Essays on Tang Society Edited by John Curtis Perry and Bardwell L. Smith was written in 1976 and is rather a standard introduction to the most important aspects of Tang history. It focuses on the political and economic issues of the Tang, and ignores the social and religious history of the era. It is noteworthy that it doesn't once mention even the existence of Taoism. As Taoism was the official ideology of the Tang, and the focus of my dissertation, I find this rather interesting. The essays are all by the main English scholars of the time, Denis C. Twitchett, Arthur F. Wright, Edwin G. Pullyblank and one historian I hadn't heard of Larry W. Moses. For the most part it read like a preview of the Cambridge History of China's volume on the Sui and Tang.
Moses' essay was probably the most unique essay, "T'ang Tribute Relations with the Inner Asian Barbarians" focused on China's relations with theTurk and Uighur empires to the north. It looked in quite a lot of detail about foreign relations, and despite the essay's title, did not look down on the "barbaric" society, but on equal terms with the Chinese.
Arthur F. Writght wrote and essay on "Tang Tai-Tsung (Tai Zong) The man and the person" which took a rather flattering view of the second Tang Emperor. It showed how much the northern influences were felt in his family, Confucianism was largely ignored and his mother and his wife had much greater influence in his decision making referring to the Empress as a "close confident and counsellor" (25). He also talked about the problems of using Chinese biography as a historical source as it "depicts its subject as playing out a given role which has its sets of gestures, styles, behavioural patterns, and thus submerges individuality into types" (22).
Edwin G. Pulleyblank wrote about "The An Lu-Shan rebellion and the origins of Chinese Militarism in Tang China" He showed how the establishment of permanent frontier armies in 737 was one of the leading causes of the rebellion. He looked at Uighur participation on the side of the Tang during the rebellion, and that aftermath of the revolt, the increase of military governors, loss of territory etc.
Denis C. Twitchett wrote "Varied Patterns of Provincial Autonomy in the Tang dynasty" the tension between centralisation of authority and regional autonomy he presents as one of the key themes of Chinese history. The biggest difference between the pre and post rebellion period was this change of control towards the regions. Before the rebellion the Prefect was in control of small areas, a career bureaucrat, afterwards governors were given control of larger areas, and were, at least in the north military governors.
The book was a good quick reference on the basics of Tang history, however having nothing to say about Taoism, and little about women it's not terribly useful for my dissertation, but it's good to get the general background of the Tang down.
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