Tang · Daily Life

Copy It Once and You Remember It: Tang Primers and the Dunhuang Schoolboys

A Dunhuang scroll ends with a schoolboy's name and a date: Zhang Gui of the Jinguangming monastery, 905. What Tang children read — Thousand Character Classic, Mengqiu, Taigong Jiajiao — and the costs no source records.

Tang · Daily Life

How a Tang Prescription Was Made: Diagnosis, Roasting, Boiling, Taking

A Tang formulary teaches the making of one prescription: examine first, roast and weigh the drugs, boil twenty liang in a dou of water down to four sheng, take it in three doses. And never weigh a drug raw.

Tang · Daily Life

How People Lived in Tang Chang'an: Wards, Rented Rooms and Inns

“Living in Chang'an is no easy matter” is usually read as a rent complaint, but the two early versions say rice and “all things” are dear. Chang'an left no rent figures at all, only wards, houses, rented rooms and inns.

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