Assignments

	From the Silk Road to the Great Game: China, Russia, and Central Eurasia

Home Syllabus Assignments Maps Online Resources MIT Home	21H580: Paper Topics November 2, 2001 #: I have a copy you can borrow $: Available at MIT libraries %:Harvard Retrospective Collection There are many fascinating topics you can investigate related to the themes of this subject. I suggest focusing specifically on only a few people, places, or commodities that crossed this vast expanse. Papers should be 10-15 pages long, double spaced, typed. Detailed instructions on the format will follow. Many scholarly books on this subject are difficult to obtain. Be sure to start early on formulating your topic. You will probably need to use Interlibrary Loan to get some materials; but I can help you get sources from Widener library, if necessary. Let me know if you know French, German, Russian, or Chinese; Many other sources are available in these languages. 1. Travellers Discuss two of the travellers across Central Eurasia. Describe their biographies and the travel accounts they produced. Why did they go? What did they pay attention to? What did they leave out? How reliable are their accounts? What was their image of the region before they went and after? What did they want their readers to know? #Jeanette Mirsky,ed. The Great Chinese Travelers (Chicago 1974) Translations and commentary on the earliest Chinese travelers: Zhang Qian, Xuan Zang, Rabban Sauma, Changchun, etc. $Marco Polo. The Travels (Penguin, 1958, R.Latham trans) On the controversy over the accuracy of Marco Polo's account, see Frances Wood, Did Marco Polo Go to China?; and the refutation by #Igor de Rachewiltz, "Marco Polo Went to China", Zentralasiatische Studien 27 [1997], 34- 92. Ibn Battuta. An Arab traveller who visited China shortly after Marco Polo. $John Bell. A Journey from St.Petersburg to Pekin,1719-1722. (Edinburgh, 1965). An 18th century Scotsman in the service of the Russian Tsar, who crossed Siberia and Mongolia and arrived in Beijing. Tulisen: An 18th century Manchu official in the service of the Chinese emperor, who crossed Mongolia and Siberia in the opposite direction as Bell, at almost the same time. RC Andrews, on dinosaurs %Owen Lattimore, The Desert Road to Turkestan; High Tartary. 20th century American scholar-explorer, the most influential writer on Chinese frontiers. See Inner Asian Frontiers of China; Collected Writings on Frontier History; biography by John Newman. Rabban Sauma. The first "Chinese" to travel to Europe. See Morris Rossabi, Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West (Kodansha, 1992) $Sir Aurel Stein, On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks (Macmillan, 1933). British discoverer of Dunhuang and the lost cities in the desert of the Tarim basin. Sven Hedin, Southern Tibet: Discoveries in Former Times Compar ed with my Own Researches in 1906-1908 (Stockholm, 1917); many other works. Swedish explorer of Central Asian regions in the early 20th century. $Albert Von le Coq, Buried Treasures of Turkestan (Oxford, 1928); Qocho. German leader of an expedition to the caves and ruined cities near Turfan. %On Stein, Hedin, von le Coq, and Pelliot, see Peter Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road (U.Mass 1980) Younghusband. British leader of the first expedition to Tibet in 1906. Biographies by Peter Fleming, Bayonets to Lhasa (Oxford 1961), and ??. #Mary Ellen Alonso, ed. China's Inner Asian Frontier: Photographs of the Harvard Wulsin Expedition to Northwest China in 1923 (Harvard 1979) Valuable historical photographs, with an excellent essay by Joseph Fletcher. Peter Fleming. News from Tartary (1936);. British "amateur" traveler through Xinjiang and Tibet. Modern Travellers $Kathleen Hopkirk, Central Asia: A Traveller's Companion. (Murray 1993). Combines current observation with excerpts from historical accounts. Feynman/ Leighton Jan Myrdal and Gun Kessle, The Silk Road: A Journey from the High Pamirs and Ili through Sinkiang and Kansu (Pantheon 1979) Famous Dutch journalist and his wife travel in China's West in the pre-reform period. A. Doak Barnett, on travels in Xinjiang in PRC. 2. Commodities Describe the routes and merchants of two of the principal commodities of the Silk Route. Who carried them and why? What was their value? What were the primary political, economic, and geographcial influences on the trade? Silk and Textiles: Thomas Allsen, Islamic Textiles. Tea & Horses Paul Smith; Morris Rossabi Camels Richard Bulliet, E. Schafer Weapons of War: Cannon etc. Languages and Language Families: Indo European [J.R. Mallory]; Altaic [D.Sinor] 3. Civilizations and Cultures Pick one important site and trace the different cultural interactions on it over several centuries (you don't have to cover the entire period!). What religions, peoples, and cultures grew there or were imported and exported from this place? How did the different cultures affect each other? Bactria Gandhara Turfan Dunhuang Sogdiana #$Richard Frye, The Heritage of Central Asia. 4. Perspectives Many world historians have included discussion of the Silk Road and Central Eurasia in their works. Compare the role of this region in their history and theories, paying attention to nomads, merchants, climate, religion, etc. Look at the contrast between "civilization" and "barbarism" and how it is defined. $Herodotus: The Histories (David Grene, trans; U. Chicago Press). The great Greek historian, who wrote extensively on the Scythians and other nomads. $Sima Qian: Records of the Grand Historian. (trans. Burton Watson) Herodotus' Chinese counterpart, who chronicled the struggle of China with the Xiongnu. $Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Allen Lane, 1994). Renowned for his elaborate style and sharp commentary, Gibbon describes the Huns, Mongols, and Timur in considerable detail. On his biases, see Lionel Gossman, The Empire Unpossess'd: An Essay on Gibbon's Decline and Fall (Cambridge, 1981) $Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History. (Many volumes, and abridged version by D.C. Somervel) The most popular world historical theorist of the mid twentieth century. His theory of "civilizations" and their rise and fall includes attention to nomadic invasions. $Baron Michel de Montesquieu. The Spirit of the Laws. The principal French theorist of liberalism, contrasting the free West to the despotic East. Climatic determinist. See #D. Sinor, "Montesquieu et le monde Altaique". William McNeill, The Rise of the West; Plagues and Peoples. The foremost living world historian. See his discussion of ancient civilizations and nomadism; note stress on environmental causes. $Ellsworth Huntington, The Pulse of Asia, (Houghton Mifflin, 1919). American explorer of Turkestan and geologist, with the most extreme argument about the impact of desiccation on nomadic invasions. $Halford J. Mackinder. Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction. Scottish geopolitical theorist who argued before World War I for the importance of military control of Central Eurasia in order to dominate the "World Island". Andre Gunder Frank, The Centrality of Central Asia. A grand "world system" sociologist argues for the vital role of Central Asia in global economic growth. $Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: (3 volumes); Vol. 3 The Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times (Chicago 1974); Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam, and World History; ed. Edmund Burke III (Cambridge 1993). Great historian of Islam who always integrated the Islamic world into world history. 5. Historical Studies Topics: Chinggis Khan, Kubilai Khan, Origins of Russia, Russian expansion, spread of religions See Journal of World History for a number of articles on the Silk Road and the influence of nomads on world history: e.g. David Christian, "Silk Roads or Steppe Roads?: The Silk Roads in World History", vol. 11, no. 1 Spring 2000. $ Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350 (Oxford 1989). Sociologist's argument for the unity of the Eurasian world under the Mongol empire. #C.R. Bawden, The Modern History of Mongolia (Praeger 1968). Best general survey, from 17th to 20th century. #Elizabeth E. Bacon, Central Asians under Russian Rule: A Study in Culture Change (Cornell 1980) $Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (Oxford 1993) Survey of religious and cultural interchange up to 1500. #David Christian, A History of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia, vol. 1: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire (Blackwell 1998) #Pamela Crossley, The Manchus (Blackwell 1997). Synthesizes the history of the Qing from the Inner Asian point of view. Joseph F. Fletcher, Studies on Chinese and Islamic Inner Asia, ed. B.Manz (Variorum 1995). Selection of articles by the most brilliant modern scholar of China and Inner Asia. $Jonathan Lipman, Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China (U of Washington 1997) Dramatic stories of war, rebellion, and adaptation of Chinese Muslims to imperial rule. #James A. Millward, Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864. (Stanford 1998) Excellent study of the incorporation of Xinjiang into the Chinese empire. #David Morgan. The Mongols (Blackwell 1986) Well written survey of the Mongol empire under Chinggis Khan and after. #Paul Ratchnevsky, Genghis Khan:His Life and Legacy (Blackwell 1993) #Arthur Waldron, The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth (Cambridge 1990) Examines the myth of the Great Wall and Chinese strategy in the 16th century. #Paul Kahn, trans.The Secret History of the Mongols (North Point Press 1984). Story of Chingis Khan's victories from the inside, like an epic poem. Compare with translations by Arthur Waley and Frances Cleaves. 6. Modern Central Eurasia Topics: Environment, Ethnicity, Nationalism; the impact of Communist revolutions in the Soviet Union and China; the rise of Islam in Central Asia; global geopolitics and economic growth; artistic interchange. $Maris Boyd Gillette, Between Mecca and Beijing: Modernization and Consumption among Urban Chinese Muslims (Stanford 2000). Based on recent field work; on pork taboos and ethnic definition. #Dru C.Gladney, Muslim Chinese:Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic (Harvard 1991) $Melvyn C. Goldstein, The Snow lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama (U.Cal 1997) Short account of the political controversy over Tibet today. #Caroline Humphrey, David Sneath, The End of Nomadism? Society, State, and the Environment in Inner Asia (Duke, 1999) #Stephen Kotkin, Bruce Elleman, Mongolia in the Twentieth Century: Landlocked Cosmopolitan (ME Sharpe 1999) #Theodore Levin, The Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia and Queens (Indiana 1996) A musicologist combines travel with discussions of the fate of traditional musical culture in the Central Asian Republics. $Olivier Roy, The New Central Asia: The Creation of Nations (NYU 2000). The leading French expert, who spent many years in Central Asia, describes the emergence of rival national, ethnic, and religious loyalties during and after the Soviet regime. #Justin Jon Rudelson, Oasis Identities: Uyghur Nationalism along China's Silk Road (Columbia 1997) Based on fieldwork in Turfan, describes Uighur consciousness of their relationship to China, and other Turkic peoples. #Orville Schell, Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood (Henry Holt 2000). Journalist who has written a great deal on China describes in hilarious fashion the current cult of Buddhism and the Dalai Lama in L.A. 7. Art Exhibits and Museum Catalogues #Vladimir Basilov,ed. Nomads of Eurasia (Smithsonian exhibit 11/89) (U.Washington 1989) Essays and artifacts from prehistory to the 20th century. #Musee Guimet, Tresors de Mongolie: 17-19 siecles (Paris 1993). Bronze Buddhist sculptures, with historical essays.
	Please send questions and comments to helenjt@mit.edu. Last update: November 14, 2001