Download China Reunified: Sui, Tang, and Song Dynasties

 Take out your class notes!
Today’s LEQs: What came after the Han
Dynasty? What changed and continued?
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After Han Dynasty (220 CE), China fell
into period of disunity
 Not as traumatic (or permanent) as the fall
of Rome (Western half)
 Uncertainty and disorder paved way for
Buddhism
 China reunified under Sui Dynasty
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Founded by Wendi
Utilized legalism
Focused on building
projects (utilized
labor taxes):
 Reinforced Great Wall
 Built Grand Canal
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South grew droughtresistant champa
rice (diffused from
modern Vietnam)
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Restored Confucian exam system &
bureaucracy
Launched expensive military campaigns but
often unsuccessful (i.e. Korea)
Second emperor, Yang Di, assassinated by his
own ministers in 618 CE
Military man, Gao Zu, restored order and
declared himself new emperor
 China became grew larger than ever before
 Continued use of Tribute System as means of
“controlling” neighbors
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Activity: Compare the Tribute System in THEORY vs. Tribute System in
PRACTICE (Use pages 387-389)
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Tang economy very strong due to advanced
infrastructure (roads, waterways, canals) and
trade
 Grand Canal: continued to stimulate trade
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Silk industry made China exceptionally
wealthy (although no longer a monopoly –
secret got out some time between Han and
Sui Dynasties)
Confucian exam system was
back, but Buddhism’s hold
was strong
 Many Tang rulers had strong
Northern nomadic roots and
were devout Buddhists
 Mahayana (Buddha = a
god)
 Empress Wu patronized
Buddhism
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Tang Dynasty Buddhism raised the status of women
during that Dynasty
 Nomadic pastoralist influence also allowed women
more freedom
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Support of Buddhism aroused the envy of Confucian
and Daoist rivals
 Attacked religion as alien and barbaric
 Confucian leaders emphasized economic loss
▪ Monasteries not taxed
▪ Couldn’t conscript peasants working on monastic
estates for labor tax
 845 CE – Emperor began persecution of
Buddhists;
 Weakening centralized contro; Tang Dynasty
declined by 906CE
In 960 a new
military
commander
reunited China
 Military focus on
subduing strong
northern nomadic
pastoralists
beyond the Great
Wall
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Culturally and economically impressive
 Steady population growth
 Urbanization – largest cities on earth at that time!
 Commercial Revolution (paper money, banking,
and credit)
 Port of Canton (Guangzhou) became world’s
busiest trade center
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Confucianism restored: NeoConfucianism
 Sought to prove the superiority of Chinese
thought systems over foreign ones
(Buddhism)
 In reality, it blended in Buddhist and Daoist
ideas (sneaky, sneaky!)
Well educated
men expected to
excel in many
fields – spent
evenings writing
songs and poems
 Art celebrated the
beauty of the
natural world and
often included
poetry
 Enjoying art was
an event!
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Used to justify subordination of women
Neo-Confucians attacked Buddhists for
promoting independence for women in
monasteries as nuns
Women excluded from education
Chinese subjugation of women was most
obvious in foot-binding (lasts right up until
early 20th century)
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On a maximum of five sentence strips,
explain how China influenced your assigned
region and/or how the outside world
influenced China
Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Nomads to the
North, Eurasia, “Outside World” influences
China
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“If Chinese economic growth and
technological achievements significantly
shaped the Eurasian world of the thirdwave era, that pattern of interaction was
surly not a one-way street, for China too
was changed by its engagement with a
wider world.”