Economics and Geography Lessons

The Silk Route

MCPS Status of Book as of 4/4/96:
Not Evaluated

Title: The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History by John S. Major with illustrations by Stephen Fieser (Harper Collins, USA, 1995)

Lesson Developed by Barbara S. Yingling

Literature Annotation: This beautifully illustrated book traces the history and purpose of the legendary trade route between China and Byzantium during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-906).

Grade Level: 3-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Economic Concepts: Resources, Trade, Interdependence

Geography Themes: Place, Movement, Relationships: Humans and Environments

MSPAP Outcomes and Indicators:

Economic Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers in American society.

Indicators:

• Identify economic resources located within a community.
• Describe the relationship between available resources and the production of goods and services.

Geography Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of geographic concepts and processes as needed to examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and distribution of human activity.

Indicators:

• Describe how transportation and communication networks link communities.
• Explain the factors influencing the size, location, and population of communities.
• Examine the impact of geography on the industrial growth and prosperity of communities in the state, nation, and world.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

• Identify the natural, capital, and human resources used in the silk industry in the first century.
• Explain how the physical features of the land influenced the location of the trade route.
• Explain the growth of settlements along the silk route.
• Describe examples of cultural diffusion along the silk route.

Vocabulary: Tang Dynasty, caravan, cocoons, export, porcelain, rhubarb, herbal medicines, bandits, oasis, westbound, metalwork, nomads, cosmopolitan city

Materials:

• Book: The Silk Route
• World Atlas, 1 for every two students
• Buttons or other small markers, 2 for every pair of students
• "Role Cards" worksheet, cut into cards
• "Products" worksheet, cut into cards
• "Places on the Route" worksheet, cut into cards
• a model desert (a small bowl of playground sand)
• a model mountain ( a small blanket thrown over a chair)
• a model oasis (a glass of water)
• On-line Resources
  • The Tang Dynasty
  • The Silk Road
  • China - A Trip Along the Silk Road

Teacher Background: Knowledge of the silk trade route will be helpful. (There is a great deal of background information at the back of the book.)

Lesson Development:

Motivation:
Hold up a silk scarf, tie, or blouse and ask, "How far do you think I traveled to buy this item?" (Allow students to guess.) Tell the students that there was a time when people were willing to travel 7,000 miles to buy silk. Show them the book cover of The Silk Route.

Activities:

1. Have the students use an atlas to locate China on a political map. Help them to identify some of the cities in China. Have them locate the western part of China. Ask them to think of reasons why there are not many major cities in western China. Have the student turn to the physical map of China in the atlas. Help them to read the elevation key to discover that there are very high mountains and plateaus in the western part of China. Ask them to use information from the map to explain why few major cities developed in this part of China. (The mountains are too hard to cross; it is difficult to build well on steep slopes; it is hard to transport goods over the mountains.)

2. Have the students work in pairs to point to the far western edge of Turkey and mark the location with a small button. Have them point to the curved part of the Huang He (Yellow River) west of Beijing, China and mark it with a second button.

3. Say: "We are going back in time to the year 700, about 1,300 years ago. Suppose you wanted to travel between the places that you have marked on the map. There are no cars, trains, buses or airplanes. With your partner, plan a route that will let you travel from one of the locations to the other. Remember, there are physical obstacles in your way."

4. Allow time for the pairs of students to discuss the different routes that they could use. When they are ready, have some groups share their plans. Discuss which routes might take the shortest or longest time, which might be most dangerous, and which might be impossible at different times of the year because of climate.

5. Tell the students that some traders in the year 700 were making this very same decision about ways to travel in that part of the world. Show the map of the silk route in The Silk Route and ask students to explain why the traders did not travel in a straight path between the two locations. (There were high mountains and deserts in the way of a straight path. The traders would try to follow the easiest path through or around the barriers.)

6. Set up the classroom as follows to be a model of the silk route:
   • Prepare "place" cards from "Places on the Route" worksheet.
   • Set the "place" cards on desks around the room, to be visited in this order: (1) Chang'an, (2) Dunhuang, (3) Taklimakan Desert (place the bowl of sand here), (4) Kashgar (place a cup of water here), (5) Pamir Mountains (place this sign on a chair covered with a small blanket), (6) Tashkent, (7) Transoxiana, (8) Herat, (9) Baghdad, (10) Damascus, (11) Tyre, (12) Byzantium.
   • Prepare the "goods" cards from the "Productss" worksheet.
   • Put the "goods" cards at the stops as indicated below:

     Stop (1) silk cloth, grain, porcelain, rhubarb, herbal medicines
     Stop (2) herds of horses
     Stop (3) Bactrian camels
     Stop (4) fruit (dates, raisins), jade Stop (5) no goods cards are placed here, but place a Danger! sign here
     Stop (6) horses, metalworks, glass, musical instruments
     Stop (7) no goods cards are placed here, but place a Danger! sign here
     Stop (8) metalworks, glassware, carpets, spices, dyed cloth, dromedary camels
     Stop (9) gold, ivory, spices, cotton cloth, spices, pearls, precious stones
     Stop (10) bolts of silk
     Stop (11) ships
     Stop (12) no goods cards here
     

   • Prepare the role cards from "Role Cards" worksheet. Distribute 1 role card to each student with a piece of masking tape. Have each student tape a role card onto his/her shirts. (If there are students remaining, have each of them make a label that reads Chinese Merchant or Chinese Official.) Have the students position themselves at the follow stops as you prepare to read the book.
     1. Three Chinese merchants (or more), 2 Chinese Government Officials (or more), silkworm grower, farmer
     2. Buddhist religious leader
     3. merchant
     4. merchant
     5. no role cards here
     6. merchant
     7. nomad, bandit
     8. Persian merchant, Indian merchant
     9. Arab merchant, African slave, Indian merchant
     10. Arab merchant
     11. sailor
     12. nobleman, Orthodox Christian Religious leader, Russian prince

     As you read the story, have the students play their roles by exchanging "goods" cards and moving along the "silk route" as the story indicates.

   • Discuss the following questions

     • What were some of the natural, capital, and human resources used in the silk industry:

       Natural Resources	Capital Resources	Human Resources
       silkworm cocoons	pot for boiling water	silkworm growers
       mulberry trees	spinning machine	traders
       		caravan guides
       		camel drivers

     • What goods were traded along the silk route? Which goods probably satisfied needs and which goods probably satisfied wants?

       Wants		Needs
       porcelain	carpet	grain
       rhubarb	glassware	spices
       pearls	metal ware	cotton cloth
       silk cloth	musical instruments	fruit
       ivory	jade	herds of horses
       gold

     • Why did people trade goods instead of producing what they wanted? (People in different parts of the world had different resources. People in each area produced what they had the resources-especially the natural resources-to produce and traded for other goods they wanted.)
       • Why did Kashgar grow into an important city along the silk route? (This location offered an oasis in the desert. The traders needed to stop her for water and food.)
       • Why did so many merchants meet at Baghdad and Damascus? (These cities grew into important hubs of transportation and trading. Merchants could find many kinds of goods at these locations.)
       • If there were no high plateaus, deserts, and mountains in the western part of China, which cities might not have developed as stops on the silk route? (Tashkent, Kashgar, and Dunhuang may not have developed. Cities might have developed in a straighter path between the ends of the silk route.)
       • What cultural aspects were diffused as the traders went back and forth between the stops on the silk route? (Religious ideas; political ideas; clothing styles; architectural styles; artwork; military tactics)

Conclusion/Closure:
Have the students reverse the route as described in the book. Have them suggest the goods that might be traded as the travelers go eastward from Byzantium along the silk route to Chang'an.

Thoughtful Application:
Have the students use a physical map of the United States to identify and list physical barriers that might have hampered land travel and trade between a city on the west coast and a city on the east coast before trains, trucks, cars and airplanes were invented. Distribute laminated desk maps of the United States. Have the students mark an overland route that crosses the United States from east coast to west coast and takes into consideration the physical barriers. Based on what they know about resources and goods produced in the United States, have them identify what the west coast city might want from the east coast city and vice versa.

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Last updated on March 10, 1997
Maintained by John L. Day

<jday@umd5.umd.edu>