The Southwestern Silk Route was an important point of contact between the two great civilizations of China and India, as well as a major conduit for the passage of East-West trade. Bin Yang in his recent book on the Southwestern Silk Road, Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan, concluded that the southwestern route supported regional trade between China and India since at least the third century BCE, but that current archeological evidence does not provide enough detail to confirm either the volume or specific nature of trade in this earlier period. There is the oft-cited account from the Sima Qian's Records of the Historian (Shiji 史記), in which Zhang Qian (d. 133 BCE), chief envoy of the Han emperor Wudi 武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE) visited the region of Afghanistan -- then known as Bactria (Daxia 大夏) -- in 122 BCE. In Bactria Zhang saw merchants from northern India (Shendu 身毒) peddling two trade articles from the Shu 蜀 region (modern-day Sichuan),: "Qiong bamboo poles" (qiongzhu zhang 邛竹杖) and "Shu brocade" (Shujin 蜀錦). Zhang Qian concluded that there must be a direct trade route from Sichuan to India to the south, because northern routes were then in the hands of rival Qiang 羌 and Xiongnu 匈奴 chieftains. Zhang's account is the first documented claim for such a route in the Chinese historical record.
The regional market for these trade items continued to grow throughout the early Imperial period. Qiong bamboo (Qiongzhuea tumidissinoda) was first grown in Qiongdu 邛都, which is today part of Xichang 西昌, a town in Sichuan that is now better known for satellite launches than it is for bamboo. Shu brocade was a variety of woven silk cloth, or, as other scholars argue, a type of linen that had been produced in Sichuan since the Warring States period (475-221 BCE), at which time it was already widely imitated. Following Zhang Qian's discovery, domestic trade in Shu brocade continued to grow. The Han emperor Chengdi (r.32-7 BCE) ordered that Yizhou (near modern Chengdu) officials collect and transport three years' worth of taxes in local Shu brocade to produce seven fully finished brocade robes. From the fall of the Han through the establishment of the Sui (581-618 CE), most of China suffered from periodic turmoil that affected local economic production. However, the Xichuan region was largely unaffected by the interregional fighting, and brocade production continued largely unabated. During the Tang, the central court continued to accept cloth brocade as tribute from Sichuan, and a market for Shu brocade could still be found in the "Western Regions ," including modern-day Xinjiang and other parts of Central Asia.
Along with Qiong bamboo and Sichuan brocade, other local products such as Shu ironware and cinnabar could be found along the Southwestern Silk Road routes as far west as India and Afghanistan. West Asian, Indian and Burmese glassware, gem stones and pearls were the primary products that made their way into China as imports. The specific trade articles of the Southwestern Silk Road contributed to the definition of the network itself, emphasizing certain trade routes over others. As Bin Yang notes, Yunnan shared the mineral wealth of northern Myanmar (Burma) as a location rich in gold, silver, tin, lead, and copper deposits, among other minerals. However, interregional exchanges were not limited to luxury commodities. Guanghan, located to the south of Chengdu, is the site of the ancient Sanxingdui bronze culture that flourished as it borrowed from southern China to the east and the various non-Han kingdoms to the south, while remaining distinct from the Anyang bronze culture of the North China Plain.
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