Chinese Characters developed on the Silk Road through the ages and they spread among many ethnic groups in East Asia and eventually a Sinographic Sphere was formed, which was a vital window for understanding the cultural exchanges between China and the West. This paper draws special attention to the differences of the transmission of Sinographic culture in the Chinese part of the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty. It also discusses and offers reasonable interpretations on the varieties of the acceptance and development of this Sinographic culture. It analyzes the roles of merchants, the military, monks, diplomats, and government officials for spreading Sinographic culture and their channels, by focusing on the transmissions of Chinese characters, bilingual writings, and Chinese texts. The main sources for this study include those textual remains discovered from Gaochang, Kucha, and Khotan since the 19th Century. It attempts to offer a reasonable explanation on the spread of Chinese characters. In the Tang Dynasty, the spread of Chinese characters and texts had different experience of acceptance and development in different regions and periods, based on different conditions of commercial trade, economy, politics, religions and ways of life. It seems to be in accordance with the local needs for Chinese characters and texts in reality. This study finds that as early as in the Han Dynasty, Chinese characters have reached Gaochang, Kucha, Khotan, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, yet the developments in these regions were different. It seems that in the regions where local residents had ethnic writing systems of their own, Chinese characters and texts would be spread with the advocate of the local Han administrations. If their local writing systems could not compromise with the Chinese writing system, Chinese characters and texts would not be easily accepted. The Chinese documents found in Gaochang, Kucha, and Khotan seem to suggest that Chinese characters were mainly used in commercial trade, and followed by religious transmission, military use and civil administration. Therefore, the Sinographic culture did take root in these ethnic cultures. For those ethnic regions and states where writing systems were developed much later, before they had their own writing scripts, they often relied on Sinographs as tools for cultural exchanges and transmissions. In the regions where the Sinographs were used as reading and writing tools for a long time, such as in Tibet, Tangut, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, the Chinese texts flourished. The Chinese culture was accepted and took root in the local societies. Even though these regions created their own languages and writing systems and they no longer mainly used Chinese Sinographs, the Sinographic culture still played a crucial role in their national life and culture. In summary, if the official language and writing system was the same as the national language and writing system in a region or the language of religion, the spread of Sinographs would be easily formed as a culture and endure for a long time. If the official language of a region was different from the daily language of the residents, or from the language of the local religions, the Sinograohic culture was hardly sustaining. If the official language changed or the religion changed, the spread of the Sinographic culture would fade away. However, local Chinese residents would keep using Chinese language.

the Tang Dynasty    the Sinographic Cultural Sphere    the Silk Road    Gaochang    Kucha    Khotan    religious belief