Sui Yangdi and the Building of Sui-Tang Luoyang

1993 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Cunrui Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
New Record ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

Sui-tang luoyang, built IN 605–6 as the eastern capital of the Sui dynasty and subsequently the eastern capital of the Tang dynasty, was one of the great cities of medieval China. Almost as soon as it was built to the taste of Emperor Sui Yangdi (r. 604–17), Luoyang became the second largest city in China, surpassed only by Daxingcheng-Chang'an, the first capital, which had been built by Yangdi's father. Both cities were objects of scholarly interest as early as the eighth century when, in 722, Wei Shu completed his Liangjing xinji [A new record of the two capitals] (Fukuyama Toshio).

scholarly journals Technical features of a ninth-century silver vessel of southern China uncovered from Famen Monastery, Shaanxi province

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Panpan Tan ◽  
Junchang Yang ◽  
Xinlai Ren
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Shaanxi Province ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Cu Alloy ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Technical Details ◽  
Technical Features

AbstractSilver art is an important feature of the Tang dynasty in China and the manufacturing center for silver shifted from north to south after the mid-eighth century CE. The typology, stylistics, and iconography of silver vessels from both regions have been studied in detail. However, their technical characteristics have rarely been discussed, in particular, those of the southern ones. The current study presents a non-invasive scientific analysis on a partially-gilded silver box from Jiangnanxidao of Tang (southern China), uncovered from the pagoda crypt of the Famen Monastery, Shaanxi province. The results reveal that the box was made of refined silver from cupellation, and composed of five pieces, brazed together with hard solder. Ag–Cu alloy was identified to braze the ring foot and the box bottom. Brazing, hammering, engraving, repoussé, chasing, punching, and partial fire-gilding were employed to shape and decorate the box. More strikingly, the comparative analysis of technical details between this southern box and the previously reported northern silver vessels demonstrates that the former is more precise. Moreover, the similarities in motif expressions of southern-origin silver vessels after the mid-eighth century CE and northern-origin silver vessels before the mid-eighth century CE reflect the inheritance of decorative style. These differences and inheritance indicate that southern artisans after the mid-eighth century CE inherited the decorative technology of the northern-origin silver vessels before the mid-eighth century CE and developed them to greater perfection. The current study presents novel insights into the silver technology of southern China during the late Tang dynasty.

The Tang Empire

2021 ◽  
pp. 380-400
Author(s):  
Mark Edward Lewis
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Interregional Trade ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Labor Service ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

The Tang dynasty reunited continental East Asia using institutions inherited from the nomad-dominated Northern dynasties: state-owned land; exactions of grain, cloth, and labor service levied on notional “average” households; a hereditary “divisional army” concentrated around the capital and professional soldiers at the frontier, cities divided into walled wards with state-administered markets; a hereditary, imperial super-elite; and state-sponsored Buddhism and Daoism. The An Lushan Rebellion in the mid-eighth century eliminated these institutions. In their place emerged the major characteristics of late-imperial China: a fiscal system that assessed actual wealth and taxed trade; a new pattern of state service based on textual, technical, and military expertise measured by examinations; large-scale interregional trade through purely commercial entrepôts and local market towns; the incorporation of China into a multistate East Asian world; and the linkage of continental East Asia into a world economy through oceanic trans-shipment of commodities.

The Demise of Silk on the Silk Road: Textiles as Money at Dunhuang from the Late Eighth Century to the Thirteenth Century

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC TROMBERT
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
First Semester ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Accounting Report ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Silk Road

The extensive documentary evidence collected and analysed in the previous studies in this issue suggest a preliminary conclusion that can be summarised as follows: from the collapse of the Han dynasty to the glorious days of the Tang dynasty, the peoples living in the Western Regions along the Silk Road used multiple co-existing forms of money – grain, cloth and coins – with one of these three items becoming predominant according to changes in political and/or economic circumstances. However, this multicurrency system did not outlive the political, economic and fiscal upheavals that shook the Tang empire from the mid-eighth century onwards. As far as the materials from Turfan and Dunhuang are concerned, the latest evidence for this monetary system is provided by a manuscript found at Dunhuang (P 3348 V°), already quoted in Arakawa Masaharu's article, which permits us to see how such a complex monetary system worked in real life once the silk shipped by the Tang government arrived in the Western Regions. In particular, a subsidiary account (P 3348 V°2 B) inscribed in this accounting report reveals how a local official called Li Jingyu 李景玉, who was vice-commissioner in the army stationed in that region, received his salary for the first semester of the year 745 ce.

Translation officials of the Tang central government in medieval China

Interpreting ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Lung
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Job Duties

The article documents and differentiates two kinds of translation officials in the central government of the Tang dynasty (618–906 AD) in medieval China: translators in the Court of Diplomatic Reception (Yiyu 譯語) and translators in the Secretariat (Fanshu Yiyu 蕃書譯語). The distinction between them is essential because they are often mentioned in the scholarly literature indiscriminately. Given the scarcity of historical records and the absence of focused discussions about translators in Tang times, their differences were usually either toned down as minimal or misinterpreted by modern scholarship over the past decade. Although some researchers have recently made reference to the two translator titles and agreed that their translation and interpreting duties were somewhat different, the nature of these differences has not been clearly established. Analysis of standard historical records suggests that, in fact, these two types of translators had distinct job duties. Translators in the Court of Diplomatic Reception interpreted primarily for foreign envoys, while the Secretariat’s translators chiefly translated state letters from foreign envoys. This article presents evidence to substantiate this observation and explain why such an apparently straightforward categorization has not been put forward thus far.

scholarly journals Texts and Ritual: Buddhist Scriptural Tradition of the Stūpa Cult and the Transformation of Stūpa Burial in the Chinese Buddhist Canon

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 658
Author(s):  
Wen Sun
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Funeral Ritual ◽  
Buddhist Literature ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
The Buddha

Chinese translations of Buddhist sūtras and Chinese Buddhist literature demonstrate how stūpas became acknowledged in medieval China and how clerics and laypeople perceived and worshiped them. Early Buddhist sūtras mentioned stūpas, which symbolize the presence of the Buddha and the truth of the dharma. Buddhist canonical texts attach great significance to the stūpa cult, providing instructions regarding who was entitled to have them, what they should look like in connection with the occupants’ Buddhist identities, and how people should worship them. However, the canonical limitations on stūpa burial for ordinary monks and prohibitions of non-Buddhist stūpas changed progressively in medieval China. Stūpas appeared to be erected for ordinary monks and the laity in the Tang dynasty. This paper aims to outline the Buddhist scriptural tradition of the stūpa cult and its changes in the Chinese Buddhist Canon, which serves as the doctrinal basis for understanding the significance of funerary stūpas and the primordial archetype for the formation of a widely accepted Buddhist funeral ritual in Tang China.

From Talented Poet to Jealous Wife: Reimagining Su Hui in Late Tang Literary Culture

NAN Nü ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Qiaomei Tang
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Chinese Woman ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Visual Materials

Abstract Su Hui was a late fourth century Chinese woman who is famed for her creation of brocade palindromic poems. Due to an account of her life story, attributed to the female emperor Wu Zetian, that highlighted her jealous disposition, Su Hui is remembered today primarily as a talented but jealous wife, which is in contrast with how she was viewed in the period prior to the Wu version. Tracing the genealogy of Su Hui’s narrative in pre-Tang and Tang literary and visual materials, this article demonstrates that the definitive version of Su Hui’s story is misattributed to Wu Zetian and, more importantly, that the image of this well-known figure of early medieval China underwent a transformation that reflects important aspects of Late Tang literary culture. In ‘boudoir lament’ poetry of the Southern Dynasties period, Su Hui is the stock image of a melancholy wife longing for her absent husband. In ‘frontier’ poetry of the Tang dynasty, she is a worrying wife concerned with her military husband fighting on the borderlands. It is in a Late Tang prose account misattributed to Wu Zetian that we finally see her as a jealous woman competing for her husband’s affections. The transformation of Su Hui’s image across three major literary genres over a period of half a millennium offers readers a window into the literary and cultural changes that took place in medieval China.

Court and Region in Medieval China: The Case of Tang Bianzhou

T oung Pao ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 102 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 74-120
Author(s):  
Anthony DeBlasi
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Imperial Capital ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Civil Service Examinations

Although Bianzhou (modern Kaifeng) is well known as the imperial capital of the Northern Song dynasty, its history prior to the tenth century reveals much about the political fortunes of the Tang dynasty, especially after the An Lushan rebellion. A careful analysis of the backgrounds of the Military Commissioners appointed to govern the region indicates that following an initial period of instability, the Tang court was able to maintain control over this strategically vital transportation hub late into the ninth century and to repeatedly appoint commissioners who had passed the civil-service examinations. This experience helps explain the continuing optimism of Tang elites about the dynasty’s prospects and made Bianzhou itself an important example for the educated elite of why civil values were essential to good government and the survival of the Tang dynasty.
Si Bianzhou (actuel Kaifeng) est bien connu comme capitale impériale des Song du Nord, son histoire avant le Xe siècle nous en apprend beaucoup sur le destin politique des Tang, particulièrement après la rébellion de An Lushan. L’analyse minutieuse du parcours des commissaires militaires successivement nommés à la tête de la région révèle qu’après une période initiale d’instabilité, la cour des Tang a été en mesure jusque tard dans le IXe siècle de maintenir son contrôle sur ce qui était un nœud stratégique de communications et d’y poster l’un après l’autre des commissaires passés par la voie des examens civils. L’expérience contribue à expliquer l’optimisme persistant des élites des Tang concernant l’avenir du régime, le cas de Bianzhou étant à leurs yeux un exemple important des raisons pour lesquelles les valeurs civiles demeuraient essentielles à la qualité du gouvernement et à la survie de la dynastie.


The Kingdoms of Nanzhong China's Southwest Border Region Prior to the Eighth Century

T oung Pao ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-286
Author(s):  
John Herman
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Indelible Mark ◽  
Southwest Region ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

AbstractThis article utilizes recent ethno-historical scholarship and archaeological discoveries in southwest China to examine the accuracy of the earliest Chinese historical sources dealing with the peoples and cultures in Nanzhong, the most common name for the southwest region (Yunnan, Guizhou, and southern Sichuan) prior to the Tang dynasty. Archaeology makes clear that Nanzhong was a settled border region with several highly sophisticated and divergent cultures. Early Chinese incursions into Nanzhong left an indelible mark on the peoples living there, but these brief and generally unsuccessful forays also influenced the views of China's elites regarding China's relations with this region. Since at least the Qin and Han, China's scholar-officials considered Nanzhong not only as an inhospitable frontier populated with uncivilized barbarians (manyi), but also as a peripheral part of China where intrepid commanders such as Tang Meng in the second century BCE and Zhuge Liang at the beginning of the third century CE had staked China's claim. This article casts doubt on the historical fiction of a staked claim. Cet article s'appuie sur les recherches ethno-historiques et des découvertes archéologiques récentes pour vérifier l'exactitude des sources chinoises les plus anciennes concernant les peuples et les cultures du Nanzhong, comme était communément appelé le Sud-Ouest (le Yunnan, le Guizhou et le sud du Sichuan) avant la dynastie des Tang. L'archéologie montre à l'évidence que le Nanzhong était une région frontière habitée, siège de plusieurs cultures hautement sophistiquées et différenciées. Si les premières incursions chinoises dans le Nanzhong ont laissé une empreinte indélébile sur les populations locales, ces campagnes brèves et en général infructueuses ont également influencé l'opinion des élites chinoises concernant les relations de la Chine avec le Sud-Ouest. Depuis au moins les Qin et les Han les lettrés-fonctionnaires chinois considéraient le Nanzhong non seulement comme une frontière inhospitalière peuplée de barbares dénués de civilisation (manyi), mais aussi comme un territoire périphérique de la Chine où des généraux intrépides comme Tang Meng au iie siècle avant notre ère et Zhuge Liang au début du iiie siècle de notre ère avaient établi des droits pour la Chine. L'article met en doute cette fiction historique d'un droit établi.

scholarly journals On the Influence of Translations of Religious and Philosophical Texts of Buddhism on the Literature and Art of Medieval China

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 601-608
Author(s):  
Vitaly G. Kosykhin ◽  
Svetlana M. Malkina
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Chinese Philosophy ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
New Schools ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Confucian Morality ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Philosophical Texts

The era of the Tang dynasty (618-907) was a period of great flourishing of all aspects of Chinese culture, when changes covered the most diverse spheres of philosophy, art and literature. The article examines the role played in this cultural transformation by translations from Sanskrit into Chinese of the religious and philosophical texts of Indian Buddhism. The specificity of the Chinese approach to the translation of Indian texts is demonstrated, when, at the initial stage, many works were translated in a rather free style due to the lack of precisely established correspondences between Sanskrit and Chinese philosophical terms. The authors identify two additional factors that influenced the nature of the translations. Firstly, this is the requirement of compliance with the norms of public, mainly Confucian, morality. Secondly, the adaptation of the Indian philosophical context to the Chinese cultural and worldview traditions, which led to the emergence of new schools of religious and philosophical thought that were not known in India itself, such as Tiantai, Jingtu or Chan, each of which in its own way influenced the art of the Medieval China. Special attention is paid to the activities of the legendary translator, Xuanzang, whose travel to India gave a huge impetus to the development of Chinese philosophy in subsequent centuries, as well as to the contribution to Chinese culture and art, which was made by the translation activities of the three great teachers of the Tang era Shubhakarasimha, Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra.

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