Product Description

In the seventh century the kingdom of Samarkand sent formal gifts of fancy yellow peaches, large as goose eggs and with a color like gold, to the Chinese court at Ch'ang-an. What kind of fruit these golden peaches really were cannot now be guessed, but they have the glamour of mystery, and they symbolize all the exotic things longed for, and unknown things hoped for, by the people of the T'ang empire.
This book examines the exotics imported into China during the T'ang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907), and depicts their influence on Chinese life. Into the land during the three centuries of T'ang came the natives of almost every nation of Asia, all bringing exotic wares either as gifts or as goods to be sold. Ivory, rare woods, drugs, diamonds, magicians, dancing girls--the author covers all classes of unusual imports, their places of origin, their lore, their effort on costume, dwellings, diet, and on painting, sculpture, music, and poetry.
This book is not a statistical record of commercial imports and medieval trade, but rather a "humanistic essay, however material its subject matter."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #350335 in Books
• Published on: 1985-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 410 pages

Journal of Asian Studies
Probably the most informative, most scholarly, and most delightfully written book on China that has appeared in our time.

Customer Reviews

Golden Peach of Literary and historic value
... I haven't read any book like this for a long long time. The flowing texture of writing, the unique choice of organization, the depth of the author's knowledge in T'ang empire and its relation with city-states in Serindia as well as other peripheral states, the grasp of Chinese classical literary texts, of this book, clearly set a high standard that's hard to surpass.

This is not a chronicle of events between 7 and 10th century. There is no clear time axis to the theme. Yet it reveals to us a vivid, alternative facade of T'ang empire. It is not an overstatement to say, for me, it is rather shocking to find out that so many things that are considered quintessentially Chinese are actually product of people of many origins. For example, in Chapter II Men | Musicians and Dancers, the most celebrated Chinese classic "Rainbow Chemise, Feathered Dress" was actually a rendition of Serindian song "Brahman". (This song is now lost. Once rediscovered by a lyricst of Sung era, 2-3 centuries later. Lost again later on). This once again strengthen my view of Sinic culture as a fruition of multi-cultural interation.

I do wish author had put in the book a timetable of major political events. He had only one for dynasties timetable, and one succession table for T'ang Emporers. For example, when he repeatedly referred to the conquest by T'ang (Emporor Tai Chung) of Kogoryo, if he has a table for political events we wouldn't have to confer a history book to find it out what year that's and how that's related to other major events (such as Rebellion of Rokhsan).

Except this tiny blemish, I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history as well as cultures.

To wrap up this petite review, I would like to put down a few footnotes to the book, for other intelligent readers:

1. The Grand Canal (referred to by the Author as "The River of Transport", a literal translation) was built in the reign of Emporer Young, Sui Dynasty which preceded T'ang.

This one thousands odd miles long acquaduct contribute greatly to the nation's unity, prosperity. Perhaps, for the first time, the economy of the south and the north are truely united.

2. In the book, Author translated Chinese old names for Rome as "the Great Chin". This is correct only in modern times if one is to interpret the word "Da Chin"(Rome) literally. According to some scholar, Da Chin came from the ancient word "Dasina" which means "the one from the west". The other proper name for Rome is "Fu Lin" which derived from "FRome", a phonetic variant of "Rome".

Enjoy the book

A Masterpiece
I felt the need to write a review after the previous review. The book's title is purposely vague and mysterious (GOLDEN apples? Samarkand?); it's the sub-title which clarifies and tells quite explicitly that this is a book on the physical culture (exotics) of the Tang Dynasty. Why anyone could mistake such a wonderful book for anything else...

Misleading Title -- All About Animals, Drugs, Foods, etc.
The title to this book is truly misleading. All the book talks about are physical things (as opposed to ideas or thoughts) from Central Asia that were documented to have appeared in Tang China. The author has some interesting findings (on pronunciations and etymology, but the rest of the book is disappointing. Each of the 18 chapters is titled by one physical item (Men, Animals - domestic and wild, Birds, Furs, plants, woods, foods, aromatics, drugs, textiles, pirgments, minerals, jewels, metals, secular objects, sacred objects). The author basically did a search through a database of Tang Chinese writings and noted all the imports that fitted into the 18 categories. Not worth it.