The Tang and SongDynasties

China’s Golden Age

• Disorder• Power Struggles• Defeated by Huns• Defeated Chin fled to

Nanking (317 C.E.) where they ruled as Eastern Chin.

Chin Dynasty (265-420 C.E.)

Northern and Southern Dynasties

420-588 A.D• Period of disunity• Buddhism flourished in the North • Idea of an afterlife appealed to the

peasantry (as well as reincarnation)• Non-Chinese rulers were not committed to

Confucianism or Chinese shamanistic religions

• Confucianism moved South

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The Sui Dynasty 580-618 A.D.

• Expanded empire• Built granaries • Fortified Great Wall of China near the northern

border• Confucianism began to regain popularity as the

nobles gained importance• Unsuccessfully tried to attack Korea four times• This defeat led the Eastern Turks to attack

China and China was split into smaller states

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Aim: Why are the Tang and Song dynasties considered to be a

“Golden Age” period in Chinese history?

T'ang 618-907 A.D.

What are the characteristics of a “Golden Age?”

Golden Age

T’ang Achievements

• Forced Vietnam, Korea, and Tibet to become tributary states

• Japan sent missions to China to study Chinese culture

• Revived civil service system and exam• Redistributed land to peasants• Built canals• Poetry (I.e. Li Po)

The Dynastic Cycle

• The Zhou Dynasty (1027 B.C.E.-256 B.C.E.) were the first to claim the “Mandate of Heaven.”

• From then on it was used to justify the reign of a new dynasty.

• This cycle has characterized most of China’s political history.

www.regentsprep.org

The Tang Dynasty 618-907 C.E.

www.chinahighlights.com

Glencoe World History

A Good Foundation• After a period of civil war and

disorder the Tang came to power in China in 618 C.E.

• Thanks to the Sui (580-618 C.E.) and other earlier dynasties the Tang had a pretty good foundation to build on.

• Canals helped with transportation throughout the Empire.

• Granaries built alongside the canals aided the transportation of rice from the south to the north of China during times of famine.

• The Tang administration of government was based on developments from the 3rd and 4th centuries.

The Grand Canal

•http://cruises.about.com/library/pictures/china/blwuxi02.htm

Tang Taizong (r. 626-629 C.E.)

• Reconquered the northern and western lands that China lost after the decline of the Han Dynasty

• Let’s learn more about Tang Taizong!

http://www.chinapage.com/painting/tangtaizong.html

http://cla.calpoly.edu/~bmori/syll/Hum310china/TangTaizong.html

THE TANG SOCIAL SYSTEM

Q: Why were the peasants considered more important the merchants?What conclusion can you draw about eastern values based on this phenomenum?

Regentsprep.org

Tang Law

• The Tang devised their code of law in 624 C.E.

• Tang law had more than 500 articles divided into 12 sections.

China todayhttp://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/20024/time.htm

Q: Can you detect the changes and continuities of the Tang’s legal system?

Inventions of Tang and Song Empires

• Porcelain Late 700’s →Bone-hard, white ceramic made of a special clay and mineral found only in China.Impact: Became a valuable export- so associated with Chinese culture that it is now called china; technology remained a Chinese

secret for centuries.

• Mechanical Clock 700’s →Clock in which machinery (driven by running water) regulated the movements.

Impact: Early Chinese clocks short lived; idea for mechanical clock carried by traders to medieval Europe.

• Printing - Block Printing: 700’s

• Movable type: 1040 →Block printing: one block on which a whole page is cut; movable type: individual characters

arranged in frames, used over and over.Impact: Printing technology spread to Korea and Japan; movable type also developed later in Europe.

• Explosive Powder 800’s →Made from mixture of salt paper, sulfur, and charcoal Impact: First used for fireworks, then weapons; technology spread west within 300 years.

• Paper Money 1020’s →Paper currency issued by Song government to replace cumbersome strings of metal cash used by merchants.

Impact: Contributed to development of large-scale commercial economy in China.

• Magnetic Compass 1100’s (For navigation) →Floating magnetized needle that always points north-south; device had existed in

China for centuries before it was adapted by sailors for use at sea.Impact: Helped China become a sea power; technology quickly spread west.

Tang Power

• Under Tang rule Chinese culture spread to Korea, Tibet, and Japan.

• Historians believe that these countries maintained independence and were not controlled by the Tang.

• However, if a state interfered with Tang supremacy they could face invasion (i.e. Gaochang)

• Gaochang was seized by the Tang in 638 C.E. for refusing to let Western merchants pass along the Silk Road.

Tributary States – “Sinification”

• Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Tibet had to pay tribute to the Tang regularly in order to avoid punishment.

• These states did, however, benefit from the Tang’s intellectual and material culture (i.e. Neo-confucianism).

• Delegations from the “outside” (i.e. Japan and Siam) had to perform the kowtow, a bow (the head touches the ground several times)-in the royal presence. This reinforced ethnocentrism in China.

Cultural Diffusion

http://gallery.sjsu.edu/silkroad/culture.htm#

See how the Tang were influencedBy other cultures!

Empress Wu: One scary lady!

• http://www.jstor.org/view/00219118/di973608/97p03214/0

Buddhism during the Tang• During the reign of Empress Wu (690 C.E.) Buddhism was

supported. She started a school based on Buddhist and Confucian principles.

• Empress Wu sponsored Buddhist art.• Things changed during the later part of the Tang Dynasty’s reign.• Compromise between the Confucian emphasis on family and filial

responsibilities and the demands of Buddhist monastic life was maintained to varying degrees until 845, when the Tang emperors moved to limit the wealth and economic power of landed Buddhist monasteries. (This resulted in many monastaries being destroyed). The influence of Buddhism declined in China after the Tang, and Buddhism, as Rhodes Murphy notes, "entered the stream of folk religion, especially for the non-literate, and its beliefs and practices further mixed with peasant traditions of magic, as was also the case with Daoism."

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/webcourse/key_points/kp_4.htm

Tang Art

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tang/hd_tang.htm

Trade

• The Tang Dynasty flourished due to several economic factors.

• The silk industry made the Chinese very wealthy.

• They also took part in Indian Ocean trade.• The Chinese also traded with the Middle East

and Mediterranean by means of the 5,000 mile long Silk Road.

• The Silk Road was fortified by military garrisons.

http://artisticchinesecreations.stores.yahoo.net/clothing1.html

The snow has gone from Chung-nan; spring is almost come. Lovely in the distance its blue colors, against the brown of the streets.A thousand coaches, ten thousand horsemen pass down the Nine Roads;Turns his head and looks at the mountains,--not one man!

Po Chü-i (772-846)

http://www.mountainsongs.net/poem_.php?id=192Fordham.edu

Lao-tzüPo Chü-i impishly taunts one of the most influential of all Chinese philosophers in this

poem.

"Those who speak know nothingThose who know are silent."These words, as I am told, Were spoken by Lao-tzü.

If we are to believe that Lao-tzü Was himself one who knew,

How comes it that he wrote a bookOf five thousand words?

http://www.thetao.info/tao/laotzu.htm

fordham,.eduLearn more about Lao Tzu!

A wind, bringing willow-cotton, sweetens the shop,And a girl from Wu, pouring wine, urges me to share it.With my comrades of the city who are here to see me off;And as each of them drains his cup, I say to him in parting,Oh, go and ask this river running to the eastIf it can travel farther than a friend's love!

Parting at a Wine-shop in Nan-king

• Poem

http://www.chinapage.org/libai/libai2e.html

-Li Bai

Why did the Tang Dynasty decline?

Remember the Dynastic Cycle…it explains the rise and fall of Chinese dynasties.

Reasons for the decline of the Tang Dynasty

• Higher taxation created tension within the Chinese population

• Peasant rebellions led to more independent regional rule

• The Tang dynasty collapsed in 906 C.E.

• China remained fragmented throughout the next major dynasty, the Song

The Song Dynasty (960-1279 C.E.)

• http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Song.html

(Maps of the Song Dynasty)

Song Dynasty 960-1279 C.E.

• Used 4-deck ships that could carry 500 men

• Performed the first autopsy on a Southern Chinese captive in 1145 C.E.

• Administered civil service exam

• Zhu Xi developed Neo-Confucianism

• Song were not a strong military power, Confucianism did not hold military in high regard

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Founder of the Song DynastySong Taizu (r. 960-76)

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Neo-Confucianism

• What do you think Neo-Confucianism means?

Let’s review some important Confucian principles!

Zhu Xi

• Neo-Confucianism was a unifying factor in a politically divided China

• Hierarchy and obedience emphasized

• Education and cultured behavior stressed

• Government officials gained their positions by doing well on the civil service exams

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Women in China

• China had a patriarchal society for most of its history

• Marriages were arranged for the groom’s benefit

• Earlier, the husband’s family had to produce a dowry for the new bride. This reversed because of Neo-Confucianism.

• Women were subjected to footbinding from 1200 through the 20th century.

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/studpages/vento.html

The Origins and Practice of Footbinding

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Fordham.edu

On the bright side…

http://digitalcommons.libraries.columbia.edu/dissertations/AAI9313551/

See your textbook pages 279-280 for a review on the subject of the male dominance and the Chinese family.

Song art

Bird on silk by Emperor Hui-Tsang (1101-1125 C.E.)

Fordham.edu

http://www.chinapage.com/poet-e/sushi-son.html

Song Poetry

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/chinese_poetry.html

Song Poetry continued

Inventions of the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties (581CE-1251CE)

• Invention Years Invented Description Impact

• Porcelain - Late 700’s - Bone-hard, white ceramic made Became a valuable export- so associated with Chinese culture • of a special clay and mineral found only in china. that it is now called china; technology remained • a Chinese secret for centuries.

• Mechanical Clock 700’s - Clock in which machinery (driven Early Chinese clocks short lived; • by running water) idea for mechanical clock carried • by traders to medieval Europe.

•Printing

• Block Printing: 700’s Block printing: one block on Printing technology spread to Korea and Japan; • which a whole page is cut; • Movable type: 1040 movable type: individual characters movable type also developed later in Europe.• arranged in frames, used over and over.

• Explosive Powder- 800’s Made from mixture of salt paper, First used for fireworks, then weapons; • sulfur, and charcoal technology spread west within 300 years.

• Paper Money - 1020’s Paper currency issued by Song gov’t Contributed to development of • to replace cumbersome strings of metal large-scale commercial economy in China.• cash used by merchants.

• Magnetic Compass 1100’s Floating magnetized needle that Helped China become a sea power• always by sailors for use at sea. technology quickly spread west. • points north-south• for centuries before it was adapted• device had existed in China

The Song Dynasty: The experiencing of an Economic Revolution

• Rice production doubled • Internal trade increased• Kaifeng became a manufacturing center with

cannons, moveable type, printing, water-powered mills, and the production of porcelain

• Copper coins were used as cashed and eventually were replaced with paper money

• Officials collected taxes in cash • letters of credit (“flying money”) was used by

merchants