Tea at Trianon: Reappraising the Silk Road: Byzantium and Ancient China

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, September 3, 2021

Reappraising the Silk Road: Byzantium and Ancient China

From Medievalists:

Abstract: In recent years, the Silk Road (or Roads) has being becoming a very popular subject in academic and non-academic circle all around the world. This phenomenon has many causes, and the foremost is the impact of the globalization of the world. In this special time with the COVID 19, we can clearly and strongly feel the impact of that on us. As to the Silk Road in history, how should we see it? There are already a lot of views on that, accepting, rejecting, or exaggerating it, etc.
In this talk, as a Chinese byzantinist, I will present the recent focuses on Byzantium and ancient China along the Silk Road, based on which, to reappraise the significance of the Silk Road in the historical context. The talk will include three parts: 1. a short introduction for the Roman-Byzantine Empire and ancient China in sources of them; 2. archaeological evidence for their interactions; 3. reappraising the Silk Road in the historical context. (Read more.)