The Formation and Analysis of the Concept of Tea Horse Ancient Road

Abstract

The Tea Horse Ancient Road is an original achievement proposed by the Chinese academic community that differs from the concept of the Western Silk Road. It was initially proposed by six scholars, including Mu Jihong and Li Xu. This concept has completely different characteristics from the popular concept of the Southern Silk Road. The Tea Horse Ancient Road mainly transports tea to Tibet, rather than overseas trade. It is not a so-called branch line of the Southern Silk Road, and the main trading goods of the two commercial routes are also different. One is cake tea, and the other is Shu cloth and silk. From this, it can be seen that the formation of the Tea Horse Ancient Road is mainly due to the tea trade.