Urban Architecture
Cities of the Tang era (C.E.618-907) built on the earlier Chinese court art traditions that date to the Shang dynasty (1766-1122/I027 B.C.E.). They made a conspicuous public statement about orderly Chinese society and became the architectural models for Chinese capital cities at Kaifeng (then called Pien-ching) in northern China (C.E.960-1127). Hangzhou in southern China (E.E.1127-1279), and Beijing (C.E. 1271-1644). They also inspired Kyongju, the capital city of Unified Silla Korea (C.E.668-918) and the Nara and Kyoto capital cities of imperial Japan(C.E. 710-1185)
Tang cities, which were protedted by defensive walls and gates, also were based on the cardinal points of the compass. The Tang imperial city of Changan (modern-day Xian) had major east-west and north-south thoroughfares that defined the subdivisions of the city. The imperial palace compound was in the north; beyond the palace and outside the northern city walls was an imperial park that included a large artificial lake, Which served as a royal hunting preserve and private space for the emperor and his court.
At the extreme horth of the city was the em-peror's private residential compound, in a garden-like setting, complete with carefully placed grouping of plants and rocks and winding streams and pathways. These natural elements satisfied the emperor's need for a sense of a universal order beyond the secular orderliness of his surrounding imperial compound. Symbolically, the emperor alone, in his residential compound, was able to bridge the two realms.