Road
With the development of commercial trade between East and West, the influence of these two great civilizations on each other steadily increased. The Silk Road served as a conduit for the exchange not only of material goods, but also a wide range of brilliant cultural achievements. Buddhism, one of the three great religions of the world, was first introduced to China from India via the Silk Road during the later years of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-8 AD).
By the time of the Sui-Tang period (581-907 AD), Buddhism was firmly established in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people, and a number of distinctively Chinese Buddhist schools of thought had emerged. Today, famous Buddhist temples and grottoes can be seen throughout China, reflecting the influence and legacy of Buddhism in China. Surviving Buddhist grottoes in the area of the Silk Road are of particular significance. Famous sites such as the Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang, the Yulin Grottoes at Anxi, Mt. Tianshui's Maiji Grottoes, the Yungong Grottoes at Datong, and the Longmen Grottoes at Luoyang all represent the merging of Eastern and Indian art forms and Buddhist spirituality. These artifacts attest to the process of cultural exchange and assimilation that took place along the Silk Road. The dissemination of Buddhism in China had deep and far-ranging effects on Chinese culture and spiritual life, opening the door for foreign cultural influences to enter China.
The Silk Road, both overland and maritime roads, was a trade road connecting the east and the west in the ancient times. Moreover, it served to be a road of exchange in politics, economics and culture. It is through the Silk Road that the old Chinese civilization got to be known to the world and the outside world came to understand ancient Chinese life.
