Tang West Market

1 · POSITION

The West Market was one of the two great markets of Chang’an, capital of the Tang dynasty from 618 to 907 — a city of some 84 square kilometres and about a million people, called at its height the most populous and cosmopolitan in the world. Sogdian merchants from the country around Samarkand were among the dominant traders in its markets. It is entered as the ancient market; the modern commercial complex on its site is a different object. [1, 2]

2 · A MARKET ORDERED BY TRADE

A Han poet’s description of the capital’s markets, quoted by the historian of the Tang city, shows the form it inherited: wares separated by type, shop rows distinctly divided, no room for people to turn their heads or chariots to wheel about. The scale is told by a disaster in the other market — the monk Ennin records a fire in the Eastern Market that burned more than four thousand houses in twelve alleys. [1]

3 · WHAT SURVIVES

The Tang West Market Museum, privately run and opened in 2010, stands on part of the site. Its ground floor preserves original streets, a well and ditch, a stone-slab bridge and a roadway worn with chariot ruts. Its collection of about 20,000 objects joins finds from the market with the founder’s private holdings. [2, 3]

4 · A MERCHANT IN THE MUSEUM

Part of the tomb base and the epitaph of An Bei, a Sogdian merchant and official in sixth-century China, are held in the museum — a foreign trader of the kind the market received, recorded on his own stone. Tang scales, lutes and three-colour pottery stand beside him. [3]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ The museum’s description calls the West Market the largest trade centre on the planet; that is the museum’s phrase and is not adopted. No source read gives the market’s own dimensions or its trading hours. The museum’s visiting rules are given as of 2018 and are not repeated. [1–3]