Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2021

The Han Dynasty’s Development and Management of the Silk Road as Seen in Excavated Han Bamboo Slips

(Abstract)

Zhang Defang

To ensure the smooth flow of traffic along the Silk Road and between China and the Western Regions, the Han dynasty took different measures along different sections of the Silk Road. In the eastern section of the Silk Road, from Chang’an to Dunhuang, continuous relay stations were set up as stopping points on a fixed route; in the north and south of the Western Regions, the Western Region governorship was set up and troops were stationed in Yixun in the south and Cheshi in the north, to ensure that the oasis countries fulfilled their obligations as stopping points for traffic between China and the Western Regions in a relatively stable environment. To the west of the Congling Ridges, exchanges with Central Asian countries were strengthened and the western end of the Silk Road was gradually shifted westward and southward, laying the foundation for its subsequent extension to the Mediterranean coast. Without the court’s provision of security and supply guarantees along the route, a normal passage along the Silk Road would not have been possible. The idea that the Silk Road was a “network” that could be traveled at will is debatable. From the very beginning, it was a direct interface between Chinese civilization and the Western world (the Hellenistic world of Central Asia). The best proof of this is to be found in the Han bamboo slips, which record direct diplomatic contact between the Han dynasty and Central and Western Asia and South Asia. The argument that the Silk Road trade route involved only a short journey from one oasis to another and that “few people crossed the whole of Central Asia from Samarkand to Chang’an” does not hold water.