The Tang Dynasty: Golden Age of Chinese Culture

The Tang Dynasty: Golden Age of Chinese Culture

The Tang Dynasty ruled one of the most geographically extensive empires in Chinese history. After the army of Empress Wu Zhao defeated the Korean Koguryo kingdom in the northeast, the Tang reached its greatest expansions. From her capital at Luoyang, Wu Zhao the only female emperor in Chinese history- ruled a territory that stretched from Inner Mongolia in the north to Vietnam in the south and from Korea in the east to the lofty Himalayan province of Kashmir in the west. The dynasty’s most significant expansion was in the west because the reconquering of the Tarim basin allowed for the reopening of the Silk Road.

The Silk Road, a series of trade routes connecting China to central Asia and the Middle East, first opened during the Han dynasty. The route followed a string of oases perched between Central Asia’s northern wastelands and mighty mountains like the Himalayas in the south. Chinese merchants headed west along the Silk Road with caravans of camels and ox-drawn carts laden with silk, porcelain, jade, bronze tea and other commodities, often handing goods over to other participants in chain of trade. They returned to China, along with traders from dozens of countries, with glass, rugs, horses, precious metals and stones, cotton products and exotic spices and medicines. The Silk Road also served as an avenue for the exchange of cultures and ideas. Chinese technologies and ideas-paper, printing, agriculture, weapons, and weaving, among many others-traveled westward along the trans-Asian highway. Religions also passed along the road, bringing the beliefs of Christianity and Islam to the Tang capital at Changan.

One of the keys to success of the long-lasting Tang dynasty was general and Emperor Li Shi Min’s ability to control the army. In A.D. 618, LI Shi Min captured Changan and Luoyang, ending the Sui dynasty. His father Li Yuan served as emperor until A.D. 626, when Li Shi Min- known posthumously as Emperor Dai Zong, which means Great Ancestor- took the throne, Dai Zong realized that the greatest threat to stability for his new empire were the armies of the rich military aristocrats, who often grew tired of imperial rule and broke off to start civil wars. To curb the general’s power, the emperor assigned them to northern border provinces and equipped them with largely inexperienced soldiers. Serious training was conducted during the harsh northern winters. Dai Zong kept close watch over the border militias by employing the imperial inspectors to report on their actions. By controlling the generals directly, he was able to use the army to expand the empire and return China to the size of the Han Empire. Dai Zong’s generals became so famous as conquerors that statues made in their image were used to guard the gates of temples and palaces.

Tang emperors ruled according to the ideals of Confucius in Chinese, Kong Fu Zi, (551-497 B.C.) which supported a scholarly class of civil servants. To maintain orderly rule over such an extensive empire, rulers like Dai Zong and Wu Zhao relied on a bureaucracy. Chinese bureaucracy was composed of departments or bureaus, each with its own specific area of responsibility-an outgrowth of the Confucian teaching that harmony and stability in the social order could only result from respecting hierarchies. During the Tang era, civil servants were not only officials, but poets and artists as well because Confucius stressed scholarship, the study of calligraphy, poetry, and painting along with history and government.

During the rule of Xuan Zong the “Brilliant emperor” Chinese arts, particularly painting and poetry, reached their zenith. Influenced by Daoism, Tang artists stressed the beauty, power, harmony, and peace of nature. Mountains and water, symbols of the timeless perfection of nature, dominated landscape paintings. In line with Laozi’s teachings that humans should live in harmony with nature to discover the Dao, or natural path to truth, people appeared as small and insignificant in the landscape painting, Poetry also reflected Daoist beliefs, concentrating on images of nature that inspired contemplation. Li Bo, one of China’s most celebrated poets, lived during this time. The following example of his verse illustrates the influence of nature on Chinese poetry: My friend is lodging in the Eastern Range, / dearly loving the beauty of valleys and hills. / A pine tree wind dusted his sleeves and coat: / a pebbly stream cleans his heart and ears. / I envy you who far from strife and talk/ Are high propped on a pillow of gray mist. Other artists sculpted large bronze and ceramic likenesses of horses, Buddhas, court performers, and famous generals.

Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism all flourished during Tang rule, though Buddhism experienced a threat to its continuation in China. During the first part of Tang rule, many emperors and officials practiced and supported Buddhism. For instance, before her marriage to Emperor Gao Zhong, Wu Zhao had lived in a Buddhist monastery. Also, the number of Buddhist monasteries in China was at its highest during the early Tang. But the Tang leaders had based on their government on Confucian ideals, particularly the imperative of orderly respect between ruler and ruled, and feared the growing power of Buddhists. Increased xenophobia with the shrinking of the empire after the mid-eighth century led some to condemn Buddhism as a foreign and therefore impure belief system. In addition, the growing economic power of the monasteries, which were not taxed, and the increasing numbers of monks and nuns entering monasteries where they were beyond the taxing power of the state, led Emperor Wu Zong (ruled A.D. 841-847) to repress Buddhism He ordered the destruction of 4,600 monasteries and 40,000 stupas, yet Buddhism continued to be practiced underground.

During the Tang dynasty the scholar class became the new ruling elite through implementation of a system of land reform. Called the “equal-field system” it limited the power of the aristocracy by taking away vast tracts of revenue-producing land. Under the equal-field system, each person in the empire was assigned a rank, and each rank was allotted a certain amount of land. The highest ranking people were the heads of traditional landowning aristocratic families, who received about 1370 acres of land, and amount that considerably reduced their power. Each healthy male between the age of 18 and 59 was supposed to receive 13.7 acres of land, but the systems sometimes broke down to corrupt or inefficient civil servants. Under the new systems, people paid taxes according to how much land they received. They paid three kinds of taxes: agricultural products or grains, such as wheat or rice; textiles such as silk or hemp, and labor service, which could be converted into a money payment. Peasants who did not produce enough to pay their taxes could cancel their debt by working for the government on public works projects, such as constructing dams or rebuilding canals. Thus the government benefited from an increasing number of taxpayers, the limited power of rural aristocrats, and the loyalty of peasants who received land.

Land reform during the Tang era also benefited commoners. Land reform helped peasants by giving them a chance to gain wealth. With increased wealth, some peasant families were able to send a son to private school, where he would be able to study Confucian ideals, poetry, history, government, and painting in preparation for the civil service. If he earned a position in the government the son would bring his formerly poor family wealth, prestige and potentially power.