How did people in Tang dynasty China view textiles and how did they conceiveof their value? Those involved in production could calculate the value interms of the costs of raw materials, labour and the loom used to weave aparticular textile. They might add to this the costs of workshop supervisionand maintenance, distribution and marketing, and they might expect to seesome benefit – a profit – in the process. However, most people would be endusers, and would reckon the value of textiles by eye, if not also by hand,and what they considered to be the market value. Some might have expertknowledge, but many would not. The non-expert evaluation by eye and handwould likely include aspects such as colour, pattern, level of workmanshipand intricacy but would probably also reflect some awareness of status andfashion.

Sweet smelling plant materials have attracted human attention since ancienttimes. It was realised that some plant materials have a better aroma whenplaced on burning firewood, which is how rituals all over the world came toinclude both plants and incense. The ceremonial feeding of the perpetualfire in Zoroastrian fire temples, performed five times in 24 hours, iscalled būy (aroma). The ancient Iranian scriptures – theAvesta and scriptures written in Pahlavi – all mention aromatics and severalkinds of incense.

Aromatics derived from animals have played a very important role in thehistory of perfumery. The most well-known of these materials are musk fromthe preputial glands of the musk deer, ambergris produced in the stomach ofthe sperm whale, and civet from the anal glands of the civet cat. Two othernotable materials are castoreum from the beaver, and hyraceum from thesolidified urine of the African hyrax. The material that I will call ‘sweethoof’ in this article, also called blattes de Byzance and unguis odoratus, is another fragrant material derivedfrom an animal, consisting of the opercula of certain marine snails. Withits marine origins ‘sweet hoof’ is intrinsically linked to the ocean and totrade, and it has also long been of importance all the way from theMediterranean to China and Japan. Indeed, it is probably the most ancientanimal derived aromatic to have an extensive global use, being mentioned inancient Babylonian incense recipes. Yet, quite probably owing to its verylow profile in more commonly studied genres of Sanskrit texts, the SouthAsian chapter of the history of ‘sweet hoof’ has yet to be written.

The excavation of tombs in the Astana graveyard, Turfan, has provided awealth of evidence for studying everyday life on the Silk Road. Manuscriptsand textiles constitute two major groups of the excavated finds. Among themanuscripts are over 60 burial inventories (yiwushu),listing items that would accompany the deceased to the afterlife. Some ofthe items on the inventories were real and can be identified with objectsfound in the tombs; some were represented symbolically: for example inminiature form; and others, probably included for formulaic purposes, wereimagined. Although there have been several studies on the burial inventoriesand textiles from Turfan, the two are usually considered separately, withlittle attention to their correlation, mainly because burial inventoriestend to be studied by specialists working on documents, and textiles areusually studied by textile specialists. In 2005 we were fortunate to be ableto examine all the textiles from a mid-sixth century tomb at Astana(72TAM170), and to study the three burial inventories found in that tomb.Comparing the physical textile remains against the burial inventories fromthe same tomb offered us a rare opportunity to test the accuracy of theburial inventories, and also to identify the physical textile remains withthe textile terminology of that time. This article is arranged in four partswhich present a brief description of the tomb, details of the burialinventories, a comparison of the textile remains against the burialinventories and a closer look at the silk textiles found in the tomb.

In Japan, there are many kinds of dōs. The term has diverseand profound meanings, making it a challenge to define. Simply speaking, dō is a way for people to train the spirit by followingspecific practices, with the purpose of mastering life. Prominent examplesof dōs include chadō / sadō (〔 茶 道 〕so-called “tea ceremony”), kadō (〔 華 道 〕 so-called “flowerarrangement”), shodō (calligraphy), and bushidō (the ethical code of the samurai). There arealso sport practices such as jūdō (judo), kendō (kendo) and aikidō (aikido), allof which are also connected with the culture of dō.

When the Tang dynasty took power in 618, it inherited the multicurrencysystem of earlier dynasties. The zuyongdiao tax system, ineffect from the start of the dynasty, required each taxpayer to submit taxesin grain, labour and cloth. At the same time, the government also mintedcoins, which constituted some 10 per cent of the total money supply. Apersistent shortage of copper limited the number of minted coins thegovernment could issue. Accordingly, officials tried to ensure thatsufficient coins and textiles circulated so that both forms of moneyremained in use. They displayed no consistent preference for one form ofmoney over the other but devised policies to encourage the use of whicheverform was then in short supply.

Amber has been known since antiquity in Europe, made into pendants, and usedfor perfume containers in large quantities since the first millennium bce. It is a naturally occurring fossilized tree (a certain kindof northern pine) resin, composed primarily of carbon-hydrogen-oxygen (C10H16O). It is rather soft (Mohs hardness2.0–2.5), hence easy to carve, and possesses a resinous luster whenpolished. Its colours range from transparent to translucent deep orange-redto brown and sometimes a more opaque yellow. Solid amber has no smell, butwhen powdered it gives off an agreeable aroma. When warmed or burned it hasa characteristic pinewood fragrance. It softens at about 150°C and, ifheated above 200°C, it will break down to give an “oil of amber” and a blackresidue. In his Historia naturalis (XXXVII), Pliny theElder considers its scent when heated to be the most reliable proof of realamber.

Unfortunately the author's the name was misspelt throughout this article and also on the contents page of issue 23 (2). The correct name should have read ‘Masaharu Arakawa’.

Cambridge University Press apologises unreservedly for any inconvenience or embarrassment caused by this error.

From the inception of its military campaign into Central Asia via the Gansucorridor, the Tang dynasty had to ensure the shipment of extensive militarysupplies to support the activities of its occupying armies north and southof the Tianshan Mountains. Since the government paid soldiers’ salaries andbought supplies using silk, the timely delivery of silk from central Chinawas critical. Most of the silk was collected in the central provinces underthe zuyongdiao 租庸調 tax system, whether as stipulatedpayments of tax textiles or cloth-paid-in-place-of-annual-corvée tax. Allthis silk had to be shipped to the Western Regions. This article examineswhere this silk was made, how it was shipped to the north-west and how thesystem changed over time.

Agarwood (especially 〔 沉 香 〕 Chinese chen xiang / 〔 沈 香 〕Japanese jinkō), among other subspecies differentiated inEast Asian languages, has caught international perfumery attention inconspicuous dimensions in the past years. It belongs to the most soughtafter perfumery raw materials in the world. The lucrative image of itsbusiness makes international businessmen, foreign scientists, perfumers,global industry representatives, as well as locals eager to participate inits international distribution and to improve its artificial masscultivation and synthetic production. Moreover, efforts transgress mereeconomic activities in Eastern Asia when perfumery devotees engage inhistorical research and perfumery experiments, or when they publish on theirexperiences, as well as when they establish networks with like-mindedpeople.

The Tang dynasty tax system is often referred to as zuyongdiao 租庸調, with each of these three terms having aspecific meaning. Zu was the annual collection of 2 piculs,roughly 120 litres of grain (su 粟) per head. Yong was the annual corvée (labour) duty of 21 days perhead, which could be substituted and paid for in silk or cloth, or thecloth-paid-in-place-of-annual-corvée tax. Diao was the taxin kind, payable in textiles (substitutions of other goods were sometimespermitted). In silk-producing areas the diao tax per headwas 2 decafeet of silk, payable in ling-twill, juan-silk or silk thread (si 絲) and 3ounces of silk floss (simian 絲綿). In areas that did notproduce silk, the diao tax was 2 decafeet, 5 feet of hempcloth and 3 pounds of hemp yarn.