Daily Life of Tang Dynasty

唐代是中国历史上的一个重要时期。它被认为是古代最繁荣强盛的朝代之一，唐代在文化、社会经济等方面都取得了巨大的成就，这是中国的黄金时期。下面我将从唐代日常生活的十个方面来介绍。

Introduction

Tang dynasty is an important time in the Chinese history. It is considered as one of the strongest dynasties in the ancient time. At that time, Tang dynasty got great achievements in the culture, social economy technology and so on. The power of the country is great.It is the golden time in the China.

There were also some great people in that period, such as Li yuan, Li shiming, Wu zetian and so on. They all did many things to develop the Tang dynasty. In the Tang dynasty, the country was consolidated. The country had developed very fast in various aspects. The daily life in the Tang dynasty was rich and colorful.

In this paper, I will mainly introduce the ten aspects of the daily life in the Tang dynasty. I will organize the useful information by reviewing the relative journals and books. Then I will analyze each point in my paper. At the same time, I will give my own consideration towards the same points. The paper is focused on ten different aspects in the Tang dynasty, I will give many detail information for every point. People can get the useful things and important information about that dynasty in this  paper  (http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3543312&fileId=S030574100001821X#).

The Geography in the Tang Dynasty

The geographical location of the Tang dynasty was so great in the ancient China. The eastern part of the Tang dynasty was bounded by Persia(the old name of Iran), and the external transportation was pretty good in the Tang dynasty.

In the ancient time, the Yellow River basin was always the most important part of the center of the Chinese civilization. There were many wars in the northwest part of the China, so it was reasonable for Tang dynasty to choose a site for the capital in the northwest Chinese. Only when the northwest part was in peace, the whole country would be stable. In the middle time of the Tang dynasty, the Tang dynasty open up the Silk Road which enhanced the economy of the Tang dynasty. The Silk Road is closely connected with the geographical location of the Tang dynasty and the location of the capital. So we can see that geography plays an essential role in the development of the Tang dynasty.

Festival and custom In the Tang Dynasty

There were various festivals in the Tang dynasty, such as Cold Food festival, Tomb-sweeping Day, festival of lanterns and so on. The different festival contains the different custom. For example, In the Tang dynasty, it was holiday from Cold Food festival to Tomb-sweeping Day. People often went for the outing and held the banquet in that several days. People would not be allowed to cook and they should eat the cold food. So we called it the Cold Food festival. (Shih, 3-5). At the same time, people often lived cinders kept for beginning the further fire. This kindling material must be kept for a year except the Cold Food festival. People also would do some sports in that time, such as playing on the swing, tug-of-way, playing a ball game and so on.

There were many kinds of festivals in the Tang dynasty. As the development of the society, people had the time and money to celebrate and have the festival. So the festival and the custom was the important part in the daily life of the Tang dynasty.

Government and Royalty in the Tang Dynasty

In the Tang dynasty, the government was open in the politic. The government held the liberal policy towards nationalities. It got along well with the whole nationalities and protected the quality of nationality. Government advocated people to absorb the essence and advantages from other nationalities.

The government also payed attention to the connection with other countries. For example, Tang dynasty had good relationship with Asian counties, European counties and even the African countries. The government tried to study the good aspect of the foreign culture actively.

The royalty has the unique character in the Tang dynasty, the imperial power was not the absolute power in the Tang dynasty. The prime minister’s power had great graded. To some extent, the prime minister’s power would restrict the imperial power. So it would have a balance between these two powers.

Religion

In the religion,  there were many kinds of the religions. But the Buddhism and Taoism had became the fashion in the society.there were many Taoist priest in the society, even the female wanted to become the Taoist priest.

Accordingly, there were many temples in the Tang dynasty. The government also payed attention to the development of the religion, especially the Buddhism and Taoism. (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7123/full/nature05431.html).

Imperial examination 

The imperial examination did not come from the Tang dynasty. It is stated from the Sui dynasty, but it had the highlight in the Tang dynasty. Imperial examination was a chance for poor people to change their lives. It was an important thing in the Tang dynasty. The projects in the Imperial examination were numerous in that period. It could be divided in to several degrees, such as judicial degree, MingJing degree and so on. Once people passed the imperial examination at the certain level, they would be given the qualification of the official position. After other examination, the would get the official position. In the time of Wu, she set up the royal examination, which was a final imperial examination held by the emperor. She also started the military examination. In this way, many intelligent people entered the palace and contributed the Tang dynasty.

The Role of Men and Women

Tang dynasty is a open dynasty in the ancient history. The man still had the primary power and  higher social status, but the female had certain freedom in that period. The female can change their social status by becoming a Taoist. Once they become the Taoist, they can communicate with others and visit people randomly. What’s more, they had the chance to meet with the high officials and rich lords. They even had the chance to meet the emperor. So many women chose to become the Taoist to grade their status. This had became a fashion in the Tang dynasty.

The women in the Tang dynasty had certain right to inheritance. The female was allowed to become the head of a household with high economic status. The women play an important role in many aspects of the social activities. This situation would not appear in other dynasties.

The Military and Warfare in the Tang Dynasty

In the military, the power of the military in the Tang dynasty was very powerful. The land had been enlarged greatly in that period. The quantity of the weapons and arms came in to a unprecedented submit. The government had the ability to fight against other countries.

Due to the open policy towards other nationalities and counties, there rarely wars in the heyday. Some nationalities called the Tang emperor as “Khan”.

The Art and Architecture

The Tang dynasty had great achievement in the art and architecture.

In the architecture, the buildings had grand scale and planning tidy. Chang’an is the capital of the Tang dynasty, with 83 square kilometers area. Some wooden building appeared in the city. The designation of the building and the construction level had great improved. The character of the architecture is grandiose and splendid. (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v450/n7168/abs/nature06338.html).

In the art, we can feel the sense of the art from various aspect of the Tang dynasty. In the painting, the female painting is very famous. In the handwriting, with the development of the social economy and culture, the character of the the handwriting forceful. The representative personages are ZhangXu, HuaiSu, Yan Zhenqing and so on. (Yu, 3). In the sculpture aspect, the sculpture had great improved. The pictures in the sculpture is exquisite. As for the poetry, the poetry in the Tang dynasty had sublimated the peak. The quality of the poetry is admirable, the style of the poetry is various and the quantity of the poetry is numerous.

The Science and Technology in the Tang dynasty

In the science and technology, the astronomer Seng Yixing had firstly measured the the length of the meridian line in the world. The doctor Sun Simiao had written “the golden prescriptions for emergencies”, which told various ways to treat different illness. The Diamond Sudra is the earliest printed book in the world.

Influence of the Civilization in the Tang Dynasty on the Development of Modern Civilization

On the one side, The Tang dynasty has the great influence on the modern civilization. As for the open policy of the government and wonderful social fashion. The external enchantments stimulated the development of the economy and culture. Now, we also preserves many things in that time. For example, the poetry in the Tang dynasty has become the the content of Chinese textbook. (Miyairi, 2).

On the other hand, the Tang dynasty has effected other countries’ culture, especially in the Japan. Today, we can also find some elements of Tang dynasty in the Japanese building, food , and clothes.

The clothing in the Tang dynasty

The clothing in the Tang dynasty has the special characteristics. In the Tang dynasty, the economic prosperity makes the clothing become rich and gorgeous. As for the women’ dresses, it is a fashion to wear the revealing attire. In the Tang dynasty, people regards the chubbiness as the beauty. So the clothing in that time is loose. The pattern in the clothes is various, such as flowers, birds, insets and so on. The clothing in the Tang dynasty is poly-chrome, it enriched the history of the development of the  ancient clothing.

In conclusion, Tang dynasty is a prosperity stage in the Chinese history. The dynasty had developed in an all-around way. There are rich and colorful achievements in the Tang dynasty. We have realize the importance of the ancient culture development, We should learn the essence from it and inherit the traditional historical culture.

References
[1]Aiming Lin & Zhikun Ren &Dong Jia &Yosuke Miyairi, Evidence for a Tang-Song Dynasty great earthquake along the Longmen Shan Thrust Belt prior to the 2008 M w 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, China. Journal of Seismology, 2010.
[2]Anti-correlation of summer/winter monsoons? 24 August 2007
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[3]Influence of the intertropical convergence zone on the East Asian monsoon.6 November,2006..
[4]Way, D.-L. & Shih, Z.-C, The Synthesis of Rock Textures in Chinese Landscape Painting. Computer Graphics Forum, 2001.
[5]The China Quarterly. March 1993.

[6]Shiyong Yu& Cheng Zhu& Jian Song & Weizheng Qu, Role of climate in the rise and fall of Neolithic cultures on the Yangtze Delta. Boreas, 2008.


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