The Formation Process of the South China Sea Route of the Maritime Silk Road

PENG Changlin

The route of the Maritime Silk Road across the South China Sea was established through an extensive historical process shaped by human migration, cultural exchanges, and escalating social complexity over several millennia. During the Late Neolithic epoch, substantial southward migrations of rice-farming communities originating in the middle and lower Yangtze River basin reached Lingnan, Southwest China, and Southeast Asia, thereby inaugurating the earliest overland and maritime communication pathways. During the Bronze Age, the interactions among cultures in Lingnan, Southwest China, and Southeast Asia became more prominent, resulting in the development of a cultural interaction network encircling the South China Sea. During the Early Iron Age, cultural influences from the Central Plains of China and India expanded into mainland Southeast Asia from the east and west, respectively. Coastal transportation hubs in mainland Southeast Asia gradually evolved into some of the region's earliest states. These centres facilitated long-distance trade of valuable commodities across East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, establishing a complex transportation network that integrated both maritime and overland routes across the South China Sea. This network subsequently linked with the broader maritime routes of the Indian Ocean, ultimately giving rise to the extensive long-distance maritime commercial network known as the Maritime Silk Road, connecting East and West.