The Twisted Roads That Bound Together

I have such a big fondness for silk shirts and dresses, and it never stops reminding me of how silk started to serve mankind from 5000 to 8000 years ago.

I also admire how our ancestors tried to describe silk. Pictographically, they draw two bounds of silks twisted and hanging together like pictured below for 丝-silk.

It was never an easy job in breeding silkworms and drawing silk from silkworm cocoons, especially in the barbaric era. On top of promoting beauty and comfy in human lives, this hard work also served and serves as the crystallization of human wisdom, the pursuit of the art of a better life, and the result of trustful cooperation over processes and among groups.

As an important sign, the history of human beings develops in the process of continuous migration, and consequently, frequent exchanges of skills, agricultural products, medicine, ideas, religion, and culture occurred. Natural sciences, art, literature, handicrafts, and technology started to be shared and disseminated.

Such communication and trade crisscross the Eurasian continent gradually formed through two major roads: the land and the sea. These two roads were never easy nor short. They were just like two twisted roads stretching into the distance, bound together by one sacred goal.

When our ancestors, for instance, Zheng He's fleet and the camel caravans, brought silks to friends far away, along with it was #friendship, #understanding, sharing, mutual assistance, mutual #development, mutual #prosperity, and #peace. This never changes until today.

In nowadays, is it still vividly telling us that the character 丝 is just like every two common partners bound together with one great common #goal?

#unity #kindness #love #ancientwisdom #multiculturalism #authenticity #technologydevelopment #teamworks