Southern Silk Road

 

Southern Silk Road

 

In the evening, when Agudengba, Azhuo and Chu Sanxing were drinking Pu'er tea at the Tea Horse Inn, Lacuo saw a foreign tourist drinking Pu'er tea alone, so he invited him to drink tea with him and join in the fun. You can also listen to this Foreigners’ impressions of China. This foreigner’s name is John. He has visited the Silk Road before, and this time he came to investigate the mysterious ancient Dian Kingdom and the Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Road.

Lacuo communicated. John wanted to investigate the mysterious ancient Dian Kingdom, and Lacuo agreed to help him find a senior archaeologist, so they first chatted about the Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Road.

Latso told John:

The formation of the Ancient Tea Horse Road has gone through a long process. The ancestors of all ethnic groups on the plateau have long overcome obstacles, dug mountains to open roads, built rafts and built ships, and pulled ropes in the sky. They have carved out steep and tortuous mountain roads in high mountains and deep valleys. For example, in the Qin and Han Dynasties, The "Wuchi Road" and "Nanyi Road" laid the foundation for the development and formation of the Ancient Tea Horse Road.

About 40 million years ago, the Indian continental plate slowly impacted the Eurasian continental plate, and the Tibetan Plateau rose from the ancient ocean to the roof of the world. The Himalayan orogeny also formed several huge north-south folds on the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau - these are the famous Hengduan Mountains.

To the east from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the Shu Road, which is "difficult to reach the sky" and is connected with the Loess Plateau; to the southeast are the Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan regions with varied terrain; to the south are the fertile countries of Southeast Asia and South Asia. It is here that the ancient migration routes of ancient ethnic groups were born, connecting the Hengduan Mountains and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Latso said to Mr. John again:

The Silk Road in the northwest is well known. In fact, more than 200 years before the opening of the Silk Road, the oldest road to South Asia, West Asia and Europe had already appeared in the southwest, known as the "Shu Body Poison Road" in history. "Shu" is Sichuan, and "Shendu" is India.

In different regions, due to different road excavation time, passing areas and different directions, Shushendu Road can also be divided into Wuchi Road, Lingguan Road, Yongchang Road, Nanyi Road, etc. Its starting point is basically Bodao (now Yibin, Sichuan), passing through Dali, Yunnan, Shan State (now Myanmar), and finally reaching Shendu. These ancient roads correspond to the Silk Road in the northwest and are collectively referred to as the "Southern Silk Road" by academic circles.

Mr John said:

I have been to India and Myanmar, so I also have some knowledge of "Shen Du" and "Shan Country".

I heard that in the middle of the 6th century AD, the Yalong tribe living in the Shannan region of Tibet gradually developed into a powerful local force. After Songtsen Gampo succeeded as the leader of the tribe, he established the Tubo Dynasty. At the beginning of the 7th century AD, Tubo developed eastward and entered the Qinghai region, and established various ties with the Tang Dynasty. For more than two hundred years, Qinghai has become an important channel for exchanges between Tang and Tibet. Frequent exchanges of missions and business trips have formed the famous Tang-Tibet Ancient Road in history.

Lacuo said:

Mr. John is right. The Tang-Tibet Ancient Road starts from Xi'an (i.e. Chang'an) in Shaanxi Province, passes through Gansu and Qinghai, and ends in Lhasa (i.e. Luoxe) in Tibet, with a total length of more than 3,000 kilometers. In the more than two hundred years after the first year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty alone, envoys from Tang and Tibet interacted with each other as many as 142 times. The Tibetan and Han peoples had close exchanges along the ancient Tang-Tibetan Road. Therefore, the Tang-Tibetan Ancient Road was also called the symbol of Sino-Tibetan friendship. "Golden Bridge".

The Ancient Tea-Horse Road has developed and changed in different historical periods, thus forming a number of complex and ever-changing international transportation channels and private trade channels that include both main lines and branch lines, official roads and private roadways for people and horses. Throughout its historical development, it is closely related to the tea-horse trade controlled and organized by the government from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In order to maintain peace on the border, the Central Plains dynasties had an increasing demand for war horses. Starting from the Tang Dynasty, rulers of all dynasties actively took measures to control the tea-horse trade. From the first year of Emperor Suzong's reign in the Tang Dynasty (756 AD) to the first year of the millennium, he drove the horse tea market in the Huihe area, pioneering the tea-horse trade. After the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, in order to raise food and salary to eliminate the separatist forces in feudal towns, the imperial court began to tax tea. Due to the huge profits brought by the tea trade, tea became a state monopoly trade system, that is, a tea tax was levied, which was not abolished until the end of the Qing Dynasty.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, because the horses in the northwest were suitable for fighting, the tea-horse trade was mainly in the Shaanxi-Gansu region, and Yima's tea was obtained locally from Sichuan and Shu. During the Shenzong period of the Song Dynasty, the Shaanxi Tea Horse Road was blocked. The Song Dynasty shifted the focus of the tea and horse trade to the southwest. Ya'an, Sichuan, became the center of the tea and horse trade during this period. Ya'an's famous mountain tea was also exclusively used by Yima. Therefore, the "Sichuan-Tibet Ancient Tea-Horse Road" became the main area for tea-horse trade between the Song court and Tubo.

Mr John said:

After the Song Dynasty, was it the Yuan Dynasty, and then probably the Qing Dynasty?

Lacuo said:

Yes, sir, you are right. Let me first talk about the development of the Ancient Tea Horse Road during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the government abolished the tea-horse border policy implemented in the Song Dynasty. However, in order to ensure smooth traffic to Tibet, the Sichuan-Tibet Tea-Horse Ancient Road was designated as the main line of transportation into Tibet and designated as an official post road, and 19 locations were set up. The station is managed.

The Ming Dynasty continued the post system of the Yuan Dynasty. Millions of kilograms of tea entered Tibet through Kangding every year, and the economic value of the Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Road greatly increased. The rulers of the Ming Dynasty also strengthened the construction of the Ancient Tea Horse Road from Yunnan to Tibet, which became an important passage from Yunnan to the mainland. Due to the Tibetan people's love for Pu'er tea, the import of Yunnan tea into Tibet continued to increase. However, with the expansion of the power of the Mu clan chieftain in Lijiang, transportation between Yunnan and Tibet was temporarily interrupted.

The Qing Dynasty also regarded tea law and horse administration as important military affairs, and the tea and horse trade was still an important political and economic means for the rulers of the Qing Dynasty to stabilize border areas. In the early Qing Dynasty, tea-horse trade was limited to the government, and private trade was strictly prohibited. The Qing court ordered tea to be divided into official tea for Yima, merchant tea for taxation, and tribute tea for tribute.

By the Qianlong Dynasty, the tea-horse mutual trade was often interrupted due to various reasons. The huge profits led to corrupt officials and profiteers flocking to it. The tea mountain trade was monopolized. It was difficult to implement the government-run tea-horse mutual trade system, which was later replaced by the commercial-dominated border tea trade system. "Biancha" is tea sold exclusively to Tibetan areas from the mainland. At this time, in addition to tea, the proportion of goods related to the production and life of the Tibetan people has increased. The goods exported from Tibetan areas are not limited to horses, leather, medicinal materials, gold etc. have also entered the market.

Mr John said:

At that time, the British often went to Tibet, and what they often drank in Tibet was Pu'er tea from Yunnan. But how did Pu'er tea arrive in Tibet at that time?

Lacuo said:

The Tea Horse Road does not have a single completely fixed route, but a complex land transportation network. In different historical periods, different dynasties, and even in different stages of the same dynasty, it has different directions, changing with time and changing places. But there are also two main routes, one is the Sichuan-Tibet Ancient Tea Horse Road starting from Ya'an, Sichuan, and the other is the Yunnan-Tibet Ancient Tea Horse Road starting from Simao, Pu'er and other places in Yunnan. They all start from places rich in tea, and there are countless branch lines extending along the main line, like a huge network that closely connects the Yunnan-Tibet-Sichuan triangle area.

The Pu'er tea that Mr. John said the British love to drink should have been transported to Tibet from the Yunnan-Tibet Tea Horse Road.

The Yunnan-Tibet Tea Horse Road starts from Simao, Pu'er and other places in Yunnan, goes north through Dali, Lijiang, Zhongdian, and Deqin to Bangda, Qamdo, Luolong, Nyingchi, and Lhasa in Tibet, and then passes through Gyantse and Yadong respectively. Myanmar, Nepal, India.

The Yunnan-Tibet Line appeared during the Tang Dynasty and was closely related to the Tubo Dynasty's outward expansion and trade activities with Nanzhao. In 678, the Tibetan forces entered the northern area of Xi'erhai in Yunnan. The trade between the two sides has also achieved considerable development, and the tea-horse trade is one of the important aspects. The transportation route between Nanzhao and Tubo was roughly similar to the Ancient Tea Horse Road in Yunnan and Tibet, which laid the foundation for the mutual tea and horse trade after the Song Dynasty.

Lacuo said again:

The Ancient Tea Horse Road does not end when it reaches Lhasa. It extends from Lhasa to the west and south, and enters India, Bhutan, and Nepal through multiple roads.

For thousands of years, the Himalayas have acted as a natural barrier between the Tibetan Plateau, South Asia and the sea. However, people seem to ignore the existence of this barrier and keep climbing over and through it. The countless river valleys and mountain passes in the mountains have become roads for people to communicate and communicate. Han Chinese, Tibetans, Indians, Bhutanese, and Nepalese have all walked through these mountain roads, which have also connected cultures and civilizations between different regions and people. .

The Ancient Tea Horse Road is a natural chasm road walked by people. It has witnessed the integration of man and nature, and also witnessed the integration of culture created by people. Ethnicity, belief, and culture are intertwined to form a strong bond between you and me, and the tea-horse network radiating across the Yunnan, Sichuan, and Tibet triangle areas provides a channel for mutual understanding for the ethnic minorities living in this area. People's movement drives the circulation of language, customs, and beliefs. While maintaining the multicultural characteristics of various ethnic groups, it deepens people's knowledge and understanding of each other.

Lacuo sighed:

As a horse caravan in China, I have always compared the Tea-Horse Ancient Road to the bloodline that connects northwest and southwest China, and even South Asia, Central Asia and other regions. The caravans, porters and yak packs walking during this period are like fresh and flowing The blood continuously transports tea and other supplies that are as indispensable as oxygen to the snow-covered plateau. Relying on the ancient and simple survival wisdom, the caravan not only brought various goods, but also promoted the formation of towns, and also led the local customs and customs in this area to develop in a rich and diverse direction.

Speaking of these things, I am afraid I will never be able to express my feelings for the caravan.

Lacuo impromptu sang a song called "Horse Hoofprints" by the Five Feet Road Caravan:

 

Time passes by for thousands of years,

The sound of horse hooves keeps ringing,

Chasing the hoof prints of a thousand-mile horse,

There were tears streaming down the five-foot road.

 

Under the high mountains and cliffs,

A hundred meters deep in the Luoze River,

Standing by the river and looking up,

We should be on the cloud.

 

Stopping at Qin Shi Wu Chi Road,

The hoof prints caught my eye,

Thousands of horses' hooves trample on the bluestone,

Clearly visible and unforgettable.

 

Thousands of years of great changes,

Horseshoe prints on the bluestone,

The hollows of the hoof prints hold clear water,

A long drought will never dry up the caravan's tears.

 

Touch this horse hoof print,

The hardships of the ancients are before our eyes,

The bell rings in the mountains and the caravan comes,

Carrying a heavy burden and thinking ahead.

 

When Wang Mang chased Liu Xiu,

Horse hoof prints are left on Gaoyang Mountain;

Now Hermès is out,

Horseshoe logo remains on the bag.

 

Who remembers that the road to Shu is difficult?

Who has ever seen a horseman being timid?

The sound of horse bells has faded away,

Only hoof prints remain to tell the story of the past.