Frances Wood is Head of the Chinese section at The British Library. Her previous publications include Did Marco Polo Go To China?, No Dogs and Not Many Chinese: Treaty Port Life in China 1843-1943, Hand Grenade Practice in Peking: My Part in the Cultural Revolution, and Blue Guide to China.
Note on spellings 7
1. 'A ceaselessly flowing stream of life' 9
2. Coiled dragons and filmy fleeces: jade and silk 26
3. From Greece and Rome to China - and back again 36
4. A people abandoned by Heaven: the Xiongnu and trade during the Han dynasty 48
5. The spread of trade and religions: Tocharians and Sogdians 61
6. The fashion for all things Central Asian 75
7. The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas: Buddhism on the Silk Road 88
8. Tanguts, Mongols, Nestorians and Marco Polo 111
9. A parterre of roses: travellers to Ming China and Samarkand 130
10. The Great Game and the Silk Road 147
11. Asia held them captive in her cold embrace: explorers on the Silk Road 165
12. Trophies and tiger entrails: hunting and theorising on the Silk Road 180
13. Securing specimens: Aurel Stein 191
14. An end to excavation: Pelliot, von Le Coq and Warner 208
15. The Baby General: travel on the Silk Road in the 1930s 223
Epilogue: The Silk Road today 243
References 247
List of Illustrations 255
Acknowledgements 259
Index 261