• Acta Via Serica
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.131-148
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• 2022

While much has been written about Imperial Japan's encounter with geopolitics and developing ideas about Geography as a political and cultural discipline, little if anything has been written about relational and research Geographies between Japan and Silk Roads both ancient and modern. Memories of the ancient Silk Road were revivified in the late 19^th century in tandem with the Great Game of European nations, as Japan modernized and sought new places and influence globally following the Meiji restoration. Imperial Japan thus sought to conquer and co-opt spaces imagined to be part of or influenced by the ancient Silk Road and any modern manifestation of it. This paper explores a particular process in that co-option and appropriation, research collaboration between institutions of the Empire. In particular it considers the exploration of Mengjiang/Inner Mongolia after its conquest in 1939/1940, by a collaborative team of Korean and Japanese Geographers, led by Professor Tada Fumio. This paper considers the making knowable of spaces imagined to be on the ancient Silk Road in the Imperial period, and the projecting of the imperatives of the Empire back into Silk Road history, at the same time as such territory was being made anew. This paper also casts new light on the relational and collaborative processes of academic exchange, specifically in the field of Geography, between Korean and Japanese academics during the Korean colonial period.

• 해양환경안전학회:학술대회논문집
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• 해양환경안전학회 2017년도 공동학술발표회
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• pp.153-153
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• 2017

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.31-47
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• 2017

The corridors to the north and south of the $Takl{\bar{a}}m{\bar{a}}k{\bar{a}}n$ (塔克拉瑪干 Ta-ke-la-ma-gan) Desert are the most important regions for cultural confluence on the Silk Road, where caravans made it to the Chinese capital or the Korean Peninsula by the northern road, through the city of Turfan, or the southern path of Khutan. Being an important part of the Silk Road in the course of history, this region was heavily influenced by the cultures of various nations and ethnic communities whose merchants utilized the road to advance their business. The region's language, writing system and literary structure were also affected, so much so that in the course of its tumultuous history, many words, phrases and terms belonging to neighboring cultures found their way into the region, leaving their mark on its linguistic structure. Of the cultural exchanges that took place between the peoples of the region, conspicuous traces can be seen in the architecture, music, literature, texts, and inscriptions. Located in the Turfan region, the minaret of Su Gong (蘇公 Su Gong ) is host to an inscription which bears many signs of such exchanges. As so far no independent research has been conducted to identify the cultural, literary and structural features conveyed in this inscription, the present paper is an attempt to study the inscription in terms of the script, language and syntax in order to unravel the effects of cultures prevalent on the Silk Road on this particular inscription. This study mainly aims to investigate the linguistic structure of the inscription and the impact of the Persian language on Silk Road culture. In fact, we approach the inscription as a symbol of cultural exchange on the Silk Road and will focus on the tradition of Persian inscription-making which affected the Turfan inscription.

• Asian review of World Histories
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.105-127
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• 2014

The Silk Road, a trans-Eurasian network of trade routes connecting East and Southeast Asia to Central Asia, India, Southwest Asia, the Mediterranean, and northern Europe, which flourished from roughly 100 BCE to around 1450, has enjoyed two modern eras of intense academic study. The first spanned a period of little more than five decades, from the late nineteenth century into the early1930s, when a succession of European, Japanese, and American scholar-adventurers, working primarily in Chinese Turkestan (present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which comprises China's vast northwest) and China's Gansu Province (to the immediate east of Xinjiang) rediscovered and often looted many of the ancient sites and artifacts of the Silk Road. The second era began to pick up momentum in the 1980s due to a number of geopolitical, cultural, and technological realities as well as the emergence of the New World History as a historiographical field and area of teaching. This second period of fascination with the Silk Road has resulted in not only a substantial body of both learned and popular publications as well as productions in other media but also in an ever-expanding sense among historians of the scope, reach, and significance of the Silk Road.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.125-146
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• 2019

This paper deals with the question of the origin of polo. Although it is a sport that has been mainly active in the West since the nineteenthcentury, it is well known that British troops in the northern part of Pakistan learned about the sport from the local people there. Most agree that the origin of polo is Iran. However, in this paper, rather than specifying a specific area as the birthplace of polo, it is argued that polo was a cultural phenomenon commonly found on the Silk Road. This is based on the fact that polo has been known for centuries in China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan, as well as throughout Iran, northern India, Tibet, Central Asia, and the Uighur Autonomous Region. Yet, the transmission of polo cannot be traced chronologically according to the supposed propagation route. This cultural phenomenon has changed over a long period of time according to the local environment, and the change was caused by mutual exchanges, not by one party. Therefore, there are limitations to interpreting cultural phenomena linearly. Thus, the origin of polo could also be identified with another area, namely Baltistan in modern day Pakistan, instead of Iran. These results support the argument that to understand Silk Road civilization, a process-centric approach based on 'exchanges', not a method of exploring archetypes to find 'the place of origin', should be utilized. Polo is undoubtedly an important cultural artifact with which to read the Silk Road as a cultural belt complex, as well as an example of the common culture created by the whole Silk Road.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.71-86
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• 2019

Transnational exchange has been an inseparable part of both the ancient and modern Silk Road. This paper shows how Rumi (1207-1273), a famous Persian Sufi poet, travels along the Silk Road in the $21^{st}$ century. With the birth of a Rumi phenomenon in the West, Silk Road artists have rediscovered and adapted him for different purposes. Elif Shafak, the Turkish-British novelist and women's rights activist, espouses feminist beliefs in her bestseller, The Forty Rules of Love (2010). Benefiting from the views of feminist theorists like Woolf, de Beauvoir and Friedan, this paper reveals how Shafak appropriates Rumi for her feminist purposes. Forty Rules of Love's protagonist, Ella Rubinstein is analyzed, compared and contrasted with her former literary counterparts Pinhan and Zeliha, heroines of Shafak's previous novels. By adapting Rumi's definition of equality, Shafak shows how egalitarianism must pervade the relationship between women and men. The adaptation of Rumi's ideas regarding the equality of sexes finds a different dimension when Shafak reveals that all humanity possesses femininity and masculinity at the same time. By means of ideas prevalent in the ancient Silk Road, the five classical elements theory, and the yin and yang principle, Shafak portrays unity within contradictions. It is concluded that although individuals might belong to different typologies of the five symbolic elements of nature, they can at the same time complement one another's inharmonious personalities peacefully. The process of integration of female and male sexes can be expedited by opening up one's heart to a universal love.

• 한국의류학회지
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• 제47권1호
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• pp.191-213
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• 2023

Romans in the fifth and sixth centuries BC referred to the people who brought silk from the Far East via the pre-Han (漢) silk road as "Seres". The Seres' colorful silk was characterized by intricate patterns and high yarn density, markedly different than thin "China silk". This study examined geographic and genealogic records and linguistic evidence and found support for the syllogistic conclusion that the "Seres" were the early Silla people. The Seres' territory in the seventh century BC was much larger than that of the Qin (秦) or Zhou (周), extending from Xinjiang to Balhae. According to literature records, Dong-Yi (東夷) invented Geum (錦) silk in the 11th century BC around Balhae, where silkworm trees were abundant. In the Han dynasty, even thin silk was rare and expensive, but in Gojoseon (古朝鮮), Geum silk was common and less valuable than beads. The Silla delivered surplus Geum silk, fur, and high-quality iron to the West. Linguistic evidence includes historical names for Silla: "Sira," "Saro," and "Sere," as well as records naming King Ruri of Silla "Seri-Ji"; and the replacement of the word "Seres" by the word "Silk" from the Goguryeo word for "yarn winder": "sil-kkury".

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.91-106
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• 2018

During the Old Uighur period, many works were translated into Old Uighur under the influence of Buddhism. Among these works, literary works such as $Da{\acute{s}}akarmapath{\bar{a}}vad{\bar{a}}nam{\bar{a}}l{\bar{a}}$ hold an important place. These works were usually translated from Pali to Sanskrit, from Sanskrit to Sogdian, Tocharian and Chinese, and to Old Uighur from these languages. These works which were added to the Old Uighur repertoire by translation indicate that different peoples along the ancient Silk Road had deep linguistic interactions with one another. Aside from these works, other narratives that we have been so far unable to determine whether they were translations, adaptations or original works have also been discovered. The Tale of King Chashtana, which was found in the work titled $Da{\acute{s}}akarmapath{\bar{a}}vad{\bar{a}}nam{\bar{a}}l{\bar{a}}$, is one of the tales we have been unable to classify as a translation or an original work. This tale has never been discovered with this title or this content in the languages of any of the peoples that were exposed to Buddhism along the Silk Road. On the other hand, the person whom the protagonist of this tale was named after has a very important place in the history of India, one of the countries that the Silk Road goes through. Saka Mahakshatrapa Chashtana (or Cashtana), a contemporary of Nahapana, declared himself king in Gujarat. A short time later, Chashtana, having invaded Ujjain and Maharashtra, established a powerful Saka kingdom in the west of India. His descendants reigned in the region for a long time. Another important fact about Chashtana is that coinage minted in his name was used all along the Silk Road. Chashtana, who became a significant historical figure in north western India, inspired the name of the protagonist of a tale in Old Uighur. That it is probable that the tale of King Chashtana is an original Old Uighur tale and not found in any other languages of the Silk Road brings some questions to mind: Who is Chashtana, the hero of the story? Is he related to the Saka king Chashtana in any way? What sort of influence did Chashtana have on the Silk Road and its languages? If this tale which we have never encountered in any other language of the Silk Road is indeed an original tale, why did the Old Uighurs use the name of an important Saka ruler? Is Saka-Uighur contact in question, given tales of this kind? What can we say about the historical and cultural geography of the Silk Road, given the fact that coinage was minted in his name and used along the Silk Road? In this study, I will attempt to answer these questions and share the information we have gleaned about Chashtana the hero of the tale and the Saka king Chashtana. One of the main aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between the narrative hero Chashtana and the Saka king Chashtana according to this information. Another aim of this study is to understand the history of the Saka, the Uighur and the Silk Road and to reveal the relationship between these three important subjects of history. The importance of the Silk Road will be emphasized again with the understanding of these relations. In this way, new information about Chashtana, who is an important name in the history of the India and the Silk Road, will be put forward. The history of the Sakas will be viewed from a different perspective through the Old Uighur Buddhist story.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.161-180
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• 2018

Pax Sinica is a historiographical term, modeled after the original phrase Pax Romana. It refers, in Latin, to a Chinese-provided peace which in turn is used to describe an era of peace in East Asia sustained by Chinese hegemony. In historical terms, both the Pax Sinica of the Eastern hemisphere through Han China and the Pax Romana of the Western hemisphere through Rome signified a trans-regional order based on rules and regulations. This orderly world of the Pax Sinica generated a number of positive results such as the intensification of travel, ever-expanding trade relations, an increase in the overall living standards of the populace, the proliferation of cities, and a demographic upsurge in Eurasia along the ancient Silk Road. During this period, China was the dominant civilization not only in the Eastern hemisphere but also in the Middle hemisphere due to its political, economic, military and cultural influence. This paper aims to reintroduce this historiographical term to elucidate the recent Chinese initiatives in Eurasia along the Silk Road to facilitate the integration and connectivity of the continent.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.112-129
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• 2018

Produced by Chinese local television stations, Maritime Silk Road is a documentary which adopts ancient Maritime Silk Road as a historical nostalgia to interpret "the Belt and Road Initiative", a contemporary Chinese economic, political, and cultural strategy put forward by Chinese government mainly aiming at the countries of Southeast Asia. The main body of this article has three parts and the first part analyses how the documentary adopts computer-generated imagery (CGI) to create a historical nostalgia about ancient Maritime Silk Road in the period of Imperial China. At the same time, this part also presents a sense of diasporic nostalgia of the overseas Chinese. This historical and diasporic nostalgia is related to Chinese President Xi Jinping's political discourse: "Chinese dream" that propagandises to build a strong China put forward by Xi in 2013. The second part analyses how this historical and diasporic nostalgia legitimates Xi's "Chinese dream" and how it responds to recent territorial dispute when China continuously claims its territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea. In this light, the documentary repeatedly mentions two political rhetoric: "coexistence" (gongcun) and "mutual benefit"(huli gongying) as a practical strategy to deal with the dispute between China and some countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In the third section, the concept of "community of common destiny" (mingyun gongtongti) is adopted by the documentary to depict a convenient and effective organization of China and ASEAN, which is framed as an ultimate goal that Chinese government is depicted as the potential leader of this nostalgic community. At the same time, by providing different and even opposite viewpoints, this article discusses three controversial political rhetoric to present how historical and diasporic nostalgia is politicalized and served for Chinese diplomacy and national interest. Overall, this article argues that the documentary creates a glorious ancient Maritime Silk Road, as a sense of nostalgia, to expand China's economic and political influence, to respond to the controversial issues, and to reassert China's leadership as the centre of Asia.