Silk Road Paper

RESEARCH OF THE SILK ROAD

HELEN HU

3/30/15

In ancient times, people did not have enough knowledge to make their life as diverse and convenient as nowadays. Thus, it was necessary for a country to combine good ideas and exchange various merchandise with other countries. Therefore, trading became an essential tool to develop a country and the Silk Road played an important role in early human history. Also, in our modern life, the Silk Road is a way to experience magnificent scenery along the route and to feel different nation’s local customs and practices. The Silk Road today is a source of tourism income for nations along the route. For instance, Xi’an received 120 million tourists in 2014. The Silk Road originated in Ancient China, Xi’an, and formed in between the second century BC and the 1st century AD. It was started by the ambassador of China in Han dynasty because of his suggestion after he escaped from the capture of the Huns. It is a trading road that connects west and east together. Goods and cultures were spread by the Silk Road. The Silk Road routes stretched from China through India, Asia Minor, up throughout Mesopotamia, to Egypt, the African continent, Greece, Rome, and Britain. Lack of various goods and knowledge gave people impetus to travel on the Silk Road to get developed. Chinese silk was so precious and the desire from other countries like Rome made people want to travel along the Silk Road even facing the dangers like lack of water, bandits and severe weather like a violent sandstorm while caravans were crossing the desert along the Silk Road. Overtime, the travelers of Silk Road promoted the development of many countries by exchanging goods and cultures between west and east countries.

Kashgar, a city of China, has a precious location so that the trading among countries like Constantinople and the central Chinese city of Xi’an became easier and countries developed because if its location. Its location was easy for trading because it was the transportation hub in Taklimakan Desert, the Northwest China and all the places to Europe via Kashgar. Also, the lands are fertile becuase Kashgar is an oasis so there is a plenty of lands to grow crops. Kashgar is situated in a plain and the terrain slopes gently, so it is easy for people to live here. At the north of the city the Tianshan Mountains and at the southwest of Kashgar the Kunlun Mountains provide a lot of natural water sources, so traders who passed by there could get enough supplies. Its location was also convenient because Kashgar was the last stop before they entered the desert from west to east. Consequently, the location of Kashgar helped countries to trade through here and caravans to resupply from Kashgar. 

Because of this emphasis on trade, the markets in Kashgar were abundant in various products so that they attracted more and more merchants from different places to trade from here. When we mention Kashgar, the first image of this city is big markets. Because many travelers and traders entered Kashgar through the Silk Road, the markets of Kashgar gathered color and spice and life from all over the world. Here were more than 20 big markets that were classified into two kinds. One was the markets that sell livestock especially, the other sell general products. These huge amount of markets gave not only local people convenience in choosing various goods, but also foreigners who wanted to buy merchandise like art crafts of Pakistan and scarves of Turkey could get a reasonable price. These markets were the seed of the desire for trade between countries of the East and the West like Rome and China that still shapes these country’s economies today.

Paper was a brilliant invention that brought considerable profits to China and made China’s economy boost quickly thus promoted the development of China. A person called Cai Lun broke the bark tree into fibers and pounded them into a sheet at first. In 105, he made a report to the emperor on the process of making paper, and received high praise for his ability. Paper replaced bamboo and silk that people used to write. This invention was innovative because it is very light and thin so that it could release the pressure while trading a huge amount of paper to different places. In addition, paper was not as expensive as silk, so the lower price of paper made this material become popular. Because of the inexpensive price of paper, the sales volume boosted a lot, and so traders from China still got income so China kept the technique secret.

The way of making paper gradually become a myth for other countries because they wanted to master this technique and make their own paper rather than spending a lot of money buying this material from China all the time. However, Chinese wanted to get profits by trading paper on the Silk Road, so they kept it as a secret at first. The first recorded use of paper was outside of China in Samarkand after a battle in Turkestan, where skilled Chinese artisans were taken prisoner and forced to make paper for captors. The innovative idea of papermaking gradually spread to the rest of the world. After papermaking moved to Korea, a Korean monk shared the knowledge of making paper to Japanese at the Imperial Palace in approximately AD 610, sixty years after Buddhism was introduced in Japan. The Japanese used paper for official recording and documentation at first, but as Buddhism spread widely, the demand for paper grew rapidly. Around the period 1938-1959, paper was so widespread that it was used by Muslims, Christians and Jews. The growing of the use of paper was then among Mediterranean merchant communities letters about lands, contracts, inventories, and deeds. Thus, paper has provided humans with its innovative idea and economic benefits, which promoted the development among east and west countries.