Mural of the tomb of Prince Zhang Huai, protocol map.
Text |Xue Aihua.
Excerpted from "The Golden Peach of Salmahan - A Study of Imported Products from the Tang Dynasty", Social Sciences Academic Press, April 2016, this article is authorized by the publishing house**, please contact the original source.
Metalwork occupies an important place in the culture of the Tang Dynasty, and the metal craftsmanship of the Tang Dynasty is also very advanced. Foreigners in the Tang Dynasty always tried in every possible way to search for metal products from the Tang Dynasty to bring back to their home countries. On the contrary, the Tang Dynasty continued to issue edicts prohibiting the export of gold, silver, copper, and iron, and preventing foreign merchants from transferring copper and iron outside the Tang Dynasty. Although the natural mineral resources of the Tang Dynasty were very rich, the ** of some metals has always been very scarce. ** is one of them.
The mural of the tomb of Princess Yongtai, the court maid of the Tang Dynasty.
The main production area of the Tang Dynasty was in Sichuan. The ** produced in Sichuan is gold flakes in the alluvium, which was called "bran" at that time. The Tang Dynasty poet Xu Tang once described Longzhou, which is located in the northeastern region of present-day Sichuan Province. This is a beautiful place where "Bixi Flying White Birds, Red Trees Reflecting the Green Forest", and it is also the production area of **. The poem says that this is the place: the local product is only suitable for medicine, and the king rents only the money. But the most important production areas than Sichuan are the gold mines of Lingnan and Annam. These gold mines are often found in rugged and dangerous places inhabited only by indigenous people: the southerners, the poisonous snakes and the snakes fall on the rocks, and the snakes and birds drop on the stones, all of which are used to produce gold. The above is the record of the erudite Tang Dynasty pharmacist Chen Zangqi, but he also said that this kind of "raw gold" famous for "poisoning and killing" should be distinguished from the harmless "****, and he himself has personally observed the specific process of gold mining: common people take gold: digging deep into the ground to the stone of the Fenzi. The stones are all black and scorched, and there is gold under the stones. The big one is like a finger, the middle one is like a bean, the color is like mulberry yellow, and it is extremely soft when biting, which is real gold. The master steals and swallows it, and he does not see poison. Its bran is obtained from the water and sand, from the felt or from the belly of the duck. Another of the Tang Dynasty was the inhabitants of the rivers and streams in Fuzhou, Pennsylvania, and Chengzhou (all in southern Guangxi), where it is recorded that the people of these areas "made a living by panning for gold with wooden baskets". In addition, there is also a golden pond in Guangzhou, "where people live in the middle of the house, there are geese and ducks suddenly, and they often see bran gold flakes in the feces." So they raised more, collected, and got one or a half taels a day, so they became rich."
The Tang Dynasty gold prospectors followed the methods of the ancients – the method of using identifying plants to find minerals, as the legend points out. According to them, the presence of ginger plants on the ground, indicating the presence of copper or tin ore; Wild shallots are the markers of silver mines; And where the holly grows, that is, the hidden place of the gold mines. The presence of metallic trace elements scattered in the land favors the growth of a particular plant, and the presence of these plants correspondingly indicates the possibility of the existence of minerals in the vicinity, which has recently been confirmed in the West.
In the Tang Dynasty, people already knew that mercury could "hook" **; But we don't know if the Tang Dynasty also knew about the separation of sand and crushed parent rock by amalgamation**. Perhaps this method was only a secret technique of the Taoists at the time.
Before the Tang Dynasty, gold and silver were rarely used as the basic materials for plates, bottles and even jewelry, and in some valuable products modeled after the ancient bronze style, ** was used as some kind of ornament, ** or a brilliant inlay of large bronze vessels. However, the Persian craft of beating ** into thin slices won the affection of Tang metalsmiths – perhaps in the Tang Dynasty there were some Persian goldsmiths who escaped from Dashi and taught Tang craftsmen – thus replacing the ancient process of casting metal objects in molds. With the introduction of new techniques that were popular with the masses, Sassanid Persian design patterns and exterior shapes were also introduced to the Tang Dynasty – hunting scenes in floral landscapes, symmetrical grapes, and round floral ornaments. Although foreign customs were very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty, the ancient craft of decorating metal has not been forgotten: for example, there is a silver-handled sword with a golden cloud inlaid on the body, and a short sword with a sandalwood hilt and a golden flower inlaid on the body.
Gold leaf, gold leaf, "carved gold" and other metal materials are all materials used by artists in the Tang Dynasty, and the so-called "carved gold" is a type of gold leaf appliqué. As we know from the samples found in Dunhuang, leaf gold was used in painting during the Tang Dynasty, and Shosoin also housed many exquisite artifacts decorated with gold leaves—for example, the "Silla Wuxian" was decorated with carved gold flowers and birds. As far as we know, there was at least one town in the Tang Dynasty where gold leaf workers specialized in making the materials needed for these splendid and beautiful objects: the city of Annam.
In the Tang Dynasty, precious metals were also embedded in the lacquer base. This craft is now commonly known by its Japanese name, "heidatsu". There is a kind of box in the Tang Dynasty that still exists, and the lid of the box is inlaid with gold and silver inlays of flowers and birds and cloud patterns. Records show that this method was applied to all utensils - when An Lushan was favored in Chang'an, Xuanzong gave him many valuable utensils at the same time, and also rewarded him with "gold and silver flat rhino head spoons" and "gold and silver flat off wonton plates"; The utensils given by Yang Guifei to An Lushan include "Jin Pingtuo Equipped with Jade He" and "Jin Pingtuo 'Iron Face' 椀".
On a more secular level, "* represents all things of high value, but primarily of noble value to people." Because of this, Tang Taizong compared Wei Zheng to a good craftsman in metallurgy, he said: "Qing Du does not see gold in the mine, how expensive is it?" Liangye forging is a tool, it is a treasure for people, I compare myself with gold, and Qing is a good craftsman. "In the Tang Dynasty, there were many fu written with the title of "Picking Gold from Sand"; Liu Zongyuan's "Choosing Gold in the Sand" written with the rhyme "The way to seek treasure is the same as the selection of materials" is one of them. The basis of this simile is that it has the characteristics of "sinking its quality" and "shining its light", which is the same as the characteristics of a virtuous person who "breaks the light and competes, and shines the true quality and holds the difference".
*In the Tang Dynasty, the situation was more or less the same. However, the ** produced in the Tang Dynasty could not meet the large needs of the Tang Dynasty people, so the ** from all over Asia rolled across the border of the Tang Dynasty. Although Iran is likely to be the earliest birthplace of goldsmithing, and many of the patterns of gold made by Tang Dynasty craftsmen must have been originally inspired by Iranian gold, the Tibetans played an important role among the craftsmen of various countries who contributed to Tang culture. Tibetan gold ware is known for its beauty, rarity and exquisite craftsmanship, and in the relevant records of Tubo's tribute and gifts to the Tang Dynasty, the large gold products of Tubo are listed again and again. The goldsmithing of Tibet is a great wonder of the Middle Ages. Let's take a look at the records of these large quantities of Tibetan gold products that flowed into the Tang Dynasty, and also hope that future archaeologists will be able to find in China the ** products of the Tang Dynasty made in Tibet, or influenced by Tibet.
The earliest batch of gold artifacts contributed by Tibet to the Tang Dynasty is an example of a large number of gold artifacts that flowed into the interior from Tibet. In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan (640), Lu Dongzan, the great minister of Songtsen Gampo of Tubo Zanpu, came to Chang'an and arranged the marriage of Songtsen Gampo, the monarch of Tubo, and the princess of the Tang Dynasty. In order to conclude the marriage contract, he contributed to the Tang Dynasty gold objects weighing thousands of catties and many other jewels. The following year, a Tang princess married the King of the Plateau, and she was later worshipped as a god by the grateful Tibetans. Yan Lide once painted a work to commemorate this event, but unfortunately this painting no longer exists.
We don't know exactly what the gold artifacts contributed in the 14th year of Jeongguan (640) were, but in order to celebrate the swift victory of Tang Taizong in the conquest of Goryeo, Songtsen Gampo donated a gift to Tang Taizong in the name of his son-in-law in the 15th year of Zhenguan (641). This gift is described in detail in the literature and can be used for our reference. It is a goose-shaped flask that is seven feet high. In December of the second year of Xianqing (658), Tibet contributed another miraculous metal product: it was a golden city, "there were lions, elephants, camels, horses, and plain trees on the city, and there were people riding them."
In addition, there are many similar breathtaking metal utensils. In the ninth century, Tubo Zampu lived in a luxurious tent, which was decorated with the image of tigers, leopards and other reptiles made of **. However, other nations also produced**: the Uighur Khan's Golden Horde at Karabara Husun could hold a hundred men; The distant King of the Breeze sat on the "Golden Couch"; The Silla Kingdom contributed a large amount of ** to the Tang Dynasty; The Donghu tribe, the Nanzhao state, and many Turkestan countries including the Shi country, the Shi country, and the rice country. They also occasionally contributed metal utensils to the Tang Dynasty. The snowy kingdom of Bolu also contributed golden flowers to the Tang Dynasty. But in all these various ***, it is surprising that we have not yet seen in the literature the ** of Indochina being transmitted to the Tang Dynasty. Somewhere in Malaya, there is the famous island or continent (suvarn·advīpa), which for Indians is simply the legendary "land of **" - this word-of-mouth legend was an important factor in the Indian settlement in Southeast Asia - but this legend is not found in China.
Purple gold. 
Wutai Mountain (detail), Dunhuang murals.
During the reign of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzong's son wrote a "Book of Longchi", and Xuanzong rewarded the prince with a "purple gold belt" as a reward for his book. This purple gold belt was obtained by his ancestor Tang Gaozong when he broke Goryeo. Various other purple gold utensils are also common in the literature of the Tang Dynasty. For example, a young samurai shows off his "white jade stirrup" to the people, and there is a "purple gold hammer" in his sleeve; In the first year of Tianyou (903), Tang Zhaozong had already become an emperor in vain, and he gave Zhu Quanzhong, the actual ruler at that time, "purple gold wine vessels, imperial clothes and jade belts". Utensils like these are very fine purple gold wares. The icy and snowy Bolu also produces purple gold.
Although in the Ming Dynasty, there may have only been exquisite imitations of true purple gold, the real knowledge of the beautiful name of purple gold was long before the Tang Dynasty, and the name purple gold was still circulating in the Song Dynasty and afterward.
We may be able to find a clue to the "purple gold" in ancient Egypt. Among the large number of artifacts excavated from Tutankhamun's mausoleum, we found a ** ornament with a rose purple-red film on the surface; For example, the rosette on the slippers of a young king was made of this material and pure ** thread. On the crown of Queen Mosslit, a special material identical to this material was found, and this queen belonged to the Nineteenth Dynasty. And on the earrings of Ramses XI of the Twentieth Dynasty, this material was also found. Experiments have shown that this is a ** that contains trace amounts of iron, and when heated, it turns violet. Later, this technique of painting rose-purple and other colors on metal vessels became a treasured secret technique for ancient Greek alchemists. These secrets have now been learned from ancient papyrus manuscripts of Alexandria and Byzantium. There are two possibilities for the origin of Zijin: the Zijin of the Tang Dynasty, Bolu and Goryeo has nothing to do with Egypt, and it represents an interesting and accidental craft technology outside of Eastern and Western alchemy, that is, the smelting technology of Zijin in China and Egypt was discovered independently; Another possibility is that the technology spread to Asia from the West. We can't say for sure what the actual situation is, but whether it is an imitation or an original, China's purple gold must be the result of the research of Taoist alchemists.
Silver. 
Sassanid Persian silver bowl.
The production of silver in the Tang Dynasty was concentrated in the Lingnan and Annam regions. Most of this white metal is apparently extracted from galena by the bake bowl metallurgy. Of the three hundred and eighty-four parts of lead, only one or two parts can be produced**. At the beginning of the ninth century, there were 40 silver mines in the Tang Dynasty, with an annual output of 12,000 taels of silver, and by the middle of the ninth century, the number of silver mines increased to 42, with an annual output of 15,000 taels of silver.
At least until the middle of the ninth century, the silversmiths of the Tang Dynasty were always exquisite. In the middle of the ninth century, after the large-scale religious ** movement in the fifth year of Huichang (845), Iran's influence gradually declined, thus beginning the decline of Tang Dynasty silversmithing. Tang Dynasty craftsmen made many motifs, which were usually "decorated with relief patterns carved into a background of circles that were vigorously struck." Sometimes these patterns are made with embossed reliefs; There are also occasional carved patterns. The entire silver work is generally made by soldering several pieces together, a technique that is particularly used to make goblets. All silverware is decorated with extensive use of partial gilding and gilding. The depictions depicted on these bowls, plates, boxes, and cups are often mythological scenes, or scenes of flowers, wild beasts, and especially "royal hunting", a theme closely related to the hunting images on Sassanid silverware and fabrics. But some of the silverware motifs also reflect the style of ancient China, reminiscent of the stone reliefs of the Han Dynasty. There was also a very special process in the Tang Dynasty, which was to use silver foil or gold-plated silver foil on copper mirrors. The Tang Dynasty was also able to make silver flats, which were made by embedding thin silver leaves with patterns in lacquer. We know that there is a very famous silver flat real thing, which is a very typical image of a plump and moist palace maid; Like some of the palace maids displayed in the Shosoin collection, this palace maid is also standing under a tree. Other silver products include scissors, shovels, ladles, and tomb figurines.
Among the standard medicines is a medicine called "silver ointment", which is apparently made by alchemists; "Its method is synthesized with white tin, silver foil and mercury", and the silver paste has the effect of "calming the nerves". In addition, there is a product called "yellow silver", "for the instrument to ward off evil, but for the Rui", although we do not know the composition of yellow silver, but it must also be a Taoist invention. The last thing that should be mentioned is black silver, which can be obtained by using sulfur to smoke silver, "workers use it as a vessel, and those who maintain health use it to cook medicine and drink it for many years."
Generally speaking, neither ** nor ** in the Tang Dynasty were used as currency, at least not as currency issued by **. However, gold and silver were more common in Lingnan than in other places, so gold and silver circulated freely as a medium of exchange in Lingnan, just as cinnabar and mercury were used as a medium of exchange in the mountainous areas of central Tang Dynasty. Indeed, in addition to the fact that "Wuling (Wuling is the boundary between Lingnan and the rest of the Tang Dynasty) bought and sold one silver", silver was also of great significance to the commercial life of the Canton region, so much so that when the third year of Yuan He (808) banned silver mining, when the emperor emphasized that "bronze can be used for drum casting; The silver is not good for the living" - especially excluding the Lingnan region from the forbidden area.
Except for some tribes in Turkestan and Northeast China who occasionally contributed silver to the Tang Dynasty, most of the tribute silver of the Tang Dynasty came from Silla and Tibet. The silver contributed by these regions is generally finely crafted silverware.
In December of the second year of Xianqing (early 658), the tribute gift of Tubo Zanpu to the emperor of the Tang Dynasty included a gold vessel called "Jin Poluo". Another time was in the second year of the last century (761) when the king of Qiuzi "offered silver Poluo and gave silk in reply". Moreover, it is recorded that Cao Guo learned of the shrine, and in the shrine "there are Jin people and Jin Poluo, which are one zhang and five feet wide......."And there are gold and silver vessels, Hu Shuyun: 'The artifact given by the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty'". But what exactly "Poro" – whether gold or silver – is a mystery to us.
Brass. Brass known to the Tang Dynasty is actually an alloy of copper and zinc, brass is a product of Persia, called "鍮石" (equivalent to the English "tutty stone") in Chinese, this word ** in Persian "tūtiya", meaning "zinc stone". The stone imported in the Tang Dynasty was for the use of court craftsmen, and the stone is still.
The ornaments on the robe belt of the eighth and ninth grades. In addition, in the amalgam of the alchemist's mysteries, crumbs of "Persian Stone" are also used. In the sixth year of Kaiyuan (718), Mi once contributed "鍮" to the Tang Dynasty.
Sometimes, the number of stones used in the Tang Dynasty must have been considerable, as in a temple in Chang'an there was a six-foot-tall statue of the Buddha made of stones.
But it is likely that the Tang people already knew the secret of synthesizing this metal: they were certainly able to produce some other fine alloys. Cupronickel is a silver mixture of copper and nickel, a metal that the Chinese have been able to produce since the Han Dynasty; Among the collections of Shosoin is a long-handled incense burner made of white copper. In addition, we also know that there is an incense burner made of "red copper" in the Shosoin treasure, which is said to be an alloy of antimony, gold, and copper. The Anglo-Indian word "tootnague" refers to the Chinese word for "white copper", which the Persians later called "khar-cini" (Chinese stone), and is said to have used it by the Chinese to make mirrors and arrowheads, while the Muslims used this metal to make spear tips, rings and brass bells.
Gold Coins Silver Coins.
Tang Sancai, Hu people and camels.
The Chinese in the Middle Ages did not mint gold coins, they saved this *** and used it to make some luxurious and pompous utensils; In the Lingnan region, the exception is silver (and, obviously, gold) as the standard medium of exchange. However, the people of the Tang Dynasty were very welcoming to foreign **. Most of the valuable resources brought to the Tang Dynasty by the Japanese envoys were gold dust. In the sixth century, in the Tang Dynasty, gold and silver coins from the Western Regions were popular, especially Qiuzi. In the seventh and eighth centuries, the Tang Dynasty must have used gold and silver coins in the protectorate of the Western Regions, as evidenced by the silver coins found in the mouth of a male corpse in Gaochang. On one side of this coin is the priest of Ahura Mazda, and on the other side is the name of Caliph Mu'awiyah. Along with this multicultural silver coin, an ordinary Tang Dynasty copper coin was unearthed.
In the hands of merchants in the Western Regions, there were even Roman gold coins and Persian silver coins, and the images of Hu Shen and Yidi King on these coins were very novel to the Tang people, so some coins entered the Tang Dynasty for the purpose of entertainment. For example, a Byzantine gold coin of Justinian II was found in a Sui Dynasty tomb near Chang'an. In a tomb in Henan, belonging to the same period, two silver coins of Kusa and II were also found. It seems that foreign coins in the Tang Dynasty were not as common as in the Sui Dynasty. But this may be an illusion created by relying solely on accidental archaeological excavations. A Byzantine gold coin was found in a Tang tomb on the outskirts of Chang'an, and silver coins of Kusa and II were also found in another nearby tomb.
According to a Tang Dynasty book describing Guangzhou, "The Great Food Country withdraws the most money, and uses money and goods." From this, it can be inferred that in the Canton region, which was located at the southern end of the Tang Dynasty, the golden dinar of the Islamic state may have been used in **.
Hu people hold wine bottles and image terracotta figurines.