Tang Chang’an（長安 Cháng’ān）, on the site of modern Xi’an, was laid out as a grid: 108 walled residential wards plus two markets inside walls that enclosed some 84 square kilometres, with a population – under the Tang（唐 Táng） – reaching about a million in the eighth century.[1][2]
A city drawn as a grid
The plan was deliberate. The walls were aligned on a squared grid, the palace city sat at the north centre, and a symmetrical pattern of rectangular walled wards was divided by broad avenues – six major ones about 120 metres wide. Much of the city’s daily life happened inside the wards or the markets, partly because a strict curfew restricted when residents could be out in the streets.[1]
Where the trade was allowed
Commerce was confined to two designated markets: the East Market and the West Market. The West Market was the international one, and it was where Sogdian merchants from Samarkand and Bukhara settled and traded – a concentration that was inseparable from how the Tang planned and managed the capital.[2][3]
The largest city in the world
During its heyday Chang’an was the foremost city in Asia, its plan copied by other East Asian capitals, and with about a million people inside it, the largest and probably the most prosperous city in the world. Its gridiron layout is still felt in Chinese cities today.[2]
An engine, not a destination
For the trade routes, Chang’an was the eastern terminus and the clearing house: everything moving west was priced there first. The city’s habit of absorbing strangers – monks, musicians, merchants from four directions – is what made the eastern end of the road work at all.[1][3]
How it ended
The grid did not survive the dynasty. Order in Chang’an was disrupted when the military governor An Lushan rose in rebellion in 755; the capital was abandoned to his forces in 756 and recaptured a year later, then stormed and burned by Tibetan forces in 763. Edicts in the following decades tried to stop people from cutting private doors through the ward walls, and recorded that the measures failed. By the ninth century visitors found small-scale commerce appearing inside the wards themselves – the beginning of the city shape that replaced Chang’an.{c2}
Watch the film
This piece accompanies the film The Capital.
Read next: how goods actually moved along the route, and the envoy who opened the road west. The full route is set out on the Prelude: The Silk Road page.
Chinese words in this piece
- 長安 Cháng’ān — Chang’an, the Tang capital, today’s Xi’an
- 唐 Táng — the Tang dynasty, 618-907
- 西市 xīshì — the Western Market, the international one
- 安史之亂 Ān-Shǐ zhī luàn — the An Lushan rebellion, which broke the city’s order in 755
Questions
How many people lived in Tang Chang’an?
About a million at its height in the eighth century, making it then the largest city in the world.
What were the wards?
108 walled residential blocks inside the outer walls. They were closed at night under a curfew, and most daily activity took place inside them or in the two markets.
Who traded in the Western Market?
Sogdian merchant families from Samarkand and Bukhara, alongside traders selling Persian glass, Central Asian wool, jade and horses.
The film, in words
Every caption card that appears on screen in the film, in order. The film has no narration – this is its full text, so it can be read and quoted.
Read the full text – 48 caption cards
- At the eastern end of the road there was a city.
- It was laid out as a grid: one hundred and eight walled wards, eleven gates.
- Every street ran straight, because the empire preferred straight lines.
- Inside the walls lived around a million people.
- At that time, no city on earth was larger.
- The road from the west came in through a single gate.
- Whatever survived the desert arrived here first.
- In the Western Market, you could hear six languages before midday.
- Sogdians sold from stalls their grandfathers had opened.
- Persian glass, held up to the light, looked like frozen water.
- Highland wool, carved jade, and saddles built for long riding.
- And everywhere, bolts of silk, folded like money.
- Because in this city, silk was not only cloth.
- It was currency. Taxes were paid in bolts.
- It was money with a weave, and everyone counted it.
- A day in the city begins with noodles pulled by hand.
- Steam on a shopfront, tea from the south, salt from the coast.
- In a side room, a foreign monk copies a text in curved script.
- The barber's shop next door has three stools and four regular nations.
- Two men play weiqi with stones from a river.
- A boy traces a character in the sand: the word for horse.
- He is writing a foreign word, and does not know it.
- Outside, a musician tunes an instrument with four courses of strings.
- Its shape came from the west. Its song is now claimed as local.
- That is how a city gets rich: by forgetting where things came from.
- Then the light changes, and the drum tower is opened.
- At dusk, one deep drum stroke closes the day.
- Ward gates swing shut, one after another, across the whole grid.
- Market stalls are tied down; the cloths are folded twice.
- A lamp-lighter walks the avenue with a long pole.
- By the last drum, a million people are indoors.
- Not by fear — by agreement, and by habit.
- And by morning the market opened again, at the same hour.
- This is what an empire actually ran on: timetables.
- Walls kept the city safe. The clock of drums kept it working.
- The city was not the road's destination. It was its engine.
- Everything that came west was priced here first.
- Everything that came east was unpacked here first.
- Today the grid is still visible from the air.
- Where the market stood, there is a metro station and a car park.
- The city walls were rebuilt, widened, and now have lamps on them.
- At dusk, people still gather under the drum tower.
- The drums are for tourists now. The gathering is real.
- There are still six languages in the market, and eighty more.
- Nobody in this city finds a foreigner surprising.
- That habit was formed a long time ago.
- A road only ends if somebody stops welcoming strangers.
- Chang'an never learned how to stop.
Twelve free pages on the objects of China – and ten Chinese words from the films – are in The Art of Chinese Tea: A First Look.
Sources
- [1] Tang period Chang’an: grid plan and 108 walled wards – Heng Chye Kiang, NUS
- [2] A Multimedia Package on Tang Period Chang’an – Heng Chye Kiang
- [3] From Samarkand to Chang’an: Sogdian cultural identity in the Tang dynasty – University of Nottingham
The films and the music are AI-assisted and then chosen, written and cut by hand. Every claim above is drawn from the sources listed; anything we could not confirm has been left out.
Written and published by Eastern Whispers — how this site researches, and how it discloses its sources