OK, so I've been reading here for several years, but in posting terms I'm so green the sap is still flowing. N00b in spades. In researching the history of the printing press, one point came up repeatedly in reference to its invention in China -- the tens of thousands of characters in written Chinese severely hampered the usage of printing. The Chinese didn't develop the "press" per se but instead used block printing techniques after laboriously carving hundreds and thousands of blocks of individual Chinese characters.
So what if (OK I'm cringing here) Chinese traders or even a diplomatic delegation including a minor member of the royal family followed the Silk Route all the way to Rome in the First Century BCE and stayed for several years -- a reverse Marco Polo expedition, if you will. There's plenty of precedent for this. As early as 130 BCE the Han Dynasty was sending embassies as far as Parthia and then Syria, and Chinese silk was extremely popular in Rome in the First Century BCE, although most trade was through intermediaries.
While in Rome the Chinese delegates learn the simplicity and usefulness of the Latin alphabet and adapt it to Chinese. (And perhaps in return some smart Roman sees the applicability of individual letter blocks, but that's another what if.) The delegation returns to China, carrying the secret of phonetic spelling with them, and introduces it to the Han court. Although paper is generally stated to have been invented around 105 CE, there is ample evidence that hemp paper was being produced in Gansu province as early as 100 BCE, during the reign of Emperor Wu.
The introduction of the printed word revolutionized Europe after Guttenburg. Among other things, it slowly eliminated Latin as the language of the elite and led to a rapid increase in both literacy and the use of vernacular languages in books, especially the Bible. What would be its impact in China?
So what if (OK I'm cringing here) Chinese traders or even a diplomatic delegation including a minor member of the royal family followed the Silk Route all the way to Rome in the First Century BCE and stayed for several years -- a reverse Marco Polo expedition, if you will. There's plenty of precedent for this. As early as 130 BCE the Han Dynasty was sending embassies as far as Parthia and then Syria, and Chinese silk was extremely popular in Rome in the First Century BCE, although most trade was through intermediaries.
While in Rome the Chinese delegates learn the simplicity and usefulness of the Latin alphabet and adapt it to Chinese. (And perhaps in return some smart Roman sees the applicability of individual letter blocks, but that's another what if.) The delegation returns to China, carrying the secret of phonetic spelling with them, and introduces it to the Han court. Although paper is generally stated to have been invented around 105 CE, there is ample evidence that hemp paper was being produced in Gansu province as early as 100 BCE, during the reign of Emperor Wu.
The introduction of the printed word revolutionized Europe after Guttenburg. Among other things, it slowly eliminated Latin as the language of the elite and led to a rapid increase in both literacy and the use of vernacular languages in books, especially the Bible. What would be its impact in China?
