The Tang emperors were known for their openness to new ideas
about art, religion, philosophy and music that were brought in by
foreigners who flowed into China along the Silk Road trade routes.
Unlike most Chinese dynasties which tried to cut off their empire
from influences from the outside world, the Tang ruling families
tolerated outsiders and members of variety of religious sects.
Taoists, Confucian scholars, Nestorian Christian
missionaries, Zoroastrian priests and Buddhist monks, among them
ones who helped found Zen Buddhism in Japan, all felt comfortable
in Tang era China and practiced and to certain degrees proselytized
their religions.
New inventions from the T'ang dynasty included the
magnetic compass, gunpowder, the abacus, printing, and cataract
surgery. Silks, porcelain and art were traded for spices, ivory and
other goods along the Silk Road caravan routes. Sea routes took
Chinese goods as far away as Africa and the Middle East.
Cosmopolitan culture flourished. Tens of thousands of
foreigners lived in major Chinese cities. Women held high
government offices, played polo with men and wore men’s clothes.
Chinese intermarried with nomadic peoples. Foreigners such as Turks
rose to high positions in the civil service and the military.
The economy changed a great deal in the Tang and Song
dynasties, going from what was basically a subsistence economy to
one in which peasantry was active in local and long-distance trade
and non-food crops such as silk were produced on a large scale.
