Tang Cosmopolitan Culture: Impact of Silk Roads or Steppe Roads?

Six Garrisons Rebellion Developments after 530s

Northeastern Xianbei (Särbi) dynasties

Northern Qi, 550-577

Northwestern Xianbei (Särbi) dynasties

Northern Zhou, 557-587

Southern dynasty

Chen, 557-589

Sui Dynasty 591-618

Elite Tang Society

Status of women in North China under Northern Dynasties, Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasties

Yan Zhitui (531-ca. 591)

Served Chen, N. Qi and Sui Dynasties

“North of the Yellow River it is usually the wife who runs the household...The traditional niceties between husband and wife are seldom observed, and from time to time he even has to put up with her insults."

Quoted in Valerie Hansen, The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600, 2^nd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton), 2015, p. 165.

Tang Dynasty (618-907)

Gaozu (r. 618-26)

*Taizong (r. 627-49)

Gaozong (r. 650-83)

*Wu Zhao

Empress, (655-683)

Empress Dowager, (683-690)

Zhou dynasty (r. 690-705)

Height of female and Buddhist influence

Character of Tang

Traditional bases of power

Agriculture

Bureaucracy of Confucian scholars

Openness to outside world

Camel with Musicians

Trade Imports

Spices

Glassware

Byzantine bottle found in Famen (Dharma Gate) Monastery, Shaanxi China

Precious metals

Silver and gold coins and bullion

Wares

Gilded silver “Bactrian ewer” (Whitfield, ch. 5, plate 4)

From tomb of Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-587) official

Guyuan, Ningxia, NW China

Spread of Artistic Styles

Sasanian Iran prototype

Sogdian winged-camel version

Tang ceramic phoenix-headed version (fig. 4)

Mirrors

Tang Armies

Regular Tang fubing troops

Cavalry and infantry

Turk and other nomad auxiliaries

Cavalry

Foreign Policy Success

Taizong

E. Turks defeated, 630

W. Turk campaigns

Turfan, 640

Kucha, 648

Gaozong

Western Turks and Sogdiana conquered, 657

Only 3 major nomadic

Discussion of Sogdians in [Northern Zhou] Chang’an: Hansen 238-272 (docs. 28a-c)

An Jia (Qie) (d. 579)

Shi Wirkak (494-579) of Kish (Sogdiana)

Both served the Northern Zhou and had tombs in royal cemeteries on Chang'an

1. How are the structures of the Chinese-language epitaphs similar? What parts of the epitaphs seem to contain realistic information?

2. Comparing the Sogdian and Chinese-language epitaphs of Shi Wirkak, how do the two versions differ? What parts of the Sogdian-language epitaph seem to contain realistic information? What does the Sogdian-language epitaph reveal about Sogdian beliefs?