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Pre-AP World History 12
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Chapter 12: Reunification & Renaissance in Chinese Civilization, The Era of the
Tang and Song Dynasties
I.
Rebuilding the imperial edifice in the Sui -Tang dynasty
A. Sui excess and collapses
1. 580s CE: Rise of Sui dynasties
A. Wendi = member of Northern Chinese noble family, seizes throne and
proclaims himself emperor of China
1. Secures power by gaining support of neighboring nomadic
military tribes
2. Extends empire across Northern China
A. Reunites traditional core areas of Chinese civilizations
3. Lowers taxes and establishes granaries throughout his domain
A. Fills granaries with “grain taxes”
B. Prevents famines in years of poor harvest
B. Yangdi = son of Wendi; murders father to reach throne
1. Strengthens Confucian education system in China
A. Restores civil service exam as means of obtaining
positions in government
2. Renowned for excess and luxury
3. Builds palaces and temples; canals to unite China
A. All constructed through peasant labor
4. 611-614 Leads China into series of unsuccessful wars to gain
Korean peninsula
A. 615: suffers numerous defeats in central Asia to Turkic
warriors
B. Sends China into chaos
5. Provincial governors declare themselves independent rulers;
bandit gangs appear
A. Yangdi assassinated by advisors
B. Tang dynasty and restoration of empire
1. Li Yuan = Duke of Tang; official in court of Emperor Yangdi
A. Initially loyal supporter of Yangdi and Sui dynasty
1. Turns against Yangdi at end of reign; organizes assassination
B. 623: Li Yuan emerges as leader of China; later abdicates in 626 in
favor of his son Tang Taizong
1. “Golden Age of the Tang”
2. Extends empire to as far as central Asia (present Aphganistan)
3. Complete repairs to Great Wall; create armies to protect
against invasions
4. Later extend empire to Tibet, Vietnam, Korea
C. Rebuilding Bureaucracy
1. Tang makes conscious effort to rebuild Chinese bureaucracy
A. Revive Confucian ideology
B. Strengthen political and economic positions of scholar-gentry
bureaucrats
1. Offset power of land-owning aristocracy
2. Moves capital city to Changan
D. The Growing Importance of the exam system
1. Increased number of academies during Tang dynasty
A. Train state officials and educate them in Confucian classics
1. Emphasis on moral and organizational principles essential to
administration
2. Increased number of members in scholarly-gentry class
2. Ministry of Rites responsible for administration exams to students
A. Highest bureaucratic offices reserved only for those who passes exams
on philosophical or legal classics or Chinese literature
1. Jinshi = title given to those who passed exams
A. Names announced to all throughout empire; secured
highest government position
B. Success in exams meant immediate increase in social
status
1. Political, economic, social ties could still play a
role in gaining government positions
A. Increased corruption within
bureaucracy
B. Eventually wealth and family status
meant more than performance
E. State/Religion in Tang-Song Era
1. Increased state patronage for Confucian learning threatens both old
aristocratic families and Buddhist monastic orders
A. Most pre-Tang rulers were supporters of Buddhism
1. Pure Land = Mahayana Buddhism; Salvationist; provided
tranquil refuge from year of war and turmoil between Han and
Tang dynasties; popular among classes (Buddha = savior)
2. Chan or Zen Buddhism = stresses meditation and appreciation
for beauty; appealed to elite classes
A. Goal: to come to know ultimate vision and thus find
release from cycle of rebirth through meditation
2. Buddhism remains a strong social, economic, and political force during Tang
dynasty
A. Tang rulers try to patronize Buddhism while embracing Confucian
education
3. Empress Wu = reigned from 690 - 705; major supported of Buddhism in China
A. Made Buddhism state religion
F.
Anti-Buddhist Backlash
1. Buddhist popularity arouses envy among Taoist, Confucian rivals
A. Taoists promote mysticism
B. Confucians embrace education/civil service exams
2. 841-847: Emperor Wuzong = begins open persecutions against Buddhists due
to continued increase in wealth amongst Buddhist monasteries
A. Shrines destroyed
B. Monks/nuns move back to civilian lives
1. No longer free of taxation
3. Overall strength/popularity of Buddhism greatly affected
A. Confucianism becomes more prominent force in China
II.
Tang Decline/Rise of Song
A. The Founding of the Song Dynasty
1. Emperor Xuanzong = reigns from 713-756
A. Marks high point of Tang dynasty
1. Strengthens bureaucratic system
2. Patronizes the arts
B. After death of second wife, becomes infatuated with concubine
Yang Guifei
1. Uses her position to pack royal court with relatives/supporters
C. Leads Xuanzong to neglect political/military affairs
1. Causes discontent throughout the empire
2. Military general An Lushan leads revolt against Tang dynasty
A. Tang armies ultimately able to repress rebellion
1. Many of Tang Guifei’s family members are killed
2. Xuanzong forced to execute Yang Guifei
B. Marks beginning of downfall of Tang dynasty
3. 907: Last Tang emperor forced to abdicate
4. 960: Zhao Kuangyin = scholarly military general; emerges as new leader of
China
A. Takes new name = Emperor Taizu; established Song dynasties
1. Conquers almost all political rivals, except Liao dynasty in North
A. Liao dynasty founded by nomadic Khitan peoples in
Manchuri
2. Sets long standing precedent of inability to control nomads in
the North
B. Song dynasty agrees to costly/humiliating treaties with Liao dynasty
1. Pay expensive yearly tribute so Liao won’t invade
B. Song Politics: Settling for Partial Restoration
1. Song dynasty never able to match Tang in political/military strength
2. Song promote interests of Confucian-education scholar-gentry class
A. Confucian civil service exams become corrupted
1. Too many highly paid bureaucrats with no real responsibility
C. The Revival of Confucian Thought
1. The Revival of Confucian ideas throughout empire
A. Emphasis on recovering and translating old Confucian texts
B. Founding of new academies to study classical texts
1. Hostility toward “outside” schools of thought especially
Buddhism
2. Neo-Confucians = revivers of ancient Confucian teachings
A. Led by Zhu Xi
B. Stressed importance of applying philosophical principles to everyday
life
1. Cultivation personal morality is the highest goal for humans
2. Virtue could be attained through knowledge gained by book
learning and personal observation as well as through contact
with wisdom and morality
A. Pace high value on tradition, rank, obligation,
deference, and ritual
B. Reinforced class, age, and gender distinctions;
reinforced patriarchal ideas
D. Roots of Decline: Attempts of Reform
1. Increasing number of nomadic tribes along northern borders of Song empire
A. Mid-eleventh century: Tangut tribes from present day Tibet established
Xi Xia empire
1. Forces Song to pay tribute to them as well as Liao
A. Creates even greater financial strain on Song empire
2. 1070s: Wang Anshi = minister of Song; attempts to strengthen state by
introducing Confucian and Legalist reforms in empire
E. Reaction and Disaster: Flight to the South
1. Neo-Confucians and reforms of Wang Anshi
A. Leads to economic crisis and social upset
2. Liao dynasty in the North is overthrown by Jurchen people
A. Establish Jin dynasty north of Song dynasty
B. Invades/annex much of Song empire to Qin empire
3. Song forced farther south; relocate capital to Hangzhou
A. Becomes known as Southern Song empire
III. Tang and Song Prosperity: The Basis of the Golden Age
A. New Face of Commercial Expansion
1. Grand Canal = emperor Yangdi; links original centers of Chinese civilization on
Northern China with Yangtze River basin more than 500 miles to the south
A. Connects millet growing regions of north to rice growing regions of
south
2. Tang dynasty promoted exchange with central Asia, Muslim empire
A. Horses, Persian rugs, tapestries, silk textiles, porcelain, paper, woods,
spices, etc.
B. Transported with skillfully built Chinese junks
1. Ocean/canal-going ships used for trade
3. Creation of “deposit shops” = earliest forms of banks
4. Introduction of paper money during Tang dynasty
B. World’s Most Splendid Cities
1. Population of capital city of Changan over 2 million people
A. Largest city in the world during Tang dynasty
B. Established 10% of total Chinese population lived in large cities
2. Hangzhou = capital city of Song; famed for size, wealth, and cleanliness
C. Expanding Agrarian Production and Life in the country
1. Expansion of agriculture during Tang and Song
2. State-sponsored migration of peasants to new lands of agriculture
A. State constructs military garrisons
B. State regulated irrigation/canal systems
3. New farming techniques
A. Fertilization, wheelbarrow, weeding, soil preparation, etc.
4. Breaking up large aristocratic estates
A. Increased egalitarianism among peasant farmers
D. Family/Society in Tang-Song Era
1. Extended family household preferred
A. Afforded primarily by aristocrats
2. Confucian beliefs keep society patriarchal
3. Confucian beliefs = ideas of preserving hierarchy and social order
A. Children who struck parents/grandparents could be beheaded
B. 2.5 years hard labor for younger siblings who stuck older ones
4. Women still lacked political rights but could influence men with home and
court
E. Neo-Confucian Assertion of Male Dominance
1. Stress patriarchal society
A. Stress woman’s role as mother and homemaker
1. Bearer of sons
B. Advocated virginity of brides, fidelity of wives, chastity for widows, etc.
2. Men permitted to take part in pre-marital sex without facing scandal
A. Encouraged to take on concubines if they could afford them
3. Women excluded from education and inheritance rights
A. Forbidden from entering civil service/politics
4. Foot binding = upper class men preferred women with small feel; all classes;
begins as early as age 5; toes turned under feet, bound with silk which was
wound more tightly as she grew “lotus petal” or “golden lily”
A. Constant source of pain and difficulty; created limited mobility and
easier confinement
F.
Glorious age: invention, artistic creativity
1. Eras of remarkable accomplishments in science, technology, literature, and
art
A. Banks, paper money, Grand Canal, irrigation bridges, gunpowder,
chairs, kites, coal for energy, compass for sea navigation, abacus,
movable print, paper
G. Scholarly Refinement/Artistic Accomplishment
1. Patronization of Buddhist art/architecture
2. Confucian art/literature
A. Focus on “delights of the natural world”
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IV.
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V.