The term “Silk Road” is generally refer to the exchanges between China and places farther to the west, specifically Iran, India and, on rare occasions, Europe. Most vigorous before the year 1000, these exchanges were often linked to Buddhism.
Cultural transfer took place as the Chinese learned from other societies, specifically India, the home of Buddhism. Buddhist missionaries were key translators and worked out a system for transcribing unfamiliar terms in foreign languages, like Sanskrit, into Chinese that remains in use today. Chinese absorbed some 35,000 new words, including both technical Buddhist terms and common everyday words.
Source: The Silk Road: A New History-Valerie Hansen (Oxford University Press, 2012)
No comments:
Post a Comment