“丝绸之路”一词的首创者是德国旅行家和地理学家费迪南·冯·李希霍芬男爵(他是史努比克星、“红男爵”曼弗雷德·冯·李希霍芬的伯父)。实际上,冯·李希霍芬在1877年的一次讲座上,以及他的多卷本历史地理学著作《中国》(1877—1912)中,同时使用了这个词的单数(Seidenstrasse)和复数(Seidenstrassen)形式。他用这个词指代中国的丝绸离开汉帝国(前206—220年)抵达中亚的多条路线,汉朝则从那些路线中学到了一些西方地理知 The originator of the word “Silk Road” was Baron Ferdinand von Richchofuen, a German traveler and geographer (he was Snoopy Star, Red Baron, Manfred Von Richchoff’s uncle). In fact, at a lecture in 1877, as well as in his multi-volume historical geography book China (1877-1912), von Richchoff used both the word Seidenstrasse and the plural Seidenstrassen) form. He used the term to refer to the multiple routes by which Chinese silk arrived in Central Asia from the Han Empire (206-220 BC), from which Han learned some Western geography