Inner and EastAsia, 600–1200

CHAPTER OUTLINEThe Early Tang Empire, 618–755

Rivals for Power in Inner Asia and China, 600–907

The Emergence of East Asia, to 1200

New Kingdoms in East Asia

DIVERSITY AND DOMINANCE: Law and Society in Tang China

ENVIRONMENT AND TECHNOLOGY: Writing in East Asia, 600–1200

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The powerful and expansive Tang˚ Empire (618–907) ended four centuries of rule by short-lived

and competing states that had repeatedly broughtturmoil to China after the fall of the Han Empire in220 C.E. (see Chapter 5) but had also encouraged thespread of Buddhism. The Tang left an indelible markon the Chinese imagination long after it too fell.

According to surviving memoirs, people couldwatch shadow plays and puppet shows, listen to mu-sic and scholarly lectures, or take in less edifyingspectacles like wrestling and bear baiting in the enter-tainment quarters of the cities that flourished insouthern China under the succeeding Song˚ Empire.Song-stories provided a novel and popular entertain-ment from the 1170s onward. Singer-storytellers spunlong romantic narratives that alternated prose pas-sages with sung verse.

Master Tung’s Western Chamber Romance stoodout for its literary quality. Little is known of MasterTung˚ beyond a report that he lived at the end of thetwelfth century. In 184 prose passages and 5,263 linesof verse the narrator tells the story of a love affair be-tween Chang, a young Confucian scholar, and Ying-ying, a ravishing damsel. Secondary characters includeYing-ying’s shrewd and worldly mother, a general whopractices just and efficient administration, and a fight-ing monk named Fa-ts’ung˚. It is based on The Storyof Ying-ying by the Tang period author Yüan Chen˚(779–831).

As the tale begins, the abbot of a Buddhistmonastery responds to Chang’s request to rent him astudy room, singing:

Sir, you’re wrong to offer me rent.We Buddhists and Confucians are of one family.As things stand, I can’t give youA place in our dormitory,But you’re welcome to stayIn one of the guest apartments.

As soon as Chang spies Ying-ying, who lives therewith her mother, thoughts of studying flee his mind.

The course of romance takes a detour, however, whenbandits attack the monastery. A prose passage explains:

During the T’ang dynasty, troops were stationedin the P’u prefecture. The year of our story, thecommander of the garrison, Marshal Hun, died.Because the second-in-command, Ting Wen-ya,did not have firm control of the troops, FlyingTiger Sun, a subordinate general, rebelled withfive thousand soldiers. They pillaged and plun-dered the P’u area. How do I know this to betrue? It is corroborated by The Ballad of the TrueStory of Ying-ying.

As the monks dither, one of them lifts his robe toreveal his “three-foot consecrated sword.”

Who was this monk? He was none other than Fa-ts’ung. Fa-ts’ung was a descendant of atribesman from western Shensi. When he wasyoung he took great pleasure in archery, fencing,hunting, and often sneaked into foreign states tosteal. He was fierce and courageous. When hisparents died, it suddenly became clear to himthat the way of the world was frivolous and triv-ial, so he became a monk in the Temple of Uni-versal Salvation.. . .

[Song] He didn’t know how to read sutras;He didn’t know how to follow rituals;He was neither pure nor chasteBut indomitably courageous . . .1

Amidst the love story, the ribaldry, and thederring-do, the author implants historical vignettesthat mingle fact and fiction. Sophisticates of the Songera, living a life of ease, enjoyed these romanticizedportrayals of Tang society.

As you read this chapter, ask yourself the follow-ing questions:

● What is the importance of Inner and Central Asia asa region of interchange during the Tang period?

● On what were new relationships among East Asiansocieties based after the fall of the Tang?

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● Why do Buddhism and Confucianism play differentpolitical roles in Tang and Song China, and in Tibet,Korea, and Japan?

● What accounts for the scientific and economic ad-vancement that contributed to the thriving urbanlife of Song China?

THE EARLY TANG EMPIRE,618–755

The reunification of China after centuries of divisioninto small principalities took place under the Sui˚

dynasty. But after only 34 years in power the Sui col-

lapsed in 615, paving the way for the powerful and long-lasting Tang dynasty. Just as the Qin, who built the firstpowerful Chinese state but ruled for only 14 years, influ-enced their Han successors (see Chapter 2), so Sui prac-tices strongly influenced the Tang.

In 618 the powerful Li familytook advantage of Sui disorderto carve out an empire of sim-

ilar scale and ambition. They adopted the dynasticname Tang (Map 10.1). The brilliant emperor Li Shimin˚(r. 627–649) extended his power primarily westward intoInner Asia. Though he and succeeding rulers of the TangEmpire retained many Sui governing practices, theyavoided overcentralization by allowing local nobles,

Tang Origins

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C H R O N O L O G YInner Asia China Northeast Asia Japan

620–640 TibetanEmpire emerges underSongsam Gyampo

744 Uighur empirefounded

751 Battle of Talas River

ca. 850 Buddhistpolitical power securedin Tibet

581–618 Sui unification

618 Tang Empire founded

627–649 Li Shimin reign

690–705 Wu Zhao reign

755–757 An Lushanrebellion

840 Suppression ofBuddhism

879–881 Huang Chaorebellion

907 End of Tang Empire

938 Liao capital at Beijing

960 Song Empire Founded

1127–1279 SouthernSong period

668 Silla victory in Korea

916 Liao Empire founded

918 Koryo founded

1115 Jin Empire founded

645–655 Taika era

710–784 Nara as capital

752 “Eye-Opening”ceremony

794–1185 Heian era

ca. 950–1180 Fujiwarainfluence

ca. 1000 The Tale ofGenji

1185 Kamakurashogunate founded

600

800

1000

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gentry, officials, and religious establishments to exercisesignificant power. (See Diversity and Dominance: Lawand Society in Tang China).

The Tang emperors and nobility descended from theTurkic elites that built small states in northern China af-ter the Han, and from Chinese officials and settlers whohad settled there. They continued the Confucian systemof examining candidates for bureaucratic office on theclassic Confucian texts, a practice that had been reinsti-tuted by the Sui. But they also appreciated the Turkic cul-ture of Inner Asia (the part of the Eurasian steppe east ofthe Pamir Mountains). Some of the most impressiveworks of Tang sculpture, for example, are large potteryfigurines of the horses and two-humped camels usedalong the Silk Road. In warfare, the Tang combined Chi-nese weapons—the crossbow and armored infantry-men—with Inner Asian expertise in horsemanship andthe use of iron stirrups. At their peak, from about 650 to751, when they were defeated in Central Asia (present-

day Kirgizstan) by an Arab Muslim army at the Battle ofthe Talas River, the Tang armies were a formidable force.

The Tang rulers followed InnerAsian precedents in their po-litical use of Buddhism. Statecults based on Buddhism had

flourished in Inner Asia and north China since the fallof the Han. Some interpretations of Buddhist doctrineaccorded kings and emperors the spiritual function ofwelding humankind into a harmonious Buddhist soci-ety. Protecting spirits were to help the ruler govern andprevent harm from coming to his people.

Mahayana˚, or “Great Vehicle,” Buddhism predomi-nated. Mahayana fostered faith in enlightened beings—bodhisattvas—who postpone nirvana (see Chapter 6) to

Buddhism andthe Tang Empire

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help others achieve enlightenment. This permitted theabsorption of local gods and goddesses into Mahayanasainthood and thereby made conversion more attrac-tive to the common people. Mahayana also encouragedtranslating Buddhist scripture into local languages, andit accepted religious practices not based on writtentexts. The tremendous reach of Mahayana views, whichproved adaptable to different societies and classes ofpeople, invigorated travel, language learning, and culturalexchange.

Early Tang princes competing for political influenceenlisted monastic leaders to pray for them, preach ontheir behalf, counsel aristocrats to support them, and—perhaps most important—contribute monastic wealthto their war chests. In return, the monasteries receivedtax exemptions, land privileges, and gifts.

As the Tang Empire expanded westward, contactswith Central Asia and India increased, and so did thecomplexity of Buddhist influence throughout China.Chang’an˚, the Tang capital, became the center of a con-tinentwide system of communication. Central Asians,Tibetans, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Koreans regularlyvisited the capital and took away with them the most re-cent ideas and styles. Thus the Mahayana network con-necting Inner Asia and China intersected a vigorouscommercial world in which material goods and culturalinfluences mixed. Though Buddhism and Confucianismproved attractive to many different peoples, regional

cultures and identities remained strong, just as regionalcommitments to Tibetan, Uighur, and other languagesand writing systems coexisted with the widespread useof written Chinese. Textiles reflected Persian, Korean,and Vietnamese styles, while influences from every partof Asia appeared in sports, music, and painting. Manyhistorians characterize the Tang Empire as “cosmopoli-tan” because of its breadth and diversity.

The Sui called their new capitalChang’an in honor of the oldHan capital nearby in the Wei˚River Valley (modern Shaanxi

province). The Tang retained it as their capital, and it be-came the hub of Tang communications.

Well-maintained roads and water transport con-nected Chang’an to the coastal towns of south China,most importantly Canton (Guangzhou˚). Though the1,100-mile (1771 kilometers) Grand Canal, built by theSui to link the Yellow River with the Yangzi˚, did not reachChang’an, it was a key component of this transportationnetwork. Chang’an became the center of what is oftencalled the tributary system, a type of political relation-ship dating from Han times by which independentcountries acknowledged the Chinese emperor’s su-premacy. Each tributary state sent regular embassies tothe capital to pay tribute (see Chapter 5). As symbols of

To Chang’an byLand and Sea

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T he Tang law code, compiled in the early seventh century,served as the basis for the Tang legal system and as a

model for later dynastic law codes. It combined the central-ized authority of the imperial government, as visualized inthe legalist tradition dating back to Han times, with Confu-cian concern for status distinctions and personal relation-ships. Like contemporary approaches to law in ChristianEurope and the Islamic world, it did not fully distinguish be-tween government as a structure of domination and law asan echo of religious and moral values.

Following a Preface, 502 articles, each with several parts,are divided into twelve books: (1) General Principles, (2) Impe-rial Guard and Prohibitions, (3) Administrative Regulations, (4)Household and Marriage, (5) Public Stables and Granaries, (6)Unauthorized Levies, (7) Violence and Robberies, (8) Assaultsand Accusations, (9) Fraud and Counterfeiting, (10) Miscella-neous Articles, (11) Arrest and Flight, and (12) Judgmentand Imprisonment. Each article contained a basic ordinancewith commentary, subcommentary, and sometimes additionalquestions. Excerpts from a single Article from Book 1 follow.

THE TEN ABOMINATIONSText: The first is called plotting rebellion.

Subcommentary: The Gongyang [GON-gwang] Commen-tary states: “The ruler or parent has no harborers [of plots]. Ifhe does have such harborers, he must put them to death.”This means that if there are those who harbor rebellioushearts that would harm the ruler or father, he must then putthem to death.

The king occupies the most honorable position and re-ceives Heaven’s precious decrees. Like Heaven and Earth, heacts to shelter and support, thus serving as the father andmother of the masses. As his children, as his subjects, theymust be loyal and filial. Should they dare to cherish wicked-ness and have rebellious hearts, however, they will runcounter to Heaven’s constancy and violate human principle.Therefore this is called plotting rebellion.

Text: The second is called plotting great sedition.Subcommentary: This type of person breaks laws and de-

stroys order, is against traditional norms, and goes contraryto virtue . . .

Commentary: Plotting great sedition means to plot to de-stroy the ancestral temples, tombs, or palaces of the reigninghouse.

Text: The third is called plotting treason.Subcommentary: The kindness of father and mother is

like “great heaven, illimitable” . . . Let one’s heart be like thexiao bird or the jing beast, and then love and respect bothcease. Those whose relationship is within the five degrees ofmourning are the closest of kin. For them to kill each other isthe extreme abomination and the utmost in rebellion, de-stroying and casting aside human principles. Therefore this iscalled contumacy.

Commentary: Contumacy means to beat or plot to kill [with-out actually killing] one’s paternal grandparents or parents; orto kill one’s paternal uncles or their wives, or one’s elder broth-ers or sisters, or one’s maternal grandparents, or one’s husband,or one’s husband’s paternal grandparents, or his parents . . . .

Text: The fifth is called depravity.Subcommentary: This article describes those who are

cruel and malicious and who turn their backs on morality.Therefore it is called depravity.

Commentary: Depravity means to kill three members of asingle household who have not committed a capital crime, orto dismember someone . . .

Commentary: The offense also includes the making orkeeping of poison or sorcery.

Subcommentary: This means to prepare the poison one-self, or to keep it, or to give it to others in order to harmpeople. But if the preparation of the poison is not yet com-pleted, this offense does not come under the ten abomina-tions. As to sorcery, there are a great many methods, not allof which can be described.

Text: The sixth is called great irreverence . . .Commentary: Great irreverence means to steal the objects

of the great sacrifices to the spirits or the carriage or posses-sions of the emperor.

Text: The seventh is called lack of filiality.Subcommentary: Serving one’s parents well is called fil-

iality. Disobeying them is called lack of filiality.

D I V E R S I T Y A N D D O M I N A N C E

LAW AND SOCIETY IN TANG CHINA

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Text: The ninth is called what is not right . . .Commentary: [This] means to kill one’s department head,prefect, or magistrate, or the teacher from whom one has re-ceived one’s education . . .

Text: The tenth is called incest.Subcommentary: The Zuo Commentary states: “The woman

has her husband’s house; the man has his wife’s chamber; andthere must be no defilement on either side.” If this is changed,then there is incest. If one behaves like birds and beasts and in-troduces licentious associates into one’s family, the rules ofmorality are confused. Therefore this is called incest.

Commentary: This section includes having illicit sexual in-tercourse with relatives who are of the fourth degree ofmourning or closer . . . .

T he following are the titles of 26 of the 46 articles inBook 4 of the Code entitled “The Household and Marriage.”

• Omitting to File a Household Register• Unauthorized Ordainment as a Buddhist or Daoist Priest• Sons and Grandsons in the Male Line Are Not Permitted to

Have a Separate Household Register• Having a Child During the Period of Mourning for Parents• Adopted Sons Who Reject Their Adoptive Parents• Falsely Combining Households• Possession of More than the Permitted Amount of Land• Illegal Cultivation of Public or Private Land• Wrongfully Laying Claim to or Selling Public or Private Land• Officials Who Encroach Upon Private Land• Illegal Cultivation of Other Persons’ Grave Plots• Not Allowing Rightful Exemption from Taxes and Labor

Services• Betrothal of a Daughter and Announcement of the Mar-

riage Contract• Wrongful Substitution by the Bride’s Family in a Marriage• Taking a Second Wife• Making the Wife a Concubine• Marriage During the Period of Mourning for Parents or

Husband• Marriage While Parents Are in Prison• Marriage by Those of the Same Surname• Marrying a Runaway Wife• Marriage of Officials with Women Within Their Area of

Jurisdiction• Marrying Another Man’s Wife by Consent• Divorcing a Wife Who Has Not Given Any of the Seven

Causes for Repudiation• Divorce• Slaves Who Take Commoners as Wives• General Bondsmen Are Not Permitted to Marry Commoners• Marriages That Violate the Code

T he day-to-day realities of country life appear in the fol-lowing account by a scholar living during the late 700s.

Wealthy landowning families bought townhouses and en-gaged in conspicuous consumption while farmers, whosehigh rents and low pay contributed to the gentry’s growingwealth, enjoyed few direct benefits.

When a farmer falls on bad times, he has to sell his fieldand his hut. If it is a good year, he might be able to pay hisdebts by selling out. But no sooner will the harvest be in thanhis storage bins will be empty again, and he will have to tryto contract a new debt promising his labor for the next year.Each time he indentures himself he incurs higher interestrates, and soon will be destitute again.

If it is a bad year, and there is a famine, then the situationis hopeless. Families break up, parents separate, and all try tosell themselves into slavery. But in a bad year nobody willbuy them.

In these circumstances land prices fall low enough that therich buy up tens of thousands of acres, or simply seize theland of defaulted farmers. The poor then have no land, andtry for places as servants, bodyguards, or enforcers for therich families. If they manage to attach themselves to the or-ganization of a gentry family, they can borrow seed and grain,and rent land as tenants. Then they will work themselves todeath, all year round, without a day off. If they should man-age to clear their debts, they live in constant anxiety aboutwhen the next bad patch will leave them destitute again.

The gentry, however, live off their rents, with no troublesand no cares. Wealth and poverty are very clearly divided.

This is how we have reached the situation where the rentsfrom private land are much higher, and collected more ruth-lessly, than the government’s taxes. In areas around the capital,rents are twenty times higher than taxes. Even rents in more re-mote areas are ten times what the government collects in tax.

QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS1. Comparing these historical documents, what would

seem to have been the relationship between law andequity under the Tang?

2. Did the Confucian concern for family relations and so-cial status manifested in the law code prevent injustice?

3. Does the law code appear more an expression of idealsand compilation of past philosophical ideas than apractical guide to a just society?

Sources: The first two selections are from Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, eds.,Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1, 2d ed. Copyright © 1999 by Columbia UniversityPress. Reprinted with permission of the publisher. The third selection is adapted fromEtienne Balazs, Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy: Variations on a Theme, trans. byH. M. Wright, ed. by Arthur F. Wright. Copyright © 1964. Reprinted by permission of YaleUniversity Press.

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China’s political supremacy, these embassies sometimesmeant more to the Chinese than to the tribute-payers,who might see them more as a means of accessing theChinese trading system.

During the Tang period, Chang’an had somethingover a million people, only a minority of whom lived inthe central city. Most people lived in suburbs that ex-tended beyond the main gates. Others dwelt in sepa-rate outlying towns that had special responsibilities likemaintaining nearby imperial tombs or operating the im-perial resort, where aristocrats relaxed in sunken tiletubs while the steamy waters of natural springs swirledaround them.

Foreigners, whether merchants, students, or ambas-sadors, resided in special compounds in Chang’an andother entrepôts. These included living accommodationsand general stores. By the end of the Tang period, WestAsians in Chang’an probably numbered over 100,000.

In the main parts of the city, restaurants, inns, tem-ples, mosques, and street stalls along the main thor-oughfares kept busy every evening. At curfew, generallybetween eight and ten o’clock, commoners returned totheir neighborhoods, which were enclosed by brick wallsand wooden gates that guards locked until dawn to con-trol crime.

Of the many routes converging on Chang’an, theGrand Canal commanded special importance, with itsown army patrols, boat design, canal towns, and mainte-nance budget. It conveyed vital supplies and contributedto the economic and cultural development of easternChina, where later capitals were built within easier reach.

The Tang consolidated Chinese control of the south-ern coastal region, increasing access to the Indian Oceanand facilitating the spread of Islamic and Jewish influ-ences. A legend credits an uncle of Muhammad witherecting the Red Mosque at Canton in the mid-seventhcentury.

Chinese mariners and shipwrights excelled in com-pass design and the construction of very large oceango-ing vessels. The government took direct responsibilityfor outfitting grain transport vessels for the Chinesecoastal cities and the Grand Canal. Commercial ships,built to sail from south China to the Philippines andSoutheast Asia, carried twice as much as contemporaryvessels in the Mediterranean Sea (see Chapter 7).

The sea route linking the Red Sea and Persian Gulfwith Canton also brought East Asia the “plague of Justin-ian” (see Chapter 9). Historical sources mention thebubonic plague in Canton and south China in the early600s. As in certain other parts of the world, the plaguebacillus became endemic among rodent populations inparts of southwestern China and thus lingered long afterits disappearance in West Asia and Europe. The disease

followed trade and embassy routes to Korea, Japan, andTibet, where initial outbreaks followed the establish-ment of diplomatic ties in the seventh century.

Influences from Central Asiaand the Islamic world intro-duced lively new motifs toceramics, painting, and silk de-

signs. Clothing styles changed in north China; workingpeople switched from robes to the pants favored byhorse-riding Turks from Central Asia. Cotton importedfrom Central Asia, where production boomed in theearly Islamic centuries, gradually replaced hemp inclothes worn by commoners. The Tang court promotedpolo, a pastime from the steppes, and followed the InnerAsian tradition of allowing noblewomen to compete.Various stringed instruments reached China across theSilk Road, along with Turkic folk melodies. Grape winefrom West Asia and tea, sugar, and spices from India andSoutheast Asia transformed the Chinese diet.

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By about the year 1000 the magnitude of exportsfrom Tang territories, facilitated by China’s excellenttransportation systems, dwarfed Chinese imports fromEurope, West Asia, and South Asia. Stories of ships carry-ing Chinese exports outnumbering those laden withSouth Asian, West Asian, European, or African goods by ahundred to one cannot be relied on. Tang exports did,however, tilt the trade balance with both the Central Asiacaravan cities and the lands of the Indian Ocean, causingprecious metal to flow into China in return for exportgoods.

China remained the source of superior silks. Tangfactories created more and more complex styles, partlyto counter foreign competition. China became the solesupplier of porcelain—a fine, durable ceramic madefrom a special clay—to West Asia. As travel along the SilkRoad and to the various ports of the Indian Ocean trad-ing system increased, the economies of seaports andentrepôts involved in the trade—even distant ones—became increasingly commercialized, leading to net-works of private traders devising new instruments ofcredit and finance. As we shall see, these networks wouldlater contribute to the prosperity of the Song era.

RIVALS FOR POWER IN INNER ASIA

AND CHINA, 600–907

Li Bo, the most renowned Tang poet and one of thegreatest ever to write in the Chinese language, wrote

in 751 of the seemingly endless succession of wars:

The beacons are always alight, fighting and marchingnever stop.

Men die in the field, slashing sword to sword;The horses of the conquered neigh piteously to

Heaven.Crows and hawks peck for human guts,Carry them in their beaks and hang them on the

branches of withered trees.Captains and soldiers are smeared on the bushes and

grass;The General schemed in vain.Know therefore that the sword is a cursed thingwhich the wise man uses only if he must.2

Between 600 and 751, when the Tang Empire was at itsheight, the Turkic-speaking Uighurs˚ and the Tibetansbuilt large rival states in Inner Asia. The power of the for-mer centered on the basin of the Tarim River, a largelydesert area north of Tibet that formed a vital link on the

Silk Road. The Tibetan empire at its peak stretched wellbeyond modern Tibet into northeastern India, south-western China, and the Tarim Basin. The contest be-tween these states and the Tang for control of the landroutes west of China reached a standoff by the end of theperiod. Mutually beneficial trade required diplomaticaccommodation more than political unity. By the mid-800s all three empires were experiencing political decayand military decline. The problems of one aggravatedthose of the others, since governmental collapse allowedsoldiers, criminals, and freebooters to roam without hin-drance into neighboring territories.

Centralization and integration being most exten-sively developed in Tang territory, the impact fell mostheavily there. Nothing remained of Tang power but pre-tense by the early 800s, the period reflected in the origi-nal romance of Ying-ying described at the start of thischapter. In the provinces military governors suppressedthe rebellion of General An Lushan˚, a commander ofSogdian (Central Asian) and Turkic origin, which ragedfrom 755 to 763, and then seized power for themselves.

The nomads of the steppe survived the social disor-der and agricultural losses best. The caravan cities thathad prospered from overland trade, and that lay at theheart of the Uighur state in the Tarim Basin, had as muchto lose as China itself. Eventually, the urban and agri-cultural economies of Inner Asia and China recovered.In the short term, however, the debilitating contest forpower with the Inner Asian states prompted a strong cul-tural backlash, particularly in China, where disillusion-ment with northern neighbors combined with social andeconomic anxieties to fuel an antiforeign movement.

The original homeland of theTurks lay in the northern partof modern Mongolia. After thefall of the Han Empire, Turkic

peoples began moving south and west, through Mongo-lia, then west to Central Asia, on the long migration thateventually brought them to what is today modern Turkey(see Chapter 8). In the seventh century the Tang Em-peror Li Shimin took advantage of Turkic disunity to es-tablish control over the Tarim Basin. Yet within a century,a new Turkic group, the Uighurs, had taken much of In-ner Asia.

Under the Uighurs, caravan cities like Kashgar andKhotan (see Map 10.1) displayed a literate culture withstrong ties to both the Islamic world and China. TheUighurs excelled as merchants and as scribes able totransact business in many languages. They adapted the

The Uighur andTibetan Empires

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syllabic script of the Sogdians, who lived to the west ofthem in Central Asia, to writing Turkic. Their flourish-ing urban culture exhibited a cosmopolitan enthusiasmfor Buddhist teachings, religious art derived from north-ern India, and a mixture of East Asian and Islamic tastesin dress.

Unified Uighur power collapsed after half a century,leaving only Tibet as a rival to the Tang in Inner Asia. Alarge, stable empire critically positioned where China,Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Central Asia meet, Tibetexperienced a variety of cultural influences. In the sev-enth century Chinese Buddhists on pilgrimage to Indiaadvanced contacts between India and Tibet. The Ti-betans derived their alphabet from India, as well as a va-riety of artistic and architectural styles. India and Chinaboth contributed to Tibetan knowledge of mathematics,astronomy, divination, farming, and milling of grain. Is-lam and the monarchical traditions of Iran became fa-miliar through Central Asian trading connections. TheTibetan royal family favored Greek medicine transmittedthrough Iran.

Under Li Shimin, cautious friendliness had prevailedbetween China and Tibet. A Tang princess, called Kongjoby the Tibetans, came to Tibet in 634 to marry theTibetan king and cement an alliance. She broughtMahayana Buddhism, which combined with the native

religion to create a distinctive form of Buddhism. Tibetsent ambassadors and students to the Tang imperialcapital. Regular contact and Buddhist influences con-solidated the Tang-Tibet relationship for a time. TheTibetan kings encouraged Buddhist religious establish-ments and prided themselves on being cultural interme-diaries between India and China.

Tibet also excelled at war. Horses and armor, tech-niques borrowed from the Turks, raised Tibetan forces toa level that startled even the Tang. By the late 600s theTang emperor and the Tibetan king were rivals for reli-gious leadership and political dominance in Inner Asia,and Tibetan power reached into what are now Qinghai˚,Sichuan˚, and Xinjiang˚ provinces in China. War weari-ness affected both empires after 751, however.

In the 800s a new king in Tibet decided to follow theTang lead and eliminate the political and social influ-ence of the monasteries (see below). He was assassi-nated by Buddhist monks, and control of the Tibetanroyal family passed into the hands of religious leaders. Inthe centuries that followed down to modern times,monastic domination isolated Tibet from surroundingregions.

The Tang elites came to seeBuddhism as undermining theConfucian idea of the familyas the model for the state. TheConfucian scholar Han Yu (768–

824) spoke powerfully for a return to traditional Confu-cian practices. In “Memorial on the Bone of Buddha,”written to the emperor in 819 on the occasion of cere-monies to receive a bone of the Buddha in the impe-rial palace, he scornfully disparages the Buddha and hisfollowers:

Now Buddha was a man of the barbarians who did notspeak the language of China and wore clothes of adifferent fashion. His sayings did not concern the waysof our ancient kings, nor did his manner of dress con-form to their laws. He understood neither the dutiesthat bind sovereign and subject nor the affections offather and son. If he were still alive today and came toour court by order of his ruler, Your Majesty mightcondescend to receive him, but . . . he would then beescorted to the borders of the state, dismissed, and notallowed to delude the masses. How then, when he haslong been dead, could his rotten bones, the foul and

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unlucky remains of his body, be rightly admitted to thepalace? Confucius said, “Respect spiritual beings,while keeping at a distance from them.”3

Buddhism was also attacked for encouraging womenin politics. Wu Zhao˚, a woman who had married intothe imperial family, seized control of the government in690 and declared herself emperor. She based her legiti-macy on claiming to be a bodhisattva, an enlightenedsoul who had chosen to remain on earth to lead others tosalvation. She also favored Buddhists and Daoists overConfucianists in her court and government.

Later Confucian writers expressed contempt for WuZhao and other powerful women, such as the concubineYang Guifei˚. Bo Zhuyi˚, in his poem “Everlasting Re-morse,” lamented the influence of women at the Tangcourt, which had caused “the hearts of fathers and moth-ers everywhere not to value the birth of boys, but thebirth of girls.”4 Confucian elites heaped every possiblecharge on prominent women who offended them, ac-cusing Emperor Wu of grotesque tortures and murders,including tossing the dismembered but still living bodiesof enemies into wine vats and cauldrons. They blamedYang Guifei for the outbreak of the An Lushan rebellionin 755.

Serious historians dismiss the stories about Wu Zhaoas stereotypical characterizations of “evil” rulers. Eu-nuchs (castrated palace servants), charged by historianswith controlling Chang’an and the Tang court and pub-licly executing rival bureaucrats, represent a similarstereotype. In fact Wu seems to have ruled effectively andwas not deposed until 705, when extreme old age (eighty-plus) incapacitated her. Nevertheless, traditional Chinesehistorians commonly describe unorthodox rulers and all-powerful women as evil, and the truth about Wu willnever be known.

Even Chinese gentry living in safe and prosperouslocalities associated Buddhism with social ills. Peoplewho worried about “barbarians” ruining their societypointed to Buddhism as evidence of the foreign evil,since it had such strong roots in Inner Asia and Tibet.They claimed that eradicating Buddhist influence wouldrestore the ancient values of hierarchy and social har-mony. Because Buddhism shunned earthly ties, monksand nuns severed relations with the secular world insearch of enlightenment. They paid no taxes, served inno army. They deprived their families of advantageousmarriage alliances and denied descendants to their an-cestors. The Confucian elites saw all this as threatening

to the family, and to the family estates that underlay theTang economic and political structure.

In 840 (a year of disintegration on many fronts) thegovernment moved to crush the monasteries. An impe-rial edict of 845 reports the demolition of 4,600 templesand the forcible conversion of 26,500 monks and nunsinto ordinary workers. The tax exemption of monaster-ies had allowed them to purchase land and precious ob-jects and to employ large numbers of serfs. Wealthybelievers had given the monasteries large tracts of land,and poor people had flocked to the Buddhist institutionsto work as artisans, fieldworkers, cooks, housekeepers,and guards. By the ninth century, hundreds of thousandsof people had entered tax exempt Buddhist institutions.Now an enormous amount of land and 150,000 workerswere returned to the tax rolls.

Though some Buddhist cultural centers, such as thecave monasteries at Dunhuang, were protected by lo-cal warlords dependent on the favor of Buddhist rulersin Inner Asia, the dissolution of the monasteries wasan incalculable loss to China’s cultural heritage. Somesculptures and grottoes survived only in defaced form.Wooden temples and façades sheltering great stonecarvings burned to the ground. Monasteries became le-gal again in later times, but Buddhism never recoveredthe social, political, and cultural influence of early Tangtimes.

The Tang order succumbed tothe very forces that were es-sential to its creation and main-tenance. The campaigns ofexpansion in the seventh cen-

tury had left the empire dependent on local militarycommanders and a complex tax collection system. Suchreverses as the Battle of the Talas River in 751, whichhalted the drive westward into Central Asia, led to mili-tary demoralization and underfunding. In 755 An Lushan,a Tang general appointed as regional commander on thenortheast frontier, led about 200,000 soldiers in a rebel-lion that forced the emperor to flee Chang’an and exe-cute his favorite concubine, Yang Guifei, whom someaccused of being An Lushan’s lover. Though he was killedby his own son in 757, An Lushan’s rebellion lasted foreight years and resulted in new powers and greater inde-pendence for the provincial military governors whohelped suppress it. The Uighurs also helped bring thedisorder to an end.

Despite continuing prosperity, political disintegra-tion and the elite’s sense of cultural decay created an un-settled environment that encouraged aspiring dictators.

The End of theTang Empire,879–907

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A disgruntled member of the gentry, Huang Chao˚, ledthe most devastating uprising between 879 and 881. De-spite ruthless and violent domination of the villageshe controlled, his rebellion attracted hundreds of thou-sands of poor farmers and tenants who could not protectthemselves from local bosses, or who sought escapefrom oppressive landlords or taxes, or who simply didnot know what else to do in the deepening chaos. Thenew hatred of “barbarians” spurred the rebels to murderthousands of foreign residents in Canton and Beijing˚.

Local warlords finally wiped out the rebels, using thesame violent tactics. But Tang society did not find peace.Refugees, migrant workers, and homeless people becamecommon sights in both city and country. Residents ofnorthern China fled to the southern frontiers as groupsfrom Inner Asia took advantage of the flight of popula-tion to move into localities in the north. Though Tangemperors continued to rule in Chang’an until their linewas terminated by one of the warlords in 907, they neverregained effective power after Huang Chao’s rebellion.

THE EMERGENCE OF EAST ASIA,TO 1200

In the aftermath of the Tang, three new states emergedand competed to inherit its legacy (see Map 10.2). The

Liao˚ Empire of the Khitan˚ people, pastoral nomadsrelated to the Mongols living on the northeastern fron-tier, established their rule in the north. They centeredtheir government on several cities, but the emperorspreferred to spend their time in their nomad encamp-ments. In western China, the Minyak people (closely re-lated to the Tibetans) established a second successorstate. They called themselves “Tangguts˚” to show theirconnection with the former empire. The third state, theChinese-speaking Song Empire, came into being in 960in central China.

Competition among these states was unavoidable.They embodied the political ambitions of peoples whospoke very different languages and subscribed to differ-ent religious and philosophical systems—MahayanaBuddhism among the Liao, Tibetan Buddhism amongthe Tangguts, and Confucianism among the Song. TheLiao and especially the Tangguts maintained some con-tinuing relationship with Inner and Central Asia, but theSong were cut off. Instead they developed their sea con-nections with other states in East Asia, West Asia, and

Southeast Asia. This effort led to advanced seafaring andsailing technologies. The Song elite shared the late Tangdislike of “barbaric” or “foreign” influences as they triedto cope with multiple enemies that heavily taxed theirmilitary capacities.

The Liao Empire of the Khitanpeople extended from Siberiato Central Asia, connectingChina with societies to the

north and west. Variations on the Khitan name becamethe name for China in these distant regions: “Kitai” forthe Mongols, “Khitai” for the Russians, and “Cathay” forthose, like contemporaries of the Italian merchant MarcoPolo, who reached China from Europe (see Chapter 12).

The Liao rulers prided themselves on their pastoraltraditions, the continuing source of their military might,and made no attempt to create a single elite culture. Theyencouraged Chinese elites to use their own language,study their own classics, and see the emperor throughConfucian eyes; and they encouraged other peoples to

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use their own languages and see the emperor as a cham-pion of Buddhism or as a nomadic leader. On balance,Buddhism far outweighed Confucianism in this andother northern states, where rulers depended on theirroles as bodhisattvas or as Buddhist kings to legitimatepower. Liao rule lasted from 916 to 1121.

Superb horsemen and archers, the Khitans addedsiege machines from China and Central Asia to their ar-mory for challenging the Song. In 1005 the Song emperoragreed to a truce that included enormous annual pay-ments in cash and silk to the Liao. This lasted for morethan a century, but eventually the Song tired of payingthe annual tribute and entered into a secret alliance withthe Jurchens of northeastern Asia, who were also chafingunder Liao rule. In 1125 the Jurchens destroyed the Liaocapital in Mongolia and proclaimed their own empire—the Jin. Then they turned against their former Song ally.

The Jurchens grew rice, millet, and wheat, but theyalso spent a good deal of time hunting, fishing, and tend-ing livestock. Though their language was unrelated tothat of the Khitan, the Jurchens nevertheless learned

much from the Khitan about the military arts and po-litical organization. This helped them become formid-able enemies of the Song Empire, against whom theymounted an all-out campaign in 1127. They laid siege tothe Song capital, Kaifeng˚, and captured the Song em-peror. Within a few years the Song withdrew south of theYellow River and established a new capital at Hangzhou˚,leaving central as well as northern China in Jurchen con-trol (Map 10.3). The Song made annual payments to theJin Empire to avoid open warfare. Historians generallyrefer to this period as the “Southern Song” (1127–1279).

Historians look upon the South-ern Song as the premodernstate and society that came

closest to initiating an industrial revolution. Divided intothree separate states from 907 to 1279, China did notexhibit the military expansionism and exploitation of

Song Industries

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far-flung networks of communication that had charac-terized the Tang at their height. Yet many of the advancesin technology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematicsfor which the Song is famous derived from informationthat had come to China in Tang times, sometimes fromvery distant places.

Chinese scholars made great strides in the arts ofmeasurement and observation, drawing on the work ofIndian and West Asian mathematicians and astronomerswho had migrated to the Tang Empire. Song mathemati-cians introduced the use of fractions, first employingthem to describe the phases of the moon. From lunarobservations, Song astronomers constructed a very pre-cise calendar and, alone among the world’s astronomers,noted the explosion of the Crab Nebula in 1054. Chinesescholars used their work in astronomy and mathematicsto make significant contributions to timekeeping andthe development of the compass.

In 1088 the engineer Su Song constructed a gigan-tic mechanical celestial clock in Kaifeng. Escapement

mechanisms for controlling the revolving wheels inwater-powered clocks had appeared under the Tang,as had the application of water wheels to weavingand threshing. But this knowledge had not been widelyapplied. Su Song adapted the escapement and waterwheel to his clock, which featured the first known chain-drive mechanism. The clock told the time of day andthe day of the month, and it indicated the movementof the moon and certain stars and planets across thenight sky. An observation deck and a mechanically ro-tated armillary sphere crowned the 80-foot (24-meter)structure.

Song inventors drew on their knowledge of celestialcoordinates, particularly the Pole Star, to refine the de-sign of the compass. Long known in China, the magneticcompass shrank in size in Song times and gained a fixedpivot point for the needle, and sometimes even a smallprotective case with a glass covering. These changes madethe compass suitable for seafaring, a use first attested in1090. The Chinese compass and the Greek astrolabe, in-

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troduced later, improved navigation throughout South-east Asia and the Indian Ocean.

Development of the seaworthy compass coincidedwith new techniques in building China’s main oceango-ing ship, the junk. A stern-mounted rudder improvedthe steering of the large ship in uneasy seas, and water-tight bulkheads helped keep it afloat in emergencies.The shipwrights of the Persian Gulf soon copied thesefeatures in their ship designs.

Song innovation carried over into military affairs aswell, though military pressure from the Liao and Jin Em-pires remained a serious challenge. The Song fielded anarmy four times as large as that of the Tang—about 1.25million men (roughly the size of the present-day army ofthe United States)—though it occupied less than half theterritory of the Tang. Song commanders were speciallyeducated for the task, examined on military subjects,and paid regular salaries.

Because of the need for iron and steel to make weap-ons, the Song rulers fought their northern rivals for con-trol of iron and coal mines in north China. The volume ofSong mining and iron production, which again became a

government monopoly in the eleventh century, soared.By the end of that century cast iron production reachedabout 125,000 tons (113,700 metric tons) annually, put-ting it on a par with the output of eighteenth-centuryBritain. Engineers became skilled at high-temperaturemetallurgy. They produced steel weapons of unprece-dented strength by using enormous bellows, often drivenby water wheels, to superheat the molten ore. Militaryengineers used iron to buttress defensive works becauseit was impervious to fire or concussion. Armorers used itin mass-produced body armor (in small, medium, andlarge sizes). Iron construction also appeared in bridgesand small buildings. Mass-production techniques forbronze and ceramics in use in China for nearly two thou-sand years were adapted to iron casting and assembly.

To counter cavalry assaults, the Song experimentedwith gunpowder, which they initially used to propelclusters of flaming arrows. During the wars against theJurchens in the 1100s the Song introduced a new and ter-rifying weapon. Shells launched from Song fortificationsexploded in the midst of the enemy, blowing out shardsof iron and dismembering men and horses. The short

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range of the shells limited them to defensive uses, andthey had no major impact on the overall conduct of war.

Despite the continuous mili-tary threats and the vigor ofSong responses, Song elite cul-ture idealized civil pursuits. So-cially, the civil man outranked

the military man. Private academies, designed to trainyoung men for the official examinations and develop in-tellectual interests, became influential in culture andpolitics. New interpretations of Confucian teachings be-came so important and influential that the term neo-Confucianism is used for Song and later versions ofConfucian thought.

Zhu Xi˚ (1130–1200), the most important early neo-Confucian thinker, wrote in reaction to the many cen-turies during which Buddhism and Daoism had oftenovershadowed the precepts of Confucius. He and othersworked out a systematic approach to cosmology thatfocused on the central conception that human natureis moral, rational, and essentially good. To combat theBuddhist dismissal of worldly affairs as a transitory dis-

Economy andSociety in SongChina

traction, they reemphasized individual moral and socialresponsibility. Their human ideal was the sage, a personwho could preserve mental stability and serenity whiledealing conscientiously with troubling social problems.Where earlier Confucian thinkers had written about sagekings and political leaders, the neo-Confucians es-poused the spiritual idea of universal sagehood, a statethat could be achieved through proper study of the newConfucian principles and cosmology.

Despite the vigor and pervasiveness of neo-Confucianism, popular Buddhist sects persisted duringthe Song. The excerpt from a Song song-story quoted atthe beginning of this chapter contained the line “WeBuddhists and Confucians are of one family.” While his-torically suitable for the time when the original versionof the story of Ying-ying was written, before the Tangabolition of the Buddhist monasteries in 845, it is unlikelythat the line would have pleased a Song audience if anti-Buddhist feelings had remained so ferocious. Some Bud-dhists elaborated upon Tang-era folk practices derivedfrom India and Tibet. The best known, Chan Buddhism(known as Zen in Japan and as Son in Korea), assertedthat mental discipline alone could win salvation.

Meditation, a key Chan practice, could be employedby Confucians as well as Buddhists. It could afford pro-spective officials relief from their preparation for civil

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service examinations, which continued into the Songfrom the Tang period. Dramatically different from theHan policy of hiring and promoting on the basis of rec-ommendations, Song-style examinations persisted fornearly a thousand years. A large bureaucracy oversawtheir design and administration. Test questions, whichchanged each time the examinations were given, eventhough they were always based on Confucian classics, of-ten related to economic management or foreign policy.

The examinations had social implications, for hered-itary class distinctions meant less than they had in Tangtimes, when noble lineages played a greater role in thestructure of power. The new system recruited the mosttalented men for government service, whatever their ori-gin. Men from wealthy families, however, succeededmost often. The tests required memorization of classicsbelieved to date from the time of Confucius; preparationconsumed so much time that peasant boys could rarelycompete.

Success in the examinations brought good marriageprospects, the chance for a high salary, and enormousprestige. Failure could bankrupt a family and ruin a manboth socially and psychologically. This put great pressureon candidates, who spent days at a time in tiny, dim, air-less examination cells, attempting to produce their an-swers—in beautiful calligraphy.

Changes in printing, from woodblock to an earlyform of movable type, allowed cheaper printing of manykinds of informative books and of test materials. TheSong government realized that the examination systemschooled millions of ambitious young men in Confucianideals of state service—many times the number whoeventually passed the tests. To promote its ideologicalgoals, the government authorized the mass productionof preparation books in the years before 1000. Though aman had to be literate to read the preparation books andbasic education was still not common, some people oflimited means were now able to take the examinations;and a moderate number of candidates entered the Songbureaucracy without noble, gentry, or elite backgrounds.

The availability of printed books changed countrylife as well, since landlords now had access to expert ad-vice on planting and irrigation techniques, harvesting,tree cultivation, threshing, and weaving. Landlords fre-quently gathered their tenants and workers to showthem illustrated texts and explain their meaning. Thisdissemination of knowledge, along with new technolo-gies, furthered the development of new agricultural landsouth of the Yangzi River. Iron implements such as plowsand rakes, first used in the Tang era, were adapted towet-rice cultivation as the population moved south.Landowners and village leaders learned from books how

to fight the mosquitoes that carried malaria. Control ofthe disease became one of the factors encouragingnortherners to move south, which led to a sharp increasein population.

The increasing profitability of agriculture caught theattention of some ambitious members of the gentry. Stilla frontier for Chinese settlers under the Tang, the southsaw increasing concentration of land in the hands of afew wealthy families. In the process, the indigenous in-habitants of the region, related to the modern-day popu-lations of Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos, retreated intothe mountains or southward toward Vietnam.

During the 1100s the total population of the Chineseterritories, spurred by prosperity, rose above 100 million.An increasing proportion lived in large towns and cities,though the leading Song cities had fewer than a millioninhabitants. This still put them among the largest citiesin the world.

Health and crowding posed problems in the Songcapitals. Multistory wooden apartment houses frontedon narrow streets—sometimes only 4 or 5 feet (1.2 to1.5 meters) wide—clogged by peddlers or families spend-ing time outdoors. The crush of people called for newtechniques in waste management, water supply, and fire-fighting. Controlling urban rodent and insect infestationsimproved health and usually kept the bubonic plagueisolated in a few rural areas.

In Hangzhou engineers diverted the nearby river toflow through the city, flushing away waste and disease.Arab and European travelers who had firsthand expe-rience with the Song capital, and who were sensitive tothe urban crowding in their own societies, expressedamazement at the way Hangzhou city officials shelteredthe densely packed population from danger so that theycould enjoy the abundant pleasures of the city: restau-rants, parks, bookstores, wine shops, tea houses, the-aters, and the various entertainments mentioned at thestart of this chapter.

The idea of credit, originating in the robust long-distance trade of the Tang period, spread widely underthe Song. Intercity or interregional credit—what theSong called “flying money”—depended on the accep-tance of guarantees that the paper could be redeemedfor coinage at another location. The public accepted thepractice because credit networks tended to be managedby families, so that brothers and cousins were usuallyhonoring each other’s certificates.

“Flying money” certificates differed from government-issued paper money, which the Song pioneered. In someyears, military expenditures consumed 80 percent ofthe government budget. The state responded to thisfinancial pressure by distributing paper money. But this

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made inflation so severe that by the beginning of the1100s paper money was trading for only 1 percent ofits face value. Hard-pressed for revenue to maintain thearmy, canals, roads, and waterworks, the governmenteventually withdrew paper money and resorted to taxfarming, selling the rights to tax collection to private in-dividuals. Tax farmers made their profit by collecting themaximum amount and sending an agreed-upon smallersum to the government. This meant exorbitant rates fortaxable services, such as tolls.

Rapid economic growth undermined the remaininggovernment monopolies and the traditional strict regu-lation of business. Now merchants and artisans as wellas gentry and officials could make fortunes. With land nolonger the only source of wealth, the traditional socialhierarchy common to an agricultural economy weak-ened, while cities, commerce, consumption, and the useof money and credit boomed. Urban life reflected theelite’s growing taste for fine fabrics, porcelain, exoticfoods, large houses, and exquisite paintings and books.Because the government and traditional elites did not

control much of the new commercial and industrial de-velopment, historians sometimes describe Song Chinaas “modern,” using the term to refer to the era of privatecapitalism and the growth of an urban middle class ineighteenth-century Europe.

In conjunction with the backlash against Buddhismand revival of Confucianism that began under the Tangand intensified under the Song, women entered a longperiod of cultural subordination, legal disenfranchise-ment, and social restriction. Merchants spent long peri-ods away from home, and many maintained severalwives in different locations. Frequently they dependedon wives to manage their homes and even their busi-nesses in their absence. But though women took on re-sponsibility for the management of their husbands’property, their own property rights suffered legal ero-sion. Under Song law, a woman’s property automaticallypassed to her husband, and women could not remarry iftheir husbands divorced them or died.

The subordination of women proved compatiblewith Confucianism, and it became fashionable to edu-cate girls just enough to read simplified versions of Con-fucian philosophy that emphasized the lowly role ofwomen. Modest education made these young womenmore desirable as companions for the sons of gentry ornoble families, and as literate mothers in lower rankingfamilies aspiring to improve their status. Only rarely dida woman of extremely high station with unusual per-sonal determination, as well as uncommon encourage-ment from father and husband, manage to acquireextensive education and freedom to pursue the literaryarts. The poet Li Qingzhao˚ (1083–1141) acknowledgedand made fun of her unusual status as a highly cele-brated female writer:

Although I’ve studied poetry for thirty years I try to keep my mouth shut and avoid reputation. Now who is this nosy gentleman talking about my

poetry Like Yang Ching-chih˚ Who spoke of Hsiang Ssu˚ everywhere he went.5

Her reference is to a hermit poet of the ninth centurywho was continually and extravagantly praised by acourt official, Yang Ching-chih.

Female footbinding first appeared among slavedancers at the Tang court, but it did not become wide-spread until the Song period. The bindings forced thetoes under and toward the heel, so that the bones even-

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tually broke and the woman could not walk on her own.In noble and gentry families, footbinding began betweenages five and seven. In less wealthy families, girls workeduntil they were older, so footbinding began only in agirl’s teens.

Many literate men condemned the maiming of in-nocent girls and the general uselessness of footbinding.Nevertheless, bound feet became a status symbol. By1200 a woman with unbound feet had become undesir-able in elite circles, and mothers of elite status, or aspir-ing to such status, almost without exception bound theirdaughters’ feet. They knew that girls with unbound feetfaced rejection by society, by prospective husbands, andultimately by their own families. Working women andthe indigenous peoples of the south, where northernpractices took a longer time to penetrate, did not prac-tice footbinding. As a consequence, they enjoyed con-siderably more mobility and economic independencethan did elite Chinese women.

NEW KINGDOMS IN EAST ASIA

With the rival states to the northeast and northweststrongly oriented toward Buddhism, the best

possibilities for expanding the Confucian worldview ofthe Song lay with newly emerging kingdoms to the eastand south. Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, like Song China,depended on agriculture. The cultivation of rice, an in-creasingly widespread crop, fit well with Confucian so-cial ideas. Tending the young rice plants, irrigating therice paddies, and managing the harvest required coordi-nation among many village and kin groups and re-warded hierarchy, obedience, and self-discipline.

Since Han times Confucianism had spread throughEast Asia with the spread of the Chinese writing system.Political ideologies in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam variedsomewhat from those of Song China, however. Thesethree East Asian neighbors had first centralized powerunder ruling houses in the early Tang period, and theirstate ideologies continued to resemble that of the earlyTang, when Buddhism and Confucianism were still seenas compatible.

Government offices in Korea, Japan, and Vietnamwent to noble families and did not depend on passing anelaborate set of examinations on Confucian texts. Never-theless, members of the ruling and landholding elitesought to instill Confucian ideals of hierarchy and har-mony among the general population. The elite in everycountry learned to read Chinese and the Confucianclassics, and Chinese characters contributed to locally

invented writing systems (see Environment and Tech-nology: Writing in East Asia, 600–1200).

A land of mountains, partic-ularly in the east and north,Korea was largely covered by

forest until modern times. Less than 20 percent of theland, mostly in the warmer south, is suitable for agricul-ture. In the early 500s the dominant landholding familiesmade inherited status—the “bone ranks”—permanentin Silla˚, a kingdom in the southeast of the peninsula. In668 the larger Koguryo kingdom in the north came to anend after prolonged conflict with the Sui and Tang, andwith Tang encouragement, Silla took control of much ofthe Korean peninsula. Silla could not stand by itself with-out Tang support, however, so after the fall of the Tangin the early 900s, the ruling house of Koryo˚, from whichthe modern name “Korea” derives, united the peninsula.At constant threat from the Liao and then the Jin, Koryopursued amicable relations with Song China. The Koryokings supported Buddhism and made superb printededitions of Buddhist texts.

Woodblock printing exemplifies the technologicalexchanges that Korea enjoyed with China. The oldestsurviving woodblock print in Chinese characters comesfrom Korea in the middle 700s. Commonly used duringthe Tang period, woodblock printing required greattechnical skill. A calligrapher would write the text on thinpaper, which would then be pasted upside down on ablock of wood. When the paper was wetted, the charac-ters showed through from the back, and an artisan wouldcarve away the wooden surface surrounding each char-acter. A fresh block had to be carved for each printedpage. Korean artisans developed their own advances inprinting. By Song times, Korean experiments with mov-able type reached China, where further improvementsled to metal or porcelain type from which texts could becheaply printed.

Japan consists of four main is-lands and many smaller onesstretching in an arc from as far

south as Georgia to as far north as Maine. The nearestpoint of contact with the Asian mainland lies 100 milesaway in southern Korea. In early times Japan was evenmore mountainous and heavily forested than Korea,and only 11 percent of its land area was suitable forcultivation.

Japan

Korea

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An ideographic writing system that originated in Chinabecame a communications tool throughout East Asia.

Variations on this system, based more on depictions ofmeanings than representations of sound, spread widely bythe time of the Sui and Tang Empires. Many East Asianpeoples adapted ideographic techniques to writing lan-guages unrelated to Chinese in grammar or sound.

The Vietnamese, Koreans, and Japanese often simplifiedChinese characters and associated them with the sounds oftheir own non-Chinese languages. For instance, the Chinesecharacter an, meaning “peace” (Fig. 1), was pronounced “an”in Japanese and was familiar as a Chinese character to Con-fucian scholars in Japan’s Heian (hay-ahn) period. However,nonscholars simplified the character and used it to write theJapanese sound “a” (Fig. 2). A set of more than thirty of thesesyllabic symbols adapted from Chinese characters could rep-resent the inflected forms (forms with grammatical endings)of any Japanese word. Murasaki Shikibu used such a syllabicsystem when she wrote The Tale of Genji.

In Vietnam and later in northern Asia, phonetic and ideo-graphic elements combined in new ways. The apparent circlesin some chu nom writing from Vietnam (Fig. 3) derive from theChinese character for “mouth” and indicate a primary soundassociation for the word. The Khitans, who spoke a languagerelated to Mongolian, developed an ideographic system of

their own, inspired by Chinese characters. The Chinese charac-ter wang (Fig. 4), meaning “king, prince, ruler,” was changed torepresent the Khitan word for “emperor” by adding an upwardstroke representing a “superior” ruler (Fig. 5). Because the sys-tem was ideographic, we do not know the pronunciation ofthis Khitan word. The Khitan character for “God” or “Heaven”adds a top stroke representing the “supreme” ruler or power tothe character meaning “ruler” (Fig. 6). Though inspired by Chi-nese characters, Khitan writings could not be read by anyonewho was not specifically educated in them.

The Khitans developed another system to represent thesounds and grammar of their language. They used small, sim-plified elements arranged within an imaginary frame to indi-cate the sounds in any word. This idea might have come fromthe phonetic script used by the Uighurs. Here (Fig. 7) we seethe word for horse in a Khitan inscription. Fitting sound ele-ments within a frame also occurred later in hangul, the Ko-rean phonetic system introduced in the 1400s. Here (Fig. 8)we see the two words making up the country name “Korea.”

The Chinese writing system served the Chinese elite well.But peoples speaking unrelated languages continually exper-imented with the Chinese invention to produce new ways ofexpressing themselves. Some of the resulting sound-basedwriting systems remain in common use; others are still beingdeciphered.

Writing in East Asia, 600–1200

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Taika (TIE-kah) Nara (NAH-rah)

Japan’s earliest history, like Korea’s, comes from Chi-nese records. In the mid-600s the rulers based at Yamato,on the central plain of Honshu island, implemented theTaika˚ and other reforms, giving the Yamato regime thekey features of Tang government, which they knew ofthrough embassies to Chang’an: a legal code, an officialvariety of Confucianism, and an official reverence forBuddhism. Within a century a centralized government

with a complex system of law had emerged, as attestedby a massive history in the Confucian style. The Japanesemastered Chinese building techniques so well that Nara˚and Kyoto, Japan’s early capitals, provide invaluable evi-dence of the wooden architecture long since vanishedfrom China. During the eighth century Japan in someways surpassed China in Buddhist studies. In 752 digni-taries from all over Mahayana Buddhist Asia gathered at

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the enormous Todaiji temple, near Nara, to celebrate the“eye-opening” of the “Great Buddha” statue.

Japanese admiration of Chinese culture did notextend to everything, however. Though the Japaneseadopted Chinese building styles and some street plans,Japanese cities were built without walls. Unlike China,central Japan was not plagued by constant warfare. Also,the Confucian Mandate of Heaven, which justified dy-nastic changes, played no role in legitimating Japanesegovernment. The tenno—often called “emperor” inEnglish—belonged to a family believed to have ruledJapan since the beginning of known history. The dy-nasty never changed. The royal family endured becausethe emperors seldom wielded political power. A primeminister and the leaders of the native religion, in latertimes called Shinto, the “way of the gods,” exercised realcontrol.

In 794 the central government moved to Kyoto, usu-ally called by its ancient name, Heian. Legally central-ized government lasted there until 1185, though powerbecame decentralized toward the end. Members of theFujiwara˚ family—an ancient family of priests, bureau-crats, and warriors—controlled power and protected theemperor. Fujiwara dominance favored men of Confu-cian learning over the generally illiterate warriors. No-blemen of the Fujiwara period read the Chinese classics,appreciated painting and poetry, and refined their senseof wardrobe and interior decoration.

Pursuit of an aesthetic way of life prompted the Fuji-wara nobles to entrust responsibility for local govern-ment, policing, and tax collection to their warriors.Though often of humble origins, a small number ofwarriors had achieved wealth and power by the late1000s. By the middle 1100s the nobility had lost control,and civil war between rival warrior clans engulfed thecapital.

Like other East Asian states influenced by Confu-cianism, the elite families of Fujiwara Japan did not en-courage education for women. However, this did notprevent the exceptional woman from having a strongcultural impact. The hero of the celebrated Japanesenovel The Tale of Genji, written around the year 1000 bythe noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu, remarks: “Womenshould have a general knowledge of several subjects, butit gives a bad impression if they show themselves to beattached to a particular branch of learning.”6

Fujiwara noblewomen lived in near-total isolation,generally spending their time on cultural pursuits andthe study of Buddhism. To communicate with their fam-ilies or among themselves, they depended on writing.

The simplified syllabic script that they used representedthe Japanese language in its fully inflected form (theChinese classical script used by Fujiwara men could notdo so). Loneliness, free time, and a ready instrument forexpression produced an outpouring of poetry, diaries,and storytelling by women of the Fujiwara era. Theirbest-known achievement, however, remains Murasaki’sportrait of Fujiwara court culture.

Military values acquired increasing importance dur-ing the period 1156–1185, when warfare between rivalclans culminated in the establishment of the Kamakura˚shogunate, the first of three decentralized military gov-ernments, in eastern Honshu, far from the old religiousand political center at Kyoto. The standing of the Fuji-wara family fell as nobles and the emperor hurried toaccommodate the new warlords. The Tale of the Heike,an anonymously composed thirteenth-century epic ac-count of the clan war, reflects an appreciation of the Bud-dhist doctrine of the impermanence of worldly things, aview that became common at that time among a newwarrior class. This new class, in later times called samu-rai, eventually absorbed some of the Fujiwara aristocraticvalues, but the ascendancy of the nonmilitary civil elitehad come to an end.

Occupying the coastal regionseast of the mountainous spineof mainland Southeast Asia,

Vietnam’s economic and political life centered on twofertile river valleys, the Red River in the north and theMekong˚ in the south. Agriculture was also possiblein many smaller coastal areas where streams from themountains—torrents during the monsoon season—flowed down to the sea. The rice-based agriculture ofVietnam made the region well suited for integration withsouthern China. As in southern China, the wet climateand hilly terrain of Vietnam demanded expertise inirrigation.

In Tang and Song times the elites of “Annam˚”—asthe Chinese called early Vietnam—adopted Confucianbureaucratic training, Mahayana Buddhism, and otheraspects of Chinese culture. Annamese elites continuedto rule in the Tang style after that dynasty’s fall. Annamassumed the name Dai Viet˚ in 936 and maintained goodrelations with Song China as an independent country.

Champa, located largely in what is now southernVietnam, rivaled the Dai Viet state. The cultures of In-dia and Malaya strongly influenced Champa through

Vietnam

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the networks of trade and communication that encom-passed the Indian Ocean. During the Tang periodChampa had hostile relations with Dai Viet, but bothkingdoms cooperated with the less threatening Song,the former as a voluntary tributary state. Among the trib-ute gifts brought to the Song court by Champa emis-saries was Champa rice (originally from India). Chinesefarmers soon made use of this fast-maturing variety toimprove their yields of the essential crop.

Vietnam shared the Confucian interest in hierarchythat was also evident in Korea and Japan, but attitudestoward women, like those in the other two countries, dif-fered from the Chinese model. None of the societiesadopted the Chinese practice of footbinding. In Koreastrong family alliances that functioned like political andeconomic organizations allowed women a role in nego-tiating and disposing of property. Before the adoption ofConfucianism, Annamese women had enjoyed higherstatus than women in China, perhaps because bothwomen and men participated in wet-rice cultivation.

CONCLUSION

The reunification of China under the Sui and Tangtriggered major changes both within China and in

neighboring lands. Connections across Inner Asia andTibet facilitated the flow of cultural and economic influ-ences into China. Diversity within the empire producedgreat wealth and new ideas, and the dominant positionof the Tang in the entire region led neighboring peoplesin Korea, Japan, and Vietnam to imitate their practices.In time, however, internal tensions and foreign militarypressure from the Uighurs and Tibetans weakened theTang political structure and touched off rebellions thateventually doomed the empire.

The post-Tang fragmentation reduced the degree ofChinese domination in East Asia. Combining indigenoustraditions and ideas borrowed from the Tang, neigh-boring peoples experimented with and often improvedupon Tang military, architectural, and scientific tech-nologies. The Jin, Tangguts, and Jurchens pursued theserefinements on the basis of Buddhism as the state ideol-ogy. But they were not averse to adopting bureaucraticpractices based on Chinese traditions and military tech-niques combining nomadic horsemanship and strate-gies with Chinese armaments and weapons. Korea,Japan, and Vietnam became much more closely weddedto Confucian models of state and society.

In Song China the spread of Tang technologicalknowledge resulted in the privatization of commerce,

major advances in technology and industry, increasedproductivity in agriculture, and deeper exploration ofideas relating to time, cosmology, and mathematics. Thebrilliant achievements of the Song period came frommutually reinforcing developments in economy andtechnology. Avoiding the Tang’s discouragement of in-novation and competition, the Song economy, thoughmuch smaller than its predecessor, showed great pro-ductivity, circulating goods and money throughout EastAsia and stimulating the economies of neighboringstates. In terms of industrial specialization, Song Chinaexcelled in military technology, engineering of all kinds,and production of iron and coal.

All the East Asian societies made advances in agri-cultural technology and productivity. All raised their lit-eracy rates after the improvement of printing. Buildingon knowledge derived from Tang and Song sources,Japan went beyond China in developing advanced tech-niques in steel making, and Korea excelled in textiles andagriculture and produced major innovations in printing.

In the long run Song China could not maintain theequilibrium necessary to sustain its own prosperity andthat of the region. Constant military challenges from thenorth eventually overwhelmed Song finances, and theneed to buy high-quality steel from Japan caused a drainof copper coinage. When historians compare Song Chinawith eighteenth-century Great Britain, another societythat achieved unprecedented industrial production andtechnological innovation, they speculate about the rea-sons China progressed to such high levels of achieve-ment and then tapered off while developments in Britaininteracted with those in other European countries toproduce an industrial revolution. No one can answersuch questions conclusively, but the complex characterof interrelationships among the East Asian and InnerAsian states as a whole, and the differing views of theworld presented by Buddhism and neo-Confucianismsurely played important roles.

■ Key TermsLi Shimin

Tang Empire

Grand Canal

tributary system

bubonic plague

Uighurs

Tibet

Song Empire

junk

gunpowder

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neo-Confucianism

Zen

movable type

Koryo

Fujiwara

Kamakura shogunate

Champa rice

■ Suggested ReadingOn Inner Asia see the bibliography for Chapter 7 relating to theSilk Road. In addition, Denis Sinor, ed., The Cambridge Historyof Early Inner Asia (1990), and M. S. Asimov and C. E. Bosworth,eds., History of Civilizations of Central Asia:Volume IV—The Ageof Achievement, A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century—Part Two, the Achievements (2000), contain articles on manytopics. Thomas Barfield, The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Em-pires and China (1992), is an anthropologist’s view of the broadrelationship between pastoralists and agriculturists in the re-gion. Susan Whitfield’s Life Along the Silk Road (2001) uses fic-tional travelers as a narrative device but is solidly based ondocumentary research.

Arthur F. Wright, The Sui Dynasty (1978), is a very readable nar-rative of the reunification of China in the sixth century. TheTang Empire is the topic of a huge literature, but for a variety ofenduring essays see Arthur F. Wright and David Twitchett, eds.,Perspectives on the T’ang (1973). On Tang contacts with the cul-tures of Central, South, and Southeast Asia see Edward Schaef-fer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand (1963), The VermilionBird (1967), and Pacing the Void (1977). For an introduction tomedieval Tibet see Rolf Stein, Tibetan Civilization (1972). Onthe Uighurs see Colin MacKarras, The Uighur Empire (1968).

There is comparatively little secondary work in English on theCentral and northern Asian empires that succeeded the Tang.But for a classic text see Karl Wittfogel and Chia-sheng Feng,History of Chinese Society: Liao (1949). On the Jurchen Jin, seeJin-sheng Tao, The Jurchens in Twelfth Century China, and onthe Tangguts see Ruth Dunnell, The State of High and White:Buddhism and the State in Eleventh-Century Xia (1996). MorrisRossabi, ed., China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and ItsNeighbors, 10th–14th Centuries (1983), deals with post-Tangrelationships more broadly.

On the Song there is a large volume of material, particularly re-lating to technological achievements. For an introduction tothe monumental work of Joseph Needham see Science in Tradi-tional China (1981). A classic thesis on Song advancement (andMing backwardness) is Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese

Past (1973), particularly Part II. Joel Mokyr, The Lever of Riches(1990), is a more recent comparative treatment. Agriculture isthe special concern of Francesca Bray, The Rice Economies:Technology and Development in Asian Societies (1994).

For neo-Confucianism and Buddhism see W. T. de Bary, W-TChan, and B. Watson, compilers, Sources of Chinese Tradition,vol. 1, 2d ed. (1999), as well as Arthur F. Wright, Buddhism inChinese History (1983). On religion more broadly see Robert P.Hymes, Way and Byway: Taoism, Local Religion, and Models ofDivinity in Sung China (2002). On social and economic historysee Miyazaki Ichisada, China’s Examination Hell (1971); Richardvon Glahn, The Land of Streams and Grottoes (1987); and Patri-cia Ebery, The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of ChineseWomen in the Sung Period (1993). On the poet Li Qingzhao seeHu Pin-ch’ing, Li Ch’ing-chao (1966).

On the history of Korea see Andrew C. Nahm, Introduction toKorean History and Culture (1993), and Ki-Baik Kim, A New His-tory of Korea (1984). Yongho Ch’oe et al., eds., include excerptsfrom many historical works in Sources of Korean Tradition(2000). An excellent introduction to Japanese history is Paul H.Varley, Japanese Culture (1984). Selections of relevant docu-ments may be found in David John Lu, Sources of Japanese His-tory, vol. 1 (1974), and R. Tsunoda, W. T. de Bary, and D. Keene,compilers, Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 1 (1964). Ivan Mor-ris, The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan(1979), is a classic introduction to the literature and culture ofFujiwara Japan at the time of the composition of MurasakiShikibu’s The Tale of Genji. For Vietnam see Keith Weller Taylor,The Birth of Vietnam (1983).

■ Notes1. Master Tung’s Western Chamber Romance, tr. Li-li Ch’en

(New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 22, 42–43,45–46.

2. Arthur Waley, Poetry and Career of Li Po (London: UnwinHyman, 1954), 35.

3. Theodore de Bary, ed., Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1,2d ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 584.

4. Quoted in David Lattimore, “Allusion in T’ang Poetry,” inPerspectives on the T’ang, ed. Arthur F. Wright and DavidTwitchett (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973), 436.

5. Quoted at “Women’s Early Music, Art, Poetry,” http://music.acu.edu/www/iawm/pages/reference/tzusongs.html.

6. Quoted in Ivan Morris, The World of the Shining Prince:Court Life in Ancient Japan (New York: Penguin Books,1979), 221–222.

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DOCUMENT 5The Players (photo, p. 260)

DOCUMENT 6Excerpt from a poem by Li Qingzhao (p. 260)

Which documents seem to provide an idealizedor sanitized representation of women in Tang andSong China? What additional types of documentswould provide a more realistic view of their statusand roles?

Document-Based QuestionWomen in Tangand Song ChinaUsing the following documents, analyze the factorsthat influenced the status and roles of women inTang and Song China.

DOCUMENT 1Law and Society in Tang China (Diversity and Dominance,pp. 248–249)

DOCUMENT 2Tang Women at Polo (photo, p. 250)

DOCUMENT 3Women of Turfan Grinding Flour (photo, p. 252)

DOCUMENT 4Going up the River (photo, p. 258)

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