Ancient tea horse road

Ancient tea horse road

The ancient tea horse road is an ancient traffic route formed by tea horse trade between inland and border areas in China's history, which is divided into Sichuan Tibet Road and Yunnan Tibet road. The ancient tea horse road, located in Southwest China, is a private international trade channel with horse Gang as the main means of transportation, a corridor for economic and cultural exchanges among ethnic groups in Southwest China, and the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

The ancient tea horse road originated from the ancient tea horse market in the southwest frontier. It flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and flourished in the middle and late World War II. The ancient tea horse road is divided into Shaanxi Gansu, Shaanxi kangzang and Yunnan Tibet roads. It connects Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, extends into Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and India, and reaches the Red Sea coast of West Asia and East Africa.

The ancient tea horse road is an ancient commercial road with tea horse trade as its main content. It has been through the Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, song, yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is one of the most famous ancient international trade channels in Western China. On March 5, 2013, the ancient tea horse road was listed as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council. At present, the new traffic arteries are constantly strengthening the economic, social and cultural ties between Tibet and the mainland, which are changing the ideas of farmers and herdsmen in remote areas of Tibet and promoting the common development of economy, society and culture between Tibet and the mainland.

brief introduction

The ancient tea horse road is a folk international trade channel with horse Gang as the main means of transportation in Southwest China. It is a corridor for economic and cultural exchanges among ethnic groups in Southwest China. The ancient tea horse road is divided into two routes: Shaanxi kangzang (Sichuan Tibet line) and Yunnan Tibet line.

The ancient tea horse road originated from the ancient tea horse market in the southwest frontier. It flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and flourished in the middle and late World War II. The ancient tea horse road is divided into three main routes: Shaanxi Gansu, Shaanxi kangzang (known as the wading ancient road among the people, Sichuan Tibet line is a part of it), Yunnan Tibet. It connects Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, extends into Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and India, and reaches the Red Sea coast of West Asia and West Africa.

On March 5, 2013, the ancient tea horse road was listed as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Introduction to the origin

The well preserved ancient tea horse road sites are near Lashihai in Lijiang ancient city, Shaxi ancient town in Jianchuan County, Dali Prefecture, Yunnanyi in Xiangyun County and nakori in Pu'er City.

The ancient tea horse road originated from the "tea horse market" in the Tang and Song dynasties. Because kangzang is an alpine region with an altitude of more than 34 kilometers, Zanba, milk, butter, beef and mutton are the staple food of Tibetan people. In alpine regions, people need to eat fat with high calorie, but there are no vegetables, Zanba is hot and dry, too much fat is not easy to decompose in the human body, and tea can decompose fat and prevent hot and dry, so Tibetan people have created plateau life habit of drinking butter tea in their long-term life, but Tibetan areas do not produce tea. In the mainland, a large number of mules and horses were needed for civilian servitude and military operations, but the supply was short of demand, while good horses were produced in Tibetan areas. As a result, the complementary trade between tea and horse, namely "tea horse market", came into being. In this way, mules, horses, furs, medicinal materials and tea, cloth, salt and daily utensils produced in the Tibetan areas and inland areas are constantly flowing from south to North in the high mountains and deep valleys of Hengduan Mountain area. With the development of social economy, they are becoming increasingly prosperous, forming an "ancient tea horse road" that continues to this day.

"Tea horse ancient road" is a historical concept with specific meaning. It refers to an important road formed by tea horse exchange between Han and Tibet from Tang and Song Dynasties to the Republic of China. Specifically speaking, the ancient tea horse road is mainly divided into South and North roads, namely dianzang road and Chuanzang road. Yunnan Tibet road starts from Erhai tea producing area in western Yunnan, passes Lijiang, Zhongdian (today's Shangri La County), Deqin, Mangkang and Chaya to Changdu, and then from Changdu to Weizang area. Starting from the tea producing areas in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, Chuanzang road first enters Kangding. Since Kangding, Chuanzang road is divided into South and North branches: the north line starts from Kangding, passes Daofu, Luhuo, Ganzi, dege, Jiangda, and reaches Changdu (that is, the north line of Sichuan Tibet Road), and then leads to Weizang area; the south line starts from Kangding, passes Yajiang, Litang and Batang Mangkang, Zuogong to Changdu (the south line of Sichuan Tibet highway), and then from Changdu to Weizang area.

In addition to the above trunk lines, Chama ancient road also includes a number of branch lines, such as the branch line from Ya'an to Songpan and even to Gannan; the branch line from the north of Sichuan Tibet road to Yushu, Xining and even to Taozhou (Lintan) in Qinghai via Dengke county (now dege County in Sichuan); the branch line from Changdu to the north of Tibet via leiwuqi and Dingqing, and so on. Because of this, some scholars believe that the "Tangfan ancient road" (today's Qinghai Tibet line) in history should also be included in the tea horse ancient road. Some scholars believe that although Gansu and Qinghai Tibet regions are also important destinations for tea transportation from the ancient tea horse road to Tibet, the ancient tea horse road does intersect with the "Tang Fan Road", but the "Tang Fan Road" is another specific concept after all, and its connotation is different from the "tea horse road". Moreover, Gansu and Qinghai Tibet regions were not on the main line of the ancient tea horse road in history, but only one of the destinations for tea transportation to Tibet.

There is not only one ancient tea horse road in history, but a huge transportation network. It is a road system composed of three main roads: Chuanzang Road, dianzang road and Qingzang Road (Ganqing Road), supplemented by many branch lines and attached lines. It extends to South Asia, West Asia, Central Asia and Southeast Asia as far as Europe. Among the three roads, Chuanzang road was opened the earliest, with the largest transportation volume and great historical role. This paper only discusses the ancient tea horse road in Sichuan and Tibet, but other roads are not discussed in this paper.

The Yunnan Tibet route of the ancient tea horse road is: Xishuangbanna - Pu'er - Dali - Lijiang - Shangri La - Deqin - Chayu - Bangda - Linzhi - Lhasa. The tea that arrived in Lhasa was also transported to Calcutta, India through the Himalayan pass, and sold in large quantities in Europe and Asia, making it a major international channel. This international channel played an important role in the survival of the Chinese nation in the war of resistance against Japan.

Historical evolution

According to historical records, the earliest spread of Chinese tea abroad can be traced back to the northern and Southern Dynasties. At that time, Chinese merchants exported tea to Turkey by bartering tea. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, with the development of border trade market and the opening of the Silk Road, Chinese tea was transported to Western Asia, northern Asia and Arab countries through Huihe and western regions by tea horse trade, and finally arrived in Russia and European countries through Siberia.

Since the Tang Dynasty, the rulers of all dynasties have actively taken measures to control the tea horse trade. From 756 A.D. to the first year of Qianyuan, suzong of Tang Dynasty set a precedent for tea horse trade in qumacha market in Huihe area of Mongolia. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the tea horse trade was mainly in Shaanxi and Gansu. Yima's tea was taken from Sichuan and Sichuan on the spot. In Chengdu and Qinzhou (today's Tianshui in Gansu Province), they bought tea and horse sauce respectively. In the Yuan Dynasty, the government abolished the tea horse border control policy in Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, the tea horse policy was restored and intensified, taking this policy as an important means of ruling the people of all ethnic groups in Northwest China. During the reign of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, a superior horse could exchange 120 Jin of tea at most. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, it was decided that a superior horse would be exchanged for 30 bars of tea, a medium horse would be 20, and a inferior horse would be 15. Tang Xianzu, a writer of the Ming Dynasty, wrote in his poem Tea Horse: "what beauty is black tea, what difference is Qiang horse." "Qiang horse and yellow tea, Hu horse for golden pearl." This shows the prosperity of tea horse market at that time. In the Qing Dynasty, the policy of tea horse governing the border was relaxed. There were more private tea merchants, but they spent more tea and got less horses in the tea horse trade. In the 13th year of Yongzheng reign of Qing Dynasty, the official tea horse trading system was terminated.

The system of border control by tea horse trade began in Sui and Tang Dynasties and ended in Qing Dynasty. There are two main routes of the ancient tea horse road: one starts from Ya'an, Sichuan, passes through Luding, Kangding, Batang and Changdu to Lhasa, Tibet, and then to Nepal and India, with a total length of more than 3100 km; the other starts from the origin of Yunnan Pu'er tea (now Xishuangbanna, Simao, etc.) and passes through Dali, Lijiang, Zhongdian and Deqin to Bangda, Chayu, Changdu and Luohe, Tibet Long, gongbujiangda, Lhasa, and then through Gyangze, Yadong, respectively to Myanmar, Nepal, India, the total length of the domestic route is more than 3800 km. Along the two main lines, there are numerous branch lines, large and small, closely connecting the "big triangle" areas of Yunnan, Tibet and Sichuan, forming the ancient tea horse civilization Road with the highest terrain, the most dangerous mountain road and the farthest distance in the world.

In the old days, the path between people and animals in Changdu was formed naturally by the long-term walking of people and animals.

In the 7th century, Tubo rose on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. In the early Tang Dynasty, Tubo went south and built an iron bridge on the Jinsha River in Zhongdian, opening up the passage between Yunnan and Tibet.

In the Song Dynasty, the main market of tea horse market was transferred to the southwest.

In the Yuan Dynasty, great efforts were made to open up post roads and set up post stations.

The Ming Dynasty continued to strengthen the construction of post roads.

The Qing Dynasty changed the name of the post office in Tibet to "Tang", and the management of Tang station was more strict and meticulous.

In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the number of tea merchants increased greatly.

In the middle and late period of the Anti Japanese War, the ancient tea horse road became the main international commercial channel in the southwest rear area.

Before 1950, Changdu became a commercial center in eastern Tibet.

There are three historical routes of the ancient tea horse road: Qinghai Tibet line, Yunnan Tibet line and Sichuan Tibet line.

The ancient tea horse road along the Yunnan Tibet line appeared in the Tang Dynasty, and it was very popular

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