Changan, one of the greatest cities in
China, used to be the most important starting point of the ancient Silk Road. For
so long a time, people have only seen that the Romans were keen on Chinas silk
and china. However, they neglected the fact that what the Chinese valued most
among western goods were always horses, which were regarded as strategic
supplies. In this book, the author verifies that the eagerness of Chinese
people for Holy Horse not only existed in Han Dynasty but also remained
throughout the whole history of the Silk Road from its starting to thriving
and then to falling.
By citing a large number of western historical data, Edward Burman
reveals how European explorers and researchers have seen China, Changan in
particular, since Ming and Qing Dynasty. Unlike other cities such as Beijing,
Suzhou, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, the city of Xian during the 18th-20th
centuries was quite a mysterious place in western eyes. Though not many
Europeans came here and the notes and understandings of those who did come were
somehow rather different from each other, yet they interestingly formed a
unique perspective for us to re-read its history.
Brought up and educated in Cambridge, England, Edward
Burman worked in Italy for twenty-five years and Iran for five years. He has
worked as a Partner in an international consulting company, as board director
of an investment firm, and as an academic and author. He is currently engaged
in documentary film-making. Since 2003 he lives in Beijing and travels to xian
almost monthly. This is his eighteenth published book. Among which are Shift!:
The Unfolding Internet - Hype, Hope and History John Wiley, London, 2003,
Live Like a Gentleman Commercial Press, Beijing, 2006, and China,the Stealth
Emperor: Why the World Is Not Chinese yet Sutton, Stroud, 2008.
爱德华伯曼生长并受教育于英国剑桥，曾在意大利工作25年、在伊朗工作5年，曾经从事跨国公司代表及出版社编辑等职业。2003年起在北京、西安生活，并且足迹遍及中国的大江南北，出版过《改变：互联网的大肆宣传、希望与历史》（伦敦：约翰威立父子出版公司，2003年）、《像绅士一样生活》（北京：商业出版社，2006年）、《中国隐形的皇帝：为什么世界还不是中国的》（斯特劳德：Sutton，2008年）等十余部著作。
目錄：
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction i
Chapter 1 The Western Journey of Zhang Qian
Chapter 2 Silk Road or Horse Road?
Chapter 3 Capital to Qinshihuang, the First
Emperor
Chapter 4 Emperor Wu, the Greatest of the Han
Chapter 5 Buddhism in Xian
Chapter 6 The Sui: a Forgotten Great Dynasty
Chapter 7 The Tang: Greatest of Chinese
Dynasties
Chapter 8 Islam in Xian
Chapter 9 Yuan, Ming and Qing: 800 Years on the
Periphery
Chapter 10 The Plunder of Chinese Culture: the Example
of Li Shimins Six Horses
Chapter 11 A Foreign Traveller: Victor Segalen
Chapter 12 Xian
Between the World Wars
Chapter 13
The Rediscovery of Xian
內容試閱：
Chapter 10
The Plunder of Chinese Culture: the Example of Li Shimins Six Horses
These decades of rebellion, revolution and
political change had a huge and negative impact on the Chinese cultural
heritage. Cities, walls, temples, mosques and homes were destroyed, or
ransacked for building materials and wood for fires. From the pillage of the
Old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860, when British and French troops took
precious works of art as souvenirs, to the flourishing antiques market in
Beijing as nobles and palace eunuchs sold pieces from their own homes or from
the imperial collections in and after 1911, and through the political conflict
which continued until 1949, works were sold, stolen, smuggled or smashed. The
great museums of the world have always benefited from extended periods of
rebellion and war as the redistribution of European works of art during the
Napoleonic wars illustrates.
Xian was not exempted from this turmoil.
In the summer of 1907 the Danish explorer
and journalist Fritz Z. Holm arrived in Xian on a mission whose purpose was in his own words to examine the local and outer
relations of the Nestorian Stone of A. D. 781, with a possible view of
purchasing the ancient monument or obtaining a true copy or monolith replica of
the same. This now
famous stele, or tablet, which records the first Christians who came to Xian in the 7th century, had been
neglected for many years, its importance and historical value unrecognised. It
then stood exposed to the elements in the derelict grounds of an ancient temple described by
Holm as more of a farm than a temple outside the city walls in what was known as the Western Suburb.
Although scholars knew of it, and its contents had been translated recently by
two European sinologists, it was considered by Holm to be the most valuable historical monument
in the world, that has not, as yet, been acquired by any museum or scientific
society.
In fact, the diplomatic community in
Beijing had put pressure on the Zongli Yamen roughly, foreign ministry, created in 1861 when it became
clear that some kind of formal foreign affairs office was necessary, to protect
the Tablet. So in 1891, a sum of 100 taels was sent to Xian to build a small roof to protect
it against wind and rain. Holm wanted to preserve it by purchasing it and
removing it from Xian and China altogether. This made the local officials both
suspicious and concerned when he rode out to study and measure the Tablet. So
when he went there the second time, he found it had been mysteriously removed,
leaving just a hole in the ground: he eventually caught up with it as no fewer
than forty-eight men were bearing it into the city. At least, indirectly and
unintentionally, Holm did save the Nestorian Tablet, since his intentions
resulted in it being set up inside the Temple of Confucius, now known as the
Beilin Museum, where it stands in restored glory as one of the museums chief treasures.
The case of the six horses sculpted in
relief to commemorate the military feats of Li Shimin as he prepared his way to
rule as the second Tang emperor Taizong, is more suspicious and perhaps also more typical of
those nebulous times. These sculptures of named war-horses are known from
contemporary chronicles to have been ridden by Li Shimin in a series of crucial
battles which made his fathers consolidation of the new Tang empire feasible. Thus although he
was the second ruler of the dynasty he is usually considered to be the real
founder: first, because he is believed to have encouraged his father in taking
over from the declining Sui; second, because his military prowess and successes
in the field created a strong basis on which future Tang emperors could build.
This tomb, set in a mountainous landscape north of Xian initiated the Tang tradition
which we have discussed above in the section describing his son Gaozongs nearby tomb complex.
Zhaoling,
the mausoleum of the Emperor Taizong occupies an area of 20,000 hectares
covering a mountain called Jiuzongshan or Mount Jiuzong, which literally means Nine-Ridge Mountain and stands at 1,224 metres above sea-level dominating
a vast mountainous landscape. Work on the mausoleum began in the year 636 after
the death of the Empress Zhangsun, posthumously known as Empress Wendeshunsheng
or Wende, in the tenth year of Taizongs reign. Eventually the site came to include nearly
two hundred auxiliary tombs, including those of imperial relatives and
important imperial soldiers and officials. Taizongs own tomb was built into the heart of the mountain,
overlooking the auxiliary tombs to the south. Its internal structure was
probably a replica of the imperial palace in his capital city, with a large
burial hall and side chambers, and just as Damingong Palace was approached by means
of a long ramp, so here a sloping passageway around two hundred metres long led
up to the tomb, lined with statues and monuments and marked by a series of five
great stone gates.
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