Shiyu Yang

Ports and Transregional Interactions on the Eastern Silk Roads: A Case Study from the Shandong Peninsula, China

The Eastern Silk Roads focus on eastward extension of major land-based Silk Roads, from the Chang’an/Luoyang area in central China, through eastern and northern China, the Korean Peninsula, and the Japanese Archipelago. The Shandong Peninsula in eastern China has been a vital strategic area controlling one of the most frequently used gateways for transregional interactions with the Liaodong and Korean Peninsulas, and the Japanese Archipelago for over three thousand years. The significance of Shandong ports in maritime and land-based exchanges has been partially recognised, but research on the complex nature of interactions and analysis on how these ports changed over time are limited, in contrast to port cities in south and southeast China which have attracted much more attention and publicity.

This research aims to explore the archaeological and historical evidence for the ports of the Shandong Peninsula, and the nature of exchanges with the Chinese heartlands, the Korean Peninsula, and the Japanese Archipelago, between the third century BCE and the fifteenth century CE. Case studies focus on two coastal ports (Penglai in Yantai city and Weihai) and two riverine ports (Qingzhou in Weifang city and Banqiao Town of Mizhou in Qingdao city) to investigate transregional trade, diplomatic exchange, political control, cultural dissemination, and military conflicts and develop a more complex understanding of the scale, nature, and changes on the Silk Roads in East Asia.

The specific research questions are: 1. How did each of the major ports on the Shandong Peninsula develop? 2. How did they function in the connection between the hinterlands of China and the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago? 3. What factors led to the shifts in the importance of particular ports and/or changes in routes? 4. What goods, peoples and ideas were exchanged via these ports? 5. What were the mechanisms of exchange?

A database of key sites and routes in maritime and terrestrial East Asia (centring around Shandong) is designed to support a GIS, which will be used to explore the range and diversity of sites on the Eastern Silk Roads. The outcomes of this research are expected to advance scholarship and enhance public awareness of the archaeology and history of the Shandong ports and pave the way for improved interpretation, management, and presentation of port cities and their heritage in northeast China in the future.

Education

• BA, History, Peking University, 2019

• MA, Archaeology and Heritage of Asia, UCL, 2021