Foreign Relations of Imperial China - Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty (618-907) represents another high point for the Middle Kingdom in terms of its military might, conquest and establishment of vassals and tributaries, foreign trade, and its central political position and preeminent cultural status in East Asia.

One of the most ambitious rulers of the dynasty was Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626-649). He initiated several significant war campaigns in Chinese history, most of them against powerful Turkic groups of Central Asia. This includes campaigns against Eastern Tujue, Tuyuhun, Tufan, the Xiyu states of the Tarim Basin, and the Xueyantuo. In a formidable alliance with the Korean Silla Kingdom, a combined Tang-Silla fleet made a decisive victory over the Korean Baekje Kingdom and her Yamato Japanese allies in the naval Battle of Baekgang in 663. Emperor Taizong also invaded the Goguryeo Kingdom in an effort to help their Silla Kingdom ally crush its rival kingdom of Goguryeo to the north. Taizong's other intention in invading northern Korea was to secure territory of Lelang Commandery, an old Chinese commandery in northern Korea]] that had been lost since the Goguryeo Kingdom captured it from the Jin Dynasty in the 313. However, Goguryeo's territory fell into the hands of Silla, not the Tang Dynasty.

Chinese trade relations during the Tang was extended further west to the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa, and Egypt. Many contemporary writers from foreign countries described Chinese ships, Chinese goods brought to foreign ports, as well as Chinese seaports. Amongst the Chinese authors, the writer Duan Chengshi (died 863) described trade in East African Somalia and between 785 and 805 the Chinese geographer Jia Dan described lighthouses that were erected in the Persian Gulf, confirmed later by Muslim writers al-Mas'udi and al-Muqaddasi. The introduction of Islam in China began during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang (r. 649–683), with missionaries such as Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, a maternal uncle to the Prophet Muhammad. The seaport at Guangzhou in southern China became one of the largest seaports in the world, hosting foreign travelers throughout maritime Asia. The Tang Chinese capital city of Chang'an became well known as a multicultural metropolis filled with foreign travelers, dignitaries, merchants, emissaries, and missionaries. Chinese Buddhist monks such as Xuanzang (died 664) continued to travel abroad to places like India in order to gain wisdom, collect Buddhist relics, and translate additional sutras into Chinese.

Although the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712–756) is seen as the zenith point of the Tang Dynasty, it was during the last years of his reign that one of the most destructive rebellions in Chinese history occurred. The Tang Chinese had recruited many Central Asian Turks into their armed forces. One of these was An Lushan (703–757), a Sogdian-Turk who became a military commander and personal favorite of Xuanzong's concubine Yang Guifei. He instigated the An Lushan Rebellion, which caused the deaths of millions of people, cost the Tang Dynasty their Central Asian possessions, and allowed the Tibetans to invade China and temporarily occupy the capital at Chang'an. The dynasty recovered under Emperor Xianzong of Tang (805-820) but it never achieved its former martial and political strength. The unintended effect of the rebellion, however, was the loosening of government restrictions on trade. Although the 9th century was politically turbulent, the economy of China actually continued to thrive, bolstered still by foreign trade. The Japanese were sending embassies to Tang China as late as 894, which was finally halted by Emperor Uda by the persuasion of Sugawara no Michizane.