China's economic revival during the Tang and Song dynasties cannot be explained by one factor, but rather several regional and international changes that would effect economic growth and expansion. Changes to the Afroeurasian world-system included the expansive core areas of the Islamic world at the Western end of portions of the Silk Roads in Southwest Asia as well as expansive economic growth in the Indian Ocean facilitated by Islamic trade networks. Elites along the Swahili Coast of East Africa were eating off of Chinese porcelain. Jewish merchants conducted trade in Chinese silk off the coast of Aden in an Arabic-Hebrew dialect.
The excerpt below explains the global nature of the porcelain industry in China (Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, CA).
The excerpt explains below the cultural exchange between the Islamic world and China (The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC).
This Ming Dynasty brush rest below bears an Arabic inscription, but its shape refers to the “Five Great Mountains” of Taoism (BRITISH MUSEUM).