CHINA
Unit 7
The Tang Dynasty• Li Yuan• Emperor Tang Taizong• Policies
Tang TaizongLi Yuan
Class Struggle During the Tang Dynasty
• Class distinctions • Disagreements within the ruling class
Tang Government After the Rebellion
• Power of regional administrators
• Power of court eunuchs
• New legal code and administrative procedures
• Backlash against some foreign ideas
A Tang-era Emperor
The Bureaucracy of Merit
• Competitive exams• Altered the class of
people receiving governmental positions
• Conflicts between the new and established officials
• “Rule of Avoidance”
Taking exams in the presence of the emperor
Chang’an’s Splendor• Cosmopolitan city• City design
demonstrated planning and grandeur
• The market• Culture and
pastimes• Architecture
Polo, a game from Persia, was a favorite sport in Chang’an
Tang Innovations
• Printing• Papermaking• Shipbuilding• A variety of
other Chinese inventions
Papermaking
Foreign Interaction• Reestablishment of
tributary relationships
• Contact with southwest Asia
• Changes in clothing
• New pastimes• Diffusion of crops
and foodstuffs• Increasing trade,
including silkWoodcut of a woman winding silk
The Great Peasant Uprising• Land scramble • Displaced many
peasants• Taxes on
peasants• Peasant revolts
in 860 and 874
Depiction of a Chinese peasant revolt
Growing Weakness in the Tang• Moved south• Weakened
imperial economy
• Weakened bureaucracy
• Decreased position of peasants
Weakened agriculture in the north forced many people to emigrate south
Collapse of the Tang Dynasty
• An Lushan Rebellion
• Ineffective control over military and court officials
• Series of rebellions• Usurpation of Tang
power in 907• The Ten Kingdoms
Mounted Khitan noble dressed in Chinese silk
The Song Dynasty• 960–1279• Unification• Prosperity
Emperor Taizu
Song Dynasty, Mid-11th Century
Reestablishment of Central Control under the Song
• Economic recovery
• Established capital at Kaifeng
• Population increased
• Cities recovered
Scene from the capital city of Kaifeng
Governmental Development of the Song
• Recovery of power
• Rebuilt the scholar-gentry
• Emperor appointed new regional leaders
Scholar-philosopher Ouyang Xiu
Age of the Civil Government
• The best and most educated
• Levels of advancement in the exam system
• Officials were regularly evaluated for performance
• Good government and stability
Exam Hall at Nanjing
The Song and the Economy• Improved economy • Expansion• Control over
revenues• Industry
A Chinese coin
The Economy and Foreign Contact
• Korea as tributary state
• Trade increased
Cultivation and processing of tea
Trade and the Song• Sea routes to
southeast Asia and India
• Ports • Navigational
technology• Agriculture• Foreign and
regional tradeSilk was a highly traded commodity in the southern Song
The Song Economy
• Urban centers• Government
revenues• Wealthier than
north• Problems
Marketplaces were popular in Hangzhou, the southern Song capital
Social Structure• Merchants and
artisans became a new class
• Women’s status worsened• Laws• Education
Women were considered a subordinate class in Song
society
Footbinding• Used in the Song
Dynasty by the upper classes to indicate status
• Not a widespread practice
An X-ray of feet exposed to massive footbinding
Song Technological Innovations• Neo-Confucianism
sparked an interest in science
• Agriculture, manufacturing, transportation advances
• Mathematics and timekeeping
Zhu Xi, founder of Neo-Confucianism
Military Advances• Produced strong steel
weapons• Use of iron• Created body armor• Began to use
projectiles and gunpowder
The Chinese used projectiles to counter tribal cavalries
Collapse of the Song• Mongols:
strong cavalry • Defeated the
Jin in 1234• Defeated the
Song and established the Yuan Dynasty in 1279
Mongol horsemen hunting with Kublai Khan
China, the Mongols, and Beyond
• Medieval period ended with collapse of the Song
• Ming restoration• Impact of developments in
medieval China
Genghis Khan, Mongol leader and conqueror
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