Tang Material Culture

1. Tang Material Culture • How much and to what extent does material culture reflect Tang dynasty’s cultural advances? • How important were the foreign influences on Tang material culture? • What were situations of dwelling and clothing in the Tang? • What kind of food did Tang people eat and what constituted Tang transportation system?

2. Dwelling: little foreign influence; the majority of people lived in houses • Special dwelling structures: • artificial caves (northwest) • homes built on pilings (southwest) • boats (along the Yangtze River) • large ships (central China) • Boats (some southern districts) • Clothing: many foreign influences • Women wore burnoose adopted from the Tu-yü-hun, curtain bonnet from Tokâra • The rich and the poor

3. Earliest Tang buildings still remain today

4. Northern corner of Huaqing Pool Park, Xian

5. Old Huaqing Pool site

6. Dwelling in the Tang • Built according to the principle of fengshui • Gates face south • Walls and outer walls, made of earth • Images of gate gods painted on or attached to gates

7. Gate Gods

8. Dwelling of the Rich • Houses of the rich and powerful had to follow sumptuary statutes • Only highest-ranking aristocrats could place lances with banners attached to them, planted outside the gates of their homes • Mansions having two or more courtyards and halls • Men lived in front apartments, women rear or inner apartments • Wood pillars, beams, rafters used to construct halls • Windows made of oiled papers, cloth, or silk • Walls were plastered and decorated with paintings and calligraphies

9. Houses of rich families and ranking officials consisted of: • Center room, wife and relatives’ rooms • Personal library • Treasury room • Family shrine • Bathhouse or hot spring • Separate privy (had goddess of the privy) • Wells

10. Furnishing: • couches, chairs (after mid-Tang century), round stools and long benches, dinning tables, screens, beds (supported by four poles from which curtains hung), foreign rugs, treasure chest, chamber pots • Pillows: made of porcelain, wood, stone, rosewood • Lightening: torches, oil lamps, candles, and lanterns

11. Chair, Body, and Health • Influence of Buddhism • monks played an important role in the use and spread of chair, sugar, and tea in China. • Before the mid-Tang (8th century), people sat on mats on the ground • Preferred method on sitting was to kneel • On casual occasion, one could sit cross-legged • Buddhist monks started to sit on chairs • Beginning the 6th century or earlier, monks sat on chairs, which were often referred to as corded-chairs, • Sitting on chairs cross-legged was form of seated-meditation • It was to avoid the distraction caused by crawlers such as poisonous snake, spiders, insects etc. • chairs spread from monasteries to living rooms, particularly in late Tang and Song households.

12. LandscapingArchitecture • Garden in the yard: • Occupied half of the land for a stately home • A lake or pond and bridge • Fish, ducks, geese in the lake or pond • Pleasure boats • A bamboo grove • Esteemed flowers and trees: peonies, blue lotus flowers, white and purple magnolias, cassia trees and flowers, a fragrant bramble with yellow blossoms, azaleas, chrysanthemums, redbuds, pine and cypress, apricots, peaches, crabapples • A pavilion (for playing zither or small gatherings) • Rare rocks

13. Pipa Pavilion Built in the Tang In honor of Bai Juyi, who wrote “Ballad of Pipa” (“Song of the Lute”) Houses and pavilions tend to show bilateral symmetry but gardens are asymmetrical

18. Tang women and their costumes

20. Clothing in the Tang • Materials: • Felt (made from wool), used for hats, tents, saddle covers, and boots • Camel hair, otter fur, bombycine, cotton, silk, used to make garments • Major types of cloth: • Wool made from animal fur • Linen made from woody fibers: hemp, ramie, kudzu • Silk made from insect filaments: silkworms (which eat mulberry leaves) cocoons

21. Men’s and Women’s Apparels • Men: • Wore loose, baggy trousers, tunics that opened in the front, and sashes tied at the waist • Slippers and sandals served as shoes • Formal dress resembled modern bathrobes • Boots for horse riding • Women: • Wore trouser and outer skirt that was tied across or above the breasts

22. Foodstuffs in Tang China • Examples: Sweeteners and Teas • Sweeteners: • Chinese used maltose and honey as sweeteners in the pre-Tang period • Monks first acquired the knowledge of sugar-making and were dispatched by Tang court to Indian monastery to learn the technique • The steady stream of monks traveling between China and India accounted for the transfer of the sugar-making technology

23. Left: Gauze-dressed noble women in Tang times Right: Modern version

25. Sugar-production • Evidence indicates that monks first demonstrated sophisticated knowledge of sugar refining • A monk invented sugar frost (known in the West as sugar candy, coffee crystals, or rock candy) • Monasteries often possessed large fields and mills, making it possible to: • Cultivate sugarcane • Extract juice from the cane • Monks paid attention to sugar manufacturing because • they had to follow the rule of eating two meals a day before noon

26. Tea and Tea Drinking • Tea drinking became fashionable among literati officials in the south during the 3rd to the 6th centuries • It gained currency after the 7th century (Tang dynasty), and reached its climax in the 10th century • The popularity of tea drinking led to: • the establishment of a tea-drinking ritual, or several refined rituals • Refinement of the tea drinking culture entailed the use of good quality of waters for brewing tea • Advocacy of the medicinal use of tea • State levied tax on tea, indicating the thriving trade in tea leaves • Poets composed verses praising merits of tea, creating a new genre of literature—”tea poetry”

27. Beginning of Tea Manufacturing • Scholars generally agree that tea manufacture (cultivation and using their leaves) originated in China. • Tea cultivation and drinking throughout the world can for the most part be traced to China • Even pronunciations of the words for tea in all modern languages derive ultimately from Chinese • The modern Chinese word of tea, however, did not become the standard word for the plant until the eighth century

28. Buddhism Helped Spread Tea • The first Chinese author of tea, Lu Yu (b. 733), was raised by a monk and maintained close contacts with monks throughout his life • Tea in monasteries: popular because of • its medicinal properties • its value as a stimulant, • Used as an aid in staying alert during meditation • Monasteries offered tea to visiting literati officials

29. Other Beverages • Wine • Most were products of glutinous millet or glutinous rice • Grape wine was a result of newly developed wine technology • “spring wine”: celebrated in poetry, most popular • Herb added to make it salubrious • Milk: • Goat milk was regarded salubrious; of special value to the kidneys • Mare milk made into “kumiss”

30. Northern & Southern Foods • Food in the north differed from that in the south • North: • millet, barley, wheat, turnips, fruits (grapes, apricots, peaches, pears, apples, persimmons, pomegranates), pork, lamb • South: • rice, sago flour, bamboo shoots, yams and taro, fruits (litchi, dragon eyes, oranges, tangerines, kumquats, loquats, seafood (jelly fish,oysters, squid, crabs, shrimps, turtles, puffers), monkey, frogs, pork • Exotic foods: • Golden peaches, pistachios, dates, mangoes

31. Foods and Health • Foods yield different effects when eaten or prepared in different ways • Cold food: food generating cooling effect • Warm food: food generating heating effect • Food combinations prone to the generation of toxicants • Plums with the meat of songbirds or honey • Turtle with pork, rabbit, duck or mustard • Leeks with beef or honey • Mussels with melons or radishes

32. Culinary Arts • A wide array of cooking methods • Boiling • Steaming • Roasting • Broiling • Barbecuing • Frying • Stewing

33. Feasts and Entertainments • Regular imperial and private feasts accompanied by • Performances of music and dance • Poetry written to commemorate the occasions: festivals, birthdays • Buddhist feasts: vegetarian • Celebrated Buddha’s birthday, anniversaries… • Beverages drunk in banquets: • Water, fruit juices, tea, wine, kumiss, ale • Inebriation contributed to the excellence of artists’ or poets’ works