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This project will examine Tang China’s diplomatic, military, economic and cultural interactions with the Turks and other tribes on China’s northern frontier, who conventionally have been portrayed as “barbarians” starkly opposed to “civilized” Chinese. This study will argue that frequent pragmatic interactions occurred between nomadic peoples and Tang civil and military officials stationed in the northern borderlands. Seeking to attract allies and gain an advantage in warfare against the nomads, Tang officials consciously and unconsciously adopted Inner Asian diplomatic and military practices. The resulting effects on Tang culture and institutions demonstrate that borderlands could be important conduits of premodern cultural change.