In recreating a past long since vanished we are, in a sense, creating whole new worlds within the mind’s eye—partly authentic in nature, and partly fashioned from the stuff of antiquarian embellishment. In his book Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T’ang Exotics, Edward H. Schafer describes both the historical fact and literary fancy of the T’ang period in Ancient China, particularly as it relates to Chinese interactions with exotic peoples and the shifting fortune of foreign commerce or trade in exotic goods. In this work Schafer, much like Richard Foltz in “A Refuge of Heretics: Nestorians and Manichaeans on the Silk Road”, highlights how contemporary pressures (political, religious, and economic) at times led to far less amicable relationships between the T’ang and their foreign guests—evidenced at one far extreme by accounts depicting the massacres of foreign merchant communities at both Yangzhou and Guangzhou (760 CE and 878-879 CE respectively). More common would be the routine interrogation of new trade envoys, or the curtailing of foreign agency by various laws or edicts—as in the case of Emperor Wuzong’s short-lived outlawing of foreign religions in 845 CE [Foltz], or the 779 CE edict compelling Uighurs living in the capital to wear their “native costume” and which “forbade them from trying to ‘lure’ Chinese women into becoming their wives or concubines [Schafer]. It was not merely foreigners themselves but foreign customs and foreign religions that were to be held suspect. In such context the foreigner’s place was seen to be distinctly separate from that of their Chinese contemporaries, with foreign merchants and envoys segregated into smaller communities with strict limits on both trade and interaction with local Chinese. In speaking of far off realms, Schafer notes that “it was readily believed that spirits and monsters waited at every turn in the mountain trail and lurked beneath every tropical wave”. More telling is Schafer’s observation that “people and goods from abroad naturally partook of this dangerous enchantment” and that, in the minds of many Chinese, “it is probable that exotic goods were still invested with the aroma of uncertain magic and perilous witchery”. Such misconceptions and romanticisms might easily fall into the category of what Western scholars would later call ‘Orientalism’. Is it any wonder then that things foreign or wondrous might be deemed as suspect? In the modern context, one can see how images of the dangerous ‘other’ have been used to mobilize a variety of xenophobic responses—ranging from the banning of particular forms of religious garb to the segregation and persecution of various minority communities. On the other side of the spectrum are accounts of Chinese fascination with foreign fashions, artistic styles, cuisines, and exotic trade goods—seen in poetic accounts of Iranian waitresses, or in the Chinese appreciation of the works of painters such as Yen Li-te or Yü-ch‘ih-i-seng. Schafer also explains that it was common for foreigners to be depicted in native costume “with their curious features emphasized”, as with a caricature. In the case of exotic tributes there exists both the official record and the literary report of wondrous items, such weird and lovely objects, Schafer describes as having “the glamour of wares that existed nowhere on land or sea…brummagem of the mind and tinsel of imagination”. Occurring in the literature of the 9^th century CE, such wondrous items recall the exotic tributes of a time centuries past, now the stuff of pale memory and embellished recollection amidst a declining T’ang Empire. One might see the scholar Su-O as attempting to recreate or evoke an age long past in his 876 CE work Assorted Compilations from Tu-Yang. In their nostalgia, writers such as Su-O provide compelling accounts of “imaginary gifts, which in turn feed the imagination”. In such tales, one might argue, that which is foreign is less scapegoated than marveled at—as in the case of “magic shining beans”, “dragon horn hairpin”, or “fire-jade”. Such literature alludes to a greater depth lying beneath the veneer of mere surface appearances, wherein fantastic tribute or exotic objets d’art might offer whole worlds of adventure, whereby one might find oneself in a decided encounter with most ‘interesting times’.