Tang and Song Dynasties and their Legacies

POST-CLASSICAL CHINA

Chinese DynastiesPostclassical era: SuiTangSongYuanMing

Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE)•Wendi: first (of only two) Sui emperors• Greatest Accomplishment: Grand Canal • 1000 mile waterway links northern cities with southern, rice-

producing regions, linking two great rivers, Yangtze and Yellow• Rebuilt the Great Wall• Downfall: overworked

and overtaxed its people. • Second and final Sui emperor

assassinated

Tang Dynasty (618-907)Famous emperors:Tang Taizong (Li Shimin): Second Emperor

• Empress Wu Zetian• (Wu Zhao):

China’s first and only Female emperor

Achievements of the Tang Dynasty• Expansion of empire to restore northern and western lands• Control over Korea (668)• Strengthened central government• Expansion of roads and canals • Promotion of foreign trade • Agricultural improvements• Revival of civil service exam• Fall of Tang: overtaxed people; overextended empire; Muslim victories in Central Asia; Chinese rebels sack Ch’ang-an in 907

Song Dynasty (960-1127) and Southern Song (1127-1279)• Restores unity: rival warlords divide China after fall of Tang• Smaller empire, but stable and prosperous• Manchurian people (Jurchen) conquered northern lands, established Jin Empire

Hallmarks of the Song Dynasty• Tea and rice become “typically” Chinese (replacing wheat, millet and wine of Tang Dynasty)• First population exlplosion• Foot binding for women becomes widespread

Achievements of the Tang and Song Era“Golden Age” of China• Science and Technology: • Moveable type (printing)• Gunpowder• Porcelain• Mechanical clock• Paper money• Magnetic compass—sailing• Agriculture• Import and cultivation of fast-ripening rice from Vietnam• Flourishing trade (Silk Roads’ second major era)• Development of sea trade with Korea, Japan, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Africa• Golden Age of poetry and art

Heavy Snow on Mount Guan by Hsu Dao-Ning

Magpies and Hare by Tsui Bai

Thousand Li of River and Mountains by Wang Hsi-Meng

Classic Landscape

Chinese Societal Changes in Tang and Song• Increasing social mobility• Urbanization • Formation of gentry class (upper) via rigorous civil service

exam• Decline of old aristocratic family power• Urban middle class• Laborers, soldiers, servants• Peasants

Women in Tang and Song Dynasties•Tang era women have more freedom, participate more in social life (Steppe nomads influence)•Reversion in Song Dynasty to more patriarchal control•Revival of Confucianism •Economic growth• Textile industry takes over traditional weaving work of rural women

•Upper class women in cities see biggest decline in status •Concubines, courtesans, prostitutes on the rise as prosperity increases in elite families, reduces wives’ negotiating power

•Foot binding represents status, wealth, beauty

“Chinese Girl with Bound Feet”

What Is Foot binding?

Picture Source: BBC The Guide to Life, the Universe and Everything;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1155872

X-rays of Bound Feet

Credit: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Why did women bind their feet? • Standards of beauty• Marriageable• Status symbol•Way to control women

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942

Zhou Guizhen, 86, says she regrets binding her feet. "But at the time, if you didn't bind your feet, no one would marry you," she says.

Lotus shoes for women with bound feet

Just how big is a lotus shoe?

The Chinese Xinhua News Agency announced, in 1998, that the last factory to manufacture shoes for

bound-feet women in Harbin, China, had ended production.

The End