A seminar conducted by Professor Li Bozhong of Peking University was held on Wednesday, January 16, 2019. The title of the seminar was “1524: the End of the Silk Road.”

Professor Li began the seminar by introducing the booming study on the silk road, which he sees as largely in response to the Chinese government’s promotion of its global strategy of “One Road One Belt.” Prof Li then suggested that the historical status of the silk road may have been exaggerated.

He gave a chronological and a geographical outline of the silk road, dividing the silk road into five segments and pointing out that these five segments were rarely if ever linked or in other words, no merchants and caravan literally travelled all the distance from the Chinese capital of Chang’an or Peking all the way to European cities.

The central contention Prof. Li made is that the silk road ended in1524 during the mid-Ming dynasty when the Ming emperor relocated border garrisons from outside the Jiayu Pass at the western end of the Great Wall to inside of it.

Prof. Li’s detailed and comprehensive talk stimulated many questions and comments from the floor. A number of seminar participants asked challenging　and sharp questions such as about academic freedom in present-day China.

One question was whether it is safe to make an argument calling into question the importance of the silk road when the government is cashing on the assumed historical significance of the silk road to advocate a key global strategy. Others asked about the merchants and merchandises on the silk road.

Prof. Li also answered about why many foreign historians are interested in researching on the silk road. Participated by nearly 20 participants, the seminar was a great success. As organizers, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Prof. Li for the informative and stimulating talk. (Yijinag Zhong)