Abstract:
As early as the reign of Empress of Wu, the function of sea transportation had exceeded that of land transportation. This fact mainly showed itself in the following ways. First, in this period, sea transportation between China and India was already welldeveloped, and direct journeys were often made from China to the Persian Bay, which proved sea route the smoothest and safest between China and western countries. Secondly, most envoys, merchants and monks from the South China Sea and western nations chose to come to China by sea, which had became the mainline for contact between Chinese and western peoples. Finally, this resulted in prosperous business and trade at such harbours as Guangzhou and Jiaozhi. What’s more, exchange of sea economy and culture gained increasing development, which introduced astronomy and calendar, music and art and exotic utensils massively to the civilization of the Tang Dynasty.
