The prominent Tang empire that connected across the Eurasian world is known for its great involvement in religion and art. The capital of the dynasty consisted of numerous temples of not only the Buddhist faith, but of other faiths that were commonly practiced in Central Asia, such as Zoroastrianism and Nestorianism. While many of the empire’s most popular sites include Buddhist moral paintings and statues, a lot of the paintings designed feature Kings, as well as ordinary rituals of the time period. As it is commonly known that Buddhism evolved during the Tang Dynasty, many of the paintings hightlighted the theme of the before and after life. In addition, many artifacts made the dynasty very unique. Archeologists founded the currency of silver and gold coins that served useful purposes. These coins also provided insight that the “Turfan lay halfway between the Iranian and Chinese worlds” and that during “the Silk Road trade, Turfan absorbed many foreign immigrants, none more numerous than the Sogdians who came from Samarkand” (10). As the Turfan was known as an important city along the Silk Road, a significant trade network, it was also known as the best place to adopt a foundation of the Chinese language and begin learning it. While it is a common practice of the Turfan to use discarded documents to make clothing and other items for the deceased, when a massive campaign was launched to raise China’s economy, the archaeologists had to reach quotas consisting of thousands of artifacts. Furthermore, the Tang Dynasty was also known for its incorporation of documentation that was not only used for religious purposes, such as Buddhist spells for healing and intriguing stories, but for contracts, loans, taxes and deaths. The history records of the Tang dynasty are known for being the most voluminous compared to other dynasties. As the dynasty was recognized for its artistic and cultural influences, it is also known for its territorial expansion and economic development.
Three things I learned this week:
- Buddhism flourished during the Tang dynasty and many of the popular sites of the time period consisted of Buddhist moral paintings and statues.
- The Silk Road was a very influential trade network of the time period that was located between Tang and Central Asia.
- As the “Tang state was a highly bureaucratic regime,” its history records are known as being the most voluminous compared to other dynasties (2).
Works Cited
D’Haeseleer, Tineke. “Tang China (618-907).” In Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages, edited by Erik Hermans. Arc Humanities Press, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.
Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire : A History of China to 1800. Second ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.
Slide deck (Gdrive link)
Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road : A New History with Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017
