Research On The Phenomenon Of Tribute In Tang Dynasty

The tribute was a special political phenomenon in the ancient society of China, which was not formulated by central financial system but a phenomenon courtiers offer goods to the emperors for their own benefits. The offered goods was stored in warehouse and dominated by the emperor. The tribute in Tang dynasty was various and widely used, and had a special social significance. The tribute not only increased royalty income, but also complement the national financial expenditure. The discussion on the phenomenon of tribute in Tang dynasty is useful to comprehensively understand Tang dynasty, such as the politic,economic,finance,military,socility and so on to further understand the track of the development of the tribute in Tang dynasty.The tribute has a long history and was popular in Tang dynasty, and it has something to do with the political situation at that time. An-shi rebellion destroyed the stability of Tang dynasty and made it divided into several military governorships which the central government can't control, gradually the central government lost the taxation sources and the finance situation deteriorated, so the quantities of tribute relieved the emperor'worry on the finance. In order got the political benefit, the military governorships and government officials offered tribute to the emperor frequently, and made the tribute in Tang dynasty had a special feature in sources,subject,kinds and items. Both central and local officials tried their best to plundere to get the tribute goods. The unbalance of the development of economic made the tribute has regional characteristics. The tribute stored in the royalty warehouse complemented the financial shortage in one hand, affected the normal payment system that made the treasury system change in the other hand.On the attitudes of the phenomenon of tribute, although the emperors had seriously prohibited several times, the ends were proved to be failures. With the deterioration of political situation, the dependence of the royalty on the tribute increased. Although the insight people criticized the tribute many times, the phenomenon never stopped, from which it concluded that the tribute had met the needs of ruling class and adapt to the political developments of Tang dynasty. The tribute goods took a small proportion in the overall royalty income, but brought the people heavy disaster and affected the development and stability of society.