Silk Road | Asia Society Skip to main content

Unsupported Browser Detected.
It seems the web browser you're using doesn't support some of the features of this site. For the best experience, we recommend using a modern browser that supports the features of this website. We recommend Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge

  • Chinese Language Learning
    • Mandarin Jumpstart
    • National Chinese Language Conference
    • Teaching Resources Hub
    • Language Learning Supporters
  • Global Education
    • About Global Competence
    • Global Competency Resources
    • Teaching for Global Understanding
    • Thought Leadership
  • Discover Asia
  • About
    • About
    • Results and Opportunities
    • News and Events
Search
Education
  • Chinese Language Learning
    • Mandarin Jumpstart
    • National Chinese Language Conference
    • Teaching Resources Hub
    • Language Learning Supporters
  • Global Education
    • About Global Competence
    • Global Competency Resources
    • Teaching for Global Understanding
    • Thought Leadership
  • Discover Asia
  • About
    • About
    • Results and Opportunities
    • News and Events

Silk Road

Spreading Ideas and Innovations

Map of the Silk Road

by John Major

Good ideas and innovation travel easily—and far. Historically, these ideas spread along trade routes. This essay looks at the great Eurasian Silk Roads as a transmitter of people, goods, ideas, beliefs and inventions.

Good ideas travel easilyand far along trade routes, and the Silk Road was no exception to that rule. A famous example of a Chinese invention that helped to transform the world is paper. Paper was invented during the Han dynasty, probably just at the time the Silk Road trade was beginning to flourish. (Many accounts ascribe the invention of paper to a Latter Han official at the beginning of the 2nd century CE, but actual paper at least two centuries older than that has been archaeologically excavated from Han tombs.) Far superior to the narrow wooden strips or hard-to-handle rolls of silk that the Chinese had previously used for writing, paper soon became the writing material of choice throughout China and East Asia. It was found also in the Buddhist temples of China’s northwest, but seemed not to make inroads beyond that for a long time, perhaps in part because the Chinese tried to protect the secret of its manufacture, and perhaps in part also because other writing materials, such as parchment and papyrus, were well established in the west.

But under the Mongols in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a group of Chinese workmen set up a papermaking establishment in Samarkand. Their product quickly spread by trade and imitation, and paper soon supplanted other writing materials in most of western Eurasia.

In China, the invention of paper stimulated the invention of printing, sometime during the 6th century CE—a development energetically supported by Buddhism, according to which the duplication of sacred texts was an act of religious merit. The re-invention of printing in Europe centuries later did not employ East Asian-style printing technology, but it may have been stimulated by accounts of Chinese printing that could have circulated in the Middle East.

Another invention that spread entirely across Eurasia was the noria, or irrigation waterwheel. This simple, ingenious device, invented in Roman Syria, consists of a vertical waterwheel to the rim of which are attached a series of pots or tubes. As the current of a river rotates the wheel, the pots fill with water at the bottom of the cycle and empty into a chute at the top; a large noria can lift water as much as forty feet with no input of human or animal energy. This inspired invention was obviously a good idea, and rapidly spread along the Silk Road and its tributaries. There is a famous example in Toledo, Spain, others along the upper reaches of the Yellow River in China, and many more in between.

Foodstuffs also count in this category of the travel of ideas and techniques Apples spread, in prehistoric times via the steppe belt, in both directions from the region of modern-day Kazakhstan; oranges went (via the maritime route) from China to the Mediterranean world; grapes went from the western reaches of the Silk Road to China.

These examples and dozens more that could be mentioned make the point clear: ideas, inventions, devices and techniques spread readily and far along the Silk Road, and the traffic was very much a two way, or perhaps one should say a multi-way, street. In the process the Silk Road enriched not just the merchants who carried and exchanged goods, but the people of countries and cultures all across Eurasia.

It is perhaps worth noting, however, that long-distance trade can have unexpectedly bad side effects as well as direct beneficial effects. For example, the Black Death plague that devastated Europe in the 14th century is believed to have come via the Silk Road from Central Asia, where plague is endemic among local rodents. One theory holds that a load of marmot pelts (destined to be used on fur-trimmed garments), contaminated with plague-bearing flea eggs, was brought from somewhere in Central Asia to a Middle Eastern port. There the eggs hatched into fleas that infested some local rats; some of the rats eventually went on shipboard and were carried to port cities in Italy. There the plague spread, via fleas, to other rats, and then to people; and a disaster was in the making.

Additional Background Reading on Asia

China's world cup fans
article

China’s World Cup 'Craze'

Why were there so many Chinese fans in the bleachers at this year's FIFA World Cup, when the Chinese team wasn’t even on the field? Student Jerry Tian gives us his perspective.
Tsinghua University, East Gate

China's Education System: The Oldest in the World

It may sound incredible, but China’s formal education system—the oldest in the world—was established nearly two millennia ago.
Tang Dynasty copy of 新婦地黃湯帖 by Wang Xianzhi (Taito Ward Calligraphy Museum). Image is in the public domain.

Revelations from the Brush

A case for practicing calligraphy from one learner's perspective.
A painting that has traces of the three teachings (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Three Teachings

How Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism complement one another. Read on to learn about the "fourth teaching."
Early Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty

Writing and Technology in China

How the development of writing, paper, the printing press, and internet continues to change China.
Beijing women pose in the courtyard of a Chinese home. (Okinawa Soba/flick)

Women in Traditional China

An overview of women's roles in Chinese society over time.
Tale of Kiêu
article

Tale of Kiêu

A classic story known by all Vietnamese.
Geography of China (mote/flickr)
article

Understanding the Geography of China

This background essay introduces the diversity of China's natural and man-made features.
Map of the Silk Road

Silk Road

This essay looks at the great Eurasian Silk Roads as a transmitter of people, goods, ideas, beliefs, and inventions.
Genghis Khan's Monument in Hohhot, Inner Mogolia, China.
article

The Mongol Dynasty

Kublai Khan, grandson of Ghengis Khan, ruled as an intellect and a warrior to create one of the greatest empires in history.
South Korean flag.
article

Taegeuk

Delve into the profound philosophical significance of the South Korean flag.
Page from a manuscript of the Shahnama (Beesnest_McClain/Flickr)
article

Shahnama: The Book of Kings

Learn about the political and social changes under Iran's Safavid Dynasty by examining the Book of Kings.
Temple in Vietnam (vicguinda/Flickr)
article

Religion in Vietnam

An introductory essay on Vietnamese world view throughout the ages.
A Christian shrine in the Philippines (lyng883/Flickr)
article

Religion in the Philippines

The Philippines boasts to be the only Christian nation in Asia. Learn about its religious diversity and history.
A Daoist statue in Beijing, China. (ulrichsson/flickr)

Daoism

Daoism has folk roots in China but was popularized by the Laozi in the 5th century BCE.
The Research Institution of Confucianism in China. (kanegen/flickr)

Confucianism

An essay on Confucianism: its roots, premise, impact on society over time and modern incarnations.
Early 17th cent. Chinese woodblock print, thought to represent Zheng He's ships.

Chinese Trade in the Indian Ocean

China's Ming Dynasty treasure ships realized trade networks and diplomatic missions as far as Africa and the Red Sea.
Graphic of Chinese characters

Chinese Language

A set-the-record-straight essay that breaks down the common misconceptions about Chinese language.

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Next page Next
  • Last page Last

You Might Also Like

  • Math, Science, and Technology in India

    A tour de force essay written by Dr. Roddham Narasimha.
  • Writing and Technology in China

    How the development of writing, paper, the printing press, and internet continues to change China.
  • Silk Road

    This essay looks at the great Eurasian Silk Roads as a transmitter of people, goods, ideas, beliefs, and inventions.
  • Chinese Language

    A set-the-record-straight essay that breaks down the common misconceptions about Chinese language.
  • Chinese Calligraphy

    An introductory essay on the art of Chinese writing.
About
  • Mission & History
  • Our People
  • Become a Member
  • Career Opportunities
  • Corporate Involvement
visit us
  • Hong Kong
  • New York
  • Texas
global network
  • Australia
  • France
  • India
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Northern California
  • Philippines
  • Southern California
  • Switzerland
  • Washington, D.C.
resources
  • Arts
  • Asia Society Magazine
  • ChinaFile
  • Current Affairs
  • Education
  • For Kids
  • Policy
  • Video
shop
  • AsiaStore
initiatives
  • Arts & Museum Summit
  • Asia 21 Next Generation Fellows
  • Asia Arts Game Changer Awards
  • Asia Game Changer Awards
  • Asia Society Museum: The Asia Arts & Museum Network
  • Asia Society Policy Institute
  • Asian Women Empowered
  • Center on U.S.-China Relations
  • Coal + Ice
  • Creative Voices of Muslim Asia
  • Global Cities Education Network
  • Global Talent Initiatives
  • U.S.-Asia Entertainment Summit
  • U.S.-China Dialogue
  • U.S.-China Museum Summit
Connect
Email Signup For the media
Asia Society logo
©2023 Asia Society | Privacy Statement | Accessibility | Terms & Conditions | Sitemap | Contact

Asia Society takes no institutional position on policy issues and has no affiliation with any government.
The views expressed by Asia Society staff, fellows, experts, report authors, program speakers, board members, and other affiliates are solely their own. Learn more.

 

 

  • Visit Us
  • Hong Kong
  • New York
  • Texas
  • Global Network
  • Australia
  • France
  • India
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Northern California
  • Philippines
  • Southern California
  • Switzerland
  • Washington, DC