Tang dynasty

Tang 唐
618–690, 705–907 (690–705: Wu Zhou)
The empire in 661, when it reached its greatest extent[1][2][3]   Civil administration   Military administration   Briefly-controlled areas
Capital	Chang'an (618–904) Luoyang (904–907)
Common languages	Middle Chinese
Religion	Main religions: Chinese Buddhism Taoism Chinese folk religion Others: Nestorian Christianity Chinese Manichaeism Zoroastrianism Islam
Government	Absolute monarchy
Emperor
• 618–626 (first)	Emperor Gaozu
• 626–649	Emperor Taizong
• 712–756	Emperor Xuanzong
• 904–907 (last)	Emperor Ai
Historical era	Medieval East Asia
• Established	June 18, 618
• Wu Zhou interregnum	690–705
• An Lushan rebellion	755–763
• Abdication in favour of Later Liang	June 1, 907
Area
715[4][5][6]	5,400,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi)
Population
• 7th century	50 million
• 9th century	80 million
Currency	Cash coins
Preceded by Succeeded by Sui dynasty Western Turkic Khaganate Eastern Turkic Khaganate Later Liang Yang Wu Wuyue Min Former Shu Liao dynasty Second Turkic Khaganate

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The Tang dynasty (/tɑːŋ/,^[7] [tʰǎŋ]; Chinese: 唐朝^[a]), or the Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilisation, and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture.^[9] Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivalled that of the Han dynasty.

The

The House of Li had ethnic Han origins, and it belonged to the northwest military aristocracy prevalent during the Sui dynasty.^[15][16] According to official Tang records, they were paternally descended from Laozi, the traditional founder of Taoism (whose personal name was Li Dan or Li Er), the Han dynasty general Li Guang, and Li Gao, the founder of the Han-ruled Western Liang kingdom.^[17][18][19] This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage, which also included the prominent Tang poet Li Bai. The Tang emperors were partially of Xianbei ancestry, as Emperor Gaozu of Tang's mother Duchess Dugu was part-Xianbei.^[20][21] Apart from the traditional historiography, some modern historians have suggested the Tang imperial family might have modified its genealogy to conceal their Xianbei heritage.^[22][23]

Emperor Gaozu (born Li Yuan) was the founder of the Tang. He was previously Duke of Tang and governor of Taiyuan, the capital of modern Shanxi, during the collapse of the Sui dynasty (581–618).^[15][24] Li had prestige and military experience, and was a first cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui (their mothers were both one of the Dugu sisters).^[10] Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang (d. 623), who raised and commanded her own troops. In winter 617, Li Yuan occupied Chang'an, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang ('retired emperor'), and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor Yang You.^[25] On the news of Emperor Yang's murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18, 618, Li Yuan declared himself emperor of the newly founded Tang dynasty.^[25][26]

Emperor Gaozu ruled until 626, when he was forcefully deposed by his son

Tang circuits (道; dào) in 742 according to The Cambridge History of China

Tang emissaries to the Sogdian king Varkhuman in Samarkand (648–651) – Afrasiab murals

7th-century Sogdian Huteng dancer – Xiuding temple pagoda, Anyang, Henan

The Tang engaged in

Foreign ambassadors visiting the Tang court – the Portraits of Periodical Offering by Yan Liben (601–673)

Having entered Emperor Gaozong's court as a lowly consort, Wu Zetian ultimately acceded to the highest position of power in 690, establishing the short-lived Wu Zhou. Emperor Gaozong suffered a stroke in 655, and Wu began to make many of his court decisions for him, discussing affairs of state with his councillors, who took orders from her while she sat behind a screen.^[35] When Empress Wu's eldest son, the crown prince, began to assert his authority and advocate policies opposed by Empress Wu, he suddenly died in 675. Many suspected he was poisoned by Empress Wu. Although the next heir apparent kept a lower profile, Wu accused him of plotting a rebellion in 680; he was banished and later obliged to commit suicide.^[36]

In 683, Emperor Gaozong died and was succeeded by

Model of Luoyang imperial palace during Wu Zetian's reign. Many major construction projects were commissioned during Wu Zetian's time, such as the Bright Hall [zh] of Luoyang (right) commissioned by Wu Zetian (original 93 m (305 ft) tall).^[39]

A palace coup (Shenlong Coup [zh]) on February 20, 705, forced Empress Wu to yield her position on February 22. The next day, her son Zhongzong was restored to power; the Tang was formally restored on March 3. She died soon after.^[40] To legitimise her rule, she circulated a document known as the Great Cloud Sutra, which predicted that a reincarnation of the Maitreya Buddha would be a female monarch who would dispel illness, worry, and disaster from the world.^[41][42] She even introduced numerous revised written characters for the language, though they reverted to the original forms after her death.^[43] Arguably the most important part of her legacy was diminishing the hegemony of the Northwestern aristocracy, allowing people from other clans and regions of China to become more represented in Chinese politics and government.^[44][45]

The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Chang'an, built in 652 and repaired by Wu Zetian in 704

The Small Wild Goose Pagoda, built by 709, was adjacent to the Dajianfu Temple in Chang'an, where Buddhist monks gathered to translate Sanskrit texts into Chinese^[46]

There were many prominent women at court during and after Wu's reign, including

Previously at the height of their power, the

After 710, regional military governors called jiedushi gradually came to challenge the power of the central government.^[64] After the An Lushan rebellion, the autonomous power and authority accumulated by the jiedushi in Hebei went beyond the central government's control. After a series of rebellions between 781 and 784 in present-day Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Hubei, the government had to officially acknowledge the jiedushi's hereditary rule without accreditation. The Tang government relied on these governors and their armies for protection and to suppress local revolts. In return, the central government would acknowledge the rights of these governors to maintain their army, collect taxes and even to pass on their title to heirs.^[65] As time passed, these military governors slowly phased out the prominence of civil officials drafted by exams, and became more autonomous from central authority. The rule of these powerful military governors lasted until 960, when a new civil order under the Song dynasty was established. The abandonment of the equal-field system also meant that people could buy and sell land freely; many poor fell into debt because of this and were forced to sell their land to the wealthy, which led to the exponential growth of large estates.^[56] With the breakdown of the land allocation system after 755, the central Chinese state barely interfered in agricultural management and acted merely as tax collector for roughly a millennium, save a few instances such as the Song's failed land nationalisation during the 13th-century war with the Mongols.^[66]

With the central government collapsing in authority over the various regions of the empire, it was recorded in 845 that bandits and river pirates in parties of 100 or more began plundering settlements along the Yangtze River with little resistance. In 858, massive floods along the

Although these natural calamities and rebellions stained the reputation and hampered the effectiveness of the central government, the early 9th century is nonetheless viewed as a period of recovery for the Tang.^[68] The government's withdrawal from its role in managing the economy had the unintended effect of stimulating trade, as more markets with fewer bureaucratic restrictions were opened up.^[69][70] By 780, the old grain tax and labour service of the 7th century were replaced by a semi-annual tax paid in cash, signifying the shift to a money economy boosted by the merchant class.^[58] Cities in the southern Jiangnan region such as Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou prospered the most economically during the late Tang period.^[69] The government monopoly on salt production, weakened after the An Lushan rebellion, was placed under the Salt Commission, which became one of the most powerful state agencies, run by capable ministers chosen as specialists. The commission began the practice of selling merchants the rights to buy monopoly salt, which they transported and sold in local markets. In 799, salt accounted for over half of the government's revenues.^[56] S. A. M. Adshead writes that this salt tax represents "the first time that an indirect tax, rather than tribute, levies on land or people, or profit from state enterprises such as mines, had been the primary resource of a major state".^[71] Even after the power of the central government was in decline after the mid-8th century, it was still able to function and give out imperial orders on a massive scale. The Old Book of Tang (945) recorded that a government decree issued in 828 standardised the use of square-pallet chain pumps for irrigation throughout the country.^[72]

The last ambitious ruler of the Tang was

Decades after the An Lushan rebellion, the Tang was able to muster enough power to launch offensive military campaigns, including its destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia from 840 to 847.^[75] The Tang managed to restore indirect control over former territories as far west as the Hexi Corridor and Dunhuang in Gansu; in 848, the general Zhang Yichao (799–872) managed to wrestle control of the region from the Tibetan Empire during its civil war.^[76] Shortly afterwards, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 846–859) acknowledged Zhang as the protector (防禦使; fángyùshǐ) of Sha Prefecture, and military governor of the new Guiyi Circuit.^[77]

In addition to factors like natural calamity and jiedushi claiming autonomy, a rebellion by Huang Chao (874–884) devastated both northern and southern China, took an entire decade to suppress, resulted in the sacking of both Chang'an and Luoyang.^[78] In 878–879, Huang's army committed a massacre in the southern port of Guangzhou against foreign Arab and Persian Muslim, Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian merchants.^[79] A medieval Chinese source claimed that Huang Chao killed 8 million people.^[80] The Tang never recovered from Huang's rebellion, which paved the way for the later overthrow of the Tang. Large groups of bandits in the size of small armies ravaged the countryside in the last years of the Tang. They smuggled illicit salt, ambushed merchants and convoys, and even besieged several walled cities.^[81] Amid the sacking of cities and murderous factional strife among eunuchs and officials, the top tier of aristocratic families, which had amassed a large fraction of the landed wealth and official positions, was largely destroyed or marginalised.^[82][83]

During the last two decades of the Tang dynasty, the gradual collapse of central authority led to the rise of the rival military figures

In 901, from his power base of Kaifeng, Zhu Wen seized control of the Tang capital Chang'an and with it the imperial family.^[88] By 903, he forced Emperor Zhaozong of Tang to move the capital to Luoyang, preparing to take the throne for himself. In 904, Zhu assassinated Emperor Zhaozong to replace him with the emperor's young son Emperor Ai of Tang. In 905, Zhu executed the brothers of Emperor Ai as well as many officials and Empress Dowager He. In 907, the Tang dynasty was ended when Zhu deposed Ai and took the throne for himself (known posthumously as Emperor Taizu of Later Liang). He established the Later Liang, which inaugurated the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. A year later, Zhu had the deposed Emperor Ai poisoned to death.^[86]

Zhu Wen's enemy Li Keyong died in 908, having never claimed the title of emperor out of loyalty to the Tang. His son Li Cunxu (Emperor Zhuangzong) inherited his title Prince of Jin along with his father's rivalry against Zhu. In 923, Li Cunxu declared a "restored" Tang dynasty, the Later Tang, before toppling the Later Liang dynasty the same year. However, southern China remained splintered into various small kingdoms until most of China was reunified under the Song dynasty (960–1279). Control over parts of northeast China and Manchuria by the Liao dynasty of the Khitan people also stemmed from this period. In 905, their leader Abaoji formed a military alliance with Li Keyong against Zhu Wen but the Khitans eventually turned against the Later Tang, helping another Shatuo leader Shi Jingtang of Later Jin to overthrow Later Tang in 936.^[89]

Taizong set out to solve internal problems within the government which had constantly plagued past dynasties. Building upon the Sui legal code, he issued a new legal code that subsequent Chinese dynasties would model theirs upon, as well as neighbouring polities in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.^[10] The earliest law code to survive was established in 653; it was divided into 500 articles specifying different crimes and penalties ranging from ten blows with a light stick, one hundred blows with a heavy rod, exile, penal servitude, or execution. The legal code distinguished different levels of severity in meted punishments when different members of the social and political hierarchy committed the same crime. For example, the severity of punishment was different when a servant or nephew killed a master or an uncle than when a master or uncle killed a servant or nephew.^[90]

The Tang Code was largely retained by later codes such as the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644) code of 1397,^[91] yet there were several revisions in later times, such as improved property rights for women during the Song dynasty (960–1279).^[92][93]

The Tang had three departments (省; shěng), which were obliged to draft, review, and implement policies respectively. There were also six ministries (部; bù) under the administrations that implemented policy, each of which was assigned different tasks. These Three Departments and Six Ministries included the personnel administration, finance, rites, military, justice, and public works—an administrative model which lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).^[94]

Although the founders of the Tang related to the glory of the earlier Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), the basis for much of their administrative organisation was very similar to the previous Northern and Southern dynasties. The Northern Zhou (6th century) fubing system of divisional militia was continued by the Tang, along with farmer-soldiers serving in rotation from the capital or frontier in order to receive appropriated farmland. The equal-field system of the Northern Wei (4th–6th centuries) was also kept, although there were a few modifications.^[10]

Although the central and local governments kept an enormous number of records about land property in order to assess taxes, it became common practice in the Tang for literate and affluent people to create their own private documents and signed contracts. These had their own signature and that of a witness and scribe in order to prove in court (if necessary) that their claim to property was legitimate. The prototype of this actually existed since the ancient Han dynasty, while contractual language became even more common and embedded into Chinese literary culture in later dynasties.^[95]

The centre of the political power of the Tang was the capital city of Chang'an (modern Xi'an), where the emperor maintained his large palace quarters and entertained political emissaries with music, sports, acrobats, poetry, paintings, and dramatic theatre performances. The capital was also filled with incredible amounts of riches and resources to spare. When the Chinese prefectural government officials travelled to the capital in 643 to give the annual report of the affairs in their districts, Emperor Taizong discovered that many had no proper quarters to rest in and were renting rooms with merchants. Therefore, Emperor Taizong ordered the government agencies in charge of municipal construction to build every visiting official his own private mansion in the capital.^[96]

Students of

The examination system, used only on a small scale in Sui and Tang times, played a central role in the fashioning of this new elite. The early Song emperors, concerned above all to avoid domination of the government by military men, greatly expanded the civil service examination system and the government school system.[105]

From the outset, religion played a role in Tang politics. In his bid for power, Li Yuan had attracted a following by claiming descent from the Taoist sage Laozi (fl. 6th century BC).^[106] People bidding for office would request the prayers of Buddhist monks, with successful aspirants making donations in return. Before the persecution of Buddhism in the 9th century, Buddhism and Taoism were both accepted. Religion was central in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756). The Emperor invited Taoist and Buddhist monks and clerics to his court, exalted Laozi with grand titles, wrote commentary on Taoist scriptures, and set up a school to prepare candidates for Taoist examinations. In 726, he called upon the Indian monk Vajrabodhi (671–741) to perform tantric rites to avert a drought. In 742, he personally held the incense burner while patriarch of the Shingon school Amoghavajra (705–774) recited "mystical incantations to secure the victory of Tang forces".^[49]

Emperor Xuanzong closely regulated religious finances. Near the beginning of his reign in 713, he liquidated the Inexhaustible Treasury of a prominent Buddhist monastery in Chang'an which had collected vast riches as multitudes of anonymous repentants left money, silk, and treasure at its doors. Although the monastery used its funds generously, the Emperor condemned it for fraudulent banking practices, and distributed its wealth to other Buddhist and Taoist monasteries, and to repair local statues, halls, and bridges.^[107] In 714, he forbade Chang'an shops from selling copied Buddhist sutras, giving a monopoly of this trade to the Buddhist clergy.^[108]

The Tang government attempted to create an accurate census of the empire's population, mostly for effective taxation and military conscription. The early Tang government established modest grain and cloth taxes on each household, persuading households to register and provide the government with accurate demographic information.

The 7th and first half of the 8th century are generally considered to be the era in which the Tang reached the zenith of its power. In this period, Tang control extended further west than any previous dynasty, stretching from north Vietnam in the south, to a point north of Kashmir bordering Persia in the west, to northern Korea in the north-east.^[116]

Some of the kingdoms paying tribute to the Tang dynasty included

By 737, Emperor Xuanzong discarded the policy of conscripting soldiers that were replaced every three years, replacing them with long-service soldiers who were more battle-hardened and efficient. It was more economically feasible as well, since training new recruits and sending them out to the frontier every three years drained the treasury.

In East Asia, Tang military campaigns were less successful elsewhere than in previous imperial Chinese dynasties.

Although they were formerly enemies, the Tang accepted officials and generals of Goguryeo into their administration and military, such as the brothers

The Sui and Tang carried out successful military campaigns against the steppe nomads. Chinese foreign policy to the north and west now had to deal with

Civil war in China was almost totally diminished by 626, along with the 628 defeat of the Ordos warlord Liang Shidu; after these internal conflicts, the Tang began an offensive against the Turks.^[142] In 630, Tang armies captured areas of the Ordos Desert, modern-day Inner Mongolia province, and southern Mongolia from the Turks.^[137][143] After this military victory, On June 11, 631, Emperor Taizong also sent envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to persuade the release of enslaved Chinese prisoners who were captured during the transition from Sui to Tang from the northern frontier; this embassy succeeded in freeing 80,000 Chinese men and women who were then returned to China.^[144][145]

While the Turks were settled in the Ordos region (former territory of the

There was a string of conflicts with Tibet over territories in the Tarim Basin between 670 and 692; in 763, the Tibetans captured Chang'an for fifteen days during the An Lushan rebellion.^[151][152] In fact, it was during this rebellion that the Tang withdrew its western garrisons stationed in what is now Gansu and Qinghai, which the Tibetans then occupied along with the territory of what is now Xinjiang.^[153] Hostilities between the Tang and Tibet continued until they signed the Changqing Treaty in 821.^[154] The terms of this treaty, including the fixed borders between the two countries, are recorded in a bilingual inscription on a stone pillar outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa.^[155]

A Tang gilt-silver jar, shaped in the style of a northern nomad's leather bag^[176] decorated with a horse dancing with a cup of wine in its mouth, as the horses of Emperor Xuanzong were trained to do.^[176]

Through use of the land trade along the Silk Road and maritime trade by sail at sea, the Tang were able to acquire and gain many new technologies, cultural practices, rare luxury, and contemporary items. From Europe, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, the Tang dynasty were able to acquire new ideas in fashion, new types of ceramics, and improved silver-smithing techniques. The Tang also gradually adopted the foreign concept of stools and chairs as seating, whereas the Chinese beforehand always sat on mats placed on the floor.^[177] People of the Middle East coveted and purchased Chinese goods in bulk, including silks, porcelain, and lacquerwares.^[178] Songs, dances, and musical instruments from foreign regions became popular in China during the Tang dynasty.^[179][180] These musical instruments included oboes, flutes, and small lacquered drums from Kucha in the Tarim Basin, and percussion instruments from India such as cymbals.^[179] At the court there were nine musical ensembles (expanded from seven in the Sui dynasty) that played eclectic Asian music.^[181]

There was great interaction with India, a hub for Buddhist knowledge, with famous travellers such as

Although the Silk Road from China to Europe and the Western world was initially formulated during the reign of Emperor Wu (141–87 BC) during the Han, it was reopened by the Tang in 639, when Hou Junji (d. 643) conquered the West, and remained open for almost four decades. It was closed after the Tibetans captured it in 678, but in 699, the Silk Road reopened when the Tang reconquered the Four Garrisons of Anxi originally installed in 640,^[185] once again connecting China directly to the West for land-based trade.^[186]

The Tang captured the vital route through the Gilgit valley from Tibet in 722, lost it to the Tibetans in 737, and regained it under the command of the Goguryeo-Korean General Gao Xianzhi.^[187] When the An Lushan rebellion ended in 763, the Tang Empire withdrew its troops from its western lands, allowing the Tibetan Empire to largely cut off China's direct access to the Silk Road. An internal rebellion in 848 ousted the Tibetan rulers, and the Tang regained the northwestern prefectures from Tibet in 851. These lands contained crucial grazing areas and pastures for raising horses that the Tang dynasty desperately needed.^[154][188]

Despite the many expatriate European travellers coming into China to live and trade, many travellers, mainly religious monks and missionaries, recorded China's stringent immigrant laws. As the monk Xuanzang and many other monk travellers attested to, there were many government checkpoints along the Silk Road that examined travel permits into the Tang Empire. Furthermore, banditry was a problem along the checkpoints and oasis towns, as Xuanzang also recorded that his group of travellers were assaulted by bandits on multiple occasions.^[178]

The Silk Road also affected the art from the period. Horses became a significant symbol of prosperity and power as well as an instrument of military and diplomatic policy. Horses were also revered as a relative of the dragon.^[189]

• 
  A Tang

  tomb figure

  an equestrian figure on a horse
• 
  A sancai glazed horse tomb figure excavated from Xi'an

Seaports and maritime trade

Turfan that records the purchase of a 15-year-old slave for six bolts of plain silk and five Chinese coins

Chinese envoys had been sailing through the Indian Ocean to states of India as early as the 2nd century BC,

Aksum (Ethiopia), and Somalia in the Horn of Africa.^[192]

During the Tang dynasty, thousands of foreign expatriate merchants came and lived in numerous Chinese cities to do business with China, including

Nestorian Christians of the Near East.^[193][194] In 748, the Buddhist monk Jian Zhen described Guangzhou as a bustling mercantile business center where many large and impressive foreign ships came to dock. He wrote that "many large ships came from Borneo, Persia, Qunglun (Java) ... with ... spices, pearls, and jade piled up mountain high",^[195][196] as written in the Yue Jue Shu (Lost Records of the State of Yue). Relations with the Arabs were often strained: When the imperial government was attempting to quell the An Lushan rebellion, Arab and Persian pirates burned and looted Canton on October 30, 758.^[154] The Tang government reacted by shutting the port of Canton down for roughly five decades; thus, foreign vessels docked at Hanoi instead.^[197] However, when the port reopened, it continued to thrive. In 851, the Arab merchant Sulaiman al-Tajir observed the manufacturing of porcelain in Guangzhou and admired its transparent quality.^[198] He also provided a description of Guangzhou's landmarks, granaries, local government administration, some of its written records, treatment of travellers, along with the use of ceramics, rice, wine, and tea.^[199] Their presence ended in the vengeful Guangzhou massacre by the rebel Huang Chao in 878, who purportedly slaughtered thousands regardless of ethnicity.^{[81][200][201]}

Huang's rebellion was eventually suppressed in 884.

Vessels from other East Asian states such as Silla, Bohai and the Hizen Province of Japan were all involved in the Yellow Sea trade, which Silla of Korea dominated. After Silla and Japan reopened renewed hostilities in the late 7th century, most Japanese maritime merchants chose to set sail from Nagasaki towards the mouth of the Huai River, the Yangtze River, and even as far south as the Hangzhou Bay in order to avoid Korean ships in the Yellow Sea.^[202][203] In order to sail back to Japan in 838, the Japanese embassy to China procured nine ships and sixty Korean sailors from the Korean wards of Chuzhou and Lianshui cities along the Huai River.^[204] It is also known that Chinese trade ships travelling to Japan set sail from the various ports along the coasts of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.^[205]

The Chinese engaged in large-scale production for overseas export by at least the time of the Tang. This was proven by the discovery of the

junks, but noted that their draft was too deep for them to enter the Euphrates River, which forced them to ferry passengers and cargo in small boats. Shulama also noted that Chinese ships were often very large, with capacities up to 700 passengers.^[208][212]

Culture and society

Further information: Tang dynasty art and Tang dynasty painting

Eighty Seven Celestials, draft painting of a fresco by Wu Daozi (c. 685 – c. 758)

Both the Sui and Tang dynasties had turned away from the more

feudal culture of the preceding Northern Dynasties, in favour of staunch civil Confucianism.^[10] The governmental system was supported by a large class of Confucian intellectuals selected through either civil service examinations or recommendations. In the Tang period, Taoism and Buddhism were commonly practised ideologies that played a large role in people's daily lives. The Tang Chinese enjoyed feasting, drinking, holidays, sports, and all sorts of entertainment, while Chinese literature blossomed and was more widely accessible with new printing methods. Rich commoners and nobles who worshipped spirits wanted them to know "how important and how admirable they were", so they "wrote or commissioned their own obituaries" and buried figures along with their bodies to ward off evil spirits.^[213]

Chang'an

Main article: Chang'an

Although Chang'an had served as the capital during the earlier Han and Jin dynasties, after subsequent destruction in warfare, it was the Sui dynasty model that comprised the Tang-era capital. The roughly square dimensions of the city had 10 km (6.2 mi) of outer walls running east to west, and more than 8 km (5.0 mi) of outer walls running north to south.^[31] The royal palace, the Taiji Palace, stood north of the city's central axis.^[214] From the large Mingde Gates mid-center on the main southern wall, a wide city avenue stretched all the way north to the central administrative city, behind which was the Chentian Gate of the royal palace, or Imperial City. Intersecting this were fourteen main streets running east to west, while eleven main streets ran north to south. These main intersecting roads formed 108 rectangular wards with walls and four gates each, each filled with multiple city blocks. The city was made famous for this checkerboard pattern of main roads with walled and gated districts, its layout even mentioned in one of Du Fu's poems.^[215] During the Heian period, cities like Heian-kyō (present-day Kyoto) were arranged in the checkerboard street in accordance with traditional geomancy, following the Chang'an model. Of Chang'an's 108 wards, two were designated as government-supervised markets, and other space reserved for temples, gardens, ponds, etc.^[216] Throughout the entire city, there were 111 Buddhist monasteries, 41 Taoist abbeys, 38 family shrines, 2 official temples, 7 churches of foreign religions, 10 city wards with provincial transmission offices, 12 major inns, and 6 graveyards. Some city wards were literally filled with open public playing fields or the backyards of lavish mansions for playing horse polo and cuju (Chinese soccer).^[217] In 662, Emperor Gaozong moved the imperial court to the Daming Palace, which became the political center of the empire and served as the royal residence of the Tang emperors for more than 220 years.^[218]

The Tang capital was the largest city in the world at its time, with the population of its wards and suburban countryside reaching two million inhabitants.

Persia, Central Asia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, India, and many other places living within. Naturally, with this plethora of different ethnicities living in Chang'an, there were also many different practised religions, such as Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, and Zoroastrianism, among others.^[219] With the open access to China that the Silk Road to the west facilitated, many foreign settlers were able to move east to China, while the city of Chang'an itself had about 25,000 foreigners living within.^[178] Exotic green-eyed, blond-haired Tocharian ladies serving wine in agate and amber cups, singing, and dancing at taverns attracted customers. If a foreigner in China pursued a Chinese woman for marriage, he was required to stay in China and was unable to take his bride back to his homeland, as stated in a law passed in 628 to protect women from temporary marriages with foreign envoys. Several laws enforcing segregation of foreigners from Chinese were passed during the Tang. In 779, the Tang issued an edict which forced Uyghurs in the capital, Chang'an, to wear their ethnic dress, stopped them from marrying Chinese females, and banned them from passing off as Chinese.^[220]

Chang'an was the center of the central government, the home of the imperial family, and was filled with splendor and wealth. However, incidentally it was not the economic hub during the Tang dynasty. The city of

Grand Canal and close to the Yangtze was the greatest economic center during the Tang.^[193][221]

Yangzhou was the headquarters for the Tang government's salt monopoly, and was the greatest industrial center of China. It acted as a midpoint in shipping of foreign goods to be distributed to the major cities of the north.[193] Much like the seaport of Guangzhou in the south, Yangzhou had thousands of foreign traders from across Asia.^[221][222]

There was also the secondary capital city of

Empress Wu. In 691, she had more than 100,000 families from the region around Chang'an move to Luoyang. With a population of about a million, Luoyang became the second largest city in the empire, and with its closeness to the Luo River it benefited from southern agricultural fertility and trade traffic of the Grand Canal. However, the Tang court eventually demoted its capital status and did not visit Luoyang after 743, when Chang'an's problem of acquiring adequate supplies and stores for the year was solved.^[193] As early as 736, granaries were built at critical points along the route from Yangzhou to Chang'an, which eliminated shipment delays, spoilage, and pilfering. An artificial lake used as a transshipment pool was dredged east of Chang'an in 743, where curious northerners could finally see the array of boats found in southern China, delivering tax and tribute items to the imperial court.^[223]

Literature

Main articles: Chinese literature and Tang poetry

Jin dynasty

The Tang dynasty was a

Wang Wei (701–761) and Cui Hao (704–754) famous for their use of the latter. Jintishi poetry, or regulated verse, is in the form of eight-line stanzas or seven characters per line with a fixed pattern of tones that required the second and third couplets to be antithetical (although the antithesis is often lost in translation to other languages).^[228] Tang poems remained popular and great emulation of Tang era poetry began in the Song dynasty; in that period, Yan Yu (嚴羽; fl. 1194–1245) was the first to confer the poetry of the High Tang (c. 713 – 766) with "canonical status within the classical poetic tradition". Yan Yu reserved the position of highest esteem among all Tang poets for Du Fu (712–770), who was not viewed as such in his own era, and was branded by his peers as an anti-traditional rebel.^[229]

The Classical Prose Movement was spurred in large part by the writings of Tang authors Liu Zongyuan (773–819) and Han Yu (768–824). This new prose style broke away from the poetry tradition of piantiwen (駢體文; 'parallel prose') style begun in the Han dynasty. Although writers of the Classical Prose Movement imitated piantiwen, they criticised it for its often vague content and lack of colloquial language, focusing more on clarity and precision to make their writing more direct.^[230] This guwen (archaic prose) style can be traced back to Han Yu, and would become largely associated with orthodox Neo-Confucianism.^[231]

Short story fiction and tales were also popular during the Tang, one of the more famous ones being Yingying's Biography by Yuan Zhen (779–831), which was widely circulated in his own time and by the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) became the basis for Chinese opera.^[232][233] Timothy C. Wong places this story within the wider context of Tang love tales, which often share the plot designs of quick passion, inescapable societal pressure leading to the abandonment of romance, followed by a period of melancholy.^[234] Wong states that this scheme lacks the undying vows and total self-commitment to love found in Western romances such as Romeo and Juliet, but that underlying traditional Chinese values of indivisibility of self from one's environment, including from society, served to create the necessary fictional device of romantic tension.^[235] In addition, Tang literature often discussed gender expression. Literary texts such as "Tiandi yinyang jiaohuan dale fu" and "You xianku" depicted how the Tang nobility emphasized Taoist sexology.^[236] Many male Tang poets and literati conveyed their love for male companions when they perceived their wives—often illiterate—to be incapable of understanding their troubles.^[237]

Large encyclopaedias were published during the Tang: the Yiwen Leiju was compiled in 624 under chief editor Ouyang Xun (557–641), Linghu Defen (582–666) and Chen Shuda (d. 635). By 729, the team led by scholar Gautama Siddha (fl. 8th century), an ethnic Indian born in Chang'an, had finished compiling the Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era, an astrological encyclopaedia.

Magadha, in present-day northeast India, during the 7th century.^[239] Afterwards, he wrote the Zhang Tianzhu Guotu (Illustrated Accounts of Central India), a book which contained a large body of geographical information.^[240]

Many histories of previous dynasties were compiled between 636 and 659 by court officials during and shortly after the reign of

Buddhist monk

.

Other important literature included Duan Chengshi's (d. 863) Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, an entertaining collection of foreign legends and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena, short anecdotes, mythical and mundane tales, as well as notes on various subjects. The exact literary category or classification that Duan's large informal narrative would fit into is still debated among scholars and historians.^[241]

Religion and philosophy

Main articles: Religion in China and Chinese philosophy

See also:

Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution

Since ancient times, some Chinese had believed in folk religion and Taoism that incorporated many deities. Practitioners believed the Tao and the afterlife was a reality parallel to the living world, complete with its own bureaucracy and afterlife currency needed by dead ancestors. Funerary practices included providing the deceased with everything they might need in the afterlife, including animals, servants, entertainers, hunters, homes, and officials. This ideal is reflected in Tang art.^[242] This is also reflected in many short stories written in the Tang about people accidentally winding up in the realm of the dead, only to come back and report their experiences.^[243] Taoist ideologies surrounding the medical and health benefits of heterosexuality pervaded. Although such ideologies did not necessarily prevent homosexual or bisexual practices, they advocated for a blueprint of health and wellness that conformed to heterosexuality.^[244]

Buddhism, originating in India around the time of Confucius, continued its influence during the Tang period and was accepted by some members of imperial family, becoming thoroughly sinicised and a permanent part of Chinese traditional culture. In an age before Neo-Confucianism and figures such as Zhu Xi (1130–1200), Buddhism had begun to flourish in China during the Northern and Southern dynasties, and became the dominant ideology during the prosperous Tang. Buddhist monasteries played an integral role in Chinese society, offering lodging for travellers in remote areas, schools for children throughout the country, and a place for urban literati to stage social events and gatherings such as going-away parties. Buddhist monasteries were also engaged in the economy, since their land property and serfs gave them enough revenues to set up mills, oil presses, and other enterprises.^[245][246] Although the monasteries retained 'serfs', these monastery dependents could actually own property and employ others to help them in their work, including their own slaves.^[247]

The prominent status of Buddhism in Chinese culture began to decline as the dynasty and central government declined as well during the late 8th century to 9th century. Buddhist convents and

Huiyuan (334–416) was also just as popular as Chan Buddhism during the Tang.^[253]

Rivaling Buddhism was Taoism, a native Chinese philosophical and religious belief system that found its roots in the

sinologists have asserted, is refuted by Nathan Sivin, who states that alchemy was just as prominent (if not more so) in the secular sphere and practised more often by laymen.^[257]

Nestorian Christianity

Details of the rubbing of the Nestorian pillar of Luoyang

The Church of the East

's greatest geographical extent during the Middle Ages

The Tang dynasty also officially recognised various foreign religions. The

Nestorian Stele was created in order to honour the achievements of their community in China. A Christian monastery was established in Shaanxi province where the Daqin Pagoda still stands, and inside the pagoda there is Christian-themed artwork. Although the religion largely died out after the Tang, it was revived in China following the Mongol invasions of the 13th century.^[258]

Although the

Manicheism in China and the Uyghur Khaganate. The Uyghurs built the first Manichean monastery in China in 768; in 843, the Tang government ordered that the property of all Manichean monasteries be confiscated in response to the outbreak of war with the Uyghurs. With the blanket ban on foreign religions two years later, Manicheism was driven underground and never flourished in China again.^[260]

Leisure

A Man Herding Horses, by Han Gan (706–783), a court artist under Xuanzong

Spring Outing of the Tang Court, by Zhang Xuan (713–755)

More than earlier periods, the Tang era was renowned for the time reserved for leisure activities, especially among the upper classes. Many outdoor sports and activities were enjoyed during the Tang, including

nuptials of close relatives (travel time not included). Officials also received a total of three days off for their son's capping initiation rite into manhood, and one day off for the ceremony of initiation rite of a close relative's son.^[266] Among the royalty, the tradition of male homosexuality of Imperial China continued to exist, where eunuchs were often the royalty’s male favorites, both due to their appearance and talents.^[267]

Traditional Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival, Cold Food Festival, and others were universal holidays. In Chang'an, there was always lively celebration, especially for the Lantern Festival since the city's nighttime curfew was lifted by the government for three days straight. Between 628 and 758, the imperial throne bestowed a total of sixty-nine grand carnivals nationwide, granted by the emperor in the case of special circumstances such as important military victories, abundant harvests after a long drought or famine, the granting of amnesties, or the instalment of a new crown prince.^[268] For special celebration in the Tang era, lavish and gargantuan-sized feasts were sometimes prepared, as the imperial court had staffed agencies to prepare the meals. This included a prepared feast for 1,100 elders of Chang'an in 664, a feast held for 3,500 officers of the Divine Strategy Army in 768, and one in 826 for 1,200 members of the imperial family and women of the palace.^[269] Alcohol consumption was a prominent facet of Chinese culture; people during the Tang drank for nearly every social event. An 8th-century court official allegedly had a serpent-shaped structure called the 'ale grotto' built on the ground floor using a total of 50,000 bricks, which featured bowls from which each of his friends could drink.^[270]

Status in clothing

Five Dynasties era silk painting on a banner depicting Guanyin and a female attendant in silk robes, from the Dunhuang caves – British Museum

In general, garments were made from silk, wool, or linen depending on your social status and what you could afford. Furthermore, there were laws that specified what kinds of clothing could be worn by whom. The color of the clothing also indicated rank. During this period, China's power, culture, economy, and influence were thriving. As a result, women could afford to wear loose-fitting, wide-sleeved garments. Even lower-class women's robes had sleeves four to five feet wide.

better source needed

]

Position of women

Main article: Women in ancient and imperial China § Tang dynasty

Beauties Wearing Flowers by Zhou Fang, 8th century

Woman playing polo, 8th century

Li Xian's tomb in the Qianling Mausoleum, where Wu Zetian

was later buried in 706

Concepts of women's social rights and social status during the Tang era were notably liberal-minded for the period. However, this was largely reserved for urban women of elite status, as men and women in the rural countryside laboured hard in their different set of tasks; with wives and daughters responsible for more domestic tasks of weaving textiles and rearing of

silk worms, while men tended to farming in the fields.^[113] There were many women in the Tang era who gained access to religious authority by taking vows as Taoist priestesses.^[255]

In Chang'an, ordinary courtesans inhabited the North Hamlet.^[272] They were generally knowledgeable in the rules of drinking games, and received particular training in table manners.^[273] While renowned for their politeness, courtesans were reputed to dominate conversations among elite men, and as being unafraid to openly criticise the rudeness of prominent male guests, including for talking too much, too loudly, or for boasting of their accomplishments.^[274] Courtesans were sometimes beaten by their procuring madames.^[275]

Gējìs, or professional singing courtesans, were culturally prominent, and joined talent agencies called jiaofang. The emperor selected particularly talented women from the outer jiaofang to form the spring court, who were supplemented by courtesans from other troupes.^[276] During the Tang, singing courtesans who were also talented in the poetry.^[277] In addition to singing, some courtesans composed their own songs, and even popularised a new form of lyrical verse that incorporated quotations of famous historical figures.^[224]

It was fashionable for women to have full figures; men enjoyed the presence of assertive, active women. The foreign horse-riding sport of polo from Persia became a wildly popular trend among the Chinese elite, and women often played the sport (as glazed earthenware figurines from the time period portray).^[278] The preferred hairstyle for women was to bunch their hair up like "an elaborate edifice above the forehead",^[279] while affluent ladies wore extravagant head ornaments, combs, pearl necklaces, face powders, and perfumes.^[280] A 671 law attempted to force women to wear hats with veils again in order to promote decency, but these laws were ignored as some women started wearing caps and even no hats at all, as well as men's riding clothes and boots, and tight-sleeved bodices.^[281]

There were some prominent court women after the era of

Empress Wu, such as Yang Guifei (719–756), who had Emperor Xuanzong appoint many of her relatives and cronies to important ministerial and martial positions.^[49]

Cuisine

During the earlier Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589), and perhaps even earlier, the drinking of tea (Camellia sinensis) became popular in southern China. Tea was viewed then as a beverage of tasteful pleasure and with pharmacological purpose as well.^[224] During the Tang dynasty, tea became synonymous with everything sophisticated in society. The poet Lu Tong (790–835) devoted most of his poetry to his love of tea. The 8th-century author Lu Yu, known as the Sage of Tea, wrote a treatise on the art of drinking tea called The Classic of Tea.^[282] Although wrapping paper had been used in China since the 2nd century BC, during the Tang it was used as folded and sewn square bags to hold and preserve the flavor of tea leaves. This followed many other uses for paper such as the first recorded use of toilet paper in 589 by the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591), confirmed in 851 by an Arab traveller who remarked that the Tang lacked cleanliness because they relied on toilet paper instead of washing themselves with water.^[283]

In ancient times, the Chinese had outlined the five most basic foodstuffs known as the five grains:

glutinous millet. The Ming dynasty encyclopedist Song Yingxing noted that rice was not counted among the five grains from the time of the legendary and deified Chinese sage Shennong (the existence of whom Yingxing wrote was "an uncertain matter") into the 2nd millennium BC, because the properly wet and humid climate in southern China for growing rice was not yet fully settled or cultivated by the Chinese.^[284] Song Yingxing also noted that in the Ming dynasty, seven tenths of civilians' food was rice. During the Tang dynasty rice was not only the most important staple in southern China, but had also become popular in the north where central authority resided.^[285]

During the Tang dynasty, wheat replaced the position of millet and became the main staple crop. As a consequence, wheat cake shared a considerable amount in the staple of Tang.

sesame seeds, and served at taverns, inns and shops. Japanese Buddhist monk Ennin observed that Hu cake was popular among all of China's civilians.^[291]

During the Tang, the many common foodstuffs and cooking ingredients in addition to those already listed were barley, garlic, salt, turnips, soybeans, pears, apricots, peaches, apples, pomegranates, jujubes, rhubarb, hazelnuts, pine nuts, chestnuts, walnuts, yams, taro, etc. The various meats that were consumed included pork, chicken,

pufferfish, which the Chinese called "river piglet".^[293]

From the trade overseas and over land, the Chinese acquired peaches from Samarkand, date palms, pistachios, and figs from Persia, pine nuts and ginseng roots from Korea and mangoes from Southeast Asia.^[294][295] In China, there was a great demand for sugar; during the reign of Harsha over northern India (r. 606–647), Indian envoys to the Tang brought two makers of sugar who successfully taught the Chinese how to cultivate sugarcane.^[296][297] Cotton also came from India as a finished product from Bengal, although it was during the Tang that the Chinese began to grow and process cotton, and by the Yuan dynasty it became the prime textile fabric in China.^[298]

Some foods were

not to eat beef. This was due to the role of the bull as a valuable working animal. From 831 to 833, Emperor Wenzong even banned the slaughter of cattle on the grounds of his religious convictions to Buddhism.^[299]

Methods of food preservation were important, and practised throughout China. The common people used simple methods of preservation, such as digging deep ditches and trenches, brining, and salting their foods.^[300] The emperor had large ice pits located in the parks in and around Chang'an for preserving food, while the wealthy and elite had their own smaller ice pits. Each year the emperor had labourers carve 1000 blocks of ice from frozen creeks in mountain valleys, each block with dimensions 0.9 m × 0.9 m × 1.1 m (2 ft 11 in × 2 ft 11 in × 3 ft 7 in) . Frozen delicacies such as chilled melon were enjoyed during the summer.^[301]

• 
  Tang era gilt-gold bowl with lotus and animal motifs
• 
  A Tang sancai-glazed lobed dish with incised decorations, 8th century
• 
  Tomb figure from the 7th–8th century of a lady attendant during the Tang era. Female hosts prepared feasts, tea parties, and played drinking games with their guests
• 
  A rounded "offering plate" with design in "three colors" (sancai) glaze, 8th century

Science and technology

Main article: Science and technology of the Tang dynasty

Further information: History of science and technology in China, List of Chinese inventions, and List of Chinese discoveries

Engineering

Technology during the Tang period was built also upon the precedents of the past. Previous advancements in clockworks and timekeeping included the mechanical gear systems of

waterwheel to power a rotating armillary sphere in representation of astronomical observation. Yi Xing's device also had a mechanically timed bell that was struck automatically every hour, and a drum that was struck automatically every quarter-hour; essentially, a striking clock. Yi Xing's astronomical clock and water-powered armillary sphere became well known throughout the country, since students attempting to pass the imperial examinations by 730 had to write an essay on the device as an exam requirement.^[303] However, the most common type of public and palace timekeeping device was the inflow clepsydra. Its design was improved c. 610 by the Sui dynasty engineers Geng Xun and Yuwen Kai. They provided a steelyard balance that allowed seasonal adjustment in the pressure head of the compensating tank and could then control the rate of flow for different lengths of day and night.^[304]

There were many other mechanical inventions during the Tang era. These included a 0.9 m (2 ft 11 in) tall mechanical wine server created during the early 8th century in the shape of an artificial mountain, carved out of iron and rested on a lacquered-wooden tortoise frame. This intricate device used a hydraulic pump that siphoned wine out of metal dragon-headed faucets, as well as tilting bowls that were timed to dip wine down, by force of gravity when filled, into an artificial lake that had intricate iron leaves popping up as trays for placing party treats.^[305] Furthermore, as the historian Charles Benn describes it:

Midway up the southern side of the mountain was a dragon ... the beast opened its mouth and spit brew into a goblet seated on a large [iron] lotus leaf beneath. When the cup was 80% full, the dragon ceased spewing ale, and a guest immediately seized the goblet. If he was slow in draining the cup and returning it to the leaf, the door of a pavilion at the top of the mountain opened and a mechanical wine server, dressed in a cap and gown, emerged with a wooden bat in his hand. As soon as the guest returned the goblet, the dragon refilled it, the wine server withdrew, and the doors of the pavilion closed ... A pump siphoned the ale that flowed into the ale pool through a hidden hole and returned the brew to the reservoir [holding more than 16 quarts/15 litres of wine] inside the mountain.^[305]

Yet the use of a teasing mechanical puppet in this wine-serving device was not exactly a novel invention of the Tang, since the use of mechanical puppets in China date to the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). In the 3rd century Ma Jun had an entire mechanical puppet theatre operated by the rotation of a waterwheel.^[306] There are many stories of automatons used in the Tang, including general Yang Wulian's wooden statue of a monk who stretched his hands out to collect contributions; when the number of coins reached a certain weight, the mechanical figure moved his arms to deposit them in a satchel.^[307] This weight-and-lever mechanism was exactly like Heron's penny slot machine.^[308] Other devices included one by Wang Ju, whose "wooden otter" could allegedly catch fish; Needham suspects a spring trap of some kind was employed here.^[307]

In the realm of structural engineering and technical Chinese architecture, there were also government standard building codes, outlined in the early Tang building code Yingshan Ling. Fragments of this book have survived in the Tang Lü (Tang Code), while the Song dynasty architectural manual of the Yingzao Fashi by Li Jie (1065–1101) in 1103 is the oldest existing technical treatise on Chinese architecture that has survived in full. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (712–756), there were 34,850 registered craftsmen serving the state, managed by an agency for palace buildings.^[309]

Woodblock printing

Main articles:

Playing cards, and Chinese playing cards

method of printing in China until the more advanced printing press from Europe became widely accepted and used in East Asia.^[316] The first use of the playing card during the Tang dynasty was an auxiliary invention of the new age of printing.^[317]

Cartography

star map dated c. 700 depicting the north polar region;^[318] the map belongs to a set cataloguing a total of over 1,300 stars^[319]

In

state of Qin.^[323]

Medicine

The Chinese of the Tang era were interested in the benefits of officially classifying the

dental amalgam, manufactured from tin and silver, was first introduced in the medical text Xinxiu bencao written by Su Gong in 659.^[326]

Alchemy, gas cylinders, and air conditioning

Chinese scientists of the Tang period employed complex chemical formulas for an array of different purposes, often found through experiments of alchemy. These included a waterproof and dust-repelling cream or varnish for clothes and weapons, fireproof cement for glass and porcelain wares, a waterproof cream applied to silk clothes of underwater divers, a cream designated for polishing bronze mirrors, and many other useful formulas.^[327] Porcelain was invented in China during the Tang, although many types of glazed ceramics preceded it.^[211][328]

Since the time of the Han, the Chinese had drilled deep

bamboo pipelines to stoves where cast iron evaporation pans boiled brine to extract salt.^[329] During the Tang dynasty, a gazetteer of Sichuan province stated that at one of these 182 m (597 ft) 'fire wells', men collected natural gas into portable bamboo tubes which could be carried around for dozens of kilometres and still produce a flame.^[330] These were essentially the first gas cylinders; Robert Temple assumes some sort of tap was used for this device.^[330]

The inventor Ding Huan (fl. 180) of the Han dynasty invented a rotary fan for air conditioning.^[331] In 747, Emperor Xuanzong had a "Cool Hall" built in the imperial palace, which Tang Yulin described as having water-powered fan wheels for air conditioning as well as rising jet streams of water from fountains.^[332] During the subsequent Song dynasty, written sources mentioned the rotary fan as even more widely used.^[333]

Historiography

See also: Chinese historiography

The first classic work about the Tang is the

Warring States

in 403 BC until the beginning of the Song dynasty in 960.

Notes

1. ^ The polite form Dà Táng (大唐, lit. 'Great Tang') was often used, such as in the names of books of the period.^[8]
2. ^ During the rule of the Tang, the world population grew from approximately 190 million to approximately 240 million, a difference of 50 million. See also medieval demography.
3. Kabadiyan
   (阿跋檀), the "Barbarians of Jianping" (建平蠻), and Nudan (女蜑國).

References

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  ISBN 978-7-5027-0532-9
• Taenzer, Gertraud (2016), "Changing Relations between Administration, Clergy and Lay People in Eastern Central Asia: a Case Study According to the Dunhuang Manuscripts Referring to the Transition from Tibetan to Local Rule in Dunhuang, 8th–11th Centuries", in Carmen Meinert (ed.), Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries), Leiden: Brill, pp. 19–56,
  ISBN 978-90-04-30741-4
• Tang, Zhiba (1991), "The influence of the sail on the development of the ancient navy", Proceedings of the International Sailing Ships Conference in Shanghai
• Temple, Robert (1986), The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, and Invention, New York: Simon and Schuster,
  ISBN 978-0-671-62028-8
• Togan, Isenbike (2011), "Court Historiography in Early Tang China: Assigning a Place to History and Historians at the Palace", in Duindam, Jeroen; Artan, Tülay; Kunt, Metin (eds.), Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires: A Global Perspective, Leiden: Brill, pp. 171–198,
  ISBN 978-90-04-20622-9
• Twitchett, Denis; Wechsler, Howard J. (1979), "Kao-tsung (reign 649–83) and the Empress Wu: The Inheritor and the Usurper", in Twitchett, Denis (ed.), Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I, The Cambridge History of China, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, pp. 242–289,
  ISBN 978-0-521-21446-9
• Twitchett, Denis (2000), "Tibet in Tang's Grand Strategy", in van de Ven, Hans (ed.), Warfare in Chinese History, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, pp. 106–179,
  ISBN 978-90-04-11774-7
• Wang Saishi (王赛时) (2003), 唐代饮食 [Tang Cuisine] (in Chinese), Dongying: Qilu Publishing House,
  ISBN 978-7-5333-1174-2
• Wang Yongxing (王永兴) (2003), 唐代前期军事史略论稿 [Draft Discussion of Early Tang Dynasty's Military Affairs History] (in Chinese), Beijing: Kunlun,
  ISBN 978-7-80040-669-0
• Whitfield, Susan (2004), The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith, Chicago: Serindia,
  ISBN 978-1-932476-13-2
• ISBN 978-0-674-06715-8
• Wood, Nigel (1999), Chinese Glazes: Their Origins, Chemistry, and Recreation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
  ISBN 978-0-8122-3476-3
• Woods, Frances (1996), Did Marco Polo go to China?, Westview,
  ISBN 978-0-8133-8999-8
• Wong, Timothy C. (1979), "Self and Society in Tang Dynasty Love Tales", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 99 (1): 95–100,
  JSTOR 598956
• Wan, Lei (2017), The earliest Muslim communities in China, Qiraat, vol. 8, Riyadh: King Faisal Center for research and Islamic Studies, p. 11,
  better source needed
  ]
• Wright, Arthur F. (1959), Buddhism in Chinese History, Stanford University Press,
  ISBN 978-1-5036-2067-4 {{citation}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help
  )
• Xi, Zezong (1981), "Chinese Studies in the History of Astronomy, 1949–1979", Isis, 72 (3): 456–470,
  S2CID 144323050
• Xu, Daoxun (1993), 唐玄宗传 [The Biography of Tang Xuanzong], People's Press (in Chinese), Beijing,
  ISBN 978-7-01-001210-0
• ISBN 978-7-5004-0432-3
• Yu, Pauline (1998), "Charting the Landscape of Chinese Poetry", Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, vol. 20, pp. 71–87,
  JSTOR 495264
• Yule, Henry (1915) [1866], Cordier, Henri (ed.), Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, vol. 1 (New ed.), London: Hakluyt Society

Further reading

• Abramson, Marc S. (2008), Ethnic Identity in Tang China, Philadelphia:
  ISBN 978-0-8122-4052-8
• Schafer, Edward H. (1967), The Vermilion Bird: T'ang Images of the South, Berkeley and Los Angeles:
  ISBN 978-0-520-01145-8
• Wang, Zhenping (2013), Tang China in Multi-Polar Asia: A History of Diplomacy and War, Honolulu:
  ISBN 978-0-8248-3644-3

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tang Dynasty.

Look up Tang or T'ang in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

New International Encyclopedia article "T’ang

".

• Tang Dynasty (618–907) – Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 300 Tang Poems – Chinese Text Initiative, University of Virginia
• Guide to Tang art, with video commentary – Art of Asia, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Preceded by Sui dynasty

Dynasties in Chinese history 618–690, 705–907

Succeeded by Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms