The effects of the threecentury endurance of the Tang Dynasty on the ecological environment surrounding the capital Chang’an can be found by investigating the growth and decline of surrounding forests. The Tang Dynasty enjoyed varieties of timber supply, having both institutional specialsupervision supply and specialwood supply and non-institutional market supply and onthespot supply. The woodobtaining locations were scattered, some from Qishan and Longxian in the shade of the capital and the rest from faraway mountains and even Hubei and Guangxi. Moreover, the contradiction between supply and demand remained fierce owing to failure to meet with evergrowing demand. Finally, the administrative organs varied as time went by, the manufacturing department at the start but the capitalguard headquarters in later days. The evergrowing demand for timber in the capital challenged the dynasty’s timbersupply capacity, and the largequantity consumption of timber tested the supporting capacity of the ecological environment.

Chang’an of the Tang Dynasty; mode of timber supply; institutional supply; noninstitutional supply