Reunification of China

Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties

I. After the Han

a. Centuries of disunity after fall of Han

• 589; Sui, Tang then Song dynasties centralize &

revitalize China.

II. Sui Dynasty - 589

A. Ruler Wendi reestablished centralized state

1. Repaired Great Wall

2. Revolts due to high taxes ended Sui dynasty

- Tang dynasty emerged

III. Tang Dynasty – Golden Era of Chinese History

A. Expanded influence

1. Established tributary system (payment by subjects)

w/ Vietnam & Korea = spread Chinese institutions

- foreign envoys performed Kowtow before the

emperor

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B. Strengthened Central Gov’t

1. Empress Wu (one of few female rulers)

- Reduced powers of landlords

- Removed their tax power; state taxed peasants

directly.

- Accurate censuses = fair & reliable taxation

C. Civil Service Exam Revived

1. Stricter

2. Education counting more than birthright

3. Aristocrat’s role faded in favor of scholar-bureaucrats

Empress Wu – 625-705

D. State Practices & Infrastructure = Commercial Growth

1. Regulate trade

2. Roads & canals

- Grand Canal linking southern rice fields to pop.

Centers in the north

3. Flying Money = early currency

- Credit instrument = redeemed at end of voyage

- Reduced danger of robbery

- Led to paper money

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E. Attack on Buddhism

1. Revival of Confucianism – “Neo-Confucianism”

2. Buddhism = potentially subversive element

- Favored early on; rejected later as alien.

- Thousands of shrines, monasteries destroyed.

- Remained important minority but…

- Period of growth halted

3. Tang felt right and duty to regulate beliefs of

subjects

F. Tang Decline - Late 700’s

1. Poverty, taxes, nomadic invasions = protest

2. 906 - civil war

3. 960 - Song comes to power

IV. Song Dynasty

A. Controlled less land than Tang

1. North dominated by nomads;

- Jurchens = Jin Dynasty

2. Control focused on southern regions

B. Economically Dynamic

1. Tax revenues up; focused on merchants not

peasants; revolts down

2. Domestic (in China) trade increased = tea, cotton

3. Foreign trade flourished

a. Highly developed manufacturing sector

b. sophisticated ships/tech.; Junks

4. Imports limited mostly to raw materials

a. full consumer society does not develop

b. Why? clashed w/ Confucian ideals of

self-reliance & no excesses

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Chinese Junks

C. Improved Ag. Productivity & Coal & Iron Output

1. Quick-growing Champa rice from Vietnam &

fertilizers = more harvests & yields

2. Massive pop. growth; 100 mill. +

3. Expansion of urban life; Big Cities! - Hangzhou

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D. Expanded Manufacturing for Export

1. Iron & steel

2. textiles & porcelain

E. Chinese Diasporic Merchant Communities in SE

Asia

1. Facilitate Chinese trade in those areas

F. Arts & Culture During Tang and Song

1. Art, architecture, literature reflected Buddhist,

Daoist influence

a. Pagoda introduced

b. Art & lit. reliance on natural subjects

c. Traditional order of Neo-Confucianism

combined with love of nature inspired by Daoists

& Buddhists

E. Scientific Advancement of Tang and Song

1. Gov’t-sponsored map making & astronomical

observation

a. expanded knowledge of universe

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2. Diffusion of Scientific & Technological Traditions

a. Gunpowder powder

- 1st for fireworks

- Then weaponry

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b. Wood-Block then movable-type printing

- By 10th cent. - books of all types &

every classic in print

- paper currency & playing cards followed

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G. Gunpowder & printing spread from East Asia

into the Islamic Empires & Western Europe

Islamic Empires

Mongol EmpireW. Europe

Gunpowder & Printing

1. Tech. & cult. transfers specifically between Tang

China & Abbasid Empire

H. Impact of Neo-Confucianism during Song Era

1. Revival of Confucian ideology

a. Emphasis on tradition

b. Less receptive to outside ideas; solutions

drawn from past

c. Limited long-term innovation

d. Reinforced role of patriarch;

submissive/inferior role of women

e. Worsened conditions for women by Later

song Era

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Foot binding –

Song Dynasty to early

20th century

I. Song Dynasty Replaced by Mongols

1. Yuan Dynasty forms under Kublai Khan

a. China regains control under Ming dynasty

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Chinese

culture