How did people in Tang dynasty China view textiles and how did they conceive of their value? Those involved in production could calculate the value in terms of the costs of raw materials, labour and the loom used to weave a particular textile. They might add to this the costs of workshop supervision and maintenance, distribution and marketing, and they might expect to see some benefit – a profit – in the process. However, most people would be end users, 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 expert knowledge, but many would not. The non-expert evaluation by eye and hand would likely include aspects such as colour, pattern, level of workmanship and intricacy but would probably also reflect some awareness of status and fashion.

Sweet smelling plant materials have attracted human attention since ancient times. It was realised that some plant materials have a better aroma when placed on burning firewood, which is how rituals all over the world came to include both plants and incense. The ceremonial feeding of the perpetual fire in Zoroastrian fire temples, performed five times in 24 hours, is called būy (aroma). The ancient Iranian scriptures – the Avesta and scriptures written in Pahlavi – all mention aromatics and several kinds of incense.

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

The excavation of tombs in the Astana graveyard, Turfan, has provided a wealth of evidence for studying everyday life on the Silk Road. Manuscripts and textiles constitute two major groups of the excavated finds. Among the manuscripts are over 60 burial inventories (yiwushu), listing items that would accompany the deceased to the afterlife. Some of the items on the inventories were real and can be identified with objects found in the tombs; some were represented symbolically: for example in miniature form; and others, probably included for formulaic purposes, were imagined. Although there have been several studies on the burial inventories and textiles from Turfan, the two are usually considered separately, with little attention to their correlation, mainly because burial inventories tend to be studied by specialists working on documents, and textiles are usually studied by textile specialists. In 2005 we were fortunate to be able to 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 from the same tomb offered us a rare opportunity to test the accuracy of the burial inventories, and also to identify the physical textile remains with the textile terminology of that time. This article is arranged in four parts which present a brief description of the tomb, details of the burial inventories, a comparison of the textile remains against the burial inventories and a closer look at the silk textiles found in the tomb.

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

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

Amber has been known since antiquity in Europe, made into pendants, and used for perfume containers in large quantities since the first millennium bce. It is a naturally occurring fossilized tree (a certain kind of northern pine) resin, composed primarily of carbon-hydrogen-oxygen (C10H16O). It is rather soft (Mohs hardness 2.0–2.5), hence easy to carve, and possesses a resinous luster when polished. Its colours range from transparent to translucent deep orange-red to brown and sometimes a more opaque yellow. Solid amber has no smell, but when powdered it gives off an agreeable aroma. When warmed or burned it has a characteristic pinewood fragrance. It softens at about 150°C and, if heated above 200°C, it will break down to give an “oil of amber” and a black residue. In his Historia naturalis (XXXVII), Pliny the Elder considers its scent when heated to be the most reliable proof of real amber.

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 Gansu corridor, the Tang dynasty had to ensure the shipment of extensive military supplies to support the activities of its occupying armies north and south of the Tianshan Mountains. Since the government paid soldiers’ salaries and bought supplies using silk, the timely delivery of silk from central China was critical. Most of the silk was collected in the central provinces under the zuyongdiao 租庸調 tax system, whether as stipulated payments of tax textiles or cloth-paid-in-place-of-annual-corvée tax. All this silk had to be shipped to the Western Regions. This article examines where this silk was made, how it was shipped to the north-west and how the system changed over time.

Agarwood (especially 〔 沉 香 〕 Chinese chen xiang / 〔 沈 香 〕 Japanese jinkō), among other subspecies differentiated in East Asian languages, has caught international perfumery attention in conspicuous dimensions in the past years. It belongs to the most sought after perfumery raw materials in the world. The lucrative image of its business makes international businessmen, foreign scientists, perfumers, global industry representatives, as well as locals eager to participate in its international distribution and to improve its artificial mass cultivation and synthetic production. Moreover, efforts transgress mere economic activities in Eastern Asia when perfumery devotees engage in historical research and perfumery experiments, or when they publish on their experiences, as well as when they establish networks with like-minded people.

The Tang dynasty tax system is often referred to as zuyongdiao 租庸調, with each of these three terms having a specific 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 per head, which could be substituted and paid for in silk or cloth, or the cloth-paid-in-place-of-annual-corvée tax. Diao was the tax in kind, payable in textiles (substitutions of other goods were sometimes permitted). In silk-producing areas the diao tax per head was 2 decafeet of silk, payable in ling-twill, juan-silk or silk thread (si 絲) and 3 ounces of silk floss (simian 絲綿). In areas that did not produce silk, the diao tax was 2 decafeet, 5 feet of hemp cloth and 3 pounds of hemp yarn.