Tang Dynasty Golden Age
The Tang dynasty (618–907) governed China during what many historians regard as the country's cultural and commercial zenith. Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) and his successors built an administrative system based on meritocratic examination, a codified legal code, and a network of roads and canals that integrated the empire's diverse regions. Chang'an, the Tang capital, was the largest city in the world at the time, home to perhaps a million inhabitants and a cosmopolitan centre that hosted Persian merchants, Buddhist monks, Nestorian Christians, and Central Asian musicians. Tang poetry — Du Fu, Li Bai, Wang Wei — is still regarded as the classical peak of Chinese literary expression. The dynasty's expansion into Central Asia along the Silk Road brought Chinese commercial and cultural influence as far as Persia, while Buddhism, Confucianism, and Tang artistic styles spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, shaping the civilisations of East Asia for centuries.
- Year: 618 CE
- Category: Culture
