A Study On Travelers’s Life About Several Aspects In The Tang Dynasty Of Taiping Guangji

Taiping Guangji records a lot of content about the travelers in the Tang dynasty,and the related stories with vivid writing style truly reflect travelers life in the Tang dynasty.The travelers in the Tang dynasty went to foreign parts,but the relationship with their families were not completely cut off.There were economic,emotional,faith and other forms of contact and interaction between the travelers and their relatives.With economic support given by travelers family,the travelers could have better living conditions.Travelers communicated information and emotions with relatives at home through letters.The miss between relatives maked people in the Tang dynasty,to express blessing and longing for safe return of the journey to the travelers through a variety of faith forms.In the travel activities of family groups,different stratums show the alienated life state.The families of traveling officials in the Tang dynasty had the opportunity to get the living guarantee from the system level.The economic ability,the feelings of native land and the hardship of the journey were the important factors that influenced whether the families of the officials would follow the officials to the post.Affected by famine,war and heavy taxes,ordinary families took to the road,and their living security conditions were relatively poor.There were many risks on the way of travel in the Tang dynasty,among which robbery was a serious risk.In times of turmoil,the frequency of robberies was high,and the main risks were property loss,personal safety that may be threatened,family members’ separation caused by the sale of persons,women lose their chastity,etc.In Taiping Guangji,there were many stories of merchants,officials and scholars who encountered robbery on their travels.In order to avoid the risk of robbery,the travelers in Tang dynasty dealt with it from the realistic measures and beliefs."Get up late and Sleep early" was a hedge in scheduling.At the level of belief,the responses mainly included choosing auspicious divination,Buddhist and Taoist scripture worship,and folk gods’ protection and so on.Farewell was a common scene in travelers life in the Tang dynasty,which reflected the travel custom of the Tang dynasty.The types of farewell customs mainly included holding banquets,parting gifts,farewell poetries.Travelers’ relatives and friends were important participants in the farewell activities.The scene of the farewell activity manifested the interpersonal circle of travel and had rich communicative connotation.In the farewell activities of the travel of the Tang Dynasty,the private farewell activities revealed the friendship among the participants.The official send-off in political life had more meanings of system etiquette and political culture.The emperor expressed gratitude,admonition and encouragement by seeing off the officials,and the farewell activities among the officials were the embodiment of the etiquette in the political circle.In a word,we can see that travel is not only a simple geographic space movement from A to B,but also carries the historical and cultural information of families,society,customs and many other aspects.