Silk Road Student Organizer Name: Class

Silk Road Student Organizer Name: Class: Organizer Silk Road Trade

Group Members

Plan Location on the Silk Roads:

Product to be traded:

Destination(s):

 Where do you want to take this for trade:

 Will you stay long in your current location?

Brainstorm Complete the following sections to address the challenges that you might face in undertaking this plan. Research your responses using classroom materials and Internet resources. As you look for information, collect materials for a collage that will visually represent your location and product on the Silk Roads.

Production

 Describe what steps you must take to have your product ready for market.

 Will you have to grow, make or mine your product?

 What time or costs will this involve? What difficulties might be encountered?

Resources and Environment

 How is your physical environment helpful or harmful in trading on the Silk Roads?

 What resources are necessary for production? What resources are available to you?

Transportation

 How will you bring your product to market?

 Would you hire extra help to transport the items?

 Will you travel to another city afterwards?

 How far can this product be safely carried without it spoiling or breaking?

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 How long will it take you to get to your destination(s)?

Supply and Demand

 Who will want your product: other merchants or the consumer?

 Is there enough supply to maintain your product seasonally or annually?

 Will enough people want your product in each site?

 Will you carry enough supply for the people who want your product?

Exchange

 What are you hoping to get in exchange?

 What products are available from nearby trade sites?

 What products are practical to bring home?

 What natural, social or cultural elements will affect the value of your product?

Create Using the oversized paper and glue provided by your teacher, make a collage to be presented to the class. Use Internet resources, create your own illustrations, use postcards, magazine pictures, charts, graphs, and maps that offer information on the location or product you want to trade. Add words or phrases that describe the trade activity or environment.

Present Begin by identifying where you r location is on the Silk Roads, the geographical features of this area, and the product you have researched. Use this organizer and collage for your presentation.

CALLIOPE Feb. 2002, pp. 34-37

Your First Business Trip Along the Silk Road by Valerie Hansen

The year is 629. The place is Chang'an, China, the capital of the newly established Tang dynasty. You are a young Chinese merchant. Your father has died, leaving you, your mother, and your sister one camel, 50 rolls of silk, and 100 sheets of paper. Your job is to make the greatest profit possible. But where should you go?

You go to the Western Market to get advice from the stall owners. Some speak Sogdian, an Iranian dialect spoken in the great trading center of Samarkand, where, they say, you will get the highest price for your goods. The merchants tell you the trip is too dangerous, and so you head out alone, leaving your sister and mother behind.

At the market, you see a very tall monk, at nearly seven feet, with a handsome face. Later, people tell you they have even seen a light behind his head. His name is Xuanzang, and he wants to go to India to study Buddhism, but he will go first to Samarkand.

Two roads connect Chang'an with Samarkand. The greatest obstacle is the Taklamakan Desert, whose name means "those who enter never come out." One road goes north around the Taklamakan Desert, the other goes south. You decide to take the northern route. So does Xuanzang.

But you cannot travel together. Because the new emperor is worried about spies, he has forbidden anyone to leave China. So you and Xuanzang decide to escape separately and agree to meet at Turfan, the largest city on the northern route.

Turfan is square, with walls more than one mile long. Nearly 40,000 people live there, and the king's palace occupies a substantial section of the city. Surprising news reaches you: Xuanzang is staying with the king, but he is in trouble. The king wants him to settle in Turfan, but he wants to continue his journey to India. In desperation, he launches a hunger strike.

You, meanwhile, realize that your camel is not strong enough to make the trip to Samarkand, so you go to the market to buy a new one. The merchants there come from all over, and food stalls sell Chinese dumplings alongside Middle Eastern bread. You decide to use two of your precious rolls of silk to trade for a young, strong camel. For three days everyone in the market speaks of nothing but the monk's health. Finally, the king yields, and the monk eats for the first time since he began his hunger strike.

In return, Xuanzang agrees to teach the people of Turfan about Buddhism for one month before resuming his journey to Samarkand. He preaches in a large monastery, where all the meals are vegetarian because Buddhists do not eat the flesh of any living thing.

At the end of the month, you decide to leave with Xuanzang on the difficult road to Samarkand. It passes around the northern edge of the Taklamakan and then through the Tianshan Mountains that, at 23,000 feet, are almost as high as the Himalayas.

You and Xuanzang are among the lucky ones who survive the long trip, but Samarkand presents a new problem. Very few people there speak Chinese. Finally, a shopkeeper agrees to interpret for you. When he hears of your plan to continue on to Antioch (in modern Turkey) or Rome, he makes it very clear that no Chinese person goes that far. Rather he advises you to make more money by selling your silk and paper at Samarkand.

Together with your interpreter, you head for the marketplace, determined to get the best price for your silk and paper. Alas, the Samarkand merchants know the exact value and offer you the current market value. In exchange, you receive beautiful glass bottles and spices not available in China.

When you return to Turfan in late summer, it is above 105 degrees. To stay cool, the city's residents dig down into the ground to build their houses. When it is really hot, they sleep outside on the roof.

You stay in a Sogdian guesthouse where all are celebrating the feast of Bema in commemoration of the death of the founder of their religion, Mani. Mani taught that each person was made up of light and dark, and that, if you ate certain foods, you could increase the light inside you. The innkeeper has prepared delicious watermelons, grapes, and honeydew melons and has baked bread in the shape of the sun and moon, also honored carriers of light.

Once the festival ends, you make your way home, where your mother and sister are delighted to see you. They are even happier when you sell your glass and spices for a good profit. Your first business trip along the Silk Road has been a great success.

Valerie Hansen teaches pre-modern Chinese history at Yale University. The author of The Open Empire (2000), she is writing a book about the documents from the Silk Road. She would like to thank her daughters Lydia and Claire for their contribution to this issue.

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