Everything Converges: Adding Chinese To MEMRI's Priority Languages
March 4, 2021 | By Yigal Carmon and Alberto M. Fernandez
Antiquarians digging in various ancient and fabled Middle East cities – Nishapur, Ctesiphon, Samarra, Homs, Raqqa – have found ancient Chinese ceramics laboriously brought along the Silk Road to their destinations. The Silk Route across Asia, from China to Europe, is over two thousand years old, and along it traveled goods and ideas, in both directions: silk from China, Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity, Roman silver, Bactrian horses from the West to the East. China traded with Rome and Byzantium and with the empires of Islam. China's weakness in the Early Modern Era and the rise of European mercantile empires (15th to 19th century) eclipsed this ancient trade route. But now it has returned with a vengeance.