Historical Evolution of China's Maritime Silk Road

Maritime Silk Road, with peace, friendship, economic equality, culture, and diplomacy communication as its purpose, has had a long history in China and a widespread impact on the world. Maritime Silk Road originated before the Qin Dynasty and officially opened in the Qin and Han dynasties, when Xuwen and Hepu became the departure ports. Merchant ships sailed over the Indian Ocean, generating the first great cultural exchange in the world with the dissemination of Buddhism and new crop varieties as its main contents. The period of Sui, Tang and the Five Dynasties was a prosperous period of Maritime Silk Road, when Guangzhou port became a worldwide port where domestic and foreign merchants gathered. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Maritime Silk Road had further development and prosperity, Guangzhou and Quanzhou gained the position of principal port and established close business relations with the Arab world. The worship of Mazu produced, who is thought to be the Goddess of Sea in China. The incoming of Champa rice, etc., profoundly changed the land use pattern of China. In the Ming dynasty marked by Zhenghe's seven expeditions to the western seas, Maritime Silk Road began to decline. As some new crops such as sweet potato and corn were introduced, and Matteo Ricci did missionary work and brought western science, technology to China, Macao and Zhaoqing became two cultural exchange centers, forming a bridge between eastern and western civilization, thus causing a revolution in China's grain production and cultural changes of some ideas. In the early stage of the Qing dynasty, the policy of secluding China from the outside world was carried out, Guangzhou(Canton) became the only foreign trade port in China. The newly developed sea routes brought about the rise of Thirteen Hongs(the thirteen commercial firms) in Guangzhou. The two-way communication between Chinese and western culture was active and the maritime silk road reached its height. However, after the Opium War of 1840, the nature of the trade between China and West was completely changed, the maritime Silk Road, which had lasted for more than 2000 years, had a full stop.