New Directions in Inner Asian History: A Review Article

New Directions in Inner Asian History: A Review ArticleCommodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles byThomas Allsen; Die chinesischen Vertragsurkunden aus Turfan by Jrg-Michael Scheil;Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier by Jenny F. So; Emma C. BunkerReview by: Nicola Di CosmoJournal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 42, No. 2 (1999), pp. 247-263Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3632338 .Accessed: 18/06/2014 05:51

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NEW DIRECTIONS IN INNER ASIAN HISTORY: A REVIEW ARTICLE

Thomas ALLSEN. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ?30.00.

J6rg-Michael SCHEIL. Die chinesischen Vertragsurkunden aus Turfan. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1995. DM 74.

Jenny F. So, and Emma C. BUNKER. Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press and Arthur Sackler Gallery, 1995. $35.00.

BY

NICOLA DI COSMO (Harvard University)

What is inner Asian history? The term suffers from several levels of ina- dequacy, some traditional, some new. Nineteenth century European geographers and historians began defining the physical and cultural features of central Asia in the wake of European exploration and economic and political penetration. The term central Asia applied, in the Russian and later European tradition, to the region between the Caspian Sea and the Ferghana valley from west to east, and between the Kazakh steppe and the northern reaches of Iran and Afghanistan from north to south. Looking beyond a purely geographic de- finition, and seeking cultural and historical coherence, later scholars have also used other terms, such as Inner Asia, Central Eurasia, or even "High Asia." These terms have traditionally been fluid and have relied heavily on context and ad hoc definitions.

Whatever ambiguity might have been engendered by semantic imprecision in the past, until a few decades ago the debate was limited to a restricted number of scholars. Whether they referred to central Asia or Inner Asia, Mittelasien or Zentralasien, Asie Centrale or Haute Asie, Sredniaia Azia or Tsentral'naia Azia,

? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 1999 JESHO 42,2


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Nei Ya or Zhong Ya, these variations were unlikely to cause much confusion.') But in recent years we have witnessed a vigorous, if anarchic, expansion of the field. General interest in ethnic and postcolonial studies and overflow effects in other disciplines have led to increased activity in what we are forced to call, as loose and imprecise the term is, central and inner Asian studies. Especially effervescent at the level of "informal" academia (internet discussion lists, con- ferences, roundtables, panels, talks and other promotional activities), this field has also witnessed increased production of books and articles; new journals have appeared or are in the process of being produced, and inner Asia has been allocated greater visibility in established academic journals.2)

The transformation of the field is partly due to an internal evolution, whose general tendency has been to go beyond the traditional historico-philological orientation and complement it with disciplinary specializations, such as linguis- tics, anthropology, religious studies, and history. But the deeper changes have been caused by events external to the field itself.

Already some years ago interested pundits might have predicted that inner and central Asian studies might undergo some growth. In support of that pre- diction one might cite the break-up of the Soviet Union and the regained inde- pendence of the central Asian republics and Kazakhstan, not to mention the political, historical and cultural issues related to the status of ethnic minorities in China, and the new international orientation of Mongolia. Indeed, these events have yielded weighty, if unbalanced, results. Similar to a fractal se- quence, inner Asian studies appear today as a constantly changing "coastline" or "sprawl." As a general "field," it remains amorphous; lacking precise con- ceptual and territorial boundaries, it is defined by a process of accretion along lines that are largely drawn outside the field itself. As this "sprawl" grows, it cuts through other disciplines' territory, unites previously separated areas, and produces waves and ripples whose movements are impossible to predict. The fluidity of this process suggests that, rather than trying to identify "directives" of research, major themes, and trendy debates, we first try to identify its major "growth factors."

Former Soviet and Chinese historical studies are responsible for some major migratory movements into inner Asia, while the considerable expansion of world history as a new field is also playing an important role. The energies

1) Bregel 1996, pp. 1-2. 2) For instance, the Journal of Central Asian Studies began publication a short while ago,

and the Journal of Inner Asian Studies, edited by Caroline Humphreys, is in the process of being launched. The Journal of Asian Studies has a separate book review section dedicated to inner Asia.



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released by the break-up of the Soviet Union has brought new members (former Sovietologists) into the ranks of central Asianists. The bulk of the production can be identified as "post-Sovietology" and is heavily lopsided in favor of geopolitics, ethno-politics, and political economy. When academics trained in this tradition address broader historical issues, they usually do it through sec- ondary material in Russian. This trend has not gone unchallenged by those scholars who fear the erosion of competency in those areas which are essential for the study of the cultural and political history of central Asia, in particular access to Arabic, Persian, and Turkic sources.3)

Following in the footsteps of Owen Lattimore's exploration of the inner Asian frontiers of China, but armed with formal academic training in Chinese studies, more Sinologists have begun to explore the frontiers of the middle king- dom, and the ethnic aspects of Chinese history. One of the interesting results of this development is that the new availability of historical sources from Chinese historical archives, especially with respect to the history of Manchus, Mongols, Tibetans, and Turkestanis have added new claims to competency in Qing history. In the case of modem China, studies on ethnic relations and cultural survival of minorities have also been the object of investigation.4) Inner Asian archaeology is a fast-growing area of interest, too, in part as a result of extensive new data from China and to the large amount of material provided by Soviet scholars, which is becoming better known to Western specialists.

To be sure, the sudden "crowding" of inner Asian studies has added momen- tum to the need to define the field, but has also caused a failure in what is a central goal for the survival of the field itself, namely, the preservation and expansion of the ability to train students at institutions of higher learning. Such a failure, in a situation of apparent growth, may have played an important role in the virtual disappearance of inner Asian history as an area of specialization in Europe and the United States.

But how can the field be defined? In order to establish itself, inner Asian history needs, first of all, to meet head-on a traditional challenge, namely, it must debunk the widespread conviction that inner Asia "lacks" history. This absence of history has been conceived in more than one way. If a sense of history is associated with ideas of development, change, progress, social and cultural dynamism, and urban refinement, then central Asia seems a-historical in the sense that it appears to lack the progression from point A to point B whereby

3) Bregel 1996, pp. 27-61. 4) For instance, Harrell 1995.



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point B represents a change, usually seen as more advanced, complex, and sophisticated than point A. Representations of central Asian peoples as obstacles to the natural evolution of civilizations are by no means uncommon.5) It is then not surprising that Huns, Mongols and other nomadic invaders have been por- trayed as natural calamities and cataclysms -bubonic plagues, eruptions, and the like-which, as such, could not possess a history of their own. They are, indeed, outside the realm of human history.6)

Another way of regarding inner Asian history as "absent" occurs when history, as in the case of China, is strongly identified with a continuous historio-

graphical tradition. The Mongols became part of history when, as the founders of a "Chinese" dynasty, they were entitled to their own dynastic history, but Mongolia and central Asia, as independent entities, had no history. A third way can be discerned when history is understood as the accumulation of intellectual achievements: philosophical ideas, technological and scientific innovation, a continuous tradition in literature and figurative arts. This is the notion of "cra- dle." Certain places are cradles of civilizations, and civilizations are cradles of contributions to the religious, philosophical, economic and scientific history of humanity. Central Asia, alas, was not one of them. People migrated, conquered, and in this way they may have objectively favored the spread of civilizations and their achievements, but did not actively contribute to that creative process.

Almost like an antidote to these views, the recent growth of "world history" and the interest it has generated in the realms of historical research and teaching, have created the conditions to place central Asia squarely within the bounds of history. William McNeill in 1990 deprecated the lack of a macrohis- torical orientation even in the major research universities, while only the nar- rowest of all historical approaches was routinely rewarded and recognized.7) Surely there are good reasons to see in the development of "world history," "global history" and "macrohistory" a sound antidote to the disciplinary nar- rowness denounced by McNeill. Moreover, in high school, colleges, and among the general public, there is an increasing demand for historical knowledge constructed not at a national or regional level but at a higher level, that is "cross-civilizational," and able to explore the broadest aspects of demographic

5) See Jones 1993, pp. 108-115. 6) If, according to Samuel Huntington, "human history is the history of civilizations"

(Huntington 1997, p. 40) and, according to most scholars of civilizations, including Hun- tington (1997, pp. 40-55), there is no such a thing as a distinct central Asian civilization, the logical conclusion would be that central Asia is not part of human history. This is patently absurd, but nonetheless revealing of the "civilizational" approach to inner and central Asian history.

7) McNeill 1990.



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movements, commercial exchanges, and the flow of ideas and religions. The relevance of inner Asia within this debate is taken for granted, especially by historians who are not primarily interested in central Asia.

McNeill himself placed inner Asian nomads at the center of world history from A.D. 1,000 to 1,500 and there is no doubt that the field (or rather "move- ment") of world history would reap great benefits from an increase of research and the production of specialized knowledge in central Asian history.8) Not only were major changes occurring in Medieval Eurasia a direct or indirect result of the activities of central Asian peoples; non-Western-European early modern empires -Ottomans, Manchus, Moghuls, and even the Russian empire -owed their political existence and raison d' etre, at least in part, to their central Asian roots. Not seeing the common matrix of these empires, and not focusing on central Asian history as a formative element of the world order in the early modern period reveals the myopia of purely "civilizational" approaches. Any correction of this defect would undoubtedly sharpen the world historian's view.

Yet world historians--often trained as geographers and political scientists- are largely unable to do more than acknowledge the importance of central Asia. The intriguing questions they formulate are destined to remain unanswered until the specialists attend to them.9) McNeill's analogy between world history and macroeconomic research is attractive but difficult to reproduce at the level of professional training.'0) The macroeconomist is still a trained economist, and therefore able to access economic data and to produce statistical or other mod- els on trade and production, based on professionally valid uses of evidence, analysis, and theory. The world historian, on the contrary, even when trained as a professional historian, and therefore sensitive to the need to carefully sift through all available sources, is typically excluded from that essential level of the analysis when the sources are relative to central Asia, or, for that matter, to any of the areas outside the historian's own area of specialization.

Establishing a dialogue between the two seems essential: central Asianists can find in world historians a receptive and dynamic audience, able to formulate engaging questions. The world historians, on the other hand, should recog- nize the "centrality of central Asia" in several areas of premodern history, and represent central Asian history adequately within teaching and research programs."1)

A central goal of this review is to introduce to a broader public the findings of works whose intended audience may or may not coincide with readerships interested in the field of inner Asian history. Moreover, these works do not

8) McNeill 1963, pp. 484-562. 9) On this question see Zurndorfer 1998, pp. 243-4.

10) McNeill 1990. 11) Frank 1992.



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claim to represent such a field, and their authors may not even approve of their works' being so classified. Indeed, the books discussed here are very different in terms of period, subject matter, and methodology. Yet, taken together, they provide suggestive new avenues of research in inner Asian history. As we shall see, the themes of gold and silk weave them together, and lead to a broad reflection on the construction of premodern inner Asian history.

While some scholars observe and describe their portion of inner Asian "coastline" from the safe distance of their disciplinary shipdecks, Thomas Allsen has long gone ashore and has been exploring the territory for next to twenty years. In Mongol Imperialism Allsen explained the importance of taxation in the Mongol state.12) In a series of articles he dealt with numerous political, economic, and ideological issues, ranging from trade partnerships to imperial legitimacy. In "The Rise of the Mongolian Empire and Mongolian Rule in North China" Allsen arguably produced the best single account of the history of the Mongol early state.'") In Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles, Allsen further refines our understanding of Mongol and inner Asian history by focusing on the role of textiles in Mongol society, politics and economy.

Scholars have rightly pointed out the importance of pastoral economy in determining certain patterns of exchange and political interaction between nomads and farmers.'4) However, the acquisition, accumulation, storage, and dis- tribution of wealth within nomadic societies and among political elites, both nomadic and non, involved more than just animals, furs, and staple products. Precious damask and silks, and delicate gold ornaments, developed early on a coveted possession of nomadic aristocracy, and an essential instrument of the elite's power within inner Asian empires' "body politic." More than their cycles of nomadic shepherding, it was wealth that made inner Asian people "go round."

Commodity and Exchange (which is not limited to the Mongols alone) con- vincingly argues that it is virtually impossible to isolate the issue of wealth from questions of statecraft, ideology, symbolism and rituals. Precious textiles and gold artifacts were the natural forms in which wealth was stored among ancient nomadic peoples and then used to enhance political projects. Soldiers, bodyguards, functionaries and members of the aristocracy were paid or rewarded in silk, and thus was loyalty assured.

Full of fascinating details, Commodity and Exchange is also revealing of the

12) Allsen 1987. 13) Allsen 1994. 14) Khazanov 1984, pp. 68-84.



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"mentality" of the nomadic leader. For instance, even after having reinstated the examination system for access to state service, Mongol statesmen in China explicitly continued to counter the meritocratic ideal with a selection based on loyalty, which was in turn assured through rewards: it was the greediest (and most loyal), not the most meritorious, that deserved promotion. In the face of the political factionalism of scholar-officials' cliques endemic to all periods of Chinese history, one may argue that, if rich rewards were the grease of gov- ernment's wheels, the Mongols' way had a raison d'etre beyond barbaric anti- intellectualism.

With erudition and grace Allsen encircles veteran beliefs of nomadic greed and cruelty, which ultimately are unable to explain much beyond showing the cultural biases they are rooted in (i.e., the literature of most sedentary civilizations), and dismantles them. His precise strokes result in the fascinating fresco of a glittery world in which power was visually demonstrated (rather than merely represented) with golden and silken riches. These precious materials could be carried, worn, and buried, thus accompanying the owner through his (and her) life and beyond, and qualifying the owner's position in society in no uncertain terms. Hence, the ability to control and to distribute these (and not other) forms of wealth, was crucial to the process of the creation of what Joseph Fletcher had called the "supra-tribal" polities, that is, those large nomadic empires that, beginning with the Xiongnu, played such a major role in world history.") The relevance of access to wealth to enhance the political project of inner Asian rulers is brought home through numerous examples, such as that of the Tiirgesh leader Kursil, who in 738 paid each of his 15,000 men one piece of silk per month, which at that time was worth 25 dirhams (p. 55).

From a methodological point of view, Commodity and Exchange makes two implicit claims. First, although the narrative does not follow a chronological line, and is organized topically ("consumption and use," "acquisition and production," "clothing and color," and "cultural transmission"), it is transparent that the history of the Mongols cannot be understood in isolation from the rest of the history of inner Asian nomads. In particular, the section on clothing and color, detailing the symbolic an political importance of gold (both the material and the color) in inner Asian political milieu, invests a broad chronological band.

Secondly, Allsen makes it evident that a serious understanding of Mongol history requires a holistic approach, whereby a constant dialogue is established between Western and East Asian sources. For instance, while all portions of the

15) Fletcher 1979-80, p. 237.



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book are provided with a heavy lining of specific examples in support of the author's argument, the chapter on acquisition and production is double-stitched with references to Persian, Arabic and Chinese sources (27-45). The important findings presented in this chapter, especially those concerning the Mongol pol- icy of promoting the production of nasi] (gilded cloth or brocade), are argued by drawing from the historical experience of all Mongol lands, which were far less isolated from each other than modern scholarship may make them. The several Arab etymologies connected with textiles that surface in the Yuan shi solidly fasten this point.

Given the richly visual historical narrative, it is a pity that no illustrations have been included. We suggest, then, to read it together with another book, published after Allsen's work: James C.Y. Watt and Anne E. Wardell, When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles (New York: The Metropoli- tan Museum of Art, 1997), with an introductory essay by Morris Rossabi. The two books are fully complementary; the illustrations, art history and technical description of the one provide the visual counterpart to the other's historical analysis. Particularly relevant is chapter four, "Luxury-Silk Weaving under the Mongols" (When Silk Was Gold, pp. 127-63) where the silken textiles coveted and produced by the Mongols are illustrated in detail. The sparkling beauty of the "cloth of gold" is most vividly apparent in the textile with paired winged lions and griffins from central Asia illustrated on pp. 126 and 143. The other textiles illustrated here are all made of silk of various colors as a substratum, decorated with gold and sometimes silver threads. As the author describe them, "the exceptional richness and importance of the textile are underscored by the fact that the flat gold wefts are gilded on both sides. Both the ground and the pattern, moreover, are woven with gold thread-wrapped juxtaposed to flat- while the red silk foundation weave is reserved for the delineation of the motifs" (p. 135). Even though the metallic part is often worn or damaged, these textiles transmit a no less bright image of the sophisticated artistic milieu in which they were produced, and the degree of political and economic power the Mongol elite acquired by hording, using, and distributing this cloth.

The two books not only complement each other; sometime they also offer different solutions for similar problems. This is the case with the baffling term sadalaqi (sa-ta-la-ch'i) that appears in the Yuan shi in reference to a type of textile. While When Silk Was Gold offers an unlikely "transliteration" of the ancient Sogdian term zandanaji (p. 140), Allsen relies on the far more con- vincing etymology offered by Francis Cleaves as a transcription of the Turkic term sddrdk, which appears in Kashgari's compendium of Turkic dialects (Commodity and Exchange, p. 73). This and other points make it clear that the



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specialized knowledge of the inner Asian historian must be relied upon for a full understanding of the matter.

Following Allsen's silken thread all the way to the heartland of the Silk Road, Scheil's book, Die chinesischen Vertragsurkunden aus Turfan, provides, together with an essay on legal contracts, a series of snapshots from the grand bazaar that was today's Xinjiang. Chronologically, the work spans from the post-Han to the Tang period (roughly, A.D. 220-900) of Chinese history, and focuses on Chinese-language contracts from the Turfan area. Chinese was by no means the only or even the main written language of this area, and in fact the earliest research on this type of documents was carried out by inner Asian specialists on Uighur texts.16) Other languages and scripts present in the area are Tibetan, Mongolian, and Sogdian.

The documents analyzed by Scheil are all in Chinese, and are among the earliest legal documents extant, therefore particularly important not only in the realm of private law, but also, according to the author, in reference to the economic and social changes that occurred in China between the fourth and the eighth centuries A.D., involving the history of the Jin dynasty (265-420), of the period of North-South Division (420-581), of the Sui (581-618) and of the Tang dynasty (618-907). Nevertheless, it is obvious that these sources from the Tarim basin shed light not only on Chinese history, but also on the daily life in the region that is generally regarded as the hub of ancient Eurasian trade, and for this reason they must enter the visual field of the inner Asian historian.

The book is divided into two parts. The first is a systematic description of the types of contracts, and includes sales, hiring of labor, rents, leases, loans, and other forms of legal agreements. The second part is a catalog of the documents, all unearthed from graves, each listed with a separate entry, totalling 233 listings.

The sales contracts generally refer to local transactions, such as the purchase of land, houses, animals, slaves, or other assets. As the author specifies, these sales contracts do not normally refer to daily necessities, since the Tang legal code did not require retail transactions to be recorded. Hired labor includes various types of service, such as agricultural or pastoral work, domestic service, and the delivery of goods. The rents refer mostly to houses and animals. Leased

16) In fact, this expanding area of Sinological research owes a considerable debt to the work of inner Asian historians and Altaicists. Among the most important contribution to the study of Old Turkic and Uighur sources we should note the extensive work by Peter Zieme, published in several articles in Altorientalische Forschungen, the early works by Bernshtam and Radloff, and Larry V. Clark, "Introduction to the Uyghur Civil Documents of East Turkestan" (Ph.D. Diss. Indiana University, 1975).



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properties include farmland, gardens and woodlands. Loans are either in nature (grain) or currency, such as textiles and money.

While Scheil's main purpose is to contribute to China's legal history in the area of private commercial transactions, his detailed study provides information on the general economic tenor of the region. One issue of particular importance to us is that of monetary exchange. The extensive presence of silk in the transactions registered in the contracts, side by side with copper and silver coins, persuades Scheil that, while it may show that natural economy had not yet been fully overcome, textiles functioned just like currency. Silk, in other words, was not a barter commodity but was used in lieu of actual money, and was therefore endowed with a precise monetary value. Textiles (mainly silk) were used to buy camels, slaves, female servants, pack animals, or horses. The value of the silk was determined, apparently, by the size of the piece, whose dimensions are reported as being approximately 54 cm. in width and 12 meters in length (p. 26). According to Scheil, the silk's lightness and convenient transportation made it a means of exchange preferable to the heavier copper coins. This notion becomes clearer and acceptable after examining the table on p. 24, which shows that an ox was sold in 741 A.D. for eight pi (that is, pieces) of silk while another one was valued, in 759, 3500 copper cash. Even though we do not have here a precise conversion value between silk and copper coins, this example supports Scheil's contention that a few pieces of silk may have been easier to carry than thousands of copper coins. Other textiles used as currency include cotton and brocade.

The extensive presence of silk in the commercial transactions in Turfan places the long-standing debate about the size and nature of transcontinental silk trade onto a different plane.17) Silk circulated in China and central Asia not just as a commodity but also, and I believe especially, as a means of exchange, as currency. Of course, being a perishable good, silk could not have been exchanged unless it was eventually used for its intrinsic use-value, that is, mak- ing luxury clothes. However, normally silk was used in a variety of ways. As we have seen in the aforementioned case of the Turk chieftain, soldiers' salaries were paid in silk, which could then be used to purchase goods, pay taxes, and remit tribute. The double function of silk as commodity and currency cannot be split into two separate ones. Instead of mining gold and silver, as the conquis-

17) The name "Seidenstrasse," invented by Baron von Richthofen, was obviously in- formed by the belief that silk had been traded through the region for many centuries. This idea, based on some Chinese as well as Latin and Greek sources, was made into a trendy theory by Aurel Stein and other fin de sidcle explorers and archaeologists, see Stein 1921, vol. 1: 406; and Stein 1982, pp. 19, 23.



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tadors of Spain did, the inner Asian conquerors established their monetary reserves by setting up silk-weaving centers, whose relevance to the Mongol empire's economy is illustrated extensively in Allsen's work. Scheil's study, by revealing the extent to which silk and other textiles were used in local commercial transactions in central Asia at an early time, reinforces the notion that it is impossible to understand the relevance of silk in inner Asian and indeed ancient Eurasian history without understanding its multiple functions. The contracts, then, become an important source not only for the economic and legal history of China, but also in relation to ancient inner Asian economy.

A few conclusions emerge from the concurrent analysis of Allsen and Scheil's books. First, there is considerable continuity in the way silk operated in the economic networks that linked China, the steppe nomads, and central Asia. Secondly, silk was important not only at the level of international trade and interstate political and economic exchanges, as in the case of the "tributary" trade, but also at the level of relatively modest and local transactions. Once the concept of silks and other textiles as "political fabrics" (Allsen, p. 57) is placed side by side with the notion of silk as widespread, long-used currency, the dis- course of silk as a luxury item used and exchanged by elites only can be effec- tively challenged in favor of a much broader analysis that invests all rungs of society and links together discrete regions. The "silk network" may provide, then, the essential economic platform on which the political and social history of the inner Asian imperial polities should be based.

Yet a fuller understanding of the history of inner Asian empires requires that we move our lower chronological margin to a time that predates the studies by Allsen and Scheil, that is, the third century B.C., if not earlier. If the connection between silk, luxury goods, and "supra-tribal" imperial polities has to be solidly established, then the early period of nomadic power in East Asia surely cannot be ignored.

This consideration takes us to the third part of this bibliographic survey, which concerns archaeological materials. The central work examined here is Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, by Jenny F. So, and Emma C. Bunker.'") The presence of silk already played an important role in the Pazyryk funerary burials of the 5th-4th centuries B.C.'9) That finding has led, however, to hypotheses of long-distance trade between China and the "West," rather than to questions of social and political change in inner Asia in general

18) I have already reviewed this book (Di Cosmo 1997). The comments offered here will focus only on a portion of its content.

19) On Pazyryk see Rudenko 1970; Hiebert 1992. For a broad discussion of contacts between the Altai region, Xinjiang, and China, see Di Cosmo 1996.



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and within the world of steppe nomads in particular. Linked to theories of nomadic-sedentary relations that hypothesized an alternation of "trade" and "raid" as the normal ways in which pastoral peoples could supplement their productive deficiencies, the presence of "alien" products has been understood solely as evidence of the "needy" nature of ancient nomadic societies.20) Therefore, very little attention has been devoted to the social and political significance of the same objects. Even though Traders and Raiders, as the title itself indicates, does not claim to present a new overarching theory of nomadic-sedentary relations, the material objects presented lend themselves to new interpretations.

The problem with silk is that, being perishable, the evidence it offers is too spotty and accidental to permit any solid conclusions especially when, having gone back in time, we cannot find written evidence comparable to Scheil's contracts.21) While one may certainly assume that silk played some role on the ancient frontier between China and the pastoral peoples, the dearth of concrete data annuls whatever heuristic value that assumption may carry. But there is another material that, in the nomadic world, carries as much weight as silk: gold. Allsen describes at some length the importance of gold among the early nomads of inner Asia (Commodity and Exchange, 67-69) and treats it, both the material and the color, as a chief symbol of imperial power, endowed with cos- mological and ritual meanings. Unlike silk, gold does not disappear through decay, and a sufficient quantity of gold objects has been recovered to allow some considerations. Moreover, the connection between silk and gold in the ancient nomadic world is graphically documented by the Pazyryk felt saddle cloth with gold leaf applique decoration (Traders and Raiders, 28).

Towards the second half of the Warring States period (480-221 B.C.) and in coincidence with the florescence of the Pazyryk culture in the Altai region, gold makes its appearance in the burials of the northern cultures of China. Distinctly un-Chinese cultural areas can be found, of course, throughout northern China ever since the dawn of Chinese civilization, but it is in the "nomadic" burials of the late Warring States period, where gold appears together with other symbols of nomadic wealth and power, such as horse gear and ornaments, that gold objects are especially extraordinary for craftsmanship and quantity. The artistic inventory and iconographic themes are those traditional of the steppe world-recumbent deer, animal combat, griffins, felines and other animals

20) For a discussion of these theories see Di Cosmo 1994, pp. 1093-95. 21) Evidence of the commercial use of silk in the Western Regions, however, is certainly

established by the Han dynasty, when a roll of a certain type of silk of valued at 1200 cash. See Loewe 1967. vol. 1: 116.



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almost always represented in plastic positions denoting their characteristic qual- ities: agility, strength, docility.

The central thesis of Traders and Raiders, presented by Emma Bunker in chapter four, "Luxury Export from China to the North: Sixth-First Century B.C." (pp. 53-67), has much to do with gold, since it is maintained here that the northern gold artifacts were produced in China specifically for a "nomadic" clientele. This thesis is based on evidence such as the gold ornaments recovered from a tomb in the site of the southern capital of the ancient Chinese state of Yan, which bear striking resemblance to those found in Aluchaideng, where the richest of all the "Ordos" gold-bearing sites have been excavated.22) Moreover, belt plaques of typical nomadic taste are found to be stylistically related to Qin metalwork (p. 57). Finally, the existence of Chinese characters indicating the weight on the back of cast gold artifacts is a sign that these objects were un- questionably imported from China (p. 58). These clues lead Emma Bunker to conclude that these luxury objects were produced in China and then sold to the northern peoples with whom they were trading. Of course, in this argument we see a clear parallelism with the exquisite vases and other golden objects that the Greeks on the Black Sea traded with their nomadic neighbors, the Scythians. The hypothesis is worth pursuing, but the consideration that gold may have been sold by Chinese to northern peoples by itself is unlikely to take us very far towards an understanding of the social forces at work. In other words, a reflection confined to the mere registration of an increase of gold objects, the appearance of new techniques, and the possibility of a new threshold in the trade relations between northern peoples and Chinese states would be extremely limiting without a parallel effort to explain the meaning of gold in the social and political context of the early nomads.

From the point of view of inner Asian history what is particularly remark- able is that, on the eve of the formation of the first nomadic empire, the aristocracy of the steppe appears to have found more efficient ways to store their wealth, a process common to the whole Scythian and "early nomadic" world, where gold and gilded objects, often inlaid with precious stones, appear com- monly.23)

Projecting backward in time Allsen's argument that material objects, color

22) Examples of these gold objects are illustrated in Kessler 1993, pp. 53-55. 23) In the Ural steppe a burial site of the early Sarmatian period (4th-2nd centuries B.C.)

two burials yielded over 600 gold objects, even though what appears as the main burial in the area had been robbed in antiquity; more gold objects of the same period have been excavated in southern Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, and southern Ural steppe. On these see Davis- Kimball 1998, pp. 253-57. As examples of Scythian and South Siberian gold and gilded ornaments see AA. VV. 1998, nos. 13, 52-54, 59, 60, 63, and 64.



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symbolism, and a certain idea of luxury should be understood as conveyors of notions of political organization, is it not possible that the appearance of gold, gilded bronze, and silver indicate profound changes in the political organization of the northern peoples? The abundance of golden and gilded objects makes such a stark contrast with respect to the earlier period that Emma Bunker attrib- utes it to the arrival of completely new peoples from the West. Yet funerary rituals were not significantly altered, pottery remained basically unchanged, and on the basis of burial typology and physical remains archaeologists are led to believe that the people of the Ordos and other regions were local or perhaps came from the northeast.24)

Keeping into account what we have said above regarding silk, we can envis- age the scenario of a commercialized frontier in which coins, gold, silver, tinned ornaments, and perhaps silk (now lost) were used for commercial transactions that involved probably, in most cases, the sale of animals and animal products. If so, then we must assume that a large percentage of the pastoral population participated in this exchange network, thus increasing the circulation of storable wealth within the nomadic society at large. In such a not unlikely scenario, the birth of the first nomadic empire, the Xiongnu, occurred within an environment in which gold and other goods had economic, political, and ritual value for the entire steppe society (regardless of tribal divisions). The ability to control those resources generated outside the productive basis of nomadic society could allow a relatively small "supra-tribal" elite access to infinitely greater power than that deriving from hereditary status or from the number of horses and slaves that one may possess.

In imperial inner Asian history, access to external economic resources, whether in the form of tribute, trade, or taxation, was essential to any aspect of state- formation. It can be argued, in fact, that the history of inner Asia unfolds through stages marked by the increased ability of certain inner Asian polities to expand the bounds of their economic reach and establish new and more sophisticated ways of accessing and controlling resources produced by non-nomads. Born out of long-lasting intertribal military struggles, inner Asian empires were only able to establish a form of rulership that transcended the tribe-form when they could feed the large military contingents and court retinues generated by the state-building process itself. In this context, extracting tribute from sedentary states, reaping the profits of commercial partnerships, or gaining a steady income by taxing vast agrarian populations, was the essential prerogative for the existence of the state.25)

24) Han 1995. 25) These points are argued in full in Di Cosmo 1999.



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These resources consisted mostly of precious silks and gold, i.e., materials that allowed wealth to be stored and to be distributed in the form of salaries and rewards. Because these materials were integrated within a larger economic network, the recipient could easily use them to buy whatever was needed: animals, a piece of land, a slave, or a house. Moreover, these objects became endowed with ritual and symbolic significance deriving from a tradition that everyone, in the steppe political world, knew and honored.

The archaeological evidence presented by Bunker and So tells us that we need to locate the formative period of an expansion of the economic and political role of silk and gold among nomadic peoples in the fifth-fourth century B.C. Whether this phenomenon is endogenous to northern China cannot be said for sure at this point. Surely gold was broadly known and appreciated throughout the early nomadic world, but the influence of the Siberian and central Asian extensions of the inner Asian region is likely to have been indirect. That is, rather than hypothesizing long-distance migrations and conquests, it is far more plausible that the taste for these products expanded in the presence of at least two concurrent factors. These are, first, the existence of an already developed and widespread artistic style (the animal style) that made certain objects and decorations appealing to people living from the Pontic steppe to Manchuria, and, secondly, the extensive desirability and acceptance of certain materials as media of exchange. Someone who obtained a gold plaque depicting animal combat in China could likely exchange it for other commodities at thousands of miles of distance. Wearing one's wealth, in the difficult and uncertain world of nomads, meant that sudden disaster, leading to migration or subservience, could be minimized by one's ability to buy back the necessary sources of livelihood by selling one's portable wealth.

The striking similarities among gold plaques and other ornaments throughout the steppe region, in conjunction with the commercial context envisaged by Bunker between Chinese states and northern nomads, point in the direction of an increased "nomadic" appreciation of the exchange-value of gold throughout the inner Asian region. The far more complex scenario described by Allsen with respect to the Mongol empire evokes the same general ideas of broad and immediate recognition of "value" across distant lands.

The works discussed above exemplify the extensive benefits that can be reaped from a more problematic approach to inner Asian history, especially in the context of the social and economic history of the "Orient." Perhaps even more importantly, they show that the term Orient, as a historical construct, should not be confused with the civilizations it includes. Seeing what types of historical changes took place beyond the boundaries of the Chinese, Indian,



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and Islamic civilizations, cannot but provide valuable insights towards a better

understanding of the genesis of phenomena, such as the Mongol conquest, of

great import to all the societies they touched. Too often exclusive emphasis is

placed on the emotional responses that inner Asian invasions elicited within the

conquered societies, resulting in dramatic, yet historically shallow narratives dominated by harrowing accounts of rape and pillage. Each in its own way, the books presented here show the need to tell, also, the story of silk and gold.

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Issue Table of ContentsJournal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 42, No. 2 (1999), pp. 123-299The Use and Abuse of Wine in Ancient China [pp. 123-151]Storehouses and Systems at Persepolis: Evidence from the Persepolis Fortification Tablets [pp. 152-193]Early Medieval Bengal and the Trade in Horses: A Note [pp. 194-211]The Ribt System and Its Role in Coastal Navigation [pp. 212-225]Limits of the Almighty: Mehmed II's 'Land Reform' Revisited [pp. 226-246]MiscellaneousReview: New Directions in Inner Asian History: A Review Article [pp. 247-263]

ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 264-266]Review: untitled [pp. 266-269]Review: untitled [pp. 269-271]Review: untitled [pp. 271-274]Review: untitled [pp. 274-277]Review: untitled [pp. 277-280]Review: untitled [pp. 280-284]Review: untitled [pp. 284-286]Review: untitled [p. 286]Review: untitled [pp. 287-288]Review: untitled [pp. 288-291]Review: untitled [pp. 291-294]Review: untitled [pp. 294-297]Review: untitled [pp. 297-299]