The document provides an overview of the Tang and Song dynasties in China. The Tang dynasty unified China in the 600s and had a prosperous cultural golden age, but gradually declined. The Song dynasty then ruled China from 960-1279 and oversaw major economic developments through trade, industry, and agricultural innovations, but struggled militarily against neighboring empires. Neo-Confucianism became influential and emphasized social obligations and family roles.
2. RECAP
Great Wall – 221 BC;
Spread of Buddhism
Confucius believed a woman’s duty was to
ensure the stability of the family and promote
harmony in the home. Correct behavior=order
and stability. Filial piety! And the Golden Rule!
Legalism – the ruler alone possesses power,
strenth, not goodness, is the rulers best virtue.
3. Han dynasty falls around 220, China is
divided until the 600’s (but Chinese culture
still flourishes, unlike the Western world!)
Sui emerge around 580s, led by Wendi.
Wendi
re-establishes granaries to stabilize food supply
and prices
lowers taxes
reunites the traditional core areas of Chinese
civilization for the first time in 350ish years.
4. The Tang Dynasty
Yangdi – murders Wendi (who is actually his
dad!)
He’s so demanding that his ministers kill
him
Turmoil?
No. The Tang dynasty emerges in 618,
with Li Yuan’s help.
Li Yuan – works with his son, Li Shimin, (who
encouraged him to lead a revolt) to crush all
the rivals and revolts and establish the Tang
dynasty.
Play rivals off of each other
Repair the Great Wall
Li Shimin – within 8 years convinces dad to
step down, takes the throne, and names
himself “Tang Taizong”
Tang Tiazong is a brilliant general,
government reformer, historian, and becomes
one of China’s most admired emperors.
5. More Tangs…
Conquer territories in Central Asia
“heavenly kahn” – vassal of Turkic Tribes
Force Vietnam, Tibet, and Korea to become tributary
states.
Tributary states: vassals who recognize China’s supremacy
and send tributes to the Tang emperor.
Students from Korea and Japan travel to the Tang capital to
learn about Chinese govt, law, and arts.
“Middle Kingdom” – China is central to the world around
them
Tributary state envoys kowtow with their gifts
before the empire
Subordinate lands normally did as they pleased,
more diplomatic, trade, and cultural exchange
7. Tang Reforms
Restored Han System
Civil Service System and Uniform Govt.
Jinshi – immediate elevation of social status for individual his
family
Larger territory = increased demand for gov’t positions
Scholar-gentry – help offset the pwr of land-holding aristocrats
Now many more positions than during the Han era
Land Reform – broke up large land holdings into
pieces for the peasants.
Equal field system – upon death, a farmer’s land was
reallotted, only 1/5 remained under hereditary control
Centralized power by removing power from large landowners
Raised revenue by increasing number of people who would be
taxed
Grand Canal links Huang He to the Yangzi R.
Longest waterway ever made by human labor at this
point
8. Those Tang Arts…
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/video-popup-t
Long sleeves
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/art/tang.htm
Buddha, Buddha on the wall…
Carved into rocky cliff sides, show tremendous
stone cutting and metal working abilities
Horses and Camels
Focus of artists and sculptors
From along the Silk Road
Foreigners
From all over central Asia – another main focus
Literature
Described foreign foods, music, customs, and
polo (a aristocratic favorite from Persia)
9. Buddhism
Xuanzang – Buddhist monk from China
Travels to India c. 645 CE
Brings back many Buddhist texts
Forms many monasteries
New sects emerge – including Chan (Zen)
Focused on meditation to reach nirvana
Monasteries and temples often have economic focus
Operate mills and oil presses
Perform banking services
Owned a lot of land (and wealthy patrons would list their land as
belonging to the monastery to avoid state taxes)
Much temple wealth went to the arts
10. Anti-Buddhist Backlash
Daoist and Confucians feel threatened
State does too – Buddhist monastic establishment poses a
fundamental economic challenge to imperial order
Wuzong (841-847) lashes out
Open persecution
Thousands of monasteries and shrines destroyed
Hundreds of thousands of monks and nuns flee/return to
civilian lives
Slaves and peasants of Buddhist lands are forced out to work
the lands and are subject to taxation again
Hatred doesn’t last, but the Buddhists definitely took a hit
11. Bye-bye Tang, Hello Song
Tang dynasty weakens, corruption, drought, high taxes, famine, rebellions, etc; Tangs are
overthrown in 907.
960 – three major states emerge
The Liao Empire – Khitan people, Mongol relatives
The Xi Xia (Tanggut) Empire – Minyak people, W China, had connections to the former
Tang
The Song Empire – 960 military commander Emperor Taizu reunites much of China (never
quite as strong as the Tang Empire though)
12. The Song Empire
Does unify China
Run-ins with the Liao (Song pay
tributes to protect themselves
Jurchens destroy the Liao capital
in Mongolia
Proclaim Jin empire
Continue exacting tribute from
the Song, take portions of their
land, force Song to relocate their
capital from Kaifeng to
Hangzhou
Song dynasty – controls China for
316 (longer than Tang), but controls
less land
960-1127 – “Northern Song”
1127-1279 – “Southern Song”
13. Political Developments
The Tang fell because…
regional military commanders became independent
rulers who raised their own armies and collected
their own taxes
Song – make the military subordinate to the civil
administrators of the scholar-gentry class
Only civil officials can be governors
Rotate military commanders from region to region
Does it work? The Song’s have control, but their
military is much weaker
Scholar bureaucrats actually leading Song armies in the
field sometimes (have hardly any military training)
14. Challenges with Bureaucracy
Now for the district, provincial and imperial
level
Standards adjusted (increases pass rate)
Growing bureaucracy = stressed imperial
treasury
Emperors try to raise taxes
Peasants revolt
More military needed to make peasants hush
More imperial debt.
15. Industry and Production
Papermaking
Salt and Tea
Deforestation, turn to other sources – coal!
Master the ability to use coal to smelt iron, even develop steel
Most advanced iron industry in the world
Swords, armor, arrow tips, tools for farmers and craftsmen, stoves, nails,
needles, chains for suspension bridges, drill bits to make wells
Gunpowder
Wooden blocks to print entire pages
Begin working on moveable type systems
16. Song Golden Age
Wealth and culture dominate; military does not.
Great Canal – improves agriculture by creating a
better irrigation system and increases trade
dramatically (land travel was expensive and
cumbersome)
Agricultural surplus (improved irrigation system
and new strains of rice from Vietnam = success).
Rise in agricultural productivity allowed people
more time to pursue commerce, learning, and the
arts.
17. Trade and Commerce
Trade flourishes (Song porcelain found in E.
Africa!)
Junks (Chinese ships) encourage trade
Chinese actively trade, instead of waiting for traders to
come to them
Horses, Persian rugs, and tapestries enter China
Silk, Paper, and porcelain leave China
Reopen Silk Road
China issues paper money
18. Hangzhou
The most impressive city of its time
By end of Song times, 1,500,000 population
Famously wealthy, clean, and diverse
10 big marketplaces
Marco Polo of Venice declared it “the most
noble city and the best that is in the world”
19. Chinese Society
Gentry – wealthy landowning class, (only ones who
could afford to spend years studying to pass the
civil service exam). Many are Confucianists
Peasants – self sufficient, “heaven is high, and the
emperor far away”
Merchants – great potential/opportunity to acquire
wealth, (Confucianists believed merchants were
lower than peasants because their wealth came
from the labor of others)
Women – status diminished after Tang and early
Song dynasty
20. Neo-Confucianism
Appeal of Buddhism, causes a re-thinking of Confucianism
Mencius (an old Confucian master), had written Zhu Xi, a commentary
on Confucius’s main works
Places an emphasis on the importance of social life
Rejects withdrawing from life for individual meditation
Death penalty for children
2.5 years hard labor for hitting your older sibling
Brides and grooms usually the same age (unlike India) because Confucian
principles didn’t want to mix generations
Allowed mutual consent divorce (India doesn’t)
Advocated confining young women, emphasized importance of virginity of
young brides, fidelity for wives, and chastity for widows. (similar to India)
Footbinding (a harsher, more constricting tradition than anything in India)
23. Young girl’s feet would be bound with
long strips of cloth causing the foot to
be about half the size it would
normally become.
Tiny feet and a stilted walk
represented beauty and nobility.
This noble tradition filtered down to
the lower classes.
Women whose feet had been bound
could not easily walk on their own,
further reinforcing the Confucian
concept that women should remain
inside the home.
Only peasants who needed their
daughters to work in the field omitted
the practice.
24. Art and Literature
Landscape painting –
“create a harmonious
relationship between
heaven and earth”
25. Pagoda – Buddhist
themes influenced
Chinese architecture.
Indian stupa evolved into
the graceful Chinese
pagoda.
Chinese sculptors created
statues of Buddha as well.
26. Porcelain – shiny, hard
pottery, prized as the
finest in the world.
Westerners later call it
“chinaware”