"Western Papyrus on the Silk Road and Japanese Pilotage on the Senkaku Maritime Road--- Two Rebuttals Against Chinese Promotions"

               Speaker:  Ishiwi Nozomu  

19th Annual Aleksanteri Conference
"TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY IN THE EURASIAN SPACE"

Hall 8, 3rd floor,  Forest House (Metsätalo) , University of Helsinki 

 Programme,  17:15-18:45, Panel B2,   23rd October 2019
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/technology-culture-and-society-in-the-eurasian-space/programme


(abstract)

 Hellenistic city-states which were mainly named Alexandria dotted the Hellenistic region. One of the farthest city-states is known today as the Ai-Khanum ruins, located on the northeast border of Afghanistan. The location of Ai-Khanum was the traffic hinge of the Silk Road leading to the Kan (Mandarin pronunciation: han) Kingdom. Parchments and papyrus of 3rd and 2nd centuries BC were excavated within the ruins, on which were written multiple paragraphs in Greek.

About a hundred years after the appearance of the papyrus in Ai-Khanum, Chouken (zhang qian), the ambassador of China around the 2nd century BC, visited Dai-en (dayuan, Fergana Valley) and other regions near Ai-Khanum.

Another hundred years after the travel of Chouken, an ancient paper fragment was unearthed in the Lop Nur area of Uyghur. Experts confirmed that it was a remnant of Chinese papers belonging to the 1st century BC. Whether the paper found at Lop Nur should be considered a Chinese paper or Egyptian papyrus remains a matter of much debate. Chinese papers have been excavated from regions spread over the eastern parts of the Silk Road before Christ. 

The Records of the Grand Historian written by Shibasen (sima qian), the greatest historian of ancient China, describes Parthia Kingdom as follows: "They manufactures silver into coinage, on which is carved the king’s face. The coinage is changed every time a king died, and the face of the new king would be carved. As for the writing method, they inscribe on the leather horizontally."

That the parchments had newly begun to circulate meant that previously the use of traditional papyrus was more common. Chouken recorded parchments because they were quite unusual, whereas papyrus was not recorded by him probably because they were not rare.

Presently, China is promoting the idea that the historical culture of the Belt and Road spread from the East to the West, such as paper, compass, silk, and other characteristic products. However, the total direction of the roads negates this assumption.

China is also promoting the great achievements of Teika (Teiwa, zheng-he), saying that he sailed to Africa by measuring the latitude. But in fact, Teika’s navigational method was recorded only after entering the Indian Ocean. He is likely to have hired Islamic pilots to cross the Indian Ocean. In logic, the nautical method of measuring latitude is also suitable for crossing the East China Sea. However, when Chinese ships crossed eastward to Ryukyu, they always appointed Ryukyuan pilots, who navigated the Senkaku Islands area and arrived at Ryukyu. This shows that China itself did not own the nautical method of measuring latitude, and that the Senkaku Islands did not belong to China.

The Silk Road in the history spread the great civilizations of the western part of Eurasia, such as India, Persia, Islam, and Europe, mainly from west to east. China studied the advanced civilizations of western Eurasia with reverence, indicating that this was the general historical direction of the Silk Road.

 published 12th September Reiwa 1.

Papyrus in Yaeyama Nippo Newspaper,
6 january 2019 page 2; 
13 January 2019 page 2; 
20 January 2019 page 2.  


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