Urban characteristics and causes of China in the early Tang Dynasty.

In the Tang Dynasty, the city implemented a strict market system, separated the commercial areas from the residents, and prohibited doing business in the residential areas.

After more than 400 years of great division in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, social productive forces were severely damaged. There were only 365,438+02,065,438+0 households in the early Tang Dynasty, accounting for only one third of the 9 million households in the early Sui Dynasty. Most of this land is barren. "From Iraq to Luodong, the offshore area is endless, inaccessible and restless." Developing agricultural production and stabilizing social order became the primary task of the rulers of the Tang Dynasty. In order to restore and develop production, the Tang Dynasty popularized the land equalization system in rural areas, realized "land to the tiller", neglected taxes, reduced the burden on farmers, and stabilized and increased the rural labor force.

In cities, vigorously promote the market system to prevent farmers from leaving their homes. Because the production efficiency of agriculture itself is not as high as handicraft industry and commerce, farmers always have the impulse to go to agricultural labor or business, while the productivity level in ancient times was low, "no one cultivated and no one starved; A woman doesn't knit, but she still gets cold ",so a large number of farmers leave the land, which will affect the economic development and endanger the stability of the feudal regime." "The existence of Fang Shi system prevented farmers from entering the city freely, thus ensuring the sufficiency of agricultural labor force, which was conducive to the recovery and development of agriculture and even the whole social economy in the early Tang Dynasty.

Fang Shi system in Tang Dynasty has dual functions of management and service. The management function is mainly to maintain feudal rule (party-oriented), and the service function is to maintain market order and promote stable economic development (city-oriented).

"Those who live in the city are workshops, and those who live in the fields are villages". The "house" in the housing city system is a closed management model that divides all kinds of buildings in the city into closed geographical spaces and divides urban residents into districts to live in, maintaining relative independence. As the peak of the development of Fang city system in past dynasties, the Tang Dynasty lived and managed urban residents according to Fang, forming a unified urban pattern.

Under the historical conditions at that time, Fangshi system could basically meet the needs of urban residents' economic life and played a positive role in the recovery and development of urban economy in the early Tang Dynasty. In the early Tang Dynasty, feudal bureaucrats, troops, their families and some service personnel mainly lived in cities. Under the land system of land equalization and the tax system of tenancy adjustment, most of the agricultural and sideline products needed by these people are obtained directly through wages, without commodity exchange.

In addition, most of the handicrafts are made by the government, and there are few private craftsmen. Most of the handicrafts made do not need to be traded in the market. Therefore, the closed pattern of separating shops from cities is convenient for urban management and conducive to the stability of social order, but it has not had much impact on the lives of residents in these cities. In addition, although a prominent feature of the sexual intercourse system is that the market transactions are limited to the city and the trading places are strictly limited, in fact, there were still some private commercial activities in the early Tang Dynasty and even under the sexual intercourse system in Chang 'an. For example, there is a painted tile shop in Yang Xuan Square in Chang 'an, and there is a "Ren Hu Sanbing House" at the inner gate of Shengping Square. There are also some small businessmen who walk around the streets and flow in the workshops, such as "Zou Camel, a native of Chang 'an, who was poor at first and tried to sell steamed cakes in a car". These commercial activities also help to meet the urgent needs of workshop residents.

From the above analysis, we can see that the square time system before the prosperous Tang Dynasty was adapted to the agricultural social management system such as the land equalization system, which promoted social stability and urban development. In the early Tang dynasty, the positive role of this system was the main one. Only in the middle Tang Dynasty, with the improvement of agricultural production tools and the development of irrigation and water conservancy construction, especially the development of Jiangnan and other areas, the whole social economy showed a prosperous scene, thus providing material and production preparations for the development and prosperity of urban economy and even breaking through the original market system. With the gradual development of commodity economy, the square market system has lost its foundation, and the traditional city of China has entered the stage of open development.