Download Tang and Song China

Bandstra World History 2016-17
Name________________________________________________________________________________
Date____________________
Period____________________
Tang and Song China
Read and annotate the passages below and answer the questions on a separate sheet of paper. Use
OPVL to understand the documents and include textual examples when fully answering the question.
Li Bo, “Fighting South of the Ramparts,” 751 CE
The Tang Dynasty engaged in a number of wars of aggressive territorial expansion, particularly into
Central Asia and on the Korean peninsula. These wars enabled the Tang to greatly expand their territory
and involved extensive mobilization of men and resources. War also touched the Tang heartland directly
in the form of the An Lushan Rebellion, which lasted from 755 to 763 and brought devastation to the
central areas of the empire, including the capital cities of Chang’an and Luoyang.
Tang poets—who were generally also high-ranking officials—had ample opportunity to observe war
(often as participants and eyewitnesses) and to reflect on it in poetry. Li Bo (701-762) is one of the two
most renowned poets of the Tang dynasty. Li Bo did not serve as an official, though he did spend two
years as a scholar at the Hanlin Academy (a kind of “think tank” for the emperors). His family
background may have had something to do with his failure to become an official: Li Bo’s birthplace is
unknown, but he was certainly not from an elite aristocratic family, and probably born in modern-day
Kyrgyzstan. With no hope for an official career, Li Bo spent much of his life traveling around the empire.
Li Bo most likely wrote this poem after one of two major defeats of the Tang armies: a disastrous
campaign against the independent kingdom of Dali in present-day Yunnan Province (in southwestern
China) and a defeat at the hands of the Abbasid Caliphate at the Talas River in modern Kyrgyzstan.
Last year we were fighting at the source of the Sanggan1;
This year we are fighting on the Onion River2 road.
We have washed our swords in the surf of Parthian seas;
We have pastured our horses among the snows of the Tian Shan3.
The King’s armies have grown gray and old
Fighting ten thousand leagues away from home.
The Huns have no trade but battle and carnage;
They have no fields or ploughlands,
But only wastes where white bones lie among yellow sands.
Where the House of Qin built the great wall that was to keep away the Tartars,
There, in its turn, the House of Han lit beacons of war.
The beacons are always alight, fighting and marching never stop.
Men die in the field, slashing sword to sword;
The horses of the conquered neigh piteously to Heaven.
1
The river that runs west to east through northern Shanxi and Hebei north of the Great Wall.
The Kashgar-Darya in Turkestan.
3
The “Heavenly Mountains” in China’s northwest.
2
1
Bandstra World History 2016-17
Crows and hawks peck for human guts,
Carry them in their beaks and hang them on branches of withered trees.
Captains and soldiers are smeared on the bushes and grass.
The General schemed in vain.
Know therefore that the sword is a cursed thing
Which the wise man uses only if he must.4
1. What is Li Bo’s view on war?
2. What images does he use to convey his analysis? Are they successful and persuasive? Why or
why not?
Wang Anshi, Memorial on the Crop Loans Measure, ca. 1072 CE
The Song dynasty (960-1279) was weaker than its predecessor, the Tang, and ruled over a smaller
territory. To the north and northwest, the Song faced strong alien regimes: the Khitan Liao dynasty (9071125) and the Tangut Xixia (990-1227). These regimes posed a constant military threat, which the Song
defused by making payments of silk and other goods to both the Xixia and the Liao according to
negotiated agreements. Still, the burden of maintaining troops for the defense of the empire was
significant and caused serious financial problems for the imperial government (the cost of the payments
to the Xixia and the Liao was small by comparison).
The officials of the Song dynasty approached the task of government with the inspiration of a
reinvigorated Confucianism, which historians refer to as “Neo-Confucianism.” Song officials such as Fan
Zhongyan (989 -1052), Su Shi (1037-1101), and Wang Anshi (1021-1086) worked to apply Confucian
principles to the practical tasks of governing. Wang Anshi was a noted scholar and official. He
distinguished himself during a long term of service as a country magistrate. In 1068, the young Shenzong
Emperor (r. 1068-1085), then twenty years old, appointed Wang Anshi as Chief Councilor and charged
him with carrying out a thorough reform of the empire’s finances, administration, education, and
military. The intention was to address a serious problem: declining tax revenue and mounting
government expenses, including the huge and growing cost of maintaining a large standing army. Wang
Anshi proposed a series of reforms, including the “Crop Loans Measure” discussed in the memorial
below.
The cash and grain stored in the Ever-Normal and the Liberal-Charity granaries of the various circuits,
counting roughly in strings of cash and bushels of grain, amount to more than 15 million. Their collection
and distribution are not handled properly, however, and therefore we do not derive full benefit from
them. Now we propose that the present amount of grain in storage should be sold at a price lower than
the market price when the latter is high and that when the market price is low, the grain in the market
should be purchased at a rate higher than the market price. We also propose that our reserves be made
interchangeable with the proceeds of the land tax and the cash and grain held by the fiscal intendants,
so that conversion of cash and grain may be permitted whenever convenient.
3. What kind of government action does Wang Anshi propose? What effect would it have on the
economy?
4
Alluding to Daodejing 31.
2
Bandstra World History 2016-17
With the cash at hand, we propose to follow the example set by the crop loan system of Shaanxi
province. Farmers desirous of borrowing money before the harvest should be granted loans, to be
repaid at the same time as they pay their tax, half with the summer payment and half with the autumn
payment.5 They are free to repay either in kind [with crops] or in cash, should they prefer to do so if the
price of grain is high at the time of repayment. In the event that disaster strikes, they should be allowed
to defer payment until the date when the next harvest payment would be due. In this way not only
would we be prepared to meet the distress of famine but since the people would receive loans from the
government, it would be impossible for the monopolistic houses6 to exploit the gap between harvests by
charging interest at twice the normal rate.
4. Who would benefit from Wang Anshi’s proposed actions?
Song Ruozhao, Analects for Women, ca. early 8th century CE
Confucius had very little to say about the roles and expectations of women in the family or in society.
Thus it was left for Confucian scholars to apply the principles enunciated by Confucius and Mencius to the
task of prescribing expectations and behavioral norms for women in a Confucian family and a Confucian
society. To these scholars also fell the task of justifying the education of women and the task of laying
forth the parameters and techniques for the education of girls and women. Song Ruozhao did not marry,
but dedicated her life to the instruction of women, being invited to the court of the Tang Dezong
Emperor in the late eighth century to serve as instructor of the royal princesses. The “Analects for
Women” was one of the most popular texts for women’s education in post-classical China.
When walking, don’t turn your head; when walking, don’t open your mouth wide; when sitting, don’t
move your knees; when standing, don’t rustle your skirts; when happy, don’t exult with loud laughter;
when angry, don’t raise your voice. The inner and outer quarters are distinct; the sexes should be
segregated. Don’t peer over the outer wall or go beyond the outer courtyard. If you have to go outside,
cover your face; if you peep outside, conceal yourself as much as possible. Do not be on familiar terms
with men outside the family; have nothing to do with women of bad character. Establish your proper
self so as to become a [true] human being…
Your father-in-law and mother-in-law are the heads of your husband’s family…You must care for them
as your own mother and father. Respectfully serve your father-in-law. Do not look at him directly [when
he speaks to you], do not follow him around, and do not engage him in conversation. If he has an order
for you, listen and obey…Listen carefully to and obey whatever your husband tells you…
5. What was a woman’s position in the family?
5
Interest of 1% per month (24% per annum) was to be charged for the loans. Private moneylenders generally
charged more.
6
This refers to usurers who seek to monopolize wealth in form of money, goods, or land, but not to industrial
monopolists in the modern sense.
3
Bandstra World History 2016-17
If he [your husband] does something wrong, gently correct him. Don’t be like those women who not
only do not correct their husbands, but actually lead them into indecent ways…Don’t imitate those
shrewish wives who love to clash heads with their husbands all the time…
A woman who manages the household should be thrifty and diligent. If she is diligent, the household
thrives; if lazy, it declines. If she is thrifty, the household becomes enriched; if extravagant, it becomes
impoverished…If your husband has money and rice, store and conserve them. If he has wine or
foodstuffs, save and keep them for the use of guests when they come; do not take any or indulge your
own desires.
6. What important role does a woman play in Chinese household? How does the understanding of
a woman’s role alter your previous perception of women in China after reading the first
selection?
4