by Kevin Kwong
To understand Chinese culture, it is necessary to go back to the very beginning of its civilisation. In this series, we look at the most influential dynasties in Chinese history and how each, with its technological inventions and cultural advancements, helped propel the nation forward.
By the time China ushered in the Tang dynasty (618-907), Chinese culture was on the cusp of an unparalleled peak.
Riding on the success of the preceding Sui dynasty (581-617) – which unified China after four hundred years of division – the Tang inherited a strong central government and competent bureaucracy, the latter bolstered by a merit-based imperial examination system.
The Silk Road – a vast network of trade routes that connected China with the West as far as the Mediterranean – had been in use since the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220), and its expansion, both on land and at sea, would further spread the influence of Chinese art and culture far beyond its borders.
An exhibit at “Tang Vogue Beyond the Horizons: A Golden Era of Multicultural Integration and Openness”, an exhibition now on at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre. Photo: Nora Tam
An exhibit at “Tang Vogue Beyond the Horizons: A Golden Era of Multicultural Integration and Openness”, an exhibition now on at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre. Photo: Nora Tam
It was on this solid foundation that the Tang dynasty was able to scale new heights politically, economically and socially. The new era’s prosperity could be felt in the bustling capital of Chang’an (modern-day Xian), the largest city in the world at the time.
According to “Tang Vogue Beyond the Horizons: A Golden Era of Multicultural Integration and Openness”, an exhibition about the Tang dynasty at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre that runs until the end of the year, Chang’an was full of life and culture, a place where “tens of thousands of local and foreign officials, merchants, artists, artisans and monks” would go about their daily business.
Tang-dynasty China was an open and multi-ethnic country active in external exchanges. Merchants, envoys and students from Silla (an ancient Korean kingdom), Japan, Chenla (an ancient state in what is now Cambodia), India, the Arab world and the Byzantine Empire came for trade, cultural and academic exchanges. Maritime trade also expanded significantly.
In the vast Gobi Desert, merchants travelled westward, taking much-sought-after items such as Chinese silk, lacquerware and tea to Central and West Asia. In return, products from those areas, including animals, plants, perfume, jewellery, and gold and silverware, were brought back to China.
As a result, performing arts such as music, dance and acrobatics flourished in the capital. The Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre exhibition points out that Chinese long-sleeve dance reached its peak during this period, while musicians played both traditional Chinese instruments such as the dizi, sheng and zheng, as well as lutes and drums from Central Asia, to perform a fusion of han and hu (nomadic or ethnic) music.
Chinese literature also peaked during the Tang dynasty, with many important classical poems from the period preserved. Works by poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu are still taught at schools today.
Landscape paintings were a major art form, with a focus on capturing the essence of nature. Sancai (three-colour) glazed pottery, particularly depicting horses and court figures, is a signature artistic achievement of the era.
Meanwhile, Cha Jing (the classic of tea) by Lu Yu, first published around 760, is said to be the world’s first comprehensive book on tea. Its significance lies in its elevation of tea from a simple drink consumed primarily for its medicinal properties to a sophisticated art form and codified cultural practice.
The book detailed the production, processing and drinking of tea, as well as teaware, all of which made the practice fashionable. Writings and poetry from the literati of the period also show that people were fastidious about drinking tea.
Another interesting slice of culture from the period was its fashion. Tang style was characterised by a sense of boldness and opulence, a notable departure from the more modest styles of previous eras.
These aesthetics of the time have inspired many contemporary artists and designers; some of their interpretations can be seen in films and TV dramas from recent decades.
According to the “Tang Vogue Beyond the Horizons” exhibition, women depicted in tomb murals and pottery figures generally wore a “top” under a short-sleeved jacket or shawl, matched with a long pleated skirt.
Small waists were a desirable trait for women during the early Tang dynasty, but standards later changed, and round figures symbolising vitality and health came to be preferred.
“In the Tang dynasty, society was open and women could enjoy more freedom, as evidenced by their attire,” the exhibition notes state.
At the Mogao Caves – a historical site in China’s Gansu province housing an extensive collection of ancient Buddhist art – murals also shed light on women’s fashion at the time. Here, the walls feature depictions of women wearing low-cut clothing that accentuates their voluptuous figures.
The style is considered bold even by modern-day standards in mainland China – who can forget when the 2014 TV drama, The Empress of China, also known as the Saga of Wu Zetian, was temporarily suspended by the authorities for showing too much skin and cleavage on screen?
On the subject of Wu Zetian, the Tang dynasty was briefly interrupted by the reign of Empress Wu, the first and only female monarch in Chinese history, who established her own dynasty, Zhou, from 690 to 705.
The heyday of the Tang dynasty came with the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (712-756), during a period known as the Reign of Kaiyuan.
One notable discovery in ninth-century China was gunpowder. The first confirmed written formula – a combination of sulphur, saltpetre and charcoal – was found in an ancient Taoist alchemical text. It was, apparently, a chance discovery that Taoist alchemists made while searching for an elixir of immortality.
External, or waidan, alchemists believed that by manipulating and combining potent natural substances, they could create a pill or drink, jindan, that would confer physical immortality upon ingestion.
Historians have pointed out that this focus on minerals and metals, especially mercury, led to a tragic irony throughout Chinese history: many emperors and nobles who consumed these elixirs, including Emperor Xuanzong, died of poisoning. Gunpowder was an unforeseen and violent by-product of these hazardous experiments.
The development of gunpowder as a weapon came much later; the earliest complete surviving chemical formula for gunpowder is recorded in Wujing Zongyao, in the Complete Essentials for the Military Classics of 1044.
the Tang dynasty came to an end in 907, and China was split into what is known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, as a rapid succession of five short-lived dynasties controlled the north of the country, while 10 independent kingdoms ruled the south. SCM