Subject Area: Chinese Studies

The course focuses on modes of contact and exchange along the Silk Road. At its high time this was the most important connection between East Asia and the West. We will take trade as the starting point. In the Silk Road region, ecological factors made trade desirable and necessary. Trade had lasting cultural, economic, and social effects. Chinese culture and civilization were created in a process of exchange with the culture and civilization of its neighbours to the west. In this subject we will approach relations between cultural and political entities, and in particular between the Chinese Empire and the oasis cities and nomad populations along the Silk Road from the perspective of commerce with the aim of clarifying basic conditions for international relations. The spread of religions as for instance Buddhism and Islam was among the most tangible and long lasting results of contacts established along the Silk Road.