Resurgent China (Tang and Song)

Theme: Centralization

Lsn 5

ID & SIG

• bureaucracy of merit, equal-field system, fast-ripening rice, Grand Canal, gunpowder, letters of credit, movable type, paper money, Song Dynasty, Tang Dynasty

Dynasties

• “A sequence of powerful leaders in the same family”– Shang Dynasty 1766 to 1122 B.C.– Zhou Dynasty 1122 to 256 B.C.– Tang Dynasty 618 to 907 A.D.– Song Dynasty 960 to 1279 A.D.

Tang Dynasty

Restoration of Centralized Imperial Rule

• After the Han Dynasty, several regional kingdoms made bids to assert their authority over all of China, but none possessed the resources necessary to dominate their rivals for the long term

• In the late sixth century, Yang Jian was able to reestablish centralized rule

• He was succeeded by the Tang and then Song Dynasties which organized Chinese society so effectively that China became a center of exceptional agricultural and industrial production that influenced much of the eastern hemisphere

Characteristics of a Civilization

• Intensive agricultural techniques• Specialization of labor• Cities• A social hierarchy• Organized religion and education• Development of complex forms of economic

exchange• Development of new technologies• Advanced development of the arts. (This can

include writing.)

Agriculture

Agriculture: Fast-ripening rice

• As Tang and Song armies ventured into Vietnam, they encountered fast-ripening rice– Allowed two crops per

year– When introduced into

the fertile fields of southern China, fast-ripening rice quickly expanded the food supply

Chinese characters for “rice field”

New Agricultural Techniques• Heavy iron plows• Harnessed oxen and

water buffaloes• Enriched soil with manure

and composted organic matter

• Extensive irrigation systems– Reservoirs, dikes, dams,

pumps, water wheels– Artificial irrigation greatly

increased agricultural production which led to a rapid population expansion

Cities

Southern Gate of Chang’an

Cities

• Increased food supplies encouraged the growth of cities

• During the Tang Dynasty, the imperial capital of Chang’an was the world’s most populous city– Perhaps two million residents

• During the Song Dynasty, the capital of Hangzhou had over a million residents– Southern terminus of the Grand Canal

Economic Exchange

Coins from the Tang Dynasty Yellow and Yangzi

Rivers

Economic Exchange: Grand Canal

• Grand Canal built during the Sui Dynasty (precursor to Tang)– One of the world’s largest waterworks projects before

modern times– Built to facilitate trade between northern and southern

China, particularly to make the abundant supplies of rice and other agricultural products from the Yangzi River valley available to residents of the northern regions

– China’s rivers generally flow east to west so an artificial waterway had to be built to facilitate trade between north and south

Economic Exchange: The Grand Canal

• Linked Hangzhou in the south with Chang’an in the west and Zhou (near modern Beijing) in the north

• Almost 1,240 miles, reportedly forty paces wide, with roads running parallel to the waterway on either side

• Integrated the economies of northern and southern China which established an economic foundation for political and cultural unity

Economic Exchange: Letters of Credit

• Trade grew so rapidly during the Tang and Song era that copper coin shortages developed– Traders began issuing letters of credit (“flying

cash”) as an alternative– Enabled merchants to deposit goods or cash at

one location and draw the equivalent cash or merchandise somewhere else

Coin from Tang Dynasty

Economic Exchange: Paper Money• The search for

alternatives to cash also led to the invention of paper money

• During the late ninth century, wealthy merchants began accepting cash from their clients and issuing them printed notes that the clients could redeem for merchandise

• Greatly facilitated commercial transactions

Economic Exchange: Tea

• Tea trading flourished during Tang and Song era• Tea was compressed into bricks and used as money

Specialization

Agricultural Regional Areas of Specialization

Specialization

• Increased urbanization brought a host of specialized activities to the cities– Merchants, artisans, metallurgists, printers, chemists,

craftsmen, textile workers, performers, restaurateurs, etc

• China’s various regions specialized in the cultivation of particular food crops and traded their own products for imports from other regions

• The government developed a specialized class of bureaucrats

Social Hierarchy

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang China

Song examination candidate dreaming of the

rewards of academic success

Social Hierarchy: Centralization

• Tang society revolved around centralized imperial rule

• Early successes based on– Well-articulated transportation and

communication network (Grand Canal)– Equal-field system– Bureaucracy of merit

Social Hierarchy: Equal-field System

• Governed allocation of agricultural land• Ensured equal distribution of land to avoid the

concentration of landed property that had caused social problems during the Han Dynasty

• Land was allotted to individuals and their families according to the land’s fertility and the recipient’s needs

• About one-fifth of the land became the hereditary possession of the recipients, while the rest was available for redistribution

Social Hierarchy: Bureaucracy of Merit

• Rulers recruited government officials from the ranks of candidates who had progressed through the Confucian educational system

• Merit was based on performance on the imperial civil service examinations

• Some powerful families were able to use their influence, but most officeholders won their posts on the basis of intellectual ability

• Talented class of bureaucrats were generally loyal to the dynasty and worked to strengthen and preserve the state

Social Hierarchy: Song Bureaucracy

• Song rulers mistrusted the military so they placed more emphasis on civil administration– Scholar bureaucrats proved to have

limited military expertise and Song was vulnerable to military aggression

• Song increased centralization and built an enormous bureaucracy– Devoured China’s surplus production

and strained the treasury

• Efforts to raise taxes led to two peasant rebellions Wang Anshi unsuccessfully

attempted socioeconomic reforms during the Song era

Religion and Education

Buddha from Tang Dynasty

Religion and Education

• Buddhist merchants visited China as early as the second century B.C.

• Found a popular following in Tang and Song China

• Emphasized high standards of morality, intellectual sophistication, and a promise of salvation

• We’ll talk more about Buddhism during Lesson 9 (Buddhism and Hinduism) and Lesson 23 (the Silk Roads)

A Buddhist monk

New Technologies

Song porcelain Cannon ca. 1368

New Technologies: Porcelain• Tang craftsmen discovered how

to produce porcelain which was lighter, thinner, and adaptable to more uses than earlier pottery– Strong enough and attractive

enough to serve utilitarian or aesthetic purposes

• Tang and Song products gained such a reputation that porcelain is commonly called “chinaware”

Tang Marble Glazed Porcelain Figure

New Technologies: Printing

Book printing ca. 868

New Technologies: Printing• Became common in Tang era• Earliest printers used block-printing techniques

– Carved a reverse image of an entire page into a wooden block, inked the block, then pressed a sheet of paper on top of it

• By the mid-eleventh century, printers began to experiment with movable type– Fashioned dies in the shape of ideographs, arranged

them in a frame, inked them, and pressed the frame over paper sheets

– Speeded up the process and allowed printers to make revisions and corrections

– Facilitated production and distribution of texts quickly, cheaply, and in large quantities

Impact of Movable Type

• Allowed large production and distribution of– Buddhist texts– Confucian works– Calendars– Agricultural treatises– Popular works

New Technologies: Gunpowder

• During the Tang era, Daoist alchemists learned it was dangerous to mix charcoal, saltpeter, sulphur, and arsenic– Military officials saw

possibilities• By the tenth-century, the Tang

military was using gunpowder in bamboo “fire lances,” a kind of flame thrower and by the eleventh century they had made primitive bombs

Art and Writing

Poet Li Bo Poet Du Fu

Art and Writing

• The ruling and elite classes of the Tang and Song Dynasties were major supporters of Chinese painting. – Sought elaborate and

ornate art with political and educational significance

– Stressed realism

Art and Writing

• Eighth Century was a golden age in Chinese poetry

• Du Fu (712-770 A.D.) is often considered China’s greatest poet

• Other great poets of the Tang era were Wang Wei (699 – 761) andLi Bo (701 – 762)

Passing the Night at Headquarters

Clear autumn at headquarters,wu-tung trees cold beside the well;

I spend the night alone in the river city, using up all of the candles.

Sad bugle notes sound through the long night as I talk to myself;

glorious moon hanging in mid-sky but who looks?

Next Lesson

• Mayans and Incas