Silk Roads: The greatest links of civilisations in the world
Goods, technologies, and ideas travelled along overlapping Silk Roads routes, connecting people and cultures
Silk Roads Beyond Borders, Poly MGM Museum, Macau
Silk Roads Beyond Borders
The Poly MGM Museum’s exhibition Silk Roads Beyond Borders opens a window onto two thousand years of exchange.
Main Routes of the Tang Dynasty Silk Roads towards Rome
Goods, technologies, and ideas travelled thousands of kilometres along overlapping routes, connecting distant civilisations and reshaping them.
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The exhibition draws this history from over 200 artefacts, each one testament to the network that made such exchange possible.
Main Routes of the Tang Dynasty Silk Roads from Xian
In 138 BCE, Zhang Qian set out westward on a state-sponsored mission. He returned with knowledge of distant lands and established formal ties between Han China and Central Asia.
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His journey pierced through the void, as contemporaries described it, laid the foundation for the opening of multiple routes – Silk Roads, that would sustain trade and diplomacy for centuries.
Byzantine Gilt Silver Plate with Dionysian Motifs, Modern Era, Gansu Provincial Museum. This silver plate, in the style of the Eastern Roman Empire, is a significant discovery along the Silk Roads in China
Before Zhang Qian, no official exchange existed between the Central Plains and the Western Regions. His expedition changed that fundamentally.
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The Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) seized the opportunity. Hundreds of official emissaries travelled to the Western Regions, reaching towards the Persian Gulf and the margins of Rome.
Portrait Brick depicting a Postal Courier, Wei-Jin period
This was not ad hoc commerce but a coordinated system. The state established relay stations, deployed officials to manage them, and stationed military garrisons to protect the travellers and goods.
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A Portrait Brick depicting a Postal Courier immortalises this infrastructure. A mounted messenger’s speed and reliability held the network together.
Commerce intensified from the Han to the Tang dynasties
From the Han through to the Tang (618-907 CE) dynasties, the scale of commerce along the Silk Roads intensified.
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Merchants and envoys moved between Chang’an, Luoyang, Dunhuang, Samarkand, Tehran, Constantinople, and Rome.
Painted Moluded Brick with Central Asian Merchant leading a Camel, Tang Dynasty, Dunhuang Museum
Nearly 400 missions arrived from foreign kingdoms during the Sui (581-618 CE) and Tang periods, their visitors reshaping China’s culture and knowledge in return.
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This was a two-way current. The military and administrative framework that protected the routes, beacon towers, guard posts, and fortresses ensured safe passage for this human tide.
Sculptures along the Silk Roads represent a fusion of East and West styles, Silk Roads Beyond Borders
What travelled westward spoke to Chinese sophistication. Silks topped the list.
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Their lustre and durability made them currency as well as cloth: alongside coins from Rome, Persia, and Arabia, silk could be exchanged for goods across the network due to its portability and divisibility.
Camels carried the treasures that traversed the Silk Roads
Porcelain, paper, ink, and spices reached Baghdad’s markets and Syria’s trading posts.
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A Tang Sancai-glazed Bactrian Camel, glaze-fired in yellows and ambers, embodies the beast that carried these treasures with the caravans that traversed across the deserts of the Silk Roads.
Tang Sancai-Glazed Bactrian Camel Tang dynasty
The Silk Roads served as a transcontinental network for the exchange of knowledge and craftsmanship.
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Sericulture, the cultivation of silkworms and the production of silk, captivated distant civilisations.
This once-mysterious process travelled from Asia to Constantinople around 550 CE, where Byzantine Emperor Justinian dispatched monks to smuggle silkworm eggs westward.
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There, the techniques fused with Persian textile methods, creating a hybrid silk production that blended Eastern and Western mastery.
A carpet made of wool on a hemp and silk base
A carpet made of wool on a hemp and silk base captures this synthesis. Two dragons chase a flaming pearl across its surface.
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Auspicious clouds fill the upper portion; undulating sea waves dominate the lower section. The carpet demonstrates how silk craftsmanship weaves together Eastern and Western influences.
Left: Powdered Colour Flute-Playing Figurine, Northern Dynasties, Xian Museum. Right: Painted Earthenware Figurine of a Musician, Eastern Jin and the Sixteen Kingdoms, Xian Museum
Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia sent their own products east: glass beads, metalworking techniques, and artistic motifs.
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A Bronze Wagon of 99 pieces, dating to the Han dynasty, depicts a dignitary’s hierarchical chariot-and-horse procession.
Bronze Wagon, Han dynasty
The wagon’s construction demonstrates advanced bronze casting techniques.
It was the most significant and imposing such discovery to date, and it reveals an economy sophisticated enough to command such labour-intensive craftsmanship.
Eight-Faceted Gilt Cup with Dancers and Musicians, Tang dynasty
The Eight-Faceted Gilt Cup with Dancers and Musicians from the Tang dynasty shows fusion in metalwork. Chinese and Sogdian traditions merge in a single vessel. Its octagonal form receives chiselled vine scrolls.
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Each facet, bordered with pearls, depicts musicians and dancers whose Central Asian features, deep-set eyes and prominent noses mark them as foreign to Chinese eyes.
Chinese-made porcelain reached Europe, where it became a luxury
Porcelain reveals the same pattern across centuries. During the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), Chinese-made porcelain reached Europe, where it became a venerated luxury.
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When Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) exports peaked, European potters became obsessed with replicating the technique.
Sacrificial-Blue-Glazed Ormolu-Mounted Vase, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period
The Sacrificial-Blue-Glazed Ormolu-Mounted Vase from the Qing dynasty exemplifies how global trade reshaped aesthetics.
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Its globe-shaped form and deep sapphire glaze show West Asian influence, yet it remains unmistakably Chinese in conception.
A Pair of Gilt Bronze-Mounted Sevres Soft-Paste Porcelain Medici Vases, 1788-1790
The Pair of Gilt-Bronze-Mounted Sèvres Soft-Paste Porcelain Medici Vases (1788-1790) respond from Europe. Potters modelled them on a monumental marble Medici Vase from the first century CE.
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Their light-blue glaze, arabesque decoration, and gilded copper mounts demonstrate how European makers absorbed Chinese influence whilst asserting their own taste.
Meissen Hexagonal Tea Canister and Cover, 1730-1735
In 1708, Meissen in Germany achieved a breakthrough: hard-paste porcelain matching Jingdezhen’s manufacture.
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A Meissen Hexagonal Tea Canister and Cover (1730-1735) in the exhibition illustrates this achievement. Its East Asian-inspired birds, flowers, and insects are rendered in a strictly European form.
Chinese ceramics and pottery served this exchange by remaining open to foreign materials and imagery.
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Persian cobalt pigments enabled blue-and-white porcelains and intricate patterns featuring fantastical creatures.
Pot with Moulded Lion Tamer Scene, Northern Qi dynasty,
A Pot with a Moulded Lion-Tamer Scene (Northern Qi dynasty, 550-577 CE) shows Central Asian figures, a lion tamer and elephant keeper, on a pear-shaped vessel framed with palmette sprays.
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The work moves beyond Chinese convention, signalling what the routes made possible.
Tang Sancai pottery, glazed in yellow, white, and green, exemplified production for both local and foreign markets.
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A Tang Sancai-Glazed Figure of Mother and Child depict a seated woman in a green robe with wide sleeves, holding an infant.
Tang Sancai-Glazed Figure of Mother and Child, Tang dynasty
The glazes pool in amber and cream; her face receives careful detail in black and red pigments.
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A Blue-Splashed Sancai-Glazed Figure of a Court Lady commands attention through posture alone. She sits erect.
Blue-Splashed Sancai-Glazed Figure of a Court Lady, Tang dynasty
Her twin-bun coiffure and red huadian mark her as a woman of rank; her expression remains serene. These figurines circulated as trade goods, spreading Tang taste across the known world.
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Gold and silver artisanry became one of the Silk Roads’ most profound technical exchanges.
Tiger-Pattern Round Gold Plaque Warring States period
A Tiger-Pattern Round Gold Plaque (Warring States period) shows the beast curled into a circle, its head raised. Its design and craftsmanship demonstrate the technical prowess achieved.
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The Gold Cup with Tiger-Shaped Handle, Adorned with Inlaid Red Carnelians (Sui–Tang dynasties) presents a vessel whose interior and exterior bear die-stamped diamond-patterned grids.
Gold Cup with Tiger-Shaped Handle Adorned with Inlaid Red Carnelians, Sui-Tang dynasties
Each cell was originally set with red carnelian. The tiger handle features powerful limbs entirely chased with stripes.
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A Blooming Tree-Form Gold Ornament (Western Jin dynasty) uses openwork and millet-grain patterns to create delicate branching structures from a rectangular base.
Blooming Tree-Form Gold Ornament, Western Jin dynasty
Western influences melded into Eastern customs. Enamelware, originating in Bronze Age Cyprus, travelled east along the Silk Roads and reached China via Arab artisans during the Yuan dynasty.
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Chinese craftsmen mastered the technique and developed their own distinctive style: cloisonné, also known as Jingtailan.
Cloisonné Enamel Tiger-Form Water Dropper, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period
A Cloisonné Enamel Tiger-Form Water Dropper (Qing dynasty, Qianlong period) shows a crouching tiger. Its ochre glaze is accented with black enamel wave patterns that mimic striped fur.
A scholar’s desk companion, it held water for grinding ink.
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An Imperial Cloisonné Enamel Heroes Nuptial Cup with Entwined Lotus Scroll Design (Kangxi period) pairs an eagle and bear above and below in a circular arrangement.
Imperial Cloisonné Enamel Heroes Nuptial Cup with Entwined Lotus Scroll Design Kangxi Period, Qing dynasty
Both creatures prove auspicious in Chinese tradition and serve as homophones for hero. Their archaic motif reflects Qing craftsmanship and aesthetics.
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The true power of the ancient Silk Roads lay in how they fused traditions, binding them through commerce and craft. Today, China’s Belt and Road Initiative follow the same aspiration: to broaden the flow of commerce, culture, and ideas through connecting routes.
Buddhism spread to China during the First to the Fifth centuries
The exhibition makes this past, present.
The artefacts and artworks in the Silk Roads Beyond Borders exhibition bring to life networks that reshaped human history.
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Each object on display carries the weight of that exchange: the labour, ingenuity, and ambition of two thousand years.
Text and photos Cammy Yiu
