Video Versus Text: The Silk Road

 

The Silk Road

Today we'll be having a look at two different works of intellectual property. One is a video by BBC, or the British Broadcasting Corporation, titled The Silk Road: Where East Meets West. The other is a chapter from a book by Patrick S. Bresnan titled Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought, specifically chapter 16. As the titles of each piece suggests, their area of focus is different from each other, yet still overlap in some areas. Something the video offered that the text did not was about the topic of the Terracotta Army. Xi'an, once the capital but no longer, and the eastern end of the silk road, is where the Terracotta Army was first discovered. "Xi'an is home to the Terracotta Army, the construction of which was ordered by the man responsible in the third century BC, for creating China. China was named after him. He was the Qin Emperor." (Silk 14:12-14:25). I've always been fascinated with the idea of the Terracotta Army. To think that an emperor was so powerful and significant to his people that he was buried with an entire life-sized army to protect him in the afterlife, with the tiniest and most careful of details, is astonishing to me. "When he died in 210 BC, his clay guard was ready for installation in an elaborate tomb- 8,000 life-sized figures, 130 chariots, and 600 horses. A marriage of art and power." (Silk 14:27-14:44). This just tells us how special and powerful this emperor must have been to have that arrangement done. Hand-molded figures with extreme details, going as far as having every single face be individual and one-of-a-kind. By contrast, the text in chapter six only referred to the Terracotta Army once under a footnote. "1 It was near Xian that the amazing army of full-size terra cotta figures was discovered in 1974.  The site is still being excavated." (Bresnan 379). Chapter six of Awakening does not touch up on the Terracotta Army after this, thus showing a difference in the amount of detail both works contributed to the same topic. 

Zhang Qian Returning From His Journey

Connecting back to the Silk Road, the video shoehorns the audience from the Terracotta Army into a neat little story about the first transaction on the Silk Road, establishing its reputation. As the hungry and ruthless Huns of the north continued to threaten the fragile and newly established Han Dynasty, it grew clearer by the day that they were going to be more of an irritant. The Huns would be a threat for the Han Dynasty. However, the Han Dynasty was severely lacking in terms of military specialty and armaments. "In the Qin Emperor's day, all China had was little ponies almost too cute for combat. And that remained true for decades after the emperor's death. (Silk 17:27- 17:38). Until, the Han Emperor Wu Di sent out a trusty envoy, Zhang Qian, on a mission of search for allies to the west. He brought back steeds, beasts of the land. Strong and enduring, Zhang Qian declared them 'heavenly'. "It was all too much for his emperor to resist. Here was the perfect warhorse which is exactly what China needed to defend and extend its borders. So almost immediately, Zhang Qian was sent back to do the first ever iconic Silk Road deal. He would exchange Silk for these heavenly horses. Zhang Qian's journey would lay the very foundations of the Silk Road." (Silk 19:32- 19:57). In contrast, the text does not bring up Zhang Qian nor his adventures to establish the first transaction of the Silk Road. Rather, it focuses on the spread and movement of religion, specifically Buddhism, along the Silk Road.

Something that I haven't seen before today was the process of making silk. The video's coverage of a silk factory in China really opened my eyes. Massive amounts of cocoons with a living caterpillar in each are processed and sorted by color and quality. "And then, this. Each cocoon is a tiny tragedy. They're plunged into boiling water to loosen the threads of which they're made. So the making of silk has two outcomes: a pile of tiny, sodden caterpillar corpses, and this extraordinary beautiful, glossy thread.  (Silk 22:59- 23:36). While somewhat downing and sad, it shows me how sacrifice is made through such a wonderful and extraordinary process to achieve something amazing. I wonder how the first batch of silk was made. How did they discover it? Who found out one day that the materials spun out by a cocoon can be woven into this magically soft and luxurious thread? These are all questions I have, due to me pondering at this beautiful story and monument of history. 

Works Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: an Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.

“The Silk Road: Where East Met West.” Films Media Group, www.films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=127877.

“Xi'an Travel Guide.” Xi'an Travel China: Attractions, Tours, Transportation, Maps, www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/xian.htm.