![]() It is an invaluable source for studies of the history of Central and South Asia. The book Buddhist Records of the Western World in the Tang Dynasty by his disciple Bianji recorded his experiences in more than 100 khanates and city-states west of Gaochang (an ancient kingdom in today’s Turpan, Xinjiang). In the following 20 years he and his aides translated 1,335 volumes of 74 Buddhist titles, which totaled 13.35 million Chinese characters. With the support of the Tang emperor, Xuanzang founded the national sutra translation academy in Chang’an, and recruited translators from all over the nation and from other East Asian countries. When he returned to China, he brought back 657 volumes of Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit, many Buddhist relics and several Buddhist statues. There he studied at the Nalanda Temple before touring the country to acquaint himself with various schools of Buddhism. In 627 he left Chang’an on a 25,000-km journey along the Silk Road to India. Monk Xuanzang (602-664) was the most accomplished Buddhist scholar of this period and had the best knowledge of orthodox Buddhism from India. The emperors and dignitaries all took pride in funding the construction of Buddhist shrines and approving the ordination of monks and nuns. Historical archives show that there were 122 monasteries and 31 nunneries in Tang dynasty Chang’an. Chang’an was home to a conglomeration of renowned figures and preachers of various Buddhist sects from different countries, and was strewn with temples and pagodas packed with devotees. Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Islam all reached China, and coexisted and evolved side by side with its indigenous creeds.Ī painted clay figurine of a Hu man dated 657.īuddhism was introduced into China in the second century BC, and thrived by Tang times. They chortled and jostled into an inn where they were served by Hu wenches.Īfter economic activities between the East and the West intensified, their exchanges of belief systems, science and technology, culture and art also grew. Mounted on white horses with silver saddles,Ī group of lads from rich families roamed in the eastern part of the Gold Market amid falling spring flowers. Celebrated Tang poet Li Bai depicted a spring outing by young Chang’an blades: The cultures and customs of their native countries gradually found their way into local life in Chang’an, in terms of clothing and food. Mercantilists from Central Asia, Persia and Arabia – collectively called “Hu merchants” by locals – constituted the largest community of such foreigners, and at certain times numbered several thousand among local residents. The West Market, also known as the Gold Market, catered to international customers, including those from Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Korea and Japan. The East Market targeted the royal family, dignitaries and the elite, and was therefore glutted with luxury goods for sale. German traveler and geographer Ferdinand Baron von Richthofen first referred to this passage as the Silk Road in his book China: The Results of My Travels and the Studies Based Thereon, a name that was later widely accepted and used.Ĭhang’an of the Tang Dynasty had two bustling markets – the East Market and the West Market, which were the CBDs of the city and the industrial and commercial hub of the nation as well. To maintain its safe and smooth functioning, the Han Dynasty established the Western Regions Protectorate, which had jurisdiction over a vast area including present-day Xinjiang and Central Asia. ![]() Over a dozen years, a trade passage between Chang’an and Europe through Central and Western Asia came into being. During his reign the Han Emperor Wudi (156-87 BC) twice dispatched his envoy Zhang Qian to the khanates in the Western Regions. This resulted in the inclusiveness, openness and diversity that defined these two periods of Chinese history, and created Xi’an’s rich and diverse culture of historical heritage and cuisine.Ĭhina’s inland had developed trade with the Western Regions (today’s Central Asia, Western Asia, Southern Asia and China’s Xinjiang), as it was then called, as early as the third century BC. Through this route of trade and cultural exchange, the Han and Tang empires imported and embraced the salutary elements of other civilizations, incorporating them into the Chinese cultural system. It reached its prime during the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, when its influences extended far and wide, primarily because of the opening of the ancient Silk Road. Xi’an, or Chang’an as it was called for many centuries, has been a built-up urban area for over 3,000 years, and served as the national capital of feudal China for 1,100 years.
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