Ancient China: Tang dynasty 618-907

1. Ancient China: Tang dynasty618-907

2. Han T'ang Introduction:  Around 600 CE, the T'ang managed to pull China together once again. T'ang times were neat!  Under T'ang leadership, ancient China entered her Golden Age. It was a time of prosperity and gaiety and experimentation. People tried new things, like bananas! Examination Day: You did not have to be a noble to hold a high position.   To be assigned a job in high office in one of the many towns and villages, you had to pass the government exams. It was a route to riches and fame. On examination day, the day the tests were given, horses and coaches thronged the road to the city.

3. A famous poet of T'ang times is Po Chu-I (772-846)  Po, like many Chinese, liked the simple things of life best. Although fame and fortune are nice, the joy and pride his parents might have in him and the joy of a beautiful spring day, were more important. This is his poem, about examination day in the city: After passing the examination (by Po Chu-I) For ten years I never left my books,I went up.. and won unmerited praise.My high place I do not much prize;The joy of my parents will first make me proud.Fellow students, six or seven men,See me off as I leave the City gate.  My covered coach is ready to drive away;Flutes and strings blend their parting tune.Hopes achieved dull the pains of parting;Fumes of wine shorten the long road...Shod with wings is the horse of him who ridesOn a Spring day the road that leads to home.

4. The Arts:The T'ang Empire is famous for its brilliant stories, literature, dancing, music, and art.  Talented dancers and singers came from India and Korea to study singing and dancing in China. A special room was set aside in the imperial palace for training.   Huge orchestras, with as many as 700 instruments, performed at the imperial court. Tea drinking and tea ceremonies became all the rage. Craftsmen worked with iron, bronze, copper, gold, silver, and other metals. Scroll painting became very popular. Painting, like everything else, blossomed in the T'ang Dynasty. Brushes were used to make thick lines and filled in color. Sculpture, especially Buddhist sculpture (statues of Buddha) were extremely popular. Pottery was painted with representations of musicians, maidservants, soldiers, domestic and miraculous animals, minor deities, and signs of the zodiac.  Bird Concerts: Then, as now, if you asked about, you'd find a Bird Concert somewhere nearby, a place where bird lovers collected once each week in the early morning, with their feathered friends. While their owners sipped a morning beverage, their songbirds would put on an impromptu concert, enjoyed by all who gathered to listen.

5. Capital city:Ch'ang-an, the capital city, was a rather big town of over one million people! The city was designed like a checkerboard, with broad wide streets, and side streets, and city blocks. There were 110 blocks, each like its own village, with a marketplace and temples. Throughout the city, residents and visitors could enjoy tea shops, cake shops, gem dealers, pawnbrokers, street acrobats and storytellers, colorful banners, lots of bazaars. It was a lively place. A word about audiences: In ancient China, and still true today much of the time, everyone attended art performances. Being a social occasion as much as a theatrical performance, people would wander in and out as the mood took them, chit-chat or gossip softly, and bring their two year olds. Houses:Households in the large capital city of Ch'ang-an had baths, heaters, mechanical fans, fountains, ice-cooled rooms, mirrors, musical instruments such as the harp, ceramics, spoons, goblets of gold and silver. The rich were waited on by servants and slaves. The pagoda look became popular during T'ang times. Homes of the wealthy and of the nobles were very large, with several rooms, built of wood and brick. Farmers homes were made of sun dried brick and bamboo. They were very simple, one room homes. Clothing, Hair Styles, and Cosmetics:Men had topknots. They shaved their heads except for the hair right in the center of the top of their head, which they let grow long. Then they wrapped it up in a knot. This was called a topknot! They used gold and decorated hair pins to keep them in place. On their heads, women balanced jeweled crowns with little jingling bells dangling from the edges. Women used little make-up boxes that held a mirror, rouge, and lipstick. Eyebrows were carefully designed. In T'ang times, they were shaped like little mountains, like this ^. (Eyebrows have always been part of ancient Chinese fashion. In 2c BCE, eyebrows had sharp, pointed tops. In 2c A.D., eyebrows were gently curved.)

6. Shoes:In T'ang times, shoes were really important. They were a sign of status. Peasants wore straw sandals. Nobles wore fine cloth slippers. Nobles wore turquoise colored features in fancy hats, and silk robes with jade belts. Clothing was made of silk for the rich, and ramie cloth for the poor (woven from a plant called ramie, rough, coarse, used to make farmers clothes.) Entertainment and Sports:They played board games such as backgammon. Music, dancing, hunting with falcons, and archery were all popular. They played a kind of football, and enjoyed polo which had been introduced from India. They had national celebrations, such as the Emperor's Birthday, which was enjoyed by rich and poor alike. The Family:The days of human sacrifice were long over, but honoring ones ancestors was still very important. Family members were expected to help each other, and care for each other. When a girl married, she went to live with her husband's family.  School: Only boys could go to school. They did not have to go to school, but it was free, and encouraged. Girls learned at home. Education was very important. Teachers were one of the five objects of worship. (The other four were heaven, earth, the emperor, and parents). Religion: Buddhismhad been introduced in Han times. Buddhism arrived as an idea from India, via the Silk Road. It really took hold during T'ang times. Confucianism was very strong, and so was Taoism. Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism were known in T'ang times as the Three Doctrines.  Still, if you were to ask someone in ancient China, "What is the official religion of China?" - they probably would not have mentioned Buddhism, Confucianism, or Taoism. They would probably have said something like this: "The proper and seasonable worship of the gods of the rivers and mountains, and wind and moon, and of our noble ancestors." 

7. Many of the celebrations and festivals that honor these ancient gods are still celebrated by the Chinese today. Honoring gods and ancestors was very much a part of ancient Chinese daily life Farmers:Eastern T'ang: In spite of the wonderful Golden Age enjoyed by the rich in the cities, most of the people in T'ang times were farmers. For a while, their life was somewhat improved. At least they owned the land! The early T'angs distributed the land equally, to create a nation of free farmers. Each farmer received one ch'ing of land, about 15 acres. (In later years, this system of family farms broke down. Landlords and nobles took back the land. China reverted to feudal times, where nobles owned and peasants worked.) They ate beans, turnips, barley cakes, melons, peaches, bits of pork and chicken, plums, lots of fish, and drank wine. In the north, still, they ate breads made of wheat. In the south, still, they ate rice. Although they worked hard, country people were not unhappy. For the most part, they were not at war. They had developed a culture rich with ancestor worship and festivals and customs. They were simple people, who enjoyed simple pleasures. They were richly aware of the many beauties of nature. Nomads:Western T'ang:  Western T'ang was peopled with nomads. The nomads did not grow food. They moved from place to place, tending herds of horses, goats and sheep. Their homes were huts on wagons on wheels, so they could move their homes easily. Clothing was made of wool or animal skins. They ate milk and meat. They were traders, and traded with wandering merchants for other things they needed. Sometimes, they traded along the Silk Road.