Maritime Silk Road in the History of Pearl River Delta

South China Sea Silk Road-Pearl River Delta Since ancient times, there have been many routes on the Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road, also known as the Maritime Ceramic Road and the Maritime Medicine Road for transporting other goods, has a longer history than the onshore Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road is a maritime passage for transportation, trade and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries in ancient times. This road is mainly centered on the South China Sea and starts from Guangzhou and Quanzhou, so it is also called the South China Sea Silk Road. The ancient sea passage for communication, trade and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries was the main channel for communication between China and foreign countries after the Tang and Song Dynasties. The Maritime Silk Road, formed in the Qin and Han Dynasties, developed in the Three Kingdoms and Sui Dynasties, flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and changed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is the oldest known maritime route. Before Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Maritime Silk Road was only a supplementary form of the onshore Silk Road. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, due to the continuous wars in the western regions, the Silk Road on land was blocked by the war and replaced by the Maritime Silk Road. By the Tang and Song Dynasties, with the development of China's shipbuilding and navigation technology, China's sea routes to Southeast Asia, Malacca Strait, Indian Ocean, Red Sea and African continent were successively opened and extended, and the Maritime Silk Road eventually replaced the land Silk Road and became the main channel for China's foreign exchanges. Since 1930s, Guangzhou has become the main port of the Maritime Silk Road. The earliest port of origin of the Maritime Silk Road is Guangzhou. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Guangzhou became the largest port in China and a world-famous oriental port city. The route from Guangzhou to the Persian Gulf countries via the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean was the longest route in the world at that time. In the Yuan Dynasty, Guangzhou was replaced by Quanzhou as the largest port in China, but it was still the second largest port in China. In the 2000-year history of the Maritime Silk Road, compared with other coastal ports, Guangzhou is considered as the only enduring port. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Guangzhou was in a "one-stop" situation for a long time. The origin of the Silk Road-The Geography of Hanshu in South Vietnam records that "the boats and boats of Nanzhangsai, Xuwen and Hepu ... have long translations, belonging to the Yellow Gate, and all went to sea with reporters, including pearls, colored glasses, strange stones and mixed gold. ..... "Explain that the" Maritime Silk Road "rose after the destruction of South Vietnam by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. During the Eastern Han Dynasty (especially in the later period), ships used sails; Daqin (Roman Empire) arrived in Guangzhou by sea for the first time for trade; Official businessmen from China also arrived in Rome. This marks the formation of the Maritime Silk Road that truly spans Asia, Africa and Europe. The maritime traffic in Lingnan area in the pre-Qin period laid the foundation for the formation of the Maritime Silk Road. The "book" that can record the history of South Vietnam today is the tomb of the King of South Vietnam in Guangzhou. The tomb of Nanyue King is the tomb of Zhao Mei, the second generation king of Nanyue in the early Western Han Dynasty. Zhao Mei, the grandson of Zhao Tuo, was called Wendi, who reigned from 137 BC to 122 BC. The tomb of the King of Nanyue was demolished into a mausoleum. The stone mountain was split 20 meters away from the top of Xianggang, and a plane "convex" vertical hole was chiseled. Then, horizontal holes are opened from the east and west sides of the front end to form the ear room, and an inclined pyramid-shaped mound is opened in the south. The tomb is made of red sandstone modeled after the front hall and the back bedroom. The top of the tomb is covered with 24 big stones and then compacted layer by layer. This tomb is modeled after the former residence. The tomb faces south, with seven rooms in the front, three rooms in the back and four rooms in the front, with a width of12.5m and a length of10.85m.. The owner of the tomb lives in the back middle room, the front hall and the back library, the front wing room and the back wing room. Martyrs *** 15, including 4 concubines and 7 servants. The four walls and top of the front lobby are painted with ink satin; The East Wing is used for catering, with bronze bells, stone bells, wine barrels, coins, cymbals and other wine vessels, as well as six chessboards. Ear room is a treasure house of weapons, chariots, horses, armor, bows and arrows, five-color medical stones and daily necessities, especially precious silver boxes from Persia, African ivory, lacquer boxes, fuming stoves and dark blue glass sheets. These cultural relics prove that in the early South Vietnam or earlier, Guangzhou had maritime trade with Persia and the east coast of Africa. The main room at the back is in the center, which is the main room of the tomb owner's coffin library. The owner of the tomb was dressed in silk and jade clothes with nine seals. The biggest one is the gold-printed dragon button "Wendy Xing Xi", in addition, there is the "Yin Di" button. The gold seal of the turtle button "Prince" and the jade seal of the tomb owner "Zhao Wei" are also among them. The East Room is the concubine's hiding room, and all four concubines have the lady seal of 1. The west room is a kitchen service place, where seven people were buried, and there were no coffins. Three kinds of animals, pigs, cattle and sheep, were put behind the room. The back storage room is a warehouse for storing food, with nearly 100 large copper, iron and ceramic cookers and containers. More than a thousand pieces (sets) of cultural relics have been unearthed, and the golden seal is the first golden seal of the Han emperor unearthed in China. In addition to the golden seal, there are also gold belt hooks, golden flower bubbles, apricot-shaped gold leaves, etc., all of which are ornaments. Jinhua bubble is generally regarded as "foreign goods" introduced from overseas. Among the cultural relics unearthed from the tomb of the king of Nanyue, there is a white silver box that is particularly eye-catching, and the sparkling petals are particularly prominent. This oblate silver box has a height of12cm, a belly diameter of14.9cm and a weight of 572.6g.. When unearthed, there were ten boxes of pills in the main coffin room. From the technological characteristics of modeling, ornamentation, and gold-plated ring around the mouth, it is quite different from traditional Chinese artifacts, but similar to the relics of the ancient Persian Empire (550-330 BC). After chemical analysis and expert research, it is considered to be Persian, and the pills in the silver box are probably Arabic medicine. So the silver box is not made in South Vietnam, but imported from overseas. These unearthed cultural relics are of great value to the study of the South China Sea Silk Road. Silk is one of the great inventions of China's ancestors. Guangzhou, the birthplace of the ancient Maritime Silk Road in China, is famous for its silk trade. Western countries know China from silk and say that China is a "country of silk". Silk production in Lingnan area has a long history. "Hanshu" records the "achievements of women's sericulture" in Hainan Island, indicating that sericulture silk was produced during the period of Nanyue State. Judging from the silk unearthed from the tomb of Nanyue King, there are not only many kinds of silk funerary objects, but also a huge number. Especially in the west of Xi 'er Room, within the range of about 2.8 square meters, silk products are layered, and there are silks, embroidered silks, Zhu Luo, Zhu Si, embroidered "yarn", ultra-fine silks, calendered silks and other varieties buried in the whole horse. Unfortunately, the cloth was completely carbonized when it was unearthed. The carbonized accumulation layer is 20 ~ 30cm thick, and it is estimated that there are not less than 100 pieces of silk buried with him, and there are 700 layers of folded layers. It is also common to wrap funerary objects with silk, and some people estimate that there are more than 300 pieces. The amount of silk used for parcels is amazing, just like the wrapping paper used by modern people, which shows the luxury of the royal family in South Vietnam. Silk fabrics unearthed in the tomb include not only plain silk fabrics and yarns, but also plain brocade, dichroic mirror and heavy warp brocade, which are very rich in variety. There are so many silk products buried with the whole horse, and there are a lot of parcels, which shows that South Vietnam's silk products are quite rich and will be exported. It is estimated that foreign products such as ivory, silver boxes and spices unearthed in the tomb may also be exchanged with silk products. Zhaoqing, the connection point of the Silk Road, is located in the central and western parts of Guangdong Province. It controls the upper part of Cangwu and the lower part of the South China Sea. It is the throat of western Guangdong and is known as "the inkstone capital of China". Zhaoqing is a famous county in Lingnan with a long history. As early as the period of Nanyue State, Anyang, the king of Luoyue, had established its capital in Fengxi (now within the territory of Fengkai) in the north. Zhao Tuo defeated Queen Anyang, and established Cangwu State in Fengxi area as a vassal of Nanyue State. In China's ancient thoughts, there was only the concept of "the world", but there was no concept of "the world". Until September 1583, Matteo Ricci, an Italian missionary who was known as "the first person to communicate Chinese and western cultures", came to Zhaoqing with chimes, sundials, world maps and other achievements representing the European Renaissance. On 1585, he built the first Catholic church "Hua Xian Temple" in China, and drew and published the first China world map "Mountains, Seas and Lands". Since then, Guangzhou, which has been gradually influenced, has formed the voice of1"seeing the world" at the beginning of the 9th century. In this way, marine civilization first settled in Guangzhou and then radiated to other places. Silk Road Corridor-When people talk about Zhuhai today, they think it is just a small fishing village that has gradually developed into a special zone in the last 25 years. In fact, during the Han and Tang Dynasties more than 2,000 years ago, Zhuhai and some islands around the Pearl River Estuary were probably already important anchorages for maritime traffic. Countless merchant ships loaded with silk and porcelain supply fresh water or food here, and even wait for the wind and rain. During the Han and Tang Dynasties more than 2,000 years ago, business travelers from all countries who sailed along the Guangzhou-Persian Gulf Maritime Silk Road for profit should not forget to mark Zhuhai as a node on the chart. From the late 1960s to the 1980s, hundreds of exquisite ceramics from the Han and Tang Dynasties and even the Yuan Dynasty were found in Wenzhou Island, Wailingding Island, Hebao Island and Nanshui in Zhuhai. In most dynasties in China, silk, ceramics and tea were the most important export commodities. Zhuhai is the only place on the Maritime Silk Road from Guangzhou to Dalian. The dotted islands have natural safe havens, fresh water and food resources. How can the dense merchant ships crossing the ocean resist the great temptation of this "sea anchorage"? Zhuhai was once an important "corridor" of the Maritime Silk Road. In the Tang Dynasty, Guangzhou replaced Xuwen, Hepu and other places earlier and became a big trading port in the East. As the most important export commodity in the Tang Dynasty, China porcelain began to be exported along the Guangzhou-Persian Gulf route. On this route, starting from Guangzhou, Zhuhai has become the only place to pass by water. After the failure of the Huang Chao Uprising, the remnants of the rebel army fled to Zhuhai, became real immigrants, and moved to Zhuhai to live and multiply. In the second year of Tang Zhide (AD 757), Xiangshan Town was established. Surprisingly, the Chenghuang Temple in Shanchang Village built at that time was dedicated to both the Northern Emperor and the Chenghuang, instead of Mazu and other gods in the traditional beliefs of coastal fishermen. After coming to the sea, these people in the Central Plains still believe in these gods who are in charge of agriculture and climate. They not only brought this religious culture to Zhuhai, but also brought farming culture and agricultural production. By the Tang Dynasty, Zhuhai already had the essence of Central Plains culture. The ancient port of the Silk Road Chiwan Port Area in Shekou, Shenzhen was very active as early as the Tang and Song Dynasties, and it was an important port on the Maritime Silk Road. In recent years, a large number of copper coins hoarded in the Song Dynasty were unearthed in Shenzhen, which was related to the logistics under the auspices of the "Shiboshi Company" established in the early Song Dynasty, indicating that Chiwan had become an important commercial port for importing and exporting goods at that time. According to the Records of Xin 'an County compiled in Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty, Chiwan was the place where ancient overseas ships stayed. Xin 'an is today's Shenzhen. The county annals said: "Tianhou Palace in Chiwan, Xin 'an is a place fenced by the provincial capital. Foreign points occupy the city, Java Island, Zhenla and Sanfoqi, so you must come here by boat. "There have been some paths between the East and the West in the world since ancient times: the Silk Road, the Spice Road and the Porcelain Road. Just for a long time, people's footprints may be lost in smoke, weeds, deserts and forgetfulness. In the legendary sea, there may be floating and broken facts. History sometimes has to start over and rediscover. With the salvage of Nanhai No.1, an ocean-going merchant ship with the earliest age, the largest hull and the most complete preservation, and the only shipwreck that can witness the ancient Maritime Silk Road, its cultural relics will probably unlock more secrets of the Maritime Silk Road, which is of great scientific value to the study and restoration of the shipbuilding history, ceramics history and navigation history of the Maritime Silk Road. There have been some paths between East and West in the world since ancient times: Silk Road, Spice Road and Porcelain Road. Just for a long time, people's footprints may be lost in smoke, weeds, deserts and forgetfulness. In the legendary sea, there may be floating and broken facts. History sometimes has to start over and rediscover. With the salvage of Nanhai No.1, an ocean-going merchant ship with the earliest age, the largest hull and the most complete preservation, and the only shipwreck that can witness the ancient Maritime Silk Road, its cultural relics will probably unlock more secrets of the Maritime Silk Road, which is of great scientific value to the study and restoration of the shipbuilding history, ceramics history and navigation history of the Maritime Silk Road.