Royal burials for the Shang (c. 1600– 1050 BCE), the earliest Chinese
dynasty for which there is archaeological evidence, contains exotic materials
including jade from the west and sea shells from the south. Tortoise shells
from as far away as the Malay peninsula were used for royal divination.
During the subsequent Zhou period (1050– 256 BCE) a system of passable
roads was constructed, and the two-humped camel came into general use for
transporting goods. The Chinese were known to engage in frontier trade to
the north and west, and the Chinese historian, Sima Qian, who lived in the
late second to earlyfirst centuriesBCE, provides a list of commonly traded
items, including alcoholic drinks, prepared foodstuffs, silks, hemp, cloth,
dyes, hides, furs, lacquerware, copper and iron goods. Silk, the most impor-
tant Chinese export, was produced from a very early time, and some of it
ended up far beyond China’s borders. When silk was exported in significant
quantities on a large scale is uncertain, although some current thinking puts
this as late as the second centuryBCE. In return, the Chinese imported animal
products such as wool, hides, and livestock, including horses, donkeys,
camels, cattle, and sheep. Metals, in particular gold, silver, and tin, also
came in, as did gemstones and wood.
The most important early import was jade, the common name for two
different minerals, jadeite and nephrite, of which only nephrite played a role
in early Chinese trade. Nephrite jade washed down from the Kunlun
Mountains in Tibet into the Tarim Basin in modern Xinjiang, which at this
time was not a part of China. Ranging in color from spinach green to fat
white, it is very hard, takes a high polish, and requires considerable effort to
grind to shape. The pass through the Gansu Corridor that separated China
from the west terminated at a barrier known as the Jade Gate, and early
trade routes beyond this are often referred to collectively as the Jade Road.
Jade appears in the archaeological record in China as early asc. 4000BCE.It
was associated with immortality and often buried with the dead: the tomb of
a Shang queen fromc. 1200BCEcontained over 700 jade pieces, many of
which had been made centuries earlier. It was also thought to prolong life
and was sometimes ingested. Jade was mostly employed for ritual purposes,
but the rich and powerful also owned functional objects made from it such as
vases and cups.
Byways such as the Jade Road that brought goods into East Asia from the
outside world were mostly in the form of relay and circuit trade trails. One
originated in the Ganges Valley and came across Himalayan passes and over
the Tibetan Plateau to the Gansu Corridor. What has been called the Fur
Road linked Siberia to China and India, bringing not only fur but gold. On
the other side of China, thePeriplus reports on the trade in Himalayan
malabathrum that took place in the remote borderlands between Assam (in
northeastern India) and Sichuan (in southwestern China) involving a people
called the Sesatai. At a given time whole families carrying great packs of
leaves went to an appointed spot on the border and held a festival for several
122 From the Jade Road to the Silk Road