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Sui, Tang, Song & The Mongols
Sui Dynasty
• Han dynasty fell in 220AD
– Civil war until 581AD.
• Three Kingdoms Period
– No trading between the east and the
west.
• Rome?
• Sui Dynasty
– Sui Yangdi
• What is legalism?
• Legalist
– Forced labor
– High taxes
– Luxurious lifestyle
– What do you remember about Chinese
geography?
• Built Grand Canal
– Connected Yellow and Yangzte
Tang Dynasty
• Tired of his Legalist ways, the people
overthrew Sui Yangdi in 618AD.
• Tang Dynasty
– Instituted many reforms.
• Gave land back to peasants
• Return to Confucian principles
• Return of the Silk Road and trade
– Developments…
•
•
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Steel
Porcelain
Gunpowder
Woodblock printing
• Eventually fell victim to rebellions in 907AD
– Powerful generals begin fighting eachother.
– Forced to hire a northern tribal group, the
Uighurs, to defend the dynasty.
Chinese Society Under the Tang
• Education becomes really important.
– Reading becomes popular after invention of
woodblock printing.
– Old landed aristocracy replaced by scholar-gentry
• Aristocrats schooled in Confucian principles.
– Memorize all of Confucius’ works
– No strenuous activities
» Painting & writing were only acceptable
activities.
• Only 1 in 5 became a “civil servant”
• Treatment of women…
– Female children seen as less desirable than male
children.
• Female infants would be killed during famines.
– Marriage
• Woman became part of male’s family.
• Her family must provide a dowry
Song Dynasty
After the Tang Dynasty fell, China again erupted into a
civil war known as the “Five Kingdoms Period…”
• Song Dynasty ruled from 960 to
1279AD
– Economic prosperity and cultural
achievement.
• Trade increased.
– Painting, poetry popular
– Create fleet of large ships that navigate
with charts and compasses.
– Northern neighbors (Mongols) were a
constant problem.
• Moved capital to Hangzhou
• Developed a “defensive alliance” with the
Mongols.
– Will it last?
The Mongols
• Mongols are a pastoral
people from present day
Mongolia.
• Expansion originally started
by Genghis Khan.
– Will create the largest land
empire in history.
The greatest joy a man can know is to
conquer his enemies and drive them
before him. To ride their horses and
take away their possessions. To see the
faces of those who were dear to them
bedewed with tears."
China under the Mongols
• Genghis Khan’s grandson,
Kublai Khan, conquered the
Song in 1279.
– Against the Chinese, the
Mongols encountered two
significant obstacles.
• Great Wall of China
• Fire-lance (gunpowder)
• Created a new dynasty: Yuan.
– Kublai Khan ruled China until
1294.
• Moved capital to Beijing.
Fall of the Yuan Dynasty
• Mongol rulers continued the Chinese
political system.
– Over time, the dynasty won support of
Chinese people.
• Respected stability and economic
prosperity.
• Marco Polo visited China during the
Yuan
– Brings Chinese technologies back to
Europe.
• Yuan overthrown in 1368.
– Began the Ming dynasty.