Chapter 225 A Dream
Ouyang Xiu wrote in his "Record of Luoyang Peonies": "Luoyang's customs generally favor flowers. In early spring, all the people in the city, regardless of their status, arrange flowers."
There's even a story about the "Four Prime Ministers Wearing Flowers in Their Hair": Han Qi, Wang Gui, Wang Anshi, and Chen Shengzhi of the Northern Song Dynasty each wore a peony in their hair in Guangling City, drinking wine and reciting poetry, much to their delight. Amazingly, all four men would become prime ministers of the Song Dynasty within the next 30 years...
After thousands of years of development, the Maritime Silk Road underwent tremendous changes in the Song Dynasty. Not only did China's maritime trade prosper unprecedentedly, but the entire Asian maritime trade also entered a new stage.
Driven by factors such as the southward shift of the economic center, advances in shipbuilding and navigation technology, and the relatively active and open trade policy of the Song Dynasty, the focus of China's foreign trade shifted from the Silk Road to the Maritime Silk Road.
The interplay of the transformation of China's maritime economy during the Song Dynasty and the early Islamization of the Indian Ocean coast and Southeast Asian islands by West Asian merchants gave rise to new operational mechanisms for the Maritime Silk Road. China established a mature offshore regional market, which became a crucial platform for the supply and distribution of import and export goods and a hub connecting domestic and overseas markets.
The coastal areas of eastern Zhejiang and Fujian have formed an economic structure dominated by industry and commerce, and a mindset and livelihood approach of "focusing on commerce and neglecting agriculture", giving birth to new maritime regional characteristics in the coastal areas.
Trade in the Indian Ocean coast and Southeast Asian island regions developed unprecedentedly and entered an early period of Islamization, forming a huge and stable trade driving force.
Driven by the overall prosperity of Asian maritime trade, the South China Sea trade system was finally formed, integrating countries along the Indian Ocean coast, Southeast Asia and East Asian waters into a closely connected international market system.
Driven by the growth of maritime trade, Song Dynasty maritime knowledge and concepts entered a new phase, giving rise to a number of new cultural elements. The ocean was no longer a mythical, celestial world, but a real world and living space filled with business opportunities, wealth, and profits. This fundamentally changed people's concept of the ocean.
Due to the need to protect navigation, the belief in sea gods developed greatly and underwent several new changes. Foreign religious beliefs were also introduced to China through maritime trade and became part of social culture.
The new changes and new mechanisms of the Maritime Silk Road in the Song Dynasty continued to grow after the Song Dynasty, giving Asian maritime trade a lasting and stable driving force; even if the Ming and Qing dynasties implemented the "sea ban" policy, they could not stop the progress of Asian maritime trade.
In ancient China, the three routes leading to foreign countries from the northwest, southwest and sea were respectively called the Northern Silk Road, the Southern Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road.
The first clear record of the three Silk Roads in Chinese historical records began in the era of Emperor Wu of Han (141-87 BC), but their actual existence may have been even earlier.
During the Han and Tang dynasties, the Northern Silk Road long dominated foreign transportation. Political factors played a key role in this.
The political focus of the Han and Tang dynasties was in the northwest. Defending against the northern nomadic peoples was the core of the dynasty's security. Managing the Western Regions was of great strategic significance in curbing the northern nomadic peoples. That is, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "opened up the Western Regions to cut off the right arm of the Xiongnu." Therefore, before the Song Dynasty, "historical records were quite detailed about the northwest and particularly brief about the southeast.
Because they are far away and rarely visited, and they do not harm China's interests." For example, under the political power of the Western Han Dynasty, "envoys from the Western Regions and the Central Plains could be seen on the road." In a year, "there were more than ten generations at most, and five or six generations at least," and "a generation could have hundreds of people at most, and more than a hundred people at least."
This is a condition that the Southern Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road do not have.
Secondly, during the Han and Tang dynasties, the economic center of gravity was in the north. During a period of difficult transportation and when luxury consumer goods were the primary commodities in long-distance trade, the region centered around the two major cities of Chang'an and Luoyang served as the primary supplier of export goods and the main sales market for imports.
"From the west of the Pamir Mountains to the Great Qin, hundreds of countries and thousands of cities have all submitted to it, and merchants and peddlers are rushing to the border every day." Foreign businessmen who came to China through the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty - from small vendors selling Hubing to wealthy merchants with assets worth billions - settled in Chang'an for a long time.
Secondly, during the Han and Tang dynasties, China's trading partners were primarily the Western Regions, Central Asia, and West Asia. During the Han dynasty, Daxia, Dayuan, Kangju, and Parthia were the Han dynasty's primary trading partners. These countries were known for their "good business relationships" and "desired to establish friendly trade relationships with the Han dynasty."
When Gan Ying attempted to reach Daqin, "Anxi wanted to trade with Daqin with Han silks and embroideries," meaning it deliberately obstructed the trade between China and Rome, as it sought to monopolize it. During the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, states like Kucha and Khotan continued to "pay tribute every year, much like Han custom."
After the rise of the Western Turks in the Tang Dynasty, they actively participated in the silk trade, pushing it to a peak. In the mid-8th century AD, the silk-horse trade between the Uighurs and the Tang Dynasty pushed the Northwest Silk Road trade to a new high.
The opening of the Northwest Silk Road connected the economic exchange circles between mainland China and the Mediterranean, Iran and India.
The Southern Silk Road is located in the southwest, with Shu and Yunnan as its main hinterland. Its development scale and trade status have never been comparable to those of the Northern Silk Road.
The Maritime Silk Road in the Han Dynasty started from Xuwen and Hepu, and was sailed along the coast in small boats. "Barbarian merchants' ships were used to transport them." From Xuwen to Huangzhi, not counting delays along the way, a one-way trip took twelve months, "otherwise it would take several years to return." The voyage was full of dangers such as barbarians robbing and killing people, and drowning in storms, and it could not be compared with the Northern Silk Road.
During the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, southern governments placed greater emphasis on maritime transportation, leading to significant development of maritime trade. Jiaozhou and Guangzhou, with their better trade conditions, replaced Xuwen and Hepu as major trading ports. The Sun Wu regime dispatched Zhu Ying and Kang Tai as envoys to various states in the South China Sea, "traveling through and hearing about hundreds of countries."
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Jiaozhou was bustling with ships, and merchants and envoys were exchanged. Guangzhou was also bustling with ships, and foreign merchants used currency to trade. During this period, a direct route from Southeast Asia to Guangzhou emerged, passing east of Hainan Island.
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