长安若问江南事——唐代长安城市与文化生活中的江南元素考察

″If Someone in Chang an Asks about Life in Jiangnan″:A Study of the Jiangnan Elements in the Chang an Culture and Urban Life in the Tang Dynasty

唐代长安作为大一统王朝的都城,通过隋炀帝开凿的大运河,与帝国境内经济、文化发达区域以及六朝的政治中心即以三吴为核心的江南紧密联系起来。江南在向长安输送财富与物资的同时,也输送了江南的生活方式和文化品味。江南与长安从时间上还可以理解为东晋南朝与唐朝,唐朝对东晋南朝的继承表现为制度与文化上的渊源。人文地理意义上的江南气象在唐代已经崭露头角,作为唐代都城的长安从时空两个层面上继承和涵盖了江南,而基于六朝文化的江南元素也活跃在长安城市与文化生活中,并从星星之火发展到燎原之势。对唐代长安城市与文化生活中的江南元素进行考察,可以从社会史与城市史的角度重新审视唐后期南朝化倾向问题。

There has been a rich storage of cross-disciplinary research on Chang an,the capital of the Sui and Tang Dynasties,among which the study from the perspective of urban history has begun to pay attention to the relationship between Chang an as the capital of the Empire and the local culture of the city.However,no research has been done on the impact of Jiangnan(Yangtze River s south)on Chang an s urban and cultural life.Although scholars have showed their interest in this important economic and cultural area of the Empire and its macro impact on the fate of the Tang Dynasty,they have not yet studied the elements of Jiangnan embodied in the good taste in the locals daily life and their cultural pursuit.This paper will focus on the above two points.In the grand territory of the Tang Empire,Chang an,located on the Guanzhong Plains in the northwest,was its capital city.Jiangnan,the former political center of the Six Dynasties,located in the southeast of the Empire and far away from Chang an,was gradually growing into an important economic center.Before that,the Grand Canal initiated by Emperor Yangdi of the Sui Dynasty had connected the Guanzhong Plains,the political center,and Jiangnan,the economic zone.Following the same political and geographical pattern of the Sui Dynasty,the rulers of the Tang Dynasty transported the wealth in the form of tax revenues from Jiangnan to Guanzhong through the Grand Canal.In the middle and later period of the Tang Dynasty,Jiangnan became the only economic supplier of the Empire,and the transportation and communication between Jiangnan and Chang an determined the fate of the Tang Empire.The political and geographical structure of the Tang Empire inevitably led to the integration of the elements of Jiangnan into the multi-cultural life of Chang an.This cosmopolitan capital accommodated the coexistence of diverse cultures at that time.In addition,the royal families,ministers and powerful clans of the former Liang and Chen Dynasties moved to Chang an(Daxing in the Sui Dynasty)after the Sui pacified the South,and southern scholars and officials who were active on Chang an s political and cultural stages in the Tang Dynasty moved to Chang an.Their presence carried the fresh elements of Jiangnan.The former brought a touch of the romantic customs of the Southern Dynasties,while the latter,with deep affection for their hometown and cultural confidence,blew a breath of fresh air into Chang an.As a result of Emperor Yangdi of the Sui s infatuation with the southern culture and Emperor Taizong of the Tang s trust and promotion of the southern literati,the latter had such a profound influence on the cultural life of Chang an that the late Tang Dynasty had a so-called″Southernization trend″.Scholars have mostly discussed the Southernization trend from the perspectives of political,academic and cultural history.This paper attempts to examine the Jiangnan elements in Chang an s urban and cultural life in the Tang Dynasty from the perspectives of its social history and urban history to enrich the study of the capital Chang an and the regional history of Jiangnan.Although Jiangnan s Fair at Guangyun Tan,the western terminal port of the Grand Canal,showed the prosperity of the heyday under the Kaiyuan reign,the luxurious and elegant Jiangnan elements embodied in clothing and diet,as well as in tea drinking fashion,etc.,were still mainly practiced by the royal and bureaucrat families.The Jiangnan elements which were fully embodied in the cultural life of Chang an,such as calligraphy and painting,music played in the court and taught at the institutions of the court,court poetry and literati s anecdotes,showed that the people s inner value orientation of the Tang Dynasty lay in pursuing the culture of the Southern Dynasties,that is,the culture developed in Jiangnan.The distant shadow of the lonely journey from Chang an to Jiangnan became a poetic image in Tang poetry.