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The Silk Road

In Our Time

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The Origins of the Hand Dynasty

In the 2nd century BC, China started to go west. There are two reasons why the hand became interested in moving west. The most important is geopolitical, shall we say. At about the same time as China was unified, a unification of the peoples dwelling to their north also took place. That led to confrontation with nomads who had displaced peoples from some of the Oasis towns to the west of China,. They'd done the usual thing. They'd turned the skull of the ruler of these unfortunate people into a drinking cup. So, the Chinese naturally thought, well, if we can find the remnants of these people who have run away to the west, perhaps they will be bent on

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