The T'ang Dynasty...

[rogerluli]

An interesting read on the T'ang Dynaty as reviewed in the NY Times...

 

China's Golden Age

By Eliot Weinberger

 

1.

Women in the courts of the T'ang Dynasty, between 618 and 907, painted their eyebrows green; the standard of beauty was to have brows as delicately curved as the antennae of moths. Foreheads were powdered yellow with massicot, a lead oxide, for yellow was the color of vitality. Plumpness, as in many societies where the masses are hungry, was the ideal and useful, men claimed, in winter: in the poorly heated palaces, a prince or minister could huddle his heftiest concubines around him to protect him from drafts.

 

There are at least twenty-four hairstyles mentioned in T'ang poetry, some a foot high, held together by lapis lazuli hairpins clattering with pearls, with silk flowers and birds of gold perched on the top. As the empire was crumbling, the most popular styles had names such as "Deserting the Family" and "Uprooting the Grove." Yang Kuei-fei, the emperor Hs¨¹an Tsung's beautiful courtesan whose machinations set off a civil war, kept a tiny jade fish in her mouth.

 

The empire, expanding and contracting with conquests and defeats, at its height stretched east to the China Sea, south to Annam, and west along the Silk Road as far as Samarkand. The Grand Canal, a massive feat of construction 1,200 miles long, linked north and south, and a network of highways and waterways connected 1,859 cities, twenty-two of them with populations of at least half a million. The capital, Ch'ang-an (present-day Xi'an in central China), was the largest city in the world, some thirty square miles, laid out in a grid pattern with wide avenues lined with fruit trees and patrolled by unforgiving policemen, the Gold Bird Guards. Nearly two million inhabitants were apportioned into 108 walled wards, including two vast markets with hundreds of lanes, strictly organized according to goods and services; parks with artificial lakes and mountains and imported birds and game; and an extensive Pleasure Quarters of banquet halls and brothels.

 

 

Every aspect of life was codified and enforced by imperial edict: the length of tunics, the price of each item in the market, the colors that may be worn by ministers of certain ranks, the number of blows with a thin rod that a speeding coachman should receive. There were prohibitions against eating a white sheep that had a black head or a dish of pheasants with walnuts. Censuses of every village were taken to ensure an exact collection of taxes and to fill the ranks of compulsory labor and conscription. The country was converted to a cash economy and the foundation of imperial wealth became its tax on salt, a commodity everyone needed. Under the T'ang, the system of strict examinations on the classics as a requirement for entering the civil service became universal; one census listed 130,000 students. Although this hardly resulted in a meritocracy, it meant that some young men who did not come from well-connected families could rise to powerful positions in the government, and an increasing number of talented¡ªor, at least, educated¡ªpeople entered the bureaucracy.

 

The T'ang became rich on trade, promoted by a new merchant class along the Silk Road (where Sogdian was the lingua franca) or on the sea routes that led to the port of Canton (where the sailors spoke Persian). Coral from the Mediterranean or Ceylon; golden peaches from Samarkand; cardamom from Tonkin; "thousand-year" jujubes from Tabaristan; ostrich-egg cups from Bukhara; various peppers from Burma; feathers from the white egrets, peacocks, and kingfishers of Annam (one princess had a dress made entirely from feathers); pistachios from Persia; furs of sable, ermine, miniver, steppe foxes, and martens.... The list of T'ang imports is endless, and T'ang coins have been found as far west as the coast of Somalia.

 

The masses, who rarely saw these treasures, told tales of strange objects with magical powers, brought from abroad: a single bean that was sufficient food for weeks; a certain wheat that made the body so light that one could fly; a crystal pillow that gave the sleeper visions of strange lands; a piece of rhinoceros horn that could heat a palace; hairpins that turned into dragons; pots that cooked without fire; the translucent stone that emitted a cool breeze; the plant that was always surrounded by darkness.

 

All things foreign were the rage. Aristocrats learned to sit in chairs, the "barbarian beds." Dandies preferred to speak Turkish, and set up blue felt nomadic tents in their urban courtyards, where they dressed like khans and ate chunks of lamb that they cut off with swords. Courtesans sang songs with titles like "Watching the Moon in Brahman Land," playing melodies on foreign instruments adapted from Indian, Turkish, Korean, and Persian tunes. Entertainment was provided by dancers from Tashkent or the Sogdian "twirling girls" who performed balancing on giant balls. Saffron-flavored wine, made from grapes imported from Turkey, was served in agate cups, poured in the Pleasure Quarters by blue-eyed geishas. "When I drink this," said the emperor Mu Tsung, "I am instantly conscious of harmony suffusing my four limbs¡ªit is the true Princeling of Grand Tranquility"¡ªthe latter being an honorific for Lao Tzu, the Taoist sage.

 

It was a time of inordinate leisure. Mandarins were given fifty-eight days off during the year to celebrate twenty-eight holidays. There were holidays for viewing the moon and for attempts to outshine it. (One emperor erected a lantern tree two hundred feet tall with 50,000 oil cups lit by a thousand palace women costumed in brocade.) Periodically the emperor would declare a three-day carnival in the streets, with floats five stories high carrying acrobats swinging on poles, musicians, and singers. In the palace, the bureaucratic office known as the Service of Radiant Emolument was in charge of imperial banquets; the cooking alone was handled by a staff of two thousand, preparing such rare dishes as steamed bear claw, Bactrian camel hump, jellyfish with cinnamon, proboscis monkey soup with five flavors, barbequed elephant trunk, and, in summer, melons that were kept cool in jade urns of ice brought down from the mountains. The aristocracy wanted it all to last forever; they drank strange elixirs concocted by Indian charlatans and Taoist alchemists that would promote longevity or even ensure immortality. It is said that five of the T'ang emperors died from these potions.

 

In Ch'ang-an there were churches and temples, synagogues and mosques for Nestorian Christians, Manichaeans, Zoroastrians, Muslims, and Jews. But by far the most popular of the imported religions was Buddhism, which had been brought from India some centuries before and was actively promoted in the T'ang by the notoriously ruthless Empress Wu, the only woman emperor in Chinese history and perhaps second only to Elizabeth I as the most powerful woman who ever lived. (Her Buddhism was more calculating than spiritual, for Confucianism would never have permitted a woman on the throne.) Chinese pilgrims spent years on the long journey to India to visit the sacred places and gather scrolls, and hundreds of scholar monks were installed in the imperial palace to translate and interpret the texts¡ªone catalog lists translations of 2,487 different works. Poets and intellectuals preferred the asceticism and the enlightenment through nature in the Ch'an school, which became Zen in Japan. The masses venerated the Buddha Amitabha and the compassionate bodhisattva Kwan-yin, hoping to be reborn in the paradise of the Pure Land on the way to nirvana.

 

The vast wealth accumulated by the temples and monasteries, channeled into enterprises like mills and oil presses, moneylending and the opening of agricultural lands, further expanded the economic boom. It is a measure of Buddhism's reach that when, toward the end of the dynasty, the emperor Wu Tsung turned against the religion as an economic rival to the state, 4,600 monasteries and 40,000 shrines were destroyed, and a quarter of a million monks and nuns were defrocked. Buddhism in China never recovered.

 

The T'ang invented printing, for Buddhists believed that one gathered karmic merit by the ceaseless repetition or reproduction of the sacred texts. (A single monastery in Ch'ang-an had a thousand copies of the Lotus Sutra.) The imperial library had some 200,000 books and scrolls, classified and labeled under four categories: Classics, Histories, Philosophers, and Collections. Individual scholars had private libraries with tens of thousands of books.

 

The T'ang invented toilet paper, which was viewed with disgust by foreign visitors. They invented gold plating, true porcelain, and the magnetic needle; they excelled, as might be expected, at cartography. During the T'ang, the Chinese acquired their taste for tea, which quickly¡ªand typically¡ªbecame so refined that one connoisseur wrote a treatise on the sixteen ways of boiling water and their particular effects on brewing the leaves.

 

And yet there were also forty-two recorded famines, and wars with the Tibetans, the Uighur Turks, the Khitan of Manchuria, the southern nation of Nan-Chao (now in Yunnan province), the Koreans, and the Annamese. Emperors rose by assassinating their siblings, children, parents, uncles, cousins, and were assassinated themselves in turn. Eunuchs staged attempted coups, killing thousands of officials. In the civil war known as the An Lu-shan Rebellion (755¨C763), tens of millions died. The poet Tu Fu writes of fields overrun with nettles, for there were no men left to work the land; of fifteen-year-olds sent off to war who returned as old men, if they returned at all; of white bones bleached in the sun on the far western borders, where the lamentations of the living mingle with the eerie whimperings of ghosts.

[izus]

very interesting article

[rogerluli]

I'm going to ask my wife tonight why she never wears any of those T'ang hairstyles...

[shaffej7070]

I'm going to ask my wife tonight why she never wears any of those T'ang hairstyles...

 

...or why Bactrian camel hump, jellyfish with cinnamon, proboscis monkey soup with five flavors, and barbecued elephant trunk, is not on the dinner plate.

[rogerluli]

I'm going to ask my wife tonight why she never wears any of those T'ang hairstyles...

 

...or why Bactrian camel hump, jellyfish with cinnamon, proboscis monkey soup with five flavors, and barbecued elephant trunk, is not on the dinner plate.

 

I sure hope Don reads this... I know he would want to sample some of these delicacies...

[shaffej7070]

I'm going to ask my wife tonight why she never wears any of those T'ang hairstyles...

 

...or why Bactrian camel hump, jellyfish with cinnamon, proboscis monkey soup with five flavors, and barbecued elephant trunk, is not on the dinner plate.

 

I sure hope Don reads this... I know he would want to sample some of these delicacies...

 

As long as it's not skunky or boiled.

[IllinoisDave]

I'm going to ask my wife tonight why she never wears any of those T'ang hairstyles...

 

...or why Bactrian camel hump, jellyfish with cinnamon, proboscis monkey soup with five flavors, and barbecued elephant trunk, is not on the dinner plate.

 

I sure hope Don reads this... I know he would want to sample some of these delicacies...

 

As long as it's not skunky or boiled.

If he even sees this he'll be http://www.websmileys.com/sm/obscene/eck15.gif

[david_dawei]

TANG PALACE AND POETRY

 

Tang Poetry

The previous short lived, yet uniting Sui dynasty is but a footnote to the flowering movement which occurred in the Tang, where more than 2,000 poets emerged as well as almost 40,000 poems. Poetical composition was introduced for selecting officials which meant a poor intellectual could possibly compose a good poem and have instant prestige and wealth over night. The Tang can be classified into four stages: Early Tang, Heyday Tang, Middle Tang, and Late Tang. The Heyday Tang was the climax of poetic creation. Tang poetry represents a broad view internally, (palace poems of emperors and consorts), externally (border poems of wars), and idealistically (idyll poems of quietness and leisure).

 

Palace Story - Ascension by Death

Here is one palace story concerning the seventh emperor of Tang (ruled 712-756), Xuanzong (ÌÆÐþ×Ú), personal name of Li Longji. LLJ¡¯s father (Emperor Ruizong, personal name of Li Dan) was the emperor at the time and his mother was a concubine consort LLJ was born in 685. The actual court power at that time really resided with Wu Zeitian (the father¡¯s mother) and she became the empress in charge and tried to set up a New Zhou Dynasty, around 690. In 693, LLJ¡¯s mother and his father¡¯s wife were both killed by the empress due to accusations they were carrying out witchcraft. All the while, Ruizong¡¯s title and those of his sons were reduced more and more; Ruizong went from Emperor to crown prince to prince (he gave up the crown prince title to his uncle, who was previously an emperor). Zeitian was overthrown in 705 allowing the uncle to regain the throne, but in 710 the emperor suddenly died and one theory is that he was poisoned by his wife (empress Wei) and her daughter so that Wei could take the throne.

 

A New Crown Prince - The Last Shall be First

Empress Wei secretly planned to kill Ruizong and his sister (Taiping) but the plan got back to them and they planned a first attack with others they trusted. Surprisingly, the main group started the attack without telling Ruizong. Empress Wei fled but was beheaded by a guard at the imperial guard camp and her body was displayed on the streets. As well, most of the palace personnel were killed. Ruizong retook the throne. The void of the prince crown (never filled after the uncle took the throne) should of gone to Ruizong¡¯s oldest son (born from the emperor¡¯s wife) by confucian principle, but due to the youngest son¡¯s acheivements (LLJ) in helping to re-secure the throne the emperor was undecided. The eldest brother finally convinced the emperor to select the youngest brother, now 25 years old. Despite the tuggle of power and suspicion felt by mostly by the aunt (Taiping), LLJ remained the crown prince.

 

A New Emperor - A New Tang

In 712, Taiping tried to slyly convince the emperor that LLJ was going to take throne via astrologers readings of the heavens¡­ Instead of questioning the throne change as a negative omen, it was received by the emperor as a favorable sign to transition the throne to LLJ (becoming Emperor Xuanzong), although Ruizong maintained most of the power. In 713, Taiping began to work with others on a secret plan to kill Xuanzong but this plan soon leaked back to Xuanzong, who decided to strike first. The plan resulted in the death of Taiping and most all her associates. When Ruizong heard of all that had happened, he relinguished all power to Xuanzong, which is the start of the golden Tang age.

 

A New Consort - Replaces The Empress

Concerning palace issues, Emperor Xuanzong re-organized a bit and sought to exile anyone associated with the former empresses Zaitian or Wei, and dealt with ¡®border wars¡¯. He was quick to remove any problems created by his chancellors in order to maintain a peaceful exchange with the masses. His wife, Empress Wang, was sonless and he placed his second son (then favorite among his consorts-Zhao) to crown prince. Another consort, Wu, became Xuanzong¡¯s favorite although her family ties to Zeitian made some in the palace uncomfortable. Although Xuanzong sought to depose his wife, word got back to her and no action occurred. Later her ties to her buddhist brother and attempts at some magic to help her have a baby resulted in her being deposed and she later died, for which the emperor was later greatly distressed at his own actions. Later, Xuanzong tried to install consort Wu as empress but was faced with stiff opposition and instead she received the highest rank possible for an imperial consort (although the help generally treated her as an empress).

 

Consort Tragedy - Death begets Death

Consort Wu desired for her son, Li Mao, to become crown prince and began to strategize how to accomplish this. This resulted in her tricking three princes, who were aligned with Xuanzong, to show up in full armor due to an supposed breach in the palace; upon their arrival she accused them of attempting to overthrow the emperor! Eventually, the three were reduced in rank and then forced to commit suicide. Consort Wu endured years of bad dreams of the three princes and eventually became ill and died in her 40s.

 

Another Consort - Trading Ladies

The emperor was tired of dealing with policies and became infatuated with his own daughter-in-law, Princess Yang Yuhuan who was married to Li Mao. The emperor had her brought into the palace as his concubine and Li Mao was given another wife. It is said the emperor showered her and her family with money beyond count.

 

An Lushan - The Beginning

Around 748, An Lushan became favored for this miiltary exploits and kindess towards the emperor and Consort Yang and came to be in command of more and more areas. Wars were being found, rebellions were being suppressed and many were being exiled. A rival (Yang Guozhong) tried to warn Xuanzong of the rebellious plans of An Lushan and once tested him without convincing the emperor, but later surrounded his mansion and killed the servants provoking An to rebel and he went on to caputure Luoyang (one of the four great ancient capitals--ÖйúËÄ´ó¹Å¶¼¡ªBeijing, Nanjing, Luoyang, and Changan/Xian.). An Lushan declared himself the emperor of a new state, Yan, in Luoyang. Despite some attempts to stop An Lushan, they pressed into Changan forcing the emperor to ultimately flee, including consort Yang and Yang Guozhong. The imperial guards took and killed Yang Guozhong (blaming him for having brought this all about) and surrounded the grounds and refused to disperse even after Xuanzong ordered as such. In the end, the stalemate forced the emperor to have consort Yang Yuhuan killed (by strangulation). After showing the troops the body, they dispersed.

 

An Lushan - The End

Another who fleed (Li Heng) with the group remained behind as the emperor pressed onward to Chengdu. By now, news of the fall of Changan was known but the emperor¡¯s whereabouts were generally not known. Li Heng had himself declared emperor (Suzong) and once Xuanzong found out, he ¡®retired¡¯ as his dad did, and issued an edict which allowed him to maintain some control. In late 757, emperor Suzong captured Changan back from Yan, which was then being ruled by An Lushan¡¯s son (who killed his father to take over the throne).

 

Returning to the Palace - And to the Grave

With Changan re-secured, the emperor Suzong finally convinced Xuanzong to return to Changan, but only after a detour to try and dig up consort Yang¡¯s body (by which time it had decomposed too much and only her fragrance bag remained and was taken back to the palace where he visited it daily along with a portrait he had made). Consort Yang was posthumously honored as an empress. An impressive ceremony was held to allow Xuanzong re-take the throne but he declined and gave the yellow robe of imperial rule to Suzong. Xuanzong eventually died in 762.

 

[The An Shi rebellion was the turing point for the Tang dynasty and it never recovered to the great prosoperity it was forever known for.]

 

The Four Great Beauties

Consort Yang Yuhuan (also known as Yang Guifei) is most well known as one of the ¡°Four Great Beauties¡± in ancient china (ËÄ´óÃÀÅ®).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Tu_dai_My_nhan_TQ-Four_Great_Chinese_Beauties.jpg/360px-Tu_dai_My_nhan_TQ-Four_Great_Chinese_Beauties.jpg

 

 

Besides her beauty, their apparent affection for each other was demonstrated. Her ability to play a joke is best seen from the period when An Lushan was well received in the palace and on one visit, Yang had a baby wrap brought out which was used to completely cover An Lushan. All the attendees heartily laughed which causes Xuanzong to arrive and ask what was going on. An attendee said that consort Yang had just had a baby and was now washing baby Lushan! The emperor pleased with the joke allowed An Lushan ease of entry to the palace anytime thereafter.

 

Yang Yuhuan was known for being slightly overweight and often contrasted with one of the ¡®beauties¡¯ (Zhao Feiyan of Han dynasty) who was known to be thin, which gave rise to the following four character idiom: ÑàÊÝ­h·Ê , which is meant to convey the range that beauty can be.

 

Yang¡¯s favorite fruit was the Lychee and this was only grown in the south and so was delivered by day and night ridings to and from the capital.

 

Poems on Yang Yuhuan and Xuanzong

Many poems have been written about the emperor and consort Yang, possibly the most famous is by Bai Juyi (°×¾ÓÒ×) called A song of unending sorrow (éLºÞ¸è), which can be found here:

http://afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=Tangshi&no=71 ,

 

and was a source of inspiration for the later Japanese novel, The Tale of Genji. See:

http://www.taleofgenji.org/

http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Genji/00000010.htm

 

 

The famous poet Li Bai (Àî°×) was asked to come to the palace to write three poems which would set to music and sung. Li Bai, in characteristic way, asked for some wine and having drunken a sufficient amount then quickly wrote three odes, as seen here:

http://afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=Tangshi&no=317

http://afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=Tangshi&no=318

http://afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=Tangshi&no=319

 

Yuan Zhen £¨ÔªÕò£©of the Tang period wrote The Summer Palace:

http://afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=Tangshi&no=245

[Guest ShaQuaNew]

It's interesting that many of these historic writings characterize some of these beautiful women as being overweight, a little plump or some other reference to being less than a string-bean. At the same time, you rarely see an image of a Chinese woman that depicts that.

 

[david_dawei]

It's interesting that many of these historic writings characterize some of these beautiful women as being overweight, a little plump or some other reference to being less than a string-bean. At the same time, you rarely see an image of a Chinese woman that depicts that.

 

Godesses of Fertility linked to being fat are common east to west in ancient cultures... [and is partly the origin of easter].

 

I think the chinese idiom is that beauty isn't classified by size, shape, or girth... it comes in all forms... quite realistic.

[Guest ShaQuaNew]

It's interesting that many of these historic writings characterize some of these beautiful women as being overweight, a little plump or some other reference to being less than a string-bean. At the same time, you rarely see an image of a Chinese woman that depicts that.

 

Godesses of Fertility linked to being fat are common east to west in ancient cultures... [and is partly the origin of easter].

 

I think the chinese idiom is that beauty isn't classified by size, shape, or girth... it comes in all forms... quite realistic.

 

But, where are the pictures of these fat women? I've heard this too many times, but have rarely seen an image of a fat Chinese woman. Have you?

[Randy W]

Edited July 1, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[david_dawei]

It's interesting that many of these historic writings characterize some of these beautiful women as being overweight, a little plump or some other reference to being less than a string-bean. At the same time, you rarely see an image of a Chinese woman that depicts that.

 

Godesses of Fertility linked to being fat are common east to west in ancient cultures... [and is partly the origin of easter].

 

I think the chinese idiom is that beauty isn't classified by size, shape, or girth... it comes in all forms... quite realistic.

 

But, where are the pictures of these fat women? I've heard this too many times, but have rarely seen an image of a fat Chinese woman. Have you?

I will say that the chinese 'fat' is more akin to just barely plump...

 

For the east, it is more from India that we see some examples of 'fat' as we do in the west...one good example is the "Sleeping Fat Lady" (also known as the Sleeping Female Buddha)... she was considered a goddess of fertility

http://www.gozo.us/images/sleeping-lady.jpg

Edited October 21, 2008 by DavidZixuan (see edit history)

[Randy W]

DavidZixuan said:

 

The Four Great Beauties

Consort Yang Yuhuan (also known as Yang Guifei) is most well known as one of the ¡°Four Great Beauties¡± in ancient china (ËÄ´óÃÀÅ®).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Tu_dai_My_nhan_TQ-Four_Great_Chinese_Beauties.jpg/360px-Tu_dai_My_nhan_TQ-Four_Great_Chinese_Beauties.jpg

 

 

 

The Four Gorgeous Dames were followed in history by the Three Gorges Dams

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Guest ShaQuaNew]

 

I will say that the chinese 'fat' is more akin to just barely plump...

 

For the east, it is more from India that we see some examples of 'fat' as we do in the west...one good example is the "Sleeping Fat Lady" (also known as the Sleeping Female Buddha)... she was considered a goddess of fertility

http://www.gozo.us/images/sleeping-lady.jpg

 

Your thinking about being just barely plump may have some merit. It makes you wonder how a culture that is predominated by thin people, would view plump as sexy? That seemed to be the thing in Ancient Rome and Greece, and you often see it depicted in the statues and paintings of the time. Do you think perhaps the rich, who had access to more food, would be a little plumper?