• Acta Via Serica
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.25-69
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• 2019

India has occupied the most important position of sea trade in the entire South Asian region since the beginning of maritime trade. The extensive maritime trade network between the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations as early as the $3^{rd}$ millennium BCE is testimony to the long maritime trade history of India. The Harappans constructed many seaports including the first high-tide dockyard in the world for berthing and servicing ships at the port town of Lothal, Gujarat. From the dawn of the historical epoch, the maritime trade network of India expanded extensively. The long 5422.6 kms coastline of the Indian mainland (excluding the coastlines of the Andaman and Nicobar islands and the Lakshwadweep Islands) is well known for its several seaports manly located at river mouths or outlets to the sea. The main objective of this paper is to discuss in detail all the major ancient seaports on the eastern coast of India and their maritime trade activities. The narrative of these ports is based on archaeological explorations and excavations, foreigners' accounts, Indian literary sources, inscriptions, archival materials, and the field study and personal observation of the author.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.111-124
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• 2019

This article aims to explore how Confucian knowledge and concepts were adapted, consolidated, and negotiated in the translation of Islam in China. Translation has always played a key role in producing and disseminating knowledge across cultures and languages, but little has been discussed to identify "the intimate connection between translation and the mediation of knowledge" (Baker 2018). Drawing on the studies of Chinese Confucian scholars on Islam, such as Wang Daiyu, Liu Zhi, and Ma Dexin, this article argues that Islam in China features many aspects of Neo-Confucianism that highly appreciate secular morality resulting in Confucian Islam, and that this was rationalized based on the similarities between Confucianism and Islam, placing Islam on a par with Confucianism for indigenization.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.1-22
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• 2018

The concept of the "Seidenstrassen" (Silk Road) was created by the German geographer F. von Richthofen (1833-1905) in 1877. The "Seidenstrassen" means communication between China and the Roman cultural area. To prove the route of dissemination of silk, Richthofen not only focused on geographical substantiality, based on the routes of the Chinese Zhang Qian and the Roman Ptolemy, but also on etymological, historical, and religious sources. In fact, his Silk Road concept has the trade of silk as well as the humanistic ideas of cultural exchange. It is worth noting that in his book China, Richthofen presented the Silk Road as a space-time concept that considers the length of space as well as the length of time by highlighting humanistic examples that came into modern times through the Sea Route. Later, the English term "Silk Road" appeared in 1938, the Japanese term "シルクロ-ド" (sirukurodo) in 1939, and the Korean term "실크로드" (silkrodeu) in 1952.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.161-180
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• 2018

Pax Sinica is a historiographical term, modeled after the original phrase Pax Romana. It refers, in Latin, to a Chinese-provided peace which in turn is used to describe an era of peace in East Asia sustained by Chinese hegemony. In historical terms, both the Pax Sinica of the Eastern hemisphere through Han China and the Pax Romana of the Western hemisphere through Rome signified a trans-regional order based on rules and regulations. This orderly world of the Pax Sinica generated a number of positive results such as the intensification of travel, ever-expanding trade relations, an increase in the overall living standards of the populace, the proliferation of cities, and a demographic upsurge in Eurasia along the ancient Silk Road. During this period, China was the dominant civilization not only in the Eastern hemisphere but also in the Middle hemisphere due to its political, economic, military and cultural influence. This paper aims to reintroduce this historiographical term to elucidate the recent Chinese initiatives in Eurasia along the Silk Road to facilitate the integration and connectivity of the continent.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.187-198
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• 2020

This paper is devoted to the examination of the identity of the Sogdian descendants and their historical role in the second millennium CE. More specifically, it discusses the Sogdian connection to the later Iranic-speaking peoples of Central Asia, namely, the Sarts and the Tajiks. It then discusses the symbiotic relationship between the Sogdian descendants and the Mongols and the Mongol descendants (Chaghatays and Uzbeks) in Central Asia. In sum, this paper argues that the Sogdians did not perish after the Arab conquest of Central Asia in the eighth century CE. They survived under new exonyms Sart and Tajik. Like the Sogdians in pre-Islamic Central Asia, the Tajiks or Sarts played important historical roles in the Mongol and post-Mongol states of Central Asia, maintaining a symbiotic relationship with the nomad elites.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.1-22
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• 2020

The paper discusses how the new EU Strategy towards Central Asia issued in May 2019 might be analyzed through the lens of the intensely debated transformations from the liberal to a post-liberal international order. The author claims that the EU's normative power is transforming from the post-Cold War predominantly liberal/ value-based approach, with democracy and human rights at its core, to a set of more technical tools and principles of good governance and effective management of public administration. The paper problematizes a nexus between the dynamics of the EU's nascent post-liberalism and the geopolitical challenges of the EU's growing engagement with illiberal regimes, focuses on direct encounters between the post-liberal EU and the illiberal elites in Central Asia, and seeks to find out the impact of these connections upon the EU's international subjectivity. In this context geopolitical dimensions of EU foreign and security policies, along with the specificity of the EU's geopolitical actorship in Central Asia, are discussed.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.23-56
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• 2020

The study of Putin's Russia should be placed in a broad historiographical context, prevailing in the West. While in the beginning of the post-Soviet era, most observers believed that Russia would reach a Fukuyamian "end of history," the situation is quite different now. At present, Western observers see Putin's Russia as the manifestation of authoritarianism. While this assumption is undoubtedly true, it does not provide much insight into the regime's operational model. Here, a comparison with Renaissance and early modern Europe might provide a clue to the operational model of the regime. Similar to early modern European rulers, Putin limits the use of direct and wide use of force, preferring manipulation, corruption, and the targeted killing of his most important enemies. In foreign policy, Putin has tried to avoid wholesale conflicts and broadly uses mercenaries, whose relationships with the Kremlin are downplayed. The similarities between Putin's regime and early modern European regimes do not mean that their destinies will be the same. In Europe, the Renaissance led to centralized states, whereas in Russia, the "Renaissance" could well lead to the country's disintegration.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.57-86
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• 2020

This article is an analysis of the tale Munhŭi who bought a dream which has been reported, with few variants, both in Samguk sagi and Samguk yusa. As the tale narrates a very particular and old dream, in which a urine flood forecasts kingship and royalty, it has not been investigated here on the basis of a modern psycho-analytical approach, but within eastern and western ancient cultural patterns regarding humans' consideration for excreta and criteria of dreams interpretation. The research led the author to propose for Munhŭi's dream an archaic (and today lost) archetype of interpretation, whose origin is perhaps to be found in the Ancient Middle-East.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.87-120
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• 2020

This article introduces the texts of Manchu shamanistic prayers recorded in a manuscript by Sergei A. Polevoi, a Russian and an American Sinologist from the first part of the twentieth century. The Manchu original text of these prayers (but not the Polevoi's variant) was recently published by Ye (2018), which, however lacks detailed linguistic analysis. Polevoi's texts are in the slightly outdated romanization of Manchu with no linguistic analysis, translation, and commentary that are provided below by the author. While this publication will be of minor interest to the specialists on Manchu shamanism, it would be important to linguists specializing in the Manchu and Tungusic languages and philology, as the text reflects in all probability the eighteenth century Manchu preserved in romanization, and, therefore priceless for the linguistic analysis.

• Acta Via Serica
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.121-152
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• 2020

The article is a critical examination of the political developments in Armenia since the 'Velvet Revolution' of April-May 2018, when, on the wave of massive protests against the ruling regime, new young forces came to power raising amongst broad segments of population enormous enthusiasm and hopes about radical reforms that would lead to profound transformations in the political and socio-economic spheres. It contains a thorough analysis of underlying political processes in the country in an attempt to answer a number of topical questions, so important to get a deeper understanding of the situation in Armenia and in the South Caucasus region. Based on the analysis of the new authorities' performance against the acknowledged benchmarks and standards of democracy consolidation, such as: separation of powers, independence of the judiciary, good governance, transitional justice the author comes to the conclusion that they failed to achieve any breakthrough in the above-mentioned fields. On the contrary, as demonstrated by concrete examples, what occurred in Armenia was not a revolution but a mere regime change under the leadership of Prime Minister Pashinyan, who gradually has concentrated in his hands executive, legislative, and quasi-totality of the judicial branch of power.