The golden age of Chang'an, this is the prosperous Tang Dynasty!
The entertainment of the Great Tang, after accumulating momentum from the Qin and Han dynasties, also introduced exotic skills from the Western Regions, offering a rich variety of genres. In addition to singing, dancing, acrobatics, and magic, there were also instrumental music, comedy, and animal training.
The venues for watching these entertainments became increasingly fixed, mainly concentrated in palaces, temples, and markets. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was known as the 'Music Emperor', fond of string and woodwind music, skilled at playing the drum, established the Imperial Music Bureau, and set up the 'Pear Garden'.
Horse riding became a fashion in the Tang Dynasty, with both men and women wearing foreign attire, riding fine horses, and civil and military officials were all keen on horseback riding. The people of the Tang Dynasty were very fond of foreign horses, and besides tributes and gifts, they often exchanged horses through trade.
The practice of hunting was prevalent in the Tang Dynasty, and ordinary people could also participate in hunting activities, regardless of gender.
Hunting activities not only maintained ritual and military training purposes but also had an entertainment function, which was deeply loved by the rulers. The royal nobility often equipped themselves with 'animal trainers' during hunts, bringing along hunting dogs, falcons, and other animals to assist in the hunt.
There were numerous Buddhist temples in Chang'an, showing characteristics of being densely distributed in the west and sparse in the east, dense in the north and sparse in the south. The Qinglong Temple, an important site for the Esoteric Buddhist sect, and the Ximing Temple, one of the three major translation sites in Chang'an, were both famous Buddhist temples in Chang'an.
Qinglong Temple was the 'ancestral temple of Esoteric Buddhism' in Japan, and among the Japanese 'Eight Entrants to Tang', six had studied there. Dao Ci once studied at the 'national translation site' Ximing Temple, and after returning to Japan, he became a promoter of the Japanese monastic discipline reform. Taking Ximing Temple as a model, he presided over the reconstruction of the Da'an Temple in Heijō-kyō.