Urban Development and Power Operation: Issues concerning Capital City Management in the Tang Dynasty

Zhang Chunlan, an associate professor of history from Hebei University, in her recent book Urban Development and Power Operation: Issues concerning Capital City Management in the Tang Dynasty, extends her scope of research to the fields of security administration, environmental management and management of space. She explores municipal administration institutions and laws and the transition of capital city management from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty.

In order to give a better description of the management system in Chang’an, Zhang divided these organizations into administrative institutions and institutions with specific functions. These institutions with specific functions included those for managing buildings, making and supplying fuels, and handling business and religious affairs. All these organizations divided the work as such while cooperating during the course of the administration. Together, they co-managed various affairs inside the capital city. In this way, a giant capital city management system concerning local governments, central government organizations and imperial palace institutions was realized. This contrasts with current research, which focuses on specific management measures and ignores the functional system of the government.Zhang’s work is no doubt a helpful complement.

Furthermore, the whole book tries to connect administrative institutions with the society of the capital city through the medium of capital city administration, highlighting the role of government functions in capital city administration. This perspective is, to some extent, illuminating for studies on the capital cities of the Tang and Song dynasties that focus on changes in the economic realm.

The author divides the population in Chang’an into a population of permanent residents, a migrant population and a foreign population. She suggested that following the economic development and the increasing interaction between urban and rural areas, the migrant population and foreign population inside Chang’an increased, which caused a complicated population structure and division of labor. This presented new demands for population management in the capital city. In response to this, the Tang Dynasty adopted a strategy associating management-by-category and management-by-zone. The permanent resident population was managed by membership. These people of different classes and occupations were categorized into different membership census registers including those for soldiers, craftsmen, businessmen, monks, nuns and other categories. 

In addition to this population of permanent residents, there were also large populations of migrants and foreigners that could easily become a blind spot for population management. To solve these problems, the Tang Dynasty specifically established institutions such as the Protocol Ministry to manage them.

​(edited by CHEN ALONG)