Newsgroups: soc.culture.china,soc.culture.taiwan,soc.culture.hongkong
From: liuyh@vis.toronto.edu (Yuanhui Liu)
Subject: Re: Territory of Ancient China : Tang Dynasty
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Date: 8 Sep 92 23:07:34 GMT

In article <liqiang.715986063@kramden> liqiang@kramden.nyu.edu (Li) writes:
>liuyh@vis.toronto.edu (Yuanhui Liu) writes:
>>>>
>>>>Tang Dynasty (everyone's favourity Dynasty, of course!!!  :-)  )
>>>
>>>Not mine. 1/2 :-)  For starters, it was a very immoral dynasty.  A dynasty
>>>that has an emperor (Li Long Ji) who took his daughter-in-law (Yang Yu Huan)
>>>away from his son is definitely not going to be my favorite dynasty.
>>>>Areas of Afghanistan and central Asia are lost.
>>>>Mongolia revived and Tang lost Outter Mongolia.
>>>>Southern Korea is also lost.  But Tang took over
>>>>Manchuria.
>>>
>>In comparison, Tang Dynasty was an enlighened area.  It was by far
>>my favorite dynasty.  doesn't matter which dynasty, the emperors
>>always screw around, Li Long Ji was a famous one, it's not like
>>emperors in other dynasties didn't do this sort of things.  
>
>>You can say it's immoral, then what do you say for today's USA?  
>>Tang was enlightened, women were not restricted to their homes, so 
>>inevitably some of them were having a wild sex-life just like
>>their noble husbands.  In comparison, southern Song was  
>>very strict in its moral code, but it is the wimpiest dynasty of them
>>all!  I doubt it is your favorite dynasty.   
>
>It is my favorite dynasty too. The racial atmosphere under Tang was that
>of a harmony. Many talented people from minority ethnic groups were 
>assigned to important posts and I do agree women did obtain some equal status.
>Many women played an important role in politics, the most famous ones being
>Queen Zhang3shun1, Empress Wu3ze2tian1 and Yang2yu4huan2.

don't forget the Tang Emperors themselves(Li) are minorities, the
grandfather of Li Yuan the first Emperor was a fedual king during
the "16 kingdom" time, they were Chinesized, but Li Yuan was
reported to have red hair and blue eyes, so was the Queen of Li ShiMing,
her last name -- ZhangSun was a chinesized Northern Wei dynasty noble
name, so where some of there most feared field generals -- all have
minority names, not even Chineseized.  The greatness of Tang was
really the result of the melting pot process since the collapse
of Western Jin, from the chaos emerged the greatest Chinese Dynasty of
them all, not only in military strength, but in culture,  trade and
politics.  Li ShiMing didn't really conquer though arms, but he
really captured the hearts of the people across racial divisions.  
Remember the the nomads tribes which paid him tribute nominate
him for "Khan of Heaven"?  since most of them had never heard
of the Chinese Term of "Son of Heaven" and were never respected
the middle kingdom before until his reign.   I don't see any Chinese
Emperor surpassed him.    

The wild sex life in Tang courts "who(s) is(are) sleeping with the Empress"
and the accompanying coup de'tats were acturally a lot of fun, 
must be the on top of the Soap opera series and supermarket 
gossip tabloids of the time.  :-)  

The following dynasties are however, very boring, 'cause only the Emperor
and the princes are be able to sleep around, Empress and consorts
always lost their heads if the same thing were attempted.  

Xref: sparky soc.culture.china:25312 alt.chinese.text:295 soc.culture.taiwan:13171 soc.culture.hongkong:10667 soc.culture.korean:4270