The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia

by Frances Wood

The Silk Road, a series of ancient trade routes stretching across Central Asia to Europe, evokes exotic images of camel trains laden with bales of fine Chinese silk, spices, and perfume, of desert oases surrounded by snow-capped mountains, of bustling markets thronging with travellers buying and selling grapes, coriander, Baltic amber, and Mediterranean coral. Along this route, silks were sent from China to ancient Rome; princesses were dispatched in marriage alliances across the deserts; bandits and thieves launched attacks throughout history.

Covering more than 5,000 years, this book, lavishly illustrated with photographs, manuscripts, and paintings from the collections of the British Library and other museums worldwide, presents an overall picture of the history and cultures of the Silk Road. It also contains many previously unpublished photographs by the great explorers Stein, Hedin, and Mannerheim.

More than just a trade route, the Silk Road witnessed the movement of cultural influences. Frances Wood traces the story of the civilizations and ideas that flourished and moved along its vast geographical expanse. Indian Buddhism was carried into China on the Silk Road, initiating a long history of pilgrimages along the lonely desert routes; Manichaeism, Nestorian Christianity, and Islam also made their way eastwards along its route.

The nineteenth century saw a new interest in Central Asia and the Silk Road, as Russia and Britain vied for power on the frontiers of Afghanistan. A new breed of explorer, part archaeologist, part cartographer, part spy, was seen on the Silk Road, while some of the ancient cities, long buried in sand-blown dunes, began to give up their secrets. This book brings the history of the Silk Road alive--from its beginnings to the present day, revealing a rich history still in the making.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China, Asia, Travel, Historical, World History

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

From Wikipedia:

Frances Wood (Chinese: 吴芳思; pinyin: Wú Fāngsī; born 1948) is an English librarian, sinologue and historian known for her writings on Chinese history, including Marco Polo, life in the Chinese treaty ports, and the First Emperor of China.

Biography
Wood was born in London in 1948, and went to art school in Liverpool in 1967, before going to Newnham College, Cambridge University, where she studied Chinese. She went to China to study Chinese at Peking University in 1975–1976.[2]

in March 2001
Wood joined the staff of the British Library in London in 1977 as a junior curator, and later served as curator of Chinese collections until her retirement in 2013.[3][4] She is also a member of the steering committee of the International Dunhuang Project,[5] and the editor of the Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society.[3] She was also a governor of Ashmount Primary School for 20 years, relinquishing this post on the completion of her current term of office in July 2014.

She has argued in her 1995 book, Did Marco Polo go to China?, that the book of Marco Polo (Il Milione) is not the account of a single person, but is a collection of travellers' tales. This book's claims about Polo's travels has been heavily criticized by Stephen G. Haw, David O. Morgan and Peter Jackson as lacking basic academic rigor.

Reviews

[Silvio Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been aware for about a year and a half that Central Asia was a major gap in my knowledge of history. I hoped that this book would help fill that in and it had plenty of solid information in it, mixed in with surprising anecdotes from the ancient chronicles. It talks about the history of quite a few of the peoples who've lived in the region, or at any rate the history of their dealings with China and Europe. For most of them it does a good job of giving a sense of where these peoples came from and so forth to distinguish one from another by, though it's hard to piece together the timeline of civilizations in any of the cities that lasted through several of them. The last third of the book is about the less interesting topic (to me) of late nineteenth/early twentieth century adventurers-cum-archaeologists-cum-spies (yes, some of them were spies of a sort).

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this is not a book for people who want an introduction to the Silk Road. It assumes you know quite a bit about the times and places already, which I do not. There is also not much of a narrative holding the chapters together or keeping me interested. I guess I’ll try another book on this topic some other time.

[Mindy McAdams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The overland routes of the fabled Silk Road (not really a road at all) connected China to Europe. This author, a China scholar, is partial to the eastern end of the routes, which I found a bit disappointing. I enjoyed the many color illustrations in this book, which include ancient Buddhist paintings, ceramic statues, photographs of landmarks and mountain vistas, and also some black-and-white photos of the later European explorers who trekked the caravan roads in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I learned a bit about the geography that I had not gleaned from other books. This hardcover book's endpaper maps (different for front and back) are nicely done and helpful to study. China is big, and the changing dynasties across the centuries led to greater and lesser degrees of control over the the areas to the west—although Chinese control never extended to the western parts of Central Asia, nor to Persia. The names of the Taklamakan desert (the Tarim Basin), the northern Tian Shan mountains and the southern Kunlun Shan, the Pamirs (west of where the Tian Shan and the Kunlun end), the cities of Dunhuang, Turfan, Kashgar, and Yarkand, came up again and again. I knew of the cities of Bukhara (Bokhara), Tashkent, and Samarkand, but the author spends little time on them.

The trade goods are explained, especially silk, jade, paper, and the Central Asia horses so prized by the Chinese, who were never able to develop a successful breeding scheme for them. Chapter 3 discusses the spread of Buddhism as well as what the Greeks and Romans knew of the Far East, based on their writings. The nomads of the steppes are covered, but with much attention focused on their relations with China. The Sogdians and Zoroastrianism have their moment in chapter 5, along with Manicheism. (I have another book about religions of the Silk Road; now I want to read it). The influence of Central Asia on China is the main topic of chapter 6 (fashion, food, falconry). Chapter 7 is all Dunhuang and the amazing trove of manuscripts, scrolls, and even books in the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. Naturally this chapter is longer than many others (given the author's specialty in China) and covers more aspects of the spread of Buddhism.

I liked chapter 8 quite a lot because it includes Marco Polo, with a healthy dose of skepticism based on scholarship. The chapter begins with the Tangut empire, of which I knew nothing. Their story is connected to Genghis Khan and to Marco Polo. From the Tanguts, we move on to the Mongols (and the Nestorian religion; various Christian sects were tolerated or even thrived in the Mongol empire).

From chapter 9 onward I felt less engaged with this book. It seemed to become more haphazard in what was chosen to convey. There was never any in-depth treatment of the spread of Islam. I felt as if we'd skipped 200 years and suddenly Islam was already well-established. The text began to rely more on quotations from contemporary travelers, and then of course the Great Game, and quite a lot about Britain and Russia, and then the explorers—Aurel Stein and others. I actually knew little about the others, so some of their excerpts were interesting. I learned that the British consulate at Kashgar was the nicest place to hang out in the late 1800s and early 1900s, like an extension of India, with all the amenities of the mother country. Tea and hot water and soft beds.

I'm interested in learning more about the trading cities, the process of trade along the land routes, the atmosphere within the caravanserais, and the middle of the journey, the parts between Persia and China. Something I realized while reading this book is that those accounts published by the European explorers largely shaped our views of the "romance" of the Silk Road, but those explorers came to the place(s) hundreds of years after its heyday. I also realized that a lot of the accounts from the heyday times must be lists of goods for trade, which might be tedious and aren't going to satisfy my curiosity about the mixing cultures and how people managed to get along.

.

[Charles Sheard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. A very good overview of the history of the so-called Silk Road(s), bringing the author's strength as a librarian to display a rich collection of sources. However, it rather lacks its own voice, and too often relies on long quotations from sources which appear included for no other reason than that they were available. While many such quotations produce valuable color, many are just rather banal descriptions of daily events that add little if anything to a history of the location (this seems especially true in the final chapters with more modern memoirs upon which to draw). This certainly won't appeal to deep-diving academics, but it gives a good surface-level presentation of a subject steeped in exotic orientalist interest, with good front and back map pieces, and excellent photographic illustrations throughout.

Special kudos to Folio Society for the lovely and luxurious silk-binding.

[Grace Tjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a well-illustrated, very readable introduction to the Silk Road and the various countries that it traverses. Wood's brisk narration is lively, and she has a knack for selecting interesting passages from various travelers’ reports on the area, from Marco Polo (who Wood believes to have never traveled to China at all) to Aurel Stein, whose controversial excavations at Dunhuang shed light on esoteric documents that had been sealed up in a cave for a thousand years. Besides Western travelers, we also hear from Asian sources such as Faxian and Xuantang, the famous Tang-dynasty monk who brought Buddhist scriptures to China. For those enamored of the romance and mystery of the Silk Road, this book does not disappoint in its generous depiction of lost cities, buried treasures, exotic goods and ancient legends.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the paperback edition of this book and it has no maps in it which is significant since the book is about the exploration of the Silk Road. Other editions have end paper maps. The author explains that she tried to use the best known of the names for the places in the book, however some of the choices make it difficult to locate the places referenced on modern maps and others sound very dated -- using Peking rather than Beijing, for example.

The Silk Road uses 245 pages of text and photographs to cover more than 2000 years of history with an emphasis on European encounters with The Silk Road and its history. More information the people and cultures along the Silk Road would have been interesting.

[Stephen]

The Silk Road consists of several chapters in central-Asian history, with generous photographs of the landscape or art connected to the region. If readers are interested primarily in the Silk Road's heyday, the volume may be mildly disappointing, as the chapters on exploration, archaeology, and looting in the 'modern' age (19th century and continuing) constitute half the book. There is much of interest, however, and all of that archaeological looting is still firmly connected to central Asia's golden age. I would read it as a supplement to a more substantive history of the Silk Road trade than a history of it, however.

[Pei-jean Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully illustrated and beautifully presented this provides the history of the fabled Silk Road from its earliest beginnings through to now. I have always loved the history of these regions and while it did go into good detail I was hoping for a more in depth history. In saying that though, compared to many others I have read this goes into more detail than those books

[Julie Mabus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting in places and dull in others. It was a good history of the area but dragged in many places.

[Michael Kott · Rating 5 out of 5]

THis was a fascinating read. very glad I pivcked it up. It has a some great illustrations and photos. Highky recommended.

[Chairul Rahmat · Rating 5 out of 5]

enoyying

[Dennis Boccippio · Rating 3 out of 5]

My interest in central Asia has been piqued since a recent homestay trip in Mongolia. Since then, the "-istan's", for me hidden behind the opacity of the Cold War for most of my life, have been a source of mild intrigue. Reading "The Silk Road" has added significant color - if not necessarily clarity - to my familiarity with the tangled history of the region.

The book is readable, if not necessarily fully accessible, to non-academics, presuming significant familiarity with the region and its peoples (both past and present). While not "lavishly" illustrated, it certainly draws from an eclectic sample of material which keeps the interest level up. Descriptions and details are rich. The historical narrative is far from linear, and overall the book would have benefitted from a greater use of maps than the single, stylized map in the front matter.

I wouldn't recommend this book as a casual read, although for fans of history - specifically multicultural and oft-overlooked corners of world history - it may be worth the plunge.

[Ayse Arf · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good introduction to the Silk Road and it's metamorphoses over time. It's not the most comprehensive history, but that's sort of what makes it good. There's such a huge amount of information about this trade route's thousands of years of history that dwelling on the details would have made this book totally inaccessible for the casual reader. I may not remember from reading this which languages were at which times and in which places lingua franca on the road, but I at least remember what most of the languages were. I gave it three stars just to indicate that if you want a really detailed or meticulously organized history, this isn't really it in the traditional sense. I liked it, though!

[Koen Setyawan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Menceritakan jalur sutra dari zaman ke zaman. Jalur sutra bukan hanya jalur perdagangan, melainkan urat nadi adonan berbagai kebudayaan tempat berbagai bangsa saling bersinggungan, berhubungan, dalam perang dan damai, tempat muncul dan hilangnya peradaban dan tempat tinggal berbagai suku bangsa. Jalur sutra adalah jembatan budaya yang menghubungkan dunia Barat dan Timur. Penulis menyusun kisahnya dari remah-remah catatan kuno dan terbaru, agenda para penjelajah, hikayat dan dongeng para pendeta, catatan para pedangan dan pedang kaum pencoleng.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of very lovely illustrations -- it is about half illustrations. The text was mostly dry, of the general form like [person or group I never hear of] did something at [place I never heard of], without a lot of additional explanation. It all seemed disconnected. Nevertheless, the book was helpful in giving a sense of history of the region from ancient times up through the middle of the 20th century.

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books that has some dry parts, but then there will be a burst of wonderful learning. I did lots of online research while reading this one. It got me more interested in Jade and Silk and the 'mysterious' East. China has a very rich history and because I know next to nothing about it, this book helped me to learn a little bit more, this is always good.

[Robert Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a pretty good introduction to the eastern end of the Silk Road, and it is very well illustrated. It does not, however, venture very far beyond the eastern part of the silk road. While it is well written, I was a little surprised by some of the items it focus on, such as Tsarist era officials and explorers. All and all a goof but incomplete introduction to the Silk Road.

[Ann Chamberlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book had great illustrations and pointed me in the direction of good books to read, especially among early western travellers, it seemed to me the author of this one was too dependent on quoting others--especially for a University Press book.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reference on the silk road, fairly easy to read.

[Stezsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

terjemahannya......

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trade has been conducted over land routes between Europe and Asia for thousands of years. The caravan routes were called the Silk Road. This is a history of that trade.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

220 - 2012

[Kaiti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really pretty pictures!

[Wanda]

19 MAR 2014 -- see Mr Tony's wonderful review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you can't tell, I did a research project on the Silk Road.