INQ 270
Spring 2011
Roanoke College
Instructor: Dr. Stella Xu
The Silk Road:
Did globalization exist in the premodern era?
Required Textbooks
• Bentley, Jerry H., Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and
Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times . Oxford University Press, 1993.
•
• Hayashi, Ryoichi, The Silk Road & the Shoso-In.
Weatherhill/Heibonsha ser., 6. 1975.
•
• Wriggins, Sally H., Xuanzang, A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road,
Westview, 1997.
•
• Wood, Michael, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. California,
1997.
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• Yu, Anthony trans., Journey to the West.
•
• Komroff, Manuel ed., The Travels of Marco Polo, New York:
Liverright, 2003.
• Liu, Xinru, The Silk Road, American Historian Association
Essays on Global & Comp. History Series.
• Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road, Berkeley, Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1999.
• Foltz, Richard C.. Religions of the Silk Road. Overland Trade
and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth
Century, New York :St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Week 1:
Introduction to the Silk Road
Reading: Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road,
Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1999.
Lecture
– 1) What is the Silk Road? Why the Silk Road, especially
now?
– 2) Geographical and environmental landscape of the Silk
Road;
– 3) The long-lasting interests in the Silk Road, especially
from the twentieth century;
– 4) Globalization in the contemporary period;
Week 2
Historical background of the Silk Road:
• Reading: Roger Ames, “The Confucian Worldview:
Uncommon assumptions, common misconceptions”. In D.
Jones & E.R. Klein ed., Asian Test-Asian Contexts: Encounter
with Asian Philosophies and Religions. Albany, NY: SUNY
Press, pp30-46.
• Nicolas Di Cosma, Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise
of Nomadic Power in East Asian History, Cambridge
University Press, 2004.
• 1) The origin and popularization of Confucianism and Daoism
in China
• 2) The beginning of the Silk Road during the Han period (war
with the Xiongnu and trans-regional trade)
• 3) Han China’s initial contact with Central Asia;
Week 3:
Buddhism from India to East Asia
• Reading:
• 1) Origin of Buddhism, Buddhism in India;
• 2) Dissemination of Buddhism to China; Buddhist missionary
and translation projects;
•
Buddhism as a foreign religion and the later sinfication of
Buddhism in China;
• 3) Buddhism versus Confucianism & Daoism –conflict and
compromise
•
Week 4:
Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Culture
• Reading: Wood, Michael, In the Footsteps of Alexander the
Great. California, 1997.
•
1) Alexander’s invasion to India;
•
2) Buddhist art; the impact of Hellenism to Buddhist
sculpture;
• Film: In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great: Across the
Khyber Pass
Week 5: Tang Dynasty
The Peak of the Silk Road, the climax of East West
trade and cultural interaction
• Reading: Wriggins, Sally H., Xuanzang, A Buddhist Pilgrim on
the Silk Road, Westview, 1997.
•
•
•
1) Cosmopolitan society of the Tang;
2) Pilgrimage of Xuanzang to India,
3) New denomination of Buddhism.
Week 6: Dunhuang—
The Cave Grotto of Buddhism on the Dessert—
• Reading:
Whitfield, Roderik. Cave Temples of Mogao: Art and History on
the Silk Road. Getty Conservation Institute , 2004.
• Rediscovery of the Dunhuang Cave and the importance of
newly found artifacts and documents
Week 7:
Eastern Extension of the Silk Road: Korea and
Japan
• Reading:
• Hayashi, Ryoichi, The Silk Road & the Shoso-In.
Weatherhill/Heibonsha ser., 6. 1975.
• 1) Travel of Koreans and Japanese (monks, students,
merchants) to Tang China
• 2) Buddhist pilgrimage and translation project;
Week 8:
Muslims and Christians along the Silk Road
• Reading: Religions of the Silk Road. Overland Trade and
Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century, St.
Martin’s Press: New York
•
• 1) Islam
• 2) Christianity
• 3) Interaction of trade and religion
• Discussion for the final paper topic.
Week 9:
The Mongol Empire
• Reading: Komroff, Manuel ed., The Travels of Marco Polo,
New York: Liverright, 2003
• 1) The expansion and the establishment of the Mongol Empire
• 2) Travel of Marco Polo: Did Marco Polo really go to China?
• 3) Trade and cultural interaction across Eurasia
Week 10:
Maritime Silk Road
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Reading:
1) Southeast Asia in the global trade network
2) Accounts from other Silk Road travelers --Ibn Batutta
Group #1 :Paper presentation.
Week 11:
China’s Maritime Explorations
• Zheng He and his voyages to Southeast Asia and Africa—
mission for peace or colonization?
• Ming Dynasty: the inward transition to focus on domestic
affairs
•
• Reading:
• Dreyer, Edward. Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early
Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433, Longman, 2006
•
• Group # 2 Paper presentation.
Week 12:
Fictions on the Silk Road
• Reading: Journey to the West:
A text of Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, or the combination of
three?
• Group # 3 Paper presentation.
Week 13
Retrospect and Prospect
• Is the Silk Road still a proper term for defining the connection
and interaction of East and West during the premodern era?
• How did the Silk Road help to understand the current status
and predict the future of globalization?
• US and China in the twenty-first century--Media and the
reality
Week 14
• Final Paper due