That last bit seemed to jump out of nowhere. Maybe I'm missing some implications of the grid-like oval bronze thing? Very mysterious.
They got a bit of the history of the Silk Roads incomplete. The Silk Roads, as it is understood now, isn't just about trading in silk, but the idea that the ancient world was connected and globalized through an extensive trade network. It isn't just overland routes, but also maritime routes for spice trade with India, and connections from North Africa deep into the interior of the African continent. Paper was worth more than silk along the Silk Roads. However, from the lens of Chinese history, silk was something that the Chinese monopolized for a while and was sought after by other cultures and civilizations connected through the Silk Roads.
A chunk of it is about the nature of the lack of good harbors along the coast that would be able to shelter trading ships from the open ocean.
Zanzibar is the noted example of a port https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar#Before_1498
> From the 9th century, Swahili merchants on Zanzibar operated as brokers for long-distance traders from both the hinterland and Indian Ocean world. Persian, Indian, and Arab traders frequented Zanzibar to acquire East African goods like gold, ivory, and ambergris and then shipped them overseas to Asia. Similarly, caravan traders from the African Great Lakes and Zambezian Region came to the coast to trade for imported goods, especially Indian cloth. Before the Portuguese arrival, the southern towns of Unguja Ukuu and Kizimkazi and the northern town of Tumbatu were the dominant centres of exchange.
Even the large rivers that do empty into the ocean, they have significant portions of rapids that make it impractical to use as a trading route.
I can't actually find other English uses of that name, and while I can guess that they're referring to one of a small set of documents discussing the (possibly mythological) abdication of Yao, those documents were written thousands of years after the events. I'm not wholly opposed to the argument, but you should explicitly justify it in cases like this instead of accepting the symbolism uncritically.
If you are buying a 'silk' garment it is common to ask the shop-keeper to hold it to a cigarette lighter to prove it does not contain a synthetic petroleum-based fabric, such as polyester.
Do other philosophical positions, like atheism or panpsychism?
I suspect though that it's not the author's beliefs, just an ambiguously written way of saying that it was done by those people with that belief - in the same way that an atheist or follower of some other religion may say that Christians pray in order to communicate their wishes to God. Of course there is the rude and angry for no clear reason brand of atheist who could never bring themselves to say such a thing, but to the rest of us there is no problem in describing someone else's actions by their own reasons for doing them, even if we don't share that motivation. I have colleagues who run for pleasure; though I do not for mine.
> Similarly, silk was also used as a sacrificial object, such as in the form of silk books or paintings on silk, with the silk serving as a carrier to convey the content of the calligraphy and painting upon it to Heaven.
But it does seem that there is some context that would be helpful here, at least for this Western reader.
It is actually common in other cultures as well.