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Civilizations of Asia
The Golden Ages of Medieval China
500s – 1200s
Religion in China
The Buddhist Religion
• Began in India in about 500 B.C.
• Based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama,
also known as the Buddha, who was a prince of
India.
• Much like Jesus and Muhammad who will later
follow him, we know that the Buddha was a man,
he lived his life preaching his beliefs, and he died
leaving behind many followers of his ideas who
passed them on.
Buddhist Beliefs
• Most Buddhists want to achieve “nirvana” or an
awakening, in which they are thought to have an
understanding of life and the world that does not
include greed or hate.
• Buddhists believe that they will be “reincarnated”
or reborn over and over again until they reach
true nirvana.
• When they reach nirvana, they are “liberated”
from the earthly world. Their physical body dies,
and their soul or spirit is allowed to live on free of
the body.
Buddhist ideas you may know:
• Karma: negative actions
have consequences.
• Yoga: a state of meditation,
or quieting your mind.
China’s 3 Medieval Dynasties
Dynasty – A series of rulers from the same family.
The Sui Dynasty
• 580 – 618 A.D.
• Came to power after
the Han dynasty.
• First dynasty to
rebuild and expand
the Great Wall of
China.
• United North and
South China for the
first time in centuries.
The Tang Dynasty
The Song Dynasty
• 618-906 A.D.
• Came to power after
the Sui Dynasty.
• Controlled the silk
road trade route.
• Great period of
growth and
achievement for
China.
• 960-1279 A.D.
• Came to power after
a time of fighting
among different
groups after the fall
of the Tang Dynasty.
• Made improvements
to government,
agriculture, arts,
trade and learning.
China Under the Sui Dynasty
580 A.D. - 618 A.D.
Uniting China
• Military general Wendi
declares himself emperor
of China after massacring
almost 60 royal princes to
gain power. He is the
founder of the Sui Dynasty.
• His son, Yangdi takes over
after his fathers death, and
unites the Northern and
Southern portions of China
for the first time in
hundreds of years.
Rebuilding China
• The emperors of the Sui
Dynasty start the rebuilding
of The Great Wall of China
(used for defense).
• The Great Wall began being
built hundreds of years
earlier, but was not well
built in all areas, and was
not very large at this point.
• They also begin building the
Grand Canal of China, which
would link the North and
South in order to move grain
from one place to the other.
The Fall of the Sui
• Even though the Sui united China and reminded people of how great China used to
be and still could be, the Sui’s heavily taxed the people to fund projects throughout
the nation.
• Eventually, the Chinese people revolt against the Sui’s, which ended the dynasty.
China Under the Tang Dynasty
618 A.D. – 906 A.D.
The Golden Age of China
• The Tang rule China during an
almost 300 year “golden age”,
meaning a time of great wealth,
success, trade, power and
achievement.
• China grows in population, it’s
capital city Chang’an, in the
Northern part of China, was the
world’s largest city of the time.
• For residents of Chang’an, there
was a variety of food,
entertainment, fine goods to buy
and even tall walls for protection.
Tang Taizong
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Known as the Tang dynasty’s greatest
ruler.
Began his military career at only 16 years
old.
Ruled from 626 to 649 A.D.
Was a scholar and a historian as well as a
master of calligraphy (the art of beautiful
handwriting).
Grew tired of war later on in his time as
emperor and began studying the
teachings of Confucius.
Changed the government of China to
match Confucius's ideas.
China Under the Tang Dynasty
(continued)
Confucius Ideas and the Tang’s
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Confucius lived from 551 B.C. – 497
B.C. (long before the Tang’s)
Was an ancient Chinese teacher.
Believed in treating others with
respect, putting family before all
else, respecting elders, acting
morally, kindness, obeying the law,
and most importantly, education.
As the Tang’s studied the ancient
teachings, they began to train
government officials with
Confucius teachings, and even
began respecting the peasant
farmers who worked the land by
granting them more land to own.
Confucius Says:
“Choose a job you love, and you will
never have to work a day in your life”
“Life is really simple, but we insist on
making it complicated”
Great Wall & Grand Canal
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The Great Wall of China continued
to be rebuilt and expanded during
the Tang Dynasty.
Today, the wall is over 4,000 miles
long. It is only 3,000 miles from
one side of the USA, to the other.
The Grand Canal, started under the
Sui Dynasty, was a waterway that
linked the Huang River to the
Chang River.
Millions of workers took part in the
construction of the Grand Canal.
It is over 1,000 miles long, and is
still, to this day, the longest canal
ever built.
It was built to supply the capital of
China at the time, Chang’an, in the
North with grain being grown in
the South.
The Great Wall of China
Parts of The Great Wall Today
A View of the wall from space
China Under the Song Dynasty
960 A.D. – 1127 A.D.
Changes in Agriculture
Changes In Government
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The Song Dynasty took control of China 50
years after the fall of the Tang Dynasty.
In the 50 year period where no Dynasty
ruled, there was much fighting and disorder.
The Songs took power, but with less land
under their control than the Tangs had
before them.
They moved the capital city of China to a
better location for them.
They enforced a merit system for hiring
government officials.
Merit System – A system of hiring people
based on their abilities.
Officials had to pass tests to prove they had
the abilities to do the job they were being
hired for.
Before the merit system, officials came from
rich and powerful families. They were
allowed to keep their jobs for life, even if
they did not do a good job.
The new merit system greatly improves the
Chinese government.
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During the Song Dynasty, new types of rice
were developed.
New irrigation methods (ways of getting
water from a natural source to a farm on
land) were developed.
With new types of rice, and better ways to
get water to rice farms, peasant farmers
were able to produce two crops of rice per
year, instead of just one.
Because farming got easier, and food
became more plentiful, more people were
able to stop farming and choose to do other
jobs, instead. Many studied the arts.
China Under the Song Dynasty
The Arts and Learning
Learning and The Arts
Song Dynasty Art in China
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The Songs invented a new way to print
books, which made them less expensive,
allowing more people to learn to read and
write.
The arts were usually supported and
encouraged throughout China.
Besides traditional paintings and sculpture,
music and poetry were also encouraged.
During the Song Dynasty, some of the first
landscape paintings of China were created.
Song rulers also found value in objects made
from porcelain (a type of ceramic). Even
today, people still refer to porcelain as
“china” because that’s where it was first
made.
The Chinese also valued silk.
Silk comes from the cocoons of caterpillars,
called silkworms.
For a long time, the Chinese were the only
people who knew how to make silk, and
people from the rest of the world were
willing to pay very high prices for it.
China Under the Song Dynasty
Trade and The Silk Road
• Because of the valuable items created
in China, like porcelain, silk and even
art, that people in the rest of the world
were willing to pay high prices for,
trade was important in China.
• The most common trade route(s) in and
out of Asia was known as “The Silk
Road” especially because of the
valuable silk that became one of its
most famous trade goods.
• The Silk Road was not a single road. It
was a long chain of connecting trade
routes across Central Asia. It stretched
about 4,000 miles from China to the
Mediterranean Sea.
• For hundreds of years, people with
their camels, horses and donkeys
carried their precious goods braving
desert sands, cold and rocky mountains
and even robbers along the way.
The Mongols
Conquering China
1206 - 1370
China Under the Mongols
1200s A.D. – 1300s A.D.
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Who Are the Mongols?
Started as nomads from the
plains of Central Asia north of
China where some of the
earliest human life is known to
have existed.
For a long time, they were
many hundreds of small tribes,
until they were eventually
united under one common
leader.
By the 1200s they were fierce
warriors and their own military
force (army).
Wanted their own empire.
China Under the Mongols
Map of Mongol Territory
• Eventually, Mongols took over enough land to control all of China, as
well as Korea, Russia and parts of Europe.
China Under the Mongols
Mongol Leaders
Genghis Khan
• United smaller Mongol tribes in
northern Asia before taking over
China.
• Conquered all of Northern China
by 1215 A.D.
• Was not able to conquer the
southern Song Dynasty during his
lifetime because the Song’s were
too powerful.
Kublai Khan
• Genghis Khan’s grandson.
• Came to power in 1259 A.D.
• Took him only 20 years to
overthrow the Song Dynasty.
• Declared himself emperor of
China.
• Made the capital of his new
empire Beijing (which is still the
capital of China today).
• Named his new dynasty Yuan,
which means “beginning” because
he thought Mongol rule would last
in China for hundreds of years to
come.
China Under the Mongols
The End of the Mongols
• The Mongols got rid of all traces of the old
Song Dynasty government and government
officials.
• Government positions were given to
foreigners before they were given to
existing Chinese people.
• Mongols kept their own language and
customs instead of taking on the existing
Chinese customs.
• Under Kublai Khan, China did well,
especially with trade, which was welcomed
by Kublai Khan.
• Kublai Khan, however, was China’s only
successful Mongol ruler. After his death,
there were no other successful Khan rulers.
• In 1368, a Chinese peasant, upset with life
in China under the Khans, led an uprising
that overthrew the Khan rulers and ended
Mongol rule in China.
Questions? Repeats?
Wisdom