In the history of China, the Silk Road has four routes: Northwest Silk Road, Southwest Silk Road, Maritime Silk Road and Grassland Silk Road.
Author Yao, deputy director of the Institute of Social Culture of Central China Normal University, is an appraiser of China's intangible cultural heritage and a famous scholar.
The Silk Road is the main road for economic, political and cultural exchanges between the East and the West. Its original function was to transport silk produced in ancient China. Therefore, as early as 1870, when the German geographer Ferdinand Richthofen named it "Silk Road", it was widely accepted. 20 14 On June 22nd, the 38th World Heritage Conference held in Doha, Qatar, announced that the Silk Road jointly declared by China and Haji, Chang 'an-Tianshan Corridor Road Network, was successfully declared as a world cultural heritage, becoming the first international cooperation application project and successfully entered the World Heritage List. The reason why the Chinese nation has today's material civilization and today's rich culture is that the cultural exchanges and integration of all ethnic groups along the Silk Road have played an important role to some extent.
In the history of China, the Silk Road has four routes, one is the Northwest Silk Road, the other is the South Silk Road, namely the Southwest Silk Road, and the other is the Maritime Silk Road and the Grassland Silk Road.
Schematic diagram of the Maritime Silk Road in Tang Dynasty
The Northwest Silk Road was formed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It mainly passes through Xi 'an, Dunhuang, Samarkand, Istanbul, Rome and other 0 nodes. Sui and Tang Dynasties were a prosperous period. Intermediary and radiation effects on Istanbul, Xinjiang and Europe. Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties are a period of sustainable development.
The Maritime Silk Road was formed and developed in the Han and Tang Dynasties. Concentrated in Guangzhou, Yantai, Quanzhou, Okinawa, Nara, Bangkok, Malacca and other places. A number of empty nodes were formed, with the Song and Yuan Dynasties as its heyday. Ming and Qing dynasties flourished. Zheng He's voyages to the West and overseas immigrants, China's food civilization represented by tea and porcelain spread to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic coast, especially with Spain, Portugal and other countries. Especially in the Yuan Dynasty, when Kyle Polo returned to Italy, the prosperity of China became a sacred place of civilization that westerners yearned for. At this time, Spain and Portugal wanted to bypass Italy and Turkey and come to China by sea to get more profits. At this time, the cultural exchange between China and Spain entered a prosperous period after the Ming Dynasty.
As early as the pre-Qin period, all ethnic groups took the Chinese nation as the center and carried out cultural exchanges on the land along the Silk Road. It has always been the wish of the people in Northeast China that the grain of the Chinese nation is often supplied to nomadic people in the north and northwest, such as fish, salt, dates and millet in Yan State. Zhang Jian's mission to the Western Regions in Han Dynasty promoted the exchange of Chinese and Western food culture. At the same time, the Maritime Silk Road has also developed. Vegetables and fruits are an important part of diet economy. About half of the more than 65,438+000 kinds of vegetables that are common in the history of China come from China and about half are imported from abroad. Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, some vegetable varieties have been introduced into the Central Plains through the Silk Road and cultural exchanges among various ethnic groups. The vegetables and fruits introduced in this period mainly include alfalfa, rape, spinach, lettuce, cucumber, beans, garlic, coriander, grapes, pomegranate and so on. Like the Maritime Silk Road, it has a long history and has had an important impact on China and the world. This is far more than just spreading silk abroad. With the development of overseas trade, it spread ancient inventions, such as compass, gunpowder, paper making and movable type printing, porcelain, medicine, Chinese herbal medicine and so on. Spread all over the world like silk. At the same time, it also spread foreign food culture and food varieties, such as longan, rice, corn, sweet potato, tobacco, peanuts, potatoes and so on. Go to China. This cultural exchange has promoted the development of Guangdong's food culture. The Maritime Silk Road started from silk and connected ancient civilizations all over the world, which had a great influence on the cultures of all nationalities in the world.
As a port city, Guangzhou's position and role in China's overseas transportation and trade are incomparable to other cities. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Maritime Silk Road rose, and Guangzhou was already a major port. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Silk Road to the Indian Ocean was opened, and Guangzhou's pivotal position in the South China Sea was established. Guangzhou flourished rapidly in the Tang Dynasty and reached its peak. The Song Dynasty also developed. Quanzhou replaced Guangzhou as the main foreign trade port of China in Yuan Dynasty, and the foreign trade center of Ming Dynasty returned to Guangzhou in the middle of Qing Dynasty. Through this route, China's silk, ceramics, tea and other commodities are continuously transported to countries along the route. At the same time, products produced by countries along the route or goods from other countries are transported to China. Therefore, Guangzhou is not only the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, but also the most important port of the Maritime Silk Road. Its position and role on the Silk Road is irreplaceable by other ports.
According to historical records, during the Tang and Song Dynasties, foreigners came to Guangzhou and stayed on the Silk Road along the coast. There are merchants from Dashi, Persia, Tianzhu, Lion Country, Zhenla and Chebulin. It is said that there are more than 65438+ ten thousand people. Some people stayed for decades and never came back. So the so-called "anti-Party" appeared in history. Businessmen and China people get along well, and some people "get married and communicate". At that time, people living in Guangzhou had different languages and customs, and goods imported from overseas flooded the market, creating an atmosphere of an international port city. At this time, the ceramic output of the Maritime Silk Road is of epoch-making significance. There are many famous porcelain kilns. 1977, pottery of the Tang Dynasty was found near Dingling Island outside the Pearl River Estuary. The small four-ear jar and bowl are put in the big four-ear jar. Celadon bowls unearthed from the beach of Lingshui County in the east of Hainan Island were also piled up in bundles, which reflected the superb packaging and transportation level at that time. Porcelain in Song Dynasty was exported to Japan, Zhancheng, Zhenlai, Sanfo Banner, Gepo, Tianzhu, Dashi, and even Tieba along the East African coast.
These data fully prove that ancient Guangzhou played an important role in promoting the food culture exchange between Guangdong and countries along the Maritime Silk Road.