introduction sui dynasty 589-618 reunification tang dynasty 618-907 high point in poetry influenced...
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IntroductionSui Dynasty 589-618
Reunification
Tang Dynasty 618-907High point in poetryInfluenced Japan, Korea, Vietnam
Song Dynasty 960-1279Most brilliant age in philosophy since Zhou
Yuan Dynasty 1279-1368Empire
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Move to Reunification
After confusion of Six Dynasties periodPush for re-creation of centralized bureaucratic empire modeled on earlier Han state
First steps taken by Northern Wei 386-534Northern Sino-Turkic state
Moved court to Luoyang
Made Chinese the language of the court
Adopted Chinese dress and surnames
Imposed new land tax
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Sui Dynasty 589-618Sui Wendi - d. 605
General of mixed Chinese-Turkish ancestry
Unification and reestablishment of centralized bureaucratic governmentGreat Wall rebuiltGrand Canal constructed
Linked Yellow and Yangtze Rivers
Similar to earlier QinShort-lived military dynasties restored order
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Tang Dynasty 618-907First Tang emperor - former Sui provincial governor
Retook Sui capital and renamed it Chang’an
Emperor reconciled conflicting sets of interestsBureaucratic government centralized under himConcessions to the aristocrats
• Tax system• “Equal field system”• Exemptions• Aristocrats as high officials
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Governmental Structure
Organization under three organsMilitary Affairs - supervised armies
Censorate - watchdog functions
Council of State - met daily with emperor• Secretariat - drafted policies
• Chancellery - reviewed policies
• State Affairs - carried out policies Six Ministries - core of central government
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Empress Wu 626-706Originally concubine for the second emperorBecame empress of third Tang emperor
Poisoned or eliminated all rivalsRegent for her son for seven years
Deposed him and ruled as emperor herselfOnly woman in Chinese history to hold titleMoved court to Luoyang
Fervent Buddhist and built templesScholars of the North Gate
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Chang’an of Xuan-Zong
Xuan-Zong - r. 713-756Reformed government financesGrand Canal repairedNew census
Splendor of Chang’anPopulation of one millionTrading centerGreat walls enclosed thirty square miles
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Tang Empire
Territorial expansion and contractionThreats from Tibetans, Turks, Mongols
Four tier policy to protect bordersSent armies if all else failed
Alliances with nomads against nomads
Border defense, including Great Wall
Bring enemy into empire as tributary state• Significance of embassies• Access to Tang culture and technology
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Rebellion and DeclineProblems with Manchurians, Tibetans, ArabsAn Lushan RebellionOrder restored with aid of Uighur TurksLand reform
Equal field system eliminatedReplaced with fixed quota on each province
More warsBandits and warlordsCollapse in 907
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Tang CultureCosmopolitan because of its opennessFlow of Indian art and philosophiesWidespread commercial contactsNew religions - Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Judaism, IslamCentral Asian music and musical instrumentsGolden age of Buddhism in China
Spread of temples and monasteriesTemples served as schools, inns, bathhouses
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Buddhist SectsTiantai sect was principal in early TangMaitreya - a Buddha of the future
Will appear and create a paradise on earth
Amitabha - Lord of the Pure LandSalvation by reliance on Amitabha
Chan (Zen in Japan)Buddha was a human teacherEnlightenment by each individual’s effortsRegimen of physical labor and meditation
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Secular Scholarship
Tang culture marked the reappearance of secular scholarship and letters
Scholarly-bureaucratic complex emerged
Expansive production of poetry
Official history of the previous dynasty
Compilation of dictionaries
Commentaries on Confucian classics
Ghost stories and tales of adventures
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Li Bo - 701-762Un-Buddhist, Daoist?Swordsman and carouser
“Bring on the Wine” “Drinking Alone in the Moonlight”
Poetry is clear, powerful, passionateSensitive to beautySense of fantasyLife is brief and universe is large
Along with Du Fu - greatest poets
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Du Fu - 712-770
Un-Buddhist, Stoic in nature?
Friend of Li Bo
Life of hardshipFailed metropolitan exams, poverty
Captured by An Lushan rebels
Poetry is less lyrical and more allusive than Li BoMore compassion for human suffering
Humans are short-lived and nature endures
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Song Dynasty 960-1279
Reunified China in 960Northern Song 960-1127
• Capital at Kaifeng
Southern Song 1127-1279• Capital at Hangzhou
Continued changes begun in Tang era in economy, state, society and culture
These changes help explain why China did not lapse into disunity after eventual collapse
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Agricultural RevolutionAristocracy weakenedFarmers could buy and sell land
Taxes paid in moneyConscription disappeared
Changes in technologyNew early-ripening rice - double croppingWater control projectsTea, cotton
Appearance of scholar-gentry class
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Agriculture: Fast-ripening rice
As Tang and Song armies ventured into Vietnam, they encountered fast-ripening rice
Allowed two crops per year
When introduced into the fertile fields of southern China, fast-ripening rice quickly expanded the food supply
Chinese characters for “rice field”
New Agricultural TechniquesHeavy iron plows
Harnessed oxen and water buffaloes
Enriched soil with manure and composted organic matter
Extensive irrigation systemsReservoirs, dikes, dams, pumps, water wheels
Artificial irrigation greatly increased agricultural production which led to a rapid population expansion
Commercial RevolutionSong economy reached new prosperityEmergence of Yangzi basinNew technology and innovations
Coal and iron-smelting industryPrintingAbacus, gunpowder, textiles, porcelainsLetters of credit and paper money
TradeUrbanization - Kaifeng, Hangzhou
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Cities
Increased food supplies encouraged the growth of citiesDuring the Tang Dynasty, the imperial capital of Chang’an was the world’s most populous city
Perhaps two million residents
During the Song Dynasty, the capital of Hangzhou had over a million residents
Southern terminus of the Grand Canal
Economic Exchange: Letters of Credit
Trade grew so rapidly during the Tang and Song era that copper coin shortages developed
Traders began issuing letters of credit (“flying cash”) as an alternative
Enabled merchants to deposit goods or cash at one location and draw the equivalent cash or merchandise somewhere else
Coin from Tang Dynasty
Economic Exchange: Paper Money• The search for
alternatives to cash also led to the invention of paper money
• During the late ninth century, wealthy merchants began accepting cash from their clients and issuing them printed notes that the clients could redeem for merchandise
• Greatly facilitated commercial transactions
Economic Exchange: Tea
Tea trading flourished during Tang and Song era
Tea was compressed into bricks and used as money
Specialization
Increased urbanization brought a host of specialized activities to the cities
Merchants, artisans, metallurgists, printers, chemists, craftsmen, textile workers, performers, restaurateurs, etc
China’s various regions specialized in the cultivation of particular food crops and traded their own products for imports from other regions
The government developed a specialized class of bureaucrats
New Technologies
Song porcelain Cannon ca. 1368
New Technologies: PorcelainTang craftsmen discovered how to produce porcelain which was lighter, thinner, and adaptable to more uses than earlier pottery
Strong enough and attractive enough to serve utilitarian or aesthetic purposes
Tang and Song products gained such a reputation that porcelain is commonly called “chinaware”
Tang Marble Glazed Porcelain Figure
New Technologies: PrintingBecame common in Tang eraEarliest printers used block-printing techniques
Carved a reverse image of an entire page into a wooden block, inked the block, then pressed a sheet of paper on top of it
By the mid-eleventh century, printers began to experiment with movable type
Fashioned dies in the shape of ideographs, arranged them in a frame, inked them, and pressed the frame over paper sheetsSpeeded up the process and allowed printers to make revisions and correctionsFacilitated production and distribution of texts quickly, cheaply, and in large quantities
I Impact of Movable TypeAllowed large production and distribution of
Buddhist texts
Confucian works
Calendars
Agricultural treatises
Popular works
New Technologies: GunpowderDuring the Tang era, Daoist alchemists learned it was dangerous to mix charcoal, saltpeter, sulphur, and arsenic
Military officials saw possibilities
By the tenth-century, the Tang military was using gunpowder in bamboo “fire lances,” a kind of flame thrower and by the eleventh century they had made primitive bombs
Song Government
Age of autocracyEmperors had direct personal control over more offices than Tang predecessorsCentral government better funded
• Monopolies on salt, wine, tea• Commerce as vital source of revenues
Disappearance of the aristocracy• Officials were commoners• Mostly products of the examination system
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Examination System50% of officials selected by examinationsStructure of examination process
Regional to Metropolitan to Palace
Nature of examinationsMemorize Confucian classicsInterpret selected passagesWrite in literary styleCompose poems on given themesPropose solutions based on Confucianism
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Social Hierarchy: Song BureaucracySong rulers mistrusted the military so they placed more emphasis on civil administration
Scholar bureaucrats proved to have limited military expertise and Song was vulnerable to military aggression
Song increased centralization and built an enormous bureaucracy
Devoured China’s surplus production and strained the treasury
Efforts to raise taxes led to two peasant rebellions Wang Anshi unsuccessfully
attempted socioeconomic reforms during the Song era
Song CulturePreconditions for rich Song culture
Rising economy, more schools, higher literacy, spread of printing
More narrowly Chinese than TangSong culture less aristocratic and Buddhist
Greatest age in pottery and porcelainsGreat age in history
Sima Guang 1019-1086Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government
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Song PhilosophySecond only to Zhou in philosophyZhu Xi - 1130-1200
Studied Confucianism, Buddhism, DaoismJoined Confucianism to certain Buddhist and native metaphysical elementsDeepening its social and political ethics
His Confucianism the standard for examinationsMade religion or metaphysics serve philosophy
“Great ultimate” and “quiet sitting”
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Art and Writing
• The ruling and elite classes of the Tang and Song Dynasties were major supporters of Chinese painting. – Sought elaborate and
ornate art with political and educational significance
– Stressed realism
Art and Writing
• Eighth Century was a golden age in Chinese poetry
• Du Fu (712-770 A.D.) is often considered China’s greatest poet
• Other great poets of the Tang era were Wang Wei (699 – 761) andLi Bo (701 – 762)
Passing the Night at Headquarters
Clear autumn at headquarters,wu-tung trees cold beside the well;
I spend the night alone in the river city, using up all of the candles.
Sad bugle notes sound through the long night as I talk to myself;
glorious moon hanging in mid-sky but who looks?
Song Poetry and Painting
Poetry some of China’s bestSu Dungpo - 1037-1101
• Painter, calligrapher, wrote commentaries• Social control through morality
Painting and calligraphy equally appreciated
Varied types of paintingLandscape was crowning achievement
• Small human figures in vast natural universe• Vision of an inner reality
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Rise of the Mongol Empire
Mongols a nomadic people north of ChinaYurts, clans, shamansExtraordinary horsemen
Temujin - 1167-1227Genghis Khan (Jenghiz or Chinggis)
• United Mongol tribes• Reorganized military forces
Nomadic cavalry and compound bow Pledges of personal loyalty
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Mongol Expansion
Great Khans in ChinaGenghis Khan captured Beijing in 1227Originally mainly interested in plunderNew dynasty in 1271 - YuanSouthern China falls in 1279
Chagatai Khans in Central AsiaGolden Horde in RussiaIlkhans in Persia
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Yuan Dynasty 1271-1368
Kublai KhanGrandson of Genghis Khan
Moved capital from Karakorum to Beijing
Founded Yuan dynasty in 1271
Mixture of cultural elementsChinese custom of hereditary succession
Beijing - Cambulac - “the city of the khan”• Chinese segregated in adjoining walled city
Summer palace at Shangdu (Xanadu)
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Yuan Governmental StructureCivil administration highly centralized
Move towards absolutism
Military service a monopoly of MongolsClassification in appointing civil officials
Highest - MongolsSecond - Persians, Turks, other non-ChineseThird - northern ChineseLowest - southern Chinese
Mongols took an easier examination
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Foreign Impact and CultureDiplomacy and trade brought contactPersia and Arab world especially important
Arab communities in GunagzhouCamel caravans carrying silk
Printing, gunpowder spread to western AsiaMarco Polo
Served Kublai Khan as official, 1275-1292A Description of the WorldIncreased European interest in geography
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Religion and the MongolsMongol toleration of religionsNestorian Christianity
Mother of Kublai Khan was Nestorian
Papal missionsTibetan Buddhism most favoredChinese Buddhism also flourishedIslam made greatest gains
Established in Central Asia and western China
Confucianism regarded as religion
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Decline of the Yuan DynastyRapid decline after Kublai KhanDifferent khanates separated by religion and culture
Mongols thought Great Khans too ChineseChinese viewed Yuan as foreign oppressors
Heavy taxesCorrupt officialsWhite Lotus and other rebellionsRise of warlords and eventual collapse
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