In this book the author explores several important cities along the Silk Road, which traversed Central Asia and China, and surveys their history during the first millennium of the Common Era. A distinctive feature of this book is that, in geographical terms, its coverage is limited to the area extending from Samarkand in Sogdiana in the west to Chang'an, the largest city along the Silk Road, in the east, and it excludes Iran and regions further to the west. However, the cities taken up for consideration are all localities where important historical materials have been discovered.

The greatest strength of this book lies in the fact that it fully incorporates the archaeological, artistic, and textual materials that have been discovered in this region as well as the body of research on the Silk Road that has accumulated in Japan and China, including the very latest findings. In specialist studies of the Silk Road published in Europe and America it is often the case that important research results produced in Japan and China are casually ignored, as a result of which many such publications are full of statements based on misunderstandings. But this book is not marred by any such defects. The author displays an accurate grasp of Chinese and non-Chinese historical sources and studies published in Chinese and Japanese and also has a good command of information on materials being newly discovered along the Silk Road, and this has resulted in an extremely reliable general history.

Seven cities are taken up in this book, with one chapter assigned to each city, as is indicated by the chapter subtitles: Chapter 1, “At the Crossroads of Central Asia: The Kingdom of Kroraina”; Chapter 2, “Gateway to the Languages of the Silk Road: Kucha and the Caves of Kizil”; Chapter 3, “Midway between China and Iran: Turfan”; Chapter 4, “Homeland of the Sogdians, the Silk Road Traders: Samarkand and Sogdiana”; Chapter 5, “The Cosmopolitan Terminus of the Silk Road: Historic Chang'an, Modern-day Xi'an”; Chapter 6, “The Time Capsule of Silk Road History: The Dunhuang Caves”; and Chapter 7, “Entryway into Xinjiang for Buddhism and Islam: Khotan.”

Several of these are oases in Eastern Turkestan, or that part of Central Asia lying to the east of the Pamirs and corresponding to the present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, and even today documents continue to be discovered in Turfan and Khotan in particular. For reasons of space, in the following I shall confine my comments chiefly to Chapter 3 on Turfan, which is a treasure trove of unearthed materials.

In the mid-fifth century, the Gaochang Kingdom was established as an oasis state in Turfan, and although the Tang empire exercised direct rule over this region from the mid-seventh to mid-eighth century, the Kingdom with its capital at Gaochang City was subsequently reestablished by the Uighurs (so-called the West Uighur Kingdom) and maintained its independence. Especially during the fifth and sixth centuries, the Gaochang Kingdom was continually subjected to the rule of powerful nomadic states that had been established in the north. Under the aegis of this relationship of control and submission, the nomadic states often sent envoys to Gaochang, and one aspect of this state of affairs is conveyed by a Turfan document dated 475–476, which is mentioned on p. 94 of the present book. This document shows in concrete detail how the nomadic Rouran peoples (known in Europe as the Avars) were sending envoys to Gaochang, which also hosted envoys from the Gupta dynasty in India and the Song dynasty in China. On this basis the author seeks to decipher the international political situation at this time. She also states that the contemporary circumstances of trade cannot be inferred from this document. But is this really the case?

This point is in fact closely related to the realities of the caravan trade that developed across Central Asia, and it is not a matter that allows of a simple interpretation, for nomadic states generally dispatched envoys to oasis states for the purposes of trade. Smaller caravans composed of individual traders also often travelled in the company of these large official embassies when travelling long distances, and it could be said that it was the embassies sent by nomadic states and so on that sustained the caravan trade in Central Asia.Footnote ¹

The author points out with reference to a list of goods placed in a grave and dating from 543 that, as trade began to flourish under the rule of nomadic states, silver coins minted by the Sasanian Empire based in western Iran gradually began to circulate in Turfan. This is correct as far as it goes, but a deeper analysis of this document reveals the notable fact that in the 540s silver coins were not yet referred to by means of the monetary unit wen, then being used in China, but were being counted simply with the classifier mei. The monetary unit wen began to be used in Turfan about ten years later. It may thus be assumed that there was a transitional stage in Turfan before silver coins began functioning as a form of denominated currency.Footnote ²

The author also takes up the question of why several contracts were buried in the moneylender Zuo's tomb during the period of Tang rule. This is an important point for probing contemporary views of the afterworld. According to the author, the contracts were placed in the tomb probably because Zuo had not managed to collect on them during his life and hoped to do so after his death by submitting them to the underworld court. But in this connection one should also bear in mind the notion of judgement after death for passing judgement on an individual's good and evil actions while alive, a belief that took root widely during the Tang period.

Among some minor points, it may be noted that the reference to “merchants and monks from the different countries east of the Pamirs” on p. 85 should read “merchants and monks from the different countries west of the Pamirs,” while Shi Pan-tuo hailed not from “Kesh,” but from Taškänt. In addition, on p. 86 the author mentions “the monk's aged horse” with reference to the horse of the Chinese monk Xuanzang, who made a stopover in Turfan, but this is not at all clear from the relevant sources. An old emaciated horse belonging to a Sogdian merchant that was exchanged for Xuanzang's horse has probably been mistaken for Xuanzang's own horse.

Although there are a number of minor errors, overall this is a superb general introduction to the history of the Silk Road in which the very latest information on source materials and the latest research findings have been amply incorporated. The significance of the publication of this book in the West deserves to be highly acclaimed, and I hope that it will be read not only by general readers but also by many Western researchers of the Silk Road and Central Asian history.