ChinaTang and

Song

What impact did China have upon the World?

How was China the focal point of Asia?

Sui Dynasty• 589- Wendi

– Unites northern and southern China

– Buddhist– Lowered taxes– Granaries – Killed by son

Yangdi[son of Wendi]

– Milder legal system– Promoted scholar-gentry in imperial administration by

• Upgrading Confucian education• Scholar-gentry re-established• Restored examination system

– Grand Canal completed—helps to feed people• 1 million build canal almost half die• Thousands die rebuilding Great Wall

Widespread revolts due to war lossesIn 618 he was murdered by his own ministers

Tang Dynasty

618-907• Reconquers lands in north and west• Extends influence to Korea• Empress Wu

– Only woman to hold title of emperor• Expanded roads and canals• Promoted foreign trade • Promoted agricultural improvements

Confucianism during the Tang Dynasty

• What role did it play?• How were the Scholar-gentry

involved with this?• Was it exclusive?• Was it monitored?

Civil Service examination revived

Scholar-gentry

Special status for office holders

Jinshi = highest offices achieved by passing the more difficult exams on Chinese literature.

Family connection still helpful.

The Examination System

• What was its purpose?• Who administered the exams?• What were the exams based upon?• What does the phrase “examining the

examined” have to do with the exams?• What was the role of families and birth?

Foundations of the scholar-gentry class:

1. wealth—primarily through land ownership

2. degree holding—passing exam

Religion• Strong social, economic, and political force• Early Tang continued to patronize Buddhism

while promoting Confucian classics• State patronage of Confucian learning threatened

old aristocratic families and Buddhist monastic orders– Mahayana or pure land

• Refuge from war and turmoil– Chan or Zen

• Appealed to educated• Meditation and appreciated for natural beauty

Empress Wu and Buddhism– Tries to elevate it to status of state religion– Commissions Buddhist paintings and sculptures

Anti-Buddhist Backlash• Attacked by Confucian and Daoist rivals• Scholar-administrators—they posed economic

challenge to imperial order – because monastic land not taxed and therefore they

lost revenue– Lost labor power because they could not conscript

peasants who worked on monastic estates• Restrictions imposed on land and resources for

monastic orders• Restrictions grew into persecution

– Thousands of monasteries and shrines destroyed– Monks and nuns forced to return to civilian life– Survived but never regained political and economic

influence

Buddhist-Confucian Conflict

• Early Tang acceptance of Buddhism– Which leader strengthened it in China?

• Monastery construction• Was this a threat? Yes! To who? Why?• Results• What was the “new” central ideology that

emerged?

Fall of Tang or (Blame it on a Woman)

• Poor leadership--Yang Guifei leads emperor astray

Fall of Tang• Heavy taxation burdens people but still not

enough for military and building projects– 751 defeat at Battle of Talas River against

Muslims • An Lushan led unsuccessful revolt 755• Worsening economic conditions• Border attacks and rebellion• 907 capital sacked

Song Dynasty960-1279

• Paid tributes to northern enemies but failed to stop threat– Khitans from Manchuria

• Their Liao dynasty recognized the Song’s cultural superiority (Sinified)

• Confucian scholar-gentry gain power and status– Number of bureaucrats grew

• High pay• Little to do

Now in the Song era, the bureaucrats are finally more powerful than the aristocratic families and the Buddhists

With the stress on Confucianism

Neo Confucianism– Stressed importance of applying philosophical

principles to everyday life and action– Personal morality highest goal– Virtue could be attained through book learning and

personal observation – Hostility to foreign philosophical systems

• Less receptive to foreign influences and ideas• Stifles innovation and critical thinking as time passes

– Emphasis on rank, tradition, obligation• Reinforced class, age, and gender distinctions

– Patriarchal

Effects of Neo-Confucianism which

endure today1. simplified rituals and behaviours for

each segment of society2. strengthen patriarchy3. spiritual needs acknowledged4. reinforce hierarchies

Decline of Song• Challenges from nomadic peoples from

north continued– Tribute for protection costly– Cost of army

• Emphasis on civil administration and scholar-gentry

• Funds diverted from military needs to scholarly and entertainment pursuits

Wang Anshi as Chief Minister

• Reforms– Legalist basis– Cheap loans and government assisted irrigation

projects to promote agricultural growth– Taxed landlord and scholarly class who had been

exempted from military service– Used money to establish well trained army– Education emphasized critical thinking rather than

rote memorization of classics• Lost support and reforms reversed • Neo-Confucians came to wield greater influence

and ended Wang’s attempts at reform

Southern SongJurchens overthrowKhitans and establish JinDynasty in 1127 • Overran Song territory to

the Yangtze Valley

Southern Song – Rapid economic growth– Merchants grew rich from

trade– Culturally the most glorious

era in Chinese history

Changes in China• Population doubled from Tang-Song

– 100 million– 10 cities with 1 million– Agricultural Advances

• new type of rice helped to feed growing population

Agrarian Production• Peasants encouraged to move to uncultivated

areas• State regulated irrigation • Canals increased markets for crops• New types of rice to feed growing population• Manures• Wheelbarrow• Policies to redistribute land from large

landholders to free peasants– Weakened powerful aristocracy

Commercial Organization and

Imperial Supervision• Cities’ market quarters—local products, artisan production, overseas trade goods• Hours and marketing measures

regulated• Guilds• “deposit shops”—first use of paper money (flying money)• credit

Changan, Song capital

Silk RoadLinked China with west for growing trade

Arab dhow

Chinese junks

Watertight bulkheads, sternpost rudders, oars, sails, compasses, bamboo fenders, gunpowder-propelled rockets for self-defense.

Hangzhou

AdvancementsWoodblock

PrintingTang Dynasty

700’s

Moveable typeSung Dynasty

1040

Paper money1020’s

Gunpowder

800’s

PorcelainLate 700’s

Mechanical clock 700’s

Magnetic compass1100’s

Poetry and Art• Tang poetry

– Praised Confucian virtues and orderliness • Song art

– Daoist influence– Use of black ink

Changes in Society

• More mobile as more move to cities• Civil service=advancement

– Old aristocratic family power declined– Scholar-gentry--officials rose in status– Education rather than land ownership gave status

• Urban middle class– Merchants, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, minor officials

• Urban lower class– Laborers, soldiers, servants

• Peasants– Toiled for wealthy landowners

Women• Always seen as subservient to

men• Decline more during Tang and

Song– Especially upper class in cities

• Women’s work less important to family’s prosperity and status

• Foot binding– Peasant women affected less as

they worked fields and helped produce food and income

The Mongols are Coming!!

1279—Kublai Khan conquers the SouthernSong beginning Mongol rule of China known

as the Yuan Dynasty