Guy Kay - Under Heaven

On a much more personal level, my old friend Andy Patton—painter, poet, Tang aficionado—was profoundly important in the emergence of this book, through years of discussion and encouragement.

It is daunting to choose among the historians whose work (and in some cases personal communication) has been vital to me. I’m going to name the following: Susan Whitfield, Edward H. Schafer (his masterful The Golden Peaches of Samarkand , in particular), Edwin G. Pulleyblank (on the background to the An-Lushan rebellion), Howard Levy, Patricia Ebrey, Edward Shaughnessy, Jonathan Tucker (a gorgeous book on the Silk Road), Christopher Beckwith (historian of early Tibet), René Grousset (on the steppes), Howard J. Wechsler, C. P. Fitzgerald, William Hung.

The invaluable Arthur Waley wrote biographies of both Li Bai and Bai Juyi (under the then-standard anglicized names Li Po and Po Chü-i). The Cambridge multi-volume History of China , in the volumes treating the Tang, was enormously helpful. There’s a fair bit written about courtesans and students in the Tang, which is a motif of Under Heaven . I’ll mention here Ping Yao’s “The Status of Pleasure: Courtesan and Literati Connections in T’ang China (618-907).”

The general reader looking only for a taste would do well to start with Whitfield’s Life Along the Silk Road , or have a look at Charles Benn’s China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty , which is full of detail. Ebrey’s illustrated one-volume history of China for Cambridge is nicely done, and so is Shaughnessy’s for Oxford. The Tucker book on the Silk Road has evocative photographs.

In terms of art, the Yale University Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (multiple authors), China: Dawn of a Golden Age , from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, China: At the Court of the Emperors , from an exhibition in Florence in 2008, The Art of the Horse in Chinese History , from an exhibition originating in Kentucky, and Hugh Scott’s The Golden Age of Chinese Art (focusing on the Tang) are among those I consulted with profit.

On cave art, Gregory Curtis and, especially, Jean Clottes gave me compelling ideas to work with. Colin Thubron, writing about China and the Silk Road countries today, conjures landscape and history. His books are treasures. A number of the scholars named above were generous with their time in answering e-mail queries, and so were others too numerous to name. For professional research assistance on a variety of matters I am indebted to Sarah Johnson of Eastern Illinois University.

Turning to the remarkably supportive people in my life, I must acknowledge, once again, Deborah Meghnagi Bailey of bright weavings.com, and her accomplices there now: Alec Lynch, Elizabeth Swainston, and Ilana Teitelbaum. Bright Weavings has been a source of pleasure and aid in ways I never anticipated when I gave Deborah permission to launch it in 2000, one of my more intelligent decisions.

As I type the names of my agents, I am reminded how fortunate I am to be able to draw upon the intelligence and experience of people who have also become friends over the years: Linda McKnight, Jonny Geller, Jerry Kalajian, John Silbersack, and Natasha Daneman. The same applies to my editors: Nicole Winstanley, Susan Allison, Jane Johnson—in Toronto, New York, and London, respectively. When an author writes books that challenge genre, category, convention, he requires editors willing to do that with him, and I am fortunate to have those. Martin Springett, another old friend, assumed the role of cartographer once again, with patience and flair. Catherine Marjoribanks did the copyediting, with care and good humour.

Finally, and with love, my usual suspects: Laura, Sam, Matthew, Rex—and Sybil, who does deserve to be named at beginning and end.