The influence of the Silk Road on Chinese traditional culture

The impact of the Silk Road on Chinese traditional culture is as follows:

The Silk Road was a channel of cultural exchange between China and the West. Chinese civilization spread westward along the Silk Road, and at the same time, China absorbed foreign civilizations from the West, ushering in the era of the intersection of Chinese and Western civilizations.

First of all, there was an exchange of goods. Silk was one of the first commodities that China imported into the world market and transported to Europe. Secondly, China introduced many species of plants and animals from the western regions, such as blood horses from Dawan and Usun, and grapes, ching, stone tumors, broad beans, walnuts, and parsley from the western regions.

History of the Silk Road:

The Hexi Corridor is a major thoroughfare of the Silk Road, but why there is no "Silk Gate" on the Hexi Corridor, but there is a "Jade Gate"? As early as 2000 years before the documented Silk Road, East-West cultural exchanges have been opened, but it is not for the export of silk, but for the import of Hetian jade. The name "Silk Road" was "invented" by German scholars.

The end of the 19th century, the German geographer Lichhofen in the book "China", "from 114 BC to AD 127 years, China and Central Asia, China and India to the silk trade as the medium of this Western traffic road" named "Silk Road "

This term was quickly accepted by academics and the general public, and was formally applied.

Then, the German historian Hauermann in the early 20th century, published in the book "China and Syria between the ancient Silk Road", according to the new discovery of cultural relics and archaeological data, and further extension of the Silk Road to the west coast of the Mediterranean Sea and Asia Minor, to determine the basic connotation of the Silk Road, that is, it is the ancient China through Central Asia to South Asia, West Asia, as well as Europe, North Africa, overland trade exchanges. The Silk Road is a passageway for trade and communication on land.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the opening up of culture and exchanges, religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism were successively spread eastward into China through the Silk Road. Different religions were intertwined with Confucianism and Taoism in China, gradually forming a diversified religious and cultural system.

Specific processes:

The overland Silk Road originated in the Western Han Dynasty (202-8 BC) when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian on a mission to the Western Regions to open up an overland passageway that started from the capital city of Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), traveled through Gansu and Xinjiang to Central and Western Asia, and connected to the Mediterranean countries. The Silk Road started in Luoyang during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Its initial role was to transport silk produced in ancient China.