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Series:   Elements in the Global Middle Ages

Early Tang China and the World, 618–750 CE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2023

Shao-yun Yang
Shao-yun Yang
Affiliation:
Denison University, Ohio

Summary

For about half a century, the Tang dynasty has held a reputation as the most 'cosmopolitan' period in Chinese history, marked by unsurpassed openness to foreign peoples and cultures and active promotion of international trade. Heavily influenced by Western liberal ideals and contemporary China's own self-fashioning efforts, this glamorous image of the Tang calls for some critical reexamination. This Element presents a broad and revisionist analysis of early Tang China's relations with the rest of the Eurasian world and argues that idealizing the Tang as exceptionally “cosmopolitan” limits our ability to think both critically and globally about its actions and policies as an empire.
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Keywords

Tang dynastyforeign relationsChina and Inner AsiaChinese empirecosmopolitanism
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in the Global Middle Ages
Online ISBN: 9781009214612
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 25 May 2023

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Early Tang China and the World, 618–750 CE
  • Shao-yun Yang, Denison University, Ohio
  • Online ISBN: 9781009214612
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Early Tang China and the World, 618–750 CE
  • Shao-yun Yang, Denison University, Ohio
  • Online ISBN: 9781009214612
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Early Tang China and the World, 618–750 CE
  • Shao-yun Yang, Denison University, Ohio
  • Online ISBN: 9781009214612
Available formats
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