The Tang Hanging Book Class Messenger, Sent To The Frontier Regions

Tang Dynasty is the most prosperous period in ancient China. Nearly in every part, the people at that time get great achievements, such as politics, economy, and culture and so on. Communications with other nationalities are very frequent too. To do these, all kinds of envoys play great role. There are envoy for mourning over the death, for nominating officer, for informing the bad news of dead to other nationalities, for appeasing, and for developing relationship by marriages and so on. While the envoys for mourning and nominating form Tang Dynasty to other nationalities hold a quite great proportion. On the basis of research on this kind of envoys, the author tries to introduce their origin, responsibilities, candidates, and also the function they play on maintaining and developing the relationship between Tang Dynasty and other nationalities. etc.There are four parts in this paper. Firstly is the review of academic history, then the three chapters make the main body of this paper, and finally is the conclusion. In the first part, the author gives us a general idea about the situation and significance of study on the communication between Tang Dynasty and the other nationalities surrounding China in the past ten years. In the second part, the first chapter is mainly to discuss the envoys'origin, responsibilities, as well as the changes of their status and so on. These kinds of envoys in Tang Dynasty come form the similar envoys in Han and Sui Dynasties. In the early stage, the envoys are assigned to the particular diplomatic affairs temporarily. Gradually, they become the fixed officers in the late Tang Dynasty. The second chapter analyses the assignment of these envoys who are sent to mourning for the deaths and to nominating officers, and the characteristics of their original position. Besides that, these envoys are always given higher titles when they are assigned for the new affairs, this chapter explains the reason of that phenomenon. The Tang government often appoints those who have good family background, outstanding political quality and excellent diplomatic capability as envoys. After the analysis of envoys'original ranks and their responsibilities, the author gets a conclusion that the envoys'ranks are from the forth class of the fifth grade to the second class of the third grade (In Tang Dynasty, the official grade form first to third, every grade is divided into two classes. Form the forth grade to ninth grade, every grade is divided into four classes.). These envoys'missions are to mourn over deaths and nominate officers. Moreover, the performance of these envoys not only has a direct influence on the development of the bilateral relationship, at the same time, it affects their political future after they go back to Tang government, too. If these envoys can finish their tasks successfully, they will be promoted after they came back, or they will be relegated. It is noteworthy that the assignment of the envoys has some connection with the struggles between different political parties in Tang Dynasty. Finally, as we know that the envoys who are sent to mourn for the deaths and to nominate officers are given higher titles when they are sent for the diplomatic missions. It is the result of the change in diplomatic management system in late Tang Dynasty. The third chapter analyzes the influences of the envoys on the relationship between Tang Dynasty and other nationalities, such as maintaining the emperor-official relationship between Tang Dynasty and other nationalities, collecting the recent information of other nationalities, and disseminating the Chinese culture. etc.