Reunification of China – Sui Song & Tang Chinese Golden Age

Chapter 12

China During the Era of Division, The Sui Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty

Sui Dynasty

 Yangdi (son of Wendi) – Legal reform – Reorganized Confucian education – Canals built, completion Grand Canal longest in the world (still) – reconstruction of Great Wall – Attacked Korea – costly & disastrous – Defeated by Turks 615 – Assassinated – 618 – early 7 th C - dynasty disintegrated popular revolts, disloyalty & assassinations

Tang Dynasty

       Scholar-gentry elite based on examinations (not family connections) Highest offices went only to individuals able to pass exams based on the Confucian classics/Chinese literature – some social mobility possible

BUT

central administration dominated by a small number of prominent families Overland trade routes - Silk Road reaching as far as Syria and Rome Confucian ideology supreme Result  imperial unity & power of the aristocracy reduced Bureau of Censors closely watched all officials.

Specialized exams administered by Ministry of Public Rites Tang era gilt-silver ear cup with flower motif *Powerful cultural influence over Korea & Japan

Court portrait painting of Emperor Taizu of Song (960–976)

Tang /Song Economy

       Silk routes reopened - greater contact with Buddhist, Islamic regions Sea trade – Use of

Junks –

commerce increased maritime RESULT  Commerce expands Credit - deposit shops Flying money Dev. of cities & urban pop. growth – Tang capital – Changan – pop. 2 million – largest city in world at time group of wealthy commoners--the mercantile class--arose printing & education spread, private trade grew, and a market economy began to link the coastal provinces and the interior Landholding & gov’t employment no longer the only means of gaining wealth and prestige

Buddhism becomes fully entrenched in Chinese culture 

Split in Buddhism

– –

Mahayana

Buddhism popular in era of turmoil

Chan

(Zen) Buddhism common among elite - stressed meditation & appreciation of natural & artistic beauty   Empress Wu (690-705) supported Buddhism – Endows monasteries – Tried to make Buddhism the state religion – 50,000 monasteries by c. 850 Persecution of Buddhism under Emperor Wuzong – 841-847 – Monasteries destroyed – Lands redistributed  Confucian re-emerges as central ideology

Tang Decline

Emperor Xuanzong (713-756)     – Mistress -

Yang Guifei –

gained power – Relatives gain power in govt 755 - Revolt led by An Lushan Chinese general (Iranian/Turkish) - proclaimed himself emperor; later killed by his own son RESULT  civil war; Yang Guifei executed – blamed for rebellion Central government lost its grip on the local administration

907 -- last Tang emperor resigns

- Warlordism broke out - China divided into north and south - many small shortlived dynasties Paintings of Yang Guifei & An Lushan

Song Dynasty

 Zhao Kuangyin (Taizu) - birth of

Song dynasty

– Scholar-gentry given power over military – Revival of Confucian Thought – Libraries established, old texts recovered  Neo-confucians - stressed personal morality & male dominance – Hostility to foreign ideas – Gender, class, age distinctions reinforced

Example of Chinese pottery

Scholar in a Meadow

, 11th century

The Spinning Wheel

, by Northern Song artist Wang Juzheng -one of the earliest representations of the invention

The

Status of women improved during Tang & early Song –started declining during the late Song – WHY?

Women’s Status – Tang / Early Song

      Elite women had broader opportunities / careers Empresses Wu, Wei & Mistress Yang Guifei – signif. political power Legal code supported women’s rights in divorce Some wealthy, urban women had lovers - example of female independence Marriage brokers - professional female match-makers Partners were of the same age; marriage ceremonies did not take place until puberty   

Rights of women deteriorate in late Song Dynasty

– stressed the roles of homemaker and mother – advocated

physical confinement

of women – emphasized the importance of

bridal virginity, wifely fidelity, and widow chastity

– Men were permitted free sexual behavior & remarriage – fewer Buddhist monasteries (fewer women monks) – New laws favored men in

property

inheritance &

divorce

Women excluded from

education system

Footbinding - painful, mobility restricting practice

A red lacquerware food tray with gold foil engraving designs of two long-tailed birds and a peony (12 th -13 th C)

Tang and Song Prosperity: Golden Age - Expanding Agrarian Production

      Peasants encouraged to migrate to new areas; gov’t provided irrigation Canals built New crops & technology increased yields.

Aristocratic estates broken up - more equitable distribution of land for free peasants Confucian scholars believed peasants were essential for a stable and prosperous social order Scholar-gentry replaced aristocracy Chinese ships of the Song period featured hulls w/ watertight compartments (1085–1145)

Tang & Song achievements in science, technology & culture

       Technological / scientific discoveries—new tools, production methods, weapons— passed to other civilizations - altered the course of human development Arts / literature passed to neighboring regions—central Asia, Japan, and Vietnam. Engineering feats - Grand Canal, dikes and dams, irrigation systems, and bridges Banks & paper money stimulated prosperity Explosive powder – Tang invented fireworks / Song adapted for military use Song armies & navies - flamethrowers, poisonous gasses, & rocket launchers Chairs, tea drinking, the use of coal for fuel, compasses, & kites A trebuchet catapult - used to launch the earliest type of explosive bombs

Song dynasty falls to Mongols

   

Southern Song - 1127–1279 - Song lost control of northern China to the Jin Dynasty Song court retreated south of the Yangtze River & established their capital at Lin'an Kubilai Khan defeated Jin &

Yuan dynasty in Northern China founded the The Chinese

economy

, until the 18th C, was a world leader in market orientation, overseas trade volume, productivity per acre, sophistication of tools, and techniques of craft production. –

COT

 China, as a civilization, retained many traditional patterns, but it also changed dramatically in the balance between regions, in commercial and urban development, and in technology. – Outside influences - Buddhism –

sinified