Tang China's Horsepower: The China-Inner Asian Borderlands

Jonathan Skaff
Professor of History, Director of International Studies, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

Traditionally, China and Inner Asia have been regarded as separate and mutually hostile. The Chinese heartland had a huge farming populace. In contrast, the deserts and steppe of Inner Asia supported sparse populations of pastoral nomads and oasis farmers. Militarily, the confrontation typically is depicted as a battle between defensive Chinese infantry armies versus aggressive Turko-Mongol cavalry forces. This talk questions these assumptions of clear ecological, economic and martial distinctions by investigating Tang horse procurement methods. The Tang empire’s borderlands with Inner Asia included steppe grasslands, peoples, and livestock. Until the middle of the eighth century, the Tang effectively exploited the borderland regions via a ranch system and trade of silk for horses with allied Turko-Mongol chiefs. The resulting “horsepower” propelled the Tang’s aggressive expansionary efforts into Inner Asia.