“The Golden Age” (618–755)

In the aftermath of Yellow River floods, unsuccessful wars against the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo (612, 613, and 614) and clashes against the Turks in 613, peasant revolts broke out and the general Li Yuan seized power in 617. He founded the Tang dynasty in 618 and adopted the name of Gaozu (618–626); his son Li Shimin succeeded him, taking the name of Taizong.

The Tang dynasty enjoyed a period of great prosperity, particularly until the mid-eighth century.Footnote ⁴ It was partly based on military supremacy and an efficient administrative organization. Taizong (627–649) reformed the administration, the law code, and land tenure, which weakened the old aristocracy. The Tang emperors developed a system of exams for the recruitment of officials, and schools were created which prepared the candidates.Footnote ⁵ State departments framed governmental decisions; these were later presented to the emperor.Footnote ⁶ The army was organized on the basis of “divisional militia” of tax-exempt farmer-soldiers, a system first employed by the Western Wei and the Northern Zhou; it benefited from the increasing use of armor and crossbows, and from proper training. An army composed of professional soldiers was later set up within the context of the Tang expansion to the north and northwest. “The sources for the early eighth century suggest that the Tang had about half a million men under arms … Tang military power rested on the fusion of steppe heavy cavalry with mass infantry developed by the states of Northern Wei and Northern Zhou and the successor Sui dynasty” (Morris Reference Morris2013: 208). Interventions of the state secured the stability of the social order (Wong Reference Wong1997: 98). A system of land (re)distribution ensured “the regularity of the revenue from taxes”Footnote ⁷ and promoted a class of free farmers, who formed the basis of the army.Footnote ⁸ Diminishing taxes and corvées also benefited agriculture, which advanced both in techniques and through an increase in land cultivated (especially for rice). In addition, China enjoyed a milder climate and increased rainfall after the end of the sixth century (during the seventh and more importantly the eighth centuries).Footnote ⁹ The square-pallet chain-pump, which allowed water to be lifted – a device invented as early as the first century ce – was widely used, as well as norias (perhaps introduced from the Muslim world). Harrowing and plowing were encouraged, and rice transplanting was adopted in the Yangtze basin and southern China during the eighth century. One of the world’s first known farming handbooks was written during the eighth century. Moreover, the Tang favored territorial extension southward (Yangtze basin, Lingnan) which was “crucial in providing a sizeable external area (comparable in many ways to the discovery of America for Europe during the sixteenth century)” (Norel Reference Norel and Sobel2007). The Yangtze basin and the southern regions experienced a sharp increase in population: there were 3 million taxable individuals in 600 and 10 million in 742. The growing sinification of the southern regions led to tensions with indigenous populations; in 669 in particular, the Tang had to send troops into southern Fujian (Clark Reference Clark2009: 18). Northern China, however, remained the most populated region. The capital of the empire, Chang’an, had more than one million inhabitants (Morris Reference Morris2013: 155), and was probably the largest city in the world at this time. Luoyang was also a sizeable city. Fourteen urban regions in China had more than 170,000 households. According to Adshead, the level of urbanization increased from 5 to 20 percent of the population from the beginning to the end of the dynasty.Footnote ¹⁰

The economy was strictly regulated: the state controlled weights and measures, prices,Footnote ¹¹ and the quality of products, partly through associations of merchants and artisans (hang) organized by the political power. The Tang government intervened in grain storage and transport; it secured the roads, thus facilitating trade, from which it benefited, notably through a system of internal customs. Everywhere “there were shops and emporiums for supplying merchant travelers; mules and horses were available to travelers” (Schafer Reference Schafer1997: 8). A postal service with posthouses and horses was set up throughout the country. Public control did not prevent commercial freedom, especially through village markets, which were being established on a daily basis (Elvin Reference 715Elvin1973: 165–166; Norel Reference Norel2005). The development of an internal market was stimulated by the growing monetization of the economy. While copper coins had been instituted in China under the Former Han, the Tang introduced the bronze coins that would serve as templates during the following centuries.Footnote ¹²

Growth in output and improvements in means of transportation led to the setting up of interregional commercial relations. This process was accompanied by geographical specialization, not only in products for the Chinese market, but also in products for foreign trade, which prefigured the integration of the Song period. “[Tang] economic dynamism,” as P. Norel points out, was linked to significant institutional changes: “the territorial expansion of local markets, the organized marketing of basic necessities on a national basis, the emergence of a land market despite uncertain property rights, and the development of free labor. In sum, the Tang dynasty created markets for factors and an incipient system of markets, whereas China had previously had only local markets for goods with poor links between them. Technological innovation could then be implemented and made profitable thanks to these markets for factors” (Norel Reference Norel2005: 438ff.) (see also Elvin Reference 715Elvin1973: 166).

The development of porcelain allowed exportation of this luxury product to increase.Footnote ¹³ Manufactured at Gongyi (Henan), the first pieces of “blue-and-white,” containing cobalt imported from Iran,Footnote ¹⁴ are dated to this period. This innovation, as well as the rise of the textile industry (silk) and metallurgy, appears to have been prompted by expanding internal and external market opportunities. Among the various technical innovations dating to the Tang period, one of the most important was the use of gunpowder. Its first real applications were tried out in the years 904–906 when incendiary projectiles called “flying fires” were commonly used.Footnote ¹⁵ A paper industry flourished, especially in Sichuan. Woodblock printing probably appeared during the eighth century (one of the first texts to have been printed, dated to 868, has been found at Dunhuang);Footnote ¹⁶ the technique spread to Korea and Japan, where Buddhist texts were printed during the ninth century. Xylography combined two processes previously used in China: sealing and stamping (Gernet Reference Gernet1999: 293). Some authors have suggested an influence of the Indian technique of imprints on cotton fabrics, but this technique is not well dated in India (while Alam [Reference Alam, Chattopadhyaya and Rahman2002: 456] does not exclude the possibility that this technique appeared at an earlier date, he also notes that it is only properly attested from the twelfth century onward). The social transformations during this period are evidenced in painting, where individual portraits – an art form that had appeared during the Han period – became more common. There were further advances in metallurgical techniques, following the discovery of a second manufacturing process for steel production during the fifth century (through the process of “co-fusion”). Hydraulic power (with the use of waterwheels) worked the pistons of blowing-engines in foundries, and also in flour-sifting machines using a crank connecting-rod system.Footnote ¹⁷ Transportation benefited from the building of segmental arch bridges (seventh century). Alcohol distillation was invented during the Tang period, or even during the sixth century,Footnote ¹⁸ with possible Indian influences: a type of Indian still may have been introduced into China, along with Buddhist currents (Needham et al. Reference Needham, Needham and Ling1980: 80).

Significant social changes went along with economic expansion. Thus, “the matrimonial regimes were geared toward the creation of market-oriented, family-run microbusinesses [Adshead Reference Adshead2004: 103f.]” (Norel Reference Norel2009b). “These microbusinesses were well adapted to” the context of expanding textile production. “It was also because the development of local markets allowed for processes of specialization in agriculture and made the production more profitable that a labor force, essentially female, was freed up for textile manufacture, on the basis of small-scale family production [Gates Reference Gates1996]” (Norel Reference Norel2009b). Larger workshops also appeared, as shown by a text written by Li Fang (tenth century): it recounts that a rich merchant from Tingzhou (in Fujian), during the Tang period, owned a workshop housing “five hundred looms for the weaving of silk damask,” an estimate probably exaggerated, since it exceeds the number of looms used in the imperial manufacture under the Northern Song (Elvin Reference 715Elvin1973: 174; Bray Reference Bray, Brook and Blue1999: 179).

The superiority of Chinese weaponry (steel production had been mastered long before, and both crossbows and armor were improved), the development of horse breeding, and the efficiency of the military institutions contributed to the successes of the armies, and served the Tang imperialist project. The Chinese armies crushed the “hostile” Turkish populations, while other Turks chose to partner with the Chinese (Uighurs, and Tangut). Between 630 and 660, the Tang took the control of Turfān and the oasis kingdoms in the Tarim (from Kuchā and Khotan to Kashgar), thus re-establishing Chinese domination in Central AsiaFootnote ¹⁹ (in the face of the advance of the Tang armies, the eastern Turkish khānate disappeared in 630,Footnote ²⁰ as did the western khānate in 659). Sogdiana (Samarkand and Tashkent regions) and the Ferghana valley were under the nominal suzerainty of China during the seventh century, under the reign of the emperor Gaozong (649–683), until the Arab invasions during the early eighth century (Bukhara sent emissaries to China as early as 618 and 626). During the advance of the Tang armies into Central Asia, Turks were captured by the tens of thousands and sent to China, where they helped dig canals and improve fortifications. In 649, Taizong launched a military expedition into northern India “in order to settle to China’s advantage the succession to the throne of the little kingdom of Magadha” (Gernet Reference Gernet1999: 221). China went so far as to intervene in the internal affairs of Sassanid Persia.

Sparked by contacts with foreign countries and reinforcing them in its turn, a taste for the exotic spread into China. It crossed all social classes and permeated various areas of life, clothing, music, and decoration (see below) (Schafer Reference Schafer1997: 28).Footnote ²¹ China welcomed foreign merchandise, knowledge, and populations. The “cosmopolitanism” of the court and of Tang society, which aspired to be a model for the rest of the world, has often been emphasized. It was accompanied by “complexity and pluralism in thought,” which strengthened the development of critical thinking. This is manifest, for example, in the historical approach of Liu Zhiji (661–721) (Adshead Reference Adshead2004: 130). During the first centuries of the Tang dynasty, exchanges developed both via the Silk Roads – which retained their significance until the ninth century – and the Southern Seas, whence came “the rare and the precious,” according to the seventh-century Suishu.Footnote ²² “The capital, Chang’an, was the meeting place for all the peoples of Asia: Turks, Uighurs, Tibetans, Koreans, people from Khotan and Kuchā, Sogdians, Kashmiris, Persians, Arabs, Indians, Sinhalese” (Gernet Reference Gernet2002: 282). Until the ninth century, China thus experienced a period of openness and tolerance, which was not without some ambiguity (Schafer Reference Schafer1997: 22–23).

There were significant contacts with Persia during the Sassanid period. In 638, a Sassanid embassy went to China to solicit assistance against the Muslims. In 674, the last Sassanid emperor, Peroz, went into exile in Chang’an with his government. Iranian influence is well documented for the Muslim period during the seventh and eighth centuries. The Iranian aristocratic style, which influenced the Abbasid court, was also copied by the Tang. Persians were present on both land and sea routes, as shown by the journey of the Indian Buddhist Vajrabodhi – who introduced the Tantric doctrine – from India to China via Srīwijaya in 717 aboard Persian ships,Footnote ²³ the description of a Persian trade in China by Huichao,Footnote ²⁴ the existence of a Persian village on the island of Hainan in 748, and the involvement of Persians in the looting of Canton in 758 (Wang Gungwu Reference Wang Gungwu1998: 75).Footnote ²⁵

Illustrating the openness of the Tang to the foreign world, many embassies arrived in China during the seventh and eighth centuries. They brought “tributes” which in fact were trade exchanges. According to Chinese texts, they came from Linyi (Champa, 14 embassies during the seventh century, and 11 during the eighth century); Zhenla (Cambodia) in 623, 628, and 698; Geluoshifen (Ko-lo-shih-fen) (perhaps located to the west of Dvāravatī)Footnote ²⁶ in 662; Duoheluo (To-ho-lo) (Dvāravatī) in 638 and 649; Panpan (on the Thai–Malay peninsula) in 635 and 650–655; Zhuloumi (Chu-lou-mi) (possibly on the Thai–Malay peninsula) in 655 and 656; Dandan (on the Thai–Malay peninsula) in 666–669; Moluoyu (Melayu, Sumatra) in 644 and perhaps 662; Shilifoshi (Shih-li-fo-shih) (Srīwijaya, Sumatra) in 702, 716, 724, 728, and 742; Heling (Ho-ling) (Walaing, central Java) in 640, 648, 666, 767, and 768; Poli (P’o-li) (possibly Bali) in 630; Ganzhifo (Kan-chih-fo) (Kānchīpuram) in 658 and 662; Zhanbo (Chan-po) (Champa, perhaps in the Ganges Valley) in 657; Mola (in India) in 658; Shilizun (Shih-li-chun) (in India) in 658; Po’an (perhaps located in India) (in 656); Shize (Shih-tse) (Sri Lanka) (in 670, 712, 742, 746, 750, and 762);Footnote ²⁷ Sogdiana in 631,Footnote ²⁸ and so on. Other embassies were more politically motivated. Byzantium (called Folin) sent a mission to Chang’an in 643 – five years after the Sassanid embassy already mentioned – and later others in 667, 701, and 719.Footnote ²⁹ According to the Jiu Tangshu, as early as 651, a Muslim mission, probably sent by the commander of a region of Iran, was welcomed at Chang’an (Wilensky Reference Wilensky and Mair2002: 1). In 713, Xuanzong received emissaries from Kuteiba, the Muslim commander in Central Asia, who demanded Xuanzong’s submission to Islam. In 726, the Umayyad caliph Hisham sent a third embassy.

When the Chinese court received these foreign embassies composed of dignitaries and merchants, the emperor was expected to offer more than what he had received as a “tribute”: this imbalance expressed his political power and his divine nature, which made him a source of inexhaustible wealth. By accepting gifts from the emperor, the ambassadors acknowledged his political sovereignty and his superior nature. The imperial “generosity” established the value of goods that became symbols of high status in foreign countries: the tributary Chinese system thus defined ranks, “standards both of fashion and of behaviour” (Pomeranz and Topik Reference Pomeranz and Topik1999: 14). This system helped China in “ordering the world with the Chinese state at the center” (Wong Reference Wong1997: 89). The Tang dynasty also pursued an active foreign policy, often using non-Chinese diplomats. Alliances were accompanied by exchanges of princesses. Taizong thus sent two ambassadors to the Indian king Harsha (a mission perhaps also motivated by economic interests, with the Chinese trying “to learn the secret of the manufacture of sugar” [Adshead Reference Adshead1995: 91]), and gave one of his relatives, the princess Wencheng, in marriage to the king of Tibet. In 712, the princess Yongle was sent north to marry the Khitan khān. Suzong (711–762) gave his daughter Ningguo to the Uighur khān.

Exchanges during the seventh century mostly followed the Silk Roads. The interest shown by the Tang in Central Asia – where the Chinese presence, however, came at a price – can primarily be explained by the need to import horses, even though stud farms were created in China. These horses were exchanged for silk, tea, lacquers, and iron items. The discovery of Chinese silk remnants bearing a “Persian” decoration with vines, birds, and wine drinkers in Xinjiang (Turfan, and Niya) indicates a production specifically developed for the foreign market (Adshead Reference Adshead1995: 92). Slaves – whether Turks or Slavs – also came from the Khwarezm, south of the Aral Sea. Dated between the fifth and tenth centuries, the manuscripts found at Dunhuang, which was a significant trade center in western Gansu, reveal the cosmopolitan character of the population of the oases in Central Asia: Chinese and Tibetan texts, as well as documents written in Uighur, Sogdian,Footnote ³⁰ Sanskrit, and Prakrit, have been found. The merchants and embassies that came along the Silk Roads also brought furs, woolen cloth, cotton fabrics,Footnote ³¹ brocades, carpets, aromatics, medicines, dyes, gold and silver vessels, glass items, and precious or semi-precious stones.Footnote ³²

From the middle of the Tang period, China became more sea-oriented,Footnote ³³ for the purpose of trading with foreign countries and within the empire (transport by sea was 70 or 80 percent cheaper than transport by land) (Elvin Reference 715Elvin1973: 138). One notes advances in naval technology, with the use of leeway fenders during the eighth century: these prevented ships from running aground or listing excessively. The Tang strictly controlled long-distance trade through their main ports, among which Guangzhou (Canton) held a prominent position. This city may have had 200,000 inhabitants during the eighth century, many of whom were foreigners,Footnote ³⁴ probably inhabiting separate boroughs. Located at the junction of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, Yangzhou was another trade center with the Southern Seas, which attracted substantial numbers of foreigners.Footnote ³⁵ Quanzhou (named Zaiton by Marco Polo) was also described in a poem by Bao Ho (eighth century) as a flourishing port where merchants from various countries mingled. Jianzhen (Ganjin), a monk of Chinese origin who lived in Japan, describes “the argosies of the Brahmans, the Persians and the Malays, their number beyond reckoning, all laden with aromatics, drugs, and rare and precious things, their cargoes heaped like hills” (Schafer Reference Schafer1997: 15). China enjoyed a trade surplus; “goods were exported in exchange for precious metals, in money or other forms” (Norel Reference Norel2004: 187). The Tang knew the routes going to India via the Vietnamese coast, as shown by the itinerary given by Jiadan (730–805). The foreign presence in Chinese ports was not without tensions. In 684, for example, Kunlun merchants took revenge for a humiliation they had suffered by killing the governor of Guangzhou and his entourage (Clark Reference Clark2009: 27).

In 714–715, a superintendant of maritime commerce was appointed at Canton. While this official was in charge of controlling the maritime trade, he also had to ensure that foreigners were protected. “He held authority over everything concerning imported products, … the state monopoly of foreign trade” (Sauvage Reference Sauvaget1948: 16). Foreign traders paid customs duties and various taxes, which could account for one-third of the cargo. Moreover, agents from the court exercised pre-emption rights over the merchandise. The state regulated prices: “Once the ships were in the port, the Chinese authorities seized the merchandise. It could be sold only when the last ship coming with the same monsoon had arrived, this in order to establish a proper price for the various imported products” (Sauvaget Reference Sauvaget1948: 16). Imports included colored glass items,Footnote ³⁶ coral, ivory, spices, medicines, perfumes (incense, myrrh, aromatic woods, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom),Footnote ³⁷ dyes (red lacquer from cochineal insects, brasil),Footnote ³⁸ jewels, gems, pearls, rhinoceros horns, turtle shells, cotton fabrics, and slaves.Footnote ³⁹ In exchange, the Chinese offered silk fabric, raw silk, lacquered items, ceramics,Footnote ⁴⁰ spices, and metals (objects made of iron). The significance of the exportation of Chinese ceramics toward the Persian Gulf has been confirmed by the discovery of an Arabo-Persian shipwreckFootnote ⁴¹ near Belitung Island (off the eastern coast of Sumatra), in 1998. The vessel contained more than 60,000 objects of Chinese origin, including 10 tons of lead ingots, 18 silver ingots, 2 kg of gold leaves, 56,500 ceramic items from Changsha (stoneware with painted decoration, produced for export), and the first ceramics of the “blue-and-white” type using cobalt (Krahl Reference Krahl, Krahl, Guy, Wilson and Raby2010). Some pieces reveal how Chinese production had adapted to buyers’ tastes (Salmon Reference Salmon2004: 34). The shipwreck has yielded about thirty silver or gold objects, including a gold cup featuring men from Central Asia. Some of these items, produced for export, may have been made by foreign artisans working at Yangzhou (Qi Dongfang Reference Qi Dongfang, Krahl, Guy, Wilson and Raby2010). The ship was probably sailing to Java. Ceramics from western Asia have been unearthed at various sites along the Chinese coasts, especially at Yangzhou and FuzhouFootnote ⁴² (strangely, not at Guangzhou, but this may be due to the fact that the ancient parts of the city have not been excavated) and inland, for example at the sites of Buddhist monasteries, at Yongxian and Guilin (Guangxi province). Ho (Reference Ho1994b) points out that these ceramics influenced Chinese production (Glover Reference Glover2002).

China developed trading exchanges with southern Asia – Austronesians, Indians, Arabs and Persians acted as intermediaries – as well as with Korea and Japan. These countries were submerged by Chinese culture, with Chinese ships involved in trade (Elvin Reference 715Elvin1973: 137). From the middle of the seventh century, Japan had a civil government composed of nobles influenced by the Tang model. The capital, Nara, was built along plans similar to those of Chang’an; Nara has given its name to the period, which lasted until 794. By 750, “in the capital alone, an inspectorate and eight ministries supported 7,000 to 10,000 officials” (Lieberman Reference Lieberman2009: 383). Large tax-exempt estates were granted to members of the royal family, thus drawing up the feudal structures that would mark the following period. Exams for the recruitment of officials were introduced, following the Chinese example; however, only aristocrats could apply for the competitions. Buddhism became the state religion. In 741, Emperor Shomu issued an edict establishing official monasteries and nunneries, following the Chinese model promoted notably by the emperor Taizong and the empress Wu Zetian (690–705) (see Wong Reference Wong2015). Japan exported gold, silver, mercury, and medicines to the port of Hangzhou, and adopted copper currency. Japan’s monetization during this period has been underestimated by most historians (paddy and materials were still valuable means of exchange).Footnote ⁴³ The treasure kept in the Shoso-in house at Nara, dated between 756 and 759, clearly shows the extent of the long-distance trade networks: it contains artifacts from Tang China, India (lutes and masks); Sassanid Persia (gilded bronze cups and silver ewers); Central Asia (carpets); and western Asia (glass).Footnote ⁴⁴ Sassano-Islamic (a continuation of Sassanian) pottery shards have been unearthed at various sites in the Fukuoka region (northern Kyushu), in particular in a house for foreigners which contained a sizeable Chinese assemblage. A shard has also been discovered on Ikii Island, between Japan and Korea. These ceramics were probably shipped to Japan by Chinese or Koreans (Glover Reference Glover2002: 173). In Korea, the combined forces of Silla and Tang China were victorious against Baekje forces and Japanese from Yamato, at the battle of Baekgang (663). In 668, the Silla kingdom unified the Korean peninsula, with the help of the Tang. The Silla kingdom was deeply influenced by the Chinese mode of government and adopted a Chinese form of Buddhism. The Silla kingdom stood until the early tenth century, during which time its power crumbled. Korean merchant ships were active in the northern China Sea, and many Koreans settled in Shandong.

Exchange networks included the Philippines and the Sulu archipelago: Tang pottery has been excavated on the Babuyan Islands, and on Luzon, Mindoro, Bohol, Cebu, Mindanao, and, further south, on Jolo (Bacus Reference Bacus, Glover and Bellwood2004: 266). Along the route to Palembang, where large amounts of green-glazed Chinese pottery have been recovered (see below), vessels from China probably stopped on the western coast of Kalimantan. In Vietnam, Thailand, and on the Thai–Malay peninsula, remnants of Chinese ceramics are often ten times more abundant than those of pottery from western Asia (Glover Reference Glover2002).

It is generally considered that China’s trade with the southern seas showed a surplus (Norel Reference Norel2004: 195). That was probably the case during the first period of the empire, but the picture appears more uncertain during later periods. At the beginning of the eighth century, the Tang became aware of how much metal was draining away through commerce. A 713 decree stipulated that gold and iron should no longer be used in barter transactions with foreigners.

There were commercial exchanges, but also transfers of knowledge, social behavior, and religious ideas. The spread of xylography and metallurgical techniques from China to Central Asia has been noted above. In the other direction, the knowledge of windmills passed from Iran to China. Syrian artisan glassmakers arrived in China via Sogdiana.Footnote ⁴⁵ The Chinese were interested in Indian medicine and sciences (astronomy and mathematics), and Indian astronomers settled in China. Improvements in hygiene are noteworthy during this period (Adshead Reference Adshead2004: 74). Contacts with the Sassanids and later with Muslim Persia led to the introduction of musical traditions, iconographic images (hunting scenes, for example), and the introduction of games (polo and chess) and fashions in clothing. The consumption of exotic goods was not confined to the court, or even the capital, but took place throughout the country.

The major world religions spread into the Chinese Empire. From the dawn of Islam, Muslim merchants entered China via land and maritime routes, with sea routes becoming predominant during the eighth and ninth centuries. Islam established itself in the trading ports: Canton had a mosque during the eighth century. Intermarriages between Muslim foreigners and Chinese progressively led to the formation of communities of mixed origins, the hui.Footnote ⁴⁶ Buddhism, which arrived around the first century, continued to spread, with the support of some rulers such as Emperor Taizong and Empress Wu. “Sui and Tang China,” notes Gernet, “was the most brilliant center of Buddhism, the universal religion for most of the peoples of Asia. It was to this fact even more than to the victorious campaigns waged from Korea to Iran that China owed its widespread influence” (Gernet Reference Gernet2002: 277).Footnote ⁴⁷ “During the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were a total of eighteen official translation bureaus established under the aegis of state support: five during the Sui and thirteen during the Tang … The chief translator was usually a prestigious foreign monk” (Wong Reference Wong2015). Buddhism introduced new analytical concepts and “the notion of critical, self-reflective thought itself” (Adshead Reference Adshead1995: 71). The seventh century was the golden age for Buddhist pilgrimages to India. The journey – by land to and from India – of the monk Xuanzang (Hiuan-tsang), who sojourned in India between 629 and 644, is known to us through his biography and the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions written by one of his disciples, Bianji (Drège Reference Drège2000: 38–40). In contrast, Yijing went to India by sea, departing from Canton aboard a “Persian” ship around 670 (as already mentioned, he stopped at Palembang; see above). Many other monks went to India during the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, bringing back books and relics. Buddhism also developed in China, using the language and concepts of the Daoists, for example the Chan and Pure Land sects: “Daoism served as a cultural bridge between China and India” (Bentley Reference Bentley1993: 80). This Buddhist expansion was accompanied by the establishment of hospitals and other institutions involved in giving assistance to the most deprived people, sometimes on the orders of the state.Footnote ⁴⁸ “Buddhist monasteries in China, unlike Benedictine monasteries in the West, drew the greater part of their income not from the land, but from commercial activities such as money or grain lending, royalties from hydraulic flour mills and oil presses, and gifts” (Adshead Reference Adshead2004: 86). Buddhists were the source of the introduction of new commercial practices and banking techniques.Footnote ⁴⁹ Coming from Iran and adopted by the Uighurs, Manicheism, a religion well “suited to be the ideology of a mercantile community,” was also present, as well as Zoroastrianism and Christianity under its Nestorian form.Footnote ⁵⁰ Iranian influences have been identified both in China (in the figure of the Amitābha Buddha) and Japan (on Tang paintings and silk damasks kept in the Shōsō-in at Nara). These influences came via the oases of the Tarim or the maritime routes.

The Chinese Downturn and the Defeat of An Lushan’s Revolt (755–763)

According to the rule set forth by Tainter (Reference Tainter1988: 194–195), the expansion of the Chinese state reached a threshold where increasing investments finally became counterproductive. Expenditure on the army, in particular, grew from 2 million strings of 1,000 coins in 713 to 14 or 15 million in 755, amounts that can be compared to the issues of coins by the Tang: 300,000 strings at the beginning of the eighth century, and only 100,000 in 834 (Elvin Reference 715Elvin1973: 147). The arrangements for conscription appear to have been ill-adapted to the new conditions, and the system of militias was in decline.Footnote ⁵¹ The state then resorted to the use of mercenaries, Uighurs in particular, and the army leaders – who were often of foreign origin – acquired considerable political power, which led to the decline of the central power. Despite continued efforts, the Tang were everywhere experiencing setbacks. In Yunnan, in 750, the Nanzhao kingdom took control of the routes of the southwest. In Central Asia, helped by the Qarluq Turks who had migrated to the region around 745, the Arabs won a victory against a Chinese army at the battle of the Talas River in 751, putting an end to the Chinese influence in Sogdiana. Thousands of Chinese prisoners were captured, among them “silkweavers, metalworkers and paper makers,” who were sent to Kūfa and Baghdad (Boulnois Reference Boulnois2008: 269). In the same year, the Chinese were defeated at Dali, by the Nanzhao kingdom.Footnote ⁵² The Chinese troops sent to Nanzhao seem to have been affected by epidemics. In addition, northern China was under threat from the Khitan Mongols. The Korean kingdom of Silla, allied with the Tang, also experienced a period of instability and upheavals. In Mongolia, a Turkish Uighur confederation associated with the Sogdian diasporaFootnote ⁵³ emerged from 744 onward; it demanded increasing quantities of silk, in exchange for horses. China, however, had begun to develop horse breeding: in 754, the pasture manager at Longyou reported to the emperor that the number of horses in his herd was over 325,700.

On the domestic side, difficulties were exacerbated by conflicts at the highest levels of the state between the aristocracy (ancient and new) and a class of officials recruited through exams, as well as by a decrease in the number of taxable families, with small landowners passing under the control of large estates as servants: here again, Elvin (Reference 715Elvin1973: 67) draws a parallel with developments occurring in the Byzantine Empire during the tenth century. The growing affluence of rich landowners and merchants was accompanied by the appearance of a mass of landless peasants. Trade was affected from 755 onward by a series of revolts. The autonomy acquired by military chiefs led to a rebellion of non-Chinese generals headed by An Lushan, a man whose father was Sogdian and mother Turkish (756–763). During the turmoil at that time, in 756–757, several thousand foreign merchants, mainly Arabs and Persians, were killed at Yangzhou (Deng Reference Deng1997: 152–153). The sending of a contingent of Persians and Iraqis to Gansu by al-Mansūr in 756 to support Emperor Suzong shows that diplomatic relations had been established between China and the Muslim Empire after 751.Footnote ⁵⁴ The capital Chang’an was looted by the Uighurs and the Tibetans one after the other, in 762 and 763. The economic decline and the abuses by Chinese officials at Canton triggered a revolt by “Bosi and Dashi” (Persian and Arab) merchants in 758, who sacked the city before fleeing out to sea, probably to Hainan, An-nan (Hanoi), and perhaps to Java.Footnote ⁵⁵

The Second Tang Period: The “Indian Summer” (763–907) and the Fall

Internal conflicts, the disaggregation of the Chinese peripheries, and the loss of control over the trade routes of Central Asia and Yunnan might have been the prelude to a total collapse of the Tang Empire. The state, however, managed to overcome this mid-eighth-century crisis and adapt itself to the new conditions. “The architects of the Tang restoration were ministers, not emperors,” which is evidence of the power and vitality of the bureaucracy (Adshead Reference Adshead2004: 49).Footnote ⁵⁶ The state thus reacted to the decrease in the number of families subjected to taxation in the countryside by implementing an innovative fiscal policy notably using indirect taxation.Footnote ⁵⁷ The tax system “was no longer based on the families of the farmers, but on lands and harvests” (Gernet Reference Gernet2002: 263).Footnote ⁵⁸ In 780, a semi-annual tax partly paid in cash replaced the earlier taxes paid in kind and in labor (Nakazato Reference Nakazato2011).Footnote ⁵⁹ Each farmer paid this tax, whether or not he owned the land he cultivated, and the upper classes did not necessarily benefit from any exemption. In addition, the government increased the taxes on commerce and instituted monopolies on salt in 759,Footnote ⁶⁰ alcohol in 764, and tea in 793.Footnote ⁶¹ These monopolies spurred the rise of a new class of merchants, who, however, remained under the control of the political power.Footnote ⁶² Increased monetization of the economy can be observed during this period of “transition to the Mandarin Empire” (Gernet Reference Gernet2002: 261).

The state reduced the number of soldiers, whom it had to provide with horses. During the eighth century, Tibetan incursions and the rebellion of the general An Lushan disrupted horse breeding. Having gained a virtual monopoly on the trade in horses after the help they had provided to the Tang against the Tibetans, the Uighurs raised their prices: at the end of the eighth century, they were asking 40 pieces of silk for one horse.Footnote ⁶³ The Chinese world-empire was clearly in recession during the second half of the eighth century. The Tang lost control of the Gansu corridor and the Tarim basin.Footnote ⁶⁴ Along the Silk Roads, the Tibetans took Dunhuang in 787, and then the oasis of Khotan; they won a decisive victory over an army composed of Chinese and Uighurs in 791 at Tingzhou. They would maintain control over the southern Silk Road until 851, the Uighurs being preeminent in the northern Tarim and in Djoungaria. Around the end of the eighth century, however, an alliance was struck between the Tang and the Abbasids against attacks by the Tibetans in Central Asia, and “an embassy of the caliph Hârûn al-Rashīd arrived at Chang’an in 798” (Gernet Reference Gernet1999: 250). A Tibetan–Chinese peace treaty was signed in 823 (following the Tibetan–Uighur treaty of 822). When the Kirghiz defeated the Uighurs in 840, some of the latter took refuge in China, where in 843 the Tang power massacred them.

In addition, a series of epidemics affected the coastal provinces of China from 762. Half of the population of the province of Canton died in that year, and the same overall mortality affected the Zhejiang province in 806.Footnote ⁶⁵ The number of households decreased – from 12.3 to 8.9 million – between the censuses of 2 and 742 ce. These epidemics were perhaps the consequence of an increase in trade, which brought with it an intermingling of populations and the introduction of new bacteria carried via maritime routes. The upheavals in southern China during the second half of the eighth century led to a shift in trade towards Hanoi, which was, however, the victim of a Javanese raid in 767.

The first signs that China was becoming relatively closed and imposing restrictions on commerce can be observed at this time. In 779, it was forbidden for the Uighurs to wear Chinese clothes. In 780, the Tang government prohibited the use “of silver, copper, iron, male and female slaves” in trade with foreigners. Five years later, an edict forbade all travelers from taking “even one piece of cash” to western regions such as Tibet and Nanzhao (Wicks Reference Wicks1992: 24).Footnote ⁶⁶ In 809, another edict prohibited the transportation of money beyond the Lingnan Mountains in southern China (north of Canton).

At the beginning of the ninth century, however, China’s situation improved. The Hanoi region was ravaged by wars and Canton regained its former activity and opulence.Footnote ⁶⁷ At peace with the Tibetans and the Mongols, from 820 to 860, the Tang Empire experienced an “Indian summer” (Adshead Reference Adshead2004: 51), the significance of which should, however, be put into perspective. The loss of the Silk Roads and evolving Chinese production and trade induced a more maritime and southerly orientation of the empire. “The Chinese world’s center of gravity was tending to move from the Wei valley and the central plain … towards the plains of the lower Yangtze basin” (Gernet Reference Gernet2002: 265). Whereas 75 percent of the Chinese population lived in the north during the early Tang period, that percentage dropped to 50 percent at the end of the dynasty. For Adshead, “the colonization of [southern territories] was China’s equivalent to the discovery of America … [It] was a prime motor of economic growth between 500 and 1000” (Reference Adshead2004: 75, 77). In addition to more intensive rice cultivation, one observes crop diversification with the development of tea plantations in the Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Sichuan provinces,Footnote ⁶⁸ of sugarcane cultivation, as well as the introduction of the cotton plant from India into the delta of the Pearl River (the sugar industry also originated in India). Domestic commerce developed, as did foreign trade through the major ports. The Lingqu canal connecting the Xiang River (which flows north into the Yangtze) and the Li River (which flows south into the Gui River and the Pearl River) was fitted with thirty-six flash locks by 825. The state permitted greater freedom of trade and entrepreneurship. An early ninth-century poet describes the opulence of a successful business trader in these terms: “Wherever profit is to be made he goes … His food and drink are sweet and well spiced. With interest and capital constantly breeding rich profit … He frequents noblemen’s houses, the residences of royal princesses … Knowing that his riches make him powerful as a prince” (Goucher et al. Reference Goucher, Leguin and Walton1998). Rich merchants controlled traffic between the Yangtze basin and northern China, the waterways allowing the transport of grain, salt, tea, wood, textiles, and other products. This second period of the Tang dynasty thus witnessed the emergence of a substantial Chinese private enterprise for the first time in China’s history.Footnote ⁶⁹

“The shortage of means of payment at a time when commercial transactions were developing rapidly” encouraged innovations in the field of credit (Gernet Reference Gernet2002: 265). The various provinces obtained the right to issue currency. The Tang reduced both the copper content and the weight of their bronze coins, in order to cope with the copper shortage and price increases. The state issued iron and lead coins. More importantly, one notes the appearance of new commercial techniques, using negotiable certificates of deposit (the forerunner of the bank note), issued to merchants by the representatives of their provincial administrations in the capital.Footnote ⁷⁰ The first bills of exchange appeared during the years 806–820: tea traders who sold their cargoes in the capital received credit notes (“flying cash”) in exchange, “which enabled them, when they returned to their provinces, to receive payment in currency after deduction of the taxes levied in the capital” (Gernet Reference Gernet2002: 265). Certificates were then issued for the transfer of local taxes to the capital. In addition, bills of exchange entitled the bearer to receive merchandise such as tea and salt in another place (Elvin Reference 715Elvin1973: 155ff.).

Difficulties resurfaced around the middle of the ninth century, however. China experienced significant droughts at that time, accompanied by an increase in market prices and social disorder. The internal political situation deteriorated. Within the context of a nationalist backlash against foreign influences, and also for economic reasons,Footnote ⁷¹ between 843 and 845, Emperor Wuzong prohibited Buddhism and religions from western Asia (Mazdeism,Footnote ⁷² Manicheism, Nestorianism,Footnote ⁷³ and Islam), which led to a decline in trade with foreign countries, particularly along the Silk Roads. Although the proscription lasted only a few years, Buddhism fell into decline in China. The state confiscated the property of the monasteries, and Buddhist hospitals were managed under the oversight of public administrators; “the Buddhist church held most of the empire’s stock of precious metals in the form of objects of piety, bells, and statues, and one of the measures adopted was to melt down bells and statues into coins” (Gernet Reference Gernet2002: 294). The emperor’s decision followed attacks against Buddhism that were not really new, but now found a strong echo among the ruling class. The reasons were at the same time economic (lands owned by the Buddhist institutions were exempt from all taxes and corvées, and those institutions had accumulated much wealth), ideological (Buddhism was accused of undermining the core values of Chinese society, such as the family, and it “decentered China,” by making India the seat of knowledge), and political (Buddhism formed an independent power) (Abramson Reference Abramson2007).Footnote ⁷⁴ These measures were implemented within the context of a “culturalist” movement marked by a Neo-Confucianism that had emerged during the eighth century, with the figures of scholars such as Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–836). This Neo-Confucianism would further develop later on, during the Song period.

China became more inward looking. Only eight embassies from Southeast Asia are recorded for the ninth century, and most of them arrived during the first half of the century. They came from Zhenla (Chen-la) in 813, Heling in 813, 815, and 818, Shepo (Java) in 820 and 831, Zhanbei (Chan-pei) (Jambi, Sumatra) in 852 and 871, and Zhancheng (Chan-ch’eng) in 877. Following economic difficulties and famines in northern China, peasant uprisings broke out, and in 879, the troops of the rebel chief Huang Chao – who had come from the Yellow River valley – massacred the foreigners at Canton.Footnote ⁷⁵ According to the historian Abū Zayd, from Sīrāf, 120,000 Muslims, Christians, Jews, and “Iranians following the old faith” [Zoroastrians] were slaughtered. While that number is probably exaggerated, it reflects the large size of the foreign communities in the great Chinese trade centers.Footnote ⁷⁶ The multiplication of military districts led to political disintegration that worked in favor of governors who behaved as independent potentates. The central power lost control of the provinces, and uprisings continued until the end of the Tang dynasty in 906. There were as many as “15 short-lived kingdoms between final Tang collapse and imperial reconsolidation under the Song” (Lieberman Reference Lieberman2009: 500). The second half of the ninth century was a period of climate change marked by colder and more arid conditions in China (between c. 850 and 940; Zhang et al. Reference Zhang2008), which certainly had an impact on yields from cultivation and aggravated economic and political problems. Chinese trade with foreign countries declined during this period as well as during the early tenth century (at the same time, between 869 and 883, southern Mesopotamia was devastated by “the Zanj revolt,” followed by violent social upheavals inspired by the Shiites). On the Thai–Malay peninsula, for example, “the tenth century appears as a period of low import levels of Chinese ceramics” (Jacq-Hergoualc’h 1998: 294).Footnote ⁷⁷ At the same time, Japan was experiencing an economic decline marked by significant demonetization and falling trade. Fear of foreign contacts led Heian to “cancel its mission to China in 894 and to rebuff tenth-century requests from China, Korea, and Manchuria to resume relations” (Lieberman Reference Lieberman2009: 397). In Korea, the Silla kingdom disintegrated during the early tenth century. However, the Goryeo kingdom united the majority of the peninsula around 936.

The second period of the Tang dynasty was part of an overall recession in the world-system, but developments were taking place alongside the Chinese decline that heralded the times ahead. Geographic and social transformations as well as the innovations introduced clearly served to underpin the future advances of the Song period. In the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, the independent kingdoms of Nan Han and Min developed agriculture and commerce, providing the basis for those regions’ prosperity during the Song dynasty.Footnote ⁷⁸ The tomb of Liu Ha, niece of the first king of Nan Han and wife of the third ruler of Min, contained Persian ware, attesting to trade with the Persian Gulf via Canton and Fuzhou (Salmon Reference Salmon2004: 41).