Download Ch. 17-1 Notes on Tang and Song China

Two Golden Ages of China
A Map of China Today
China During the Tang Dynasty
China During the Song Dynasty
What do you know about
China?
The Tang Dynasty 618 – 907 ce
• Founded by a father and son
• Li Shimin takes the throne and takes the
name Tang Taizong – he is the most admired
of all Chinese emperors
The Tang Empire is Built
• Tributary States:
Vietnam, Tibet & Korea
• They had to pay tribute
($ or trade goods) &
acknowledge the
supremacy of China
A Tang Dynasty Tower
Government and the Economy
• Bureaucracy was
reestablished.
• Enlarged civil service
exam
• Developed flexible law
code
• Redistributed land to
peasants
• System of canals, like the
Grand Canal, encouraged
trade.
Civil Service Exam
•A series of tests on the ideas of Confucius.
•Those who passed could get a job in the government.
•During the Song, this test was a form of upward mobility,
leading to a Chinese emphasis on education as a way to improve
your status.
The Decline of the Tang Dynasty
• Lost territory
• Government corruption
• Heavy taxes
• Drought
• Famine
• Rebellion
Tang Warriors
The Song Dynasty 960 ce – 1279 ce
As you can see, China lost territory to
the Mongolians in the north and
retreated south to the Hwang He River.
• Zhao Kuangyin,
military leader,
reunited much of
China & founded the
dynasty
• The land controlled by
China shrunk, but it
made advances in
agriculture, arts,
literature and
economics.
The Song Dynasty 960 ce – 1279 ce
A Chinese Rice Paddy
• Farming shifted
from grains to rice
(two rice crops
were produced per
year)
• Traded with India,
Persia, & the
Middle East
• Song Porcelain
found in East Africa
• To improve trade,
paper money was
issued
• Most
respected
literature
• Buddhist and
Daoist themes
• Li Bo most
respected
Tang poet,
wrote 2,000
poems mostly
about nature
or the passage
of time
• Du Fu – wrote
about the
horrors of war
or criticized
the rich court
culture
Poetry
Autumn dew like a white jade –
Globules on the courtyard green.
Walking, I suddenly catch that sight,
And mourn early winter, the year’s
hastening.
Life is like a bird’s flight across the eye.
Then why strangle it personally?
Was the lord of Jing a fool?
On Bull Mountain my tears stream.
Sorrow is not knowing contentment.
In Lung I gaze towards Shu.
My heart is like waves tossed.
The ways of the world twist and turn.
Poet Li Bo
On every one of three hundred hundred and
six thousand days
One ought to light an evening candle!
Landscapes
Ma Yuan (active 1190-1224),
On a Mountain Path in Spring
• A blend of painting and calligraphy
• Sought to capture the spiritual essence of the
natural world
• Reflected Daoist belief in balance and harmony
• Topics included both realistic and imaginary
subjects
Sculpture and Architecture
• Buddhist themes dominated these
art forms
• Statues of Buddha
• Pagodas were multistoried
Buddhist temples
Porcelain
• Shiny, hard pottery
that was prized as the
finest in the world
• Decorated with glazes
producing colors on
the pottery
Describe how these three pictures relate to China.
Social Structure
Royalty
The Emperor and his family
Gentry – Scholar Officials
wealthy landowners who studied for
the Civil Service Exam, a test of
Confucian ideas. Most were
government officials or advised the
emperor.
Peasantry
largest social class. Did the farming
and labor for Chinese society.
Merchants
They had the lowest social status.
The fact that the peasantry was given
higher status than merchants in China
reflects a Confucian value. What do
you think this value is?
Since the peasant farmers did manual labor
and fed the country this was valued over
making profit off of the work that those
peasants did. In other words, hard work was
valued over making profit.