recalling the interesting events of sino-iranian military exchanges ①｜chinese general transformed into "silk ambassador"
2024-09-09
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from december 14 to 18, 2015, at the invitation of the defense strategic research center of the general staff of the iranian armed forces, a delegation of chinese military think tanks, full of the deep affection of the chinese people and the beautiful vision of building common friendship, visited this ancient yet unfamiliar country for the first time to conduct military academic exchanges.
i had the honor to serve as the leader of the "first visit group". during the visit, i walked and looked around, gained a lot of knowledge and gained a lot of insights in this strange yet familiar land. the details of the visit are still vivid in my mind.
the silk road is a topic that can never be exhausted
during the visit, the topic we talked about most with iranian friends was how the two great civilizations moved forward and embraced each other along the two silk roads, both on land and on the sea, and how the two peoples have been friendly and exchanged what they have for generations. as early as the 2nd century bc, china and iran had economic exchanges, and the bond between them was the silk road.
△the author held a discussion with iranian experts
iranian friends are very curious about how silkworms transform into beautiful silk. so i became a "silk ambassador": silk comes from mulberry trees and is taken from silkworms. silkworms have to go through four moltings in their lifetime before they spin silk and make cocoons, wrap themselves up, complete the last molting, and become pupae. after about 10 to 15 days, the pupa will emerge as a moth, break out of the cocoon, and leave behind a silver cocoon full of silk. during the cocooning period, the silkworm will spit out two silk threads at the same time, which will solidify into one silk thread after solidification. a small cocoon can extract about 1,000 meters of silk, and several silk threads are combined to form raw silk. one kilogram of silk needs to be peeled from more than 2,500 cocoons, and then go through multiple complex processing processes and fine weaving before it is finally woven into a beautiful silk product.
the magical story of silk has mesmerized iranian friends. general vahidi said with emotion that it is no wonder that there is a proverb in ancient persia: "the greeks have only one eye, but only the chinese have two eyes." it means that china is not only proficient in theory, but also has technology. chinese silk art itself is an "unreachable standard of perfection." the author took over the conversation: china also has an idiom "the silkworm will not stop spinning silk until it dies", which means that the silkworm will stop spinning silk at the end of its life, symbolizing a spirit of selfless dedication and perseverance until death. the chinese people also treat their good friends with this kind of selfless love.
the silk road connects two ancient civilizations. the author goes on to say that more than 2,000 years ago, silk promoted the first large-scale trade exchange between the east and the west in world history. on the ancient silk road, iran not only played the role of a silk transporter for china, but was also an important producer and exporter of silk and silk fabrics. according to historical records, as early as the late sassanid empire (224-651), roughly equivalent to the wei, jin, southern and northern dynasties in china, silkworm breeding technology had spread to the iranian plateau.
on the silk road, silk went west, and "persian goods" came east: persian merchants sold gemstones and medicinal materials from the middle east and southeast asia to china, and they were known as "ship owners" in southern china. two horse bones with the inscription "cyrus cylinder" were unearthed in the gulban desert in xinjiang, indicating that the two countries may have had direct contact during the cyrus period. in 1955, thousands of sassanid persian silver coins were unearthed at the site of the tang chang'an city in xi'an, the starting point of the silk road, which also shows the active trade exchanges between persian merchants and china at that time.
in addition to the exchange of goods, the exchange of personnel between the two countries was also very active. in 119 bc, when zhang qian made his second mission to the western regions, he sent a deputy envoy to visit parthia (an ancient country in west asia, located in the northeast of the iranian plateau) to establish intergovernmental relations. by the tang dynasty in the 7th century ad, the exchanges between the two countries reached their peak. when sassanid persia was invaded by foreign enemies, the tang dynasty treated three generations of persian kings with kindness and courtesy, leaving behind a story of helping the poor and the needy and deep friendship. during the same period, many persians traveled thousands of miles to china, either to study, practice medicine, or do business, and their footprints covered chang'an in the northwest and guangzhou in the southeast. according to historical records, there was a persian village in hainan during the tang dynasty, "three days to travel north and south, five days to travel east and west, and villages one after another." in the yuan dynasty, persian was the third official language besides chinese and mongolian. it can be said that persian is the most important foreign language that influenced chinese culture in ancient times besides sanskrit, and it is also an important source of foreign vocabulary in ancient chinese.
since then, china and iran have maintained friendly exchanges, and chinese culture has become famous in the western regions, and the culture of the western regions has been introduced to china. the combination of chinese silk and iran's superb craftsmanship has created the nobility of persian silk carpets; the combination of iranian cobalt blue and white and china's superb craftsmanship has created the elegance of blue and white porcelain. china's lacquerware, pottery, silk reeling, papermaking, metallurgy, printing, gunpowder and well-drilling technologies have been spread to the westernmost part of asia and even further to europe through iran, while pomegranates, grapes, broad beans, alfalfa, walnuts, and glassware have also been continuously introduced to china from iran and europe.
after the song and yuan dynasties, with the rapid development of navigation technology, maritime exchanges between china and iran became increasingly frequent. in particular, in the 15th century, emperor chengzu of the ming dynasty and king shah rukh of persia sent large delegations of 300 and 500 people to visit each other. it was also during this period that zheng he led a large fleet on seven ocean voyages, three of which reached hormuz (now hormuz region) in southern iran. in 1432, emperor xuanzong of the ming dynasty zhu zhanji wrote in his letter to the kingdom of haerye: "we will forever be friends, have exchanges with each other, and be one family, so that merchants and travelers can travel as they wish." although china and iran are located at the eastern and western ends of the asian continent, this road connected by silk has promoted friendly exchanges between the peoples of the two countries, allowing the ancient chinese and persian cultures to exchange and learn from each other and coexist harmoniously.
civilizations are colorful because of exchanges, and they are enriched because of mutual learning. in the process of mutual collision, mutual learning, integration and innovation, the two great civilizations have continuously internalized heterogeneous civilizations into their own local civilizations, enriched and expanded the cultural connotations of the two countries, made important contributions to the inheritance and development of civilizations, and created a brilliant chapter in the history of human civilization exchanges.
author: wang weixing, former deputy political commissar and secretary of the discipline inspection commission of the academy of military sciences (major general), member of the 13th national committee of the chinese people's political consultative conference
new media editor: hong lin
