Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 Bce - 250 Ce PDF
Preview Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 Bce - 250 Ce
Empires of Ancient Eurasia The Silk Roads are the symbol of the interconnectedness of ancient Eurasian civilizations. Using challenging land and maritime routes, merchants and adventurers, diplomats and missionaries, sailors and soldiers, and camels, horses and ships carried their commodities, ideas, languages and pathogens enormous distances across Eurasia. Theresultwasanunderlyingunitythattraveledthelengthoftheroutes and that is preserved to this day, expressed in common technologies, artistic styles, cultures and religions, even disease and immunity pat- terns.Inwordsandimages,CraigBenjaminexplorestheprocessesthat allowedforthecominglingofsomanygoods,ideasanddiseasesaround ageographicalhubdeepincentralEurasia.HearguesthattheFirstSilk RoadsErawasthecatalystforanextraordinaryincreaseinthecomplex- ity of human relationships and collective learning, a complexity that helpeddriveourspeciesinexorablyalongapathtowardmodernity. CraigBenjaminisProfessorofhistoryatGrandValleyStateUniversity inMichigan.Heistheauthorofseveralbooksandnumerouschapters and articles on ancient history, including Volume 4 of the Cambridge HistoryoftheWorld(Cambridge2015).Craighasfilmedprogramsand coursesfortheHistoryChannelandTheGreatCourses.Heisapast President of the World History Association and Vice President of the InternationalBigHistoryAssociation. NewApproachestoAsianHistory ThisdynamicnewseriespublishesbooksonthemilestonesinAsianhistory,those that have come to define particular periods or to mark turning points in the political,culturalandsocialevolutionoftheregion.Thebooksinthisseriesare intended as introductions for students to be used in the classroom. They are writtenbyscholarswhosecredentialsarewellestablishedintheirparticularfields andwhohave,inmanycases,taughtthesubjectacrossanumberofyears. Booksintheseries 1 JudithM.Brown,GlobalSouthAsians:IntroducingtheModernDiaspora 2 DianaLary,China’sRepublic 3 Peter A. Lorge, The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to the Bomb 4 IanTalbotandGurharpalSingh,ThePartitionofIndia 5 Stephen F. Dale, The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals 6 Diana Lary, The Chinese People at War: Human Suffering and Social Transformation,1937–1945 7 SunilS.Amrith,MigrationandDiasporainModernAsia 8 ThomasDavidDuBois,ReligionandtheMakingofModernEastAsia 9 SusanL.Mann,GenderandSexualityinModernChineseHistory 10 TirthankarRoy,IndiaintheWorldEconomy:FromAntiquitytothePresent 11 Robin R. Wang, Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese ThoughtandCulture 12 LiFeng,EarlyChina:ASocialandCulturalHistory 13 DianaLary,China’sCivilWar:ASocialHistory,1945–1949 14 KiriParamore,JapaneseConfucianism:ACulturalHistory 15 RobertPeckham,EpidemicsinModernAsia Empires of Ancient Eurasia The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE–250 CE Craig Benjamin GrandValleyStateUniversity UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107114968 DOI:10.1017/9781316335567 ©CraigBenjamin2018 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2018 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN978-1-107-11496-8Hardback ISBN978-1-107-53543-5Paperback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents ListofFiguresandMaps pageix Introduction 1 NamingtheSilkRoads 3 ConceptualizingtheFirstSilkRoadsEra 6 TheSilkRoadsfromthePerspectiveofBigHistory 6 TheSilkRoadsasaWorldSystemorHumanWeb 9 TheSilkRoadsasanAncientGlobalization 12 Conclusion 14 SelectedFurtherReading 15 1 PastoralNomadsandtheEmpiresoftheSteppe 16 OriginsofPastoralNomadism 16 TheSteppeandPastoralNomadicLifeways 18 BronzeAgePastoralistMigrations 21 EvolutionandDomesticationoftheHorse 25 FlourishingofMilitarizedNomads 29 AncientChina’sPowerfulNomadicNeighbors:TheXiongnu andtheYuezhi 33 MigrationoftheYuezhi 36 Conclusion 40 SelectedFurtherReading 40 2 EarlyChina:PreludetotheSilkRoads 42 Pre-dynasticChina 43 EarlyDynasticChina:XiaandShang(c.2100–1046BCE) 46 ZhouDynasty(1045–221BCE) 50 QinDynasty(221–206BCE) 53 EarlyHanDynasty(206BCE–9CE) 57 Wudiandthe“TriumphofConfucianism”(141–87BCE) 60 Interregnum:The“NewDynasty”(9–23CE) 66 Conclusion 67 SelectedFurtherReading 67 3 ZhangQianandHanExpansionintoCentralAsia 68 ExpeditionofZhangQian 69 TheHeavenlyHorsesofDayuan 72 v vi Contents ZhangQianinBactria 74 ReturntoHanChina 76 SubsequentMissionsofZhangQianandOutbreakofHostilities withtheXiongnu 77 ContinuedHanMilitaryandDiplomaticExpansionintoCentralAsia 80 Campaignsof119–105BCE 80 CampaignstoDayuan:104–102BCE 85 Campaignsof99–59BCE 85 SignificanceoftheMissionofZhangQiantotheSilkRoads 88 Conclusion 89 SelectedFurtherReading 90 4 TheEarlyHanDynastyandtheEasternSilkRoads 91 EarlyChineseMaterialExchangeswithPastoralNomads 93 HanDiplomaticMissionsandtheExportofSilk 94 GeographicalChallengesoftheEasternSilkRoadsRoutesfromChina 98 DeparturefromChang’an,theImperialCapital 100 FromChang’antoDunhuang 103 FromDunhuangtoKashgar 104 RoutesbeyondKashgar 108 RoleoftheSogdians 110 RoleoftheBactrianCamel 112 Silk:TheMajorHanExportCommodity 114 Conclusion 117 SelectedFurtherReading 118 5 TheRomanEmpireandtheWesternSilkRoads 119 RomanExpansion:FromCity-StatetoEmpire 120 PunicWars 121 ExpansionintoAsia 125 PoliticalandSocialUnrestinLateRepublicanRome 125 CivilWars 126 AugustusandthePaxRomana 127 EvidenceofOverlandTradeRoutesfromtheMediterranean 129 ParthianStations 130 EvidencefromPalmyra 133 MarinusofTyreandaJourneytotheStoneTower 137 CulturalDiffusionandAttitudestowardSilkinRome 141 Conclusion 146 SelectedFurtherReading 147 6 TheParthianEmpireandtheSilkRoads 148 AchaemenidPersianEmpire 149 AlexanderofMacedonandtheHellenisticEra 151 ConstructingandAdministeringtheParthianEmpire 155 ParthianExpansiontotheEastandConflictwiththeSaka 157 ParthianExpansiontotheWestandEarlyConflictwiththeRomans 160 Parthian–RomanRelationshipintheFirstandSecondCenturiesCE 162 ParthianRoleinSilkRoadsExchanges 168 SecondandFirstCenturiesbeforetheCommonEra 168 Contents vii FirstandSecondCenturiesoftheCommonEra 170 Conclusion 174 SelectedFurtherReading 175 7 TheKushanEmpire:AttheCrossroadsofAncient Eurasia 176 EvidencefortheKushans 176 YuezhiinNorthernBactria 181 TheEarlyKushans:KujulaKadphisesConstructsanEmpire (c.25–c.85CE) 183 RelationsbetweentheEarlyKushansandtheRomanandHanEmpires 185 TheEarlyKushans:KingsVimaTakh(tu)andVimaKadphises (c.85–c.126CE) 188 TheGreatKushans:KingKanishka(c.127–153CE) 190 KanishkaandReligion 192 GandharanandMathuranArtundertheGreatKushans 193 LastoftheGreatKushans:HuvishkaandVasudeva(c.152–c.225CE) 197 KushansandSogdians 199 TheBegramTreasure:KushansandtheSilkRoads 200 Conclusion 202 SelectedFurtherReading 203 8 MaritimeRoutesoftheFirstSilkRoadsEra 204 GeographyoftheIndianOceanBasin 205 EarlyTradeintheIndianOceanBasin 208 DiscoveryofMonsoonWinds 210 ThePeriplusoftheErythraeanSea 212 RomanInvolvementinIndianOceanTradeduringtheFirstTwo CenturiesCE 213 PrincipalRomanPorts 214 PrincipalRomanExports 216 PrincipalSouthAsianPorts 217 BarygazaandConnectionswiththeKushanEmpire 221 TheMuzirisPapyrusandtheValueofRomanTradewithIndia 224 TheArabianPeninsulaandIndianOceanTrade 226 ThePersianGulfandIndianOceanTrade 228 HanChinaandMaritimeTrade 232 Conclusion 236 SelectedFurtherReading 236 9 CollapseofEmpiresandtheDeclineoftheFirstSilk RoadsEra 238 ImperialDisintegrationacrossEurasia 239 CollapseoftheLaterHanDynasty 239 Chinaduringthe“AgeofDisunity” 241 CollapseoftheKushanEmpire 245 CollapseoftheParthianEmpireandRiseoftheSasanians 249 Romeandthe“CrisisoftheThirdCentury” 254 Reinterpretingthe“CrisisoftheThirdCentury” 257 viii Contents TheSilkRoadsandtheDiffusionofReligions 260 SpreadofBuddhismintoEastAsia 260 SpreadofChristianityintheEasternMediterraneanandCentralAsia 265 SpreadofZoroastrianisminCentralAsia 267 SpreadofManichaeisminCentralandEastAsia 269 SpreadofHinduismintoSoutheastAsia 269 TheSilkRoadsandDiseaseEpidemicsintheSecondand ThirdCenturies 271 AntoninePlague(165–180CE) 272 An“AntoninePlague”inLateHanChina?(151–185CE) 273 PlagueofCyprian(250–270CE) 273 Conclusion 274 SelectedFurtherReading 275 Conclusion 276 Bibliography 284 Index 298 Figures and Maps Figures 1.1 Mongoliansteppenomadsscene:gers(yurts)andgrazing animals page20 1.2 HorsesgrazingontheMongoliansteppe 28 1.3 ModernMongolianarcherwithcompositebowandarrow 31 1.4 TheAmuDaryaflowingthroughtheWakhanCorridorin modernAfghanistan 38 2.1 ShangDynastybronzewinecontainer(pou) 47 2.2 ShangDynastyoracleboneinscription 49 2.3 TerracottawarriorsinthetombofthefirstQinDynasty emperor,ShiHuangdi(reigned220–210BCE) 56 2.4 ModernstatueofEarlyHanDynastyemperorWudi(reigned 141–87BCE) 61 3.1 HanDynastyhorses,carriagesandriders(stoneinscription) 73 3.2 RemainsoftheHanDynastyGreatWallextensioninGansu Province,WesternChina 81 3.3 RemainsoftheHanDynastyfortifiedgateatYumenPass, GansuProvince,China 82 4.1 Bactriancamelsandreligiousfigures,depictedonthewallsofa caveatMogao,nearDunhuang,GansuProvince,western China 95 4.2 Undergroundqanatirrigationsystem,KermanProvince,Iran 99 4.3 TheTarimBasinandTaklimakanDesertfromspace,withthe snow-coveredTienShanMountainstothenorth,theKunlun MassiftothesouthandthePamirstothewest 106 4.4 RemainsoftheancientSilkRoadstownofJiaohe,locatedon thenorthernroutethroughtheTarimBasin,Xinjiang Province,China 107 4.5 TheM41(“PamirHighway”)justbelowthe4,655-meter-high Ak-BaitalPassinthePamirMountains,modernTajikistan 109 ix
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