Reconsidering the Silk Road as Reflected in the Dunhuang Xuanquan Han Bamboo Slips

We have found that bamboo slips and documents concerning long-distance trade in luxury goods from the Han and Tang dynasties are extremely rare. Yet, from a single relay station at Dunhuang Xuanquan within China, over twenty records have been discovered. If not for the possibility of huge profits, what else would drive these profit-seeking merchants to travel such long distances? Since the Han dynasty, the image of 'foreign merchants' has usually been associated with luxury goods like jewels and trinkets. This is likely no coincidence, because high-profit, high-risk long-distance trade mostly involves high-value goods. This is also why we see exquisite artifacts left behind today. The unearthed bamboo slips and documents could not possibly record all transit trade faithfully, as the fragmented slips themselves only capture part of the information. Moreover, a beacon station was merely a passing relay post, and likewise could not record too many observations of foreign figures. However, the Han dynasty was an empire that valued written records. From the fragmentary evidence of Han slips from Juyan and Xuanquan, we infer that every relay station kept a 'post-station route distance register.' Official verification and escort of visitors from the Western Regions took place station by station, with envoys, dignitaries, and foreign merchants arriving one after another. This allows us to reconsider the foreign influences from the Western Regions and catch a glimpse of the outside world.

The Xuanquan Han slips also record envoys from states such as Wusun, Shache, Dayuan, and Da Yuezhi. If envoys represent official delegations, their presence itself indicates the political stability and unimpeded border passages of the latter half of the Western Han dynasty. The Han dynasty’s Great Wall, beacon towers, passes, relay stations, and forts constituted a military infrastructure that ensured smooth roads, reflecting the frequency and intensity of Silk Road traffic at that time. From the Xuanquan Han slips, we know that large groups traveling long distances were not purely commercial in purpose, but among these organized groups traveling together, merchants were present. This itself implies that for people from Central Asia—such as Dayuan, Kangju, Da Yuezhi, and Wusun—there were opportunities that stimulated long-distance movement and a demand for luxury goods and various local specialties. Without a trade network, later immigrant settlements along the ancient Sino-Western route could not have formed. Of course, the many changes in Han dynasty routes also required the Han empire to maintain a stable military environment and provide local security along the roads, which was the basic guarantee for long-distance trade.