Chapter One Origin of the Tea-horseAncient Road
Section 1 History of the Tea-horse Ancient Road
1.Its origin
In the high mountains and valleys of Hengduan Mountains,in the“Grand Triangle”zone of Yunnan,Sichuan and Tibet,a mysterious ancient road stretches in the jungles.This is the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.One of the highest ancient roads for the spread ofcivilization and culture in the world.Among its relics,near Lashihai Lake in the ancientcity of Lijiang,Shaxi Ancient Town in Jianchuan County,Dali Prefecture,Yunnan Post inXiangyun County,and Nakeli in Pu’er City are relatively well-preserved Tea-horse AncientRoad sites.
The“Tea-horse Ancient Road”is a historical concept with a specific meaning.It refersto a major transportation route formed since the Tang and Song Dynasties between Han andTibetan to carry out tea-for-horse exchange.
It should be noted that the above-mentioned is only the main trunk of the Tea-horseAncient Road and is also a conventional understanding of it.In fact,in addition to the trunkroutes,the Ancient Road also includes a number of branches.Because of this,some scholarsbelieve that the historical“Ancient Tang-Tubo Road”(that is,the present Qinghai-Tibetline)should also be included in the scope of the Tea-horse Ancient Road.Some scholarsbelieve that,although Tibetan regions of Gansu and Qinghai are also important destinationsfor transporting tea from the Ancient Tea- horse Road to Tibetan.The Tea-horse AncientRoad and“Ancient Tang-Tubo Road”do have intersections,but the latter is,after all,another specific concept,its connotation differs from the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.Also,the Tibetan-inhabited regions of Gansu and Qinghai are not historically on the main line ofthe tea-horse road,it is only one of the destinations of tea to Tibet.The simultaneous coexistence of the two concepts of“Tea-Horse Road”and“Ancient Tang-Tubo Road”sufficesto show that their functions and roles in history are different.
There is not only one Tea-horse Ancient Road in history,but a huge transportationnetwork.It is a road system composed of Sichuan-Tibet Road,Yunnan-Tibet Road andQinghai-Tibet Road(Ganqing Road)as the main lines,supplemented by numerous branchesand subsidiary lines.It stretches across Sichuan,Yunnan,Qinghai and Tibet,extends toSouth Asia,West Asia,Central Asia and SoutheastAsia,and reaches as far as Europe.
Originated from the ancient“tea-horse market”,the Tea-horse Ancient Road isgenerated in situation where“people of the aboriginal tribes loves tea,and the Hans needhorses”.China is the hometown of tea.Since ancient times,people of all ethnic groupsin our country have had the habit of drinking tea,creating a splendid Chinese tea culture.Among the many ethnic groups in China,no ethnic group loves tea more than the Tibetans.Tea is like sunlight and air to Tibetans,and is indispensable to their lives.As the Tibetanproverb goes,“As rice fills the bellies of the Hans,tea fills the bellies of the Tibetans”,showing that tea is even more important than food in their daily lives.In general,regardlessof rich or poor,the Tibetan people“drink tea at least five or six times a day,each time adozen and more bowls”,They are indeed the people who drink the most tea .
Why do Tibetans have a special liking for tea and drinking tea is becoming a commonpractice? History has proved that the formation of a social life habit and a custom is alwaysinseparable from the material conditions of the environment,people’s living conditions andthe common needs of people’s lives for this habit.Thus formed the Tibetan tea drinkinghabits.On the one hand,the Tibetans live in a place of extreme coldness and drought,lacking oxygen,and their staple food includes mainly tsampa,beef and mutton and lacksvegetables.Tea is rich in vitamins,trace elements and other components,and has thefunctions of clearing away heat,detoxifying,moisturizing,and diuresis,which can make upfor the deficiency of its dietary structure.“Only tea can remove the grease of meat,and onlytea can relieve the dryness-heat of highland barley”.Therefore,Tibetans have an inevitableneed for tea; on the other hand,although the Tibetan-inhabited-areas do not produce tea,neighboring places such as Sichuan and Yunnan are rich in tea.For thousands of years,teaproduced in Sichuan and Yunnan has been continuously imported into Tibetan-inhabitedareas,which can fully meet the needs of Tibetan people.And the Tibetan region’s localspecialties have also been transported to the inland along with the trade of tea to Tibet,making up for the lack of the mainland.Thus,a traffic line was opened up for tea trade inthe efforts of Tibetan and Han merchants,dumpsters,and caravans and with the support ofthe successive central governments.Since the Tang Dynasty,this trading was mainly carriedout in the form of tea-for-horse exchange between China’s inner land and Tibet,so it washistorically called the“tea-for-horse exchange”,or“tea-horse trade”.Later,the commercialroad opened along with this trade is therefore known as the“ Tea-horse Ancient Road”.
According to the records in The Sketch Book of Feng Yan,trade in the Tang Dynastyis like this:“In previous years,Huihu came to pay tributes,driving famous horses in andtrading tea back,strange enough.”At this time,the tea-horse trade was mainly conductedbetween the Tang and the ethnic northwestern minority areas,and exchanges with Tibetansin the southwest had not yet appeared.This is mainly because at that time the Tubo regimewas expanding eastward,becoming a potential threat to the Tang dynasty.Tang pursued apolicy of conciliation towards Tibet and was cautious in its trade with Tibet.By the SongDynasty,the Central Plains was often harassed by ethnic minority regimes,and there werefrequent wars and a high demand for war horses,which promoted the development of thetea-horse trade.The“tea-for-horse trade”has seen unprecedented development in thisperiod,systems related to tea trade were also established or perfected at this time.YuanDynasty was established by the Mongolians,and Mongolia has always been rich in warhorses,and thus their willingness to carry out the tea-horse trade was not strong.Mingadopted the Song Dynasty’s tea trading system,and added more locations for trading.“TheTea-Horse Divisions were also set up as the only organization for tea-horse exchange”.Inthe Qing Dynasty,the tea trade has declined,being limited mainly to the exchange of teafor local specialties or livestock products.And the Southwest tea market was hit by theintroduction of Indian tea into Tibet.
As mentioned above,in order to strengthen the control of tea-horse trade,systemssuch as monopoly sale of tea,issuing of tea transportation and marketing license and Tea-Horse Divisions had been established.Their functions were to block the private tea sellingchannels to increase the revenue of the court,and eliminate hidden dangers of the shortageof good horses in the Central Plains.Tea-horse trading was handled by the imperial court,and people-to-people exchanges were rarely involved.Due to the strict control of the court,the tea-horse trade was compressed,which could not meet the folk needs of the two places,and gave birth to a group of illegal tea vendors who risked danger in desperation.Teasmugglers were happy about the punishment of banishing and exile.It was indeed a heavypunishment,but the Shaanxi army and people preferred three years of banishment to thepunishment of flogging.This was because the defectors often fled as soon as they reachedthe border.By the time they got back,they were smuggling tea again and repeatedlycommitted such unscrupulous things.Their contempt for the law had gone to extreme.”
Private tea sales and government-run tea-horse trade had different trade channels.Government management is generally carried out through official roads,such as the“threevertical and one horizontal”main traffic arteries built in Southwest China in Qing Dynasty,including the three official roads of Sichuan,Yunnan and Guilin,as well as the YangtzeRiver.However,Private tea sales often went through“the network of capillaries composedof a much larger number of Southwest ancient roads”.It connected these arteries(officialroads)together and expanded to the remote surrounding areas.“Five-Chi Road”,“LingguanRoad”,“Bonan Road”were different titles for these ancient southwest roads in differentperiods and different regions.
In addition,before the concept of“Tea-horse Ancient Road”was put forward,researchon the history of Han-Tibet relationship,the history of Kham-Tibet exchange,and thehistory of exchange between China’s hinterland and southwest minorities also involvedthe study of the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.For example,Bai Bin’s Research on ChineseMinority Nationalities History,Ren Naiqiang’s Collection of Ethnic Studies and Outlineof Xikang-Tibet History and Geography,You Zhong’s Ethnic History of SouthwestChina,etc.Among them,Ren Naiqiang’s Outline of Xikang-Tibet History and Geographysystematically introduces the exchange between the two countries from the Han Dynastyto the Republic of China.Collection of Ethnic Studies is a collection of personal papers byRen Naiqiang on the study of ethnic relations,which tells the origin,cultural exchange andgeographical evolution of the Kham-Tibet nationality.The two works include the wordingof“tea-horse market”,“tea-horse trade road”,“tea-horse important place”and“border teatrade road”,but they are only understated and not listed separately for explanation.In 1980,when doing dialect survey,six scholars including Mu Jihong and Xu Yongtao,combinedlandscapes along the road such as horseshoe prints,caravansaries,and steel cable bridgewith Tibetan tea-loving custom,and gradually refined the concept of“Tea-horse AncientRoad”.In 1988,Mu Jihong used the term“ Tea-horse Ancient Road”in the preface of“Compilation of Chinese Historical Records in Zhongdian”to refer to the“Yunnan-TibetRoad”.In 1992,in the book Cultural Exploration of the“Big Triangle”of Yunnan,Tibetand Sichuan by Mu Jihong and others,the connotation of the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”wasfirstly defined:“the ‘Tea-horse Ancient Road’ formed a network with Yunnan,Sichuan andTibet triangle as its core in Tang Dynasty,and it stretches out of India and Nepal in the Westand reaches the western edge of Sichuan Basin in the east and Guilin in the Southeast”.It mainly takes Yunnan,Tibet and Sichuan as its central area,extending westward toneighboring countries in the southwest and eastward to the tea-horse trade transportationnetwork of neighboring provinces.
2.Origin of the name
As an important transportation route connecting China’s central plains and thesouthwestern border in ancient times,the Tea-horse Ancient Road has existed for more thana thousand years.However,the emergence of the term is a recent event.
In ancient times,there are basically four ways for tea transportation: carriers,shipping,ox carts,horses or yaks.Shipping prevailed in the dense water network areas in centraland east China,and ox carts is another economical transportation method.But in borderareas,due to poor river access and the poor situation of overland routes,tea transportationbasically relied on the carriers and horses.
The combined use of the terms“tea”and“horse”,however,did not originate from themeans of transportation,but from the policy of“trading tea for horses”started in the SongDynasty.The resulting concepts such as“tea-horse exchange and“Tea-Horse Division”have been used for nearly 1,000 years.From the Earlier Song Dynasty to the earlyQing Dynasty,the main force of thetea-horse trade has been Sichuan and Shaanxi horseadministration.The two provinces exported a large amount of tea each year and traded5,000 to 20,000 war horses annually.Tea has become an important strategic material of thecountry,directly affecting the national and military strength,and indirectly,it has become ameans to control the border ethnic minorities.
For a period of time after the concept of the Tea-horse Ancient Road”was put forward,it was only circulated in a small range as an academic term,while less frequently usedin other fields.From July to August 2005,CCTV broadcast the TV series The Tea-horseAncient Road during prime time.The primitive,dangerous and mysterious geographicalfeatures of the“ Tea-horse Ancient Road”began to attract attention.On April 9,2006,the Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture,and the Yunnan Provincial Department ofCommunications,and Yunnan Tea-horse Ancient Road Research Association established the“Zero Kilometer of the Tea-horse Ancient Road”monument in Ning’er County,Simao City,which clarified the starting point of the road.With promotion of the government,the use ofthe“Tea-horse Ancient Road”concept has been increasing in occasions and frequency.
From March 3 to 14,2008,around a dozen members of the National Committee ofthe Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC)including Shan Jixiang,Liu Qingzhu put forward the proposal of“attaching more importance to the protectionof the cultural heritage of the Tea-horse Ancient Road”at the First Session of the 11thCPPCC National Committee,saying :“The ‘Tea-horse Ancient Road’ was able to show thereciprocal exchange of social commodities over a period of time in southwest China,as wellas the exchange of ideas.With the spread of religion,knowledge and values that occurredalong the Tea-horse Ancient Road,there was a cultural boom in time and space,which is ofgreat significance”.
On April 1,2009,Mr.Li Weinong,Acting Chairman of the Administrative Committee ofthe Macao Civil Affairs Administration,delivered a speech at the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”Cultural Customs Exhibition:“The ‘Tea-horse Ancient Road’ opened up for the ancient‘tea-for-horse exchange trade system is the highest world trade channel today.When passingthrough mountains and valleys,it needed to open plank roads,cross rivers and rapids,andovercome climate change.The caravans had to have rich experience and perseverance tocomplete the task of ‘tea-for-horse exchange’”.
On June 3～4,2010,the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the People’sGovernment of Yunnan Province discussed and approved the Pu’er Consensus on theProtection of the Tea-horse Ancient Road Cultural Heritage,stating:“The ‘Tea-horseAncient Road’ is an ancient trade route in western China with tea-horse trade as the maincontent.It is not only a channel for economic exchanges between various regions,but also alink for cultural exchanges and emotional communication among various ethnic groups,andhas played an important role in the prosperity and stability of the border areas”.
In addition,the end of the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”can be extended to South Asia andSoutheast Asia,serving as a bridge and medium for communication between SouthwestChina and neighboring countries.On June 6,2013,Ma Kai,Vice Premier of the StateCouncil,delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the first China-South Asia Expo:“The ancient South China Maritime Silk Road and the ‘Tea-horse Ancient Road’ traversesYunnan jointly connected China and South Asia,opening up extensive personnel exchangesand economic and trade exchanges between this region.Standing at a new historical startingpoint,China will take the opportunity of hosting the South Asian Expo to write a newchapter of cooperation with South Asian countries.”
On November 10,2015,Bangladeshi Ambassador Fazl Karim said at the“Memory ofthe Ancient Road -- Tea-horse Ancient Road Study by Diplomatic Envoys in China”,“Teawas originally just a leaf.May it now become a link of communication between SoutheastAsia and SouthAsia”.
On May 18,2017,Comrade Xi jinping delivered a congratulatory speech to the firstChina International Tea Expo,saying,“China is the hometown of tea.Tea has beendeeply integrated into lives of Chinese people and has become an important carrier for theinheritance of Chinese culture.From the Ancient Silk Road,the ‘Tea-horse Ancient Road’and the Tea-ship Ancient Road,to today’s Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st CenturyMaritime Silk Road,tea has traveled through history and across national boundaries,and isdeeply loved by people all over the world.”
Due to the government’s vigorous publicity and frequent use,the“ Tea-horse AncientRoad”has developed from an academic concept into a cultural brand and cultural heritagein less than 30 years and is rapidly spreading at home and abroad.
The connotation of the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”is usually understood in both narrowand broad sense.In the narrow sense,the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”refers to the ancientroad of transportation and commerce starting from Yunnan or Sichuan,with tea beingtransported by horse caravans as its feature,crossing the Hengduan Mountains and theHimalayas,and entering Tibet,connecting Yunnan,Sichuan and Tibet.In the broad sense,it refers to the economic and cultural exchange routes formed by caravans as transportationcarriers between southwest China and its neighboring countries.In other words,the routeformed by the exchange of tea or other commodities,by way of man-driving horses andhorses carrying goods,is called the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.
As an important branch of the“Southern Silk Road”,the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”hasaroused widespread attention along with the proposal of the“One Belt One Road”initiative.China has established research institutions of,held many academic forums,and produceda large number of academic works such as books and papers,including achievementsrelated to the emergence and development of the concept of the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.However,there are not many articles on the origin,use,dissemination,enrichment andexpansion of the term“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.Therefore,it is particularly necessaryto conduct an in-depth exploration of its concept and clarify the theoretical and practicalcontext behind its evolution.
The“Tea-horse Ancient Road”originally mentioned by Mu Jihong and other scholarsreferred to the routes of Yunnan-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet routes characterized by the teahorse trade from the Tang Dynasty to the Republic of China.With the deepening of theresearch,the connotation of the road is also expanding and deepening.In 2006,ChenBaoya discussed the early trunk routes of the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.Later publisheddocuments further expanded its connotation.“Another way to form the ‘Tea-horse AncientRoad is the transformed“Tea-horse Ancient Road”,such as the Tang-Tubo Ancient Road,the Gansu-Sichuan Ancient Road,the Shu(Sichuan)Road,the Lingguan Road,the Five-Chi Road,and the Shu-Yuandu Road.These ancient roads existed long before the rise ofthe“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.Due to ethnic and cultural conflicts,these ancient roadswere often discontinued and even neglected for many years.With the rise of tea-horsetransportation,these ancient roads have been activated and quickly transformed intotea-horse ancient roads,becoming the main trunk of the entire Tea-horse Ancient Roadnetwork.”“The original Tea-horse Ancient Road has activated many local ancient roads inSouthwest China,including Guizhou Salt Ancient Road,Honghe Ancient Road,LingnanCorridor,Hengduan Mountain Corridor,etc.”“The long-distance expedition of caravansacross provinces and borders transformed the former local network like the Salt Road,theCopper Road,the Ethnic Road and the Caravans Road into the Tea -Horse Road.”
Quite a few scholars have included the“Western Regions Road”and the“Southern SilkRoad”into the concept of the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”.“Starting from the prescriptivename,we can still call the Western Regions Road mentioned by Zhang Qian as the SilkRoad.However,judging from the nature of this ancient road,the Silk Road has beentransformed into the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”since the Tang and Song Dynasties,whichin its broad sense should include the Silk Road since the Tang and Song dynasties.”“TheSouthern Silk Road gradually took tea-horse trade as its main content,with horse caravansas its main mode of transportation.The Southern Silk Road was once again marked by thetransportation of goods,and was also known as the ‘Tea-horse Ancient Road’.”
The above-mentioned research has gradually clarified the connotation of the“Tea-horseAncient Road”and has greatly expanded the routes covered by the road.Zhang Xiang wasthe first to use the term“Southwestern Ancient Road Network”and discussed the road as anancient road network.“The ‘Tea-horse Ancient Road’ is a network structure based on themain road.There are many important towns along the main road,each of which is a node,from which branches were led,and on these branches there were many horse shops,eachhorse shop was another node,along which tea leaves were carried to mountains and pasturesand grasslands to meet the needs of tea lovers.”Taking the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”as acrisscross network provides a new perspective for grasping its internal structure as a whole.In a word,with the continuous enrichment and expansion of its connotation,the“Tea-horseAncient Road”is being widely extended to the southwest and northwest regions of Chinaas well as the neighboring countries of South Asia and Southeast Asia as a generalizedconcept,becoming an important concept to describe economic and trade exchanges,culturalexchanges,ethnic integration and international exchanges.
In general,first,the term“Tea-horse Ancient Road”was originally an academic conceptextracted by six scholars including Mu Jihong and Chen Baoya from a field survey in1980.The starting point was to explore the language relationship between ethnic groups inSouthwest China.However,as soon as the term appeared,it demonstrated a powerful scenedescription and cross-border communication power.When the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”was proposed,many of the routes covered by it had already been replaced by modern roads,and some cultural relics along the routes had been destroyed or lost,which could only berevealed with the help of oral interviews with witnesses and relevant historical materials.Therefore,when scholars traced and explained the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”,they wouldinevitably form different opinions based on different historical data.Second,the conceptcovers a wide area,including most of the ancient roads in Southwest and Northwest China,but whether it’s the“Yunnan-Bo Ancient Road”,“Yunnan-Yue Ancient Road”,“YongchangRoad”,and“Honghe Ancient Road”divided by traffic lines,or the“Salt TransportingRoad”,“Copper Transporting Road”,“Horse Buying Road”,and“Tea Picking AncientRoad”divided by the types of goods transported,they are all titles for“Ancient Tea-horseRoad”relating to different periods,different routes and different goods.These ancient roadscan be included in the scope of the“Tea-horse Ancient Road”,but they are by no meansequivalent to it,and some ancient roads have even gone beyond the scope of the road.Therefore,it is necessary to clearly define the concept of Tea-horse Ancient Road,that is,the network of ancient commercial road with the triangle of Yunnan,Sichuan and Tibet asits core and the horse caravan as the main means of transportation,which is engaged in thetea-based commodity exchange in southwest China and its neighboring countries.Third,the dissemination and use of the concept of“Tea-horse Ancient Road”abroad is generallynot deep enough,and its historical and cultural value has not yet attracted the full attentionof foreign scholars.Domestic academic circles have repeatedly mentioned that the“Teahorse Ancient Road”can extend to Southeast Asia,South Asia,and even Central Asia andEurope.However,there have been few discussions on the overseas routes,which is alsoan important reason for its limited spread abroad.In short,in the long-term evolution andenrichment,the connotation of“Tea-horse Ancient Road”has gone far beyond a“TeaRoad”or“Horse Road”,and has become an important link of economic,cultural andreligious exchanges among ethnic groups in southwest China in ancient,modern and evencontemporary times,as well as between China and South and Southeast Asia and othercountries.Today,our exploration into the formation and dissemination of the concept of“Tea-horse Ancient Road”will help to promote its intrinsic multiple values to be more fullydisplayed in the contemporary era.
Section 2 Formation of the Tea-horse Ancient Road
1.Overview of the routes
The Tea-horse Ancient Road is an ancient commercial passage centered on the Yunnan-Sichuan-Tibet triangle,extending to the mainland of China and radiating neighboringcountries.The main routes of it are mainly distributed in Yunnan,Sichuan,and Tibet.Inaddition,the domestic section can also extend to Gansu,Qinghai,Xinjiang and the northernSilk Road in the north,and can reach Guizhou and Guangxi in the east.To the west,theforeign section can directly reach India,Nepal,Bhutan,even as far as Central Asia inAfghanistan and the coast of the Red Sea in West Africa,and to the south,it can extendto Myanmar,Thailand,Vietnam,Laos and other South and Southeast Asian countries.Itcan be said that the Tea-horse Ancient Road has no end and no beginning.The end of onesection of it is also the starting point of another section.As long as there are people,therewill be transactions,and the geographical extension of the Tea-horse Ancient Road willnot end.The Tea-horse Ancient Road is the longest ancient business road in the world.Itswide range,huge transportation network,and difficulty in passing can be called a miracle inthe history of human transportation.Over the years,many scholars have conducted textualresearch on the routes of the Tea-horse Ancient Road and basically reached consensus.There are three main roads,namely,the Tea-horse Ancient Road of Yunnan and Tibet,theTea-horse Ancient Road of Sichuan and Tibet and the Tea-horse Ancient Road of Tibet.Themain road routes sorted out in this paper are explained as follows:
(1)The Yunnan-Tibet Route
After reaching Mankang,the Ancient Tea-horse Road can be divided into threeroutes: the southern route is from Mankang to the west,and finally reached Lhasa.Thisroute is today’s Tibetan section of the Yunnan-Tibet Highway,and is the shortest routein geographic space.The middle route is from Mangkang to Qamdo,and then to Lhasathrough Dazi.It is the main route of the Yunnan-Tibeta Tea-horse Ancient Road in Tibet.In the Qing Dynasty,the horse caravans basically carried out trade activities along thisroad after entering Tibet.The northern route starts from Qamdo.It reaches Nagqu and thenarrives at Lhasa via Dangxiong.
Yunnan-Tibet Road is the main line of“selling Yunnan tea into Tibet and Tibetanhorses into Yunnan”,which was formed in the Tang Dynasty and has a longer history thanSichuan-Tibet Route.In history,due to limits of transportation conditions,tea could onlybe transported from Yunnan to Tibetan-inhabited areas by a large number of caravansand porters,and then traded locally or transferred to India and Nepal and other places.Inaddition to transporting tea and salt from Yunnan to Tibetan areas,horse caravans also buyspecial products from Tibetan-inhabited areas or directly buy Tibetan horses back to Yunnanfor sale.
Most of the Yunnan-Tibet Route is located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,passing throughnumerous snow-capped mountains,all of which are more than 3,000 to 5,000 meters abovesea level.On the way through the Hengduan Mountains,Jinsha River,Lancang River andother places,and the most difficult part is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with its countless icepeaks and snow-capped mountains.
Horse caravans usually passed through southwestern Yunnan in May before the rainyseason which is hot and humid.Meanwhile,plague and other diseases were prevalent,making people,mules and horses easily infected.In northwest Yunnan and Tibet,there areleeches in summer and heavy snow in winter,making walking extremely difficult.Evenin good weather,the caravans still had a hard time walking.Some of the passages were sonarrow that they were no more than a foot wide,with precipice on one side and abyss on theother.During the long journey the caravans were often in want of supply,resulting in theexhaustion of men and horses and consequent accidental deaths.
Although the journey was difficult and dangerous,scenery along the Yunnan-Tibet Roadis very spectacular.There were famous historical and cultural cities such as Dali and lijiang,Shangri-la with beautiful and magical scenery,magnificent snow-capped mountains,deepand steep canyons,mysterious religious culture and splendid western ethnic customs.Theyall added numerous magnificent scenery to the Yunnan-Tibet road.
The Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road existed as early as the Tang Dynasty and wasoriginally used for military purposes.According to legends,in 766,Tubo and Geluofeng,the king of Nanzhao,gathered 200,000 troops to attack Chengdu and set up a east regime.To this end,the Tubo army in the Hengduan Mountains opened several networks of plankroads in order to let their troops pass.
In the second year of Tianfu in the Later Jin Dynasty(937),after establishing the DaliKingdom,Duan Siping became the strongest feudal ruler in Yunnan who promoted theeconomic development of the region.At that time,trad between Tubo and Dali did notcome to an end,instead,it expanded because of the establishment of a massive tradingrelationship between the Dali and the Song Dynasty.
In the late Northern Song Dynasty,the Mosuo people(today’s Naxis),who had beenliving in the northwest of Yunnan for a long time,gradually developed their influence in theLijiang region,continuously expanding to the border of Tubo and opening up trade routesin the surrounding areas.Around the first year of Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty(1119),the Mosuo people took over the trading position of Dali in Tubo and established directtrade with it,establishing their status of a transit point for trade in northwest Yunnan.In1382,the 15th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty,some of the local leaders were giventhe surname Mu,and in the next year they were appointed magistrates of Lijiang.Sincethen,after hundreds of years of trading,the successive generations of Mu Chieftain haddeveloped the Yunnan-Tibet plank road that was used for war into a trade channel mainlyfor transporting commodities.
In 1661,the 18th year of the reign of Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty,theimperial court approved Tibet to carry out trade in Beisheng(now Yongsheng).In the 21styear of Kangxi(1682),the government approved the establishment of an exchange marketin Zhongdian.In 1688,Emperor Kangxi approved Yunnan-Guizhou governor to set up aTea Pass in Zhongdian,which attracted a large number of tea-horse traders.In its heyday,as many as tens of thousands of caravans traveled on it.With the approval of the imperialcourt,this trade channel had a regular trading place and preferential policies,and tradealong the Yunnan-Tibetan line developed rapidly.
The starting point of the Tea-horse Ancient Road in Yunnan was Dali,capital of Nanzhaoregime in the Tang Dynasty.Among them,Dali,Lijiang,Zhongdian,Aduanzi(Deqin)andother places were very important hubs and markets for tea-horse trade.The tea trade alongthe Yunnan-Tibet line was mainly from Pu’er,Yunnan,and also from Sichuan and otherplaces.The tea-horse trade along this line has its own characteristics.Han merchants in theinland of Yunnan transported tea and other articles there for resale to local merchants ortraders in Tibet,and then purchased horses or other livestock,native products and medicinalmaterials from the local merchants and shipped them to Lijiang,Dali and Kunming forsale.Most of the Tibetan merchants from Tibet and Sichuan returned to Tibet with dailynecessities,mainly tea.The main means of transport were mules,horses and yaks.
The special geographical environment and climate conditions in the region of Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road have created different distribution of regional resources anddiversified ethnic features.Different living environments have brought various ways oflife and production,meanwhile,encouraging people of ethnic groups to pursue prosperouslife without conflicts resulting from the competition for production and life resources.TheBai,Naxi,Han,Dai and other ethnic groups mostly live in flat area with relatively slowterrain,while the Tibetan,Li Su,Nu and other ethnic groups mostly live in the mountainousareas.The interleaved and three-dimensional distribution enables them to live in harmony.Moreover,most of these ethnic groups were formed by the gradual differentiation of theDi Qiang,Baiyue and Pu ethnic groups in the long-term migration process in ancienttimes.Therefore,there are certain kinship among them.The common ethnic origin makesthe connection between ethnic groups close.During the migration process,ethnic groupsconstantly struggled and merged for survival,and ethnic relations gradually move towardsunity and stability,which lays the foundation for the formation of multi-ethnic symbiosis.For the sake of development and stability,various ethnic groups have formed a harmoniouspicture of mutual respect,trust and recognition,which is the main driving force for theexistence of multi-ethnic symbiosis.Ethnic groups intermarried and traded with eachother,exchanging what they needed economically,and learning from each other in culturalexchanges to keep what is valuable and reject the worthless.For the development of theirown ethnic groups,they had the courage to break through the barrier of geographical units,and had close contact with surrounding ethnic groups.They were interdependent and theyexchanged needed goods with each other,forming an indivisible whole.Ethnic minoritiessuch as the Tibetan,Naxi,Bai,Yi,Lisu,Dulong,Nu,Dai,Blang,Lahu and Miao on theTea-horse Ancient Road of Yunnan and Tibet constitute the multi-ethnic coexistence anddevelopment in the northwest of Yunnan.
The Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road area in Yunnan and Tibet is a zone of multiethnic coexistence.Due to the difference of geographical environment,all ethnic groupsshowed a spatial distribution of“different ethnic groups live together over vast areas,while some live in individual concentrated communities in small areas”and cohabitationin mountains and small plains.Each ethnic group has its own unique culture,which isreflected in language,religious belief,dietary habits,weddings and funerals,living forms,festivals and gatherings,architectural styles,etc.The so-called“different customs in tenmiles,different sounds in a hundred miles”is just such a phenomenon.The pattern of multiethnic symbiosis makes the ethnic cultures along the ancient road rich and colorful.At thesame time,the Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road was also a intersection belt of variousinternational cultures,where Chinese culture,Southeast Asian culture and Indian culturegathered,and where tea culture and horse caravan culture blossomed,forming a corridorfor the exchange and co-existence of various ethnic cultures and a treasure house of humanethnic cultural heritage.
In terms of tea culture,ethnic groups along the Tea-horse Ancient Road in Yunnan andTibet have their own tea culture,and their tea drinking methods are different,but theirenthusiasm for tea is consistent.It is well known that the Tibetans like to drink buttered tea.From monks in the temples to ordinary people,the daily life of the Tibetans is completelyinseparable from buttered tea.The Naxis are greatly influenced by the Tibetan nationality,and they also have the habit of drinking buttered tea.The three-course tea custom of theBai nationality has its own characteristics and rich life philosophy.In addition,there areBamboo-tube tea of the Dai people,cold tea of the Jinuo people,earthen pot tea of the Hanipeople,sour tea of the Blang people,and salt tea of the Yi people.Tea has closely linked allethnic groups together,and different ethnic groups have created unique tea drinking habitsaccording to their own culture and the needs of people,which together constitute the richand diverse tea culture in Southwest China.
A unique horse caravan culture also exists on the Tea-horse Ancient Roads.“Bells ringin the mountains and horse caravan comes.”Horse caravan is not only the transportationorganization of trade materials along the Tea-horse Ancient Roads,but also carrier ofnational culture transmission.In thousands of years of horse caravan transportation history,this group has also bred its own unique culture.In addition,the caravans joined suppliesdelivery teams on their own initiative during the War of Resistance against JapaneseAggression,to make a great contribution to China’s victory.The horse drivers were honest,tolerant and cooperative with each other.It is the ethnic minorities who were not afraid ofhardships,open-minded and inclusive that created the characteristic caravan spirit.
(2)The Sichuan-Tibet Route
The Sichuan-Tibet Route started from today’s tea producing area in Ya ‘an,SichuanProvince,and first entered Kangding.From Kangding,the Sichuan-Tibet Road is dividedinto two branches: the northern branch runs north from Kangding,through Daofu,Luhuo,Ganzi,Dege and Jiangda in Tibet to Qamdo,and then from Qamdo to the Weizang region(Lhasa,Shannan,Shigatse,etc.).The southern branch is from Kangding to the south,through Yajiang,Litang,Batang and Mangkang and Zuogong in Tibet to Qamdo,and fromQamdo to Weizang region.In the Tang Dynasty,the main passage between Tibet and theCentral Plains was the Qinghai-Tibet Route,which started from Guanzhong along theHexi Corridor through today’s Lanzhou in Gansu Province,Xining and Yushu in QinghaiProvince,and then through Qamdo and Naqu in Tibet to Lhasa,which was also the mainroute for tea-horse trade at that time.In the Song Dynasty,with the collapse of the TibetanTubo Dynasty,the Qinghai-Tibet Route lost its role as a military and official road.Whenthe Northern Song Dynasty set up Tea-Horse Divisions in Sichuan,the Qinghai-Tibet Routechanged from a military road to a tea road.
The Sichuan-Tibet Tea Road began to take shape in the Ming Dynasty.With thedevelopment of tea trade,the Sichuan-Tibet Tea Road gradually replaced the Qinghai-Tibet tea Road.The Qing Dynasty further strengthened the management of Tibetan areas,relaxed the policy of tea export to Tibet,and Dajianlu(Kangding County,the political andeconomic center of Sichuan Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture)became a place forbrick tea gathering along the southern route,which promoted the prosperity of Sichuan-Tibetan Road.
As the Sichuan-Tibet Road was rugged and difficult to travel,only a small part of thetea from Ya’an to Kangding was carried by pack horses and mules,and most of it had to becarried by human.From Kangding to Lhasa,one had to pass through uninhabited grasslandsand dense forests,cross roaring rivers and climb towering snow-capped peaks.Beforepassing through the narrow mountain roads,horse caravans will notify the situation aheadwith bells,gongs or songs of“Driving a Horse”to prevent congestion.Should the twogroups of horses meet at a narrow,steep cliff,and there was no way forward or backward,they must negotiate to push the emaciated horses down the precipice so that the other horsesin both caravans can pass.In the long distance transportation,the plateau area was very coldand the climate was unpredictable,and the dailyjourney was only 10-15 kilometers.It wasin such an environment that the Sichuan-Tibet Ancient Tea-horse Road was developed.
(3)The Qinghai-Tibet Route
The Qinghai-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road starts from Xining,Qinghai Province,andpasses through Riyue Mountain,Maduo,Yushu and Zaduo to Amdo of Tibet,and thenenters Lhasa through Naqu and Dangxiong.
The Tang-Tubo Ancient Road was a very famous one in the ancient history of China asa traffic avenue between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo,and was the only route since the TangDynasty connecting the Central Plains with Qinghai,Tibet,Nepal,India and other countries.The famous Princess Wencheng took this road when she married Songtzen Gampo,Kingof the Tubo Kingdom.Its formation and unimpeded traffic has a history of more than 1300years.The whole ancient road runs through the west of China,across the Roof of the Worldand connects China’s friendly neighbors in the southwest,so it is also known as the SouthSilk Road.
In the early seventh century,Li Yuan and his son Shimin founded the Tang Dynasty inthe Central Plains.At about the same time,the Tubo kingdom,under the leadership of ZapuSongtzen Gampo,rose rapidly,unifying many tribes in Tibet,establishing a powerful slaveowner dictatorship,and expanded northward until it conquered the Tuyuhun region in 663AD,thus reaching the border of the Tang Dynasty and forming a neighboring relationship.In the eighth year of Zhenguan(634 AD)of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty,Songtzen Gampo sent his envoys to Chang’an,the capital of the Tang Dynasty,to pay avisit to Emperor Taizong and ask for marriage and reconciliation.Emperor Taizong alsosent envoys to Tubo to return the visit but did not agree to form an alliance by marriage.In 640,Songtzen Gampo again sent his prime minister Lu Dongzan to Chang’an withhundreds of pieces of gold,silver and otherjewelry to propose marriage.Emperor Taizong,weighing the situation,promised to marry Princess Wencheng to Songtzen Gampo.(https://www.daowen.com)
In 641,Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty sent Li Daozong,king of Jiangxia,to escort Princess Wencheng to Tubo.The two sides formed an alliance,which openeda new chapter in the history of friendship between the Tang and Tibetan states.In thefollowing 200 years,although the two sides also had misunderstandings,frictions and eventemporarily fell into spats,harmonious coexistence and friendly exchanges had alwaysbeen the mainstream of the relations between the two countries.From the first time of Tubosending emissaries to the Tang Dynasty to the eve of the collapse of the two dynasties,therewere more than 19 recorded emissary visits,which shows the close relationship betweenthe two sides.Therefore,it can be said that the great significance of this ancient road is notlimited to the road itself,but also,at that time and even in the long historical years,it playedan important role in maintaining the friendship between the Tang and Tibetan,deepeningand strengthening the friendship between the Tibetan and Han brothers.
Princess Wencheng was ordered by her father to the source of the Yellow River.PrincessWencheng’s journey to Tibet not only sowed the seeds of Han-Tibetan friendship,but alsoleft behind numerous stories and legends.Princess Wencheng’s far-away marriage to Tubonot only opened the very significant and far reaching first page in the history of the ancientroad,but also recorded in history as a major event between Tang and Tubo.
In 709,the 3rd year of Jinglong in the Tang Dynasty,at the request of Tubo,the TangDynasty betrothened the princess of Jincheng to Tsanpo Kriedê Zukzain.Princess Jinchengtravelled along the road Princess Wencheng did into Tibet to get married in Tubo,whichbecame another great event on the ancient road of the Tang and Tibetan.Since PrincessWencheng married Tubo,there were numerous envoy visits and frequent trade betweenthe Tang Dynasty and Tubo.It was under this circumstance that the Tang-Tibetan AncientRoad was opened up and rapidly developed into prosperity,and soon became a road ofcommunication full of posts,envoys and merchants.
The west section of Tang-Tibetan Ancient Road,with its hazardous geographicalsituation and harsh climate,is still a sparsely populated animal husbandry zone.Even today,under modern conditions,it is also quite difficult to walk with carriages and horses.It is notdifficult for people to imagine the hardship of Princess Wencheng’s long journey when sheentered Tibet.
Starting from Chang’an(Xi’an,Shaanxi),the capital of the Tang Dynasty,it crossedthe four provinces and regions of today’s Shaanxi,Gansu,Qinghai and Tibet,and ended inLuoxie(Lhasa,Tibet at that time),the capital of the Tubo,with a total length of about 3,000kilometers,more than half of which was in Qinghai.
(4)Cultural communication on the Tea-horse Ancient Road
①Trade and cultural exchanges.
Since the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty,the tea-horse trade in Yunnan andTibet has developed rapidly.In addition to Tibetans,traders of Naxi,Bai,Lisu and Hannationalities have also joined the trade.Among them,those Naxi traders who were activein the tea-horse trade in Yunnan and Tibet were called“Zangke”,who originated fromNaxi monks who went to Tibet for worship or further study.In the long-distance worshipin which supplies were scarce,the pilgrimage teams would have horse caravans to carrysupplies needed by residents along the way to exchange with them so they could obtainwhat they needed.With the continuous development of this kind of exchange,the Naxi“Zangke”who engaged in Yunnan and Tibet trade activities gradually formed.Withexpansion of Tibetan comers,there appeared in the tea-horse trade in Yunnan and Tibeta kind of class whose main livelihood was to act as the of the intermediary of Tibetanmerchants --- landlords.With the development of the Yunnan-Tibet tea-horse trade sincethe Ming dynasty,a large number of Tibetan merchants started transporting goods into thenorthwest Yunnan from Lhasa.In order to protect themselves,Tibetan merchants traffickinggoods to Zhongdian and Lijiang in northwest Yunnan needed to live in the landlord’shouse for insurance in order to trade,the landlords did not charge for accommodation,butthey would assist Tibetan merchants to sell their goods and take a commission of a certainpercentage.This landlord partnership is based on the friendly relationship between the Naxiand Tibetan people.The spread and expansion of Tibetan Buddhism in northwest Yunnansince the Ming and Qing Dynasties helped form the common cultural basis and languageenvironment between Yunnan and Tibet,which is the basis for the Naxi“Zangke”’ longdistance trafficking activities to be carried out smoothly on the Tea-horse Ancient Road inYunnan and Tibet.And with the expansion of the exchange network,this unique partnershipnetwork was also constantly extending outward.
②Exchange of dress culture.
During the period of the Republic of China,the dress cultures of various ethnic groupsliving in Yunnan and Tibet not only maintained their own ethnic characteristics,but alsoabsorbed the dress cultures of each other.In the Yunnan-Tibetan tea-horse trade,in orderto facilitate business activities.When“Zangke”went to Lhasa to engage in businessactivities,they appear in Tibetan costumes and habits,and change into Tibetan identityso as to engage in Yunnan and Tibet tea-horse trade.The exchange and dissemination ofmerchants promoted the cultural exchange and dissemination among different regions andethnic groups,and promoted the integrated development of dress culture.Most of the Lisupeople living in Deqin County,Diqing Tibetan Prefecture,Yunnan Province wear Tibetanclothing except for some villages that keep the costumes of Lisu people.The Naxi peopleliving in Deqin County have been deeply influenced by the Tibetan costume culture.Women like to wear short coats with large front and wide sleeves,while men wear coatswith large front and collar.The Tibetan people in Benzilan not only maintain their ownethnic characteristics,but also absorb the costume cultures of Naxi and Yi nationalities,with distinct ethnic and regional characteristics.Women’s skirt is similar to that of theYi,the blouse is similar to the Mongolians’ dress,and their apron is similar to the Naxis’,integrating the clothing elements of many ethnic groups.
③Cultural exchange of production technology.
During the period of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,due to the greatdevelopment of productive forces,agriculture,handicraft industry and commerce wererelatively developed,and the commodity economy reached a certain scale.Trade betweenYunnan and Tibet became more frequent.A large number of Yunnan businessmen set upbusinesses in Tibet,and Tibetan businessmen also came to Lijiang to do business.
Copper products in Lijiang have always been well known and loved by people of allethnic groups,whose copper pots,pans,tools and locks needed in daily life all come fromLijiang.With the prosperity of the caravan transportation industry,bronze horseshoes,stirrups and other accessories were also in great demand.These copper products were notonly sold within the province,but also sold to all parts of Tibet.Tibetan-inhabited areas notonly needed copper Buddha statues,butter lamps,butter teapots,copper pots and bowls,but also brown sugar,vermicellias and other specialties of Yunnan.According to records,during the period of the Republic of China,there were more than 100 enterprises engagedin copper industry in Lijiang alone.In addition to a large number of copper products,therewere also leather and silver products sold to Tibet.The leather products such as Tibetanboots and hats produced by the Naxi Yongning Tanner Street were of high quality and werein short supply in Tibetan-inhabited areas.From nobles to ordinary Tibetans,from Buddhistmonks to horse caravan merchants,they all loved leather products produced in Lijiang.Furs came from Tibetan-inhabited areas were eventually sold back to Tibet and even asfar as Nepal and India.The wood carving techniques of the Bai people in Jianchuan,Daliand the silver making techniques of Heqing were also very exquisite,their wooden bowls,ghee boxes,silver bowls and silverjewelry were very popular in Tibetan-inhabited areas.Inaddition to a large number of hand-made products sold to the areas,skilled craftsmen wouldalso go to find a job there,taking part in the construction and renovation of temples anddwellings,the carving of gateways of family Buddhist halls.Wooden doors and windowsof Tibetan monasteries and many other crafts were also completed by carpenters from Daliand Lijiang.The industrious Bai and Naxi craftsmen brought advanced techniques to theTibetan-inhabited areas,adding Naxi and Bai elements to the local Tibetan architecture,andintegrating with the Tibetan culture.
Section 3 Development of the Tea-horse Ancient Road
1.Emerging in the Tang and Song Dynasties and flourishing in the Mingand Qing Dynasties
(1)The tea-horse trade in the Tang and Song Dynasties
The Tea-horse Ancient Road originated from the“tea-horse trade”in ancient times.Itcan be said that there was“trade”before“ancient road”.Tea-horse trade is a traditionaltrade between the Han and Tibetan peoples,which began in the Tang and Song dynasties.As a prime period in Chinese history,the national strength of the Tang Dynasty promotedthe frequent exchanges among various ethnic groups,and the exchanges between theCentral Plains and the southwest ethnic groups were further enriched.
In the eighth year of the Wude reign(625),the Tujue,Tuyuhun and other northwestethnic groups asked for trade,which was granted,and Emperor Gaozu sent envoys toTuyuhun.Silk and tea from the hinterland were basic commodities used by the TangDynasty in exchanges,while livestock were the main commodities traded by the ethnicminorities.
During the reign of Emperor Taizong,Tubo people on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateaugradually rose.In the 12th year of Zhenguan(638),Songtsan Gambo,leader of Tubo,ledthe Tubo army to attack the border city of Songzhou of the Tang Dynasty(today’s Songpan,Sichuan Province).Taizong of the Tang Dynasty sent his army to attack and defeated theTubo army at the outskirt of Songzhou city.Songtsen Gambo bent the knee and admiredthe national power and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.At the same time,he also proposedmarriage to the Tang Dynasty.In the fifteenth year of Zhenguan(641),Emperor Taizongof the Tang Dynasty agreed to Tubo’s request and married 16-year-old Princess Wenchengto Songtsen Gambo.When Princess Wencheng went to Tibet,she brought with her a largequantity of crops,seeds,production tools,medical instruments,daily necessities includingtea,and books on scripture,history,poetry,arts,crafts,medicine,and calendar.
The main channel of the tea-horse trade in the Tang Dynasty was the“Qinghai-TibetRoad”,also known as“Tang-Tubo Ancient Road”.This road started from Guanzhong(present Shaanxi Province)in the east,passed through Qinghai Province,crossed the JinshaRiver in the northwest corner of Sichuan Province,and passed through Qamdo and Naquregions of Tibet to Luoxie(today’s Lhasa).
However,from the Five Dynasties to the early Song Dynasty,due to frequent wars inthe inland,many warhorses had to be purchased from Tibetan-inhabited areas.At the sametime,in order to strengthen the relationship with the Tibetan tribes through tea trade,theimperial court formally established the exchange system of“trading tea for horses”,whichmade tea export to Tibet a state policy specially administered by the imperial court.As theonly way for the tea-horse trade,the Tea-horse Ancient Road has also been expanded.
In order to carry out border trade in an orderly way and maintain the authority of theSong Dynasty,the Song Dynasty also set up a special organization for managing tea-horsetrade called“Tea Trade Managing Department”.Because the Tibetans at that time havebeen very dependent on tea,Controlling the supply of tea means controlling the life of theTibetans.Therefore,the tea-horse trade played an important role in maintaining the securityand stability of the Song Dynasty in the southwest.
(2)The flourishing period in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
During the Yuan Dynasty,there was no shortage of horses for the Mongolians who ruledthe Central Plains.The government abolished the policy of tea and horse governing in theSong Dynasty,and tea was mainly traded with silver and local goods.However,in orderto strengthen the governance of Tibetan-inhabited areas,the Yuan Dynasty established thefamous chieftain system of“local government governing local people”along the Tea-horseAncient Roads.Since then,important changes have taken place in the tea-horse trade andthe management and operation of the Tea-horse Ancient Road.It is not only a road of tradeand culture,but also a road of border defense,namely,it’s a way for the central governmentto govern and stabilize Tibet.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty,under the guidance of the thought“controllingthe tribes with tea”,the government-run tea-horse trade system was established and thetea-horse trade resumed.Until the middle of the Qing Dynasty,the government basicallyfollowed the practice of the Song Dynasty,later gradually abolished.In 1371,the imperialcourt first set up four Tea-Horse divisions in Qin(present-day Tianshui,Gansu),Tao(present-day Lintan,Gansu),He(present-day Linxia,Gansu),and Ya(present-day Ya’an,Sichuan),taking this policy as an important means of governing the people of all ethnicgroups in Northwest China.
Due to the tension between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongols in the north,theformer could not get troops and horses from the latter,so they had to get supplies from theQinghai-Tibet Plateau.The imperial court took full advantage of the Tibetan people’s lovefor tea and strictly controlled its production,transportation and sale .Tea was only allowedto be exchanged for Tibetan horses.Due to the unequal exchange of value,the spreadof smuggling,the development of tributary trade and the difficulty of transportation,theofficial tea-horse trade system of the Ming Dynasty declined.
The early Qing Dynasty inherited the old system of the Ming Dynasty,and in the secondyear of Shunzhi(1645),the special trade form of tea-horse exchange was officially restoredand continued.In the 40th year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi(1702),“Tea Pass”wasset up in Dajianlu(today’s Kangding,Sichuan Province).After that,Luding Bridge wasbuilt over Dadu River,opening up a direct traffic artery to Dajianlu where has become thedistributing center of Sichuan tea and the transportation hub of Sichuan-Tibeta Tea-horseroad.In the 57th year of Kangxi(1718),in order to put down the Junggar rebellion,theQing government opened up the Sichuan-Tibet South Road,which ran from Dijianlu toLitang and Batang in Sichuan,and from Jiangka(today’s Mangkang)and Chaya in Tibet toQamdo.As this road was mainly for the officers and soldiers stationed in Tibet as well as fortransportation of food and army provisions into Tibet,it is used to be called“Sichuan-TibetOfficial Road”,which,in fact,was often the road for tea merchants and their caravans.TheAncient Tea-horse Road,which runs through Daofu,Ganzi and Dege in Sichuan Province,and Jiangda in Tibetg Province to Qamdo,is traditionally known as the“Sichuan-TibetTrade Road”.The two roads converge at Qamdo.
Yunnan is rich in tea resources,which laid a solid foundation for the formation of theYunnan-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road.The demand of Tibetan people for tea increasedwith each passing day,and people urgently needed to exchange with each other to obtainthe allocation and grant of resources,so as to cope with the scarcity and difficulties of theplateau and the mountains,and maintain order among ethnic groups.Driven by such a hugedomestic demand,the Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road has gradually entered people’slives.
(3)Tubo forces expanded southward
During the Tang Dynasty,the Nanzhao regime in Dali in Yunnan Province controlledErhai area and continuously expanded its territory,which threatened the rule of TangDynasty in Yunnan.The Tang Dynasty launched two wars against Nanzhao,which endedin failure.Almost at the same time,the Tubo regime rose,unified the Tibetan Plateau,and expanded southward to fight with the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao for the borderof northwest Yunnan and southwest Sichuan.In 678 AD,the Tubo forces entered thenorthern area of Erhai Lake in west Yunnan,established the Shenchuan Provincial MilitaryGogernment in 680 AD,and built an iron bridge linking Tubo and Nanzhao.The exactlocation of the iron bridge is on the Jinsha River in Tacheng,Weixi County,Diqing TibetanAutonomous Prefecture,Yunnan today.The construction of Shenchuan Iron Bridge,anofficial passage-way,not only opened the prelude to the relationship between Yunnanand Tibet,but also marked the basic formation of the Tea-horse Ancient Road of Yunnanand Tibet.In addition to the Shenchuan Iron Bridge,the Tubo set up iron bridges on theYangshui River and Bishui River to ensure smooth passage of the traffic between Yunnanand Tibet.Besides,the Tubo set up post stations on the traffic line between Yunnan andTibet to provide horse supplies and places for people from Yunnan and Tibet to have arest.The setting of post stations made it more convenient to travel between Yunnan andTibet which are both located in the southwest frontier of China,and there are many naturalpassages from southeast Tibet to northwest Yunnan through the valley areas of Jinsha Riverand Lancang River along the southern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,and trafficbetween Yunnan and Tibet has appeared long ago.
The route of the Tea-horse Ancient Road from Yunnan to Tibet in the Song Dynasty wasbasically the same as that in the Tang Dynasty.In the Northern Song Dynasty,relationshipbetween Dali and the Song Dynasty changed from tension to relaxation.The policy of“teahorse trade”implemented in the Song Dynasty made the trade between Yunnan and Tibetmore frequent.
Kublai Khan unified the whole country and set up the system of administrative provincesand post stations.According to the establishment of post stations,we canjudge that theapproximate route of the Yunnan-Tibetan Tea-horse Ancient Road in Yuan Dynasty startedfrom Dali,via Lijiang and Shangri-La to Tibet,which was basically the same as the TieqiaoRoad from Yunnan to Tibet in themTang Dynasty.The establishment of post stations in theYuan Dynasty not only connected towns on the main traffic lines in Yunnan,but extendedthe transportation routes to the surrounding villages through the main towns on the trafficlines.
The expansion of the Tea-horse Ancient Road was basically based on post stations andpost roads,so the perfection of post roads determines the accessibility of the road.Thepost stations in the Ming and Qing Dynasties basically inherited from the Yuan Dynastyand developed on this basis.The post road from Dali to Pu’er was opened in the MingDynasty,starting from Dali.In the middle and late Ming Dynasty,many post roads weredestroyed due to frequent wars and political corruption.Post roads of the Qing Dynastywere improved on the basis of the Ming Dynasty,and post horses,military stations andpost houses were added to facilitate the trade between Yunnan and Tibet.It was not untilthe middle and late Qing Dynasty that the post roads from the tea-producing areas to themajority of the northwest Yunnan were gradually perfected.Since modern times,the postroads were used as transport routes for horse caravans,which not only made the horsecaravan transport more convenient and efficient,but also promoted the development of teahorse trade and accelerated the formation of the Tea-horse Ancient Road network in Yunnanand Tibet.
Dali,as the central hub of the Yunnan-Tibetan Tea-Horse Ancient Road,post roadshad already appeared as early as the Nanzhao period.The relative stability of the localgovernment in Nanzhao created favorable conditions for the opening and developmentof post roads.A post road network with Dali as the center,connecting east and west,andstretching from north to south,was initially formed.With the rise of Mu Chieftain in theMing Dynasty,Lijiang became the economic and cultural center of Northwest Yunnanand the traffic center became increasingly prominent.During the Mu’s reign in NorthwestYunnan,the plank road between Yunnan and Tibet was repaired and mineral resourceswere developed,which made The tea-horse Ancient Road between Yunnan and Tibet moreaccessible,which not only ensured the economic and trade exchanges between Yunnan andTibet,but also laid a solid foundation for the large-scale horse transport in the future.Inthe Qing Dynasty,Wu Sangui adopted the policy of courting Tibet to increase war horsesand consolidate the separatist forces.He not only gave Weixi,Zhongdian(present Shangri-La)and Muli in Southwest Sichuan to Tibet,but also let Tibetan monks ask the Qing manytimes to open tea-horse trade in Yongsheng Prefecture(now Yongsheng County in Lijiang)and Zhongdian(It was renamed Shangrila in December,2001).Beisheng Prefecture andZhongdian(present Shangri-La)opened the market successively.After the opening of themarket,Zhongdian brought together a large number of merchants and established businesshouses,with frequent trade exchanges and prosperous commodity economy.Zhongdian(present Shangri-La)has become another important Yunnan-Tibet trade market anddistribution center for goods in the northwest of Yunnan.The prosperity of the markets inDali,Lijiang and Zhongdian also affected the development of surrounding towns.Townssuch as Deqin,Weixi,Yongsheng,Heqing,Jianchuan and Weishan sprang up one afteranother.The economic and trade links would certainly bring about the development oftransportation.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the sales of Yunnan Pu’er tea increased greatlyin Tibetan-inhabited areas and inland areas due to its high quality.Especially after theopening of tea -horse exchanges in Beisheng and Zhongdian(present Shangri-La),thetrade between Yunnan and Tibet became increasingly prosperous.Tea from Xishuangbanna,Simao(it was renamed Pu’er in 2007)and other tea-producing areas were sent to Dali orLijiang for transit every year.The production process of Pu’er tea is generally to cook thefreshly picked tea leaves,dry them in the sun,and then bake them into loose tea(or crudetea).Finally,the tea leaves are pressed into rectangular tea bricks or tea cakes with utensils,and the brick tea is specially supplied to Tibet.After a long journey from Dali,Pu’er teanaturally fermented in the process of transportation,and its excellent taste was deeply lovedby the Tibetan people.Because of its low price and strong flavor,brick tea has graduallybecome daily consumer goods of people in the Tibetan-inhabited areas.In the QingDynasty,the annual output of Xishuangbanna tea-producing area alone reached 80,000Dan(equivalent to 100 jin).Some tea was directly sent to Tibetan-inhabited areas,whilethe other was presented as tribute tea by the Qing government to Tibetan monks.The hugedemand for tea also drove the development of tea production industry.During the period ofthe Republic of China,tea between Yunnan and Tibet also increased rapidly every day,andtea became an indispensable product for the daily life of Tibetans.Two-thirds of the salesof Yunnan tea was sent to the Tibetan-inhabited areas.On the Ancient Yunnan-Tibet Tea-Horse Road were busy horse caravans shuttling back and forth every day,expanding itsdevelopment.
Before the Ming Dynasty,three ways to Tibet were determined for the Yunnan-TibetTea-horse Ancient Road,namely,direct entry to Tibet from Deqin County of Diqing,theentry to Tibet from Ninglang County of Lijiang through Sichuan,and the entry to Tibetfrom Tengchong County of Baoshan out of Myanmar.In the Ming and Qing Dynasties,thistrend was basically continued,but the routes between nodes along the road were added onthe original basis,and the Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road tended to be intensive inform.During the period of the Republic of China,two routes were added into Tibet: onewas from Gongshan County of Nujiang Prefecture; The other was from Xishuangbanna toMyanmar by sea and to India for Tibet.At this point,the Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse AncientRoad network basically formed.
After the initial formation in the Tang Dynasty,the Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse AncientRoad experienced prosperity in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and reached its peak in thelate Qing and the People’s Republic of China.However,followed by the social progressand development of modern transportation technology in the Republic of China,theAncient Yunnan-Tibet Tea-Horse Road gradually faded out of people’s sight after thefounding of the People’s Republic of China.In the vicissitudes of more than one thousandyears,It has never stopped developing.Even when the official road was blocked in thetime of war,people always managed to open up a new way to ensure the normal trade andcommunication between people was never interrupted.From this,we can summarize thelife cycle of the Tea-horse Ancient Road in Yunnan and Tibet,namely,the initial formationperiod,the rising and flourishing period and the decline period.
According to historical records,the earliest overseas spread of Chinese tea can be tracedback to the Southern and Northern Dynasties.Chinese traders sent tea to Turkey on theborder with Mongolia by bartering it.
Since the Tang Dynasty,rulers of all dynasties have actively taken measures to controlthe tea-horse trade.From the first year of Emperor Suzong’s Zhide reign(756 AD)to thefirst year of the millennium,he set up tea-horse trade in the Huihe area.In the NorthernSong Dynasty,the tea-horse trade was mainly in Shaanxi and Gansu.The tea traded forhorses was from Sichuan and traded on the spot.In Chengdu and Qinzhou(today’s Tianshuiin Gansu Province),they set up administrations for tea-horse trade respectively.In theYuan Dynasty,the government abolished the tea horse border control policy of the SongDynasty.In the Ming Dynasty,the tea-horse policy was restored and intensified,and takenas an important means of ruling people of all ethnic groups in Northwest China.In the QingDynasty,the policy of governing the border with tea-for-horse trade was relaxed.Therewere more private tea merchants,but they gave more tea and got less horses in the tea horsetrade.In the 13th year of Yongzheng reign of the Qing Dynasty,the official tea horse tradingsystem was terminated.From the Sui and Tang Dynasties to theQing Dynasty,the system ofborder control by tea horse trade has gone through vicissitudes for nearly a thousand years.In the long years of tea horse market trading,Chinese businessmen in the northwest andsouthwest border,with their own feet,stepped out a rugged Tea-horse Ancient Road.
On the ancient roads were thousands of industrious horse caravans,day after day,yearafter year,in the difficult journey of sleeping in the open air,with the sound of the bell andthe sound of the horse’s hooves to break the peace of the mountains,forests and valleysfor thousands of years,they opened up a road to trade and economic cooperation outsidethe region.The special experience of making a living on the snowy plateau fostered theircharacter of honesty and loyalty; exercised their courage and ability to distinguish rightfrom wrong.They were not only tradesmen,but also explorers who opened up the Teahorse Ancient Road.With their fortitude,courage and wisdom,they opened up a road ofsurvival,adventure and life leading to the ancient road of tea and horses with their effortsand sweat.History has proved that the Ancient Tea-horse Road was originally a road oftranscendence of humanistic spirit.Each time the caravans set out on ajourney,it was ajourney of life and death.The hardships and dangers of the road were extraordinary,butthe magnificent natural landscape along the road can inspire people’s potential courage,strength and patience,so that their souls were sublimated,thus setting off the exposure ofthe true meaning and greatness of life.Moreover,the wide spread of Tibetan Buddhism onthe Ancient Tea-horse Road further promoted the economic and cultural exchanges amongthe Naxi,Bai,Tibetan and other brotherly ethnic groups in northwest Yunnan,and enhancedthe unity and friendship among ethnic groups.
From the Tang Dynasty to the 1950s and 1960s,when the Yunnan-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet highways were built,the Tea-horse Ancient Road was like a big corridor connectingvarious ethnic groups along the way,developing the local economy,invigorating commoditymarket,and promoting the development of agriculture and animal husbandry in the bordertrade areas.At the same time,arts,religions,customs,cultures and ideologies of the regionsalong the routes also enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and development.
Today,on the Ancient Tea-horse Road created by ancient people thousands of years ago,groups of horse caravans have disappeared,the clear and melodious camel bell has gone,and the aroma of ancient tea has dissipated.However,the footprints of our ancestors andhorseshoes imprinted on the Ancient Tea-horse Road,as well as the countless memoriesof ancient times,have turned into a noble national entrepreneurial spirit of Chinesedescendants.This spirit of consistent struggle will be carved into an eternal monument inthe history of the development of the Chinese nation,shining with the glory of the Chinesenation for generations to come.
2.A memory fading away
In history,the Salt Road and Tea-horse Ancient Road in the Simao-Pu’er area arose withthe production,transportation and sale of salt and tea.According to the Annals of Pu’erPrefecture written in the reign of Emperor Guangxu,Pu’er tea had been sold to Tibet asearly as the Tang Dynasty.In volume 19,Records of Food,it is stated:“Pu’er belongs to theYinsheng Prefecture in ancient times,so people in Tibet have begun to drink Pu’er tea sincethe Tang Dynasty.”In the Song Dynasty,there were tea and horse markets,trading tea forhorses.
In the 7th year of Yongzheng(1729),the Qing government set up the Youle Tongzhi(anofficial name in the Ming and Qing Dynasties )in Mount Yole,with 500 troops to defendthe fortress and collect tea donations.At that time,about 1,000 tea carts were transportedannually to Pu’er Prefecture for processing and refinement.Due to the prevalence ofmiasma and malaria,in 1736,the Qing government transferred Youle Tongzhi(an oficialname)to Simao and renamed it Simao Tongzhi.From then on,Simao became a tea transferstation between Pu’er and Xishuangbanna,and Simao also prospered because of its populartea sales.From Daoguang to the early Guangxu period(1821 ～ 1876),Simao City witnesseda gathering of business travelers and a prosperous market.“More than a thousand Tibetanmerchants came here every year,Indian merchants came here to carry tea and lac.”Thetrade road in southern Yunnan has become a tea trade road,and many countries includingIndia,Burma,Siam(Thailand),Vietnam,Laos and Cambodia have joined the trade routes.There were merchants traveling between Xishuangbanna and Simao and Pu’er.During thisperiod,the horse road of Pu’er tea was unusually prosperous.
In 1983,the Tea-Horse Ancient Post Road was discovered during the cultural relicssurvey in Simao area,and now there are still Nakeli Post Road and Cha’antang PostRoad left.“Nakeli Post Road”is an ancient tea-horse post road in today’s Nakeli Villageof Tongxin Township,Pu’er County.During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the QingDynasty,it was called Nakelitang with 6 soldiers.Today,we can still see the road paved byartificial stone and gravel,the width of the which is 1.4 meters,and there are stone stepswinding up.The total length of the post road is 30 kilometers.
“Cha’antang Post Road”is an Ancient Tea-horse Post Road from Pu’er to the north ofMohei to Kunming,the provincial capital,and southward to Simao-Pu’er Regions in theinland.It is located at the top of the Cha’antang Slope,12.6 kilometers to the northeast ofPu’er County,with an altitude of 1960.7 meters.It is one of the important ancient sentryinformation stations.During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty,therewere five people living and guarding in this tea temple.In the late Ming and early QingDynasties,an official road was built from Pu’er to Kunming,the provincial capital,tofacilitate the delivery of Pu’er tea to the capital.Some irregular square and long stoneswere laid one by one.This road has become the main road for traders’ mules and horses totransport tea and salt.
The post road is built in the mountains.Because of the high mountains and dangerousroads,Cha’antang was known as the Cha’antang Horse Road.It also became one of the“Eight Scenes of Pu’er County”in the Qing Dynasty.Now people can still see the Tea-horseAncient Road,which is about 2 meters wide and 6 kilometers long,with horse hoof prints 2centimeters deep on the stone,showing its long history.
As to the Pu’er tea paid as a tribute in the Qing Dynasty,according to the records,atthat time,local officials had to prepare tribute tea.Minorities in the Six Tea Mountains inPu’er and other tea-producing areas all relied on tea as their main economic source andobject of exchange,so tea was planted almost everywhere,sold to every household,and teahorse roads were full of merchants
The establishment of customs also increased the export transport and sales of Puer tea.On January 2,1897,France established a customs office in Simao.On May 8,1902,aBritish customs office was established at Simao.
In addition,the Tibetan caravans from Zhongdian and Deqin drove 300 to 500 packhorses to Xishuangbanna every year to carry tea,which was sold to Xikang and Tibet,totaling about 3,000 dan per year.In the process of tea production,in the 30’s of thiscentury,Simao had established Simao-Pu’er Enterprise Bureau,and Sipu Tea Factory inNanNuo Mountain,Menghai.Before liberation,there was a private Jingxing Tea Factory inMojiang County,which made great efforts to process and produce good tea.
As Pu’er tea developed,its production and profits increased,the feudal government’s taxand extortion on tea merchants and tea farmers also increased.During the reign of EmperorGuangxu,Yunnan-Guizhou Governor also set up agencies,which aggravated the strictarrangement of tea merchants and tea farmers.Due to the excessive tea tax,tea farmerssuffered and tea merchants had no profit.As a result,“the production of tea in Pu’er becamequite harmful to people.”
By the end of the reign of Emperor Guangxu,the annual output of Pu’er tea had fallenfrom the previous peak of 80,000 dan to 50,000 dan,and many tea traders and horsecaravans had to go other ways.In the past,the caravans came in an endless stream,and thesight of business congestion was gone forever.By the end of the War of Resistance AgainstJapanese Aggression in 1945,tea production in the region had fallen to 15,000 dan.By1949,the remaining area of tea plantations in the whole region was only 31,400 mu,and theyield was only 6992 dan,which was the lowest in history.The tea-horse road of Pu’er alsogradually declined.
Although the official tea-horse trading system was terminated in the 13th year ofYongzheng(1735)of the Qing Dynasty,the Tea-horse Ancient Road continued to flourish inthe late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China as tea traders increased greatly.Duringthe War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression,the Japanese army blocked all thepassages into China.After the fall of Burma and the cut off of the Burma Road,the Yunnan-Tibet Tea-horse Ancient Road became the only international passage.Many foreign aidsto China,as well as the anti-Japanese war materials to the western Yunnan front,weretransported by horse caravans through this ancient road.At that time,160,000 Chinesesoldiers participated in the war along the Yunnan-Burma border.Adding anti-Japaneseguerrillas,the total number of Chinese soldiers was over 200,000.Most of their dailysupplies,guns and ammunition were transported by horse caravans of various nationalitiesin western Yunnan through the Tea-horse Ancient Road.In the Chinese nation’s mostdangerous moment,the Tea-horse Ancient Road trade channel has played an important role,leaving its most glorious moment in history.
Starting from the Tang Dynasty and ending in the Qing Dynasty,the system of usingtea-horse trade to govern the border has gone through more than a thousand years ofvicissitudes.Now,the tea-horse exchange has long been terminated,the ancient road lostits former role.Most sections of the Sichuan-Tibet and Yunnan-Tibet highways built in themid-20th century are along the site of the Ancient Tea-horse Road,replacing the old one thatwound through mountains,river valleys and connected villages.Cars have replaced horsecaravans,and the Tea-horse Ancient Road has become history.The roving horse caravans,traditionally armed with tents,gongs and pots and guns,ringing brass bells and singing thetune,has gradually disappeared.However,as a historical witness in the formation processof the Chinese nation,the Tea-horse Ancient Road still shines brightly,and increasinglyhighlights its historical significance and value with the passage of time.The internationalsignificance of the Tea-horse Ancient Road is comparable to that of the Silk Road.It hasbeen there for thousands of years and can now be called an important historical and culturalheritage of mankind.