CHINA

Unit 7

The Tang Dynasty• Li Yuan• Emperor Tang Taizong• Policies

Tang TaizongLi Yuan

Class Struggle During the Tang Dynasty

• Class distinctions • Disagreements within the ruling class

Tang Government After the Rebellion

• Power of regional administrators

• Power of court eunuchs

• New legal code and administrative procedures

• Backlash against some foreign ideas

A Tang-era Emperor

The Bureaucracy of Merit

• Competitive exams• Altered the class of

people receiving governmental positions

• Conflicts between the new and established officials

• “Rule of Avoidance”

Taking exams in the presence of the emperor

Chang’an’s Splendor• Cosmopolitan city• City design

demonstrated planning and grandeur

• The market• Culture and

pastimes• Architecture

Polo, a game from Persia, was a favorite sport in Chang’an

Tang Innovations

• Printing• Papermaking• Shipbuilding• A variety of

other Chinese inventions

Papermaking

Foreign Interaction• Reestablishment of

tributary relationships

• Contact with southwest Asia

• Changes in clothing

• New pastimes• Diffusion of crops

and foodstuffs• Increasing trade,

including silkWoodcut of a woman winding silk

The Great Peasant Uprising• Land scramble • Displaced many

peasants• Taxes on

peasants• Peasant revolts

in 860 and 874

Depiction of a Chinese peasant revolt

Growing Weakness in the Tang• Moved south• Weakened

imperial economy

• Weakened bureaucracy

• Decreased position of peasants

Weakened agriculture in the north forced many people to emigrate south

Collapse of the Tang Dynasty

• An Lushan Rebellion

• Ineffective control over military and court officials

• Series of rebellions• Usurpation of Tang

power in 907• The Ten Kingdoms

Mounted Khitan noble dressed in Chinese silk

The Song Dynasty• 960–1279• Unification• Prosperity

Emperor Taizu

Song Dynasty, Mid-11th Century

Reestablishment of Central Control under the Song

• Economic recovery

• Established capital at Kaifeng

• Population increased

• Cities recovered

Scene from the capital city of Kaifeng

Governmental Development of the Song

• Recovery of power

• Rebuilt the scholar-gentry

• Emperor appointed new regional leaders

Scholar-philosopher Ouyang Xiu

Age of the Civil Government

• The best and most educated

• Levels of advancement in the exam system

• Officials were regularly evaluated for performance

• Good government and stability

Exam Hall at Nanjing

The Song and the Economy• Improved economy • Expansion• Control over

revenues• Industry

A Chinese coin

The Economy and Foreign Contact

• Korea as tributary state

• Trade increased

Cultivation and processing of tea

Trade and the Song• Sea routes to

southeast Asia and India

• Ports • Navigational

technology• Agriculture• Foreign and

regional tradeSilk was a highly traded commodity in the southern Song

The Song Economy

• Urban centers• Government

revenues• Wealthier than

north• Problems

Marketplaces were popular in Hangzhou, the southern Song capital

Social Structure• Merchants and

artisans became a new class

• Women’s status worsened• Laws• Education

Women were considered a subordinate class in Song

society

Footbinding• Used in the Song

Dynasty by the upper classes to indicate status

• Not a widespread practice

An X-ray of feet exposed to massive footbinding

Song Technological Innovations• Neo-Confucianism

sparked an interest in science

• Agriculture, manufacturing, transportation advances

• Mathematics and timekeeping

Zhu Xi, founder of Neo-Confucianism

Military Advances• Produced strong steel

weapons• Use of iron• Created body armor• Began to use

projectiles and gunpowder

The Chinese used projectiles to counter tribal cavalries

Collapse of the Song• Mongols:

strong cavalry • Defeated the

Jin in 1234• Defeated the

Song and established the Yuan Dynasty in 1279

Mongol horsemen hunting with Kublai Khan

China, the Mongols, and Beyond

• Medieval period ended with collapse of the Song

• Ming restoration• Impact of developments in

medieval China

Genghis Khan, Mongol leader and conqueror