Research On The Southern Silk Road And The Foreign Relationships Of Ancient Shu

Represented by ruins such as San Xingdui and Jinsha, the civilization of ancient Shu came into being with independent source in the early stage of Chinese culture. It has attracted widespread attention of scholars both at home and abroad because of its diversified cultural elements as well as its differences from the culture of Central Plains. Analysis on the shaping and each stage of its development reveals that the civilization of ancient Shu contains various cultural elements with both local characteristics and foreign ones. The features concerned with the establishment and development of ancient Shu’s relationships with foreign lands can be uncovered through researches on the origins of articles containing obvious foreign cultural elements and their influence on the development of the civilization of ancient Shu. The Southern Silk Road came into being in an early period and it played a significant role between southwest China and other places in ancient time. It has an intimate relationship with the introduction of foreign elements in the civilization of ancient Shu. The Southern Silk Road is like a bridge which enhances the cultural and commercial association between ancient Shu and foreign lands.This paper aims at analyzing the influence of the Southern Silk Road on the shaping and development of the civilization of ancient Shu and discussing the cultural and commercial association between ancient Shu and areas such as South Asia and Middle Asia in the hope of revealing the traits and regulations of ancient Shu’s foreign relationships. The research will be carried out by means of consulting ancient materials, archeological materials and foreign materials. In addition, methodologies involved in philology, archeology and anthropology will be employed. At first reviews the current situation and achievements made in researches on ancient Shu’s foreign relationships and then introduces the point of view and new ideas of the writer about relevant issue.Chapter one, on the one hand, reveals the peculiarity of the civilization of ancient Shu by comparative study on the materials of different periods about ancient Shu. One the other hand, a summary on the time of the shaping of the Southern Silk Road and the conditions of various sections both at home and abroad will be presented in order to reveal the relationship between the Southern Silk Road and ancient Shu. The arguments of these two aspect aims at verifying the inevitability that the foreign relationships of ancient Shu are established on the basis of the Southern Silk Road.Chapter two gives a summary on the value of research on the relationship between ancient Shu and South Asia in the first place. Then it reveals the cultural and commercial association between ancient Shu and South Asia through analysis on the materials discovered in ancient Shu and South Asia, ivories and shells found in ancient Shu, records about silk made in Shu, etc.Chapter three tries to reveal how ancient Shu established foreign relationships with Middle Asia from ancient materials. Then through records and archeological materials, the cultural and commercial association between ancient Shu and Middle Asia is uncovered.The last chapter points out the traits of ancient Shu’s foreign relationships through the analysis on the characteristics of the relationships between ancient Shu and South Asia and Middle Asia as well as the influence of the Southern Silk Road.The final part is a conclusion which summarizes the author’s understanding of how the Southern Silk Road influences the establishment of ancient Shu’s foreign relationships. Graphs are attached to enrich the paper and help readers acquire a better understanding.