Reunification of China – Sui Song & Tang Chinese Golden Age

1. Reunification of China – SuiSong & TangChinese Golden Age Chapter 12

2. China During the Era of Division, The Sui Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty

3. Sui Dynasty • Yangdi (son of Wendi) • Legal reform • Reorganized Confucian education • Canals built, completion Grand Canal - longest in the world (still) • reconstruction of Great Wall • Attacked Korea – costly & disastrous • Defeated by Turks 615 • Assassinated – 618 • early 7th C - dynasty disintegrated - popular revolts, disloyalty & assassinations

4. Tang Dynasty Tang era gilt-silver ear cup with flower motif • Scholar-gentry elite based on examinations (not family connections) • Highest offices went only to individuals able to pass exams based on the Confucian classics/Chinese literature – some social mobility possibleBUT central administration dominated by a small number of prominent families • Overland trade routes - Silk Road - reaching as far as Syria and Rome • Confucian ideology supreme • Result  imperial unity & power of the aristocracy reduced • Bureau of Censors closely watched all officials. • Specialized exams administered by Ministry of PublicRites *Powerful cultural influence over Korea & Japan

5. Tang /Song Economy • Silk routes reopened - greater contact with Buddhist, Islamic regions • Sea trade • Use of Junks – increasedmaritime commerce • RESULT Commerce expands Credit - deposit shops Flying money • Dev. of cities & urban pop. growth – Tang capital – Changan – pop. 2 million – largest city in world at time • group of wealthy commoners--the mercantile class--arose • printing & education spread, private trade grew, and a market economy began to link the coastal provinces and the interior • Landholding & gov’t employment no longer the only means of gaining wealth and prestige Court portrait painting of Emperor Taizu of Song (960–976)

6. Buddhism becomes fully entrenched in Chinese culture • Split in Buddhism • Mahayana Buddhism popular in era of turmoil • Chan (Zen) Buddhism common among elite - stressed meditation & appreciation of natural & artistic beauty • Empress Wu (690-705) supported Buddhism • Endows monasteries • Tried to make Buddhism the state religion • 50,000 monasteries by c. 850 • Persecution of Buddhism under Emperor Wuzong • 841-847 • Monasteries destroyed • Lands redistributed • Confucian re-emerges as central ideology

7. Tang Decline Emperor Xuanzong (713-756) • Mistress - Yang Guifei – gained power • Relatives gain power in govt • 755 - Revolt led by An Lushan - Chinese general (Iranian/Turkish) - proclaimed himself emperor; later killed by his own son • RESULT civil war; Yang Guifei executed – blamed for rebellion • Central government lost its grip on the local administration • 907 -- last Tang emperor resigns- Warlordism broke out - China divided into north and south - many small shortlived dynasties Paintings of Yang Guifei & An Lushan

8. Song Dynasty • Zhao Kuangyin (Taizu) - birth of Song dynasty • Scholar-gentry given power over military • Revival of Confucian Thought • Libraries established, old texts recovered • Neo-confucians - stressed personal morality & male dominance • Hostility to foreign ideas • Gender, class, age distinctions reinforced

9. Example of Chinese pottery Scholar in a Meadow, 11th century The Spinning Wheel, by Northern Song artist Wang Juzheng -one of the earliest representations of the invention

10. Women’s Status – Tang / Early Song The Status of women improved during Tang & early Song –started declining during the late Song – WHY? • Elite women had broader opportunities / careers • Empresses Wu, Wei & Mistress Yang Guifei – signif. political power • Legal code supported women’s rights in divorce • Some wealthy, urban women had lovers - example of female independence • Marriage brokers - professional female match-makers • Partners were of the same age; marriage ceremonies did not take place until puberty • Rights of women deteriorate in late Song Dynasty • stressed the roles of homemaker and mother • advocated physical confinement of women • emphasized the importance of bridal virginity, wifely fidelity, and widow chastity • Men were permitted free sexual behavior & remarriage • fewer Buddhist monasteries (fewer women monks) • New laws favored men in property inheritance & divorce • Women excluded from education system • Footbinding - painful, mobility restricting practice

11. Tang and Song Prosperity: Golden Age - Expanding Agrarian Production • Peasants encouraged to migrate to new areas; gov’t provided irrigation • Canals built • New crops & technology increased yields. • Aristocratic estates broken up - more equitable distribution of land for free peasants • Confucian scholars believed peasants were essential for a stable and prosperous social order • Scholar-gentry replaced aristocracy A red lacquerware food tray with gold foil engraving designs of two long-tailed birds and a peony (12th -13th C) Chinese ships of the Song period featured hulls w/ watertight compartments (1085–1145)

12. Tang & Song achievements in science, technology & culture • Technological / scientific discoveries—new tools, production methods, weapons—passed to other civilizations - altered the course of human development • Arts / literature passed to neighboring regions—central Asia, Japan, and Vietnam. • Engineering feats - Grand Canal, dikes and dams, irrigation systems, and bridges • Banks & paper money stimulated prosperity • Explosive powder – Tang invented - fireworks / Song adapted for military use • Song armies & navies - flamethrowers, poisonous gasses, & rocket launchers • Chairs, tea drinking, the use of coal for fuel, compasses, & kites A trebuchet catapult - used to launch the earliest type of explosive bombs

13. Song dynasty falls to Mongols • Southern Song - 1127–1279 - Song lost control of northern China to the Jin Dynasty • Song court retreated south of the Yangtze River & established their capital at Lin'an • Kubilai Khan defeated Jin & founded the Yuan dynasty in Northern China • The Chinese economy, until the 18th C, was a world leader in market orientation, overseas trade volume, productivity per acre, sophistication of tools, and techniques of craft production. • COTChina, as a civilization, retained many traditional patterns, but it also changed dramatically in the balance between regions, in commercial and urban development, and in technology. • Outside influences - Buddhism – sinified