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OUTLINE
CHAPTER 12 – REUNIFICATION AND RENAISSANCE IN CHINESE CIVILIZATION: THE ERA
OF THE TANG AND SONG DYNASTIES
I.
II.
III.
Sui Dynasty (589-618)
a. Fall of the Han.
b. Wendi
i. Lowered taxes, stored grain
c. Yangdi
i. Milder legal code and sought to reestablish the scholar-gentry.
ii. However, he spent too much on construction and failed in his attempts to conquer Korea.
1. Grand Canal
iii. Assassination
Tang Dynasty (618-907)
a. Li Yuan
i. Golden age of the Tang.
b. Armies battled to present day Afghanistan, Tibet, Vietnam, and Manchuria.
i. Opened trade routes (silk road reestablished between Persia and China).
c. In 668, Korea was overrun, and a vassal kingdom named Silla was established.
d. Completed repairs to the Great Wall.
e. Created frontier armies from Turkic nomads (best military of the empire).
f. Rebuilt and expanded the imperial bureaucracy.
i. The Scholar-gentry become more powerful than the aristocratic families.
g. The examination system was expanded to help find and educate talented individuals.
i. The Ministry of Rites
ii. The toughest exams were the philosophical and legal classics exams, as well as Chinese
literature.
1. Jinshi.
iii. Family connections still played a major role, though, in gaining office.
h. Buddhism
i. Different sects were formed:
1. Pure Land (Mahayana) Buddhism
2. Chan (Zen)
ii. Rulers patronized Buddhism while promoting education in Confucian classics.
iii. Empress Wu tried to make Buddhism a state religion.
iv. Confucians began to be envious – tried to sabotage Buddhists
1. How?
2. Open persecution.
3. Daoist and Confucian ideals took over as the leading ideologies, and although
Buddhism had made a huge impact, it was no longer the dominant force in China.
i. Decline of the Tang
i. Empress Wu
ii. Empress Wei
iii. Xuanzong
1. High point of Tang power.
2. Yang Guifei
a. Execution
3. Regional governors
The Song Dynasty (960-1279)
a. Between 907 and 960, it looked as if China was going to be in another political chaos era (like
after the Han).
b. Zhao Kuangyin proclaimed himself Emperor Taizu, and established the Song Dynasty.
IV.
i. He collected books instead of treasure, and was honest and able.
ii. Northern Liao Dynasty constantly plagued the empire and forced the Song Dynasty to
pay them tribute, even though the Khitans favored Chinese culture.
c. The Song tried to avoid the problems the Tang had.
i. Only civil officials could be governors
ii. Military commanders were rotated
iii. Promoted the interests of the Confucian scholar-gentry.
1. Their position over the aristocrats secured.
d. Neo-Confucians
e. Decline of the Song
i. Payments to the Liao and then the kingdom of Xi Xia (southwest of Liao), financially
drained the empire.
ii. Disdain for the military led to untrained soldiers.
iii. Artistic developments were favored above training and exercise.
iv. Wang Anshi in the 1070s and 1080s tried to stem the decline through reforms such as
taxing the aristocratic and scholarly classes and offering cheap loans to farmers.
v. The Jurchens
Overall (Tang and Song)
a. Trade increased (imported luxury items, exported manufactured goods).
b. Markets opened up in most cities.
c. Credit was established for trading (flying money).
d. Increase in commerce began an increase in urbanization.
e. Agriculture increased.
f. Family organization stayed the same.
i. Extended family households preferred (could usually only happen in richer households).
ii. Authority of males held, and became stronger at the end of the Song period.
1. Beheading a punishment for children to hit their parents, and 2 ½ years of hard
labor for hitting older siblings.
2. Arranged marriages common (although ages were similar, in contrast to India).
3. Divorce allowed by mutual consent.
4. Women at higher levels could hold some power
a. However, women’s overall status declined.
b. Footbinding began, which caused women considerable pain, and made
confining them easier.
i. Hard for peasants to practice this (women needed for fieldwork).
g. Inventions
i. Banks, paper money, Grand Canal, dikes, dams, irrigation, bridges, gunpowder,
flamethrowers, poisonous gases, rocket launchers, kites, compasses (applied to sea
navigation), abacus, moveable type.
h. Art
i. Art patronized by the emperors.
ii. Bureaucrats expected to produce something artistic at home.
iii. Li Bo
iv. Landscape paintings famous during the Song era (symbolic).