Runtian Guo

Runtian Guo

31 October 2023

Silk Road, Civilization hierarchy theory, Orientalism, National creation, A community with a shared future of mankind.

The historical process of the Silk Road civilization was formed through the integration and interaction of agriculture, nomadism, and oases. However, its discourse system is controlled by the modern spatiotemporal view and Eurocentrism constructed by the West. In the "social form theory", the symbiosis between different civilization systems along the Silk Road is fragmented and included in different social time series, forming a hierarchy of civilizations. Combined with the Orientalism created by the Western world, it has constructed a knowledge system of the current history of the Eurasian world. Under the influence of this concept, the originally cosmopolitan nature of the northwest region of China has also been concealed. The Western Regions, which have a brilliant civilization in history, have become backward border areas, while the region beyond our borders to the west is called "Central Asia" and has been included in the field of world history research. Since then, it has become a completely different discipline from Chinese history research. Some scholars have called for a "spatial turn" in Chinese history research to respond to and overcome the above issues, in order to construct a new path for the discourse system of the "Silk Road", and provide a theoretical basis for mutual trust for China's "national creation" and the "Silk Road" community with a shared future for mankind.

© 2023, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

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