Download or read book Through the Jade Gate to Rome written by Ye Fan and published by Booksurge Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A generously annotated translation from the Hou Hanshu giving details on the Silk Routes connecting China, India, Central Asia and the Roman Empire in the 2nd Century.
Download or read book China and the Roman Orient written by Friedrich Hirth and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-06-17 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Similar in size and in duration, the Chinese and the Roman empires ruled half the world's population at the time of their co-existence. But what did they know about each other? In China and the Roman Orient Friedrich Hirth uses linguistic, geographical and historical analysis of ancient Chinese records to reconstruct the ancient trade routes used by the Chinese and to show what knowledge they had of the Roman Empire. His careful research on the original Chinese sources also tells us much about the geography, history and commerce of the period. China and the Roman Orient quickly established itself as a landmark work. It remains an important and much cited work but is now scarce. This new edition contains a new introduction by leading contemporary scholar Victor Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, USA
Download or read book Through the Jade Gate China to Rome written by John E. Hill and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-03-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Hill's eagerly awaited second edition - in two volumes - of the annotated translation of the Hou Hanshu - renamed Through the Jade Gate - China to Rome - has been extensively revised. The book grew so big that it had to be published in two volumes. Readers will require both volumes. � Volume I includes the original Chinese text, a detailed introduction, maps and comprehensive notes to the text. � Volume II has 26 appendices which highlight extra fascinating information of special interest - such as Rhinoceroses, the Story of Sea-silk and the Significance and Use of Skull Cups - and the comprehensive bibliography. This updated, definitive English translation of the complete Chronicle on the Western Regions from the Hou Hanshu, presents an intriguing picture of this little-known period of history. It describes the origins of the Silk Routes using information collected from soldiers, merchants, envoys and spies. The text is based on the report to the Chinese Emperor An, circa 125 CE, by Ban Yong, his senior general in the Western Regions. The Chronicle contains the earliest geographical, historical, political, economic and cultural information in Chinese about the Roman Empire, Egypt, India, Parthia and many other kingdoms, and also describes the routes between East and West. Along these arteries travelled people, cultures, languages, philosophies, religions, technologies, animals, plants, countless precious and rare trade items, and the knowledge of distant places. These exchanges were critical for the development and flowering of the great civilizations of China, Rome, Parthia, the Kushans and India, and unquestionably laid the foundations of modern globalisation. The first edition of this work received critical acclaim from scholars world-wide and is widely quoted in academic works. This much expanded second edition should prove to be an even more useful guide and source-book on the early history of the Silk Routes. "This treasure house of remarkable facts and speculations should appeal to both scholars and the curious."
Download or read book Early China written by Li Feng and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-30 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical new interpretation of the early history of Chinese civilization based on the most recent scholarship and archaeological discoveries.
Download or read book The Han Xiongnu War 133 BC 89 AD written by Scott Crawford and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2023-12-30 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Han-Xiongnu War (133 BC – AD 89) pitted the Han dynasty of China against a confederation of nomadic steppe peoples, the Xiongnu Empire. In campaigns waged on a huge scale by the standards of contemporary Western warfare (perhaps half a million soldiers were fielded at the Battle of Mobei in 119 BC), the two states fought for control of Central Asia, hungry for its rich resources and Western trade links. China’s victory set the stage for millennia of imperial rule and a vast sphere of influence in Asia. Scott Forbes Crawford examines the war in a lively, engaging narrative. He builds a mosaic encompassing the centuries of conflict through biographies of fifteen historical figures: the Chinese and Xiongnu emperors who first led their armies into battle; ‘peace bride’ Princess Jieyou, whose marriage to a steppe king forged a vital Chinese alliance; the explorer-diplomat Zhang Qian, who almost-inadvertently established the Silk Road, among other key individuals. Their stories capture the war’s breadth, the enduring impact on Han society and statecraft in what became a Chinese golden age, and the doomed resistance of the Xiongnu to an ever-strengthening juggernaut.
Download or read book Empires to be remembered written by Michael Gehler and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-03-10 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By applying a comparative approach the volume focuses on a select group of „empires“ which are generally not in the focus of empires studies. They are studied in detail and analyzed due to a strict concept that takes into account real history and reception history as well. Reception history becomes more and more an important element in empire studies although this topic is still often more or less underdeveloped. The volume singles out a series of such “forgotten empires”. It aims to provide a methodologically clearly structured as well as a uniform and consistent approach. It develops a general set of questions that help to compare and distinguish these entities. This way the volume intends to examine and to illuminate empires that are generally ignored by modern scholarship.
Download or read book Jingjiao written by Glen L. Thompson and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2024-02-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A balanced, accessible, and thorough history of Jingjiao, the first Christian church in China Many people assume that the first introduction of Christianity to the Chinese was part of nineteenth-century Western imperialism. In fact, Syriac-speaking Christians brought the gospel along the Silk Road into China in the seventh century. Glen L. Thompson introduces readers to the fascinating history of this early Eastern church, referred to as Jingjiao, or the “Luminous Teaching.” Thompson presents the history of the Persian church’s mission to China with rigor and clarity. While Christianity remained a minority and “foreign” religion in the Middle Kingdom, it nonetheless attracted adherents among indigenous Chinese and received imperial approval during the Tang Dynasty. Though it was later suppressed alongside Buddhism, it resurfaced in China and Mongolia in the twelfth century. Thompson also discusses how the modern unearthing of Chinese Christian texts has stirred controversy over the meaning of Jingjiao to recent missionary efforts in China. In an accessible style, Thompson guides readers through primary sources as well as up-to-date scholarship. As the most recent and balanced survey on the topic available in English, Jingjiao will be an indispensable resource for students of global Christianity and missiology.
Download or read book China s Development from a Global Perspective written by María Dolores Elizalde and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-11-06 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a long time, the idea of China as a culture and society which was voluntarily secluding itself from the rest of the world was dominant. But, in reality, China has always been part of the world, just as the world has always sought to penetrate China. The relationship between China and the world was, in the past, sometimes smooth, and at other times it was difficult, but nevertheless the bond remained alive. This collection presents an analysis of China from a global perspective within a broad temporal and spatial spectrum. It reveals the early relations established between the Roman Empire and China, the dynamics developed with the countries of the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia and Japan, and the gradual path of Europeans and Americans towards China. The book reviews the development of diplomatic relations, the signing of agreements and alliances, and the rise and resolution of conflicts. It also analyses the forging of economic relations, the establishment of commercial exchanges and the creation of companies, professional bodies and institutions of collaboration.
Download or read book Handbook of Ancient Afro Eurasian Economies written by Sitta Reden and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-12-02 with total page 954 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notion of the “Silk Road” that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient economic exchange in a global perspective with a strong focus on recent debates on the nature of pre-modern empires. The interdisciplinary team of Chinese, Indian and Graeco-Roman historians, archaeologists and anthropologists that has written this handbook compares different forms of economic development in agrarian and steppe regions in a period of accelerated empire formation during 300 BCE and 300 CE. It investigates inter-imperial zones and networks of exchange which were crucial for ancient Eurasian connections. Volume I provides a comparative history of the most important empires forming in Northern Africa, Europe and Asia between 300 BCE and 300 CE. It surveys a wide range of evidence that can be brought to bear on economic development in the these empires, and takes stock of the ways academic traditions have shaped different understandings of economic and imperial development as well as Silk-Road exchange in Russia, China, India and Western Graeco-Roman history.
Download or read book The Grand Scribe s Records Volume XI written by Ssu-ma Ch'ien and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the extraordinary multi-volume portrait of ancient China written by a court official of the Han Dynasty. The Grand Scribe’s Records, Volume XI presents the final nine memoirs of Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s history, continuing the series of collective biographies with seven more prosopographies on the ruthless officials, the wandering gallants, the artful favorites, those who discern auspicious days, turtle and stalk diviners, and those whose goods increase, punctuated by the final account of Emperor Wu’s wars against neighboring peoples and concluded with Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s postface containing a history of his family and himself. Praise for the series: “[An] indispensable addition to modern sinology.” —China Review International “The English translation has been done meticulously.” —Choice
Download or read book Roman Roads written by Anne Kolb and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-07-22 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume aims to present the current state of research on Roman roads and their foundations in a combined historical and archaeological perspective. The focus is on the diverse local histories and the varying degrees of significance of individual roads and regional networks, which are treated here for the most important regions of the empire and beyond. The assembled contributions will be of interest to historians, archaeologists and epigraphers, since they tackle matters as diverse as the technical modalities of road-building, the choice of route, but also the functionality and the motives behind the creation of roads. Roman roads are further intimately related to various important aspects of Roman history, politics and culture. After all, such logistical arteries form the basis of all communication and exchange processes, enabling not only military conquest and security but also facilitating the creation of an organized state as well as trade, food supply and cultural exchange. The study of Roman roads must always be based on a combination of written and archaeological sources in order to take into account both their concrete geographical location and their respective spatial, cultural, and historical context.
Download or read book Handbook of Ancient Afro Eurasian Economies written by Sitta von Reden and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-10-24 with total page 950 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies offers in three volumes the first comprehensive discussion of economic development in the empires of the Afro-Eurasian world region to elucidate the conditions under which large quantities of goods and people moved across continents and between empires. Volume 3: Frontier-Zone Processes and Transimperial Exchange analyzes frontier zones as particular landscapes of encounter, economic development, and transimperial network formation. The chapters offer problematizing approaches to frontier zone processes as part of and in between empires, with the goal of better understanding how and why goods and resources moved across the Afro-Eurasian region. Key frontiers in mountains and steppes, along coasts, rivers, and deserts are investigated in depth, demonstrating how local landscapes, politics, and pathways explain network practices and participation in long-distance trade. The chapters seek to retrieve local knowledge ignored in popular Silk Road models and to show the potential of frontier-zone research for understanding the Afro-Eurasian region as a connected space.
Download or read book Empires of the Steppes written by Kenneth W. Harl and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2023-08-01 with total page 695 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A narrative history of how Attila, Genghis Khan and the so-called barbarians of the steppes shaped world civilization. The barbarian nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. These nomadic tribes have produced some of the world’s greatest conquerors: Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, among others. Their deeds still resonate today. Indeed, these nomads built long-lasting empires, facilitated the first global trade of the Silk Road and disseminated religions, technology, knowledge and goods of every description that enriched and changed the lives of so many across Europe, China and the Middle East. From a single region emerged a great many peoples—the Huns, the Mongols, the Magyars, the Turks, the Xiongnu, the Scythians, the Goths—all of whom went on to profoundly and irrevocably shape the modern world. In this new, comprehensive history, Professor Kenneth W. Harl vividly re-creates the lives and world of these often-forgotten peoples from their beginnings to the early modern age. Their brutal struggle to survive on the steppes bred a resilient, pragmatic people ever ready to learn from their more advanced neighbors. In warfare, they dominated the battlefield for over fifteen hundred years. Under charismatic rulers, they could topple empires and win their own.
Download or read book Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route written by Steven E. Sidebotham and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-02-02 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legendary overland silk road was not the only way to reach Asia for ancient travelers from the Mediterranean. During the Roman Empire’s heyday, equally important maritime routes reached from the Egyptian Red Sea across the Indian Ocean. The ancient city of Berenike, located approximately 500 miles south of today’s Suez Canal, was a significant port among these conduits. In this book, Steven E. Sidebotham, the archaeologist who excavated Berenike, uncovers the role the city played in the regional, local, and "global" economies during the eight centuries of its existence. Sidebotham analyzes many of the artifacts, botanical and faunal remains, and hundreds of the texts he and his team found in excavations, providing a profoundly intimate glimpse of the people who lived, worked, and died in this emporium between the classical Mediterranean world and Asia.
Download or read book The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes written by Raoul McLaughlin and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating history of the intricate web of trade routes connecting ancient Rome to Eastern civilizations, including its powerful rival, the Han Empire. The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes investigates the trade routes between Rome and the powerful empires of inner Asia, including the Parthian Empire of ancient Persia, and the Kushan Empire which seized power in Bactria (Afghanistan), laying claim to the Indus Kingdoms. Further chapters examine the development of Palmyra as a leading caravan city on the edge of Roman Syria. Raoul McLaughlin also delves deeply into Rome’s trade ventures through the Tarim territories, which led its merchants to the Han Empire of ancient China. Having established a system of Central Asian trade routes known as the Silk Road, the Han carried eastern products as far as Persia and the frontiers of the Roman Empire. Though they were matched in scale, the Han surpassed its European rival in military technology. The first book to address these subjects in a single comprehensive study, The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes explores Rome’s impact on the ancient world economy and reveals what the Chinese and Romans knew about their rival Empires.
Download or read book The Journey of Christianity to India in Late Antiquity written by Nathanael J. Andrade and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did Christianity make its remarkable voyage from the Roman Mediterranean to the Indian subcontinent? By examining the social networks that connected the ancient and late antique Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, central Asia, and Iran, this book contemplates the social relations that made such movement possible. It also analyzes how the narrative tradition regarding the apostle Judas Thomas, which originated in Upper Mesopotamia and accredited him with evangelizing India, traveled among the social networks of an interconnected late antique world. In this way, the book probes how the Thomas narrative shaped Mediterranean Christian beliefs regarding co-religionists in central Asia and India, impacted local Christian cultures, took shape in a variety of languages, and experienced transformation as it traveled from the Mediterranean to India, and back again.
Download or read book The Eurasian Way of War written by David A. Graff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a comparative study of military practice in Sui-Tang China and the Byzantine Empire between approximately 600 and 700 CE. It covers all aspects of the military art from weapons and battlefield tactics to logistics, campaign organization, military institutions, and the grand strategy of empire. Whilst not neglecting the many differences between the Chinese and Byzantines, this book highlights the striking similarities in their organizational structures, tactical deployments and above all their extremely cautious approach to warfare. It shows that, contrary to the conventional wisdom positing a straightforward Western way of war and an "Oriental" approach characterized by evasion and trickery, the specifics of Byzantine military practice in the seventh century differed very little from what was known in Tang China. It argues that these similarities cannot be explained by diffusion or shared cultural influences, which were limited, but instead by the need to deal with common problems and confront common enemies, in particular the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes. Overall, this book provides compelling evidence that pragmatic needs may have more influence than deep cultural imperatives in determining a society’s "way of war."
