China's Lost Tang Dynasty Murals (Art History Documentary) | Perspective

[Music] [Music] close to the city of xi'an in northwestern China lies a vast an ancient mausoleum the burial ground of the mighty Tang Dynasty the Tang Dynasty must have been one of the most powerful empires in the world han dynasty lasts for more than 300 years and when changed in look back they considered this period is one of the most powerful dynasty in their history it was here in 1960 that a team of Chinese archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery as soon as you discover a tomb or some other remains that are able to corroborate texts that makes archaeologists at Pig refers researchers in China incredibly excited they opened one of the smaller tombs it belonged to a young princess who had lived more than 1200 years before what they found inside astonished them is wonderful the largest tongue then is to discover so far they're very important ecological discoveries vital to our understanding of both life and afterlife in town dynasty it was a treasure trove but not one of silver or gold the treasure was on the walls the first session of the mill painting depicts the official Guardian that in the tomb and the second part of the tool is about her personal life and the last session of the mirror painting that is where the coffin was fun it has a creation of an afterlife by giving half the spaces that would be appropriate for her an amazing five in those chambers of death they found life [Music] the chera cotta army one of the wonders of ancient China thousands of warriors forces acrobats and musicians all buried in the earth to accompany the first emperor of China into the afterlife it was discovered by accident in 1974 the Terracotta Army has since become a unesco world heritage site and one of the most popular tourist destinations in modern china [Music] but just 60 miles away lies another burial ground of China's imperial past and another wonder the murals discovered in the tombs of Chen Ling mausoleum offered unprecedented glimpse since the life during the Tang Dynasty the golden age in Chinese history when they ruled an empire larger than that of Rome the great dynasty began in the year 618 the last emperor had been assassinated China was engulfed in Civil War but from the chaos a new ruling family arose it's really started with the Lee family ceasing power from the declining straight Dynasty China has been sober for almost 500 years civil war so soon after the Tang Dynasty unified China again it develop fast in economic and then culturally the ruling family of the Tang Dynasty the Lee family they were turkic-speaking era socratic family from the northwestern regions of China the new dynasty would rule China for almost three centuries it was an era of progress and stability art and literature blossomed as did science and technology and the tang capital xi'an became the greatest city on the planet [Music] today the modern metropolis of xi'an is built on the site few remnants of the tang capital remain but the great wild goose pagoda in the south of the city is one dating to the mid 7th century it offers a hint of Cheyenne's lost grandeur the original town capital would have been completely flattened at the end of the dynasty you wander around the city walls today you can still get a feel get a sense of this amazing city the tang capital had dozens of huge and well sponsored temples some of the towers and pagodas being constructed would have been up to 60 or 70 meters high you know that's an amazing landmark on a skyline she has been the capital of a whole planet you get a lot of merchants and religious people and even misters from all World War it's name meant perpetual peace but Cheyenne was the center of a vast empire the tangs influence stretched into modern Vietnam and career in the east and into Afghanistan in the West at the Empire Zenith more than 50 million people lived under tang rule the Emperor's commanded armies of 500,000 professional troops but tang dominance in central asia was not unchallenged rebellions and incursions were a constant threat and to the west lay an even greater enemy the mighty tibetan empire for centuries the two powers jostle for dominance at times they would settle their differences through diplomacy and intermarriage but at other times only a military solution would do there would be cycles of invasion and occupation counter-attack and rebellion control of trade routes was fiercely contested as well for mighty though the tang armies were the triumphs of the dynasty was built on the flow of goods on the movement of people and the exchange of ideas [Music] don't forget that the ruling family of the Tang Dynasty even within their DNA and their cultural history had these strong ties to nomadic people and that carried on in the way that the Tang Dynasty itself was structured these connections and the signs of these connections became part of Tang Dynasty kingship so for example receiving ambassadors receiving traders from foreign countries became one way for the Tang Dynasty to as it were reflect on itself culture Commerce ideas technology almost every aspect of life in Tang Dynasty China was connected with a broader regional cultural economy welliton dynasty acquired all this new material forms and crafts for example glass gold and silver and also new religions like Buddhism surrealism and manic ism people luxuries Goods all kinds of things were coming in and out constantly the Tang established sea routes to Persia to Egypt to Mesopotamia and beyond but it was by land greatest treasures float along a legendary trade route to the West the Silk Road [Music] the Jen Ling mausoleum in northwestern China is a window into another time of the 19 - min the complex only those of princess young Thai and for others have been opened but in the murals found within the 7th century heyday at the Chang dynasty is brought to life in stunning detail in color their scenes show a wealthy diverse society where customs Goods and fashions of foreign lands were welcomed integrated reinterpreted and made together into something unique it was a melting pot impossible to imagine without the network of trade routes which linked Tang China in the world the Silk Road stretch from the west of the Tang capital of Xi'an it's merchant caravans skirted the mountain ranges of Central Asia they threaded the valleys of Afghanistan and crossed the Karakum desert and on and on they went towards the Caspian Sea the Black Sea and Europe beyond the silk road's is a term coined by a German geographer from Rick Tobin in the late 19th century to refer to an extensive network of nodes used for trade in essentially the medieval period sometime between 3rd and 4th century and right up to around period of the Mongol conquest 13 14th century so about a thousand years of medieval history [Music] The Seeker Row is the mainstream to make prosperity of the Tang Dynasty financially and culturally sucrose actually passed for communication migration and trace has to be used back in the history it's a complex network of oasis towns which essentially join China with the central and western parts of Asia the people who dominated the Silk Road of the Soviets the tongue Chinese a tongue state was invested hugely in the infrastructure of the Silk Road because they wanted they valued the imports and they valued the import-export business but the actual trading was dominated by Central Asians rather than by Tung Chinese themselves along the route itself [Music] the Silk Road which connected Tang China to the West had its origins centuries earlier the Greeks under Alexander the Great had pushed East as far as India two centuries later their descendants in Central Asia were met by Chinese embassies of the great Han Dynasty a Chinese military presence in the region followed securing the first open trade route across the continent the Han coveted the horses bred further west which was stronger and faster than their native breeds Chinese luxuries such as silk went the other way passing from merchants to merchants across thousands of miles making many rich along the way but such a lucrative trade route was jealously contested every power in the region wanted its peace and opportunistic bandits were always ready to swoop on the unguarded and unprepared the Han Dynasty fell in the third century the Roman Empire too would soon fracture the Silk Road closed it was not until the tang unified China and expanded into Central Asia again in the seventh century that the direct link to Europe was reopened and it would carry far more than just silk there were more than silk which were traded along the road they're also glass gold and silver it's also very important to development of Chinese cuisine including also spice and new fruits like melons and grapes and walnuts for the Western Chinese starter injury why made a grape because before that the choice wise usually made of rice or slogan many other things other than silk were moving across the Silk Road including things to do with medicine ideas people warfare luxuries all kinds of things it's very interesting from the Miura painting we discover a lot evidence about during this time China has adopted a lot culture activity from the Central Asia for example the first time we see the Chinese stock parrot polo this oh never happened in China before probably the most important set of ideas that travelled along the Silk Road into China would have been Buddhism as all kinds of sutras were coming from India and triggering and stimulating new interest in this particular religion and faith it was a huge stimulus to the history of ideas in medieval China along with religious ideas there also came new architectural plans like Buddhist pagoda into China there are also new decorative elements like the very popular pearl borders which were extensively used in tone dynasty textiles the Silk Road enriched the Tang Dynasty in more ways than one and it made control of the Empire all the more tempting a prize for the ruthless and ambitious there was none more ruthless and ambitious than the woman who rose from courtesan to the highest throne in the land one of the most extraordinary figures in Chinese history wu zetian she was born in 624 her family was wealthy and an early backer of the new Tang regime that saw her place in the imperial court as a lessor concubine to the Emperor he was 14 years old she watched she learned and she waited for her moment was a chance started as a concubine of the second emperor of the tang dynasty emperor time but she must be a very charming woman that's why after tied Emperor Taizong died she was actually taken again into court by Ty Johnson emperor gaozong as his concubine at that time and then later she became the Empress unfortunately five years later emperor gaozong gas choke so after that you Joe Tehan took over the power and become the Empress Dowager inventory she trained herself Emperor of Gianna she would have retained a lot of power from behind the curtain as its called but clearly didn't wish to relinquish it [Music] her husband Emperor gouts young faded away enjoyed in 683 their son inherited the throne but he proved too independent minded for his mother and she deposed him after just two months she sent the young man into exile and installed his younger brother as a puppet in 690 she then removed him too and seized ultimate power herself she was the only female in the history of China who actually became a Emperor she ran the state for more than 40 years firstly unofficially as an empress then afterwards he claimed herself an emperor it's important to say also this is one of the great moments of flowering of Chinese culture she was a great sponsor of arts and religion and so many of the religious organizations and artists would have thrived and flourished under her patronage but she was ruthless and she was clearly very power-hungry and also quite insecure and didn't hesitate to execute or demote or banished anyone who came up against her [Music] loser tiens secret police stamped out any dissent old and powerful families who might threaten her were repressed in their place she promoted those whose loyalty would be to her alone but the imperial court soon became a nest of factions vying for favor the wrong word in the wrong ear could mean death and even her closest family were not safe in her rise to power it is said Wu Zetian killed her infant daughter to frame and discredit arrival by the time she was Emperor she had lost none of that calculating brutality as her granddaughter princess young ty was soon to discover [Music] at the beginning of the eighth century China was ruled by an aging despot wu zetian had begun life at court as a lowly concubine but through her cunning and her brutality she had seized power to pose her own children and declared a new dynasty of her own the Empress was growing old however she relied more and more on her two lovers the Chang brothers Yi ki and Jang Jong the Chang's grew powerful and made enemies among those whispering against the brothers were two of Wu Zetian grandchildren the teenagers Prince leader and princess Jung tae princess jung-tae was obviously said to be a great beauty who if she stood next to plum blossoms the plum blossoms would look drab proceedures name is Lee Chong run he is a grandson of emperor gaozong and empress wu zetian but when Empress would attend was in power he got himself into trouble by criticizing his grandma's unusually intimate relationship with to my officers and her trust to Boston she displayed what would have been regarded as very corrupt behavior by favoring her favorites with business deals and status titles elevating them essentially far beyond as it were their work was at the end discover a princess in Yong time and Hawara and her husband talked about her private life behind her back she got very annoying their youth and family connections were no defense looser Tian's vengeance was Swift leader Yong tae and her husband all sentenced to death there were different records about their death so Prince either supposedly was came to death but there are different stories about the death of Princess long time it's not entirely clear her epitaph says she died in childbirth but it's more likely that she was poisoned and by the Empress Wu our carriages and also scholars have discovered her father and also her husband would die just one day before her so this coincidence seems unlikely to happen she died in the childbirth so now most of the scholars has have agreed that she was killed by her own grandmother who taught him but woozy ends grip on power was fading despite the risks a plot was hatched to remove her favorites the hated Shang Brothers when she fell ill early in 705 the conspirators made their move the brothers were killed and the ailing Empress forced to abdicate the son she had deposed 20 years earlier reclaimed the throne loser tiens dynasty was over old crimes were wiped away with it princess jung-tae and her brother were reburied magnificent new tombs were built for them a ringing statement of the break with the old regime [Music] the tombs for a start are exceptionally large sometimes several hundred metres by several hundred metres both don't share the same structure with true large tomb chambers underneath a truncated mount above-ground and these two members were linked with a short corridor and they were approached by a sloping tomb passage with a ground-level opening [Music] remember we're in a world of some chewy laws here where according to your status on the social hierarchy that determines what kind of luxury you can be and must be afforded for everything in life and in death and Princess jung-tae was treated with great honours similar to that of an empress [Music] grand tombs of princess young Ty and her brother were sealed up in the year 705 but as the decades and centuries passed the ways in were forgotten all of these tombs are basically all marked by a very grand spirit way flanked by large stone statues which leads to a massive two mounds or actual Mountain that would originally have been guards and guardians and keepers living on site but once the dynasty has fallen there's no reason for that and they gradually you know would have melded into the into the landscape it's can we vote difficult actually locate where exactly the tomb chambers are and the underground underneath a big grave mound or within the big mountains so if you see the big man there but you still don't know from where you dig into and to locate the tomb chambers where everything is buried the majority of the time tomb was rediscovered soon after the Cultural Revolution China start open to the outside war so they need more accommodation hotel to accommodate the visitors so they have a huge construction work it everywhere in China and this is a man period a lot tongue tune has been discovered archeologists began the first scientific excavations of the Chen Ling norsu Liem in the 1960s with teenage prince and princess would have been buried with a treasury of gold silver and jade but that was nowhere to be found in their tombs it's been looted and lost in the many centuries since the tombs of the channelling area were probably looted by the end of the Tang Dynasty or if not shortly afterwards I think most of the stories are that it was probably soldiery or bandits who would have done the looting looters will only be able to take what is portable they probably couldn't have taken very heavy objects like heavy sarcophaguses or very heavy bells so they would have gone for objects of value things made for example of silver all objects made of precious materials like gold and silver or Jade were taken so for example in the tomb of Prince John Y there was a Jade's book with gilded inscription which indicates his identity so that Jade's book was broken down into pieces and took in the were taken away and only fragments remained in the tomb but the thieves were less interested in pottery hundreds of ceramic figures were left in princess youngjae's tomb alone and there was another thing the Raiders did not steal the stunning frescoes which line the tomb walls you have recreations of court scenery of the capital scenery and of massive processions and events the first session of the mule painting depicts the official Guardian got in the tomb and the second part of the tool is about her personal life and the last session of the mural painting that is where the coffin was fun what gets painted in the tombs are all the things that the occupant is going to need in the afterlife so if that means for example that they must be accompanied by a dozen beautiful ladies in waiting then they must be painted there if it also means that they must have musicians and dancers bodyguards if they must be able to witness great military parades and pageants if they must live in fantastic buildings and be fed marvellous food the wherewithal must will be there we don't know any names of those craftsmen who created Nero paintings within the tombs and also the the ceramic figures despite that their works are very fine high quality as they say a picture is worth a thousand words the content of the images gives us a way to imagine all kinds of everyday scenes that we would never have otherwise been able to conceive of only few of the tang dynasty painting have survived they were originally penned in silk so this discovery of the mural painting have asked to understand their daily life what's interesting about the Tong period and these murals is that we're not just looking at an introspective China we're looking at China that is fully integrated into a massive regional economy across Eurasia which means that there would have been ambassadors and traders and merchants and emissaries and all sorts of other people in the capital at the time and of course they find their way into these murals as well on the walls of the Chen Ling tombs we see Persian wine glasses and foreign dignitaries we see musicians and instruments from far-off lands we see cheetahs and camels another exotic beasts we see all the world coming to Tang China to trade to pay tribute to serve to make a new life and we see the change in women's status too the society definitely became more tolerant and vibrant with all the pneumatic fashions coming in and there was definitely much less social segregation of women the women in the tendinous they enjoyed much higher social status in the society than any period in child history they started to dress up and imitate the European style or even the fashion from the Central Asia in many ways in their makeup in their dress and even their social life [Music] we're still in the medieval period it is still a patriarchal system the place of women is to correspond to men to be demure and not to come out from behind the curtain but that said women could ride horses women might even have played polo they could certainly get out and about eres de Craddock women that is I imagine that in a broader historical scheme their status was considerably higher and they had more freedom especially than they did in the latter half of the of the dynastic period but this outward-looking society would not last forever even as Tang China reached its zenith there were forces at large in the empire which would tear the dynasty apart [Music] [Music] by the middle of the eighth century Tang China was at the peak of the Golden Age loser tiens divisive rain was over under the rule of her grandson emperor xian zhang china enjoyed decades of political stability peace and prosperity [Music] the Tong dynasty must have been one of the most powerful empires in the world if not the most powerful in the medieval period it had much larger population and it had a far greater trading status that compared to any other state at the time this very open era and in China from all the cow Chow and population exchange came into a full bloom in the town dynasty the tombs themselves are a great mark of you know the scale of the tombs you know several hundred meters by several hundred meters it's an indication of the wealth the luxury the power and what the status of China was among the regional powers that traded with it that that recognized it in December 755 however disaster struck and Lucien was a powerful general in the Chang army and a favorite of the Emperor but he had a bitter rivalry with the Emperor's chief minister after one provocation to many and Lucien rebelled civil war beckoned in China with the mighty northern Garrison's under his command Han Liu Shan swept southwards within months his armies had captured the great city of pure yang there he declared himself the first emperor of a new dynasty the yan he marched on words to chang Han the Emperor fled the city fell and knew Shan was unable to secure the whole country indeed he could not even rule his own family early in 757 he was murdered by his son he in turn was killed by a loyalist to the dead general the new yan dynasty was imploding the rebellion failed but for the tang victory came at a cost the economy was in tatters thousands upon thousands had died and more had been forced to flee their homes the capital Shang Han had been looted the central bureaucracy there was decimated that glue as it were that was holding the state together started to come apart and you start to get militarism you start to get rebellions you start to get independent governors and that's a recipe for the disaster for for a unified centralized state a further series of agrarian rebellions finally turned on a dynasty in the beginning of 10th century the Tong dynasty never recovered from the 7:56 unleash an rebellion even though in name it carried on right up until 907 [Music] as the power and authority of the tang withered so did their control over the western regions their old rivals the tibetan empire swooped in the Silk Road which had brought the tangs such prosperity was closed the ninth century then saw a series of natural disasters and another devastating uprising against imperial authority this time there would be no recovery in 907 the last tang emperor was forced from the throne after ruling China for almost 300 years the great dynasty was over China entered a new age of political upheaval after once unified state collapsed into rival kingdoms but the triumphs of the Tang Dynasty were not forgotten and though their reign ended more than 1100 years ago the legacy of Tang China can still be felt today [Music] the impact on Chinese history has been immense they defined many of the institutions and institutional practices that come to help us identify what their culture is the Eternity really has left a lasting legacies in Chinese culture it's renowned for its literature and its ceramics also it is when woodblock printing started in China so these are all the lasting legacies in Chinese material culture which still were important in our daily life if you take for example something like the civil service examination system for recruitment of officials to government now that was founded in the Han Dynasty but it really only became a meritocracy in the Tang Dynasty and towards the middle towards the end of the Tang Dynasty you start to get men coming into government who are often from obscure families but are brilliant and a mechanism was found within the system to enable them to rise to the top and to become advisors to government so these kinds of institutional frameworks are hugely important not to mention things also like calligraphy in the history of calligraphy essentially by the early Tang Dynasty the modern script which everyone writes today was formed this year talk about a sticker route as they want to revise the siaka route so you can see the new president xi jinping he emphasized so-called one pair to one row this is one to echo their golden period of civil rule and when Chinese look back they can see that this period is one of the most powerful dynasty in their history [Music] stunning murals discovered in the tombs of Princess jung-tae and Prince Heder have opened our eyes to the wonders of the Golden Age but the earth may Harbor more secrets still many of the tombs of the Shen Ling mausoleum have not been excavated even greater treasures may yet come to light [Music] it's a large tube complex with the larger tombs for Emperor's and empresses and smaller what are called satellite tombs for their siblings offspring or for meritorious officials or generals or people of that kind we know the imperial line we know the names of a lot of the the Royals there will certainly be tombs that have not been discovered [Music] the mentum in a Channing mausoleum the tomb of the Empress would attend an emperor gaozong or still unexcavated there's also probably the only intact royal tomb that remain in the mausoleum I'm sure there are still plenty of Tom asked with him to be discovered because do not hang upon the royal tombs has been found in the capital C and there are still some high-ranking individual they have been been buried in different part of China and these tomb are still waiting to be discovered we'll probably expect to see a lot more fascinating mural paintings a lot more valuable items for example gold and silver in these tombs and also maybe very prominent artistic work like calligraphy work there is still the legend that a divine piece of calligraphy work by a Eastern Jing calligrapher while she was in one of these Imperial tombs of the town dynasty's I think the Chinese government sensibly has a policy of not biting off more than it can chew and of just dealing one by one with the major tubes which require a huge amount of archaeological resource and effort to ask excavate and then to report upon so I think you know take it take they should take their time and do do it methodically and sensibly [Music] the Tang tombs already excavated require constant care 97 of their delicate murals have been removed to the Changzhi History Museum in Xi'an they're the startling images of the past preserved so long underground can be safeguarded for generations to come [Music] the murals that we have from the Tang Imperial tombs there's really nothing like it in scale or ambition but one of the reasons why people marvel at those Tang Imperial murals is obviously that they can use them as a way to try and imagine what was life like at a court there are so many aspects there's the fashion there's the internationalism the cosmopolitanism the wealth and luxury the pointers towards architecture there's so many aspects of life that are brought to life by these murals what was it like to be a fly on the wall at the court of the princess we really wouldn't have very much idea without these amazing Tang Dynasty Imperial murals [Music] it will be decades at least before the remaining tombs of the Tang Dynasty are opened but the murals already revealed have transformed how we picture Tang China they have shown us what the history books can only tell us that this was a cosmopolitan society connected to the world and a military superpower unrivaled in its age and though the murals may have faded and their paints cracked they have preserved something more precious than all the treasures that once filled those silent tombs they preserve the spark of life [Music] [Music]

Channel: Perspective

Views: 114,958

Keywords: Arts, The Arts, Theatre, Music, Full EPisode, Full documentary, documentary, performing arts, documentary history, chinese history, tang dynasty, chinese culture, history of china, full documentary, ancient china, tv shows - topic, golden age, the arts, art history

Id: g2z7CVeWdZg

Length: 43min 28sec (2608 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 20 2020