The Silk Road: A Tale of Trade, Exploration, and Cultural Fusion
Silk, Spices, and Stories: the History of the Silk Road The Silk Road (絲綢之路), a significant Eurasian network of trade routes, was operational from the … Read more
![Emperor Justinian Receiving the First Imported Silkworm Eggs from Nestorian Monks, Plate 2 from "The Introduction of the Silkworm" [Vermis Sericus] ca. 1595](https://china-underground.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Emperor-Justinian-Receiving-the-First-Imported-Silkworm-Eggs-from-Nestorian-Monks-768x580.jpg)
How a few Monks Smuggled Silkworm Eggs into the Byzantine Empire
Ancient Industrial espionage: the story of the Few Monk-spies Who Broke Two Monopolies. As a result of the removal of middlemen (The Silk Road: A … Read more
Interview with William Han, author of From The Wall To The Water
William Han set out in 2015 to travel the ancient Silk Road from China to Europe, following in the footsteps of Gan Ying, a Chinese … Read more
A Third Century Chinese Account of the Roman Empire
Roman life is described in translations of The Weilue, a 3rd-century Chinese historical text. Mutual knowledge between the Chinese and Roman empires was very limited. Only … Read more