
Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) “Cosmopolitanism”: Toward a Critical and Holistic Approach
Shao-yun Yang, Denison University
Wed, 2/19 · 4:30 pm—6:00 pm · 202 Jones Hall
Program in East Asian Studies

The Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) is the only period of Chinese history to which the word “cosmopolitan” is now routinely applied in Western-language historical writing. The origins of this glamorous image of the Tang can be traced to American scholarship of the 1950s and 1960s, but its current popularity is also related to a more recent increase in the appeal of the concept of cosmopolitanism among Western intellectuals since the end of the Cold War. The “cosmopolitan empire” image has now also become popular in China, due to the idealization of the Tang as a golden age that can serve as both a locus of national pride and a model for China’s future as a global superpower. This talk proposes a less presentist, less Sinocentric, and more critical reading of Tang “cosmopolitanism” as part of a larger, interconnected, multi-centered, and changing medieval world of numerous coexisting cosmopolitanisms. It argues against the prevalent notion that Tang cosmopolitanism ended after the middle of the eighth century, giving way to xenophobia. It also argues for recognizing the existence of a different but equally important mode of “cosmopolitanism” in the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE)