Mounting importance

If the Han Dynasty sent a powerful echo down the corridor of history, it was the Tang (618-907) that heard it — and returned it with even greater force. The Tang rivaled, and at times surpassed, its predecessor in power and prosperity, openness and opulence. Beneath these sweeping parallels lies a quieter, but telling, continuity that links the two great peaks of Chinese history: their shared adulation of the horse.

"Just as the Han emperors faced the pressing need to defend their borders against Xiongnu incursions, their Tang counterparts grappled with the power of the Tujue, another formidable nomadic force on the Eurasian steppe," Tan says.

Yet, as the rulers of both dynasties understood, the surest form of self-defense was engagement: no state could build real security by looking only inward. Under the Tang, the Silk Road reached its true height, with Sogdian merchants moving freely between Chang'an — the thriving Tang capital — and the vast lands to the west, pushing as far as the eastern Mediterranean. Their presence appears vividly in Tang sancai figurines — tricolored glazed ceramics found in the tombs of the rich and powerful — where Sogdian traders are often depicted alongside their camels and horses. These sculptures, laden with color and movement, attest to the breadth of exchange that defined the era, and to Chinese confidence that flowed well beyond the nation's borders.