The Management of the Silk Road by the Han Court as Revealed in Excavated Manuscripts

To ensure the unimpeded operation of the Silk Road and facilitate East-West trade, the Han Court adopted different measures along the various sections of the Silk Road. In the eastern section, from Chang’an to Dunhuang, a network of courier stations was established along a largely set route to serve as resting points. In the Northern and Southern routes of the Western Regions, the Protectorate of the Western Regions was established; troops were stationed and agricultural colonies were established in Yixun in the south and Cheshi in the north. This ensured that each station would be able to fulfill its role as resting point for Sino-Western trade in a relatively stable environment. West of the Pamir Mountains, exchanges with Central Asia were strengthened, gradually pushing the western end of the Silk Road farther westward and southward, laying the foundation for its eventual extension to the Mediterranean coast. Without these resting points, and without the court’s guarantee of security and supplies along the route, it would have been impossible for the Silk Road to operate normally. Consequently, the notion of the Silk Road as an unfixed, nebulous “network” is called into question. From its inception, the Silk Road was a direct product of the interaction between the Chinese civilization and the Western world (the Hellenistic world of Central Asia). The clearest evidence of this is found in Han dynasty slips that document direct diplomatic exchanges between the Han Court and various countries in Central, West, and South Asia. Notions that Silk Road trade was merely a short journey from one oasis to another, and that “only few people traveled from Samarkand across Central Asia to reach Chang’an,” are unsustainable.