Chapter 2 Chapter 1: The Tracing of Chinese and Western Traffic Traces in Ancient Times

The traffic and exchanges between China and ancient Western civilizations have a long history, and can even be traced back to the ancient chaos.According to archaeological excavations, in the 5,000-year-old Hongshan cultural site in the west of Liaoning Province, my country, a small pottery statuette of a nude woman was found, and its shape is quite similar to that of the "early Venus" statue in the West. place.In addition, from the artifacts left over from the Bronze Age in China and the West, such as double-edged swords with animal horn handles and double-edged swords with ring-shaped handles, it seems that there are traces of exchanges between the two.All these remind us that although the development of ancient Chinese and Western civilizations has their own characteristics, they have never been absolutely closed or isolated.

From ancient Chinese myths and legends, we can also find vague traces of the connection between my country and the West.According to "Mu Tianzi Biography", King Mu of Zhou once drove a carriage drawn by eight horses to the west of Kunlun and met with the Queen Mother of the West.On the Yaochi, King Mu of Zhou gave wine to Queen Mother Xi, and Queen Mother West sang songs, and King Mu joined her.It is said that the Queen Mother of the West lives in Yushan.She looks like a human, but has leopard tail and tiger teeth (Volume 2 "Xishan Jing").The era of King Mu of Zhou has been nearly 3000 years ago.And the legendary Queen Mother of the West who is half human and half beast represents the far west.The description of the Queen Mother of the West reflects the ancient Chinese people's interest in the distant and unfamiliar Western civilization, which is half fear and curiosity, half admiration and love.People in later generations speculated from myths that the place Mu Tianzi visited may be as far away as Persia, or even India.

The time when ancient Chinese and Western cultural exchanges can be given a more scientific conclusion is roughly estimated at the earliest in the 6th century BC, which is the turn of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in my country.It turns out that as early as around 4000 BC, the Sumerians established the ancient civilization in the Mesopotamia.Mesopotamia, also known as Mesopotamia (from Greek, meaning "the land between the two rivers"), includes the middle and lower reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Iraq today.Since then, the famous Babylonian Kingdom, the Assyrian Empire and the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom have risen there successively.By the 6th century BC, the Persian Empire rose.During the reign of Darius I (521-486 BC), the territory of the empire stretched from Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor in the west to Central Asia and even the northwest of the Indus Valley in the east.In the vast territory of the empire, avenues with post stations were built.The Persian Empire, which flourished for a while, greatly narrowed the distance between civilizations such as ancient Greece and India and China.

At that time, there were many nomadic tribes scattered on the Eurasian steppe.The northeast border of the Persian Empire is bordered by the nomadic tribes of the Sisai people on Congling (Pamirs).In ancient times, Greek historians generally referred to the northern tribes scattered in Eastern Europe, Siberia and Central Asia as the Scythians; As a plug.It was the Cypriots who acted as the medium of early exchanges between ancient China and West Asia, South Asia, North Africa, and even the Greek city-states in the far west.The exquisite silk fabrics, lacquerware and bronze mirrors with four mountain patterns unearthed from the Pazelek tomb in the Altai region of the former Soviet Union are all relics from the 5th to the 4th centuries BC. Almost in the same historical period, the Greek Parthenon temple The statue of the goddess of fate wears a thin transparent robe, and the painted figures on the red flower clay pot in Athens also wear this thin garment.It can be deduced from the above situation that Chinese silk had become the pet of the Greek upper class at that time.In my country, glass eye beads (for decoration) from the Mediterranean region were also unearthed in ancient tombs in Luoyang; at the same time, the appearance of iron armor and realistic animal patterns in the Warring States period all have obvious characteristics of foreign cultural factors. .Whether it is the early Chinese cultural relics and cultural influences discovered in Central Asia and Greece, or the early Western cultural relics and cultural influences discovered in China, they all pass through the oldest channel in the history of communication between China and the West, that is, the Scythian trade channel, or " Prairie Road" to communicate with each other.

Around the 5th century BC, the Persian god Ferwadin began to refer to China as "Cheni".In the two famous Indian epics "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana", China is called "China". "Zhini" and "Zina" may be the antiphonal sound of the word "Qin".This is because, at that time, our country was in the period when Qin dominated Xirong in the Warring States Period, and Qin, which was closer to the West, naturally became famous in the West as a representative of China.In the writings of ancient Greece, China was called "Seres" (meaning "the country of silk production").Ctesias, a Greek who served in the Persian court from 416 BC to 398 BC, was the first person mentioned in written records to mention the silk-producing country "Seres".

In the second half of the 4th century BC, the historically famous Alexander Expedition destroyed the Persian Empire and reached the Indus River, establishing a large empire spanning Europe, Asia, and Africa.Alexander's Eastern Expedition directly brought Greek civilization to the Central Asian region adjacent to the western border of China, creating conditions for the expansion of communication and cultural exchanges between China and the West.After Alexander's death, the empire he built quickly disintegrated.His generals fought against each other and established several independent kingdoms.Among them, the Seleucid Kingdom (called Tiaozhi in Chinese history books, whose central area is located in present-day Iraq and Syria) has become a bridge connecting civilizations such as China, India, Greece, and Rome.Another of Alexander's ministries, Ptolemy, separated Egypt and surrounding areas and established the Ptolemaic Dynasty.In 30 BC, the Ptolemaic dynasty was destroyed by the Romans.Egypt was also included in the territory of the Roman Empire.

It was during the reign of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the Romans that important changes took place in the status and role of Egypt in the ancient world.After the Greeks and Romans, who were famous for their navigation and trade, came to Egypt, they turned it into a hub area for the ancient Mediterranean-Red Sea-Indian Ocean trade.In order to allow merchant ships to enter the Red Sea directly from the Mediterranean, Ptolemy II (285-246 BC) repaired the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea.By the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the number of Egyptian ships sailing out of the Red Sea from the Mandeb Strait reached 20 every year.In the early years of AD, when the Romans mastered the secrets of the trade winds in the Indian Ocean, they further broke the monopoly of the South Arabs on Indian Ocean trade, and greatly enhanced the momentum of direct trade between the East and the West in ancient times.The total number of merchant ships sailing from Egypt to the Indian Ocean has increased to 120 every year.Stimulated by the prosperous trade between the East and the West, the city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander in 332 BC, rapidly developed into a commercial and cultural center in the Mediterranean region, and became a world-wide city in ancient times.When the famous Greek geographer Strabo recorded this famous city, he said: "It has an excellent harbor, so it is the only place for sea trade in Egypt, and the reason why it is also the only place for land trade in Egypt is that because everything is conveniently transported from the river to the largest market in the world.”

The development and prosperity of Egypt and Alexandria made them, as representatives of the Western Mediterranean world, prepare mature conditions at the western end for the communication and cultural exchanges between China and the West in ancient times. At the same time, China has also entered a new period of its own historical development.Not long before the establishment of Alexandria, Qin State, one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, carried out the Shang Yang Reform.In the next century, the Qin State became stronger and stronger, and finally swallowed up the six countries, establishing the first unified centralized feudal empire in Chinese history.The prestige of the Qin Empire spread far and wide, and it became the earliest name for other nations in the world to call our country.The Han Empire that followed was even more prosperous and powerful.With the upsurge of feudal economy and culture and the prosperity of national power, the interest and requirements of foreign exchanges in the Han Dynasty became stronger.

The strength and prosperity of the Qin and Han empires prepared mature conditions at the other end of the transportation and cultural exchanges between China and the West in ancient times.