審視一帶一路的歷史視角

The links between the countries and peoples living along the arteries and veins criss-crossing Asia are nothing new. For millennia, silk roads, sometimes collectively referred to as the Silk Road, brought peoples, goods and ideas into contact with each other.

沿着亞洲縱橫交錯的交通要道棲息的人民之間有聯繫不是什麼新鮮事。數千年來，有時被統稱爲“絲綢之路”的多條交通線讓不同的民族、商品和思想相互接觸。

Two and a half thousand years ago, Chinese writers set about a systematic approach to gathering information about the peoples beyond the deserts and mountain ranges that protect China’s interior, assessing their markets, leaders, strengths and weaknesses. That found a parallel in the works of authors such as Herodotus, whose attention was likewise on the land bridge that connects east and west.

2500年前，中國的作家們着手建立一套系統性方法，用以收集生活在作爲中原地區屏障的荒漠和山脈以外的民族的信息，對他們的市場、領導者、優勢和弱勢進行評估。這與古希臘作家希羅多德(Herodotus)等人的作品有些相似，希羅多德將注意力放在了連接東方和西方的大陸橋上。

There was good reason for the attention lavished then on the “heart of the world” — just as there is today. Two thousand years ago, the significance came in part because of the natural wealth — silver, gold and lapis lazuli — found in rich supply in what is now Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the central Asian states. The great cities such as Samarkand, Mosul and Merv offered great commercial opportunities, thanks to their large, rich elites.

和今天一樣，當時的人們有很好的理由將如此多的注意力投注到“世界的心臟”上。2000年前，這種重要性部分來自於今天的伊朗、伊拉克、阿富汗和中亞諸國出產的天然財富——白銀、黃金和青金石。當年的撒馬爾罕(Samarkand)，摩蘇爾(Mosul)和梅爾夫(Merv)等偉大城市擁有大量富裕的精英，這提供了巨大的商機。

Just as important were the connections that linked the cities, towns and oases. Control of these arteries allowed empires to be built — and were crucial in their fall. Known since the late 19th century as the silk roads, these networks carried goods, merchants and evangelists who brought ideas about faith and salvation, enabling the spread of Buddhism and Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity — the latter taking root quicker and more successfully in Asia than it did in the Mediterranean.

城市、城鎮和綠洲之間的連接也同樣重要。帝國依靠對這些交通要道的控制而建立，而這些交通要道也在帝國的覆滅中扮演了關鍵角色。在19世紀末期後被稱爲絲綢之路的交通網絡運載了商品、商人以及帶來信仰和救贖思想的傳教士，讓佛教、印度教、猶太教、伊斯蘭教和基督教得以傳播開來——其中基督教在亞洲的紮根比在地中海地區更快、更成功。

Trade, though, was the oil in the engine of vibrant exchange over many centuries. Those who were able to build credit networks did particularly well. Minority groups bound over long distances by family connections, religious practices and common identities developed systems to lend, borrow and pay for goods that were sometimes thousands of miles away.

然而，多個世紀以來，貿易就好比動力十足的交流引擎中的潤滑油。那些能夠建立信貸網絡的人表現尤爲出色。通過家庭關係、宗教習俗和共同身份而超越地理隔閡維繫在一起的少數羣體，建立了放貸、借貸和爲有時遠在千里之外的貨物付款的系統。

In late antiquity, it was the Sogdians who dominated transcontinental trade, while more recently, Armenians played a prominent role thanks to their linguistic skills. Indeed, recent research suggests that the silk roads were fundamental to the development of Yiddish, a transnational language of Jewish traders plying the silk routes.

在近古時期，主宰跨大陸貿易的是慄特人，而在更近代時期，亞美尼亞人依靠他們的語言技能扮演了重要角色。的確，近年的研究表明，絲綢之路對於依地語(Yiddish)的發展至關重要，這是來往絲綢之路的猶太商人所使用的一種跨國語言。

Many goods were traded along these networks, in both directions, including spices, silks, minerals and human beings — sold in huge numbers in the Middle Ages.

在兩個方向上，許多商品沿着這些路線進行交易，包括香料、絲綢、礦產和人口——在中世紀，人口曾被大量販賣。

But problems also flowed through the arteries: violence and disease, most notably the Black Death, which originated in central Asia and passed from town to town, ravaging all in its path.

但麻煩也同樣通過這些交通要道傳播：暴力和疾病，其中最突出的是黑死病，這種起源於中亞的疾病從一個城鎮蔓延至另一個城鎮，沿路大肆破壞。

Control of highways and cities meant control of taxes. States and leaders with ambitions — from the age of Alexander the Great to Britain and Russia in the 19th century — were drawn to the heart of the world.

控制了幹道和城市意味着控制了稅收。從亞歷山大大帝(Alexander the Great)時代到19世紀的英國和俄國，野心勃勃的國家和領導者都被世界的心臟所吸引。

Few understood this better than the Mongols, whose vast 13th and 14th century empire, extending from the Pacific to the Black Sea and Mediterranean, was not characterised by violence and chaos, but by careful and deliberate investment into major urban centres. They employed what we would today call progressive tax policies, which encouraged trade within and between cities to stimulate greater revenues for the state.

在這方面，很少有人比蒙古人瞭解得更深。13世紀到14世紀的蒙古帝國從太平洋綿延至黑海和地中海，這個帝國的特徵不是暴力和混亂，而是對主要城市中心的謹慎和有意的投資。他們採用了我們今天稱爲累進稅的稅收政策，鼓勵城市內部和城市之間的貿易，以求爲國家帶來更多的財政收入。

In the 20th century, it was the turn of the Soviet Union and United States to wrestle for influence in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. Attempting to control the countries lying in the “heart of the world” was a significant feature of the Cold War.

在20世紀，輪到蘇聯和美國在阿富汗、伊朗和伊拉克角逐影響力。試圖控制這些身處“世界的心臟”的國家是冷戰的顯著特徵。

Now it is China’s turn to cast its eye towards the silk roads. The combination of opportunities and challenges offered by the “One Belt, One Road” plan would have been familiar in the Chinese capital 2,500 years ago.

現在輪到中國把目光投向絲綢之路。2500年前中國首都的人們不會對“一帶一路”計劃帶來的機遇和挑戰感到陌生。

Peter Frankopan is author of The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, published by Bloomsbury (UK) and Knopf (USA)

彼得•弗蘭科潘(Peter Frankopan)著有《絲綢之路：一部新的世界史》(The Silk Roads: A New History of the World)，由英國布魯姆斯伯裏出版公司(Bloomsbury)和美國克諾普夫出版公司(Knopf)出版