The Tang and Inner Asia Flashcards
Inner Asia
INNER ASIA = inner, asia not on the coast, central asia = distinction usually made between interior parts that came under chinese (inner asia) or central asia and russia (central asia) = diff colonial influences = closely linked
Rural life in Tang China
*Strict rules of governance combined with understaffed bureaucracy
*Continues Northern Wei equal field system, but difficulties in commercial economy
*Not always enough land for everyone entitled to it
Last time = city capital has strict control on markets, curfews, etc..
Manage ordinary strcilt
In rural areas as help, harder for the state to be that authoritarian, average size 25-30000 people for a few (hundred) officials?
Gets worse
Supposed to maintain records on
Annual inspection
Men eligiable for labor or
Compiled registers to
Every year = modern states dont even do that
Why? Determine labor and taxation
Land system = northern xei= equal field system, personal share land (3y) and perpetual land (heredarity, silk tree check name)
Nx = diff economy, little commerce, state requisitioning things, tang = more commercial, market trasactions, equal field system = didnt fonction that well cuz didnt take into account the shift in economy
Responsible for tax= little taxation on merchants = getting wealthy vs farmers
Falsafy registration for no taxes
Many places = not enough land to be entitled to and perceive = administration docs = state to manage economy = producing formal contracts for small deals (came
Tang rule over Inner Asia
*Tang ruling family came from a North Chinese elite culture with heavy nomadic influences (and ancestry)
*The Tang were frequently at war with the Turks, with victory under Taizong (2nd emperor) due in large part to Turks’ internal problems
*Tang military came to be dominated by non-Chinese officers
Evidence come from the far west = dry conditions of oasis = better preservation of material = like bamboo slips (in wet areas)
Paper = shitches to it to write = wet areas ceases to get things survived = now indeserts in inner asia
2000 original docs in turfan oasis
Why preserved? = used to be paper hats and horses for clothing for funerals = not kept for admistritative things
What oasis were doing = period of division = ruled by western part dynasties of non-chinese people = adopted practices like langages and marry eastern elites = had adoptated nomadic
Li family = mixed aristocraty = tang imperial ambitions = nomads are just as important as china itself
Degree of support from the turk = then appease them = taizong (2nd) = not to appear the turks but conquer them, calamities (winter and livestock) and inter divisions that promoted rebellions = tang emperor detroyed the eastern turks = adopted title to heavenly kan + emperor = approach to warfare = skills from origins = frontline and engage in battle
Used
Something about slow thing bout tang?
Discussion: Shao-yun Yang, “Early Tang China and the World, 618-750 CE”
Jimi = parts if the emperor = isnt trying to impose direct tang rule = local rulers that swear alleagance = very big empiror, lots of places with rulers but in fact suggest that it is not as powerful in large parts of inner asia, little control on those regions = exagerated role of their control
Tribute= notion that tang state expresses = submission to them = not how it understands itself = tribute missions from states = may not understand them at all, and even if they do, just go along with it because permit trade with those agreeing, in practice they may not listen to the tang = states offering tributes to other countries, contrary to the tang view of center of the world = everything is universally aknowledged ruler in asia = more complicated
Cosmopolitanism = people from eastern asia fromtrade and tribute = diverse society especially in chang an = most chinese people have no connection to it (no interractions, marriage, not meaningful to the population of china), people travelling the most werent from
An Lushan
*Emperor Xuanzong became obsessed with Yang Guifei in the 740s
*She was the patron (and perhaps lover) of a part-Sogdian, part-Turkish general named An Lushan
*Rebellion in 755 seized the capital. Eventually defeated, but the Tang never fully recovered
*Dynasty finally came to an end in 907 – new period of division (
Five Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms: 907-960)
740s = fell in love with someone = munk = consort of the emperor = yang weifei = very close to emperor and a general = yang lufan = adopted = people say its an affair = factual intrege = murder attempt = contonued to protect??
Appppointed commisionar of the imperial stables = 3 of military divisiob
Rebels = emperor forced to flee = blamed yang guifei = forced to strangle her = poem and peinting = song of never ending sorrow
New empror w mercenary = right after = tibetan empire
Withdraw, attack capital every 20 years
Early 9th century - end tibetian
Tang rule was shaking, everything collapsed = power with military generals and taking taxes
Modern day beijing = se barrent
More and more provinces
907 - end, chang an in ruins and no more
Divided in new period
The Silk Road
Silk road = didnt exist in the tang dynasty = german scholar = not a well defined road = trade network = multiple routes in inner asia , some more common that others, =
Text from turfan = lots of sand and travelers are lost, hard to get through
Not usually travelled from europe to china = shorter distances = from kashgar to changan and then luoyan, very little more (europe)
Most political regime = weakened = dangerous and slowed down = false idea = new states sprung out in the west = more invested to ensure protection for the trade = more committed cuz wealth, important part of their empire
Dunhuang
148-136? - a state
Most sources of silk road and late are
Mogao caves = details -5th and 14th centry
Library cave = selaed 11th cent = a guy moved into the caves and explored it = and found that there was lots of manuscrits in many languages = mostly buddhist texts, 5% other = lots of dunhuang society
Documents = monastic = scrap paper = lots survived to keep buddhist scroll okay
;ater part of the 1st millenia
What the Dunhuang documents reveal
*Multilingualism and multiculturalism of Silk Road
*Intense connections between oasis communities, diplomatic as well as commercial
*Silk in fact a very important good
Multicultural and lingual = chinese and relied on otehr languages = non monolingual states = chinese or tibetian, and kotanese and other
Edict in chinese, res in khotanes
Well connected states = not just economic (primary), travellers for monasteries or sacred texts, diplomacy (missions, courts = travelers had goods for gifts or tributes) (elephants) = own prestige and open movement, large pop had journeys, lots of silk road
Silk = prominently in the silk = lots of value to rate for overland trade = 878 = dunhuang to tang court = diplomatic mission = lots of silk = 6 camels, 20km = wheate? = produced in all states = move in all direction on the silk road
Poem =
Relations among Silk Road States
*Diplomatic marriage (heqin)
*Multiple ideas of rulership from different traditions employed simultaneously – “heavenly minister” = dang re shang shu = tngri 尚書
*Tribute doesn’t just flow one way
Natural on how it dealt with neighbors = works with otehr rulers for stable regional relations = marriages, for travellers = abandonned after = dunhuang (chinese ruler) yes = chinese style emperors = willing to do marriage in the otehr direction
Rules and concepts = the great son of god = son of heaven but framed in a tibetian view = king of dunhuang = hevently minister = document in tibetian = power brought together ina multicultural concept
Chinese central view = tribute to pay = dunhuang (chinese orientation) = tine of weakness = would be sup than non-chinese states
Song = descrives emissaries of the dunhuang = contribute silk = inferior = no simpek tribute system
Recap
*The Tang state was a competitor in the political world of Inner Asia, in ways linked to but distinct from its role as a Chinese dynasty
*The links between the Tang (or China more broadly) and Inner Asia were not simply dictated by Chinese rulers, but reflected the interests of many actors, including those of supposed “tributary” states, who often saw their own position in very different terms from how the Tang saw them
*Though the Silk Road was not a road in a conventional sense, the links between China and Central/Inner Asia that it represents were very real, and silk was indeed a key commodity
E. Denison Ross and Vilhelm Thomsen, “The Orkhon Inscriptions: Being a Translation of Professor Vilhelm Thomsen’s Final Danish Rendering,”
- Stephen Owen, “Tang Literature of the Frontier” in Anthology of Chinese Literature
- Li Bo, “The Turks Are Gone!”
- Wang Chang-ling, “Variation on ‘Hard Traveling’”
- Wang Chang-ling, “By the Passes: A Song (second of a set)”
- Cen Shen, “Song of White Snow: Sending Off Assistant Wu on His Return to the Capital”
- Wang Jian, “With the Army: A Ballad”
5 poems by chinese poets = frontier
- nature hostile, assign how battle will go
- glory of the han
- distance, harshness of the environment
- war as a form of suffering =
- not written at the same moment
- periods of tang waekness= constant frontier warfare, regret of the futility of it
selection of stone inscriptions from central mongolia by a turkish ruler (same time)
- written by people that are fought against, living in those places
- very prideful, ability to endure it from his people
- deshonorable and betrayal of its people
- strong sense of ethnic or cultural idea of turks, members of a single group, who has interest as a group and where members have responsabilities to their group and how they behave
- flips the tang portrayal = steppe lands = distant lands of suffering and harship = center for the khan, good for them to live, better off there
- mandate of heaven for war
- war = reflecting success and glory of the people
- can provide them stuff, through tributes or raids(?)
- comparison = turkish = duties particular of your own people = responsibility of the people in his actions = not like chinese
- groups to want to dominate = duty of the glory of the turks = vs chinese poeple that see them as one big group
