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Humanities
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Further Explorations Along the Silk Road
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Further Explorations Along the Silk Road

A special issue of Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2019) | Viewed by 51233

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Geoffrey Kain

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Arts & Sciences, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL 32114-3900, USA
Interests: silk road studies; postcolonial and globalization studies; South Asian Literatures in translation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Silk Road provides a unifying focus for a broad and eclectic set of possible subjects tied to the evolving establishment of the great ancient trade route/s over more than a millennium. While much has been discovered and written (especially since the late nineteenth century) about the origins and development of this trans-Eurasian conduit of ideas, cultures, and materials, much more certainly remains to be discovered and written, as well. In this special issue, we hope to contribute to the expanding field of knowledge surrounding the Silk Road, involving new and intriguing insights in a host of areas, from art and architecture to economics and politics, from the contributions of nomads to the rich and potent forces of empires, from methods of navigation and emergent technologies to the motivating forces of religions. The lore and allure, the synthesizing and cross-pollinating power of the Silk Road will be represented in this diverse yet cohesive volume.

Please send proposal to

Geoffrey Kain

: Geoffrey.Kain@erau.edu

As of 2018, the Article Processing Charges for papers published in the journal will be covered via the Knowledge Unlatched crowd-funding mechanism. For more details, please see:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities/announcements/1023

Prof. Dr. Geoffrey Kain
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Silk Road
  • nomads
  • Great Wall
  • Chang’an
  • Mogao
  • Bactria
  • Serindian
  • Sassanids
  • Mongol Empire
  • sericulture
  • Buddhist art
  • Palmyra
  • Mahayana
  • Islam
  • animism
  • Gandhara
  • Hexi corridor
  • Kushans
  • Tarim Basin
  • Parthians
  • Sogdians
  • Xiongnu
  • Aurel Stein

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

31 pages, 14702 KiB  
Article
Images of the Crowned Buddha along the Silk Road: Iconography and Ideology
by Rebecca L. Twist
Humanities 2018, 7(4), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/h7040092 - 21 Sep 2018
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 8507
Abstract
The interpretation of early Buddha images with a crown has long been a source of debate. Many scholars have concluded that the iconography of the crown is intended to denote Śākyamuni as a cakravartin or universal Buddha. A few have suggested it represents [...] Read more.
The interpretation of early Buddha images with a crown has long been a source of debate. Many scholars have concluded that the iconography of the crown is intended to denote Śākyamuni as a cakravartin or universal Buddha. A few have suggested it represents a sambhogakāya Buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. This art historical and Buddhological study examines the visual record of early crowned Buddhas along the Silk Road, focusing on the iconographic signifiers of the crown, silk items, and ornaments, and interprets them within a broader framework of Buddhist theoretical principals and practice. Not only is this a visual analysis of iconography, it also considers contemporary Buddhist literary evidence that shows the development of the iconography and ideology of the crowned Buddha. As a result of this examination, I propose that the recurring iconographic evidence and the textual evidence underscore the intention to depict a form of sambhogakāya Buddha as an early esoteric meditational construct. Moreover, many Buddhas perform one of the two mudrās that are particular to the esoteric form of Vairocana Buddha. Therefore, the iconography also signifies the ideology of the archetypal Ādi Buddha as an esoteric conception. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Further Explorations Along the Silk Road)
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37 pages, 22459 KiB  
Article
Silk Road Influences on the Art of Seals: A Study of the Song Yuan Huaya
by Andrea Jian Chen
Humanities 2018, 7(3), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/h7030083 - 15 Aug 2018
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 7355
Abstract
Song Yuan Huaya (the Huaya of the Song and Yuan Dynasties) is a type of seal featuring figurative patterns and sometimes decorated with ciphered or ethnic characters. Their origins are the Song and Yuan Dynasties, although their influence extends to the Ming (1368–1644 [...] Read more.
Song Yuan Huaya (the Huaya of the Song and Yuan Dynasties) is a type of seal featuring figurative patterns and sometimes decorated with ciphered or ethnic characters. Their origins are the Song and Yuan Dynasties, although their influence extends to the Ming (1368–1644 CE) and Qing (1644–1912 CE) Dynasties. Although it is based on the Chinese Han seal tradition, Song Yuan Huaya exhibits various elements from the influence of the Silk Road. This is thought to be the first time in Han seal history that the Steppe culture can be seen so abundantly on private seals. This paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyse, probably for the first time in the field, some cases of Song Yuan Huaya, in which a dialogue between the Han seal tradition and Silk Road culture occurs. The findings will hopefully advance the understanding of the complicated nature of the art history, society, peoples, and ethnic relationships in question, and will serve as the starting point for further studies of intercultural communication during specific historical periods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Further Explorations Along the Silk Road)
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8 pages, 826 KiB  
Article
Soviet Central Asia and the Preservation of History
by Craig Benjamin
Humanities 2018, 7(3), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/h7030073 - 20 Jul 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6118
Abstract
Central Asia has one of the deepest and richest histories of any region on the planet. First settled some 6500 years ago by oasis-based farming communities, the deserts, steppe and mountains of Central Asia were subsequently home to many pastoral nomadic confederations, and [...] Read more.
Central Asia has one of the deepest and richest histories of any region on the planet. First settled some 6500 years ago by oasis-based farming communities, the deserts, steppe and mountains of Central Asia were subsequently home to many pastoral nomadic confederations, and also to large scale complex societies such as the Oxus Civilization and the Parthian and Kushan Empires. Central Asia also functioned as the major hub for trans-Eurasian trade and exchange networks during three distinct Silk Roads eras. Throughout much of the second millennium of the Common Era, then under the control of a succession of Turkic and Persian Islamic dynasties, already impressive trading cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand were further adorned with superb madrassas and mosques. Many of these suffered destruction at the hands of the Mongols in the 13th century, but Timur and his Timurid successors rebuilt the cities and added numerous impressive buildings during the late-14th and early-15th centuries. Further superb buildings were added to these cities by the Shaybanids during the 16th century, yet thereafter neglect by subsequent rulers, and the drying up of Silk Roads trade, meant that, by the mid-18th century when expansive Tsarist Russia began to incorporate these regions into its empire, many of the great pre- and post-Islamic buildings of Central Asia had fallen into ruin. This colonization of the region by the Russians, and its later incorporation into the Union of Society Socialist Republics in 1919, brought Central Asia to the attention of Russian and Soviet archaeologists and urban planners. It was these town planners and engineers who were eventually responsible for preserving many of the decaying monuments and historic urban cores of Central Asia, despite the often-challenging ideological constraints they were forced to work under. The paper focuses particularly on the effect of these preservation policy decisions in Uzbekistan, where the process has been best documented. It argues that Soviet authorities struggled constantly with ways of recognizing the need for historical preservation while at the same time creating a new society that had cast off the shackles of its ‘feudal past’. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Further Explorations Along the Silk Road)
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15 pages, 266 KiB  
Article
Aurel Stein and the Kiplings: Silk Road Pathways of Converging and Reciprocal Inspiration
by Geoffrey Kain
Humanities 2018, 7(3), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/h7030068 - 10 Jul 2018
Viewed by 6977
Abstract
Biographies of the renowned linguistic scholar and archaeological explorer Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) inevitably yet briefly refer to the role played by John Lockwood Kipling (1837–1911), as curator of the Lahore Museum—with its extensive collection of ancient Gandharan Greco-Buddhist sculpture—in exciting Stein’s [...] Read more.
Biographies of the renowned linguistic scholar and archaeological explorer Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) inevitably yet briefly refer to the role played by John Lockwood Kipling (1837–1911), as curator of the Lahore Museum—with its extensive collection of ancient Gandharan Greco-Buddhist sculpture—in exciting Stein’s interests in and theories of what likely lay buried under the sands of the Taklamakan Desert. A more insistent focus on the coalescing influences in the Stein-Kipling relationship, including a subsequent line of evident inspiration from Stein to the internationally famed author and Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling (Lockwood’s son; 1865–1936), helps to synthesize some of the highlights of Stein’s first expedition into the remote Tarim Basin of Chinese Turkestan, including and involving the forgeries manufactured by the Uyghur treasure-seeker Islam Akhun. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Further Explorations Along the Silk Road)
11 pages, 2687 KiB  
Article
Rethinking China’s Frontier: Archaeological Finds Show the Hexi Corridor’s Rapid Emergence as a Regional Power
by Heather Clydesdale
Humanities 2018, 7(3), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/h7030063 - 23 Jun 2018
Viewed by 6470
Abstract
The Chinese government’s expansion of infrastructure in Gansu province has led to the discovery of a number of important ancient tombs in the Hexi Corridor, a thousand kilometer stretch of the Silk Roads linking China to Central Asia. This study investigates recent finds [...] Read more.
The Chinese government’s expansion of infrastructure in Gansu province has led to the discovery of a number of important ancient tombs in the Hexi Corridor, a thousand kilometer stretch of the Silk Roads linking China to Central Asia. This study investigates recent finds in the context of older excavations to draw a more cohesive picture of the dramatic cultural and political changes on China’s western frontier in the Wei-Jin period (220–317 CE). A survey of archaeological reports and an analysis of tomb distribution along with structural and decorative complexity indicate that after the fall of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), the nexus of regional power shifted from the eastern Hexi Corridor to Jiuquan and Dunhuang in the west. This phenomenon was related in the rise of magnate families, who emerged from Han dynasty soldier-farmer colonies and helped catalyze the region’s transformation from a military outpost to a semi-autonomous, prosperous haven that absorbed cultural influences from multiple directions. This dynamism, in turn, set the stage for the Hexi Corridor’s ascent as a center of Buddhist art in the fifth and sixth centuries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Further Explorations Along the Silk Road)
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10 pages, 38372 KiB  
Article
A Preliminary Discussion of Some Important Discoveries Regarding Seaport Sites for Porcelain Shipping in the Jin Dynasty
by Jing Wu
Humanities 2018, 7(2), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/h7020041 - 23 Apr 2018
Viewed by 4094
Abstract
The seaports of the Jin dynasty have not been given enough attention for a long time. In recent years, some important seaport sites of the Jin dynasty have been discovered or reported, for example the Haifengzhen (海丰镇) site in Hebei Province, and the [...] Read more.
The seaports of the Jin dynasty have not been given enough attention for a long time. In recent years, some important seaport sites of the Jin dynasty have been discovered or reported, for example the Haifengzhen (海丰镇) site in Hebei Province, and the Haibei (海北) and Banqiaozhen (板桥镇) sites in Shandong Province. Based on these discoveries and other related information, we can try to analyze and infer the function and system of these seaports in the Jin dynasty. Firstly, Banqiaozhen Shi Bo Si (市舶司), the Northern Song Dynasty’s only foreign trade administration in the north of China, suffered a great deal of damage during the war at the end of the Northern Song dynasty. As a consequence, the porcelains produced in Northern China during the Jin Dynasty, such as Cizhou Ware (磁州窑), Cicun Ware (磁村窑), and Ding Ware (定窑) needed new seaports for access to the Korean Peninsula and Japan. It has been reported that many of these porcelains were discovered at Korean and Japanese sites, which correspond to the years of the Jin dynasty. Furthermore, a large number of these porcelains were discovered at the Haifengzhen and Haibei sites. There is thus a very strong possibility that these two sites were departure ports to East Asia of the Maritime Silk Road during the Jin Dynasty. Secondly, many porcelains produced in Southern China, especially Jingdezhen Ware (景德镇窑), have been discovered at the Haifengzhen, Haibei, and Banqiaozhen sites. Some Ding Ware products were also discovered in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Southern Song Dynasty, and also many Cizhou Ware and Ding Ware products were discovered in Northeastern China during the Jin Dynasty. Furthermore, in the coastal waters on the northern side of the Haifengzhen site, archaeologists have found some traces of shipwrecks dating from the same time. Based on the above information, we infer that the Haifengzhen, Haibei, and Banqiaozhen sites might also have played an important role in the seaway transshipment between Southern and Northern China during this period. In conclusion, we can determine that the recently discovered seaports of the Jin dynasty had two functions and systems, both internal and external:the Haifengzhen and Haibei sites opened China up to the Korean Peninsula and Japan, while the Haifengzhen, Haibei, and Banqiaozhen sites might also have been used for domestic coastal shipping. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Further Explorations Along the Silk Road)
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9 pages, 191 KiB  
Article
The Silk Route from Land to Sea
by Jack Weatherford
Humanities 2018, 7(2), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/h7020032 - 2 Apr 2018
Viewed by 10235
Abstract
The Silk Route reached its historic and economic apogee under the Mongol Empire (1207–1368), as a direct result of the policies of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) and his successors. Because the land network proved inefficient for the amount of goods needing transport from [...] Read more.
The Silk Route reached its historic and economic apogee under the Mongol Empire (1207–1368), as a direct result of the policies of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) and his successors. Because the land network proved inefficient for the amount of goods needing transport from one part of the empire to another, the Mongols expanded the Silk Route to ocean shipping and thus created the first Maritime Silk Route. The sea traffic initially expanded the land routes but soon strangled them. With the expansion of the Maritime Silk Route through the fourteenth century, the land connections reverted to local networks and lost their global importance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Further Explorations Along the Silk Road)
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