Tang Dynasty

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• Chinese :   唐朝
• Pinyin : Tángcháo

The Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618–June 4, 907) followed the Sui Dynasty and preceded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China. The dynasty was interrupted by the Second Zhou Dynasty (October 16, 690 – March 3, 705) when Empress Wu Zhao seized the throne. The dynasty was founded by the Li (李) family.

The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, built in 652 AD, Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an), China.

The Tang Dynasty, with its capital at Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), the most populous city in the world at the time, is regarded by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization — equal to or surpassing that of the Han Dynasty. Its territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, was greater than that of the Han period, and rivaled that of the later Yuan Dynasty and Qing Dynasty.

History

Li Yuan founded the Tang Dynasty but only ruled for a few years before being deposed by his son, Li Shimin, known as "Tang Taizong" in history. Taizong then set out to solve internal problems within the government. Internal problems had constantly plagued past dynasties. The Emperor had three administrations (省, shěng), which were obliged to draft, review, and implement policies respectively. There were also six divisions (部, bù) under the administration that implemented policy, each of which was assigned different tasks. It was during the Tang dynasty that the only female ruler of China, Empress Wu Zetian, made her mark. Her rule was one of only a handful of examples in which women seized power and ruled China, and was the only example of a woman who ruled in her own right.

The 7th to the 8th century was generally considered the zenith point of the Tang dynasty, and arguably the whole Chinese civilization. Emperor Tang Xuan Zong brought the Middle Kingdom to its golden age and Tang hegemony reached all the way to Japan and Korea in the east, Indo China in the south and central and western Asia in the west. China was the protector of Kashmir and master of the Pamirs. Its authority reached deep into Tokmak west of Lake Issyk Kul, Tohuolu or Kabul in Afghanistan, and as far west as Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea.

The Diamond Sutra, printed in 868 AD, the world's first widely printed book (using woodblock printing).

Some of the major kingdoms paying tribute to the Tang Dynasty included Kashmir, Neparo (Nepal), Vietnam, Japan, Korea, over nine kingdoms located in Amudar’ya and Syrdar’ya valley in south of mid-Asia. Nomadic kingdoms addressed the Emperor of Tang respectfully as Tian Kehan (Celestial Kaghan) (天可汗).

Under this period of Pax Sinica, the Silk Road, the most important premodern trade route, reached its golden age, where Persian and Sogdian merchants benefited from the commerce between the East and the West. At the same time, the Chinese empire welcomed foreign cultures, making the Tang capital the most cosmopolitan city in the world. Thousands of foreigners lived in the city, including Turks, Iranians, Indians and others from along the Silk Road, as well as Japanese, Koreans and Malay.

The turning point came after the An Lushan rebellion, which destroyed the prosperity that took years to build up. It left the dynasty weakened, and during its remaining years the Tang never regained its glory days of the 7th and 8th century. The Tang were eventually driven out of Central Asia, and imperial China did not regain ground in that region until the Mongol led regime during the Yuan Dynasty.

Near the end of the Tang Dynasty, regional military governors (jiedushi) became increasingly powerful, and began to function more like independent regimes on their own right. In 907, after almost 300 years in power, the dynasty was ended when one of the military governors, Zhu Wen, deposed the last emperor and took the throne for himself which thereby inaugurated the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period.

Tang culture

The Leshan Giant Buddha, 71 meters tall, construction began in 713, completed ninety years later in 803.

Stimulated by contact with India and the Middle East, the Empire saw a flowering of creativity in many fields. Buddhism, originating in India around the time of Confucius, continued to flourish during the Tang period and was adopted by the imperial family, becoming thoroughly sinicized and a permanent part of Chinese traditional culture. However, the emperor feared the power of the Buddhist monasteries and began enforcing measures against them during the 10th century. Buddhism never returned to its former height in China. Block printing made the written word available to vastly greater audiences.

The Tang period was the golden age of Chinese literature and art (see Tang Dynasty art). A government system supported by a large class of Confucian literati selected through civil service examinations was perfected under Tang rule. This competitive procedure was designed to draw the best talents into government. But perhaps an even greater consideration for the Tang rulers, aware that imperial dependence on powerful aristocratic families and warlords would have destabilizing consequences, was to create a body of career officials having no autonomous territorial or functional power base. As it turned out, these scholar-officials acquired status in their local communities, family ties, and shared values that connected them to the imperial court. From Tang times until the closing days of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, scholar officials functioned often as intermediaries between the grassroots level and the government. Yulan magnolia flowers were regarded as a symbol of purity in the Tang Dynasty and it was planted in the grounds of the Emperor's palace.

References

• Benn, Charles. 2002. China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517665-0.
• Schafer, Edward H. 1963. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A study of T’ang Exotics. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1st paperback edition: 1985. ISBN 0-520-05462-8.
• Schafer, Edward H. 1967. The Vermilion Bird: T’ang Images of the South. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles.
• de la Vaissière, E, Sogdian Traders. A History, Leiden : Brill, 2005. ISBN 90-04-14252-5
• The “New T’ang History” (Hsin T’ang-shu) on the History of the Uighurs. Translated and annotated by Colin Mackerras

See also