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China
In the Middle Ages
China in the Middle Ages
• Chinese dynasties of the Middle Ages
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T’ang
S’ung
Mongol - Yuan
Ming
Dynasty -series of members of a family who are distinguished for their
success, wealth, and ruling.
Tang Dynasty
(618 – 906)
Strong Government and Revival of
Confucianism
. T'ang rulers ended the four centuries of disunity
and disorder that had followed the downfall of
the Han Dynasty ).
The T'ang Dynasty provided a strongly
centralized state based on the principles of
Confucianism.
To recruit government officials, T'ang rulers
stressed civil service examinations and
provided schools to train scholars.
Examinations and schools created a demand for
books.
Not surprisingly, the T'ang Period witnessed the
invention of block printing, the printing of
books from carved wooden blocks.
T’ang
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Extent of the Empire. T'ang warriors expanded the
Chinese Empire to its then greatest territorial extent:
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almost all of China proper;
parts of Indo-China,
Manchuria,
Mongolia,
Tibet;
a vast region in central Asia.
The Chinese came in contact with most Asian peoples and
even with eastern Europeans.
The Chinese developed a flourishing international
commerce.
They also transmitted their culture, most notably to the
Japanese.
T’and Great Cultural Era
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The T'ang emperors encouraged a revival of scholarship
(education) and the arts.
T'ang writers produced a great literary outpouring,
especially of poetry.
T'ang artists excelled in portrait and landscape paintings.
They often decorated pottery, examples of which are highly
prized in Western museums.
In governmental stability, territorial extent, economic
prosperity, and cultural progress, the T'ang Era rivaled the
Han.
Many Chinese consider the Tang Era their country's most
brilliant period.
SUNG DYNASTY (960—1279)
A Maritime Nation.
Out of the half century of political turmoil that followed the
downfall of the T'ang emerged the Sung Dynasty.
Sung rulers, surrounded by powerful warlike neighbors, never
controlled all of China proper and, in their later period,
retreated southward below the Yangtze River.
Since land trade routes were in hostile hands, Sung China
became a maritime nation.
Its merchant ships sailed southward in the Pacific as far as
Java and westward in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian
Sea as far as Africa.
By the 11th century Chinese sailors were navigating by
means of a mariner's compass.
S’ung Dynasty
Social and Economic Reforms. In the 11th century, under
Chief Minister Wang An-shih, the Sung state imposed a program
of reform that
(a) centralized the control of finances, commerce, and
transportation;
(b) spread the tax burden more equitably among all classes;
(c) employed hired hands, instead of conscript (forced) labor, on
state projects;
(d) provided government loans at low interest rates to needy
farmers; and
(e) stored food surpluses for distribution during periods of
shortage.
 The reform program encountered upper class opposition and
generated great fear of too much government. It was soon
abandoned,
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S’ung Culture
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Continuation of Chinese Culture. In many
respects the Sung Period continued along T'ang
lines.
(a) Sung rulers centralized government,
promoted education, and retained the Confucian
civil service examinations but added many
practical questions.
(b) Sung artists and writers maintained high
standards in painting and literature.
The Mongol Empire
Genghis Khan (meaning "Universal Ruler"), a cruel and destructive military
genius, founded the Mongol Empire.
By the early 13th century, he had united his people, the nomadic tribes of
Mongolia, into a powerful military force.
Then, within a 25-year period, Genghis Khan conquered vast areas: Korea and
northern China, central Asia, Persia and the Middle East, and part of
European Russia.
The great Khan's immediate successors extended Mongol power into central
Europe: Hungary, Poland, and Austria.
His grandson, Kublai Khan,
subjugated Sung China.
The unified Mongol Empire,
the largest known up to that
time, was short-lived.
By the late 13th century, it had
disintegrated into a number of
independent states.
The Mongol (Yuan)Dynasty in China (1279–1368)
The Wars of Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan,
the grandson of Genghis Khan,
conquered the southern Sung state and
reunited the Chinese Empire. However,
his efforts to annex Indo-China, Burma,
Java, and Japan failed. He sent two naval
expeditions against Japan, but they were
unsuccessful.
A Period of Cultural Interchange.
As part of the Mongol Empire, China entered upon a great cultural interchange with
the rest of Asia and with Europe.
At this time Europeans probably learned of China's gunpowder and printing.
The Chinese imported the sorghum (cereal) plant, probably from India, adopted the
Arab method of sugar refining, and used Persian techniques in ceramic arts.
China's wealth and culture attracted many foreign travelers, including Persians,
Arabs, and some Europeans.
From western Europe came Catholic missionaries and Italian merchants, most
notably Marco Polo.
His book describing his visit to prosperous Cathay (China) aroused great
European interest in the Far East.
Decline
Mongol Rule and Decline.
Kublai Khan and his successors improved roads
and canals, provided care for the orphaned and
sick, and generally allowed religious tolerance.
They called their Chinese dynasty the Yuan
dynasty
Although the Mongol emperors tried to rule in the
Chinese tradition, the Chinese always regarded
the Mongols as aliens.
In the early 14th century, Mongol power in China
declined rapidly.
In 1368, after a series of rebellions, the Mongols
were forced to withdraw from China.
MING DYNASTY (1368–1644)
Prosperity and Maritime Activity.
The Ming Era experienced a high level of economic prosperity.
Chinese architects erected city walls, temples, and palaces
to beautify the southern capital, Nanking, and the northern
capital, Peking.
Chinese naval designers constructed great armadas, or fleets
of ships.
Between 1405 and 1431 seven expeditions carried Chinese
people, goods, and culture to the lands of the Pacific and
Indian oceans.
Ming
A Holding Period: Militarily and Culturally. The Ming did
not attain the grandeur or brilliance of the Han or T'ang
periods.
Ming domains were smaller, and Ming warriors generally
were on the defensive against Mongol land attacks and
Japanese sea raids.
Ming rulers retained the previous governmental
organization, law codes, and civil service examinations.
They made little effort to adjust to new conditions.
Ming painters and writers imitated past works and
preserved past thoughts but produced little that was
original.
Ming Dynasty
Renewed Contacts with Europe.
Contacts between China and Europe were renewed during
the Ming Era and have continued unbroken to this day.
Russian adventurers traversed the vast Siberian lands and
contacted northern China.
From western Europe came Roman Catholic missionaries.
West European merchants, under the beginning of the
Commercial Revolution , sailed halfway around the world
to southern China.
In 1514 the first Portuguese merchant ship arrived;
Spanish, Dutch, and English ships followed.
The west Europeans, confined to trade in the Canton area,
introduced to China important New World plants: Indian
corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and tobacco.
Nevertheless, the total European impact upon Ming China
remained small.
Zheng He
In the early 15th century, Ming Emperors
became interested in expanding Chinese
trade.
One emperor sent a Muslim trader,
Zheng He, on six expeditions between
1405 and 1433.
Zheng He visited the areas of Sri Lanka,
the Persian Gulf, and the east coast of
Africa.
His voyages spread Chinese influence
throughout Asia and opened up new
markets for Chinese goods.
These voyages also brought back
information about foreign lands to China.
This information encouraged many
Chinese to move to different areas.
Not long after these voyages, the
Chinese government ordered a stop to
these trips.
They felt they learned all they needed
about other lands and didn’t want
foreign ideas to influence China.
Chinese Achievements in the
Middle Ages
1. Art and Architecture. Chinese artists during the Middle Ages
painted on walls, ceramics, and silk, using brush pens, ink,
and watercolors. They depicted religious themes and nature
studies, especially of landscapes. A favorite landscape
scene portrayed majestic mountains and seas against which
humans appeared insignificant. During the T'ang Period lived
the man who is often considered China's outstanding painter,
Wu Tao-hsiian.
• Chinese architects planned cities and constructed
impressive temples and vast palaces with beautiful gardens.
2. Engineering. Chinese engineers built roads, bridges, and
city walls, dredged river channels, erected sea and river
dikes, and expanded irrigation and canal systems. China's
waterways, extending over hundreds of miles, were known
as the Grand Canal.
Chinese Achievements
3. Literature. Chinese writers, encouraged by the
invention of printing, produced extensive literary
works: poetry, drama, and prose.
The prose dealt with such subjects as history,
government, geography, architecture, medicine,
commerce, and everyday life, as well as fiction.
The Chinese prepared many dictionaries and
encyclopedias.
The T'ang Period claims two outstanding Chinese
poets.
(a)Li Po, a master of words, created an imaginary
world of lyric beauty.
(b) (b) Tu Fu, more of a realist, depicted human
suffering.
Chinese Contributions
4. Inventions.
• (a) In the 6th century the Chinese invented gunpowder, which
they first used for festive fireworks.
– By the 12th century they were employing gunpowder for military
purposes.
• (b) In the 7th century the Chinese printed books from carved
wooden blocks. China's earliest known printed books, from
the T'ang and Sung eras, are beautiful works of art.
– In the 11th century the Chinese evolved printing by movable type.
• (c) In the 11th century Chinese navigators determined
direction from the magnetic needle enclosed in a mariner's
compass.
• (d) Some sources credit the Chinese with developing an
inoculation against smallpox.
• These advances, however, did not result from the methodical
application of scientific principles.
– Despite their practical-mindedness, the Chinese did not develop
theories of science and logical methods of scientific research.