Just How Open Was the Tang Dynasty? Surprising Truths About the Great Tang

Just How Open Was the Tang Dynasty? Surprising Truths About the Great Tang

When people mention the Tang Dynasty, the word that springs to mind is "glorious era." But when you really get to know the Tang, you find an openness far beyond imagination. It wasn't just the textbook "Zhenguan governance" and "Kaiyuan prosperity" — the Tang was a genuinely cosmopolitan empire, an age that still astonishes us today.

Chang'an: A 7th-Century Cosmopolis

Chang'an, the Tang capital, was the largest city in the world of its time, period. The Old Book of Tang says that during the Tianbao era, Chang'an's population inside and out exceeded one million, and some scholars argue that with floating population it may have approached two million. For context: Constantinople had only 300,000–400,000 people; Baghdad did not yet exist; Europe's biggest cities counted in the tens of thousands.

Chang'an covered about 84 square kilometers — seven times the size of Constantinople and 1.5 times the later Northern Song's Bianjing. The grid-pattern streets were neat and orderly; the East and West Markets bristled with shops, and the West Market in particular was a hub of international trade. Archaeology and texts attest that merchants from dozens of countries — Persia, the Arab world, India, Silla, Japan — lived and operated long-term in the West Market.

More astonishing was Chang'an's foreign population. Scholars estimate that in its prime, foreigners in the city may have exceeded 100,000 — about one in ten residents. These were not transient travelers but long-term residents who worked, traded, preached, and held office. They bought homes, raised families, even sat for imperial exams and served in the court. Japan's Abe no Nakamaro (Chinese name Chao Heng) is iconic: he lived in Tang China over fifty years, rose to the post of Secretary of the Imperial Library, and exchanged poems closely with Li Bai and Wang Wei. When Li Bai heard the rumor that Abe had perished on the return voyage home, he wrote the famous lament "Weeping for Minister Chao Heng."

A Country Steeped in Foreign Flavor

On Chang'an's streets, foreign character was everywhere. Foreign merchants sold exotic treasures — Persian spices, Arab gems, Indian sutras, Korean ginseng. Even more striking were the huji — Central Asian and Western Regions women who poured wine in taverns, a key part of Chang'an's nightlife. Li Bai's line "the huji are like flowers; they laugh in the spring wind by the wine vat" captures it perfectly.

Tang tolerance for foreign culture was startling. The huxuan and huteng dances swept the country — court and commoner alike. An Lushan secured the favor of Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei by his skill at the huxuan. Bai Juyi wrote in his Huxuan Lady: "Huxuan lady, huxuan lady, heart matched the strings, hands matched the drum. One beat from the drum and both sleeves flew, like whirling snow drifting in spinning grass." The dance came from Kang state (today's Samarkand region in Uzbekistan) and became one of the Great Tang's most popular entertainments.

Food was the same story. Hu bing (similar to today's naan) was one of Chang'an's most popular staples. Bai Juyi wrote of it: "The hu sesame cakes follow the capital fashion — crisp dough, oil-rich aroma, freshly from the oven." Grape wine, introduced from the Western Regions, became a hit. Wang Han's line "the fine grape wine in a luminous cup; just as I want to drink, the pipa on horseback rushes me" became immortal. After conquering Gaochang, Emperor Taizong personally brought back grape cultivation and wine-making techniques.

Women's Status: Freedom Beyond Imagination

Women in Tang held status rare across the whole of pre-modern Chinese history. The starkest example: Wu Zetian, the only legitimate female emperor in Chinese history. She changed the dynasty's name from Tang to Zhou in 690 and ruled for 15 years, ascending the throne at 67. Whatever later observers think of her methods, her reign saw economic growth, sustained state power, the perfection of the imperial examination system (with the addition of the palace exam and the military exam), and the use of figures like Di Renjie, Yao Chong, and Song Jing.

Wu Zetian was not alone. Princess Taiping, her youngest daughter, held vast power during Emperor Zhongzong's reign, joined multiple coups, and even influenced who would be emperor. Shangguan Wan'er, despite coming from a family in disgrace, rose to be the "woman premier" — running the drafting of imperial edicts for over twenty years, achieving high distinction in both politics and literature. Her tomb epitaph, unearthed in Xianyang, Shaanxi in 2013, gives us more real information about this legendary woman.

Daily life for Tang women was strikingly free. They rode horses, played polo, drank in public. Most shocking to later conservatives was Tang fashion: low-cut, sheer-fabric dresses were very popular among aristocratic women. Zhou Fang's Ladies Wearing Flowers clearly shows this style — unthinkable under later Song-Ming Neo-Confucian standards, but in Tang it was simply fashion.

Tang women also wore hu clothing in droves — narrow-sleeved, body-fitting outfits — and even hu hats and hu boots, riding horses through Chang'an. The Old Book of Tang's "Treatise on Carriages and Clothing" says: "In early Kaiyuan, palace women on horseback wore hu hats with bright makeup and bare faces, no longer veiled." Such open social atmosphere is essentially unique in pre-modern China.

More notable still: divorce and remarriage were quite common. The "Letter of Wife Release" documents found at Dunhuang are mutual divorce agreements with mild wording, even mutual blessings: "each goes wide, each finds joy." Over twenty Tang princesses remarried, some three times. Such marital freedom was unimaginable in later dynasties.

Religious Freedom: A Garden of Faiths

Tang religious policy was the most open in Chinese history. Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism all coexisted and grew.

Buddhism reached its peak in Tang. Master Xuanzang set out west in 629 and after 17 years arrived in India, returning with 657 Buddhist scriptures. He led the translation work at Daci'en Temple in Chang'an, translating 75 sutras in 1,335 fascicles — the greatest translator in Chinese Buddhist history. Emperor Gaozong built the Big Wild Goose Pagoda to house Xuanzang's scriptures; it remains Xi'an's landmark today. Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, opened a new chapter of Sinicized Buddhism in the Tang; Tantric Buddhism was introduced from India during Kaiyuan by three eminent Indian monks, Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra.

Daoism, recognized as Tang's "state religion" (the Li imperial house claimed descent from Laozi, surnamed Li), flourished too. Emperor Xuanzong personally annotated the Daodejing and ordered Daoist temples built across the realm. But that did not block other religions from spreading.

Arab merchants brought Islam to China; mosques rose in Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Chang'an, and elsewhere. According to Arab sources, the third caliph, Uthman, sent envoys to Tang in 651 — the marker of Islam's arrival in China. The Huajue Lane Grand Mosque in Xi'an still preserves Tang-era style.

Nestorian Christianity reached China in 635. The Nestorian Stele, erected in Chang'an in 781, with text in both Chinese and Syriac, records 150 years of Nestorian history in China. It is now in the Xi'an Beilin Museum — a key physical witness to East-West civilizational exchange.

Imperial Exams and Poetry: A Cultural Summit

The Tang's perfected imperial examination system opened a channel for social mobility. The exams began in the Sui, but the systematic, institutionalized form belongs to Tang. There were changke (regular exams) and zhike (special exams); the most important changke tracks were jinshi and mingjing. Jinshi tested poetry, prose, and policy; mingjing tested classics. Annual jinshi admits were only twenty or thirty — the competition fierce, hence the saying "thirty is old for mingjing, fifty is young for jinshi."

The exam system broke the monopoly of "no commoners in the high ranks, no aristocrats in the low" that prevailed since the Wei-Jin and Northern-Southern Dynasties, giving humble households a path to rise. When Bai Juyi first came to Chang'an at 16, the elder Gu Kuang joked at his name — "Capital rice is expensive; living there isn't easy" — but after reading his poems Gu praised him sky-high. The exam system was exactly what let people of common origin like Bai Juyi become great literary figures.

Tang poetry is the brightest jewel in Chinese literary history. The Complete Tang Poems records over 2,000 poets and nearly 50,000 poems. Li Bai's romantic boldness, Du Fu's deep sorrow and weight, Wang Wei's clear elegance and emptiness, Bai Juyi's plainness and accessibility — diverse styles bloomed. Tang poetry is not only literary achievement but a portrait of the era's spirit: confident, open, inclusive, striving.

The Great Tang and the World: Real Globalization

The scope of Tang foreign relations is amazing. Eastward, it kept close ties with Japan, Silla, and Balhae. Japan sent nineteen successive missions to Tang, learning institutions, art, and city planning on a massive scale. Japan's Nara and Kyoto were laid out modeled on Chang'an.

Westward, Tang had clear diplomatic relations with the Byzantine Empire ("Fulin" to the Tang). The Old Book of Tang records repeated Byzantine missions to the Tang court. In 751 (Tianbao 10), Tang fought the Abbasid Caliphate at Talas (in today's Kazakhstan). The Tang lost the battle, but among Tang captives were artisans who brought papermaking to the Arab world, from which it spread to Europe — profoundly shaping human civilization. The battle was a Tang defeat, but the westward transmission of papermaking is one of the most important technological dispersals in world history.

Tang also maintained vibrant trade on the Maritime Silk Road with Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Persian Gulf. Guangzhou had a Maritime Trade Commission (Shibo Si) for foreign trade. The Arab traveler Sulaiman recorded that thousands — perhaps tens of thousands — of Arab and Persian merchants lived in Guangzhou.

From Openness to Conservatism: The An Lushan Watershed

In 755 (Tianbao 14), all of this came to a halt. An Lushan and Shi Siming revolted, beginning the An Lushan Rebellion. The eight-year war (755–763) all but destroyed the Tang's foundations. North China's population plummeted; the empire's total population fell from a peak of about 50 million to less than 20 million. Chang'an fell twice; the great cosmopolis lay in ruins. Du Fu's line — "The state is broken, mountains and rivers remain; spring in the city, grasses and trees deep" — captures the misery.

After An Lushan, the Tang lasted another century-plus but never recovered its earlier openness. Regional warlords, eunuch power, and party strife arose in succession. The deeper change was in social mindset — from confident openness to conservative inwardness. Attitudes toward foreign culture shifted from warm embrace to suspicion and resistance. The Huichang Buddhist Persecution under Emperor Wuzong (845) demolished over 4,600 temples and forced over 260,000 monastics back to lay life, also affecting Nestorianism, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism. It marks the end of the Tang's open age.

Looking back at the Great Tang, what we see is not just a powerful empire but a rare civilizational poise. That heart wide enough to take in all rivers, that wisdom to absorb and merge, that calm confidence — these are unprecedented in Chinese history, and in some sense unmatched after. A civilization's true strength lies not in how much it excludes, but in how much it can take in, blend, and digest. The Great Tang's brilliance and decline together prove the lesson: openness brings prosperity, closure brings decline. Perhaps that is the most important inheritance the great dynasty of a thousand years ago left us.