Posted 2017/3/26
After the Han Dynasty (hàn cháo 汉朝) came the Three Kingdoms Period (sān guó shí qī 三国时期, 220-265), the Jin Dynasty (jìn cháo 晋朝, 265-420), the Southern and Northern Dynasties (nán běi cháo 南北朝, 420-589) and the Sui Dynasty (suí cháo 隋朝, 581-618). Then came the Tang Dynasty (táng cháo 唐朝), established by Li Yuan (lǐ yuān 李渊) in 618 with its capital at Chang'an (cháng ān 长安, Xi'an).
In Tang Dynasty, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce flourished; technologies for textile manufacturing and dyeing, pottery and porcelain production, smelting and shipbuilding were further developed. Woodblock printings of dictionaries and almanacs and Buddhist scriptures were in circulation.
The Grand Canal (dà yùn hé 大运河) also helped the flow of merchandise. Chang'an became a cultural and international trade center and — along with Luoyang (luò yáng 洛阳), Yangzhou (yáng zhōu 扬州), and Guangzhou (guǎng zhōu 广州) — a major commercial center. During the Tang Dynasty cultural relations were established with many countries, including Japan, Korea, India, Persia and Arabia. By the 660s, China's influence had firmly taken root in the Tarim basin and Ili River valley in today's Xijiang (xīn jiāng 新疆) in the West, even extending to many city-states in Central Asia
