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Why I’m Moving My Blog again, and a Black Death Tale from the Silk Road

Tuesday, April 22, 2025 

My WeChat publishing platform was originally set up using my sister’s account, since mine isn’t registered in China. This setup has become increasingly inconvenient—every time I publish an article, she has to scan a code through her WeChat app. So, I’ve decided it’s time to move my blog elsewhere. Unfortunately, two of the sites that currently host my articles are not accessible in China.

But trust me—nothing stops me from writing, and now, I write with even more purpose. It’s just that, due to the inconvenience, I’ve been sharing more with readers in America and less with those in China.

For a while, I’ve focused on new developments in China, particularly those unreported in mainstream Western media. Since March, however, I’ve been delving into the history of the Silk Road, hoping to uncover topics that are both rich in historical depth and relevant to today’s world.

Yesterday, I wrote about the Silk Road and its role in the spread of the Black Death. Today, I’ll continue that thread.

The Black Death—a devastating outbreak of bubonic plague—swept across Europe and the Near East between 1346 and 1353, killing an estimated 50 million people. The disease was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, and it spread through flea bites and, in some cases, via airborne transmission.

Mark Welford, author of the 2018 book Geographies of Plague Pandemics, identifies the Crimean port of Kaffa (now Feodosia) as “the jumping-off point for the primary wave of the medieval Black Death from Asia to Europe in 1346–47.”

According to Welford, “Genoese or Venetians left Kaffa by boat, infecting Constantinople and Athens as they made their way to Sicily, Venice, and Genoa. But I suspect it also reached Constantinople via an overland route.”

The story that stands out most from this period is one of biological warfare: During the siege of Kaffa in 1346, Mongol forces—already ravaged by plague—allegedly catapulted the corpses of plague victims over the city walls in an attempt to infect its defenders.

This account comes from a 14th-century chronicle written by Gabriele de’ Mussi, an Italian notary from Piacenza. Though he wasn’t an eyewitness, de’ Mussi claimed that fleeing Genoese merchants brought the disease back with them to Italy, inadvertently helping ignite the Black Death pandemic in Europe.

While historians debate the literal truth of the Mongol catapult story—some view it as exaggerated or symbolic—its impact is clear. The siege of Kaffa underscores how trade routes, war, and human movement accelerated the spread of deadly diseases across continents.

Finally, centuries ago, the Silk Road spread stories and plagues alike. Today, I follow the path of the Silk Road in my own way—writing across borders, with purpose and determination.

Links:

On the Siege of Kaffa:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Caffa

On notary Gabriel de Mussis, author of "History of the Disease, or the Great Dying that took place in the Year of our Lord 1348". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_de_Mussis


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