The Tang Dynasty was one of the most open dynasties in China's history, and perhaps there could be no one. In addition to the brief retreat strategy implemented at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty in order to prevent the eighteen parts of the grassland, most of the time it was a hundred rivers. Immediately after Li Shimin defeated the EighteenTh Ministry of the Grasslands, he immediately implemented a comprehensive policy of opening up, welcoming foreign businessmen to do business in Datang and foreign students to study in China.
The sea is full of rivers, and there is tolerance is great. The open and inclusive Tang Dynasty attracted a large number of foreigners, resulting in five international metropolises. If I have time today, I will tell you about the five international metropolises during the Tang Dynasty. The first of these five major cities is Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and today's story begins with Chang'an.
Chang'an was the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and the Sui and Tang dynasties of Chang'an had been burned by Zhu Wen. Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty was six times the size of the present-day Ming Dynasty city of Xi'an. In the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an had more than one hundred and thirty workshops, which are easy to understand and say that they are residential quarters. The embodiment of the international metropolis of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty, the best places are the East Market and the West Market.
Li Shimin stills, pictures from the network, thanks to the original author.
A large number of Hu merchants shipped pepper and other specialties from overseas to China, and distributed them wholesale in the East and West markets. A large number of foreign students study Advanced Chinese culture and technology in Chang'an. A large number of foreign envoys came to Chang'an to pay homage to the Tang Dynasty. Hu merchants, envoys, and overseas students gathered in Chang'an, forming a prosperous scene of "opening the palace in nine days and worshipping the crown of all nations".
Chang'an is the heart of the Tang Dynasty, witnessing the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty for more than two hundred years. Chang'an was burned by Zhu Wen in the last years of the Tang Dynasty, and the glory of the Tang Dynasty was never restored. The current Chang'an City has been renamed Xi'an. Although Xi'an is still the capital of Shaanxi Province, it is no longer a first-tier city.
During the great cause of the Sui Dynasty, the Sui Emperor requisitioned more than one million people and three out of ten dead, and built the city of Luoyang at a huge cost. Luoyang was the second largest city of the Sui Dynasty and experienced the baptism of fire in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties. When Wang Shichong surrendered, luoyang city did not experience large-scale war, and it was well preserved.
Sui Dynasty Emperor stills, pictures from the network, thanks to the original author.
After Li Shimin ascended the throne and became emperor, he believed that "luoyang is in the soil, and the tribute is even" Translated into the vernacular, it means: "Luoyang is located in the center of the world, and people all over the world come to Luoyang to pay tribute, and the road is similar." After li shimin, the Tang Dynasty Tianzi continued to expand Luoyang City on the basis of the Sui Dynasty Emperor's construction of Luoyang City, and built Luoyang into an international metropolis.
Luoyang appeared in the peak period of the Tang Dynasty during the Wu Zetian period. The New Book of Tang records that after Wu Zetian killed Empress Wang and Concubine Xiao Shufei, he always dreamed of their ghosts to do things. After Empress Wu came to power, Emperor Gaozong of Tang was stationed in Luoyang, and Chang'an was handed over to the emperor's grandson Li Chongrun to guard. After Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Empress Wu arrived in Luoyang, Luoyang became the de facto center of the Tang Dynasty.
Wu Zetian had many stories in Luoyang, and also built Luoyang into a "divine capital". When the divine capital Luoyang was in Wuzhou, it was an international metropolis that could stand shoulder to shoulder with Chang'an. After the Shenlong coup, although Luoyang lost its status as the "Divine Capital", it was still the "Eastern Capital" of the Tang Dynasty.
Tang Gaozong stills, pictures from the network, thanks to the original author.
Luoyang was the starting point of the Silk Road and prospered for thousands of years. With the fall of the Tang Dynasty, Luoyang gradually declined. The trajectory of Luoyang's decline and fall from Chang'an was almost the same. The difference is that Chang'an is still the capital of Shaanxi Province. Luoyang could not even save the capital of Henan Province, and now Zhengzhou has robbed it of its position as the provincial capital. From the divine capital to the current prefecture-level city, Luoyang still needs to work hard to restore the glory of the Tang Dynasty.
The land of Longxing in the Tang Dynasty, in Taiyuan City. Taiyuan was a prefecture during the Tang Dynasty, and the prefecture was an important border defense town of the Tang Dynasty. Opposite Taiyuan is the EighteenThray, where Western specialties want to enter China, and the state is an important path. As an important fulcrum on the Silk Road, and the state played a pivotal role in the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the prefecture was an international large city, with very developed industry and commerce, and its strategic position was very important. Hezhou was the third largest city in the Tang Dynasty, and together with Chang'an and Luoyang, it was called "Three Capitals" and "Three Capitals".
The state is a place where soldiers must fight, which can be described as devastated by war. The tang dynasty's wars in the state of Hezhou can write countless novels. The war did not allow the fall of hezhou, and hezhou remained an important border trade town in the Tang Dynasty. After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, hezhou was established as the capital by several divided dynasties. Taiyuan has always been a strategic location and is now the capital of Shanxi Province.
The fourth largest city of the Tang Dynasty was Yizhou, which is today's Chengdu. Yizhou is the heart of the Fertile Sichuan Basin and has been a very important and prosperous metropolis since ancient times. As long as there is a divided regime in Sichuan, Chengdu is the capital. Yizhou's position in the Tang Dynasty was as important as its position in the dynasties. Yizhou is historically the largest city in the southwest region, and there is no one.
To this day, Chengdu is still the capital of Sichuan. Chengdu's population and output value account for almost half of Sichuan Province. Some media once jokingly called "Chengdu Province", and Chengdu's status can be seen from this. Chengdu, like Taiyuan, has not fallen from the Tang Dynasty to the present, and is a famous historical and cultural city and the central city of the region.
As we all know, the ancient Silk Road, in addition to the land route, also had the Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road continuously transported spices from all over the world to China, and Chinese silks and ceramics to all parts of the world. The Maritime Silk Road had two starting points, namely Quanzhou and Guangzhou. During the Tang Dynasty, Guangzhou's trade scale and population base far exceeded that of Quanzhou, and it was the most prosperous international metropolis of the Tang Dynasty on the southeast coast.
The five cosmopolitan metropolises of the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an and Luoyang, fell. Although the states and states did not decline, they did not progress. Only Guangzhou, after more than a thousand years of baptism, has not seen a scene of decline, but has become more prosperous. Now Guangzhou is one of the four first-tier cities in the "North, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen". Countless modern young people, like the Hu merchants of the Tang Dynasty, came to Guangzhou to seek their dreams.
This article was originally written by Wang Fuxing. Code words are not easy, please respect the original, unauthorized, reproduction is strictly prohibited. I have signed a contract with a rights protection company to entrust a rights protection company to protect my rights. Unauthorized reprinters, the rights protection company will defend the rights on behalf of the person.