The Eastern Market was separated from the Western Market by Zhuque Avenue, a wide throroughfare which bisected Chang'an south to north and served as its main highway. The Eastern Market was quieter and less crowded than the Western Market and specialized in locally produced goods. Salt, tea, silks, precious metals or jewels, slaves, grain, timber, and horses could all be purchased in the Eastern Market. Businesses here catered to the nobles and officials who lived along the wide boulevards to the north of the Market, in walled estates guarded by watchtowers.

There were two broad gates in the eastern walls, the Chunming Gate, which led into the market area and the Yanxing Gate, leading into the residential neighborhoods just south of the market, where lived east Asians such as Chinese, Koreans and Japanese. South of the courtyard houses in these prosperous neighborhoods lay the narrow huts of the poor.

At the western edge of the Eastern Market was the courtesan district, called the P'ing-k'ang quarter. The best houses were private and run by "stepmothers". The houses and the women both paid taxes and had to be registered with the city authorities, which entitled them to protection. There was a grading system which took into account the services offered and the accomplishments of the girls. Other brothels were run by the government and staffed by prisoners-of-war, convicted criminals, or the wives and daughters of criminals. The prices were much lower in these establishments but there was no entertainment other than sex on offer.

There were also houses whose girls were hired as companions for banquets. Their skills included music and singing, games, poetry and conversation, and the girls were expected to be able to drink without becoming drunk. These girls were mostly those who had been sold by their poverty stricken parents or who had been kidnapped as children. They were trained for several years and were hired for their skills as companions rather than for sexual favors. A man hiring one of these ladies could expect to pay 16,000 cash per evening. There was also a zone of taverns at the eastern edge of Chang'an, serving rare wines and offering music. Many of the scholars in Chang'an to sit for the government exams lived in rooms at the southern edge of the P'ing-k'ang quarter.

As on the western side of the city, there were many temples belonging to different religions. In 722 there were ninety-one Buddhist temples in Chang'an. In addition to their religious duties the Buddhist monks performed a number of civic services including the operation of hostels, public baths and pawnshops. The city established a contract with the Buddhist monks to operate free hospitals and clinics, rewarding them with bonuses if they were able to keep less than one-fifth of their patients from dying. For those unfortunate ones who did die, the Buddhists provided prayers and funerals to send them on their way.

The most prominent of the Buddhist temples was the Da Ci'en Temple which was built in 648. The name of the temple meant mercy and kindness. An important part of this temple was the Big Wild Goose Pagoda which was built in 652 as a library for the Sanskrit Buddhist texts collected by Xuanzang, a noted Buddhist scholar and traveler of the time. The original mud structure collapsed soon after it was built and the Empress Wu Zetian ordered its reconstruction in 701. The newer brick structure, which still stands today, was 64 meters (210 feet) high and tapered up from its base into the shape of an elongated pyramid, rising high above the tops of the surrounding buildings and affording a grand view of Chang'an and the surrounding area. At one time, it was the custom for those scholars who had passed the imperial examinations qualifying them as officials to visit the temple to carve their names on tablets in front of this pagoda.

There is a Buddhist legend about the origin of the name of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. In ancient times, there were two branches of Buddhists, one of which did not believe there was any harm in eating meat. There came a day when they couldn't find any meat in the markets. While they were trying to figure out what to do about dinner, they saw a flock of wild geese flying overhead. One monk hoped that the Bodhisattva was sending them something to eat. Just as his thought formed, the wings of the lead bird broke and it fell to the ground at the feet of the startled monks. Instead of seizing on the fallen bird for their dinner, they took it as a sign that the Bodhisattva wished them to be more pious. They built a pagoda on the very spot where the bird fell and never ate meat again.


sources:
Whitfield, Susan. Life Along the Silk Road. University of California Press, 1999.
Schafer, Edward H. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand. University of California Press, 1985.
Building Chang'an
Big Wild Goose Pagoda
Public Domain image from Wikimedia Commons