“Where do you prefer fo be born if you have the choice?”
    asked Daisaku Ikeda, a Japanese philosopher.
    “I hope I were born in Xinjiang of China in the 1st century, when Buddhism was introduced to the region.” Arnold Toynbee, a British historian, said with a smile.
  The above dialogue, made more than 20 years ago, was part of a famous conversation between the two scholars, which was titled Prospect of the 21st Century.
    Toynbee’s choice was interesting because there have been few people in the world who knew the various cultures as deeply as this historian. The possible reason behind his choice may be as fascinating as the choice itself.
   As historians have pointed out, there are four cultural systems of the mankind that boast long landing of history and great impact on human civilization: the Chinese, the Indian, the Islamic and the Greek-Roman Western European cultural systems. Xinjiang of China is the only juncture on the earth where the four systems converged.