Silk Road for Educators Workshop
Nicole Gilbertson
gilbertn@uci.edu
949-824-2057
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/history/ucihp/
Silk Road in the Standards:
6.6 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures
of the early civilizations of China.
7.
Cite the significance of the trans-Eurasian "silk roads" in the period of the Han Dynasty and
Roman Empire and their locations.
8.
Describe the diffusion of Buddhism northward to China during the Han Dynasty.
7.3 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures
of the civilizations of China in the Middle Ages.
4.
Describe the reunification of China under the Tang Dynasty and reasons for the spread of
Buddhism in Tang China, Korea, and Japan.
5.
Understand the importance of both overland trade and maritime expeditions between China and
other civilizations in the Mongol Ascendancy and Ming Dynasty.
6.
Trace the historic influence of such discoveries as tea, the manufacture of paper, wood-block
printing, the compass, and gunpowder.
Websites for the Silk Road
Columbia University’s Asia for Educators includes primary sources, timelines, maps, and
video clips developed by leading scholars.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/
Silk Road Seattle has a thematic approach that includes many images and essays on
topics such as architecture, religion, food, geography, and animals.
http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/index.html
Online Museum Resources on Asian Art has a description and links to major museums’
internet collections of Silk Road exhibits. Museums include the British Museum and the
Smithsonian.
http://afemuseums.easia.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/museums/search.cgi/topic?topic_id=148
American Museum of Natural History Silk Road exhibit
http://www.amnh.org/
Primary Sources
*Description of women riders in the T’ang period
“Treatise on Carriage and Dress” in the Old Tang History
at the beginning of the Kai-yuan period [713-742] the palace ladies
who rode behind the carriages all wore central Asian hats, exposing
the face, without a veil. Suddenly, their hair also was exposed when
they broke into a gallop. Some were wearing men’s dress and boots.
From Osvald Siren, Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principals citation in
Michael Sullivan, The Arts of China, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
Pp.139-140.
*Description of Ch’ang-an capital city of Tang Emperors
Ban Gu, Chinese Poet of Tang period
In the nine markets they set up bazaars, Their wares separated by type, their
shop rows distinctly divided. There was no room for people to turn their heads,
Or for chariots to wheel about. People crammed into the city, spilled into the
suburbs, Everywhere streaming into the hundreds of shops.
Translated by David Knechtges; cited by Xiong, p. 165. found on website:
http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/china/xian/xian.html
*Discussion of burial preparations
Chu His's Family Rituals
Prepare the lower-world furnishings. This refers to the bed curtains,
cushions, armrests, tables and the like. These should also resemble
those used in life but be smaller.
Prepare the container. There should be one with a bamboo cover, to
hold the offerings of wine and meat.
Prepare baskets. There should be one with a bamboo cover, to hold
the five grains.
Prepare earthenware jars. There should be three made of pottery to
hold the wine and dried meat.
Chu His's Family Rituals, translated by Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Princeton University
Press, 1991, p109.
THE 6 C’S of PRIMARY SOURCE ANALYSIS
CONTENT
Main Idea
CITATION
Author/Creator
Describe in detail what you see.
When was this created?
CONTEXT
CONNECTIONS
What is going on in the world, the country, the region,
or the locality when this was created?
Prior Knowledge
Link the primary source to other things that you already know
or have learned about.
COMMUNICATION
CONCLUSIONS
Point-of-view or bias
How does the primary source contribute to our
understanding of history?
Is this source reliable?
What questions do you have about this source?
What other source might you need to gain a deeper understandings of
the topic?
HISTORICAL SOURCE ANALYSIS
CONTENT
CONNECTIONS
What is it talking about?
How does this connect to what you
already know?
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
COMMUNICATIONS
How does this express bias
or point of view?
TYPE OF SOURCE:
CONCLUSIONS
How can we now asnswer
the essential question?