Rong Xinjiang is the Boya Chair Professor in the Department of History at Peking University. He has made outstanding contributions in the fields of the history of Sino-Western cultural exchanges, the Silk Road, the Chinese history during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the history of Central Asia, as well as Dunhuang and Turfan studies. He has published hundreds of articles and monographs, some of which have also appeared in English, including Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang (Brill, 2013). In 2021, he was elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. Sally K Church, Ph.D. (1992), Harvard University, is an Affiliated Researcher and a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, and a Research Associate at the Needham Research Institute. She publishes on China's historical involvement in maritime and overland communications.Professor Imre Galambos is a specialist in Chinese manuscripts. He obtained his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, with a dissertation on early Chinese writing. After graduation, he joined the International Dunhuang Project (IDP) at the British Library and began to work on the Dunhuang manuscripts. After ten years, he took up a teaching post at the University of Cambridge, where he is now Professor of Chinese. He has written extensively on the manuscripts excavated from sites along the historical Silk Roads.

• ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgementsList of Figures, Maps and TablesTranslatorspart 1: The Silk Road1 The Silk Road and Ancient XinjiangTranslated by Sally K. Church2 The Anxi Protectorate and the Silk Road in the Tang Period, with a Focus on the Documents Excavated at TurfanTranslated by Sally K. Church3 Beiting on the Silk Road (7th–10th Centuries)Translated by Li Huawei 李華偉4 The City of Tongwan and the History of Sino-Western Communications in the Medieval PeriodTranslated by Sally K. Church5 Gaochang in the Second Half of the 5th Century and its Relations with the Rouran Qaghanate and the Kingdoms of the Western RegionsTranslated by Sally K. Churchpart 2: Cultural Exchange and Interaction6 Persian and Chinese: The Integration of Two Cultures in the Tang DynastyTranslated by Li Huawei 李華偉 and Zheng Chunhua 鄭春華7 New Evidence on the History of Contacts between the Tang Dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate: Yang Liangyao’s EmbassyTranslated by Sally K. Church8 Cultural Contacts between China and India from the Late Tang to the Early Song in Light of the Dunhuang ManuscriptsTranslated by Zhou Liqun 周利群 and Zhu Chenfeng 朱陳鋒9 Historical Evidence for Cultural Exchanges between the Tang and Silla: The Inscription for the Meditation Cloister at the Dayun Monastery in HaizhouTranslated by Li Huawei 李華偉10 Diplomatic Relations in East Asia in the 8th Century and Japanese Embassies to Tang ChinaTranslated by June Manjun Zhang 張嫚雋11 The Official Reception of Japanese Envoys during the Tang Dynasty as Seen from the Epitaph of I no ManariTranslated by June Manjun Zhang 張嫚雋part 3: The Westward Spread of Chinese Culture12 The Network of Chinese Buddhist Monasteries in the Western Regions under Tang ControlTranslated by June M. Zhang 張嫚雋13 The Circulation of Chinese Texts in the Region of Kucha in the Tang Dynasty: The German Turfan CollectionTranslated by Sally K. Church14 The Transmission of Chan Buddhism to the Western Regions in the Tang DynastyTranslated by Mia Ye Ma 馬也15 The “Lanting xu” in the Western RegionsTranslated by James Kunling He 何坤靈16 The Transmission of Wang Xizhi’s “Shang xiang Huang Qi tie” in the Western RegionsTranslated by James Kunling He 何坤靈17 Reception and Rejection: The Transmission of Chinese Texts into the Western Regions during the Tang DynastyTranslated by Sally K. Churchpart 4: Contributions to China of Foreign Material Culture18 Sogdian Merchants and Sogdian Culture on the Silk RoadTranslated by Flavia Xi Fang 方希19 Currency on the Silk Road and the Sogdian MerchantsTranslated by Sally K. Church20 The Life of a Sogdian Leader on the Silk Road – A Rough Summary of the Images on Shi Jun’s SarcophagusTranslated by Tong Yangyang 同楊陽21 Khotanese Felt and Sogdian Silver: Foreign Gifts to Buddhist Monasteries in 9th and 10th Century DunhuangTranslated by Sarah Fraser22 The Exchange of Silk Textiles between Dunhuang and Khotan during the 10th CenturyTranslated by Sally K. Churchpart 5: The Transmission of the Three Foreign Religions23 The Colophon of the Manuscript of the Golden Light Sutra Excavated in Turfan and the Transmission of Zoroastrianism to GaochangTranslated by Li Huawei 李華偉24 Buddhist Images or Zoroastrian Deities? Religious Syncretism on the Silk Road as Seen from KhotanTranslated by Flavia Xi Fang 方希25 Further Discussion of the Mixing of Religions on the Silk Road: A New View of the Buddhist Murals in KhotanTranslated by Mia Ye Ma 馬也26 Jingjiao Christians as Heretics in the Eyes of Buddhists and Daoists of the Tang DynastyTranslated by Flavia Xi Fang 方希27 The Authenticity of Some Jingjiao Texts from DunhuangTranslated by Sun Jicheng 孫繼成28 The Western Regions: The Last Paradise of ManichaeismTranslated by Sally K. ChurchEpilogueTranslated by Sally K. ChurchAppendix: Introduction to Converting Chinese Dates into Western Dates