國號

隋朝建立後，隋文帝封李虎之子李昞為唐國公，後由李昞之子李淵繼承爵位。在建國之後，以唐為國號。

國號唐是晉國的古名，泛指今山西省的中南部地域。傳說遠古帝堯號稱陶唐氏，建都于現在山西中南部，後人遂稱其所都為唐地。周成王分封其弟虞在古唐地上，為北唐國，後來改國號為晉國。原建國于唐地的帝堯後人則移封現湖北省棗陽市一帶，為南唐國，恰好與隋朝國號來源的隨國比鄰。

歷史

唐朝時期漫長，大致上可以分成前期與後期。其分界點可按政治與經濟角度區分成安史之亂與兩稅法的頒布。安史之亂之前，唐朝國力強盛，經濟繁榮，武將四處開疆拓土，文臣穩定朝政，是唐朝的鼎盛時期。亂事發生後，唐朝遭遇許多問題，國力趨向衰退。從經濟的角度看，前期採取均田制與租庸調制，在唐德宗頒布兩稅法後，中國後期的土地制度和賦稅制度基本上以兩稅法為基礎。比較傳統的分法有四分法，即高祖至高宗的初唐、武則天至玄宗的「盛唐」、肅宗至文宗的「中唐」與武宗至哀帝的「晚唐」四個時期。

高祖開國

傳統史料以唐朝皇室出自隴西李氏，陳寅恪經考證認為其為趙郡隆慶李氏之後，而朱希祖考證認為確係隴西李氏，屬於關隴集團之一，與北周皇室和隋朝皇室的關係密切。

其先祖為南北朝時期的李虎，他因功被封為西魏北周的八柱國之一，封隴西郡公。其子李昞在隋時封唐國公。

唐朝皇室以老子後裔自居，于佛道之爭時偏袒道教。和尚法琳稱李氏非老子李耳後裔，與隴西李氏無關，乃拓跋氏之後，因而觸怒皇室，被流放益州而死。宋代朱熹與鄭思肖以李唐閨門失禮家法繆戾，有李唐源自夷狄的說法。馮承鈞認為李虎的兄弟名為起頭與乞豆，懷疑李淵家族有可能出身胡人。日本學者金井之忠發表〈李唐源流出于夷狄考〉主張李淵家族出身胡人，並提出李淵家族可能源自高車叱李氏的假說，陳寅恪在〈三論李唐氏族問題〉反對他的說法，舉證李淵先祖李熙出身漢族。劉盼遂與王桐齡考據認為李淵家族應為拓跋氏後裔。劉盼遂之後取消了自己的觀點，但仍引發學界如向達、岑仲勉與陳登原等人討論。因為唐朝先人曾被賜姓大野氏，台灣學者劉學銚認為唐朝皇室有源出高車的可能。中華人民共和國學者蘇日巴達拉哈也主張李淵家族出自高車。

陳寅恪認為李唐先世雖為漢人，但在李虎之後，其家族長期與胡人通婚，已混有胡族血統。這個說法得到錢穆、薩孟武等人的支持，如《劍橋中國史》等著作皆採用這個說法。岑仲勉曾討論繆鳳林支持李唐家族為胡漢混血，但認為血統混和自古甚多，不值得討論。根據《新修本草》記載，嚴耕望推論李世民可能擁有胡人血統。

日本學者杉山正明提出了「拓跋國家」這一概念，將北齊、北周、隋朝、唐朝這些雖非拓跋氏所建，但統治階級互相通婚，且國家形態與政治制度相互影響的政權，統統歸入到「拓跋國家」中。森安孝夫也認同拓跋國家的說法，認為唐朝是由多民族融合組成的國家，不能單純以漢民族國家觀點來研究。不過，這興許是部分現代學者自己發明之說詞，目前為止沒有任何唐朝的歷史文獻顯示唐朝政府和唐朝人民曾自稱「拓跋國家」或「拓跋氏」，古突厥闕特勤碑中的漢文銘文也未有此種稱謂。相反地，唐朝官方文獻和外交文書明確自稱本國為「漢」、「漢國」及「大唐」；唐朝民間詩歌亦常稱本民族為「漢人」，有明顯胡漢之別。唐朝政治制度也是以中原王朝式的三省六部制和儒道思想為主，並非遊牧部落制。

唐朝皇室先祖為南北朝時期的李虎，他因功被封為西魏北周的八柱國之一。隋朝建立後，隋文帝封李虎之子李昞為唐國公，後由李昞之子李淵繼承爵位。李淵受隋煬帝重用，於616年被派為太原留守，但隋煬帝對他也不放心，派王威與高君雅監督之。隋朝在大業年間，由於隋煬帝過度使用國力與三征高句麗的失敗，使得各地民變不止，史稱隋末民變。李淵見天下大亂，隋朝的滅亡不可扭轉，便生起取而代之的念頭。617年李淵殺王威、高君雅，在太原起兵造反。不久，李淵率諸子眾將攻破守備關中的屈突通，占領隋都大興城。李淵擁立楊侑為帝，是為隋恭帝，遙尊隋煬帝為太上皇，自任大丞相，進封唐王。而在揚州的隋煬帝，他心灰意冷，不願返回關中，最後於618年的江都政變中被宇文化及等叛軍殺害。李淵藉此機會，於同年五月迫使隋恭帝禪位，建國唐朝，即唐高祖。都城大興改名為長安，封嫡長子李建成為太子、嫡次子李世民為秦王、嫡四子李元吉為齊王。

李淵建立唐朝後以關中為基地逐步統一天下。在入主關中前，先派使吹捧占據河南的瓦岡軍李密，使其成為東方的屏障。入主關中後，派李世民平定西北金城的薛舉、薛仁杲，派唐使安興貴、安修仁生擒武威的李軌。620年派李世民擊敗入侵河東（今山西省）的劉武周、宋金剛。而後洛陽鄭帝王世充與河北夏帝竇建德宣布結盟，聯合抗唐。622年李世民擊潰聯軍，俘竇建德，王世充投降。竇建德的餘部劉黑闥也被李建成擊潰，河北至此平定。623年輔公祏率杜伏威餘部在丹陽反唐，隔年被唐軍俘殺，江南平定。而兩湖地區也在621年唐將李靖於唐平蕭銑之戰獲勝，梁帝蕭銑於江陵降唐。翌年，嶺南馮盎降服，又虔州林士弘死，漢地歸唐朝所有。依據五行相生順序，隋朝「火」德之後為「土」德，因此唐朝以「土」為皇朝德運並以與土德對應之黃色為正色。

貞觀之治

唐朝的崛起有賴秦王李世民，他的軍事才能突出，率軍贏得多次關鍵勝利。掃平群雄後，太子李建成與李世民為了皇位而鬥爭，626年李世民發動玄武門之變，殺了哥哥太子李建成與弟弟齊王李元吉，控制長安。李淵深知形勢，於是禪讓帝位，成為太上皇。李世民繼位，即唐太宗。

唐太宗勵精圖治、納諫如流，逐漸恢復唐朝的國力。在內政方面，唐太宗推行均田制與租庸調制，提升農業發展。在職官制度上，改良隋朝的制度，形成三省六部和科舉選士制，限制皇權發展與貴族世襲等惡習。唐太宗不計出身，網羅一大批精明強幹的大臣，比如房玄齡、杜如晦、長孫無忌、魏徵、馬周、高士廉和蕭瑀等文臣，尉遲敬德、李靖、侯君集、程知節、李世勣和秦叔寶等武將。此外，唐太宗派官員四處詢問百姓的生活情況，然後把各官員的功過寫在屏風上，以便褒貶。

對外方面，唐太宗採取積極防禦、以戰止戰的策略，以及用羈縻與武力的方式安撫四方。隋末唐初之際，北方東突厥汗國十分強大，時常南下侵擾，並且介入中原各勢力。唐朝初期百廢待舉，626年東突厥突然襲擊長安，率軍抵達距離長安不遠的涇陽（今陝西咸陽涇陽縣）。對此唐太宗親率高士廉、房玄齡等在渭水隔河與突厥可汗對峙，定下渭水之盟。之後，唐太宗積極對付突厥，挑撥頡利可汗與突利可汗的關係，以及突厥與週圍諸部的關係。627年東突厥的藩屬薛延陀、回紇、拔也古、同羅諸部因為不認同頡利可汗的政令與改革國俗，紛紛脫離，改立薛延陀部為可汗，突利可汗也歸降唐朝。628年朔方人梁洛仁殺盤據夏州的梁師都，歸降唐朝。而東突厥在分裂後又遇到大雪侵襲，牲畜大多被凍死餓死。629年李靖率騎兵奇襲攻滅東突厥，隔年北方各族入貢長安，諸民族尊稱唐太宗為天可汗。635年派李靖攻占吐谷渾，657年派蘇定方西征攻下西突厥汗國，641年派文成公主與吐蕃贊普松贊幹布通婚。這些都穩定唐朝與四方各國的關係。

貞觀時期國家安定，經濟得到恢復和發展，史稱「貞觀之治」。《資治通鑒》記載，貞觀四年（630年）一斗米不過三、四錢，全年死刑犯僅二十九人。成書于唐中宗時期的《貞觀政要》中對于唐太宗政績的總結，成為日本和新羅帝王的治國教科書，亦為後世君主模徬學習的對象。

日月凌空

唐太宗晚年，發生太子李承乾與魏王李泰內鬥的事件。所以唐太宗廢承乾，逐李泰，改立晉王李治為太子。唐太宗去世後，李治即位，即唐高宗。此時唐朝承繼貞觀之治，國力鼎盛，史稱永徽之治。當時尚有宿將如李勣、蘇定方、薛仁貴等，名臣長孫無忌、褚遂良等。對內持續推行均田制，選用較低級但有才能的官吏。對外於659年消滅西突厥，疆域西擴至鹹海與阿姆河一帶，設立安西都護府於碎葉城（今吉爾吉斯托克馬克市）。並且於蔥嶺以西設置十六個都督府，讓吐火羅葉護、訶達羅支國王等等中亞君主兼任都督。在東方，與新羅聯合滅掉東北強國高句麗和百濟，並白江口之戰擊敗日本援軍。唐朝在朝鮮半島建立安東都護府，最終導致唐羅戰爭，也間接促使新羅統一朝鮮半島。

高宗中期以後，任命皇后武氏協助理政。武則天原為太宗時期的才人，太宗死後被高宗招入宮中。她在權力鬥爭中獲勝，被立為皇后，史稱「素多智計，兼涉文史」。656年起，高宗因健康原因，許多政事都逐漸交給武后處理，武后成為最高統治者之一，與高宗並稱「二聖」（天皇與天后）。高宗去世後，太子李顯即位，是為唐中宗。因為與中宗不合，武太后不久將中宗廢為廬陵王，改立四子李旦為帝，是為唐睿宗。武后平定徐敬業的反叛後，於690年廢睿宗，即皇帝位，改國號為周，即武周，改東都洛陽為「神都」，上尊號「聖神皇帝」，人稱「武則天」，改立李旦為皇嗣，成為中國歷史上唯一的女皇帝。在武則天掌權與稱帝的期間，國家人口持續增長，但外戰不利，疆域大量萎縮。武則天執政期間，科舉制度得以進一步完善，開創出殿試和武舉，她大力提拔科舉出身的官員。這批官員中有許多在後世成為賢臣能吏、如狄仁傑、張柬之、張仁願、姚崇等。。然而由於武則天本人信仰佛教，她大量賞賜和尚尼姑田產，徵用農田建造佛寺，土地兼並嚴重、導致均田制崩潰。。武則天執政前期為了維持自己的統治，或殺害或流放了數位名將，啓用的「武三思」、「武懿宗」、「薛懷義」等人多是平庸之輩，導致其執政時期外戰敗多勝少，國家疆域大量萎縮。武則天執政的另一特點是強力控管，主要有嚴厲鎮壓徐敬業等反對派、屠殺唐宗室親王與支持唐朝的大臣將領。鼓勵告密，暗中監控官吏、諸侯，以及推廣酷吏制度。扶持武三思、上官婉兒等黨羽。這些在後世經常受到史學家的批評。

武則天晚年，聽從狄仁傑的勸告，重立李顯為太子，改立李旦為相王。705年武則天病重時，宰相張柬之與將領李多祚等人擁太子李顯發動政變，他們殺女皇的男寵張易之兄弟，逼武則天退位。中宗李顯重祚，唐朝復闢，封其弟李旦為安國相王，其妹太平公主為鎮國太平公主，史稱神龍政變。中宗統治經驗頗為缺乏，在位時政治腐敗，貪墨成風。他受到韋后、女兒安樂公主和武氏黨羽武三思等人迷惑，將功臣張柬之和敬琿等人全部流放誅殺。韋后與安樂公主野心勃勃，想要成為武則天第二。他們與上官婉兒聯手迫使太子李重俊發動景龍之變，重俊最後事敗被殺。710年韋后和安樂公主疑似唆使他人在餅中下毒害死中宗，立溫王李重茂為帝，即殤帝，並且打算加害相王李旦。李旦之子李隆基在姑母太平公主的協助下發動唐隆之變，誅盡韋后與武氏勢力，擁立睿宗李旦復闢為帝。睿宗復位後，立其子李隆基為太子，同意其妹太平公主幹預政局，雙方時常發生權力鬥爭。712年睿宗決定禪讓帝位，太子李隆基即位，即唐玄宗。但是玄宗宣稱太平公主又準備用羽林軍兵變。隔年，玄宗賜死太平公主，發兵誅殺與其黨羽，即先天之變，結束唐朝自唐高宗中期以來女性主理政治局面，並結束自神龍政變8年以來多次在首都政變和政局混亂的局面，結束了幹政之禍。。

極盛而衰

唐玄宗時期可分為開元與天寶兩個部分，其中開元時期的政治比較清明。因為武韋當政以來政治日益敗壞，唐玄宗提出以武、韋為戒，以貞觀為榜樣，作為執政的指導思想。他先後任用姚崇、宋璟、盧懷慎、張九齡與韓休等賢臣，並且廣納諫言。例如採納張九齡的建議，將京官中有能之士外調為都督刺史以訓練行政能力，又將有為的都督刺史升為京官。增進中央與地方的溝通、了解和信任。裁減武周中宗時期的員外官等冗官，精簡機構以便節省開支與提升行政能力。嚴格執行法律，抑制權貴，就算是皇親國戚犯罪，也繩之以法。對於穩定社會秩序產生良好的影響。加強執行均田制，打擊土豪。發展農業生產，興修水利，擴大耕地面積，大大提升農業生產力。對外方面，改善與吐蕃、東突厥、契丹與奚的關係，推行和親政策。聽從姚崇與宋璟的建議，充實邊防軍務，並且避免與外族發生戰爭。這些措施使唐朝進入第二個全盛時期，人口大量增長，物產豐富，史稱開元盛世。當時不僅中原地區、江淮地區以及成都平原經濟發達，連人口較少的隴右河西地區也逐漸繁榮。

天寶時期時，唐玄宗志得意滿，放縱享樂，不問國事，先後寵愛武惠妃及兒媳楊貴妃。此時國政漸亂，唐玄宗罷免賢相張九齡，相繼以李林甫與楊國忠為相。李林甫有「口蜜腹劍」的惡名，，他蔽塞言路，排斥賢才，採取任用不擅文採的蕃將為邊將以杜絕「出將入相」之源，使得唐廷陸續任用高仙芝、哥舒翰與安祿山等邊將。此時宦官也逐漸崛起，高力士權勢炙手可熱。在軍事上，由於唐朝多年的戰爭使得府兵制崩潰，兵源逐漸改為募兵制，禁軍也進一步獲得擴大。唐玄宗為了便於管控遼闊的邊疆，於722年設置九個節度使與一個經略使。節度使不只負責軍事，之後還兼顧地方民政與財務，久之形成節度使尾大不掉的局面，也成為藩鎮割據的遠因。對外方面，唐玄宗好大喜功，為此邊將經常挑起對外戰事，以邀戰功。當時唐朝正與吐蕃、黑衣大食（即阿拉伯帝國的阿拔斯王朝）爭奪在西域與中亞的勢力，其中以751年的怛羅斯戰役最有名。唐將高仙芝被阿拔斯王朝與石國聯軍擊潰而喪失在中亞的地位，而後因為中土爆發安史之亂，唐朝也沒有恢復地位的打算。

節度使的權力甚大，當與中央發生衝突時，就很有機會發生叛亂。當時又以身兼范陽、平盧、河東三鎮節度使的安祿山最有機會，他甚獲唐玄宗寵信，與丞相楊國忠勾心鬥角。755年十一月，安祿山以討伐楊國忠為由發動叛亂，史稱安史之亂。楊國忠與封常清認為敵軍不足憂慮，命郭子儀自朔方出兵河北、高仙芝提大軍出潼關戰關東。十二月，封高兩將皆敗，東都洛陽淪陷，唐軍退守潼關。封高二人被讒言所殺，改由哥舒翰堅守潼關。於河北舉兵的常山（今河北正定）太守顏杲卿也在隔年正月被叛將史思明擊潰，關東一帶盡數淪陷。然而郭子儀與河東李光弼進軍河北，會師恆州（今河北真定），擊敗叛軍將領史思明，叛軍軍心大亂。然而，唐玄宗與楊國忠急於平亂，強迫哥舒翰出兵。六月，哥舒翰將兵八萬與賊將崔乾祐戰於靈寶西原，官軍大敗，死者十六七。哥舒翰退至潼關，為其帳下火拔歸仁以左右數十騎執之降賊，關門不守，京師大駭，唐玄宗緊急南逃蜀地成都，途中發生馬嵬驛之變，楊國忠與楊貴妃在憤怒士兵的要求下被殺。而太子李亨奉唐玄宗之命，前往西北靈武募兵。安祿山占據長安後建僭燕。七月，李亨抵達靈武後，在宦官李輔國擁立下稱帝，即唐肅宗，奉唐玄宗為太上皇。

唐肅宗命其子李俶統領諸將，以李泌輔佐，派僕固懷恩出使回紇請兵。當時唐將房琯反攻長安失敗，局勢一度危急。757年叛軍內訌，安祿山之子安慶緒殺父奪位，史思明回守范陽，並掌握河北軍力。繼而郭子儀和李光弼率軍返回靈武，並聯合回紇，於年底收復長安。然而叛軍早於十月攻克江淮重鎮睢陽（今河南商丘），張巡與許遠戰死。所幸郭子儀接著攻下洛陽，牽制叛軍。不久，安慶緒退回鄴城（今河北臨漳），謀除史思明。史思明得知後投降唐朝，叛軍勢力只剩鄴城一帶，758年郭子儀、李光弼等九節度使圍攻鄴城。然而唐廷想要消滅史思明之事外洩，史思明於隔年三月率叛軍南下擊潰唐軍，史稱鄴城之戰。郭子儀被魚朝恩讒毀而返回長安；史思明殺安慶緒，併吞其部，自稱帝，以范陽為都；李光弼因叛軍攻克洛陽而退守，局勢急轉直下。761年李光弼反攻洛陽失敗，史思明獲捷後居然被其子史朝義所殺，叛軍分崩離析。762年太上皇與唐肅宗相繼去世，太子李豫（原名李俶）繼位，即唐代宗。唐代宗派其子李适統領諸將，僕固懷恩為副，率唐軍與回紇軍攻克洛陽。史朝義北走范陽，僕固懷恩率軍追擊，河北叛將李懷仙也投降唐軍，並一同追擊。763年正月，史朝義在石頭（今河北唐山東北）自縊，八年的戰亂才告平定。

藩鎮割據

安史之亂成為唐朝歷史上的轉折點。藩鎮割據、外族入侵、宦官專權與牛李黨爭等蜂擁而至，成為唐朝的內憂外患。唐室為了盡快結束戰事，將安史降將就地封為節度使以安撫之。為了提防降將復叛，又遍地安置節度使。由於節度使兼管地方軍事、政治和經濟，全國各地幾乎處於半獨立的狀態。戰後關東人丁銳減，土地大量荒蕪，河北之地逐漸胡化，人民好武輕文，與詩賦取士的關中之地相比，形成截然不同的文化區。由於邊防軍調回平亂，外族紛紛入侵。吐蕃占領隴西、攻入關中，長安一度淪陷。回紇的勒索也消耗國力。宦官專權，李輔國、程元振擁立唐代宗為帝，是唐朝第一個受宦官擁立的皇帝，宦官魚朝恩更被委任統領禁兵。779年唐代宗就在這些亂事中去世，長子李适繼位，即唐德宗。

唐德宗在初期頗能勵精圖治，堅決削滅藩鎮，藩鎮對其較為敬畏。他起用楊炎推行兩稅法，以劉晏改革漕運，修改鹽法，行常平法以改善財政。但是他為人剛愎忌刻，沒有任人之明。781年任用奸相盧杞後，政治日非。聽信盧杞讒言，誅殺楊劉兩臣。政治的敗壞使藩鎮逐漸輕視，最後爆發亂事。同年，成德李寶臣去世，其子李惟岳不被唐室同意繼任，他就聯合魏博田悅與淄青李納舉兵叛亂。唐室派馬燧、李晟擊敗叛軍，田悅被中央軍圍困於魏州（今河北大名），李惟岳則被部下王武俊所殺。另一方面，盧龍朱泚入朝後，由其弟朱滔繼任盧龍節度使。由於盧龍朱滔與成德王武俊對朝廷不滿，就聯合淄青李納、淮西節度使（約今河南省東南）李希烈叛亂，共推朱滔為盟主。調來抵抗淮西的涇原軍也因為對朝廷賞賜不滿，爆發涇原兵變，唐帝出逃奉天（今陝西乾縣）。涇原軍入長安後，共立朱泚為帝，並且包圍奉天。李晟緊急率中央軍回師關中，與朔方軍李懷光解奉天之圍。事後，唐德宗因盧杞讒言而不召見李懷光，雖然最後盧杞被貶，李懷光仍然怨恨唐帝。784年唐德宗採用陸贄之策，同意諸藩鎮的要求，只有朱泚不赦，並且廢除苛稅，諸藩鎮紛紛歸服。朱滔和李希烈不願投降，拉攏李懷光倒戈，唐德宗又逃到梁州（今陝西南鄭）。同年，李晟收復長安，朱泚於東逃之際被部下所殺，李懷光也在隔年被馬燧、渾瑊所滅，淮西李希烈也被部下所殺，至此亂事平定。然而，唐室承認藩鎮的統治權，加深割據局面。由於唐德宗不信任將領，禁軍轉由宦官掌控，宦官權勢薰天。唐德宗晚年任用奸臣裴延齡，並且親暱宦官貪吏，國政日衰。805年唐德宗去世，太子李誦繼位，即唐順宗。

唐代宗遺留下來的問題越來越嚴重，唐順宗與唐憲宗都企圖解決，其中唐憲宗較為成功，實現元和中興。唐順宗以韋執誼為宰相，啟用以王叔文為首的改革派。他們廢除欺壓百姓的宮市和五坊小兒，減輕稅賦。任韓泰掌控神策軍，試圖奪取宦官軍權，史稱永貞革新。同年，唐順宗中風，宦官俱文珍利用太子李純想做皇帝的心理，聯合韋皋等等藩鎮迫使唐順宗讓位，藉此扳倒改革派，史稱永貞內禪。太子李純繼位，即唐憲宗。唐憲宗頗能駕馭宦官與外廷，做事勤勉政務，善於納諫。他採納杜黃裳的建議著手削藩。當時全國共有四十六處藩鎮，大都在半獨立的狀態，只剩浙江一帶還供應朝廷的財務來源。他採取擴寬財路，力行節儉的方式以穩固財力。由於藩鎮中以安史系最強，他先從較弱的藩鎮下手。806年劍南西川節度副使劉闢、夏綏留後楊惠琳與隔年的鎮海李錡先後叛變，被唐室一一平定。接著是牽制數十萬唐軍的安史系淮西節度使吳元濟，814年由於吳元濟四處掠奪且私自傳位繼承，唐憲宗先後派十六鎮的兵力討伐之，然而未能成功。期間淄青李師道與成德王承宗派人刺殺主戰派宰相武元衡，唐帝復以裴度代替，並以李愬（李晟之子）主討戰事。817年李愬採降將李祐之計，雪中奇襲吳元濟總部蔡州（今河南汝南），淮西平定。淄青李師道恐慌，唐憲宗派李光顏、李愬率軍討伐。兩年後李師道被部下所殺，淄青平定。河北方面，魏博田弘正支持唐室。王承宗曾經反叛唐室，淮西平定後與盧龍劉總歸順唐室。到819年，全國藩鎮在名義上都服從中央，派使納貢，史稱元和中興。然而唐憲宗對國事有點荒怠，喜好營建豪宅。他十分崇佛，曾經赴法門寺奉迎佛骨，韓愈勸諫而被貶。

820年唐憲宗在大明宮被宦官毒死，河北三鎮復叛，中興時期結束。821年盧龍劉總離職，唐室派張弘靖接管。張弘靖管理不當，盧龍兵擁護朱克融叛變。移鎮成德的田弘正被將領王庭湊奪位殺害。魏博田布（田正弘之子）被軍隊迫死，魏博軍擁護史憲誠叛變，至此河北三鎮復叛。當河北未叛之時，大臣蕭俛、段文昌建議國家裁軍。如今被裁之兵都投奔河北三鎮，助長其勢。然而此後的河北三鎮並非持續強盛，唐敬宗與唐武宗期間，河北三鎮大多受制其強兵，有時還被部下篡位，遠遠不如當初的跋扈。而各地藩鎮依然聽命於中央，直到黃巢之亂為止。

宦黨爭權

唐朝中央的政治大權大多由皇帝與宰相掌控，但在天寶之後轉變成皇帝與內廷宦官的聯合，外廷宰相變成政治上的二流角色。涇原兵變後，皇帝不再信任武臣，宦官更加把持者中央禁軍（即神策軍）。再加上唐朝中後期的皇帝普遍不立皇后，導致沒有外戚勢力可以平衡宦權，相權又低落，使得宦官勢力極度膨脹，永貞內禪事件更使宦官成功擊敗外廷與士大夫。

掌控軍政大權的宦官一躍成為中央的幕後掌控者，唐憲宗之後的皇帝大多被宦官任意廢立，例如宦官王守澄就是一個好例子。820年唐憲宗被宦官陳弘志毒死，這個事件背後是宦官王守澄指使。王守澄扶持太子李桓繼位，即唐穆宗。他即位後遊樂無度，河北三鎮復叛，宦官背後掌控的牛李黨爭亦愈演愈烈。唐穆宗即位三年就去世，其子李湛繼位，即唐敬宗，大權仍由王守澄掌控。唐敬宗同樣不理朝政，專好遊樂擊球擺宴。826年唐敬宗出去「打夜狐」，回宮後大擺宴席，被宦官劉克明所殺。劉克明有意奪王守澄權，擁立絳王李悟。王守澄得知後以兵迎立唐穆宗之子江王李函，並且殺死政敵。李函繼位，即唐文宗。當時王守澄權勢最大，其次為陳弘志、仇士良等。

唐文宗勤勉聽政、生活節儉，本身十分厭惡宦官，隨時想聯合外廷大臣扳倒宦官。831年與宰相宋申錫合謀失敗，宋申錫被殺。而後唐文宗與大臣李訓、鄭注聯手發動政變。他們都是王守澄推薦的，因此宦官毫不忌諱。李鄭二人先建議唐文宗提拔與王不合的仇士良，並且杖殺元和逆首陳弘志，貶死若干掌權宦官。835年，唐文宗以李訓為宰相、鄭注掌鳳翔節度使，內外呼應。接著密派中使毒殺王守澄，至此元和逆黨皆誅殺殆盡。李訓更擴充勢力與軍權，與只掌握神策軍的宦官尚可一拼。835年李訓發動甘露之變，意圖將皇帝從宦官手裡搶出，但宦官仇士良搶先奪回皇帝，並且以神策軍擊潰政敵，誅殺大臣。甘露之變後，宦官們團結一致對外，並且牢固地掌握軍政大權，皇帝與大臣徒具擺飾，即便是後期的唐武宗與唐宣宗也無法消滅宦官的勢力。而大臣只能借藩鎮對抗宦官權力，埋下晚唐藩鎮入關奪權的陰影。840年鬱鬱寡歡的唐文宗去世，其弟在宦官仇士良的擁立下繼位，即唐武宗。由於當時朝廷派系林立，仇士良只好讓唐武宗親自處理朝政。唐武宗重用李德裕以削減仇士良權力，也提出一連串振興朝廷的政績，史稱會昌中興。他大力推行滅佛，史稱會昌滅佛。唐武宗推行道教，希望長生不老，最後因為服金藥去世。

在唐憲宗到唐宣宗期間，發生較長的黨爭，即稱牛李黨爭。這兩派分成以經學為正統、大多是關東世族的李黨，主要有李吉甫、李德裕、鄭覃；以文彩華麗、高宗武后以來進士科出身的牛黨，主要有李宗閔、牛僧孺等。兩派士大夫背後都有宦官當後台，宦官有最終掌政權。兩派明爭暗鬥的很厲害，徒然消耗國力。政見方面，李黨主張對藩鎮與吐蕃用兵，而牛黨主張和平。牛黨傾力擁護科舉制度，李黨極力要求改革。李黨建議精簡國家機構，牛黨反之。黨爭起始於808年的科舉考試，當時宰相李吉甫（李德裕之父）主張對藩鎮用兵，舉人李宗閔、牛僧孺與皇甫湜在考卷裡批評朝政失當。李吉甫得知後打壓這些人，這引起朝野嘩然，李吉甫最後也失勢，朝中大臣也逐漸形成兩黨以互相鬥爭。然而當時主戰派宦官吐突承璀把持權力，所以李黨仍然得勢。唐穆宗時，由牛黨人物錢徽主持進士考試，卻被告徇私舞弊。在時任翰林學士的李德裕證實下，錢徽被降職，李宗閔也受牽連而被貶謫到外地。從此牛李兩黨各樹朋黨，互向傾軋。李黨有李德裕、裴度、李紳等，牛黨有李宗閔、牛僧孺與李逢吉等。然而，主和派宦官王守澄崛起，李黨失勢，時任宰相的牛僧孺與李宗閔、李逢吉聯手，牛黨勢大，李德裕被罷免外放。牛黨的優勢一直到823年，牛僧孺因為被唐文宗不滿而罷相，隔年由李黨的李德裕上台，這是顯然與王守澄放棄牛黨有關。之後王守澄支持李訓與鄭注，極力打壓牛李兩黨。甘露之變後李鄭勢力崩潰，宦官由仇士良掌權。唐武宗時任用李德裕為宰相，極力排斥牛黨。

846年唐武宗去世，宦官們發生權力鬥爭，其叔李忱在宦官馬元贄的扶持之下即位，即唐宣宗。由於李黨失勢，李德裕被貶黜到崖州（今海南瓊山），至此長達40年的牛李黨爭結束。唐宣宗表面上是容易被宦官利用的君主，但即位以後勵精圖治，加強皇權、抑制宦官權力，是時唐朝又出現短暫的復興景象，史稱大中暫治。然而唐宣宗為人多疑苛察，使得上下莫不粉飾太平；他崇奉道教，一直希望能夠通過服用丹藥來長生不老。859年唐宣宗因服用丹藥過度而去世。實際上，大中暫治並不穩定。唐宣宗晚年，國內已有亂象，他死後不久就爆發寇亂。

殘唐國碎

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唐宣宗去世後，相繼為帝的唐懿宗與唐僖宗是著名的無道昏君，使唐朝的國勢一直走下坡。政治敗壞、社會貧富差距過大，不少叛亂相繼發生，唐朝經濟命脈的江南地區也被破壞殆盡，徹底動搖這個政權，也產生李國昌、朱全忠等新藩鎮。859年唐懿宗繼位，他為人驕奢淫逸，寵信宦官；並且篤信佛教。為了崇佛，不惜削減軍費。860年後相繼發生裘甫之亂、龐勛之變與王郢之變（僖宗時期）。其中龐勛之變破壞關東地區的經濟，有賴沙陀軍首領朱邪赤心率軍助戰而定，朱邪赤心因功賜名為李國昌，子稱李克用。873年唐僖宗繼位，僖宗專好擊毬、鬥雞，寡聞朝政，更大的叛亂在北方誕生。由於關東連年水災，加上政治敗壞，鹽價銳升，使得盜賊不斷。874年王仙芝聚眾於長垣（今河南省長垣縣）起事，隔年攻陷山東西部、流竄河南到淮南一帶，聲勢益盛。878年王仙芝戰死於黃梅（今湖北省黃梅縣），餘部潰散投奔黃巢。黃巢由亳州（今安徽省亳州市）南下掠奪江南與嶺南地區，沿路屠殺不斷，並且攻陷商業大城廣州，華南經濟幾乎全毀。879年因為軍隊遭遇瘟疫，黃巢率軍經桂州、沿湘江北上竄回江南。隔年，黃巢正式西進，攻陷洛陽與潼關。掌權宦官田令孜帶唐僖宗逃往四川，黃巢入長安後稱帝，號稱大齊，改元金統。各地勤王之師也因為號令不整，收復的長安又被黃巢奪回。唐室只好赦免叛逃漠北的李國昌、李克用父子，李克用率沙陀兵馬，協助唐軍克復長安。另一方面，黃巢部將朱溫投降，賜名朱全忠，受封宣武節度使（治汴州）。黃巢東走並且包圍朱全忠於陳州。884年李克用率軍解陳州之圍，並且追擊黃巢軍。黃巢於隔年被其甥林言斬殺，黃巢之亂平定。而後，黃巢降將秦宗權叛變，率軍在中原地區四處攻掠，一度攻陷東都（今河南省洛陽市），造成「極目千里、無復煙火」的局面，直到唐昭宗時才由朱全忠平定。

平定民變後的唐室因為國力衰退而被關中藩鎮反噬。而宦官與外廷為了政治鬥爭又拉攏藩鎮加入戰局，最後演變成各藩鎮爭奪朝廷。這些實力軍頭們以李國昌、朱全忠與李茂貞最強。885年唐僖宗返京後，仍然信任宦官田令孜。田令孜與河中節度使（轄今山西省南部）王重榮交惡，雙方都拉攏藩鎮並抗衡。王重榮與李克用聯軍成功的攻入長安，田令孜又帶唐僖宗出京避難。原本與田令孜合作的朱玫、李昌符也倒戈，率軍追擊田令孜。兩人奉襄王李熅監國，朱玫拜相，李昌符暗中不滿，在興元（今陝西南鄭）的唐室趁機說服王重榮、李克用與李昌符聯兵收復長安。唐僖宗返京途中又與李昌符發生衝突，當時王重榮被部下所殺，唐僖宗有賴李茂貞平定才得以返回長安，李茂貞也繼任鳳翔節度使。888年唐僖宗去世，其弟李曄被宦官楊復恭擁立，即唐昭宗。宣武朱全忠與河東李克用因故不合，雙方上至朝廷，下至藩鎮，都鬥爭不斷。當時張全義與李罕之爭奪河陽節度使（治河南省孟州市），雙方分別拉朱全忠與李克用對戰。結果朱全忠獲勝，兼併河陽、洛陽，擊敗秦宗權後幾乎占領全河南省。當時宦官楊復恭與宰相張濬不和，雙方分別拉攏李克用與朱全忠。890年朱全忠與張濬攻河東軍失敗，張濬被貶。李克用趁機併吞昭義的潞州、澤州，約佔領今山西省地區。不久宦官楊復恭失勢，南依其兄子山南西道節度使楊守亮叛變，唐室以李茂貞等人平亂，李克用在朝廷的勢力衰退。鳳翔李茂貞因不能擴張地盤與唐帝不和，雙方發生戰爭。最後李茂貞與王行瑜戰勝，他們掌控關中地區，宦官與外廷受其管制，唐室只剩首都一地。

此時唐帝淪為各藩鎮角力的戰利品，最後被藩鎮擄走，取而代之。895年河中王重盈去世，王行瑜、李茂貞與韓建等人與河東李克用爭奪河中。王行瑜趁機入京殺宰相韋昭度等人，並謀廢唐昭宗。李克用緊急率軍入援，而王行瑜被部下所殺，唐室才得以安定。事後，唐室建立殿後四軍，李茂貞、韓建搶先於896年逼近長安，唐昭宗逃到華州，殿後四軍被廢。最後有賴李克用、朱全忠率軍入援，唐昭宗得以於898年返回長安。900年宦官劉季述立唐昭宗嫡長子皇太子李𥙿為皇帝（李縝，即德王），901年李縝被崔胤所廢，改回原名李𥙿並降封為德王，昭宗復闢。而後宰相崔胤與宦官韓全誨爭權，韓全誨強迫唐昭宗投靠自己的盟友李茂貞，崔胤緊急召喚朱全忠入援，朱全忠于是率軍圍困鳳翔。隔年，鳳翔軍糧草耗盡，李茂貞只好殺宦官韓全誨等人，與朱全忠和解。朱全忠趁機掌控朝中大權，還屠殺宦官數百人，派兵控制長安。崔胤後悔不已，有意擺脫朱全忠的威脅，暗中召募六軍十二衛，被朱全忠在長安的眼線所察覺。904年朱全忠殺崔胤，逼迫唐昭宗遷都洛陽，長安城被毀。同年8月朱全忠弒帝，另立昭宗子李柷為帝，即唐哀帝。隔年，朱全忠殺李𥙿等昭宗年長九子，大肆貶逐朝官，並全部殺死於白馬驛，投屍於黃河，史稱白馬之禍，年末又聽信誣告殺害哀帝母何太后。朱全忠本想等一統天下後再篡位，但因征淮南失利，所以提早於907年逼迫唐哀帝禪讓，建國後梁，唐朝亡，五代十國時期開始。

疆域

唐初是唐朝武功興旺的時期。在漠南漠北方面，在唐高祖建立唐朝對突厥做出戰略防守退讓求和之後開始反擊。貞觀四年（630年），唐軍滅亡東突厥，漠南成為唐勢力範圍。貞觀二十年（646年），又聯手鐵勒部落一舉消滅薛延陀汗國，至此大漠南北廣大地區皆為唐的勢力範圍。唐朝廷在漠北設立安北都護府，在漠南設立單于都護府，建立南至羅伏州（今越南河靜）、北括玄闕州（後改名余吾州，今安加拉河地區）、西及安息州（今烏茲別克斯坦布哈拉）、東臨哥勿州（今吉林通化）的遼闊疆域。但永淳元年（682年），突厥復國，漠北等地遂為其占，後直到後突厥滅亡為止唐朝的北方邊患都很嚴峻。天寶三載（744年），回紇建國，占據漠南漠北。安史之亂後，邊患再起，但唐朝與回紇並沒有發生大規模的戰爭。

在西北，貞觀四年，唐朝廷在伊吾七城設立西伊州，開始經營西域。貞觀十九年（645年），唐朝廷移安西都護府到龜茲。顯慶四年（659年），唐軍又滅西突厥，勢力及鹹海到裏海一帶。但唐朝廷對蔥嶺以西地區的統治始終不穩固，乾封二年（662年），阿史那彌射死，阿史那步真統領西突厥十姓，此後蔥嶺以西一直為唐朝臣屬國，尤其是吐火羅。。安史之亂爆發後的三十六年時間內，唐朝陸續失去原安西都護府所轄地區。

在東北，顯慶五年（660年），唐軍聯合新羅滅亡百濟。總章元年（668年）八月，唐軍與新羅又滅高句麗，並設安東都護府於平壤。但由於當地人民反抗激烈及新羅勢力的北進，咸亨元年（670年）安東都護府內遷遼東。開元元年（713年）安東都護府移到遼西。天寶年間（742年—756年）安東都護府廢，安史之亂後唐朝逐漸失去對遼東半島的直接控制。武周聖曆元年（698年）其首領大祚榮建立震國，唐朝稱之為渤海國；號為「海東盛國」，但與唐朝的關係友好，大部分時間向唐朝稱臣。

在青藏高原上，吐蕃日漸興起，至6世紀末與吐谷渾、蘇毗為高原上三大勢力。7世紀初，贊普松贊幹布即位，統一高原，又征服位於西藏西部的蘇毗、阿裏地區的羊同和尼婆羅（今尼泊爾）。龍朔三年（663年），吐蕃滅吐谷渾，盡有其地。後又多次占領唐朝的安西四鎮，為唐朝最大敵國。安史之亂後，由於大量河隴邊兵參與平亂（主要為隴右節度使、河西節度使所部）導致邊防空虛，吐蕃趁勢進逼，占領原屬于唐朝的隴西，黃河以西甘、涼皆不可得，隴山以西為吐蕃占據。唐宣宗大中二年（848年），沙州（甘肅敦煌）人張議潮發動起義，唐人群起響應，很快占領沙州。接著，張議潮又派兵攻取瓜、伊、西、甘、肅、蘭、鄯、河、岷、廓（以上地區在今甘肅、新疆、青海境內）等十州。大中五年（851年），張議潮遣其兄張議潭奉沙、瓜等十一州地圖入朝，唐宣宗在沙州置歸義軍，以張議潮為節度使，河隴地區又重新為唐朝廷所控制。890年，河西、隴右又被党項族占據。但終唐之世已完全喪失對於敦煌以西的控制。

在西南雲貴高原，天寶七載（748年）南詔建國，與唐時戰時和，也削弱唐朝的國力。同時，自漢武帝平南越後的相當長時間內是中國領土的安南（越南北部），唐代統治時先後設立「交州總管府」、「安南都護府」（唐肅宗改名鎮南，唐代宗復稱安南）、「靜海軍節度使」等官署，唐末時開始藩鎮割據，土豪興起，至北宋初完全脫離中原王朝而獨立。

行政區劃

隋朝前期實行州縣制，後期實行郡縣制。唐又改郡為州，恢復州縣二級制。貞觀元年，天下大定，又對州縣進行省並。唐朝還在州一級的行政區劃中設立「府」這一建制。先是開元元年設立京兆府和河南府。今後陸續升新的陪都和皇帝到過的地方為府。同時，唐朝根據山川形便將全國分為關內、河南、河東、河北、山南、隴右、淮南、江南、劍南、嶺南十道，是為貞觀十道。神龍二年設立十道巡察使、十道存撫使和十道按察使。這些都是監察官，為中央臨時派遣，不常置，也無固定治所。開元廿一年又從關內道分立京畿道，從河南道分立都畿道，分山南道為東西兩道，分江南道為江南東、江南西和黔中三道，共十五道，是為開元十五道，每道設立固定的監察官員（觀察使），有如漢朝的刺史，也設立固定的治所（首府），正式成為十五個監察區，並逐漸向行政區轉變。這十五道如下：

• 京畿道，治西京（首都）京兆府（今陝西省西安市）；

• 關內道，治西京（首都）京兆府（今陝西省西安市）；

• 都畿道，治東都（陪都）河南府（今河南省洛陽市）；

• 河南道，治汴州（今河南省開封市）；

• 河東道，治蒲州（今山西省永濟市西）；

• 河北道，治魏州（今河北省大名縣東北）；

• 山南西道，治梁州（今陝西省漢中市）；

• 山南東道，治襄州（今湖北省襄樊市襄陽區）；

• 淮南道，治揚州（今江蘇省揚州市）；

• 江南東道，治蘇州（今江蘇省蘇州市）；

• 江南西道，治洪州（今江西省南昌市）；

• 黔中道，治黔州（今重慶市彭水苗族土家族自治縣）；

• 隴右道，治鄯州（今青海省樂都縣）；

• 劍南道，治益州（今四川省成都市）；

• 嶺南道，治廣州（今廣東省廣州市）。

駐守各道的武將稱都督，都督帶使持節的稱節度使。不帶者不稱。在安史之亂平定後，唐朝政府增加許多節度使，而節度使管轄的地區稱為藩鎮。唐政府本企圖可借節度使來平定一些叛亂，不料這些節度使擁兵自重。唐朝末期因此形成道（方鎮）、州（府）、縣三級行政區劃。唐末年全國有四五十個鎮，除了京兆府和周圍幾個州以及河南府外，全國其他地方都是藩鎮割據的局面。唐德宗時期，河朔一帶的藩鎮叛亂，佔領京師長安，德宗逃到漢中，用了四年的時間才平定，從此之後藩鎮之禍日益擴大。憲宗年間雖然平定淮西吳元濟勢力，各地藩鎮繼歸順中央，但是卻未能除根。憲宗死後藩鎮割據的局面就又死灰復燃。最後唐朝終於亡在節度使朱溫的手中。唐朝後的五代十國實際上是藩鎮之禍的延續，只是一些藩鎮已經完全獨立而已。唐朝主要的地方官階如下：

• 州（郡）首領：刺史（太守）；

　• 別駕、長史、司馬；

　• 錄事、參軍事；

　• 六曹：司功、司倉、司戶、司兵、司法、司士。

• 縣：縣令；

　• 縣丞、主簿；

　• 縣尉、錄事、佐史。

• 鄉：耆老；

• 里：里正；

• 村：村正；

• 保：保長；

• 鄰：鄰長。

地方行政方面，唐從隋舊，分州縣上下二級區劃。州級政區多稱「州」，有刺史，少數稱「郡」，有郡守。縣有縣令。縣級政區以下按照鄉里制設鄉設里。百戶人家為一里，由里正管轄；四家為一鄰，由鄰長管轄，五鄰為一保，由保長管轄，五保為一里，由里正管轄，五里為一鄉，由耆老管轄。一自然村為一村，設村正。在城市聚居區域以坊代替村，設坊正，和村正同級。在邊疆、京畿、軍事要塞等重要地區設立都督府，由武官都督兼管多個州郡的軍事和民政。

政治體制

三省六部制

唐朝沿用隋朝制訂的三省六部制，主要機構有三省、六部、一台、五監、九寺。三省即為中書省，門下省，尚書省。此外中央還有掌帝室器物車馬的殿中省、掌帝室經史書籍的秘書省、掌宮官內侍的內侍省三個職權較小的省。尚書省為全國最高行政機構，其中樞稱「尚書都省」，都省下設立吏、戶、禮、兵、刑、工六部，長官本為尚書令，但因唐太宗曾任尚書令，後以左、右僕射為首。中書省是皇帝頒佈大政文書的機構，長官為中書令，副手為中書侍郎，下有中書舍人六人，此外右散騎常侍、右諫議大夫等諫官。門下省則是審核大政文書之機構，長官為門下侍中，副手為黃門侍郎（又稱門下侍郎），下有給事中四人，此外與中書省相似，有左散騎常侍、左諫議大夫等諫官，也有掌符策印璽的符寶郎、掌起居記錄的起居郎等官員。由於尚書權力太大，因此後來設立左右僕射代行大權。左右僕射就是宰相。後來，此二職要加同中書門下的頭銜才是宰相。但中書令和門下侍中的名位很高，也不常設。於是，給其他管理加上參議朝政、參議得失、同中書門下三品等頭銜就為宰相。宰相平時在政事堂討論朝政，政事堂會議成為協助皇帝統治的最高決策機構。至玄宗，差遣制成為制度，特點是官位與職位的脫節。官僅代表官位與俸祿的高低，其實際職務完全由皇帝或上官靈活掌握。差遣官官銜中多有「使」字（如轉運使、鹽鐵使、團練使等）。開元末年置翰林學士院，學士參與決奏議疏表，專掌內製，對中書省的權利產生少許威脅。

六部作為尚書省的分支機構，分管各種具體行政事務，按嚴耕望的研究，六部上承三省所布政令，下傳寺監所行方案，主要負責具體事務的規劃和監督，而非寺監的具體執行，故而官吏員數遠少于寺監。六部有高低之分，吏、兵二部為前行，戶、刑二部為中行，禮、工二部為後行。其中吏部主管全國文官升遷，下設吏部、司封、司勳、考功四司；戶部掌管全國土地、民眾、財賦，下設戶部、度支、金部、倉部四司；禮部掌管祭祀，下設禮部、祠部、膳部、主客四司；兵部負責武人選舉、地圖、車馬、兵械等事務，下設兵部、職方、駕部、庫部四司。刑部主管律令刑事，下設刑部、都官、比部、司門四司；工部負責山澤、紙筆、屯田、工匠等事務，下設工部、屯田、虞都、水部四司。三省六部制在中國政治史上具有重要地位。

一台就是御史臺，其負責監察中央和地方管理，參與大獄的審訊。其長官為御史大夫，副長官是御史中丞。五監為國子監（掌文教學校）；少府監（掌皇家工業生產）；將作監（掌國家工程）；軍器監（掌兵器製造）；都水監（掌水利建設）。九寺有太常寺（掌禮儀祭祀）；光祿寺（掌國家宴會）；衛尉寺（掌兵器儀仗）；宗正寺（掌皇室族譜）；太僕寺（掌國家牧政）；大理寺（掌刑獄審判）；鴻臚寺（掌邦交典禮）；司農寺（掌國家倉儲）；太府寺（掌國家財政）。此外，唐朝還有三師（太師、太傅、太保），三公（太尉、司徒、司空）等榮譽職務。在盛唐時期還設立過如節度使、觀察使、樞密使等臨時職務，後來則成為定職。

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科舉制度

隋代成立的科舉制度在唐初還不完善，朝中的政治仍然被關隴集團所壟斷。到了武則天執政後，她大力起用通過科舉進入朝廷的庶族地主官僚，貴族政治的局面至此開始衰落。玄宗朝以後，世族官僚不復存在，但是科舉士人卻進行牛李黨爭，這場黨爭持續長達四十年，嚴重敗壞朝政。

唐朝中後期也與東漢中後期和明朝後期成為中國歷史上三個宦官時代。早期，宦官並沒有什麼權力，自唐玄宗時代高力士得寵以來，宦官的地位步步高升，開始直接參與政治。後來伴隨著宦官對兵權的掌握，皇帝的廢立都掌握在宦官手中。這以「甘露之變」表現得最為突出。而在朱全忠誅滅全部宦官之後，唐朝也很快滅亡。顯示宦官已與皇帝形成命運共同體。

法律

唐朝法律分為律、令、格、式四種。律是刑法典；令是指國家對各項制度所做出具體規定（如《戶令》）；格是對律令式做出補充修改與對禁令的匯編；式則是各項行政法規（如《水部式》）。《唐律》是根據隋朝《開皇律》經過《武德律》、《貞觀律》、《永徽律》三朝修正而來。自唐高祖時代開始制訂，在唐太宗時才宣告完成。至唐高宗永徽年間又對唐律進行全面解釋，寫成《律疏》，與《唐律》合稱為《唐律疏議》。後世又稱呼為《唐律疏典》。唐律分十二篇，共五百零二條，刑為五刑。唐朝律法將謀反、謀叛等反對朝廷的行為定作不得赦免或贖免的「十惡」大罪，對朝廷的延續起到保障作用。又有一系列相關土地私有權的條例，維護經濟基礎。貴族、富人、官僚受到一定的不平等的法律保護，在與庶民觸犯同樣的法律下可減刑或免刑。

外交

由於初唐時代武力比較興旺，周邊國家比較安分且與初唐的關係比較友好。唐高宗在位後期由於軍事轉向衰弱，關係也時戰時和反覆不定。初唐時代在邊境上設立六個都護府，分別是：安西（640年設立，主要負責天山以南地區的守備）；安北（647年設立，主要守衛漠北）；單于（650年設立，主要守衛漠南）；安東（668年設立，主要守護遼河以東）；安南（679年設立，主要守衛今越南北部紅河三角洲地區）；北庭（701年設立，主要守衛天山以北地區）。

東北地區

靺鞨人源自肅慎，隋唐交際時分為多部，其中有粟末、黑水、白山、伯咄、拂涅、號室、安車骨七部勢力較大。698年，在東北邊境上，粟末靺鞨人大祚榮建立震國。713年大祚榮接受唐玄宗冊封為渤海郡王，設立忽汗州，國名更為渤海國。渤海與唐「車書本一家」，之間一直互動頻繁，多名渤海貴族子弟曾到長安學習。726年又在黑水靺鞨之地設黑水都督府。唐朝與新羅關係一直密切。新羅派大量留學生到唐朝學習，其中的崔致遠還中了進士。中國的文化也大量傳入新羅。兩國在邊境之間商貿往來非常頻繁。660年至668年間，新羅聯合唐軍先後滅百濟與高句麗，統一朝鮮半島，而後兩國往來更加頻繁。723年，旅唐新羅僧人慧超從廣州渡海前往印度諸國巡禮，路徑波斯、大食、突厥等國回到長安，撰寫《往五天竺國傳》。新羅留唐學生薛聰，整理吏讀表記法，方便書寫新羅語虛詞虛字，促進朝鮮文化發展。唐朝東部沿海城市多有新羅人聚集的「新羅坊」和接待新羅人的「新羅館」，可見境內新羅人之多。

倭國武周時期改稱日本，與唐朝來往密切。孝德天皇推行革新，效法唐制，走向中央集權。引入均田制和租庸調制，落實戶籍和記賬制度，參考《唐令》寫成《大寶令》法典，遵照長安城布局規劃平安、平城二京。日本先後派遣了十三次遣唐使，每次使團規模都在百人以上，團中除使臣、水手外，還有留學生、學問僧、醫師、音聲生、玉生、鍛生、鑄生、細工生等。著名的來唐日本人有留學生吉備真備和阿倍仲麻呂與僧人空海和圓仁。空海著有《文鏡秘府論》與日本的第一部漢字字典《篆隸萬象名義》。圓仁尋覓佛法而走遍唐國多個道郡，帶回日本大量佛學經文器具。百濟藝僧味摩之將在唐學到的荊楚儺舞傳至日本，稱吳伎樂。日本的文字平假名和片假名也都是分別從中國的草書和楷書部首演變而來。鑒真和尚應日本僧人之邀，曾經六次東渡回日，最後終於成功。他帶去了佛經，促進了中國文化向日本的流傳以及佛教在日本的興盛。

契丹源于東胡，自稱青牛白馬之後。唐初，契丹族部落聯盟首領大賀摩會臣服于唐。648年，在羈縻制度下設松漠都督府，以大賀窟哥擔任松漠都督兼左領軍將軍，賜姓李。武則天時期因受到營州都督趙文翽的凌辱而反抗數十年。開元初，松漠都督府得以複置，從此雙方睦鄰友好百餘年，經濟文化交流頻繁，始終忠服于唐，直至唐王朝滅亡之後，耶律阿保機才在塞北稱汗。

塞北與西北地區

從出土墓誌記載，史家推測李淵家族在隋代時，就曾經與東突厥王室阿史那氏通婚，雙方關係密切。東突厥常年南下襲擊中原，唐初北方割據政權紛紛聯籠突厥抗唐，是唐建國初期的一大邊害，高祖太宗積極抵禦，貞觀三年（629年）遣李靖、李勣二將分路征討，次年降服東突厥，小可汗突利可汗投降，大可汗頡利可汗被俘，東突厥汗國覆亡。大量突厥人遷到長安，太宗將降眾左右安置在靈武至幽州地區，設羈縻府管轄。東突厥的滅亡與歸順震動了西突厥與西域各國，一些西域小國紛紛改投唐朝，尊稱唐太宗為「天可汗」。西突厥西抵波斯，北並疏勒，控制了絲綢之路。唐于640年攻克高昌城（今新疆吐魯番東南），設安西都護府。802年平定焉耆，806年平定龜茲，安西都護府遷至龜茲，統管于闐、高昌、焉耆、龜茲四鎮。唐高宗顯慶二年（657年），蘇定方、蕭嗣業大敗西突厥。西突厥最終在唐軍的數次打擊下覆亡。西域至此成為唐朝的勢力範圍，期間唐軍與當時的另一大帝國大食國開始交往。不過隨著時間轉移，天寶十載（751年），唐朝在與大食國阿拔斯王朝的怛羅斯戰役中失敗，安史之亂後，唐朝勢力也基本退出了中亞地區。

東突厥滅亡後，常年臣服突厥的回紇又受到了薛延陀的控制。647年，回紇聯合唐擊潰薛延陀。唐高宗永淳二年（682年），阿史那骨咄祿在蒙古高原稱汗，東突厥復國（史稱後突厥），開始南遷。日頻嚴峻的邊患一直困擾武則天。武后通過冊封、和親的手段試圖同化南遷的突厥人。唐玄宗天寶三載（744年）回紇又與唐聯軍滅亡後突厥，回紇建國。貞元五年（790年）更名回鶻。回鶻與唐朝關係一直比較良好，但在安史之亂期間曾趁機敲詐勒索唐朝，並再聯合唐軍攻入洛陽城之後，大肆燒殺擄掠。直到唐文宗開成五年（840年），回鶻被黠戛斯所滅。被迫遷徙，有的南遷至塞內或近塞，有的西遷至甘州（甘州回鶻）、西州（高昌回鶻）、龜茲（龜茲回鶻）、蔥嶺融入葛邏祿（黑汗國）。黠戛斯汗國在派使朝貢時，李唐皇室曾稱與他們同宗。

吐谷渾乃鮮卑支系，南北朝時期西遷至青藏高原東北端。曾被隋煬帝滅亡，隋末戰亂年間複國。吐谷渾因夾處于吐蕃和唐兩大勢力之間，又與吐蕃同居青藏高原上，早年慕容伏允採取親蕃疏唐的外交政策。唐太宗幾進召見未能成功，634年開始派兵西征，次年，大將李靖擊敗吐谷渾，親唐的慕容順繼位並對唐稱臣。死後，子慕容諾曷缽繼位，唐遣送弘化公主和親。663年吐蕃滅吐谷渾，諾曷缽率眾遷至唐安樂州（今寧夏中寧東南）。

吐蕃

在西部與唐對峙的另一大國是吐蕃。吐蕃贊普松贊幹布在統一吐蕃後，以強大的武力為由，期間一直向唐朝廷提親。唐太宗貞觀十五年（641年），唐太宗派禮部尚書、江夏王李道宗護送文成公主入藏，松贊幹布到柏海迎接。文成公主將蠶等中原特有的事物帶入吐蕃，中國的風俗同時也傳入吐蕃，一些吐蕃的大臣改穿絲綢服飾。文成公主的嫁妝中還有一批工匠，這些工匠將中原的建築形式混入吐蕃的建築形式，大昭寺是其中代表。吐蕃的曆法也參考了唐朝的曆法。從此之後，唐蕃兩國維持了二十年的和平，此後軍事爭奪日漸劇烈。唐中宗神龍二年（706年），由於吐蕃軍事失利，便主動與唐修好，雙方使臣在長安會盟。史稱神龍會盟。唐中宗應允，將金城公主嫁給吐蕃贊普尺帶珠丹，但實際上吐蕃也秣馬厲兵，積極備戰。714年，吐蕃向唐朝要求重劃邊界，修改盟書，被唐朝拒絕。兩國因此交戰，吐蕃兵敗，於是又主動求和談判。

唐玄宗開元廿年（732年），兩國再次會盟，兩國決定以赤嶺為界限。734年正式立碑。不久後發生的安史之亂使得唐朝走向衰落，吐蕃趁機大力擴張勢力。唐德宗建中年間其要求與唐確立甥舅之國的關係，而不用臣國之禮。783年，兩國在清水會盟，這次會盟基本滿足吐蕃的要求，兩國改以賀蘭山為界。787年，唐蕃又會盟於平涼，吐蕃預備進行劫盟，結果唐朝除了主盟官員外，其餘六十多名官員都被扣押。唐軍死五百多人，被俘一千多人，史稱平涼劫盟。長慶元年，吐蕃內部分裂，國勢衰落，再次請求與唐會盟。後兩國在長安西郊進行會盟，以清水會盟確立的邊界為界。史稱長慶會盟，從此之後，兩國關係趨于緩和，但是也被連年戰爭所困而無力再戰。

西南地區

天寶七載（748年），南詔統一了西南的雲南，貴州西部，四川最南部和今緬甸北部地區。唐朝與南詔國的關係也是時好時壞。南詔一度長期與吐蕃合作，一同進攻唐朝。但大曆十四年（779年）後，吐蕃、南詔聯軍攻唐失敗，南詔軍元氣大傷，吐蕃又遷怒南詔。兩國從此矛盾加深。794年，唐朝與南詔在點蒼山會盟，雙方建立了良好的關係。但是到820年代後，由於南詔王權旁落，兩國又開始爆發戰爭。829年，南詔傾全國之兵力進攻唐朝，在831年一度攻入成都外城廓，但是最後因為害怕唐朝報復而又修好。之後，兩國之間的關係依然是和戰相間，直到雙雙覆滅。

東南亞、南亞和西亞

唐朝與東南亞和南亞的真臘（柬埔寨）、訶陵國（爪哇島）、室利佛逝（蘇門答臘島）、林邑（越南中部）、驃（緬甸）、獅子國（僧伽羅）、天竺（印度）等國家都有經濟文化方面的往來。

玄奘西域求法，從天竺攜回佛經六百五十七部，還用梵文翻譯了《道德經》贈送天竺，回到長安後將所見所聞寫成《大唐西域記》。義淨渡海去天竺求法，攜回經、律、論約四百部，將西域見聞寫成《大唐西域求法高僧傳》和《南海寄歸內法傳》，都是唐代重要的中外關係史著作。唐代流行的婆羅門曲融合天竺中華樂舞為一體。唐朝的佛教建築也吸收了天竺的風格。

西域地區有康國、安國、曹國、石國、米國、何國、火尋國、戊地國、史國九個全國以昭武為姓的小國，其使節商人頻繁來往于唐。

651年大食與唐始建聯繫，之後通使多達三十六次。唐軍在西域多次與大食交涉，在怛羅斯戰役中被擊敗，大食俘虜了不少中國工匠，包括紙匠，造紙術等技術傳入大食。唐初，大食國教伊斯蘭教入華，大食的倫理學、語法學、天文學、算學、航海學等也隨之傳到中國。大食幅員廣闊，勢力遙及大西洋摩洛哥，唐朝的影響通過大食中介商人間接波及西亞、東非、北非等地。

波斯在唐初受到大食侵略，半世紀便被吞併，大食在波斯境內大肆屠殺，許多波斯非伊斯蘭教徒、商人、貴族遷居西域塞內，以及東部沿海城市，從事商業。為後期色目人和回族的一個組成部分。由此，波斯的祆教、景教和摩尼教在唐地推廣。從波斯又帶來了波羅毬戲（擊鞠），深受唐皇貴族的喜愛。唐末，回回人李珣在《海藥本草》中對波斯藥物作了系統性介紹。唐朝與中西亞的吐火羅和東羅馬帝國之間也有往來。

軍事

唐朝統一中國之後，太宗、高宗、武后先後對外用兵，擊敗北方疆外和西北方疆外的敵國東突厥與西突厥，在西北佔領高昌、收其地為州縣，重新控制西域，在東北吞滅高句麗和百濟，並在白江口戰役擊敗日本援軍。到玄宗時，唐朝對外擴張達到頂峰，勢力甚至遠達中亞與新興的白衣大食（即伍麥亞王朝）和後來的黑衣大食（即阿拔斯王朝）相遇。但唐朝經安史之亂後一蹶不振，不僅無力保持前期開疆闢土的成果，還要依靠吐蕃、回紇的軍事實力以對抗藩鎮的割據勢力。雖然唐憲宗時獲得過對淮西、劍南等地藩鎮的軍事勝利，但是無法阻止地方割據的大勢。唐朝就此衰落下去。京城長安甚至一度被吐蕃攻陷（763年），西南的南詔也曾聯合吐蕃占領過成都（831年）。

唐初繼承隋代制度實行府兵制，沿襲北周和北齊的府兵制，不過北周府兵是兵民合籍，隋唐的府兵則由當地丁男抽調服役，是兵民合一的徵兵制度。府兵制的基本單位是折沖府。府分三等。上府一千兩百人，中府一千人，下府八百人。軍府長官為折沖都尉，副職為左右果毅都尉。府兵稱衛士或侍官。軍府隸屬于十二衛和六率。軍府最多時有六百三十四個，其中三成以上駐紮在關中，保衛長安。府兵制是以均田制為基礎的農兵合一制度。兵士廿一歲入軍，六十歲免役，以每戶三丁抽一的比例服役。衛士平時在家生產，農閒時由軍府訓練。其經常性任務是輪流到長安宿衛，叫做番上。戰時則應徵作戰。服役期間免除自己的租調；但口糧和兵器都要自己負責。

府兵制實際上是士兵和農民的結合，減輕國家的負擔。平時為民，戰時為兵；兵不識將，將不知兵。戰事結束後，士兵回府，將領回朝，降低將領擁兵自重的危險。府兵制的主要缺點在于動員速度慢，用兵時間過長會影響農業，而且免除士兵的稅賦對朝廷收入也是一個損失。因此，太宗、高宗及武后時已經採取過臨時徵募士兵的辦法作為對府兵制的補充。太宗時，朝廷直接管轄全國約六百個軍府，一切軍事任務，不管是派往護衛戍京師、地方駐紮或出征，均由這支軍隊執行。然而，為了便於管理，仍然需要設置軍政首長，這也就是「節度使」的由來之一。而且當社會經濟改善時，人民經常會反抗兵役制度。另外也由於國家太平已久，府兵備而不用，政府對之也日益冷漠，其素質自然大為下降。

到玄宗時，朝廷對人口的掌握能力降低，府兵逃散。天寶年間，玄宗採納張說的建議，正式以徵兵制和募兵制替代已經廢壞的府兵制。為了滿足他「領有四夷」的虛榮心，透過招募取得的士兵長期駐紮在邊鎮以進行對外戰爭，稱為「健兒」。這些雇傭兵與土地沒有聯繫，他們只渴望從邊境戰爭中獲得收益。邊鎮將領通過利益關係和部族關係（很多將領和士兵都來自依附的異族）大大加強對士兵的控制，埋下日後戰禍的種子。安史之亂後，唐朝廷在軍事上開始失勢：內有藩鎮割據，外有回紇、吐蕃、南詔的入侵。例如唐朝需要借回紇兵來平定安史之亂，763年吐蕃軍曾經佔領長安達十五日，南詔軍一度攻打成都，並於咸通年間多次進侵安南，863年將之佔領，到866年才由唐將高駢收復。唐朝駐守在南詔的士兵不滿，導致龐勛之變。後來黃巢流寇叛亂導致朱全忠和沙陀人李克用的爭戰，各地職業軍人陸續佔據地，甚至自立政權，直至唐朝滅亡後仍未平息，後來五代十國各政權，大致上是唐代晚期藩鎮割據的延續。

唐玄宗時唐朝的勢力與來自現在阿拉伯、新興和信奉伊斯蘭教的伍麥亞王朝（白衣大食）和後來的阿拔斯王朝（黑衣大食）的勢力在包含昭武九姓國、大勃律、小勃律、吐火羅在內的中亞諸國相遇如開元三年（715年）拔汗那之戰；開元五年（717年）撥換城之戰；天寶十載（751年）怛羅斯戰役；貞元十七年（801年）的渡瀘之戰。然而在怛羅斯戰役中唐軍失敗，經略中亞的進展遇挫，但是接踵而至的安史之亂和藩鎮割據導致華北地區經濟蕭條，使正重整旗鼓的唐朝大軍從此無暇顧及中亞，軍隊必須退回長安一帶平定內亂，致使在往後的一百五十年間吐蕃和回紇勢力興起並佔領原屬唐朝的西半部領土。

唐朝的眾多著名將領中，除了淩煙閣二十四功臣中的將領和郭子儀、李晟及其子李愬、高駢等漢族統帥外，異族將領也佔據重要地位：比較重要的有胡漢混血安祿山、突厥人史思明、百濟人黑齒常之、高句麗人高仙芝、突厥人阿史那社爾、契丹人李光弼、靺鞨人李懷光、突厥突騎施部人哥舒翰、鐵勒部的僕固懷恩、渾瑊和阿跌光進等。

人口

唐朝自武德初至天寶末，其戶口與人口比隋朝低，有可能因為法令不行，戶口時常有隱漏不報，所以史書記載為虛數，其比實際數據尚少。根據《舊唐書》記載，唐武德元年（618年）有一百八十萬戶；唐武德七年（624年）有二百一十九萬戶，唐貞觀十三年（639年）三百零四萬戶，唐太宗貞觀二十二年（648年）三百六十萬戶，唐高宗永徽三年（652年）有三百八十萬戶，據《通典》卷七《食貨》載，到唐玄宗天寶十三載（754年），全國有9,069,154戶，52,880,488人，然唐朝戶口統計不嚴多有隱漏，故大部分學者認為唐朝的人口峰值為八千萬左右。

當時全國有十五道，秦嶺淮河以北有人口3000萬。人口最多的是河南、河北兩道及淮北地區，這些地區合計人口接近2000萬。首都京兆府長安人口達到196萬，東都河南府洛陽則有118萬人口。隋唐大運河沿岸的交通樞紐城市魏州也有人口110萬。河東道人口達372萬；關內道有150萬；隴右道人口最少，僅53萬。南方各道中，江南東道人口最多，有661萬。其次為劍南道，有409萬，其中成都府人口就有92萬。江南西道人口亦有372萬，淮南道227萬，嶺南道116萬。人口位居全國之末的是黔中道，僅16萬。

安史之亂時，社會生產遭受毀壞，安史之亂結束後根據史載的戶口數隻是安史之亂前的三分之一，此後的唐朝戶口一蹶不振，估計唐朝中期的戶口在四五百萬戶之間。全國人口分佈格局因此發生重大變化。五代十國時期，南方九國中除了吳和吳越兩國統治者是南方本地人，南漢是早期移民後裔外，其他六國統治者都是唐末北方移民。

經濟

唐朝是繁榮強盛的大朝代，經濟的發展與規模有長足的發展。隋朝末年因為戰亂的關係產生大量無主地，使得均田制可以持續推行，對於穩定農業有很大的幫助。而自孫吳、東晉等六朝發展的江南經濟持續提升，已經顯出超越黃河流域的趨勢。而唐朝掌握南北經濟使得經濟十分強盛。自隋唐開始，中國經濟進入更高的發展階段。

農業

唐代農業生產工具比前代有所進步，開元年間發明曲轅犁，還出現新的灌溉工具水車和筒車。唐高祖武德七年（624年）統一全國，在之後穩定的一百三十年之中，僅見於記載的重要水利工程總計一百六十多項。其中著名的如玉梁渠、絳岩湖、安徽鏡湖、山東竇公渠、山西文水、河北三河、四川彭山、湖南武陵等。總耕地面積達到6.42億市畝。農業工具的進步以及水利工程的發展促使糧食產量逐年提高。天寶八載（749年），官倉存糧達九千六百萬石。長安洛陽米價最低的唐玄宗開元十四年（726年）時，每斗僅十三文，青州、齊州每斗僅五文。五穀的豐盛直接體現在唐朝前期各地戶口與墾田數量的增長。

唐朝中期之後，由於黃河中下游地區在安史之亂期間遭受破壞，而淮河以南地區遭受戰爭的破壞相對小得多，所以淮河以南地區的經濟文化發展水平就在之後的發展之中超越黃河中下游地區，唐朝中期淮河以南的土地大量開墾及大修水利，插秧移植水稻，使江淮的糧產量大幅增加，成為全國重要的糧食產區。白糖的製造始於唐貞觀二十一年（647年），宋以後長江以南各省種植甘蔗。種植販運茶葉的發展形成南方經濟的一大收入。飲茶的習俗，從南方傳到北方，逐漸普及。南方的茶葉，通過大運河和陸路大批運往北方各地，至吐蕃渤海，甚至遠及波斯大食。然因賦稅不足，國用匱乏，貞元九年（793年）正月，鹽鐵使張滂奏請在主要產茶州郡及交通要塞，委派鹽鐵度支巡院設置茶場，由主管官吏分三等定價，每十稅一，在唐朝中期以後成為國家的重要收入，因此在歷史上成為正式建立稅茶之始。

手工業

唐代手工業分官營和私營兩種。工部是主管官營手工業的最重要部門，直接管理的機構有少府監、將作監、軍器監。少府監主管精緻手工藝品；將作監主管土木工程的興建；軍器監負責兵器的建造。監下設署、署下設作坊。此外還有鑄錢監和冶監等。官營手工業的產品一般不對外銷售，只供皇室和衙門消費。工人則分為工匠、刑徒、官奴婢、官戶、雜戶等。私營手工業較官營手工業比不發達。唐前期主要手工業有紡織業、陶瓷業和礦冶業。絲、麻為主要紡織對象。河南道的絹，江淮的布都是其中的上等品種。唐朝的絲織品廣泛沿用北朝的蠟纈法染色，並先後研發出夾纈、絞纈兩種新染色法。織品圖案亦受西域胡風影響體現出少許波斯風格。白瓷的精細，唐三彩的數量可以証實當時陶瓷業之發達。唐三彩以黃、綠、白三色為主，表現當時對施釉技術的熟練掌握，雖是隨葬物品，但製作精緻，取材涉及唐代社會上下的方方面面。金銀器製造業汲取西域的一些技術，採用灰吹法達到很高的金銀純度。淮南揚州出產方丈鏡、江心鏡等上等銅鏡。唐朝中期，南方手工業大幅進步，特別是絲織業、造紙業和造船業：民間普及飼養桑蠶，開闢用竹造紙，製造人力腳踏輪船。越州越窯燒制出的秘色瓷是唐朝後期南方陶瓷業的傑出代表。

商業

唐代的城市商品經濟處于成長的胚芽時期。長安（雍州、京兆府）、洛陽（洛州、河南府）、魏州、清河郡、齊州歷城（濟南郡）、睢陽（宋州）、楚州、蘇州、涿郡（幽州）、揚州（江都、廣陵城）、成都（益州、成都府）、廣州、晉陽（并州、太原府）等都是一定地域內的商業中心。唐朝國內交通在當時世界上是十分發達的。陸路交通以長安為中心，道路遍佈全國。水路交通則是以洛陽為中心的南北大運河為主。全國共有驛站一千四百六十三所。其中陸驛一千二百九十七所，水驛一百六十六所。商人用于存放商物的邸店因其利潤之高，在交通樞紐周邊發展開來。唐朝中期開始，由于大批官僚士族與工匠南遷，長江流域商業城市發展快速，國家的經濟財政亦仰賴南方的補給，當時有「揚一益二」的說法；而江南最大城市、江南東道治所蘇州的繁華程度在中唐時期已逐漸開始超越揚州和洛陽，在全國僅次于長安，成為整個中國南方唯一的、最高等級的州——雄州，有「甲郡標天下」之說，即所謂「當今國用，多出江南。江南諸州，蘇最為大」；此外杭州、湖州等地的經濟也得到較快發展。而坊市分開的制度在蘇州、揚州等商業城市被打破，還出現夜市。

大唐是世界上最早發行紙幣的國家，飛錢是世界上最早的紙幣。這是世界上最早的紙幣雛形，也是近代世界各國學者所公認和認可的最早紙幣。唐代大城市中出現櫃坊和飛錢。櫃枋經營錢物寄付，在櫃枋存錢的客戶可以憑書貼（類似於支票）寄付錢財。這些都說明商業在唐朝中期的繁榮。唐末，因為黃巢之亂和藩鎮戰爭，戶數銳減，社會經濟規模再也未能達到開元盛世的水平。

唐代，海外貿易開始興盛，西元八世紀下半期，從廣州經由麻六甲海峽進入印度洋，抵達印度、錫蘭、再西入波斯灣、亞丁及紅海地區的航路。將通往西方的海道與往新羅及日本的海道連接起來，唐代海外交通所能抵達的範圍，已及於新大陸發現之前舊世界的大部分地區，中東商人如猶太人、波斯人以及阿拉伯人紛紛東來。中國沿岸的交州、廣州、泉州、明州（今浙江寧波）、揚州等城市，因與蕃舶互動頻繁，如雨後春筍般興盛起來，成為重要的對外貿易港口。為因應海上貿易的新形勢，唐代還特別設置「市舶司」，用來管理蕃舶的進出以及徵稅事由。海外貿易的數量，自此不斷成長。

貨幣制度

唐武德四年（621年）七月，「廢五銖錢，行開元通寶錢，徑八分，重二銖四絫，積十文重一兩，一千文重六斤四兩」，確立國家鑄幣的法幣地位。與此同時，又繼承魏晉南北朝時期以絹帛為貨幣的傳統，實行「錢帛兼行」的貨幣制度——錢即銅錢，帛則是絲織品的總稱，包括錦、繡、綾、羅、絹、絁、綺、縑、紬等，實際上是一種以實物貨幣和金屬貨幣兼而行之的多元的貨幣制度。

初期，社會經濟以自然經濟為主，商品經濟處於復蘇階段，水準很低。在這種情況下，錢帛兼行的貨幣制度較好地適應小額商品交易的需要。但隨著貞觀末期，尤其是唐高宗、武后及唐玄宗時期商品經濟的繼續發展，錢帛兼行的貨幣制度逐漸暴露出其落後的一面。首先表現在絹帛作為貨幣因體大物重、不便分割、難於運輸儲藏等缺點開始不受市場歡迎，絹帛作為貨幣的職能趨於衰退，商品交易趨向喜歡使用更高一級的銅錢作仲介，提出增加流通中銅錢投放量的要求，然而唐王朝的官營鑄幣不能滿足這種要求，於是造成流通中銅錢短缺的日益加劇，又進而引發嚴重的銅錢的私鑄和濫鑄，造成物價波動、貨幣流通不穩定以及經濟發展的混亂，對國家財政制度造成威脅。

唐政府不斷出臺嚴厲打擊私鑄和濫鑄等的法令，並禁斷使用惡錢，但是由於銅錢供應量嚴重短缺，幣值不斷上升堅挺，私鑄和濫鑄有暴利可圖，所以成效並不理想。

土地與賦稅制度

唐朝戶籍制度沿襲隋朝，行三等戶制。前期的賦稅制度，大提承襲隋朝，於624年頒行均田制與租庸調制。均田制是政府授田給人民而徵其租賦，分成公田與私田。身死後公田繳還政府重新分配，剩下可以傳後的私田即「永業田」。由於隋末民變產生大量無主土地，所以唐朝前期有充足的土地推行。除了人民之外，政府官員與王公貴族也各有額定的永業田。相較隋朝，唐朝對土地的買賣寬鬆許多，但仍有嚴格的限制。租庸調制方面，租是授田男丁每年繳固定的慄或稻，庸是每人每年要為國家服的勞役，調是每丁按照當地特產繳納絹麻之物，如果不產絹麻可用銀兩代替，庸和調也可用一定數量的絹免役。這種制度精神在於政府為民置產，其因其產而繳稅，即沒有重徵累民的問題，又可以防止兼併之風，自然是一種良制。唐朝前半葉，戶稅逐年上升，唐高宗時約收戶稅十五萬餘貫，至唐玄宗時已高達二百多萬貫。

均田制與租庸調制對人民的經濟壓力不會很大，但是人口流動不能過大，戶籍和田籍需要齊全清楚。如果政治敗壞，田地過度兼併，閒田過少，人民過度避稅，這兩個制度就會走向瓦解。武周末年均田制開始形同虛設，政治漸不以往。加上突厥、契丹連年入侵，人民逃避徭役，逃亡者漸增。唐玄宗天寶後期，不課稅的戶約占全國總戶三分之一；不服役的人口約佔全國人口六分之五，逃稅情況普遍存在。安史之亂後，戶口逃匿者增加，租庸調制無法繼續實行，所以在唐朝後期出現兩稅法。唐德宗時期，宰相楊炎制定兩稅法，並且廢除其餘名目的租稅。兩稅法即政府以當地現有的男丁與田地數為依據，劃分等級，規定分兩次於夏天、秋天納稅。而商人是以貨物總值的三十分之一，於所在的州縣納稅。其稅額，原本用錢為單位，到唐穆宗時以布代替。這樣，官僚、貴族、地主和商人都要合理納稅，減輕平民的負擔，也增加政府的收入。兩稅法雖然簡化賦稅方式，但是授田制度被廢除。使得戶籍持續陷入混亂，田地兼併的問題也都沒有解決。此後中國的賦稅制度，一直沿襲兩稅法的原則，沒有再恢復授田制度。

兩稅法未能阻擋官僚、地主、大商人利用特權手段減稅、免稅、逃稅。唐朝後期隨著物價上升，兩稅制對平民的剝削愈來愈嚴重。唐朝後期，為解決財政拮据的局面，先後對鹽、鐵、酒、礦等實行專賣制度，並且課茶稅與關稅等。結果導致物價飛騰，民怨四起，民間販賣私鹽者不在少數。而鹽鐵專賣制度也是黃巢之亂的直接原因之一。

文化

學術思想

唐代前期思想繼承魏晉南北朝的儒學，例如孔穎達編著的《五經正義》，五經正義中的思想大多由漢晉大儒完成，尤其是鄭玄的功勞最大。唐初與明初比較類似，國家在做的是執行前哲的思想。唐朝中期以後，思想上的重大改進發生，韓愈、柳宗元、李翱、劉禹錫等人的思想創見，承前啟後。還有，杜甫、白居易等人的思想價值同樣不能被忽略，他們不僅僅是詩人。後世所謂經學，嚴格意義上應該叫做「漢晉唐經學」，後世所謂理學，應該叫做「唐宋明理學」。

韓愈和李翱的作品突出體現唯心主義思想，而柳宗元和劉禹錫更是唐代唯物主義思想的代表。韓愈在他著作《原道》和《原性》中複古崇儒、駁斥佛道，認為僧道不顧及生產，浪費社會財富，僧尼道士應當回鄉還俗，焚燒佛經咒文，將寺廟觀宇改為民居。他推崇孔子在《論語》中道述的道德觀念，以其作為日常倫理的標準。他認為天生人性，並可劃分為上中下三品。李翱在《複性書》發展孟子的性善論，認為人之性皆善，但在日常生活中受到喜怒哀樂之情的幹擾，使得性無法發揮，要求恢復人的善性克制人的情慾，所謂「複性」。韓愈和李翱的思想是宋代理學的先聲」。

柳宗元在他的《天說》、《天對》、《封建論》等哲理文章中指出人命與天命無關，天即自然元氣，無法對人世賞功罰過，「功者自功，禍者自禍」，人的遭遇純屬自己創造。劉禹錫發展荀子的天論觀點認為宇宙之內竟是物質，天本身同樣是物質，雖有客觀規律存在，但不能影響人事。他認為唯心理論的產生是因為人世間是非顛倒，人無能勝天，所以宣揚天命理論。

文學與史學

唐朝文學成就以詩歌最為發達。清人所編《全唐詩》共收錄兩千兩百多位詩人的四萬八千九百多首詩，這還不是全部。唐初詩人以「初唐四傑」最為著名（王勃、楊炯、盧照鄰、駱賓王）。盛唐時期詩人可分為以王維、孟浩然為代表的田園派和岑參、王昌齡為代表的邊塞派。其中集大成者為「詩仙」李白和「詩聖」杜甫最為出名。李白的詩，飄逸灑脫，感情澎湃，充滿浪漫主義的色彩。而杜甫的詩則更多體現現實主義之情懷。中唐時期最卓越的詩人是白居易，他的詩通俗易懂。此外還有元稹、韓愈、柳宗元、劉禹錫、李賀等。晚唐詩人以李商隱和杜牧最為出眾，被稱為「小李杜」。後世宋、明、清雖仍有傑出詩人出現，但總體水準都不如唐朝詩人，唐詩成為中國古詩不可逾越的巔峰。

散文方面，六朝以來，文壇盛行駢文這種文體形式，駢文講究聲韻、對偶、典故，辭藻華麗，以四字句和六字句為主。在唐初十分流行，以初唐四傑最為著名，但這種文體到唐朝時顯得形式殭化，內容空洞，故到了天寶年間，古文逐漸興起。古文運動在名義上是要恢復先秦兩漢的散文，實際上是要文章更有內容，也就是「文以載道」。韓愈是唐宋八大家之首，他的散文氣勢磅礡又思想深刻，號稱「文起八代之衰」；不過唐代的古文運動在韓柳去世後就逐漸衰退，唐末駢文又再度興起。

傳奇是中國的一種古典小說形式，出現在隋朝，興盛於唐朝。著名的傳奇包括《柳毅傳》、《鶯鶯傳》、《南柯太守傳》、《枕中記》和《長恨傳》等。有的傳奇在後代還被改編為戲劇和白話小說。唐朝變文在中國文學史上也有重要地位。所謂變文起初是指佛教僧侶宣傳佛教講唱佛經的底本。最初變文僅限於佛教經典，後來則開始講唱其他故事，講唱的人也不限於僧侶。變文對傳奇和後世的說唱文學都有很大影響。

唐朝史學開創國家正式開館修史這一風潮。貞觀年間史館奉詔所修的正史有《晉書》、《梁書》、《陳書》、《北齊書》、《周書》、《隋書》六部。加上史家李延壽私撰的《南史》和《北史》，合計廿四史中有八部出在唐朝，占總數的三分之一。官修史書成書較快、收錄詳盡，豐富國家的歷史檔案，但因統治者直接控制修史工作，多少會根據編書時的政治需求出現刪減誇大的行為。此外，唐朝還有杜佑擴寫《政典》的政書《通典》與劉知幾的修史專著《史通》等。杜佑尤其重視財政經濟與典章法令制度，認為歷史多有現實政治中可以採納效仿之處。劉知幾強調史學家在修史的過程中要有獨自創新的評論見解，是為中國曆史理論學的開端。

宗教

道教遵奉老子李耳為本教創祖，由於唐朝皇帝乃李姓，因此道教自唐初就被規定居于佛教之上，在唐代上流社會也很流行。唐朝李氏家族認為其為老子之後，唐高祖特別在終南山建太和宮以祭老子，唐高宗追尊老子為太上玄元皇帝，並詔令王公百官研習老子的《道德經》。武則天上奏請令王公百官都學《道德經》，每年依《孝經》、《論語》例考士人。玄宗、代宗亦大力提倡道教，使其在中國的地位達到頂峰。玄宗親自註解《道德經》，開元二十一年（733年）還在科舉考試中增設道舉與儒家經典，同列《明經》科舉人策試教本，明顯有將道家列為國學，頗有與儒家經學齊足並馳的意義。據《新唐書·百官志》記載，開元年間全國有宮觀1687所，其中女觀550所。當時主要有清經法派和正一派二宗，主要人物有王遠知、潘師正、司馬承禎、吳筠、張果等。道教之所以受皇室青睞，主要原因是他們多有煉丹，以求長生不老，但其成份可能有毒，故唐朝的許多皇帝亦因信之服用而喪生，例如唐武宗、唐宣宗。

宗教在社會上的地位與影響力，唐時可謂最高。唐朝時期佛教的主要宗派有天台宗、華嚴宗、法相宗、淨土宗和禪宗。唐代佛教的一大轉變，由出世轉向入世。天台宗奉《法華經》，故又稱為法華宗。華嚴宗奉《華嚴經》，參與政治較多。淨土宗則易於入門。禪宗分為南北二宗，北宗創立者是神秀，他主張漸悟說。南宗創立者是惠能。唐武宗因崇信道教，對佛教採取高壓政策，史稱會昌毀佛，使得除禪宗南宗等少數宗派外，其他佛教派別從此一蹶不振。佛教的政治地位雖不及道教，但其傳播範圍之廣、經濟實力之大、信徒人數之多都遠在唐代道教之上。

除了佛道二教外，當時還有伊斯蘭教、景教、拜火教與摩尼教等外來宗教，後三者合稱「唐代三夷教」，但社會影響力較小。唐代對外來宗教相對寬容，期間多有外來教士傳授教法，其中以伊斯蘭教和景教為最大。伊斯蘭教是唐的敵國大食的國教，稱作「大食法」。651年，先知穆罕默德的舅父沙德作為使節兩次出使中國，得到高宗接見以及傳教的准許，在廣州築建懷聖寺。以後的兩個多世紀，伊斯蘭教隨著西域商人沿途陸海兩條絲路入唐，在中國發展壯大。景教通過同一個路線傳入中國，因被誤認是大秦國（拜占庭帝國）的國教，所以稱作「大秦景教」。638年為唐朝所認可並得到政府資助在長安興建大秦寺，並立下石碑。然而會昌五年（845年）唐武宗大舉廢佛，因此景教也同時被禁，此後幾乎在中國絕跡。

摩尼教為西元242年創建於波斯國沙普爾一世時的摩尼，安史之亂後，回紇勢大，摩尼教憑著回紇的庇蔭下在中國傳教，不過後來受會昌毀佛影響，摩尼教勢力遭受沉重打擊，不過並未斷絕，該教信徒到了政治控制力較弱的南方並漸與其他宗教相結合，在今天的福建建立傳教據點，流傳到東南浙、閩沿海地區，從此轉為民間秘密宗教，也影響日後的明教、彌勒教、白蓮教等教派。

教育與入仕制度

中國曆史上第一個狀元、三元及第，都誕生于唐朝，即武德五年（622年）狀元孫伏伽（一說651年的顏康成），建中二年（781年）三元狀元崔元翰。唐朝的學校以官辦為主。中央設國子監，下轄六學，為國子學、太學、四門學、律學、書學、算學。這些學校主要招收貴族官僚子弟，也招收少量平民子弟。由博士與助教授課，學生稱生徒。國子學、太學、四門學傳授以九經為主的儒學經典，按生徒家中官位的高低分級招收。三品以上官員的子孫可入國子學，有生徒三百餘人；五品以上官員子孫可進太學，有五百餘生徒；四門學兼收五品以下官員及庶民子孫，生徒多達千人。律學、書學、算學教授實用學問，收納八、九品官員及庶民子弟，名額限于十餘人。地方設立州學、縣學，每校有學生十來人。

學校旨在培養官僚書吏，亦為科舉考試服務。名望好的學校保送生徒參加科舉考試。科舉制度在唐朝進入逐漸完備期，分為常舉和制舉兩種。常舉每年舉辦考試，科目有明經、進士、明法、明書、明算等。此外還有秀才、道舉、童子、一史、三史等科目。常舉的應考舉子有兩個來源，一是保送的生徒；二是鄉貢選拔出來的自學者。應考舉子主要集中在明經和進士兩科。明經科主要考試儒家經典，難度較低。進士科主要考詩賦和政論，難度高，但其是主要的高官晉身之階，即「昔日齷齪不足跨，今朝放蕩思無涯。春風得意馬蹄疾，一日看盡長安花。」明經科的錄取率約為十分之一二，進士科不過百分之一二。時有諺曰：三十老明經，五十少進士。而制舉則是臨時考試，是為了網羅非常人才，不常舉行。因為科舉制度比較公平且機會相等，平民得以晉身，所以成為士族末落、門第消融的起點。

科舉制度除外，還有門蔭和流外入流兩種入仕渠道。門蔭即晚輩承接前輩職務。流外入流指九品以下的官員通過考驗，升職為品官。唐初，以此二途入仕的為主流，後來唐太宗大力推廣學府，科舉制度逐漸推行。唐代教育的普及，削弱了傳統世族的特權，加強了有效的行政管理，擴大了政權的社會基礎；尤其是唐朝後期黃巢之亂對門閥士族的沉重打擊，在後來的宋代中科舉制度真正得到完善。盛唐時期，東亞多國遣送其貴族子弟來唐入學，又將儒家文化傳授國外。

藝術

由於吸收了西域特徵與宗教色彩，唐朝藝術與前後朝代都迥然不同。唐初的閻立本、閻立德兄弟擅畫人物。吳道子則有「畫聖」之稱呼，他兼擅人物、山水，並吸收了西域畫派的技法，畫面富於立體感，有「吳帶當風」之說。張萱和周昉以畫侍女圖為主，他們的著名作品有「搗練圖」、「虢國夫人遊春圖」和「簪花仕女圖」等，進一步發展人物畫。魏晉南北朝時期，山水風景多為襯托人物主題的配景，而隋唐以來，山水風景成為主題，出現山水畫這個重要分支。當時分南、北兩派。詩人王維擅長水墨山水畫，是南派的代表，蘇軾評他「詩中有畫，畫中有詩」。北派畫家李思訓善用青綠畫金碧山水。又有曹霸、韓幹善畫馬，韓滉善畫牛，薛稷善畫鶴，邊鸞善畫孔雀等。

唐朝的壁畫事業特別發達。莫高窟與墓室壁畫都是傳世精品。唐朝的雕刻藝術同樣出眾。敦煌、龍門、麥積山和炳靈寺石窟都是在唐朝時期步入全盛。龍門石窟的盧舍那大佛和四川樂山大佛都令人讚歎。昭陵六駿、墓葬三彩陶俑都非常精美。其中雕刻家楊惠之被稱為塑聖。唐朝時期，書法家輩出。歐陽詢、虞世南都是唐初著名書法家。歐陽詢的楷書筆力嚴整，《九成宮醴泉銘》為其名作。虞世南楷書字體柔圓，代表作品有《孔子廟堂碑》、《汝南公主墓誌》、《摹蘭亭序》等。顏真卿和柳公權是唐朝中後期的著名書法家。顏真卿的楷書用筆肥厚，內含筋骨，勁健灑脫，其代表作有《多寶塔碑》、《顏氏家寶廟碑》、《麻姑仙壇記》等；柳公權的字體勁健，代表作有《玄秘塔碑》，世人稱顏柳二人書法為「顏筋柳骨」。張旭和懷素則是草書大家，後者奔放揮灑，深具個人風格及藝術性。

唐朝音樂舞蹈發達。唐太宗平高昌得高昌樂，併入原有的九部樂成為十部樂：燕樂、清商樂、西涼樂、天竺樂、高麗樂、龜茲樂、安國樂、疏勒樂、康國樂、高昌樂。唐高宗以後，十部樂開始衰落，音樂家開始研究新的樂舞，各部樂間的區別逐漸消失，至玄宗朝撤銷。玄宗本人就是音樂家，愛好親自演奏琵琶、羯鼓等多種樂器，擅長作曲，作有《霓裳羽衣曲》、《小破陣樂》等百餘首樂曲；他非常重視雅樂事業，將十部樂分為坐部伎（坐在堂上演奏）和立部伎（立在堂下演奏），曾經親選坐部伎三百人，號為「皇帝梨園弟子」，李龜年和永新娘子都是名噪一時的歌唱家。唐朝的舞蹈則是以健舞和軟舞最為出名。健舞因其節奏明快、雄健豪爽而得名，有《阿遼》、《柘枝》、《拂林》、《大渭州》、《黃獐》、《阿連》、《劍器》、《胡旋》、《胡騰》、《楊柳枝》等多種。軟舞即文舞，優美柔婉，節奏舒緩，有《垂手羅》、《回波樂》、《蘭陵王》、《春鶯囀》、《借席》、《烏夜啼》、《涼州》、《綠腰》、《屈柘枝》、《甘州》等。著名的舞蹈「七德舞」、「上元舞」、「九功舞」合稱「三大舞」，流行于宮廷。舞蹈家則有楊玉環、公孫大娘、謝阿蠻等。晉朝永嘉之亂後西域舞樂東傳中原，與華夏舞樂融合兩個多世紀，至唐代已有很強的胡風特色。多種健舞軟舞都採用一種昂首望上，雙腳原地急轉如旋風的動作，因來源西域，謂之「胡旋」。唐代散樂多含雜技，統稱「百戲」，包括渾脫、尋撞、跳丸、吐火、吞刀、筋斗、踢毯等項目。

科技

唐朝科技相對于前代有明顯進步。在中國曆史上有大量的科技發明，所謂的四大發明之中有兩個都誕生于唐朝，即火藥和雕版印刷。尊稱藥王的孫思邈撰寫的《千金要方》和補本《千金翼方》，論及藥物之本、診治之訣、針灸之法、養生之術，都是不可多得的醫書。《新修本草》是中國最早的一本國家官修藥書，成書于唐高宗顯慶四年（659年）。天文學家僧一行在世界上首次測量子午線的長度，他還與梁令瓚合作，銅鑄製成黃道游儀與水運渾天儀。他在《大衍曆》曆書中運用二次差內插法並創新近似三次差的內插公式，為王恂等後人奠定基礎。初唐數學家王孝通著于武德九年〔626年〕的《緝古算經》在世界上首次系統地創立三次多項式方程，對代數學的發展，有重要意義。李淳風等人修訂《算經十書》是唐朝算學的重要成果。

唐初大型地理志書《括地誌》共550卷，內容豐富，對後世的地理研究影響深遠。賈耽的《海內華夷圖》繪有唐近鄰的數百國家。此外還有李吉甫著的地方誌《元和郡縣圖志》，杜佑撰寫的政書《州郡典》，樊綽介紹雲南南詔國的《蠻書》等。唐在隋大興城的基礎上擴展修建首都長安城，東都洛陽規劃同樣規劃嚴整，規模宏大，是中國曆史都城中規劃最為嚴謹端正的兩個。長安城在盛唐年間極盛時人口達到80—100萬，成為當時世界上最大的城市，也為後世留下城市規劃的樣板。當時周邊國家的首都，如：日本平安京、新羅金城、高句麗平壤和渤海國上京龍泉府都是仿照長安建造。大明皇宮占地廣大，現今遺址範圍相當于明清紫禁城總面積的三倍之多。

唐朝的木結構建築規模雄渾，氣魄豪邁，建築流程進一步定型化，提高施工速度。佛塔形式也融合中國與印度的造型，顯得千變萬化，多種多樣。868年，中國《金剛經》的印製是世界上已知最早的雕版印刷。在成都和敦煌都發現過雕版印製的《陀羅尼經咒》。雕版印刷為五代以後書籍的大量發行和普及創造條件。中國的造紙、紡織等技術在751年的怛羅斯戰役之中傳入大食國，之後在12世紀傳入西班牙，到13世紀傳入意大利，到14世紀初葉傳遍整個歐洲。646年，甘蔗熬糖法也從摩揭陀傳入唐朝。

社會

唐代社會，雖然士族的勢力被削減，但仍然不是一個平等的社會。《唐律》中也明訂，人分為「良」、「賤」兩大類，賤民只能與賤民結婚；地主殺害部曲最多求刑一年，而部曲殺害地主必處斬。雖然科舉制度實行，但由於世族的生活條件較為優渥，其子弟的文化修養也就跟著較高，不論是否參加科舉，進入仕途都不是非常困難；唐代宰相出身世族者也就不在少數。唐代進士選拔，另有一些社會公評的含義，防弊措施並不嚴格，常有考生向主考官請託，自我吹噓的情形，但當時人並不視為舞弊，所以錄取進士的，有許多是權門子弟；而才氣縱橫的杜甫，兩次考試都落榜。

唐代是「胡風」盛行的時代。所謂「胡風」，特指流行於唐朝社會各階層的種種並非漢民族原有的社會風習而言，其中主要有當時從北方遊牧民族和西域等地傳來的風俗，也有由五胡十六國時期南下的遊牧民族遺留的社會風俗，諸因素共同作用的結果，形成唐朝胡風盛行的局面。如「胡樂」、「胡服」、「胡食」等在長安城是極其盛行的。西域外族服飾文化對唐朝服飾影響巨大。唐代元和以前，除百官公服外，士女的常服大都隨意穿著，故有穿胡服的風氣，至玄宗時達于極盛。元和以後，衣服漸尚寬長，此後，唐人漸厭胡風改從漢制，于此可以看出，唐人已頗有複古的傾向。

唐代婦女的地位較高，在服飾中也有體現。貴族及宮廷女子多為半裸胸的寬鬆羅裙。裙腰系得較高，在腰腋之間。歌女服飾染色醒目絢麗，貴族染色富麗高雅。按領子款式分為圓領、翻領、方領、斜領、直領和雞心領等。隋文帝開創穿黃龍袍的習禮，唐高祖武德年間令臣民不得僭服黃色，黃袍成為皇室專用之服。

君主年表

History

Establishment

The Li family belonged to the northwest military aristocracy prevalent during the Sui dynasty and claimed to be paternally descended from the Taoist founder, Lao Tzu (whose personal name was Li Dan or Li Er), the Han dynasty General Li Guang and Western Liang ruler Li Gao. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage (; c=|s=|t=隴西李氏|labels=no), which includes the Tang poet Li Bai. The Tang Emperors also had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tang's Xianbei mother, Duchess Dugu.

Li Yuan was Duke of Tang and governor of Taiyuan, modern Shanxi, during the Sui dynasty's collapse, which was caused in part by the Sui failure to conquer the northern part of the Korean peninsula during the Goguryeo–Sui War. He had prestige and military experience, and was a first cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui (their mothers were sisters). Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang (d. 623), who raised and commanded her own troops. In winter 617, Li Yuan occupied Chang'an, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Yang You. On the news of Emperor Yang's murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18, 618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang.

Li Yuan, known as Emperor Gaozu of Tang, ruled until 626, when he was forcefully deposed by his son Li Shimin, the Prince of Qin. Li Shimin had commanded troops since the age of 18 years old, had prowess with bow and arrow, sword and lance and was known for his effective cavalry charges. Fighting a numerically superior army, he defeated Dou Jiande (573–621) at Luoyang in the Battle of Hulao on May 28, 621. In a violent elimination of royal family due to fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushed and killed two of his brothers, Li Yuanji (b. 603) and Crown prince Li Jiancheng (b. 589), in the Xuanwu Gate Incident on July 2, 626. Shortly thereafter, his father abdicated in his favor and Li Shimin ascended the throne. He is conventionally known by his temple name Taizong.

Although killing two brothers and deposing his father contradicted the Confucian value of filial piety, Taizong showed himself to be a capable leader who listened to the advice of the wisest members of his council. In 628, Emperor Taizong held a Buddhist memorial service for the casualties of war, and in 629 he had Buddhist monasteries erected at the sites of major battles so that monks could pray for the fallen on both sides of the fight.

Expansion into Central Asia

During the Tang campaign against the Eastern Turks, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate was destroyed after the capture of its ruler, Illig Qaghan by the famed Tang military officer Li Jing (571–649); who later became a Chancellor of the Tang dynasty. With this victory, the Turks accepted Taizong as their khagan, a title rendered as Tian Kehan in addition to his rule as emperor of China under the traditional title "Son of Heaven". Taizong was succeeded by his son Li Zhi (as Emperor Gaozong) in 649 CE.

The Tang Dynasty further led the Tang campaigns against the Western Turks. Early military conflicts were a result of the Tang interventions in the rivalry between the Western and Eastern Turks in order to weaken both. Under Emperor Taizong, campaigns were dispatched in the Western Regions against Gaochang in 640, Karasahr in 644 and 648, and Kucha in 648. The wars against the Western Turks continued under Emperor Gaozong, and the Western Turkic Khaganate was finally annexed after General Su Dingfang's defeat of Qaghan Ashina Helu in 657 CE.

Wu Zetians usurpation

Although she entered Emperor Gaozong's court as the lowly consort Wu Wei Liang, Wu Zetian rose to the highest seat of power in 690, establishing the short-lived Wu Zhou. Empress Wu's rise to power was achieved through cruel and calculating tactics: a popular conspiracy theory stated that she killed her own baby girl and blamed it on Gaozong's empress so that the empress would be demoted. Emperor Gaozong suffered a stroke in 655, and Wu began to make many of his court decisions for him, discussing affairs of state with his councilors, who took orders from her while she sat behind a screen. When Empress Wu's eldest son, the crown prince, began to assert his authority and advocate policies opposed by Empress Wu, he suddenly died in 675. Many suspected he was poisoned by Empress Wu. Although the next heir apparent kept a lower profile, in 680 he was accused by Wu of plotting a rebellion and was banished. (He was later obliged to commit suicide.)

In 683, Emperor Gaozong died. He was succeeded by Emperor Zhongzong, his eldest surviving son by Wu. Zhongzong tried to appoint his wife's father as chancellor: after only six weeks on the throne, he was deposed by Empress Wu in favor of his younger brother, Emperor Ruizong. This provoked a group of Tang princes to rebel in 684. Wu's armies suppressed them within two months. She proclaimed the Tianshou era of Wu Zhou on , and three days later demoted Emperor Ruizong to crown prince. He was also forced to give up his father's surname Li in favor of the Empress Wu. She then ruled as China's only empress regnant.

A palace coup on , forced Empress Wu to yield her position on February 22. The next day, her son Zhongzong was restored to power; the Tang was formally restored on March 3. She died soon after. To legitimize her rule, she circulated a document known as the Great Cloud Sutra, which predicted that a reincarnation of the Maitreya Buddha would be a female monarch who would dispel illness, worry, and disaster from the world. She even introduced numerous revised written characters to the written language, which reverted to the originals after her death. Arguably the most important part of her legacy was diminishing the hegemony of the Northwestern aristocracy, allowing people from other clans and regions of China to become more represented in Chinese politics and government.

Emperor Xuanzongs reign

There were many prominent women at court during and after Wu's reign, including Shangguan Wan'er (664–710), a poet, writer, and trusted official in charge of Wu's private office. In 706 the wife of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Empress Wei (d. 710), persuaded her husband to staff government offices with his sister and her daughters, and in 709 requested that he grant women the right to bequeath hereditary privileges to their sons (which before was a male right only). Empress Wei eventually poisoned Zhongzong, whereupon she placed his fifteen-year-old son upon the throne in 710. Two weeks later, Li Longji (the later Emperor Xuanzong) entered the palace with a few followers and slew Empress Wei and her faction. He then installed his father Emperor Ruizong (r. 710–712) on the throne. Just as Emperor Zhongzong was dominated by Empress Wei, so too was Ruizong dominated by Princess Taiping. This was finally ended when Princess Taiping's coup failed in 712 (she later hanged herself in 713) and Emperor Ruizong abdicated to Emperor Xuanzong.

During the 44-year reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the Tang dynasty reached its height, a golden age with low economic inflation and a toned down lifestyle for the imperial court. Seen as a progressive and benevolent ruler, Xuanzong even abolished the death penalty in the year 747; all executions had to be approved beforehand by the emperor himself (these were relatively few, considering that there were only 24 executions in the year 730). Xuanzong bowed to the consensus of his ministers on policy decisions and made efforts to staff government ministries fairly with different political factions. His staunch Confucian chancellor Zhang Jiuling (673–740) worked to reduce deflation and increase the money supply by upholding the use of private coinage, while his aristocratic and technocratic successor Li Linfu (d. 753) favored government monopoly over the issuance of coinage. After 737, most of Xuanzong's confidence rested in his long-standing chancellor Li Linfu, who championed a more aggressive foreign policy employing non-Chinese generals. This policy ultimately created the conditions for a massive rebellion against Xuanzong.

An Lushan Rebellion and catastrophe

The Tang Empire was at its height of power up until the middle of the 8th century, when the An Lushan Rebellion (December 16, 755 – February 17, 763) destroyed the prosperity of the empire. An Lushan was a half-Sogdian, half-Turk Tang commander since 744, had experience fighting the Khitans of Manchuria with a victory in 744, yet most of his campaigns against the Khitans were unsuccessful. He was given great responsibility in Hebei, which allowed him to rebel with an army of more than 100,000 troops. After capturing Luoyang, he named himself emperor of a new, but short-lived, Yan state. Despite early victories scored by Tang General Guo Ziyi (697–781), the newly recruited troops of the army at the capital were no match for An Lushan's frontier veterans, so the court fled Chang'an. While the heir apparent raised troops in Shanxi and Xuanzong fled to Sichuan province, they called upon the help of the Uyghur Khaganate in 756. The Uyghur khan Moyanchur was greatly excited at this prospect, and married his own daughter to the Chinese diplomatic envoy once he arrived, receiving in turn a Chinese princess as his bride. The Uyghurs helped recapture the Tang capital from the rebels, but they refused to leave until the Tang paid them an enormous sum of tribute in silk. Even Abbasid Arabs assisted the Tang in putting down An Lushan's rebellion. The Tibetans took hold of the opportunity and raided many areas under Chinese control, and even after the Tibetan Empire had fallen apart in 842 (and the Uyghurs soon after) the Tang were in no position to reconquer Central Asia after 763. So significant was this loss that half a century later jinshi examination candidates were required to write an essay on the causes of the Tang's decline. Although An Lushan was killed by one of his eunuchs in 757, this time of troubles and widespread insurrection continued until rebel Shi Siming was killed by his own son in 763.

One of the legacies that the Tang government left since 710 was the gradual rise of regional military governors, the jiedushi, who slowly came to challenge the power of the central government. After the An Lushan Rebellion, the autonomous power and authority accumulated by the jiedushi in Hebei went beyond the central government's control. After a series of rebellions between 781 and 784 in today's Hebei, Shandong, Hubei and Henan provinces, the government had to officially acknowledge the jiedushi's hereditary ruling without accreditation. The Tang government relied on these governors and their armies for protection and to suppress locals that would take up arms against the government. In return, the central government would acknowledge the rights of these governors to maintain their army, collect taxes and even to pass on their title to heirs. As time passed, these military governors slowly phased out the prominence of civil officials drafted by exams, and became more autonomous from central authority. The rule of these powerful military governors lasted until 960, when a new civil order under the Song dynasty was established. Also, the abandonment of the equal-field system meant that people could buy and sell land freely. Many poor fell into debt because of this, forced to sell their land to the wealthy, which led to the exponential growth of large estates. With the breakdown of the land allocation system after 755, the central Chinese state barely interfered in agricultural management and acted merely as tax collector for roughly a millennium, save a few instances such as the Song's failed land nationalization during the 13th-century war with the Mongols.

With the central government collapsing in authority over the various regions of the empire, it was recorded in 845 that bandits and river pirates in parties of 100 or more began plundering settlements along the Yangtze River with little resistance. In 858, massive floods along the Grand Canal inundated vast tracts of land and terrain of the North China Plain, which drowned tens of thousands of people in the process.

The Chinese belief in the Mandate of Heaven granted to the ailing Tang was also challenged when natural calamities occurred, forcing many to believe that the Tang had lost their right to rule. Furthermore, in 873 a disastrous harvest shook the foundations of the empire; in some areas only half of all agricultural produce was gathered, and tens of thousands faced famine and starvation. In the earlier period of the Tang, the central government was able to meet crises in the harvest, as it was recorded from 714 to 719 that the Tang government responded effectively to natural disasters by extending the price-regulation granary system throughout the country. The central government was able then to build a large surplus stock of foods to ward off the rising danger of famine and increased agricultural productivity through land reclamation. In the 9th century, however, the Tang government was nearly helpless in dealing with any calamity.

Rebuilding and recovery

Although these natural calamities and rebellions stained the reputation and hampered the effectiveness of the central government, the early 9th century is nonetheless viewed as a period of recovery for the Tang dynasty. The government's withdrawal from its role in managing the economy had the unintended effect of stimulating trade, as more markets with less bureaucratic restrictions were opened up. By 780, the old grain tax and labor service of the 7th century was replaced by a semiannual tax paid in cash, signifying the shift to a money economy boosted by the merchant class. Cities in the Jiangnan region to the south, such as Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou prospered the most economically during the late Tang period. The government monopoly on the production of salt, weakened after the An Lushan Rebellion, was placed under the Salt Commission, which became one of the most powerful state agencies, run by capable ministers chosen as specialists. The commission began the practice of selling merchants the rights to buy monopoly salt, which they would then transport and sell in local markets. In 799 salt accounted for over half of the government's revenues. S.A.M. Adshead writes that this salt tax represents "the first time that an indirect tax, rather than tribute, levies on land or people, or profit from state enterprises such as mines, had been the primary resource of a major state." Even after the power of the central government was in decline after the mid 8th century, it was still able to function and give out imperial orders on a massive scale. The Tangshu (Old Book of Tang) compiled in the year 945 recorded that in 828 the Tang government issued a decree that standardized irrigational square-pallet chain pumps in the country:

In the second year of the Taihe reign period 828, in the second month...a standard model of the chain pump was issued from the palace, and the people of Jingzhao Fu (d footnote: the capital) were ordered by the emperor to make a considerable number of machines, for distribution to the people along the Zheng Bai Canal, for irrigation purposes.|

The last great ambitious ruler of the Tang dynasty was Emperor Xianzong (r. 805–820), whose reign was aided by the fiscal reforms of the 780s, including a government monopoly on the salt industry. He also had an effective well trained imperial army stationed at the capital led by his court eunuchs; this was the Army of Divine Strategy, numbering 240,000 in strength as recorded in 798. Between the years 806 and 819, Emperor Xianzong conducted seven major military campaigns to quell the rebellious provinces that had claimed autonomy from central authority, managing to subdue all but two of them. Under his reign there was a brief end to the hereditary jiedushi, as Xianzong appointed his own military officers and staffed the regional bureaucracies once again with civil officials. However, Xianzong's successors proved less capable and more interested in the leisure of hunting, feasting, and playing outdoor sports, allowing eunuchs to amass more power as drafted scholar-officials caused strife in the bureaucracy with factional parties. The eunuchs' power became unchallenged after Emperor Wenzong's (r. 826–840) failed plot to have them overthrown; instead the allies of Emperor Wenzong were publicly executed in the West Market of Chang'an, by the eunuchs' command.

However, the Tang did manage to restore at least indirect control over former Tang territories as far west as the Hexi Corridor and Dunhuang in Gansu. In 848 the ethnic Han Chinese general Zhang Yichao (799–872) managed to wrestle control of the region from the Tibetan Empire during its civil war. Shortly afterwards Emperor Xuānzong of Tang (r. 846–859) acknowledged Zhang as the protector (防禦使, Fangyushi) of Sha Prefecture and jiedushi military governor of the new Guiyi Circuit.

End of the dynasty

In addition to natural calamities and jiedushi amassing autonomous control, the Huang Chao Rebellion (874–884) resulted in the sacking of both Chang'an and Luoyang, and took an entire decade to suppress. Although the rebellion was defeated by the Tang, it never recovered from that crucial blow, weakening it for future military powers to replace it. There were also large groups of bandits in the size of small armies that ravaged the countryside in the last years of the Tang. They smuggled illicit salt, ambushed merchants and convoys, and even besieged several walled cities. Amid the sacking of cities and murderous factional strife among eunuchs and officials, the top tier of aristocratic families, which had amassed a large fraction of the landed wealth and official positions, were wiped out.

Zhu Wen, originally a salt smuggler who had served under the rebel Huang Chao, surrendered to Tang forces. By helping to defeat Huang, he was renamed Zhu Quanzhong and granted a series of rapid military promotions to military governor of Xuanwu Circuit. Zhu later conquered many circuits and became the most powerful warlord. In 903 he controlled the imperial court and forced Emperor Zhaozong of Tang to move the capital to Luoyang, preparing to take the throne himself. In 904 Zhu assassinated Emperor Zhaozong to replace him with the emperor's young son Emperor Ai of Tang. In 905 Zhu executed 9 brothers of Emperor Ai as well as many officials and Empress Dowager He. In 907 the Tang dynasty was ended when Zhu deposed Ai and took the throne for himself (known posthumously as Emperor Taizu of Later Liang). He established the Later Liang, which inaugurated the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. A year later Zhu had the deposed Emperor Ai poisoned to death.

Administration and politics

Initial reforms

Taizong set out to solve internal problems within the government which had constantly plagued past dynasties. Building upon the Sui legal code, he issued a new legal code that subsequent Chinese dynasties would model theirs upon, as well as neighboring polities in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. The earliest law code to survive was the one established in the year 653, which was divided into 500 articles specifying different crimes and penalties ranging from ten blows with a light stick, one hundred blows with a heavy rod, exile, penal servitude, or execution.

The legal code distinguished different levels of severity in meted punishments when different members of the social and political hierarchy committed the same crime. For example, the severity of punishment was different when a servant or nephew killed a master or an uncle than when a master or uncle killed a servant or nephew.

The Tang Code was largely retained by later codes such as the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644) code of 1397, yet there were several revisions in later times, such as improved property rights for women during the Song dynasty (960–1279).

The Tang had three departments (省 shěng), which were obliged to draft, review, and implement policies respectively. There were also six ministries (部 bù) under the administrations that implemented policy, each of which was assigned different tasks. These Three Departments and Six Ministries included the personnel administration, finance, rites, military, justice, and public works—an administrative model which would last until the fall of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).

Although the founders of the Tang related to the glory of the earlier Han dynasty (3rd century BC–3rd century AD), the basis for much of their administrative organization was very similar to the previous Northern and Southern dynasties. The Northern Zhou (6th century) fubing system of divisional militia was continued by the Tang, along with farmer-soldiers serving in rotation from the capital or frontier in order to receive appropriated farmland. The equal-field system of the Northern Wei (4th–6th centuries) was also kept, although there were a few modifications.

Although the central and local governments kept an enormous number of records about land property in order to assess taxes, it became common practice in the Tang for literate and affluent people to create their own private documents and signed contracts. These had their own signature and that of a witness and scribe in order to prove in court (if necessary) that their claim to property was legitimate. The prototype of this actually existed since the ancient Han dynasty, while contractual language became even more common and embedded into Chinese literary culture in later dynasties.

The center of the political power of the Tang was the capital city of Chang'an (modern Xi'an), where the emperor maintained his large palace quarters and entertained political emissaries with music, sports, acrobatic stunts, poetry, paintings, and dramatic theater performances. The capital was also filled with incredible amounts of riches and resources to spare. When the Chinese prefectural government officials traveled to the capital in the year 643 to give the annual report of the affairs in their districts, Emperor Taizong discovered that many had no proper quarters to rest in and were renting rooms with merchants. Therefore, Emperor Taizong ordered the government agencies in charge of municipal construction to build every visiting official his own private mansion in the capital.

Imperial examinations

Students of Confucian studies were candidates for the imperial examinations, which qualified their graduates for appointment to the local, provincial, and central government bureaucracies. Two types of exams given, mingjing (明經; "illuminating the classics") and jinshi (進士; "presented scholar"). The mingjing was based upon the Confucian classics and tested the student's knowledge of a broad variety of texts. The jinshi tested a student's literary abilities in writing essays in response to questions on governance and politics, as well as in composing poetry. Candidates were also judged on proper deportment, appearance, speech, and calligraphy, all subjective criteria that favored the wealthy over those of more modest means who were unable to pay tutors of rhetoric and writing. Although a disproportionate number of civil officials came from aristocratic families, wealth and noble status were not prerequisites, and the exams were open to all male subjects whose fathers were not of the artisan or merchant classes. To promote widespread Confucian education, the Tang government established state-run schools and issued standard versions of the Five Classics with commentaries.

Open competition was designed to draw the best talent into government. But perhaps an even greater consideration for the Tang rulers was to avoid imperial dependence on powerful aristocratic families and warlords by recruiting a body of career officials having no family or local power base. The Tang law code ensured equal division of inherited property amongst legitimate heirs, encouraging social mobility by preventing powerful families from becoming landed nobility through primogeniture. The competition system proved successful, as scholar-officials acquired status in their local communities while developing an esprit de corps that connected them to the imperial court. From Tang times until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912, scholar-officials served as intermediaries between the people and the government.

Yet the potential of a widespread examination system was not fully realized until the succeeding Song dynasty, when the merit-driven scholar official largely shed his aristocratic habits and defined his social status through the examination system.

Religion and politics

From the outset, religion played a role in Tang politics. In his bid for power, Li Yuan had attracted a following by claiming descent from the Taoism sage Lao Tzu ( 6th century BC). People bidding for office would request the prayers of Buddhist monks, with successful aspirants making donations in return. Before the persecution of Buddhism in the 9th century, Buddhism and Taoism were both accepted.

Religion was central in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756). The Emperor invited Taoist and Buddhist monks and clerics to his court, exalted the Taoist ancient Lao Tzu with grand titles, wrote commentary on the Lao Tzu scriptures, and set up a school to prepare candidates for Taoist examinations. In 726 he called upon the Indian monk Vajrabodhi (671–741) to perform Tantric rites to avert a drought. In 742 he personally held the incense burner while Amoghavajra (705–774, patriarch of the Shingon school) recited "mystical incantations to secure the victory of Tang forces."

Emperor Xuanzong closely regulated religious finances. Near the beginning of his reign in 713, he liquidated the Inexhaustible Treasury of a prominent Buddhist monastery in Chang'an which had collected vast riches as multitudes of anonymous repentants left money, silk, and treasure at its doors. Although the monastery used its funds generously, the Emperor condemned it for fraudulent banking practices, and distributed its wealth to other Buddhist and Taoist monasteries, and to repair local statues, halls, and bridges. In 714, he forbade Chang'an shops from selling copied Buddhist sutras, giving a monopoly of this trade to the Buddhist clergy.

Taxes and the census

The Tang dynasty government attempted to create an accurate census of the empire's population, mostly for effective taxation and military conscription. The early Tang government established modest grain and cloth taxes on each household, persuading households to register and provide the government with accurate demographic information. In the official census of 609, the population was tallied at 9 million households, about 50 million people, and this number did not increase in the census of 742. Patricia Ebrey writes that nonwithstanding census undercounting, China's population had not grown significantly since the earlier Han Dynasty, which recorded 58 million people in the year 2. S.A.M. Adshead disagrees, estimating about 75 million people by 750.

In the Tang census of 754, there were 1,859 cities, 321 prefectures, and 1,538 counties throughout the empire. Although there were many large and prominent cities, the rural and agrarian areas comprised some 80 to 90% of the population. There was also a dramatic migration from northern to southern China, as the North held 75% of the overall population at the dynasty's inception, which by its end was reduced to 50%.

Chinese population would not dramatically increase until the Song dynasty, when it doubled to 100 million because of extensive rice cultivation in central and southern China, coupled with higher yields of grain sold in a growing market.

Military and foreign policy

Protectorates and tributaries

The 7th and first half of the 8th century are generally considered to be the era in which the Tang reached the zenith of its power. In this period, Tang control extended further west than any previous dynasty, stretching from north Vietnam in the south, to a point north of Kashmir bordering Persia in the west, to northern Korea in the north-east.

Some of the kingdoms paying tribute to the Tang dynasty included Kashmir, Nepal, Khotan, Kucha, Kashgar, Silla, Champa, and kingdoms located in Amu Darya and Syr Darya valley. Turkic nomads addressed the Emperor of Tang China as Tian Kehan. After the widespread Göktürk revolt of Shabolüe Khan (d. 658) was put down at Issyk Kul in 657 by Su Dingfang (591–667), Emperor Gaozong established several protectorates governed by a Protectorate General or Grand Protectorate General, which extended the Chinese sphere of influence as far as Herat in Western Afghanistan. Protectorate Generals were given a great deal of autonomy to handle local crises without waiting for central admission. After Xuanzong's reign, military governors (jiedushi) were given enormous power, including the ability to maintain their own armies, collect taxes, and pass their titles on hereditarily. This is commonly recognized as the beginning of the fall of Tang's central government.

Soldiers and conscription

By the year 737, Emperor Xuanzong discarded the policy of conscripting soldiers that were replaced every three years, replacing them with long-service soldiers who were more battle-hardened and efficient. It was more economically feasible as well, since training new recruits and sending them out to the frontier every three years drained the treasury. By the late 7th century, the fubing troops began abandoning military service and the homes provided to them in the equal-field system. The supposed standard of 100 mu of land allotted to each family was in fact decreasing in size in places where population expanded and the wealthy bought up most of the land. Hard-pressed peasants and vagrants were then induced into military service with benefits of exemption from both taxation and corvée labor service, as well as provisions for farmland and dwellings for dependents who accompanied soldiers on the frontier. By the year 742 the total number of enlisted troops in the Tang armies had risen to about 500,000 men.

Eastern regions

In East Asia, Tang Chinese military campaigns were less successful elsewhere than in previous imperial Chinese dynasties. Like the emperors of the Sui dynasty before him, Taizong established a military campaign in 644 against the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo in the Goguryeo–Tang War; however, this led to its withdrawal in the first campaign because they failed to overcome the successful defense led by General Yeon Gaesomun. Allying with the Korean Silla Kingdom, the Chinese fought against Baekje and their Yamato Japanese allies in the Battle of Baekgang in August 663, a decisive Tang–Silla victory. The Tang dynasty navy had several different ship types at its disposal to engage in naval warfare, these ships described by Li Quan in his Taipai Yinjing (Canon of the White and Gloomy Planet of War) of 759. The Battle of Baekgang was actually a restoration movement by remnant forces of Baekje, since their kingdom was toppled in 660 by a joint Tang–Silla invasion, led by Chinese general Su Dingfang and Korean general Kim Yushin (595–673). In another joint invasion with Silla, the Tang army severely weakened the Goguryeo Kingdom in the north by taking out its outer forts in the year 645. With joint attacks by Silla and Tang armies under commander Li Shiji (594–669), the Kingdom of Goguryeo was destroyed by 668.

Although they were formerly enemies, the Tang accepted officials and generals of Goguryeo into their administration and military, such as the brothers Yeon Namsaeng (634–679) and Yeon Namsan (639–701). From 668 to 676, the Tang Empire would control northern Korea. However, in 671 Silla broke the alliance and began the Silla–Tang War to expel the Tang forces. At the same time the Tang faced threats on its western border when a large Chinese army was defeated by the Tibetans on the Dafei River in 670. By 676, the Tang army tactically withdrew from Korea in favor of its new ally, Unified Silla. Following a revolt of the Eastern Turks in 679, the Tang abandoned its Korean campaigns.

Although the Tang had fought the Japanese, they still held cordial relations with Japan. There were numerous Imperial embassies to China from Japan, diplomatic missions that were not halted until 894 by Emperor Uda (r. 887–897), upon persuasion by Sugawara no Michizane (845–903). The Japanese Emperor Tenmu (r. 672–686) even established his conscripted army on that of the Chinese model, his state ceremonies on the Chinese model, and constructed his palace at Fujiwara on the Chinese model of architecture.

Many Chinese Buddhist monks came to Japan to help further the spread of Buddhism as well. Two 7th-century monks in particular, Zhi Yu and Zhi You, visited the court of Emperor Tenji (r. 661–672), whereupon they presented a gift of a south-pointing chariot that they had crafted. This 3rd century mechanically driven directional-compass vehicle (employing a differential gear) was again reproduced in several models for Tenji in 666, as recorded in the Nihon Shoki of 720. Japanese monks also visited China; such was the case with Ennin (794–864), who wrote of his travel experiences including travels along China's Grand Canal. The Japanese monk Enchin (814–891) stayed in China from 839 to 847 and again from 853 to 858, landing near Fuzhou, Fujian and setting sail for Japan from Taizhou, Zhejiang during his second trip to China.

Western and Northern regions

The Sui and Tang carried out successful military campaigns against the steppe nomads. Chinese foreign policy to the north and west now had to deal with Turkic nomads, who were becoming the most dominant ethnic group in Central Asia. To handle and avoid any threats posed by the Turks, the Sui government repaired fortifications and received their trade and tribute missions. They sent four royal princesses to form marriage alliances with Turkic clan leaders, in 597, 599, 614, and 617. The Sui stirred trouble and conflict amongst ethnic groups against the Turks. As early as the Sui dynasty, the Turks had become a major militarized force employed by the Chinese. When the Khitans began raiding northeast China in 605, a Chinese general led 20,000 Turks against them, distributing Khitan livestock and women to the Turks as a reward. On two occasions between 635 and 636, Tang royal princesses were married to Turk mercenaries or generals in Chinese service. Throughout the Tang dynasty until the end of 755, there were approximately ten Turkic generals serving under the Tang. While most of the Tang army was made of fubing Chinese conscripts, the majority of the troops led by Turkic generals were of non-Chinese origin, campaigning largely in the western frontier where the presence of fubing troops was low. Some "Turkic" troops were tribalized Han Chinese, a desinicized people.

Civil war in China was almost totally diminished by 626, along with the defeat in 628 of the Ordos Chinese warlord Liang Shidu; after these internal conflicts, the Tang began an offensive against the Turks. In the year 630, Tang armies captured areas of the Ordos Desert, modern-day Inner Mongolia province, and southern Mongolia from the Turks. After this military victory, Emperor Taizong won the title of Great Khan from the various Turks in the region who pledged their allegiance to both him and the Chinese empire (with several thousand Turks traveling into China to live at Chang'an). On June 11, 631, Emperor Taizong also sent envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to persuade the release of enslaved Chinese prisoners who were captured during the transition from Sui to Tang from the northern frontier; this embassy succeeded in freeing 80,000 Chinese men and women who were then returned to China.

While the Turks were settled in the Ordos region (former territory of the Xiongnu), the Tang government took on the military policy of dominating the central steppe. Like the earlier Han dynasty, the Tang dynasty (along with Turkic allies) conquered and subdued Central Asia during the 640s and 650s. During Emperor Taizong's reign alone, large campaigns were launched against not only the Göktürks, but also separate campaigns against the Tuyuhun, the oasis city-states, and the Xueyantuo. Under Emperor Gaozong, a campaign led by the general Su Dingfang was launched against the Western Turks ruled by Ashina Helu.

The Tang Empire competed with the Tibetan Empire for control of areas in Inner and Central Asia, which was at times settled with marriage alliances such as the marrying of Princess Wencheng (d. 680) to Songtsän Gampo (d. 649). A Tibetan tradition mentions that Chinese troops captured Lhasa after Songtsän Gampo's death, but no such invasion is mentioned in either Chinese annals or the Tibetan manuscripts of Dunhuang.

There was a long string of conflicts with Tibet over territories in the Tarim Basin between 670 and 692, and in 763 the Tibetans even captured the capital of China, Chang'an, for fifteen days during the An Shi Rebellion. In fact, it was during this rebellion that the Tang withdrew its western garrisons stationed in what is now Gansu and Qinghai, which the Tibetans then occupied along with the territory of what is now Xinjiang. Hostilities between the Tang and Tibet continued until they signed a formal peace treaty in 821. The terms of this treaty, including the fixed borders between the two countries, are recorded in a bilingual inscription on a stone pillar outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa.

During the Islamic conquest of Persia (633–656), the son of the last ruler of the Sassanid Empire, Prince Peroz and his court moved to Tang China. According to the Old Book of Tang, Peroz was made the head of a Governorate of Persia in what is now Zaranj, Afghanistan. During this conquest of Persia, the Rashidun Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan (r. 644–656) sent an embassy to the Tang court at Chang'an. Arab sources claim Umayyad commander Qutayba ibn Muslim briefly took Kashgar from China and withdrew after an agreement, but modern historians entirely dismiss this claim. The Arab Umayyad Caliphate in 715 desposed Ikhshid, the king the Fergana Valley, and installed a new king Alutar on the throne. The deposed king fled to Kucha (seat of Anxi Protectorate), and sought Chinese intervention. The Chinese sent 10,000 troops under Zhang Xiaosong to Ferghana. He defeated Alutar and the Arab occupation force at Namangan and reinstalled Ikhshid on the throne. The Tang dynasty Chinese defeated the Arab Umayyad invaders at the Battle of Aksu (717). The Arab Umayyad commander Al-Yashkuri and his army fled to Tashkent after they were defeated. The Turgesh then crushed the Arab Umayyads and drove them out. By the 740s, the Arabs under the Abbasid Caliphate in Khorasan had reestablished a presence in the Ferghana basin and in Sogdiana. At the Battle of Talas in 751, Karluk mercenaries under the Chinese defected, helping the Arab armies of the Caliphate to defeat the Tang force under commander Gao Xianzhi. Although the battle itself was not of the greatest significance militarily, this was a pivotal moment in history, as it marks the spread of Chinese papermaking into regions west of China as captured Chinese soldiers shared the technique of papermaking to the Arabs. These techniques ultimately reached Europe by the 12th century through Arab-controlled Spain. Although they had fought at Talas, on June 11, 758, an Abbasid embassy arrived at Chang'an simultaneously with the Uighur Turks bearing gifts for the Tang Emperor. In 788–789 the Chinese concluded a military alliance with the Uighur Turks who twice defeated the Tibetans, in 789 near the town of Gaochang in Dzungaria, and in 791 near Ningxia on the Yellow River.

Joseph Needham writes that a tributary embassy came to the court of Emperor Taizong in 643 from the Patriarch of Antioch. However, Friedrich Hirth and other sinologists such as S.A.M. Adshead have identified Fu lin (拂菻) in the Old and New Book of Tang as the Byzantine Empire, which those histories directly associated with Daqin (i.e. the Roman Empire). The embassy sent in 643 by Boduoli (波多力) was identified as Byzantine ruler Constans II Pogonatos (Kōnstantinos Pogonatos, or "Constantine the Bearded") and further embassies were recorded as being sent into the 8th century. S.A.M. Adshead offers a different transliteration stemming from "patriarch" or "patrician", possibly a reference to one of the acting regents for the young Byzantine monarch. The Old and New Book of Tang also provide a description of the Byzantine capital Constantinople, including how it was besieged by the Da shi (大食, i.e. Umayyad Caliphate) forces of Muawiyah I, who forced them to pay tribute to the Arabs. The 7th-century Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta wrote about the reunification of northern and southern China by the Sui dynasty (dating this to the time of Emperor Maurice); the capital city Khubdan (from Old Turkic Khumdan, i.e. Chang'an); the basic geography of China including its previous political division around the Yangtze River; the name of China's ruler Taisson meaning "Son of God", but possibly derived from the name of the contemporaneous ruler Emperor Taizong.

Economy

Through use of the land trade along the Silk Road and maritime trade by sail at sea, the Tang were able to acquire and gain many new technologies, cultural practices, rare luxury, and contemporary items. From Europe, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, the Tang dynasty were able to acquire new ideas in fashion, new types of ceramics, and improved silver-smithing techniques. The Tang Chinese also gradually adopted the foreign concept of stools and chairs as seating, whereas the Chinese beforehand always sat on mats placed on the floor. People of the Middle East coveted and purchased in bulk Chinese goods such as silks, lacquerwares, and porcelain wares. Songs, dances, and musical instruments from foreign regions became popular in China during the Tang dynasty. These musical instruments included oboes, flutes, and small lacquered drums from Kucha in the Tarim Basin, and percussion instruments from India such as cymbals. At the court there were nine musical ensembles (expanded from seven in the Sui dynasty) that played ecletic Asian music.

There was great interaction with India, a hub for Buddhist knowledge, with famous travelers such as Xuanzang (d. 664) visiting the South Asian state. After a 17-year-long trip, Xuanzang managed to bring back valuable Sanskrit texts to be translated into Chinese. There was also a Turkic–Chinese dictionary available for serious scholars and students, while Turkic folk songs gave inspiration to some Chinese poetry. In the interior of China, trade was facilitated by the Grand Canal and the Tang government's rationalization of the greater canal system that reduced costs of transporting grain and other commodities. The state also managed roughly of postal service routes by horse or boat.

Silk Road

Although the Silk Road from China to Europe and the Western World was initially formulated during the reign of Emperor Wu (141–87 BC) during the Han, it was reopened by the Tang in 639 when Hou Junji ( 643) conquered the West, and remained open for almost four decades. It was closed after the Tibetans captured it in 678, but in 699, during Empress Wu's period, the Silk Road reopened when the Tang reconquered the Four Garrisons of Anxi originally installed in 640, once again connecting China directly to the West for land-based trade.

The Tang captured the vital route through the Gilgit Valley from Tibet in 722, lost it to the Tibetans in 737, and regained it under the command of the Goguryeo-Korean General Gao Xianzhi. When the An Lushan Rebellion ended in 763, the Tang Empire withdrew its troops from its western lands, allowing the Tibetan Empire to largely cut off China's direct access to the Silk Road. An internal rebellion in 848 ousted the Tibetan rulers, and Tang China regained its northwestern prefectures from Tibet in 851. These lands contained crucial grazing areas and pastures for raising horses that the Tang dynasty desperately needed.

Despite the many expatriate European travelers coming into China to live and trade, many travelers, mainly religious monks and missionaries, recorded China's stringent immigrant laws . As the monk Xuanzang and many other monk travelers attested to, there were many Chinese government checkpoints along the Silk Road that examined travel permits into the Tang Empire. Furthermore, banditry was a problem along the checkpoints and oasis towns, as Xuanzang also recorded that his group of travelers were assaulted by bandits on multiple occasions.

The Silk Road also affected Tang dynasty art. Horses became a significant symbol of prosperity and power as well as an instrument of military and diplomatic policy. Horses were also revered as a relative of the dragon.

Seaports and maritime trade

Chinese envoys have been sailing through the Indian Ocean to India since perhaps the 2nd century BC, yet it was during the Tang dynasty that a strong Chinese maritime presence could be found in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, into Persia, Mesopotamia (sailing up the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq), Arabia, Egypt in the Middle East and Aksum (Ethiopia), and Somalia in the Horn of Africa.

During the Tang dynasty, thousands of foreign expatriate merchants came and lived in numerous Chinese cities to do business with China, including Persians, Arabs, Hindu Indians, Malays, Bengalis, Sinhalese, Khmers, Chams, Jews and Nestorian Christians of the Near East, among many others. In 748, the Buddhist monk Jian Zhen described Guangzhou as a bustling mercantile business center where many large and impressive foreign ships came to dock. He wrote that "many large ships came from Borneo, Persia, Qunglun (Indonesia/Java)...with...spices, pearls, and jade piled up mountain high", as written in the Yue Jue Shu (Lost Records of the State of Yue). Relations with the Arabs were often strained: When the imperial government was attempting to quell the An Lushan Rebellion, Arab and Persian pirates burned and looted Canton on October 30, 758. The Tang government reacted by shutting the port of Canton down for roughly five decades; thus, foreign vessels docked at Hanoi instead. However, when the port reopened, it continued to thrive. In 851 the Arab merchant Sulaiman al-Tajir observed the manufacturing of Chinese porcelain in Guangzhou and admired its transparent quality. He also provided a description of Guangzhou's landmarks, granaries, local government administration, some of its written records, treatment of travelers, along with the use of ceramics, rice, wine, and tea. Their presence came to an end under the revenge of Chinese rebel Huang Chao in 878, who purportedly slaughtered thousands regardless of ethnicity. Huang's rebellion was eventually suppressed in 884.

Vessels from neighboring East Asian states such as Silla and Balhae of Korea and the Hizen Province of Japan were all involved in the Yellow Sea trade, which Silla dominated. After Silla and Japan reopened renewed hostilities in the late 7th century, most Japanese maritime merchants chose to set sail from Nagasaki towards the mouth of the Huai River, the Yangtze River, and even as far south as the Hangzhou Bay in order to avoid Korean ships in the Yellow Sea. In order to sail back to Japan in 838, the Japanese embassy to China procured nine ships and sixty Korean sailors from the Korean wards of Chuzhou and Lianshui cities along the Huai River. It is also known that Chinese trade ships traveling to Japan set sail from the various ports along the coasts of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

The Chinese engaged in large-scale production for overseas export by at least the time of the Tang. This was proven by the discovery of the Belitung shipwreck, a silt-preserved shipwrecked Arabian dhow in the Gaspar Strait near Belitung, which had 63,000 pieces of Tang ceramics, silver, and gold (including a Changsha bowl inscribed with a date: "16th day of the seventh month of the second year of the Baoli reign", or 826, roughly confirmed by radiocarbon dating of star anise at the wreck). Beginning in 785, the Chinese began to call regularly at Sufala on the East African coast in order to cut out Arab middlemen, with various contemporary Chinese sources giving detailed descriptions of trade in Africa. The official and geographer Jia Dan (730–805) wrote of two common sea trade routes in his day: one from the coast of the Bohai Sea towards Korea and another from Guangzhou through Malacca towards the Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka and India, the eastern and northern shores of the Arabian Sea to the Euphrates River. In 863 the Chinese author Duan Chengshi (d. 863) provided a detailed description of the slave trade, ivory trade, and ambergris trade in a country called Bobali, which historians suggest was Berbera in Somalia. In Fustat (old Cairo), Egypt, the fame of Chinese ceramics there led to an enormous demand for Chinese goods; hence Chinese often traveled there (this continued into later periods such as Fatimid Egypt). From this time period, the Arab merchant Shulama once wrote of his admiration for Chinese seafaring junks, but noted that their draft was too deep for them to enter the Euphrates River, which forced them to ferry passengers and cargo in small boats. Shulama also noted that Chinese ships were often very large, with capacities up to 600–700 passengers.

Culture and society

Art

Both the Sui and Tang Dynasties had turned away from the more feudal culture of the preceding Northern Dynasties, in favor of staunch civil Confucianism. The governmental system was supported by a large class of Confucian intellectuals selected through either civil service examinations or recommendations. In the Tang period, Taoism and Buddhism were commonly practiced ideologies that played a large role in people's daily lives. The Tang Chinese enjoyed feasting, drinking, holidays, sports, and all sorts of entertainment, while Chinese literature blossomed and was more widely accessible with new printing methods.

Changan, the Tang capital

Although Chang'an was the capital of the earlier Han and Jin dynasties, after subsequent destruction in warfare, it was the Sui dynasty model that comprised the Tang era capital. The roughly square dimensions of the city had six miles (10 km) of outer walls running east to west, and more than five miles (8 km) of outer walls running north to south. The royal palace, the Taiji Palace, stood north of the city's central axis. From the large Mingde Gates located mid-center of the main southern wall, a wide city avenue stretched from there all the way north to the central administrative city, behind which was the Chentian Gate of the royal palace, or Imperial City. Intersecting this were fourteen main streets running east to west, while eleven main streets ran north to south. These main intersecting roads formed 108 rectangular wards with walls and four gates each, and each ward filled with multiple city blocks. The city was made famous for this checkerboard pattern of main roads with walled and gated districts, its layout even mentioned in one of Du Fu's poems. During the Heian period, the city of Heian kyō (present-day Kyoto) of Japan like many cities was arranged in the checkerboard street grid pattern of the Tang capital and in accordance with traditional geomancy following the model of Chang'an. Of these 108 wards in Chang'an, two of them (each the size of two regular city wards) were designated as government-supervised markets, and other space reserved for temples, gardens, ponds, etc. Throughout the entire city, there were 111 Buddhist monasteries, 41 Taoist abbeys, 38 family shrines, 2 official temples, 7 churches of foreign religions, 10 city wards with provincial transmission offices, 12 major inns, and 6 graveyards. Some city wards were literally filled with open public playing fields or the backyards of lavish mansions for playing horse polo and cuju (Chinese soccer). In 662, Emperor Gaozong moved the imperial court to the Daming Palace, which became the political center of the empire and served as the royal residence of the Tang emperors for more than 220 years.

The Tang capital was the largest city in the world at its time, the population of the city wards and its suburban countryside reaching two million inhabitants. The Tang capital was very cosmopolitan, with ethnicities of Persia, Central Asia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, India, and many other places living within. Naturally, with this plethora of different ethnicities living in Chang'an, there were also many different practiced religions, such as Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, and Zoroastrianism, among others. With the open access to China that the Silk Road to the west facilitated, many foreign settlers were able to move east to China, while the city of Chang'an itself had about 25,000 foreigners living within. Exotic green-eyed, blond-haired Tocharian ladies serving wine in agate and amber cups, singing, and dancing at taverns attracted customers. If a foreigner in China pursued a Chinese woman for marriage, he was required to stay in China and was unable to take his bride back to his homeland, as stated in a law passed in 628 to protect women from temporary marriages with foreign envoys. Several laws enforcing segregation of foreigners from Chinese were passed during the Tang dynasty. In 779 the Tang dynasty issued an edict which forced Uighurs in the capital, Chang'an, to wear their ethnic dress, stopped them from marrying Chinese females, and banned them from passing off as Chinese.

Chang'an was the center of the central government, the home of the imperial family, and was filled with splendor and wealth. However, incidentally it was not the economic hub during the Tang dynasty. The city of Yangzhou along the Grand Canal and close to the Yangtze River was the greatest economic center during the Tang era.

Yangzhou was the headquarters for the Tang government's salt monopoly, and was the greatest industrial center of China. It acted as a midpoint in shipping of foreign goods that would be organized and distributed to the major cities of the north. Much like the seaport of Guangzhou in the south, Yangzhou boasted thousands of foreign traders from all across Asia.

There was also the secondary capital city of Luoyang, which was the favored capital of the two by Empress Wu. In the year 691 she had more than 100,000 families (more than 500,000 people) from around the region of Chang'an move to populate Luoyang instead. With a population of about a million, Luoyang became the second largest city in the empire, and with its close proximity to the Luo River it benefited from southern agricultural fertility and trade traffic of the Grand Canal. However, the Tang court eventually demoted its capital status and did not visit Luoyang after the year 743, when Chang'an's problem of acquiring adequate supplies and stores for the year was solved. As early as 736, granaries were built at critical points along the route from Yangzhou to Chang'an, which eliminated shipment delays, spoilage, and pilfering. An artificial lake used as a transshipment pool was dredged east of Chang'an in 743, where curious northerners could finally see the array of boats found in southern China, delivering tax and tribute items to the imperial court.

Literature

The Tang period was a golden age of Chinese literature and art. Over 48,900 poems penned by some 2,200 Tang authors have survived to the present day. Skill in the composition of poetry became a required study for those wishing to pass imperial examinations, while poetry was also heavily competitive; poetry contests amongst guests at banquets and courtiers were common. Poetry styles that were popular in the Tang included gushi and jintishi, with the renowned poet Li Bai (701–762) famous for the former style, and poets like Wang Wei (701–761) and Cui Hao (704–754) famous for their use of the latter. Jintishi poetry, or regulated verse, is in the form of eight-line stanzas or seven characters per line with a fixed pattern of tones that required the second and third couplets to be antithetical (although the antithesis is often lost in translation to other languages). Tang poems remained popular and great emulation of Tang era poetry began in the Song dynasty; in that period, Yan Yu (嚴羽; active 1194–1245) was the first to confer the poetry of the High Tang (c. 713–766) era with "canonical status within the classical poetic tradition." Yan Yu reserved the position of highest esteem among all Tang poets for Du Fu (712–770), who was not viewed as such in his own era, and was branded by his peers as an anti-traditional rebel.

The Classical Prose Movement was spurred in large part by the writings of Tang authors Liu Zongyuan (773–819) and Han Yu (768–824). This new prose style broke away from the poetry tradition of the piantiwen (, "parallel prose") style begun in the Han dynasty. Although writers of the Classical Prose Movement imitated piantiwen, they criticized it for its often vague content and lack of colloquial language, focusing more on clarity and precision to make their writing more direct. This guwen (archaic prose) style can be traced back to Han Yu, and would become largely associated with orthodox Neo-Confucianism.

Short story fiction and tales were also popular during the Tang, one of the more famous ones being Yingying's Biography by Yuan Zhen (779–831), which was widely circulated in his own time and by the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) became the basis for plays in Chinese opera. Timothy C. Wong places this story within the wider context of Tang love tales, which often share the plot designs of quick passion, inescapable societal pressure leading to the abandonment of romance, followed by a period of melancholy. Wong states that this scheme lacks the undying vows and total self-commitment to love found in Western romances such as Romeo and Juliet, but that underlying traditional Chinese values of inseparableness of self from one's environment (including human society) served to create the necessary fictional device of romantic tension.

There were large encyclopedias published in the Tang. The Yiwen Leiju encyclopedia was compiled in 624 by the chief editor Ouyang Xun (557–641) as well as Linghu Defen (582–666) and Chen Shuda (d. 635). The encyclopedia Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era was fully compiled in 729 by Gautama Siddha (fl. 8th century), an ethnic Indian astronomer, astrologer, and scholar born in the capital Chang'an.

Chinese geographers such as Jia Dan wrote accurate descriptions of places far abroad. In his work written between 785 and 805, he described the sea route going into the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and that the medieval Iranians (whom he called the people of Luo-He-Yi) had erected 'ornamental pillars' in the sea that acted as lighthouse beacons for ships that might go astray. Confirming Jia's reports about lighthouses in the Persian Gulf, Arabic writers a century after Jia wrote of the same structures, writers such as al-Mas'udi and al-Muqaddasi. The Tang dynasty Chinese diplomat Wang Xuance traveled to Magadha (modern northeastern India) during the 7th century. Afterwards he wrote the book Zhang Tianzhu Guotu (Illustrated Accounts of Central India), which included a wealth of geographical information.

Many histories of previous dynasties were compiled between 636 and 659 by court officials during and shortly after the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang. These included the Book of Liang, Book of Chen, Book of Northern Qi, Book of Zhou, Book of Sui, Book of Jin, History of Northern Dynasties and the History of Southern Dynasties. Although not included in the official Twenty-Four Histories, the Tongdian and Tang Huiyao were nonetheless valuable written historical works of the Tang period. The Shitong written by Liu Zhiji in 710 was a meta-history, as it covered the history of Chinese historiography in past centuries until his time. The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, compiled by Bianji, recounted the journey of Xuanzang, the Tang era's most renowned Buddhist monk.

Other important literary offerings included Duan Chengshi's (d. 863) Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, an entertaining collection of foreign legends and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena, short anecdotes, mythical and mundane tales, as well as notes on various subjects. The exact literary category or classification that Duan's large informal narrative would fit into is still debated amongst scholars and historians.

Religion and philosophy

Since ancient times, some Chinese had believed in folk religion and Taoism that incorporated many deities. Practitioners believed the Tao and the afterlife was a reality parallel to the living world, complete with its own bureaucracy and afterlife currency needed by dead ancestors. Funerary practices included providing the deceased with everything they might need in the afterlife, including animals, servants, entertainers, hunters, homes, and officials. This ideal is reflected in Tang dynasty art. This is also reflected in many short stories written in the Tang about people accidentally winding up in the realm of the dead, only to come back and report their experiences.

Buddhism, originating in India around the time of Confucius, continued its influence during the Tang period and was accepted by some members of imperial family, becoming thoroughly sinicized and a permanent part of Chinese traditional culture. In an age before Neo-Confucianism and figures such as Zhu Xi (1130–1200), Buddhism had begun to flourish in China during the Northern and Southern dynasties, and became the dominant ideology during the prosperous Tang. Buddhist monasteries played an integral role in Chinese society, offering lodging for travelers in remote areas, schools for children throughout the country, and a place for urban literati to stage social events and gatherings such as going-away parties. Buddhist monasteries were also engaged in the economy, since their land property and serfs gave them enough revenues to set up mills, oil presses, and other enterprises. Although the monasteries retained 'serfs', these monastery dependents could actually own property and employ others to help them in their work, including their own slaves.

The prominent status of Buddhism in Chinese culture began to decline as the dynasty and central government declined as well during the late 8th century to 9th century. Buddhist convents and temples that were exempt from state taxes beforehand were targeted by the state for taxation. In 845 Emperor Wuzong of Tang finally shut down 4,600 Buddhist monasteries along with 40,000 temples and shrines, forcing 260,000 Buddhist monks and nuns to return to secular life; this episode would later be dubbed one of the Four Buddhist Persecutions in China. Although the ban would be lifted just a few years after, Buddhism never regained its once dominant status in Chinese culture. This situation also came about through a revival of interest in native Chinese philosophies such as Confucianism and Taoism. Han Yu (786–824)—who Arthur F. Wright stated was a "brilliant polemicist and ardent xenophobe"—was one of the first men of the Tang to denounce Buddhism. Although his contemporaries found him crude and obnoxious, he would foreshadow the later persecution of Buddhism in the Tang, as well as the revival of Confucian theory with the rise of Neo-Confucianism of the Song dynasty. Nonetheless, Chán Buddhism gained popularity amongst the educated elite. There were also many famous Chan monks from the Tang era, such as Mazu Daoyi, Baizhang, and Huangbo Xiyun. The sect of Pure Land Buddhism initiated by the Chinese monk Huiyuan (334–416) was also just as popular as Chan Buddhism during the Tang.

Rivaling Buddhism was Taoism, a native Chinese philosophical and religious belief system that found its roots in the Tao Te Ching (a text attributed to a 6th-century BC figure named Lao Tzu) and the Zhuangzi. The ruling Li family of the Tang dynasty actually claimed descent from the ancient Lao Tzu. On numerous occasions where Tang princes would become crown prince or Tang princesses taking vows as Taoist priestesses, their lavish former mansions would be converted into Taoist abbeys and places of worship. Many Taoists were associated with alchemy in their pursuits to find an elixir of immortality and a means to create gold from concocted mixtures of many other elements. Although they never achieved their goals in either of these futile pursuits, they did contribute to the discovery of new metal alloys, porcelain products, and new dyes. The historian Joseph Needham labeled the work of the Taoist alchemists as "protoscience rather than pseudoscience." However, the close connection between Taoism and alchemy, which some sinologists have asserted, is refuted by Nathan Sivin, who states that alchemy was just as prominent (if not more so) in the secular sphere and practiced more often by laymen.

The Tang dynasty also officially recognized various foreign religions. The Assyrian Church of the East, otherwise known as the Nestorian Church or the Church of the East in China, was given recognition by the Tang court. In 781, the Nestorian Stele was created in order to honor the achievements of their community in China. A Christian monastery was established in Shaanxi province where the Daqin Pagoda still stands, and inside the pagoda there is Christian-themed artwork. Although the religion largely died out after the Tang, it was revived in China following the Mongol invasions of the 13th century.

Although the Sogdians had been responsible for transmitting Buddhism to China from India during the 2nd to 4th centuries, soon afterwards they largely converted to Zoroastrianism due to their links to Sassanid Persia. Sogdian merchants and their families living in cities such as Chang'an, Luoyang, and Xiangyang usually built a Zoroastrian temple once their local communities grew larger than 100 households. Sogdians were also responsible for spreading Manicheism in Tang China and the Uighur Khaganate. The Uighurs built the first Manichean monastery in China in 768, yet in 843 the Tang government ordered that the property of all Manichean monasteries be confiscated in response to the outbreak of war with the Uighurs. With the blanket ban on foreign religions two years later, Manicheism was driven underground and never flourished in China again.

Leisure

Much more than earlier periods, the Tang era was renowned for the time reserved for leisure activity, especially for those in the upper classes. Many outdoor sports and activities were enjoyed during the Tang, including archery, hunting, horse polo, cuju (soccer), cockfighting, and even tug of war. Government officials were granted vacations during their tenure in office. Officials were granted 30 days off every three years to visit their parents if they lived away, or 15 days off if the parents lived more than away (travel time not included). Officials were granted nine days of vacation time for weddings of a son or daughter, and either five, three, or one days/day off for the nuptials of close relatives (travel time not included). Officials also received a total of three days off for their son's capping initiation rite into manhood, and one day off for the ceremony of initiation rite of a close relative's son.

Traditional Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival, Cold Food Festival, and others were universal holidays. In the capital city of Chang'an there was always lively celebration, especially for the Lantern Festival since the city's nighttime curfew was lifted by the government for three days straight. Between the years 628 and 758, the imperial throne bestowed a total of sixty-nine grand carnivals nationwide, granted by the emperor in the case of special circumstances such as important military victories, abundant harvests after a long drought or famine, the granting of amnesties, the installment of a new crown prince, etc. For special celebration in the Tang era, lavish and gargantuan-sized feasts were sometimes prepared, as the imperial court had staffed agencies to prepare the meals. This included a prepared feast for 1,100 elders of Chang'an in 664, a feast for 3,500 officers of the Divine Strategy Army in 768, and a feast for 1,200 women of the palace and members of the imperial family in the year 826. Drinking wine and alcoholic beverages was heavily ingrained into Chinese culture, as people drank for nearly every social event. A court official in the 8th century allegedly had a serpentine-shaped structure called the 'Ale Grotto' built with 50,000 bricks on the groundfloor that each featured a bowl from which his friends could drink.

Status in clothing

In general, garments were made from silk, wool, or linen depending on your social status and what you could afford. Furthermore, there were laws that specified what kinds of clothing could be worn by whom. The color of the clothing also indicated rank. "Purple colored clothes were used by officials above the third grade; light red were meant for officials above the fifth grade; dark green was limited to the sixth grade and above officials; light green was solely for officials above the seventh grade; dark cyan was exclusive for officials above the eighth grade; light cyan garments adorned officials above the ninth grade. The common people and all those who did not reside in the palace were allowed to wear yellow colored clothes." During this period, China's power, culture, economy, and influence were thriving. As a result, women could afford to wear loose-fitting, wide-sleeved garments. Even lower-class women's robes would have sleeves four to five feet in width.

Position of women

Concepts of women's social rights and social status during the Tang era were notably liberal-minded for the period. However, this was largely reserved for urban women of elite status, as men and women in the rural countryside labored hard in their different set of tasks; with wives and daughters responsible for more domestic tasks of weaving textiles and rearing of silk worms, while men tended to farming in the fields.

There were many women in the Tang era who gained access to religious authority by taking vows as Taoist priestesses. The head mistresses of high-class courtesans in the North Hamlet of the capital Chang'an acquired large amounts of wealth and power. Said courtesans, who likely influenced the Japanese geishas, were well respected. These courtesans were known as great singers and poets, supervised banquets and feasts, knew the rules to all the drinking games, and were trained to have the utmost respectable table manners.

Although they were renowned for their polite behavior, the courtesans were known to dominate the conversation among elite men, and were not afraid to openly castigate or criticize prominent male guests who talked too much or too loudly, boasted too much of their accomplishments, or had in some way ruined dinner for everyone by rude behavior (on one occasion a courtesan even beat up a drunken man who had insulted her). When singing to entertain guests, courtesans not only composed the lyrics to their own songs, but they popularized a new form of lyrical verse by singing lines written by various renowned and famous men in Chinese history.

It was fashionable for women to be full-figured (or plump). Men enjoyed the presence of assertive, active women. The foreign horse-riding sport of polo from Persia became a wildly popular trend among the Chinese elite, and women often played the sport (as glazed earthenware figurines from the time period portray). The preferred hairstyle for women was to bunch their hair up like "an elaborate edifice above the forehead", while affluent ladies wore extravagant head ornaments, combs, pearl necklaces, face powders, and perfumes. A law was passed in 671 which attempted to force women to wear hats with veils again in order to promote decency, but these laws were ignored as some women started wearing caps and even no hats at all, as well as men's riding clothes and boots, and tight-sleeved bodices.

There were some prominent court women after the era of Empress Wu, such as Yang Guifei (719–756), who had Emperor Xuanzong appoint many of her relatives and cronies to important ministerial and martial positions.

Cuisine

During the earlier Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589), and perhaps even earlier, the drinking of tea (Camellia sinensis) became popular in southern China. Tea was viewed then as a beverage of tasteful pleasure and with pharmacological purpose as well. During the Tang dynasty, tea became synonymous with everything sophisticated in society. The poet Lu Tong (790–835) devoted most of his poetry to his love of tea. The 8th-century author Lu Yu (known as the Sage of Tea) even wrote a treatise on the art of drinking tea, called The Classic of Tea. Although wrapping paper had been used in China since the 2nd century BC, during the Tang dynasty the Chinese were using wrapping paper as folded and sewn square bags to hold and preserve the flavor of tea leaves. Indeed, paper found many other uses besides writing and wrapping during the Tang era.

Earlier, the first recorded use of toilet paper was made in 589 by the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591), and in 851 an Arab traveler commented on how he believed that Tang era Chinese were not careful about cleanliness because they did not wash with water (as was his people's habit) when going to the bathroom; instead, he said, the Chinese simply used paper to wipe themselves.

In ancient times, the Chinese had outlined the five most basic foodstuffs known as the five grains: sesamum, legumes, wheat, panicled millet, and glutinous millet. The Ming dynasty encyclopedist Song Yingxing (1587–1666) noted that rice was not counted amongst the five grains from the time of the legendary and deified Chinese sage Shennong (the existence of whom Yingxing wrote was "an uncertain matter") into the 2nd millenniums BC, because the properly wet and humid climate in southern China for growing rice was not yet fully settled or cultivated by the Chinese. But Song Yingxing also noted that in the Ming dynasty, seven tenths of civilians' food was rice. In fact, in the Tang dynasty rice was not only the most important staple in southern China, but had also become popular in the north, which was for a long time the center of China.

During the Tang dynasty, wheat replaced the position of millet and became the main staple crop. As a consequence, wheat cake shared a considerable amount in the staple of Tang. There were four main kinds of cake: steamed cake, boiled cake, pancake, and Hu cake.

Steamed cake was consumed commonly by both civilians and aristocrats. Like the rougamo in modern Chinese cuisine, steamed cake was usually stuffed by meat and vegetable. There were plenty of shops and packmen selling steamed cake in Chang』an, and its price was also far from expensive. Taiping Guangji recorded a civilian in Chang'an named Zou Luotuo, who was poor and "often push his cart out selling steamed cake."

Boiled cake was the staple of the Northern Dynasty, and it kept its popularity in the Tang dynasty. The definition here was very broad, including current-day wonton, noodles, and many other kinds of food that soak wheat in water. Consuming boiled cake was treated as an effective and popular way of diet therapy. While aristocrats favored wonton, civilians usually consumed noodles and noodle slice soup, because the process to make wonton was heavy and complicated.

Pancake was hard to find in China before the Tang. But in the Tang dynasty pancake started becoming popular. There were also many shops in Tang cities selling pancakes. A story in Taiping Guangji recorded that a merchant in early Tang bought a large vacant lot in Chang』an to set up several shops selling pancake and dumplings.

Hu cake, which means "foreign cake", was extremely popular in Tang. Hu cake was toasted in oven and covered by sesame. Restaurants in Tang usually treated Hu cake as an indispensable food in their menu. A Japanese Buddhist monk Ennin recorded in The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law that at that time Hu cake was popular among all civilians.

During the Tang, the many common foodstuffs and cooking ingredients in addition to those already listed were barley, garlic, salt, turnips, soybeans, pears, apricots, peaches, apples, pomegranates, jujubes, rhubarb, hazelnuts, pine nuts, chestnuts, walnuts, yams, taro, etc. The various meats that were consumed included pork, chicken, lamb (especially preferred in the north), sea otter, bear (which was hard to catch, but there were recipes for steamed, boiled, and marinated bear), and even Bactrian camels. In the south along the coast meat from seafood was by default the most common, as the Chinese enjoyed eating cooked jellyfish with cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, cardamom, and ginger, as well as oysters with wine, fried squid with ginger and vinegar, horseshoe crabs and red swimming crabs, shrimp and pufferfish, which the Chinese called "river piglet".

Some foods were also off-limits, as the Tang court encouraged people not to eat beef (since the bull was a valuable working animal), and from 831 to 833 Emperor Wenzong of Tang even banned the slaughter of cattle on the grounds of his religious convictions to Buddhism.

From the trade overseas and over land, the Chinese acquired peaches from Samarkand, date palms, pistachios, and figs from Greater Iran, pine nuts and ginseng roots from Korea and mangoes from Southeast Asia. In China, there was a great demand for sugar; during the reign of Harsha over North India (r. 606–647), Indian envoys to the Tang brought two makers of sugar who successfully taught the Chinese how to cultivate sugarcane. Cotton also came from India as a finished product from Bengal, although it was during the Tang that the Chinese began to grow and process cotton, and by the Yuan dynasty it became the prime textile fabric in China.

Methods of food preservation were important, and practiced throughout China. The common people used simple methods of preservation, such as digging deep ditches and trenches, brining, and salting their foods. The emperor had large ice pits located in the parks in and around Chang'an for preserving food, while the wealthy and elite had their own smaller ice pits. Each year the emperor had laborers carve 1000 blocks of ice from frozen creeks in mountain valleys, each block with the dimension of by 3 ft by . Frozen delicacies such as chilled melon were enjoyed during the summer.

Science and technology

Engineering

Technology during the Tang period was built also upon the precedents of the past. Previous advancements in clockworks and timekeeping included the mechanical gear systems of Zhang Heng (78–139) and Ma Jun (fl. 3rd century), which gave the Tang mathematician, mechanical engineer, astronomer, and monk Yi Xing (683–727) inspiration when he invented the world's first clockwork escapement mechanism in 725. This was used alongside a clepsydra clock and waterwheel to power a rotating armillary sphere in representation of astronomical observation. Yi Xing's device also had a mechanically timed bell that was struck automatically every hour, and a drum that was struck automatically every quarter-hour; essentially, a striking clock. Yi Xing's astronomical clock and water-powered armillary sphere became well known throughout the country, since students attempting to pass the imperial examinations by 730 had to write an essay on the device as an exam requirement. However, the most common type of public and palace timekeeping device was the inflow clepsydra. Its design was improved c. 610 by the Sui-dynasty engineers Geng Xun and Yuwen Kai. They provided a steelyard balance that allowed seasonal adjustment in the pressure head of the compensating tank and could then control the rate of flow for different lengths of day and night.

There were many other mechanical inventions during the Tang era. These included a 3 ft (0.91 m) tall mechanical wine server of the early 8th century that was in the shape of an artificial mountain, carved out of iron and rested on a lacquered-wooden tortoise frame. This intricate device used a hydraulic pump that siphoned wine out of metal dragon-headed faucets, as well as tilting bowls that were timed to dip wine down, by force of gravity when filled, into an artificial lake that had intricate iron leaves popping up as trays for placing party treats. Furthermore, as the historian Charles Benn describes it:

Yet the use of a teasing mechanical puppet in this wine-serving device wasn't exactly a novel invention of the Tang, since the use of mechanical puppets in China date back to the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC). In the 3rd century Ma Jun had an entire mechanical puppet theater operated by the rotation of a waterwheel. There was also an automatic wine-server known in the ancient Greco-Roman world, a design of the Greek inventor Heron of Alexandria that employed an urn with an inner valve and a lever device similar to the one described above. There are many stories of automatons used in the Tang, including general Yang Wulian's wooden statue of a monk who stretched his hands out to collect contributions; when the number of coins reached a certain weight, the mechanical figure moved his arms to deposit them in a satchel. This weight-and-lever mechanism was exactly like Heron's penny slot machine. Other devices included one by Wang Ju, whose "wooden otter" could allegedly catch fish; Needham suspects a spring trap of some kind was employed here.

In the realm of structural engineering and technical Chinese architecture, there were also government standard building codes, outlined in the early Tang book of the Yingshan Ling (National Building Law). Fragments of this book have survived in the Tang Lü (The Tang Code), while the Song dynasty architectural manual of the Yingzao Fashi (State Building Standards) by Li Jie (1065–1101) in 1103 is the oldest existing technical treatise on Chinese architecture that has survived in full. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (712–756) there were 34,850 registered craftsmen serving the state, managed by the Agency of Palace Buildings (Jingzuo Jian).

Woodblock printing

Woodblock printing made the written word available to vastly greater audiences. One of the world's oldest surviving printed documents is a miniature Buddhist dharani sutra unearthed at Xi'an in 1974 and dated roughly from 650 to 670. The Diamond Sutra is the first full-length book printed at regular size, complete with illustrations embedded with the text and dated precisely to 868. Among the earliest documents to be printed were Buddhist texts as well as calendars, the latter essential for calculating and marking which days were auspicious and which days were not. With so many books coming into circulation for the general public, literacy rates could improve, along with the lower classes being able to obtain cheaper sources of study. Therefore, there were more lower-class people seen entering the Imperial Examinations and passing them by the later Song dynasty. Although the later Bi Sheng's movable type printing in the 11th century was innovative for his period, woodblock printing that became widespread in the Tang would remain the dominant printing type in China until the more advanced printing press from Europe became widely accepted and used in East Asia. The first use of the playing card during the Tang dynasty was an auxiliary invention of the new age of printing.

Cartography

In the realm of cartography, there were further advances beyond the map-makers of the Han dynasty. When the Tang chancellor Pei Ju (547–627) was working for the Sui dynasty as a Commercial Commissioner in 605, he created a well-known gridded map with a graduated scale in the tradition of Pei Xiu (224–271). The Tang chancellor Xu Jingzong (592–672) was also known for his map of China drawn in the year 658. In the year 785 the Emperor Dezong had the geographer and cartographer Jia Dan (730–805) complete a map of China and her former colonies in Central Asia. Upon its completion in 801, the map was 9.1 m (30 ft) in length and 10 m (33 ft) in height, mapped out on a grid scale of one inch equaling one hundred li (Chinese unit of measuring distance). A Chinese map of 1137 is similar in complexity to the one made by Jia Dan, carved on a stone stele with a grid scale of 100 li. However, the only type of map that has survived from the Tang period are star charts. Despite this, the earliest extant terrain maps of China come from the ancient State of Qin; maps from the 4th century BC that were excavated in 1986.

Medicine

The Chinese of the Tang era were also very interested in the benefits of officially classifying all of the medicines used in pharmacology. In 657, Emperor Gaozong of Tang (r. 649–683) commissioned the literary project of publishing an official materia medica, complete with text and illustrated drawings for 833 different medicinal substances taken from different stones, minerals, metals, plants, herbs, animals, vegetables, fruits, and cereal crops. In addition to compiling pharmacopeias, the Tang fostered learning in medicine by upholding imperial medical colleges, state examinations for doctors, and publishing forensic manuals for physicians. Authors of medicine in the Tang include Zhen Chuan (d. 643) and Sun Simiao (581–682), the former who first identified in writing that patients with diabetes had an excess of sugar in their urine, and the latter who was the first to recognize that diabetic patients should avoid consuming alcohol and starchy foods. As written by Zhen Chuan and others in the Tang, the thyroid glands of sheep and pigs were successfully used to treat goiters; thyroid extracts were not used to treat patients with goiter in the West until 1890. The use of the dental amalgam, manufactured from tin and silver, was first introduced in the medical text Xinxiu Bencao written by Su Gong in 659.

Alchemy, gas cylinders, and air conditioning

Chinese scientists of the Tang period employed complex chemical formulas for an array of different purposes, often found through experiments of alchemy. These included a waterproof and dust-repelling cream or varnish for clothes and weapons, fireproof cement for glass and porcelain wares, a waterproof cream applied to silk clothes of underwater divers, a cream designated for polishing bronze mirrors, and many other useful formulas. The vitrified, translucent ceramic known as porcelain was invented in China during the Tang, although many types of glazed ceramics preceded it.

Ever since the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), the Chinese had drilled deep boreholes to transport natural gas from bamboo pipelines to stoves where cast iron evaporation pans boiled brine to extract salt. During the Tang dynasty, a gazetteer of Sichuan province stated that at one of these 182 m (600 ft) 'fire wells', men collected natural gas into portable bamboo tubes which could be carried around for dozens of km (mi) and still produce a flame. These were essentially the first gas cylinders; Robert Temple assumes some sort of tap was used for this device.

The inventor Ding Huan (fl. 180 AD) of the Han dynasty invented a rotary fan for air conditioning, with seven wheels 3 m (10 ft) in diameter and manually powered. In 747, Emperor Xuanzong had a "Cool Hall" built in the imperial palace, which the Tang Yulin describes as having water-powered fan wheels for air conditioning as well as rising jet streams of water from fountains. During the subsequent Song dynasty, written sources mentioned the air conditioning rotary fan as even more widely used.

Historiography

The first classic work about the Tang is the Old Book of Tang by Liu Xu (887–946) et al. of the Later Jin, who redacted it during the last years of his life. This was edited into another history (labeled the New Book of Tang) in order to distinguish it, which was a work by the Song historians Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072), Song Qi (998–1061), et al. of the Song dynasty (between the years 1044 and 1060). Both of them were based upon earlier annals, yet those are now lost. Both of them also rank among the Twenty-Four Histories of China. One of the surviving sources of the Old Book of Tang, primarily covering up to 756, is the Tongdian, which Du You presented to the emperor in 801. The Tang period was again placed into the enormous universal history text of the Zizhi Tongjian, edited, compiled, and completed in 1084 by a team of scholars under the Song dynasty Chancellor Sima Guang (1019–1086). This historical text, written with three million Chinese characters in 294 volumes, covered the history of China from the beginning of the Warring States (403 BC) until the beginning of the Song dynasty (960).