The links between the countries and peoples living along the arteries¹ and veins² criss-crossing Asia are nothing new. For millennia³, silk roads, sometimes collectively referred to as the Silk Road, brought peoples, goods and ideas into contact with each other.

沿着亚洲纵横交错的交通要道栖息的人民之间有联系不是什么新鲜事。数千年来，有时被统称为“丝绸之路”的多条交通线让不同的民族、商品和思想相互接触。

Two and a half thousand years ago, Chinese writers set about a systematic⁴ approach to gathering⁵ 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，中国的作家们着手建立一套系统性方法，用以收集生活在作为中原地区屏障的荒漠和山脉以外的民族的信息，对他们的市场、领导者、优势和弱势进行评估。这与古希腊作家希罗多德(Herodotus)等人的作品有些相似，希罗多德将注意力放在了连接东方和西方的大陆桥上。

There was good reason for the attention lavished⁶ 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 elites⁷.

和今天一样，当时的人们有很好的理由将如此多的注意力投注到“世界的心脏”上。2000年前，这种重要性部分来自于今天的伊朗、伊拉克、阿富汗和中亚诸国出产的天然财富——白银、黄金和青金石。当年的撒马尔罕(Samarkand)，摩苏尔(Mosul)和梅尔夫(Merv)等伟大城市拥有大量富裕的精英，这提供了巨大的商机。

Just as important were the connections that linked the cities, towns and oases⁸. 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 salvation⁹, enabling the spread of Buddhism¹⁰ and Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity — the latter taking root quicker and more successfully in Asia than it did in the Mediterranean¹¹.

城市、城镇和绿洲之间的连接也同样重要。帝国依靠对这些交通要道的控制而建立，而这些交通要道也在帝国的覆灭中扮演了关键角色。在19世纪末期后被称为丝绸之路的交通网络运载了商品、商人以及带来信仰和救赎思想的传教士，让佛教、印度教、犹太教、伊斯兰教和基督教得以传播开来——其中基督教在亚洲的扎根比在地中海地区更快、更成功。

Trade, though, was the oil in the engine of vibrant¹² 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，多个世纪以来，贸易就好比动力十足的交流引擎中的润滑油。那些能够建立信贷网络的人表现尤为出色。通过家庭关系、宗教习俗和共同身份而超越地理隔阂维系在一起的少数群体，建立了放贷、借贷和为有时远在千里之外的货物付款的系统。

In late antiquity¹³, it was the Sogdians who dominated transcontinental trade, while more recently, Armenians played a prominent role thanks to their linguistic¹⁴ skills. Indeed, recent research suggests that the silk roads were fundamental to the development of Yiddish, a transnational language of Jewish traders plying¹⁵ the silk routes.

在近古时期，主宰跨大陆贸易的是栗特人，而在更近代时期，亚美尼亚人依靠他们的语言技能扮演了重要角色。的确，近年的研究表明，丝绸之路对于依地语(Yiddish)的发展至关重要，这是来往丝绸之路的犹太商人所使用的一种跨国语言。

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.

在两个方向上，许多商品沿着这些路线进行交易，包括香料、丝绸、矿产和人口——在中世纪，人口曾被大量贩卖。

But problems also flowed through the arteries: violence and disease, most notably¹⁶ the Black Death, which originated in central Asia and passed from town to town, ravaging¹⁷ all in its path.

但麻烦也同样通过这些交通要道传播：暴力和疾病，其中最突出的是黑死病，这种起源于中亚的疾病从一个城镇蔓延至另一个城镇，沿路大肆破坏。

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 drawn¹⁸ to the heart of the world.

控制了干道和城市意味着控制了税收。从亚历山大大帝(Alexander the Great)时代到19世纪的英国和俄国，野心勃勃的国家和领导者都被世界的心脏所吸引。

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 chaos¹⁹, 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 stimulate²⁰ greater revenues for the state.

在这方面，很少有人比蒙古人了解得更深。13世纪到14世纪的蒙古帝国从太平洋绵延至黑海和地中海，这个帝国的特征不是暴力和混乱，而是对主要城市中心的谨慎和有意的投资。他们采用了我们今天称为累进税的税收政策，鼓励城市内部和城市之间的贸易，以求为国家带来更多的财政收入。

In the 20th century, it was the turn of the Soviet²¹ Union and United States to wrestle²² 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世纪，轮到苏联和美国在阿富汗、伊朗和伊拉克角逐影响力。试图控制这些身处“世界的心脏”的国家是冷战的显著特征。

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.

现在轮到中国把目光投向丝绸之路。2500年前中国首都的人们不会对“一带一路”计划带来的机遇和挑战感到陌生。

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

彼得•弗兰科潘(Peter Frankopan)著有《丝绸之路：一部新的世界史》(The Silk Roads: A New History of the World)，由英国布鲁姆斯伯里出版公司(Bloomsbury)和美国克诺普夫出版公司(Knopf)出版