The Tang Dynasty is most certainly a high point for Chinese cultural advancement.

For the Chinese people, the Tang poetry is probably the most significant achievement of the period. A book of the best 300 poems by the Tang poets can probably be located in most modern Chinese homes. These poems are easy to memorise, beautifully rhymed, and convey powerful messages. Moreover, they are heavily studied in schools. As a result, most people, even the less educated ones, can recite a few.

Outside of China, the Chinese people are called the Tang people (唐人); Chinatowns are called the Streets of the Tang people (唐人街).

Since the exams are based on the mastery of the Confucian classics, the study for the exams allowed all participants fluency on the Confucian moral teachings. This shared knowledge base unified the ideology of the ruling elites.

Buddhism, originally from India around the time of Confucius. During The Tang Dynasty, it became Sinicised and flourished into a major religious force and a permanent part of the Chinese culture. It attracted believers from all levels of society, from scholars to officials, even members of the Tang royalty. In addition, Buddhist monasteries served a prominent role in Chinese culture — offered a place for children to learn, for travellers to lodge, for the homeless to live, and enjoyed tax-exempt status.

The reign of Emperor Wu-zong (唐武宗, reign 840–846) saw tremendous religious persecution that was directly targeted at Buddhism, though foreign religions were affected as well.

Emperor Wu-zong, in his decisive win against the Uyghur tribes, virtually bankrupted the country. He saw the vast wealth accumulated at the Buddhist monasteries and their tax-exempt status and went after them. Furthermore, his Confucian advisors alerted him that Buddhism undermined the social structure of China by ignoring the Five Constant Relationships (五伦) that framed a stable and obedient society, namely, that of ruler and subject, father and son, elder brother and younger brother, husband and wife and friend and friend. The advisor pointed out that by encouraging people to leave their homes to become monks and nuns, Buddhism destroyed human relationships and stopped people from being productive members of society. From farmers and weavers, they began to live on donations and the support of others.

Emperor Wu-zong, therefore, issued imperial edicts that forced many Buddhist monks and nuns back to secular life, confiscated the wealth and land of monasteries, and of course, took away the tax-exemption status of the religion. In addition, foreign monks were asked to return to their homeland. The emperor also persecuted foreign religions, nearly destroying Zoroastrianism, Manicheism and Nestorianism in China. Concerning Zoroastrians in particular, one imperial edict said, "As for the Syrian Zoroastrian forms of worship, since Buddhism has already been cast out, these heresies alone must not be allowed to survive. People belonging to these also are to be compelled to return to the world, belong again to their districts, and become taxpayers. As for foreigners, let them be returned to their own countries, there to suffer restrain." It is possible that Zoroastrianism disappeared from China from this point onwards.

It is believed that while Islam and Judaism came into China during the Tang with the merchants and traders, their religion stayed very much within their community and had minimum effect on the native Chinese. Thus, they were not targeted during the religious persecution.

One of the most famous people who traversed this overland Silk Road was Xuanzang (玄奘, 602–664), born in the city of Kaifeng. Ordained as a full monk at the age of 20, he was concerned about the incomplete and misinterpreted nature of Buddhist texts in China. From 629 to 645, he journeyed west from the Tang capital of Changan (长安, today’s Xi’an) and brought back over 657 Sanskrit texts on Buddhism from India, on a caravan of twenty packhorses. On his return, Emperor Tai-zong (唐太宗, reign 626–649) met him and encouraged him to write a travelogue which he did, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions (大唐西域记), compiled in 646.

During the Great Ming Dynasty, this book formed the basis for the novel Journey to the West (西游记), one of the Four Great Classical Novels (四大名著) of Chinese literature.