Blog Cosmopolitan Chang’an

02Feb10

The two readings by Hanson and Schafer discuss a period in Chinese history, the T’ang Dynasty, during which time, for three centuries, a great expansion of wealth, influx of foreigners, from envoys to merchants, and flourishing of the arts, from poetry to visual art, characterizes the entire period. It is both mercantile in nature as well as based on regal court culture, war and systemization of philosophy into material culture.
Both of the scholar-writers are Western and there is perhaps a hint of exoticism that seeps into the writing, especially true in Schafer who uses a very descriptive writing style to enable the reader to visualize not only the splendours of the material culture, but also the various periods of corruption, warfare and decay. In one way, it is fascinating reading because it gives a glimpse into a long-ago time in history where a kind of ‘international’ commerce and intersection of culture, wealth, and arts were centred in cities in Asia: Canton, Chiao-chou, Yang-chou.
Schafer’s writing reads like a Hollywood movie version though, or a Hong Kong historical martial arts entertainment with its discussion of dangerous pirates, invading armies, corrupt despots as well as more moral leaders and their struggles. The fantastic romanticism of courtesans for wealthy merchants and the beautiful poetry that life in urban China inspired makes the reader compare that time in history to our own consumer, jet-set culture.
Hanson clarifies to a greater extent the fundamental differences between modern day capitalist democracy and life in the Chinese capital at least in one period of the T’ang. This city of Changan was built in a rectangle with distinct walled zones and under a very strict set of rules and regulations including curfews for all people. The very wealthy and the extremely poor lived in different directions, and placement of the palace or merchant markets were not only distinct but also symbolic in meaning, i.e. relationships between areas revolving around hierarchies of status within the culture of officials with their exams and in contrast the foreign and Chinese merchant market districts based on commerce and trade.
As Schafer and Hanson both note foreigners, including Persians and Indians and Turks were prevalent in T’ang dynasty, living in cities and shaping culture through the intersection of different cultures meeting in urban spaces and along the various overland and ocean trade routes. Deeper understanding of the lifestyle, the views, the material conditions, religious and political philosophies, peace and struggle might be enhanced by reading more actual texts from Chinese authors of the time to help distinguish the past as it was lived at the time more clearly from the way Schafer’s book, in particular, creates an almost too modern way to imagine a very different historical time period.
On the other hand both articles make it evident that a highly developed, complex and diverse society existed in the T’ang that denies ideas of lack of change or dynamism in ancient China, which is a Western Orientalist claim.

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