• Acta Via Serica
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.1-22
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• 2018

The concept of the "Seidenstrassen" (Silk Road) was created by the German geographer F. von Richthofen (1833-1905) in 1877. The "Seidenstrassen" means communication between China and the Roman cultural area. To prove the route of dissemination of silk, Richthofen not only focused on geographical substantiality, based on the routes of the Chinese Zhang Qian and the Roman Ptolemy, but also on etymological, historical, and religious sources. In fact, his Silk Road concept has the trade of silk as well as the humanistic ideas of cultural exchange. It is worth noting that in his book China, Richthofen presented the Silk Road as a space-time concept that considers the length of space as well as the length of time by highlighting humanistic examples that came into modern times through the Sea Route. Later, the English term "Silk Road" appeared in 1938, the Japanese term "シルクロ-ド" (sirukurodo) in 1939, and the Korean term "실크로드" (silkrodeu) in 1952.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.105-117
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• 2016

The Silk Road named by Ferdinand von Richthofen was not designated as a specific route. A lot of East-West trade routes had already existed across the continent and the geographical scope and definition of the Silk Road is still expanding. In particular, the claim that the Eastern end of the Silk Road reaches Gyeongju is an example of this expansion. Burial treasures from tombs on the Korean Peninsula have already been identified as products from the Sassanian Dynasty of Persia, and various archaeological and epical evidences support this finding. However, the specific route where these exchanges were made, around the 6th-8th centuries, has yet to be identified. Maritime as well as inland routes can easily be hypothesized. The Silk Road was largely activated by the Yam postal system with the expansion of the Mongol Empire. It not only served as an effective pathway for the Yuan to rule over the Goryeo, but also connected the Eastern end of the Silk Road to Gyeongju. This can explain the situation since the 13th century. Therefore, this paper claims that the Yeokcham system had been operating on the Korean Peninsula since the Unified Silla Kingdom, the previous period of Goryeo, or perhaps even before then. The Yeokcham should thus be regarded as a prototype of the Mongolian Yam, and the Korean peninsula should be recognized as another route which contributed specifically to the development of the Silk Road, not just as a user or a beneficiary.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.780-791
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• 2013

This paper is concerned with the development of the silk trade and in particular with silk-ikat production. Early origins are explained and issues relating to the development of long-distance trade are discussed. The principal trading participants are identified and the focus is turned to silk-ikat production in Central Asia. It is recognised that the vast bulk of trade, along what became known as the 'Silk Route' (or 'Silk Road'), did not involve straight-forward or direct exchange between powers to the far east of the route and powers to the far west, but rather was done in stages between adjacent or not too distant locations. Diffusion of ideas was not therefore immediate and operational at one eastern or western extreme of a trading network but, rather, was a gradual process influencing adjacent participants, at stages between the geographic extremes over a long period of time.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.23-48
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• 2018

The Silk Road usually implies a network of trade and communications that stretched from east to west and connected China and the countries of the Far East via Central Asia and the Middle East to the eastern Mediterranean, or through the northern coast of the Caspian Sea and the Volga basin to the Black Sea coast. However, at certain historical stages, a network of maritime and overland routes stretching from north to south, commonly called the Volga-Caspian trade route, also played a significant role in international trade and cultural contacts. The geopolitical realities of the early Middle Ages relating to the relationship of Byzantium, the Sassanid Empire, and the West Turkic Khaganate, the advance of the Arab Caliphate to the north, the spread of Islam in the Volga region, the glories and fall of the Khazar State, and the Scandinavian campaigns in the Caucasus, closely intertwined with the history of transport and communications connecting the north and south through the Volga-Caspian route. In a later era, the interests of the Mongolian Uluses, and then the political and economic aspirations of the Ottoman Empire, the Safavid State, and Russia, collided or combined on these routes. The article discusses trade contacts existing between the north and the south in the 15th and first half of the 17th century along the routes on the western coast of the Caspian Sea.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2017.04a
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• pp.153-153
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• 2017

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2016

The Silk Route in ancient times served as a link between the World's greatest civilizations and as a source of knowledge, art, religion and philosophy. This network of ancient caravan paths formed the first bridge between East and West, where two different civilizations came in contact with their respective cultural traditions and religious beliefs, as well as their scientific and technological achievements. One of the main routes of the Great Silk Route passed through the Karakoram, linking Kashgar with Kashmir and the Gandhara regions. The Karakoram Highway connects the Chinese province with Pakistan and follows the ancient Silk Route, which connected the Heartlands of Asia with the Western fringes and further beyond the entire continent of Europe. Evidences of the history of humankind, ranging from Pre-historic times to the spread of Buddhism from South Asia to China and the Far East, is depicted in the rocky cliffs on the waysides and on rough boulders scattered in the upper valley of the Indus River and its tributaries. The ancient trade routes also carried scholars, teachers, missionaries and monks of different beliefs and practices, who met and exchanged ideas. The Buddhists as well as Zoroastrians and other missionaries all followed the Silk Route, leaving permanent footprints of their passage. The ancient greater Gandhara is situated in the North-West of the Indian Sub-continent, with the steep mountain ranges of the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Hindu-Kush bordering it and the dry areas of Central Asia to its rear. A number of races from Central Asia migrated to Gandhara because of its mild climate and plentiful farm products and fruits. This area was an entry point of Western Culture into India and at the same times the exit point of Indian Culture, including Buddhism, to the West. In Gandhara, the diffusion of different cultures developed an art form, during the 1-7th centuries CE commonly known after its geographic name as "Gandhara Art". The Buddhism's route of introduction into China originated in Gandhara, then reached in Korea and Japan and other countries. The fame of Gandhara however, rested on its capital, "Taxila" which was a great centre of learning. From the time of the Achaemenians, down through Muslim period, Gandhara continued to establish and maintain a link between East & West, as shown by material evidences recovered from Taxila and other Buddhist centres of Gandhara during the course of archaeological excavations.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.79-94
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine the descriptions of the transmission of plague along the Silk Road in Orhan Pamuk's 2022 novel Nights of Plague. Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, the first prize for Turkish literature. Pamuk's vast knowledge of epidemiological history, which has long fascinated him, comes to life in this novel as he describes the characters' battles against the plague in the East and West and how the plague was brought to the islands and spread along the Maritime Silk Road. One of the most important trade routes in human history, the Silk Road was not only a link between East and West trade and cultures but also a route for the transmission of bubonic plague during the medieval period onwards. It was this epidemic that contributed to the decline of the Silk Road. In the novel, a plague originating in China strikes the Ottoman coastal cities of Smyrna and Mingheria on its way to Europe via India. The epidemic is contained in Smyrna but the death toll spirals out of control when the plague reaches the island of Mingheria by sea. The spatial setting of the novel is an island, which means that it communicates with the outside world by sea. The only way the plague could have spread to an isolated island was by ship. Rats from different ports and ships would have traveled to other parts of the world or even countries to spread the plague. In Nights of Plague, the fact that the plague reached Mingheria via the maritime Silk Road is also proven by the route of the ships and various narratives. The novel confirms what many scholars have argued, that the Silk Road brought various goods from the East to the Roman Empire, along with deadly diseases, and that the sea routes were an important way for the plague to travel and spread.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.101-120
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• 2023

In March 1245, Pope Innocent IV authorized three missions to the Mongols, seeking information about this menace from the East and summoning Eastern Christian support against an anticipated Mongol onslaught. Only one of the missions, led by John of Plano Carpini, reached Mongolia-the first-known Western European party to reach East Asia by a land route. Traveling along the Silk Road's new "Grasslands Route," John and his companion Benedict reached the camp of Güyüg Khan, where they witnessed his installation as the Great Khan. Upon their return to the papal court in 1247, they delivered Güyüg's letter demanding the submission of the pope and all the West's princes. John also presented a detailed report on what he and Benedict had learned. A close reading of it reveals a master intelligence operative at work. In addition to presenting an overview of Mongol history and culture, Friar John's report provides detailed information on the Mongols' grand strategy, their military organization and armaments, and their battle tactics. Turning from intelligence gathering to military operations, he offered practical advice on how to meet and defeat the coming Mongol onslaught, an attack that, providentially for the West, never came. What did occur was a modest but significant migration of Western missionaries and merchants to East Asia in the century following this pioneering journey.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-64
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• 2017

During the seventeenth century, Amsterdam experienced unprecedented growth and affluence, and the city developed into the world's staple market playing an indispensable role in Silk Road trade. This era, which coincides with post-reformation Dutch society, also allowed artists to produce art works depicting objects from everyday life, moving away from the earlier religious subject matter. This paper intends to look into seventeenth century Dutch paintings from their social setting, especially focusing on the influence of the Silk Road in the art making process. The paper also looks into the Chinese side of Silk Road interaction and discusses how Chinese porcelain reflects cultural influence from the Dutch. The paper incorporates Silk Road as a methodology to discuss art works departing from earlier practices in art history. This approach allows us to understand art as a product of multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural experience. The methodology invites more discussion on numerous art forms which emerged along the Silk Road trading route to expand and explore the history of East-West cultural exchange.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.197-200
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• 2000

In this paper, three parts study Zhangbaogao's reaction on the sea trade on Huang Hai in 8-9 centenary, it includes: 1. Mabe a period about the person's sea trade on Huang Hai. 2. Set up the range of sea trade about Tang. Silla and Japan, which the central was korea Peninsula. 3. Extend the termination of the silk Route at eastern, Link-ups the Huang Hai sea trade and silk Route.