Both the Sui and Tang dynasties had turned away from the more
feudal culture of the preceding Northern Dynasties, in favour of staunch civil
Confucianism. The governmental system was supported by a large class of Confucian intellectuals selected through either civil service examinations or recommendations. In the Tang period,
Taoism and
Buddhism were commonly practised ideologies that played a large role in people's daily lives. The Tang Chinese enjoyed feasting, drinking, holidays, sports, and all sorts of entertainment, while
Chinese literature blossomed and was more widely accessible with new
printing methods. Rich commoners and nobles who worshipped spirits wanted them to know "how important and how admirable they were", so they "wrote or commissioned their own obituaries" and buried figures along with their bodies to ward off evil spirits.
Chang'an , most likely one of
Chang'an, from the tomb of
Prince Yide ()the
Qianling Mausoleum Although Chang'an had served as the capital during the earlier Han and Jin dynasties, after subsequent destruction in warfare, it was the Sui dynasty model that comprised the Tang-era capital. The roughly square dimensions of the city had of outer walls running east to west, and more than of outer walls running north to south. The royal palace, the Taiji Palace, stood north of the city's central axis. From the large Mingde Gates mid-center on the main southern wall, a wide city avenue stretched all the way north to the central administrative city, behind which was the Chentian Gate of the royal palace, or Imperial City. Intersecting this were fourteen main streets running east to west, while eleven main streets ran north to south. These main intersecting roads formed 108 rectangular wards with walls and four gates each, each filled with multiple city blocks. The city was made famous for this checkerboard pattern of main roads with walled and gated districts, its layout even mentioned in one of Du Fu's poems. During the
Heian period, cities like
Heian-kyō (present-day
Kyoto) were arranged in the checkerboard street in accordance with traditional geomancy, following the Chang'an model. Of Chang'an's 108 wards, two were designated as government-supervised markets, and other space reserved for temples, gardens, ponds, etc. Throughout the entire city, there were 111 Buddhist monasteries, 41 Taoist abbeys, 38 family shrines, 2 official temples, 7 churches of foreign religions, 10 city wards with provincial transmission offices, 12 major inns, and 6 graveyards. Some city wards were literally filled with open public playing fields or the backyards of lavish mansions for playing horse polo and
cuju (Chinese soccer). In 662,
Emperor Gaozong moved the imperial court to the
Daming Palace, which became the political center of the empire and served as the royal residence of the Tang emperors for more than 220 years. The Tang capital was the largest city in the world at its time, with the population of its wards and suburban countryside reaching two million inhabitants. The Tang capital was very cosmopolitan, with ethnicities of
Persia, Central Asia, Japan, Korea,
Vietnam, Tibet, India, and many other places living within. Naturally, with this plethora of different ethnicities living in Chang'an, there were also many different practised religions, such as
Buddhism,
Nestorian Christianity,
Islam and
Zoroastrianism, among others. With the open access to China that the
Silk Road to the west facilitated, many foreign settlers were able to move east to China, while the city of Chang'an itself had about 25,000 foreigners living within. Exotic green-eyed, blond-haired
Tocharian ladies serving wine in
agate and
amber cups, singing, and dancing at taverns attracted customers. If a foreigner in China pursued a Chinese woman for marriage, he was required to stay in China and was unable to take his bride back to his homeland, as stated in a law passed in 628 to protect women from temporary marriages with foreign envoys. Several laws enforcing segregation of foreigners from Chinese were passed during the Tang. In 779, the Tang issued an edict which forced
Uyghurs in the capital, Chang'an, to wear their ethnic dress, stopped them from marrying Chinese females, and banned them from passing off as Chinese. Chang'an was the center of the central government, the home of the imperial family, and was filled with splendor and wealth. However, incidentally it was not the economic hub during the Tang dynasty. The city of
Yangzhou along the
Grand Canal and close to the
Yangtze was the greatest economic center during the Tang. Yangzhou was the headquarters for the Tang government's salt monopoly, and was the greatest industrial center of China. It acted as a midpoint in shipping of foreign goods to be distributed to the major cities of the north. Much like the seaport of
Guangzhou in the south, Yangzhou had thousands of foreign traders from across Asia. There was also the secondary capital city of
Luoyang, which was the favoured capital of the two by
Empress Wu. In 691, she had more than 100,000 families from the region around Chang'an move to Luoyang. With a population of about a million, Luoyang became the second largest city in the empire, and with its closeness to the Luo River it benefited from southern agricultural fertility and trade traffic of the Grand Canal. However, the Tang court eventually demoted its capital status and did not visit Luoyang after 743, when Chang'an's problem of acquiring adequate supplies and stores for the year was solved. As early as 736, granaries were built at critical points along the route from Yangzhou to Chang'an, which eliminated shipment delays, spoilage, and pilfering. An artificial lake used as a transshipment pool was dredged east of Chang'an in 743, where curious northerners could finally see the array of boats found in southern China, delivering tax and tribute items to the imperial court.
Literature '' poems composed at the
Orchid Pavilion Gathering, originally attributed to
Wang Xizhi (303–361) of the
Jin dynasty (701–762), the only surviving example of Li Bai's
calligraphy, housed in the
Palace Museum in Beijing The Tang dynasty was a
golden age of Chinese literature and art. Over 48,900 poems penned during the Tang, representing over 2,200 authors, have survived to the present day. Skill in the composition of poetry became a required study for those wishing to pass imperial examinations, while poetry was also heavily competitive; poetry contests among guests at banquets and courtiers were common. Poetry styles that were popular in the Tang included
gushi and
jintishi, with the poet
Li Bai (701–762) famous for the former style, and poets like
Wang Wei (701–761) and
Cui Hao (704–754) famous for their use of the latter.
Jintishi poetry, or regulated verse, employed stanzas of eight lines, each consisting of five or seven
characters with a fixed pattern of tones, and required the second and third couplets to be
antithetical. Tang poems remained popular and great emulation of Tang era poetry began in the Song dynasty; in that period, Yan Yu (; ) was the first to confer the poetry of the High Tang (766) with "canonical status within the classical poetic tradition". Yan Yu reserved the position of highest esteem among all Tang poets for
Du Fu (712–770), who was not viewed as such in his own era, and was branded by his peers as an anti-traditional rebel. The
Classical Prose Movement was spurred in large part by the writings of Tang authors
Liu Zongyuan (773–819) and
Han Yu (768–824). This new prose style broke away from the poetry tradition of
piantiwen (; 'parallel prose') style begun in the Han dynasty. Although writers of the Classical Prose Movement imitated
piantiwen, they criticised it for its often vague content and lack of colloquial language, focusing more on clarity and precision to make their writing more direct. This
guwen (archaic prose) style can be traced back to Han Yu, and would become largely associated with orthodox
Neo-Confucianism. Short story fiction and tales were also popular during the Tang, one of the more famous ones being ''Yingying's Biography
by Yuan Zhen (779–831), which was widely circulated in his own time and by the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) became the basis for Chinese opera. Timothy C. Wong places this story within the wider context of Tang love tales, which often share the plot designs of quick passion, inescapable societal pressure leading to the abandonment of romance, followed by a period of melancholy. Wong states that this scheme lacks the undying vows and total self-commitment to love found in Western romances such as Romeo and Juliet'', but that underlying traditional Chinese values of indivisibility of self from one's environment, including from society, served to create the necessary fictional device of romantic tension. In addition, Tang literature often discussed gender expression. Literary texts such as "Tiandi yinyang jiaohuan dale fu" and "
You xianku" depicted how the Tang nobility emphasized Taoist sexology. Many male Tang poets and literati conveyed their love for male companions when they perceived their wives—often illiterate—to be incapable of understanding their troubles. Large encyclopaedias were published during the Tang: the
Yiwen Leiju was compiled in 624 under chief editor
Ouyang Xun (557–641),
Linghu Defen (582–666) and
Chen Shuda (). By 729, the team led by scholar
Gautama Siddha (), an ethnic Indian born in Chang'an, had finished compiling the
Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era, an astrological encyclopaedia.
Chinese geographers, such as
Jia Dan, wrote accurate descriptions of places far beyond Tang territory. In his work written between 785 and 805, Jia described the sea route going into the mouth of the
Persian Gulf, and that the medieval
Iranians had erected 'ornamental pillars' in the sea that acted as lighthouse beacons for ships that might go astray. Arabic authors writing a century after Jia, such as
al-Masudi and
al-Maqdisi, also mentioned these structures in their accounts, confirming Jia's reports. The Tang diplomat
Wang Xuance travelled to
Magadha, in present-day northeast India, during the 7th century. Afterwards, he wrote the
Zhang Tianzhu Guotu (Illustrated Accounts of Central India), a book which contained a large body of geographical information. Many histories of previous dynasties were compiled between 636 and 659 by court officials during and shortly after the reign of
Emperor Taizong of Tang. These included the
Book of Liang,
Book of Chen,
Book of Northern Qi,
Book of Zhou,
Book of Sui,
Book of Jin,
History of Northern Dynasties and the
History of Southern Dynasties. Although not included in the official
Twenty-Four Histories, the
Tongdian and
Tang Huiyao were nonetheless valuable written historical works of the Tang period. The
Shitong written by
Liu Zhiji in 710, was a meta-history that surveyed the tradition of
Chinese historiography to date. The
Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, compiled by
Bianji, recounted the journey of
Xuanzang, the Tang era's most renowned
Buddhist monk. Other important literature included
Duan Chengshi's ()
Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, an entertaining collection of foreign legends and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena, short anecdotes, mythical and mundane tales, as well as notes on various subjects. The exact literary category or classification that Duan's large informal narrative would fit into is still debated among scholars and historians.
Religion and philosophy , showing the
paradise of Amitabha Since ancient times, some Chinese had believed in
folk religion and
Taoism that incorporated many deities. Practitioners believed the
Tao and the afterlife was a reality parallel to the living world, complete with its own bureaucracy and afterlife currency needed by dead ancestors. Funerary practices included providing the deceased with everything they might need in the afterlife, including animals, servants, entertainers, hunters, homes, and officials. This ideal is reflected in Tang art. This is also reflected in many short stories written in the Tang about people accidentally winding up in the realm of the dead, only to come back and report their experiences. Taoist ideologies surrounding the medical and health benefits of heterosexuality pervaded. Although such ideologies did not necessarily prevent homosexual or bisexual practices, they advocated for a blueprint of health and wellness that conformed to heterosexuality.
Buddhism, originating in India around the time of
Confucius, continued its influence during the Tang period and was accepted by some members of imperial family, becoming thoroughly sinicised and a permanent part of Chinese traditional culture. In an age before
Neo-Confucianism and figures such as
Zhu Xi (1130–1200), Buddhism had begun to flourish in China during the
Northern and Southern dynasties, and became the dominant ideology during the prosperous Tang. Buddhist monasteries played an integral role in Chinese society, offering lodging for travellers in remote areas, schools for children throughout the country, and a place for urban literati to stage social events and gatherings such as going-away parties. Buddhist monasteries were also engaged in the economy, since their land property and serfs gave them enough revenues to set up mills, oil presses, and other enterprises. Although the monasteries retained 'serfs', these monastery dependents could actually own property and employ others to help them in their work, including their own slaves. The prominent status of Buddhism in Chinese culture began to decline as the dynasty and central government declined as well during the late 8th century to 9th century. Buddhist convents and
temples that were exempt from state taxes beforehand were targeted by the state for taxation. In 845, Emperor Wuzong finally shut down 4,600 Buddhist monasteries along with 40,000 temples and shrines, forcing 260,000 Buddhist monks and nuns to return to secular] life; this episode would later be dubbed one of the
Four Buddhist Persecutions in China. Although the ban was lifted just a few years after, Buddhism never regained its once dominant status in Chinese culture. This situation also came about through a revival of interest in native Chinese philosophies such as Confucianism and Taoism.
Han Yu (786–824)—who
Arthur F. Wright stated was a "brilliant
polemicist and ardent
xenophobe"—was one of the first men of the Tang to denounce Buddhism. Although his contemporaries found him crude and obnoxious, he foreshadowed the later persecution of Buddhism in the Tang, as well as the revival of Confucian theory with the rise of Neo-Confucianism of the Song dynasty. Nonetheless,
Chán Buddhism gained popularity among the educated elite. There were also many famous Chan monks from the Tang era, such as
Mazu Daoyi,
Baizhang, and
Huangbo Xiyun. The sect of
Pure Land Buddhism initiated by the Chinese monk
Huiyuan (334–416) was also just as popular as Chan Buddhism during the Tang. of
Mount Wutai, Shanxi Rivaling Buddhism was Taoism, a native Chinese philosophical and religious belief system that found its roots in the
Tao Te Ching and the
Zhuangzi. The ruling Li family of the Tang dynasty actually claimed descent from Laozi, traditionally credited as the author of the
Tao Te Ching. On numerous occasions where Tang princes would become crown prince or Tang princesses taking vows as Taoist priestesses, their lavish former mansions would be converted into Taoist
abbeys and places of worship. Many Taoists were associated with
alchemy in their pursuits to find an
elixir of immortality and a means to create gold from concocted mixtures of many other elements. Although they never achieved their goals in either of these futile pursuits, they did contribute to the discovery of new metal alloys, porcelain products, and new dyes. The historian Joseph Needham labelled the work of the Taoist alchemists as "protoscience rather than pseudoscience". However, the close connection between Taoism and alchemy, which some
sinologists have asserted, is refuted by
Nathan Sivin, who states that alchemy was just as prominent (if not more so) in the secular sphere and practised more often by laymen.Islam was introduced to China during the early Tang dynasty, from the Chang'an to Fujian-Guandong. Chinese scholars consider the second year of Tang Yonghui regin (651 AD) as the year when Islam was introduced to China, the first Muslims were merchant that did business through the overland and maritime Silk Road settled inland in Chang'an but also in the coast cities of Guangzhou and Quanzhou. The Great Mosque of
Xi'an was built in 742
CE during the Tang dynasty, other historical Tang-era mosques that remain standing to this day are the
Huaisheng Mosque and the
Xianxian Mosque both in Guangzhou. The Tang dynasty also officially recognised various foreign religions. The
Assyrian Church of the East, otherwise known as the
Nestorian Church or the
Church of the East in China, was given recognition by the Tang court. In 781, the
Nestorian Stele was created in order to honour the achievements of their community in China. A Christian monastery was established in Shaanxi province where the
Daqin Pagoda still stands, and inside the pagoda there is Christian-themed artwork. Although the religion largely died out after the Tang, it was revived in China following the
Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Although the
Sogdians had been responsible for transmitting Buddhism to China from India during the 2nd–4th centuries, soon afterwards they largely converted to
Zoroastrianism due to their links to
Sasanian Persia. Sogdian merchants and their families living in cities such as Chang'an, Luoyang, and Xiangyang usually built a Zoroastrian temple once their local communities grew larger than 100 households. Sogdians were also responsible for spreading
Manicheism in China and the
Uyghur Khaganate. The Uyghurs built the first Manichean monastery in China in 768; in 843, the Tang government ordered that the property of all Manichean monasteries be confiscated in response to the outbreak of war with the Uyghurs. With the blanket ban on foreign religions two years later, Manicheism was driven underground and never flourished in China again.
Leisure More than earlier periods, the Tang era was renowned for the time reserved for leisure activities, especially among the upper classes. Many outdoor sports and activities were enjoyed during the Tang, including
archery, hunting, horse
polo,
cuju (soccer),
cockfighting, and even
tug of war. Government officials were granted vacations during their tenure in office. Officials were granted 30 days off every three years to visit their parents if they lived away, or 15 days off if the parents lived more than away (travel time not included). Officials were granted nine days of vacation time for weddings of a son or daughter, and either five, three, or one days/day off for the
nuptials of close relatives (travel time not included). Officials also received a total of three days off for their son's capping initiation rite into manhood, and one day off for the ceremony of initiation rite of a close relative's son. Among the royalty, the tradition of male homosexuality of Imperial China continued to exist, where eunuchs were often the royalty’s male favorites, both due to their appearance and talents. -glazed carved relief showing horseback riders playing
polo Traditional Chinese holidays such as
Chinese New Year,
Lantern Festival,
Cold Food Festival, and others were universal holidays. In Chang'an, there was always lively celebration, especially for the Lantern Festival since the city's nighttime curfew was lifted by the government for three days straight. Between 628 and 758, the imperial throne bestowed a total of sixty-nine grand carnivals nationwide, granted by the emperor in the case of special circumstances such as important military victories, abundant harvests after a long drought or famine, the granting of amnesties, or the instalment of a new crown prince. For special celebration in the Tang era, lavish and gargantuan-sized feasts were sometimes prepared, as the imperial court had staffed agencies to prepare the meals. This included a prepared feast for 1,100 elders of Chang'an in 664, a feast held for 3,500 officers of the Divine Strategy Army in 768, and one in 826 for 1,200 members of the imperial family and women of the palace. Alcohol consumption was a prominent facet of Chinese culture; people during the Tang drank for nearly every social event. An 8th-century court official allegedly had a serpent-shaped structure called the 'ale grotto' built on the ground floor using a total of 50,000 bricks, which featured bowls from which each of his friends could drink.
Status in clothing era
silk painting on a banner depicting
Guanyin and a female attendant in silk robes, from the
Dunhuang caves
British Museum In general, garments were made from silk, wool, or linen depending on your social status and what you could afford. Furthermore, there were laws that specified what kinds of clothing could be worn by whom. The color of the clothing also indicated rank. During this period, China's power, culture, economy, and influence were thriving. As a result, women could afford to wear loose-fitting, wide-sleeved garments. Even lower-class women's robes had sleeves four to five feet wide.
Position of women 's tomb in the
Qianling Mausoleum, where
Wu Zetian was later buried in 706 Concepts of women's social rights and social status during the Tang era were notably liberal-minded for the period. However, this was largely reserved for urban women of elite status, as men and women in the rural countryside laboured hard in their different set of tasks; with wives and daughters responsible for more domestic tasks of weaving textiles and rearing of
silk worms, while men tended to farming in the fields. There were many women in the Tang era who gained access to religious authority by taking vows as Taoist priestesses. In Chang'an, ordinary courtesans inhabited the
North Hamlet. They were generally knowledgeable in the rules of drinking games, and received particular training in table manners. While renowned for their politeness, courtesans were reputed to dominate conversations among elite men, and as being unafraid to openly criticise the rudeness of prominent male guests, including for talking too much, too loudly, or for boasting of their accomplishments. Courtesans were sometimes beaten by their
procuring madames.
Gējìs, or professional singing courtesans, were culturally prominent, and joined talent agencies called
jiaofang. The emperor selected particularly talented women from the outer
jiaofang to form the spring court, who were supplemented by courtesans from other troupes. During the Tang, singing courtesans were also talented in the poetry. In addition to singing, some courtesans composed their own songs, and even popularised a new form of lyrical verse that incorporated quotations of famous historical figures. It was fashionable for women to have full figures; men enjoyed the presence of assertive, active women. The foreign horse-riding sport of
polo from Persia became a wildly popular trend among the Chinese elite, and women often played the sport (as glazed
earthenware figurines from the time period portray). The preferred hairstyle for women was to bunch their hair up like "an elaborate edifice above the forehead", while affluent ladies wore extravagant head ornaments, combs, pearl necklaces, face powders, and perfumes. A 671 law attempted to force women to wear hats with veils again in order to promote decency, but these laws were ignored as some women started wearing caps and even no hats at all, as well as men's riding clothes and boots, and tight-sleeved bodices. There were some prominent court women after the era of
Empress Wu, such as
Yang Guifei (719–756), who had Emperor Xuanzong appoint many of her relatives and cronies to important ministerial and martial positions.
Cuisine '' by Tang era author
Lu Yu During the earlier
Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589), and perhaps even earlier, the drinking of tea (
Camellia sinensis) became popular in southern China. Tea was viewed then as a beverage of tasteful pleasure and with pharmacological purpose as well. During the Tang dynasty, tea became synonymous with everything sophisticated in society. The poet
Lu Tong (790–835) devoted most of his poetry to his love of tea. The 8th-century author
Lu Yu, known as the Sage of Tea, wrote a treatise on the art of drinking tea called
The Classic of Tea. Although wrapping paper had been used in China since the 2nd century BC, during the Tang it was used as folded and sewn square bags to hold and preserve the flavor of tea leaves. This followed many other uses for paper such as the first recorded use of toilet paper in 589 by the scholar-official
Yan Zhitui (531–591), confirmed in 851 by an Arab traveller who remarked that the Tang lacked cleanliness because they relied on toilet paper instead of washing themselves with water. In ancient times, the Chinese had outlined the five most basic foodstuffs known as the five grains:
sesamum,
legumes, wheat,
panicled
millet, and
glutinous millet. The
Ming dynasty encyclopedist
Song Yingxing noted that rice was not counted among the five grains from the time of the legendary and deified Chinese sage
Shennong (the existence of whom Yingxing wrote was "an uncertain matter") into the 2nd millennium BC, because the properly wet and humid climate in southern China for growing rice was not yet fully settled or cultivated by the Chinese. Song Yingxing also noted that in the Ming dynasty, seven tenths of civilians' food was rice. During the Tang dynasty rice was not only the most important staple in southern China, but had also become popular in the north where central authority resided. During the Tang dynasty, wheat replaced the position of millet and became the main staple crop. As a consequence, wheat cake shared a considerable amount in the staple of Tang. There were four main kinds of cake: steamed cake, boiled cake, pancake, and Hu cake. Steamed cake was consumed commonly by both civilians and aristocrats. Like
rougamo in modern Chinese cuisine, steamed cake was usually stuffed with meat and vegetables. Boiled cake was the staple of the Northern Dynasties, and it kept its popularity in the Tang dynasty. It included a wide variety of dishes similar to modern
wonton, noodles, and many other kinds of food that soak wheat in water. While aristocrats favoured wonton, civilians usually consumed noodles and noodle slice soup that were easier to produce. Pancakes was rare in China before the Tang, when it gained popularity. Hu cake was extremely popular during the Tang. Hu cake was toasted in the oven, covered with
sesame seeds, and served at taverns, inns and shops. Japanese Buddhist monk Ennin observed that Hu cake was popular among all of China's civilians. During the Tang, the many common foodstuffs and cooking ingredients in addition to those already listed were barley, garlic, salt, turnips, soybeans, pears, apricots, peaches, apples, pomegranates, jujubes, rhubarb, hazelnuts, pine nuts, chestnuts, walnuts, yams, taro, etc. The various meats that were consumed included pork, chicken,
lamb (especially preferred in the north),
sea otter, bear (which was hard to catch, but there were recipes for steamed, boiled, and marinated bear), and even
Bactrian camels. In the south along the coast meat from seafood was by default the most common, as the Chinese enjoyed eating cooked
jellyfish with
cinnamon,
Sichuan pepper,
cardamom, and
ginger, as well as
oysters with wine, fried
squid with ginger and vinegar,
horseshoe crabs and
red swimming crabs,
shrimp and
pufferfish, which the Chinese called "river piglet". From the trade overseas and over land, the Chinese acquired peaches from
Samarkand, date palms, pistachios, and figs from Persia,
pine nuts and
ginseng roots from Korea and
mangoes from Southeast Asia. In China, there was a great demand for sugar; during the reign of
Harsha over northern India (), Indian envoys to the Tang brought two makers of sugar who successfully taught the Chinese how to cultivate
sugarcane. Cotton also came from India as a finished product from
Bengal, although it was during the Tang that the Chinese began to grow and process cotton, and by the
Yuan dynasty it became the prime textile fabric in China. Some foods were
off-limits, as the Tang court encouraged people
not to eat beef. This was due to the role of the bull as a valuable
working animal. From 831 to 833, Emperor Wenzong even banned the slaughter of cattle on the grounds of his religious convictions to Buddhism. Methods of food preservation were important, and practised throughout China. The common people used simple methods of preservation, such as digging deep ditches and trenches,
brining, and salting their foods. The emperor had large ice pits located in the parks in and around Chang'an for preserving food, while the wealthy and elite had their own smaller ice pits. Each year the emperor had labourers carve 1000 blocks of ice from frozen creeks in mountain valleys, each block with dimensions . Frozen delicacies such as chilled melon were enjoyed during the summer. File:鸳鸯莲瓣纹金碗 20091112.jpg|Tang era
gilt-gold bowl with lotus and animal motifs File:Plat à offrandes Chine Musée Guimet 2418 3.jpg|A Tang
sancai-glazed lobed dish with incised decorations, 8th century File:Dame Chine Guimet 291003.jpg|
Tomb figure from the 7th–8th century of a lady attendant during the Tang era. Female hosts prepared feasts, tea parties, and played drinking games with their guests File:Plat à offrandes Chine Musée Guimet 2418 1.jpg|A rounded "offering plate" with design in "three colors" (
sancai) glaze, 8th century == Science and technology ==