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Preface of Silk Road Research Series
In recent years, conducting research on the Silk Road has become a popular trend in the international academia. Without a doubt, this is directly related to China’s Belt and Road initiative. At the same time, we notice that this particular trend is also a reflection of how the academia in the East and the West leverage the topic and engage in dialogue. Furthermore, this represents efforts by scholars in the post-Cold War world to promote direct dialogue on issues that are of common interest, rather talking about the past with each other.
There are two senses about the Silk Road. The narrow sense is about economic and cultural exchanges between ancient China and countries in Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and the Mediterranean region. On the other hand, the broad sense refers to all kinds of exchanges between the East and the West. As such,understanding of the Silk Road in the academia has long been tilted towards the popular narrative, and a majority of Silk Road research,in fact, caters to the taste of the general public.
Nevertheless, the Silk Road epitomizes all kinds of exchanges of material and spiritual cultures across a vast area, from China to Rome, and from the Equator to the North Pole.
As such, the development of Eastern and Western civilizations and their interactions in Asia and Europe can be understood within the Silk Road framework. In this vein, many far-sighted scholars have long ago started making use of this broad concept to consolidate the many common points that emerged from a variety of academic research. This also leads to the emergence of many issues that are of interest to both the East and the West. In particular, many archaeological relics unearthed at old Silk Road towns have become the focal points in the Silk Road research, as these relics exemplify the intermixture of Eastern and Western civilizations. Silk Road towns like Chang’an, Dunhuang, Turpan, Bamiyan, Ai-Khanum,Samarkand, and Palmyra have attracted the attention of scholars,and the related Silk Road research is also linked to a wide variety of disciplines, such as archaeology, history, Dunhuang studies, Iranian studies, and classical studies.
Over the years, there have been many scholarly works on the Silk Road. Yet, on its own, Silk Road is not an official academic discipline. Therefore, the relevant research results are classified under the related disciplines. In China, they are often seen through the lens of history of Sino-Western communications, history of Sino foreign relations, or history of cultural exchange between China and the world. That said, we understand that a stringent Silk Road research requires a scholarly journal about the Silk Road.
李肖主编《丝绸之路研究丛书》（英文版）
In the past, due to the popularization of concepts relating to the Silk Road, most magazines dealing with the topic were focused on content that were of popular interest. In fact, only a few titles were scholarly in nature. In the early 1990s, Silk Road Art andArchaeology , a journal published by the Institute of Silk Road Studies, which was in turn founded by Ikuo Hirayama, played an active role in advancing scholarly research on the Silk Road.Unfortunately, the passing away of Ikuo Hirayama had dealt a severe blow to the journal, as it was unable to continue operation.On the other hand, the Silk Road , supported solely by the American scholar Professor Daniel C. Waugh since 2000, has also become unsustainable despite its rich content.
Fortunately, under China’s Belt and Road initiative, the academia and publishers in China have shown a great deal of interest in Silk Road research. Within the past two to three years, we have seen the birth of numerous scholarly journals bearing the“Silk Road”name. Among them is Silk Road Research Series , a large-scale and comprehensive scholarly journal edited by Li Xiao and published by Sanlian Bookstore. The first volume, in Chinese, has already been published, and it deals with wide ranging subject matters, such as archaeology, history, the arts, language, religion, and culture.
Now, we are launching the English version of Silk Road Research Series , and the content is sourced from the Chinese version as well as fresh contributions. The majority of the authors in the English version are Chinese scholars, and in some senses, this represents the contributions of Chinese authors to this field of study.We also hope that we can engage in dialogue with our international counterparts through this medium to advance research on the Silk Road. As the mother tongue of the authors and editors is not English,it is a challenge for them to publicize their works in this language.We hope that through our concerted efforts, this English-language journal will be more refined in the not-so-distant future.
毋庸讳言，最近若干年来，在国际学术界兴起了一股研究“丝绸之路”的热潮，这无疑与中国国家推进的“一带一路”倡议有直接的关系。同时我们也应当注意到，这样的一股研究热潮，也是东西方学术界希望借助丝绸之路的话题，进行沟通与对话的一种趋向，这是多年来的“冷战”思维之后，学者们希望推动的一个努力方向，也就是在一些共同关心的问题上，直接对话，而不再是各说各话了。
“丝绸之路”有广义和狭义之分。狭义的“丝绸之路”是指古代中国与中亚、南亚、西亚地区，乃至地中海世界之间的经济、文化交往；广义的“丝绸之路”则指东西方世界各种途径、各种内涵的相互交流。因此，在学术界，对于“丝绸之路”的理解一直偏向于一个通俗的名称，有关丝绸之路的研究也主要是对应于大众的口味。然而，“丝绸之路”恰如其分地概括了从中国到罗马、从赤道到北极各种物质文化和精神文化的交往，欧亚大陆东西方各种文明的发展与交流，都可以在“丝绸之路”的框架里展开。因此，学术界的有识之士早已利用这样一个宽广的概念，来统合许多学术的共同点，生发出不少东西方共同关心的课题。特别是融汇了东西方文明的一些古代丝绸之路城镇的考古出土文物，成为“丝绸之路”研究的一个个重点，长安、敦煌、吐鲁番、巴米扬、阿伊哈努姆、撒马尔罕、帕尔米拉、庞培这些丝路城镇成为学者们注目的焦点，“丝绸之路”的研究也与相关的考古、历史学，乃至敦煌学、伊朗学、古典学等勾连起来，相互推进。
多年来，有关“丝绸之路”的研究论著层出不穷，数不胜数，但因为“丝绸之路”不是一个正式的学科划分，所以相关的成果也都纳入其他相关的学科领域。在中国，则归入“中西交通史”“中外关系史”或者“中外文化交流史”的范畴里去了。然而，我们知道，要建立严格意义上的“丝绸之路”研究，就必须有“丝绸之路”的纯学术刊物。
过去，因为“丝绸之路”的概念被通俗化，因此有关丝绸之路的杂志也大多数是以通俗内容为主，纯学术的刊物并不多见。20世纪90年代初，日本平山郁夫创办的丝绸之路研究所创刊大型西文学术专刊 Silk Road Art and Archaeology （《丝绸之路艺术与考古》），发表丝绸之路沿线有关考古与艺术方面的论文，极大地推动了丝绸之路的学术研究。但可惜随着平山郁夫先生的去世，这个杂志也无法经营下去。而2000年以来美国学者Daniel C. Waugh（丹尼尔·沃）教授一人支撑的 The Silk Road （《丝绸之路）》杂志，虽然内容更加灵活，但目前也难以为继。
幸运的是，在中国“一带一路”政策的号召下，中国学术界和出版界对“丝绸之路”研究产生了极大的热情。近两三年来，已经有几种以“丝绸之路”冠名的学术专刊应运而生，由李肖教授主编、生活·读书·新知三联书店出版的《丝绸之路研究》，就是其中十分专业的一种。该刊为大型综合性学术专刊，已经出版中文版一辑，内容涉及考古、历史、美术、语言、宗教、文化等等诸多方面。
现在，《丝绸之路研究》又开始推出英文版，内容部分是从该刊中文版而来，部分则属于另外的来稿。英文版的作者主体无疑是中国学者，因此，在某种意义上可以说是代表着中国学者的贡献。我们也希望通过这一窗口，与国际同行对话，共同推进丝绸之路研究。当然，作为母语非英语的作者和编者，用英文发表是一个巨大的挑战。希望经过一段时间的努力，让这个英文刊物越办越好。
（2019年2月10日完稿。英文本载 Silk Road Research Series ,Springer and SDX Joint Publishing Company, 03 April 2020。中文本载《国际汉学研究通讯》第21期，2020年6月由北京大学出版社出版。）